When It Rains, It Pours

When people say they have a "Case of the Mondays," it must feel something like today. In the past 24 hours, things have been not so good, to say the least. I must begin by saying the basement has been coming out wonderfully. I have been very busy and haven't been updating as much as I should. To begin with, Matt and his dad finished the ceiling and my Uncle Paul did a fantastic job with the recessed lighting. We weren't sure it was going to work out, but he made it work and I love it. We've just about finished the trim and the rest of the basement as well. Matt and his dad spent all day redoing the stairs so that they could be stained to match the rest of the basement. I spent all this time in Home Depot with some guy in the paint department (not my usual Sal or Gary) and he supposedly matched the floor as best he could. It turned out like this...

And Matt HATED it. It was much too dark and he couldn't stand it... so off I went to Home Depot where Sal tried to save my butt by giving me this stain stripper stuff. I spent about 45 minutes on the first stair with my hands in elbow-high rubber gloves and my goggles on... The stair color went about 2 shades lighter.... and I mean 2 very, very slight shades lighter. In the end, we tore up the stairs and Matt redid them. We got all new treads and started over. This
time, I'm staining and polyurethaning them a lighter color which matches the rest of the trim in the room. It will have to be better.
In the meantime, I told you that when it rains, it pours... and I wasn't kidding. Yesterday morning, Matt mowed the front lawn, finished up, headed around back, and the mower seized up. We bought the mower the second week we were here, around the first of May... brand new... and now it doesn't work. Matt has to take it back to Home Depot and hope they'll help us out. Then, this morning, my friend Tom comes over to replace our hot water heater. He goes to shut off the water at the water valve and the valve breaks. I call a plumber to come and help us while Tom decides to come back next week to do the hot water heater. While all of this is going on, the refrigerator stops keeping things cold and Comcast stops working. In less than 24 hours, it has poured, literally outside and figuratively inside. Hopefully, ALL of these issues can be reconciled without too much pain or money on our ends!!

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanted to take a minute to thank the dads out there who have done so much for Matt and I. We've been very lucky to have so many helping hands on our house. There have been more than a few dads here. My dad, Matt's dad, Matt's uncles Mike & Kevin, my uncles Paul & Bobby, my grandpa, our friend Eric... we have been truly lucky to have so much help from so many of the wonderful fathers in our life. Each of you have been so wonderful to us and we are very lucky. Thank you for all you do and all you are.

Making the Pieces Fit

Things are finally coming together nicely. After a month and a half, I have finally caught up with all the laundry. All the clothes that needed to be washed from storage are finally clean and most are put away. The house has been coming along as well. Matt and my father have been putting up trim around the basement. We really only have the stairs and the storage cabinet to do before we can put down all of the trim. I think they maybe could have used one more coat of stain but we got impatient.

On Friday Matt and I put the mirror and shelving back up in the bar area. A piece of it got broken, but we're going to trim it out so that it's not noticeable. Matt and his dad put up the rest of the grid for the drop ceiling yesterday. Matt's dad tiled our downstairs bathroom with this great Canyon Slate tile that I absolutely loved at Lowe's. The wood floors bring out a tint of red in it while the paint color brings out a little green and a little brown. I really love the way it looks.
For some unknown reason, blogger won't let me turn this picture, but it's the best view of the flooring so I'm posting it aToday my uncle Paul came over and put up our recessed lighting. We were worried about it but I think it ended up coming out really great.

Team SuperGuts

Well, last night was the walk for Crohn's Disease and Colitis. Mom used to do daycare for little Brian and now he's 10 and living with Crohn's Disease. Last year was the first year the CCFA held their Take Steps Be Heard for Crohn's & Colitis walk in Boston. I didn't walk with Bri but I know that his team raised about $1200 last year and we were hoping to beat that. Brian really loves his super hero stuff so after a lot of thinking, he came up with the team name of Team Super Guts. It's really quite adorable. This year, Matt, Mom, Dad, and I joined Brian and his family and some friends to do the walk around the Boston Common. We tried to get everyone we knew to donate just a little. I really only expected $5 donations from most people. Somehow, as of Saturday, we (the four of us) were able to contribute $455 to the team. This year's grand total, with money probably still trickling in a bit, was $1680. I was ecstatic for Bri. His enthusiasm is catchy, as is his adorable attitude. Hopefully next year we can raise even more! I'm hoping to get a picture of the family with Brian to post up here from Elaine soon! Thanks to everyone that donated. I can't tell you how much it was appreciated! And if you still want to donate, feel free to visit www.firstgiving.com/mariaclifford!

There's One in Every Family...

