Reflecting

I came across this blog post from exactly a year ago today.

Top 10 Signs that Renovations Aren't Complete
10. Your lunch sack is a plastic bag from Home Depot
9. You worry about falling through the kitchen ceiling every morning when going into the tub
8. Contractors come to your house more often than your friends
7. You go to the dog park and someone points out that the dog has paint on him
6. Plastic drop cloths are considered a home decor
5. Sundays are spent mudding & taping instead of watching football.
4. The upstairs foyer table is actually a piece of OSB. With a mitre saw on it.
3. Fixing the main roof truss that is 100% cut through is on the same 'to do list' along with purchasing 1/2" screws for the closet.
2. You get certified letters for the weeds & junk in your back yard.
1. Two words - drywall boogers

I'll never forget moving into the house when renovations were nowhere near complete in August 2008. My brother's friend helped move all my stuff, and when he first walked in you could tell he was thinking, "Kevin, this is where your sister is going to live?" Everything was torn up, tools were everywhere, and there was a hole in the bathroom floor. We ended up just piling all my boxes of things in the guest room to the ceiling until the dust settled and I could unpack. I lived out of moving boxes for months because I couldn't put things in my closet while we were frantically finishing the master bedroom. At the same time, we went to the gym every day for several weeks, not because we were diligently trying to get in shape (I think we burned enough calories working on the house every night and weekend). But because we had no shower while the bathroom was being renovated. Ahhh, the good old days!

It's still hard for me to believe that renovations are 'done'. I'm proud of all the work we did ourselves, and I never thought in my life I would learn how to install wood floors or be a mudding and taping guru. Although demolition is still my favorite renovating duty :) Luckily, we don't have to worry much about drywall boogers these days, and we no longer decorate with drop cloths. In fact, now we spend many evenings relaxing on the most comfortable sofa in the world.

Kudos to anybody in the midst of renovating right now! You deserve major props for all your hard work - keep at it!

P.S. Don't forget to vote for Baltimore Rowhouse every day until October 9th! We are in sixth place now, movin on up!

Mobbies and a Birthday Present

Yesterday we came across a contest for Maryland's outstanding blogs held by the Baltimore Sun. Some of our favorite nominees are daily food inspiration, a neighbor, a Patterson Parker, a fellow renovator, a photography favorite that we met at Patapsco Park last year, a new hilarious discovery, and a fellow dog lover.



We also discovered that Baltimore Rowhouse was nominated! Looks like we are in 7th place in the Neighborhood category right now. Voting is through October 9, and you can vote once daily in each category. We're feeling a bit competitive after coming in second on HGTV's Bang For Your Buck last month :) Vote for Baltimore Rowhouse!

On another note, Corey turned 30 on Tuesday and is now older than 42% of the population in the U.S. Last weekend, his best friend from college flew up from North Carolina with his wife to surprise Corey. We also had a big birthday bash. This weekend I am 'surprising' him with a trip to Lost River Modern. I decided to spill the beans this morning because he already was suspicious that we were going there. I have had this trip planned since April, and I'm glad the weekend is finally here.



We plan on posting about our HGTV experience soon. In the meantime, if you didn't catch us the first time around they are showing a rerun on October 13. Have a great weekend!

Fully Engaged

My apologies for the lack of posts, but we've been busy with our engagement. I finally made an honest woman out of the Queen. From this point forward we are not living in sin. At least this is what we are going to tell ourselves. :-)

If you remember way back when I posted last we were going to be on HGTV. Well, the episode aired. We didn't win, but at least we didn't lose like the guys over at project rowhouse. (Actually, I think they won seeing as they didn't really spend $50k and did an amazing job on their place, but I don't want to say anything about that) After our loss the Queen and I headed over to project rowhouse to celebrate. They had a party going on, and it was great to hang out with Jon and Craig again.

If you missed the show, check out upcoming airtimes at hgtv's website for the episode and set the DVR. The next time it's on is October 13th at 9:30, and a few hours later at 12:30 am. Make sure to tune in and watch us look like fools.

P.S. All my links got wiped out somehow. I'll have to spend some time to reset them to their rightful place. :-(

We Have an Air Date

Bang for your