There's one in every family.. or so I've been told. One of those rough-around-the-edges, hard-to-understand, easy-to-take-for-granted, and easy-to-love kind of guys. Matt's uncle Mike passed away and I found out during my second English class of the day via email from Matt. I did the math and figured that it was far too late (or early) for an April Fool's Day joke. I was beyond shocked and still am.
I remember the first time I met Mike. We were playing poker at his dad's place in Nahant. Mike was rude and crude and dirty. (So was Matt's dad, Rick). I didn't take to him right away, but it didn't take long for him to grow on me. I made sure Matt and I remembered him on his birthday, Christmas, and especially Father's Day. I felt especially close to Mike and I think Mike looked at Matt as though Matt was his son, as opposed to his nephew. Matt and Mike got along well and they had a closeness that I found endearing. Mike has been at our house quite a lot lately doing work for us on the basement. He was just here on Sunday working all day on our drop ceiling. It's hard to believe that he won't be back here this weekend to bitch at Matt and I about the way we did the flooring or something else in the basement.
Today I broke down in tears quite a few times... Because I thought about how much I loved Mike as my own uncle. Because I remembered going to visit Mike and his bird, Crackers, in his apartment in Danvers and seeing all these crazy pictures all over the walls - from Seinfeld to bears in Alaska to his wife. Because I thought of how happy Mike will be to be in heaven with his love now. Because I thought how in the world can something so awful happen to someone so young. Because I feel terrible for Matt and his family. And because I'm sad that such a great guy isn't with us any longer... and won't be here for Matt and I's wedding.
In the end, Mike's probably much happier up there, playing poker around some table with people that actually know how to play, with the love of his life behind him. We'll miss him terribly but he'll be with us in spirit always.
If there's such a thing as reincarnation, I'm convinced that he's coming back as a bear... or maybe a moose... but definitely one of those animals that he thought of as his "brothers". In every family, there's one that throws you for a loop - that's odd and different and hilarious and wonderful and, though I don't know all of the Morrisseys, I think Mike was it. We'll miss you Mike.

A Brazilian Cherry Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend proved to be a very busy weekend for us. We spent Saturday celebrating Zosia & Eric's new home with them at a cookout and spent Sunday celebrating the newly crowned Dr. Marissa A. Fast, M.D. However, the house did not stop just because we left! While Matt and I were at this fabulous brunch in Malden & then Josh's house for a cookout in Melrose, Rick (Matt's dad) and his uncle Mike were here putting up the drop ceiling grid. I don't know how long they worked on Sunday but they got the larger half of the basement done and we're so psyched. We got home from Josh's around 8:30 on Sunday night and did the second coat of paint on the walls, just a bit lighter in color. We finished the paint close to midnight and called it a night.
On Monday, Marissa's boyfriend Josh came over and he and Matt began laying the new Brazilian Cherry hardwood flooring in the basement. While they were working, I went and bought a new router at Lowe's and decided to router the edges of some 1x3s for the trimwork in the basement. After one trip to Home Depot and two to Lowe's, as well as a lot of frustrations and two routers, the new router that I finally got figured out was great and I loved it. After all the aggravation though, my head cold was bad and I only got through one piece of trimwork before I had to throw in the towel and stop using power tools. My eyes were blurry, my nose was runny, my head was sneezy and pounding, and things were overall, not looking good. My dad kindly came by and took over and routered all of the rest of the trim for me. Mom helped me to stain it and we put that to the side.
Matt, Josh, and my dad did a pretty good job. They made it as far as they could on the floor before quitting. I've got to get out to Woburn to Lumber Liquidators and get some more vapor barrier so they can finish it this weekend. In the meantime, I love how the basement is finally starting to take shape and I can not wait to get my crap put away!

Is There a Doctor in the House?

This past weekend was a great celebration. Our friend Marissa graduated from med school at Boston University and is now a doctor! I can't believe that we're this old... that we have had enough time to complete med school... that we're adults with careers... Ugh. It's scary! Regardless, I am so very proud of my Marissa and all that she has done. I know she'll be a wonderful doctor!

Paint by Numbers

Matt spent the entire day on Sunday sanding the basement. I [conveniently] had to go to PJ's baby shower and couldn't possibly avoid that to help Matt sand. In truth, I felt pretty awful that I wasn't here helping Matt but in the end, I was glad. I hate sanding! Anyways, Matt sanded everything Sunday and I went down Sunday night and helped him clean. Monday morning, my cousin Tony came over while we were at work and primed the entire basement for us. It took him most of the day but it looked great and we were psyched to have one more thing done down there. We decided to go with a beige color, Stonington Beige, for the basement. It's the same color in my mother's living room and we both like it so I picked up the paint and called in the troops. I was lucky enough to have one of my favorite college friends, my roommate Mal, come out and help us out. Between her and my family (my parents and my cousin Tony), we were able to get the entire basement painted in less than two hours. Apparently painting by numbers really does the trick. I'm not sure about the color yet. It's hard to tell without good lighting down there. Matt didn't like it at first. He and I perceive colors differently and he was sure that at the top of our stairs, the color looked to brown. I saw green. Regardless, I think I might go have them lighten the other two gallons just a little so that when we do the second coat we can lighten it up a bit. It is a basement, a movie room, and a bar room so I don't want it to be too bright, but maybe just a little lighter will be nice.

The Newest Addition to Our Family

In all the shopping I've been doing for all sorts of stuff for the house, I've tried to be really careful NOT to waste money on things we don't need. However, I found a much needed addition to our family at Wal-Mart the other day and I couldn't say no. This little guy was on sale for 50% off and he was so darn cute, I just had to have him!

Rocking the House

The sheetrock in the basement has been the thorn in my side since we bought the house. I'm not the most patient person but I've built houses before from the ground up and I know these things take time... but I can't remember the last time I wanted something done as bad as I want to be done with this damn sheetrock! I just can't quite believe how bad the dust is from the sheetrock. It's everywhere! Even when I hung plastic and sheets and the like in doorways, it seems they disappear before I know it and in comes the dust. There are footprints in every room of my house. I don't know how, but they're there. I make it a point to change my shoes when I go downstairs and I make it a point to put out rugs to wipe your feet on and still.. still there is sheetrock dust in every corner of my house.
That being said, the basement is coming along quite nicely. The sheetrock is now, for the most part, done, but I'm almost scared that suddenly they're going to do something else. Suddenly more dust is going to appear - I just know it. In the meantime, I spent some time on my hands and knees washing the floors and every nook and cranny of the first floor in an attempt to rid myself of the dust and hoped for the best!

Regular Old Wine-Os

I originally had hoped to do my kitchen decor in that of the fat Italian chef. As it turns out, he must no longer be very cool because he is nowhere to be found. I've tried all over the place and basically, I lose. I've given up on the search and decided that the wine bottles will be the theme. Matt and I don't drink wine but the wine seemed to go so well in the kitchen that it just makes sense. Wine bottles, apparently, are pretty in, because everywhere I turn, I find them. My mom and I went to Kohl's and Homegoods on Saturday night and she and I accomplished a few things for the kitchen. I picked out some trivets at Kohl's a few weeks ago and I finally hung them by the doorway.We also found some placemats for the table.
I got a few dish towels to hang on my oven door that would be more decorative than useful.
A few more details here and there...
And lastly, we found this picture on clearance at Homegoods that I think is really nice.
Now if I can just find the time to fight a path through the tools to get to the wall that the wine clock will hang on...

Thank God for Moms

Sometimes we all take our moms (and dads) for granted. Since today is Mother's Day and I did spend it waiting on everyone else's moms and thinking about how much I would prefer to be with my mom & grandmother, I feel like I should mention how lucky Matt and I are to have two of the most fantastic mothers in the world. I can't really speak for Matt but I know how much he loves and appreciates his mother. It's absolutely endearing. She's a fabulous woman, very strong, intelligent, independent. She's very thoughtful and sweet, and she's very giving and selfless, especially with her kids. I know that she's a top-notch mom because she raised Matt and I can see that she raised him to be the man he is - the man I love. I think I'm pretty lucky to be getting a mother-in-law like her. She's been nothing but wonderful to me since I stepped foot in the Morrissey family and she's been a fantastic help since we bought the house.

As for my mom, I can't imagine being the woman that she is, but I sure hope I can be. I've never seen a more strong and caring person in my entire life. I see the heart and soul she puts into everything she does, whether it has to do with the house, the daycare, or our family - she puts 110% and feels guilty when she can only put 100%. I love talking to daycare parents and having them tell me (as if I don't already know!) what a great person my mom is. She's been here, at the new house, more often than not doing everything she can. I wish there was a way that I could repay her for everything she does for me (for us). I'll never understand how someone can be hurt so many times but people and still continue to love them and do things for them. Last year, when she was in the hospital... I don't think I have ever been more scared in my life. It wasn't just about me, either. It was about the whole family. I can't think about what would happen to my father without my mom; it's too scary. My mom is everyone's rock - my grandparents, my cousins, my aunts, and more than anything, mine. I can't imagine my life without her and I don't want to. She's mi madre and my best friend. I love her with all my heart and I am so thankful for her everyday of my life.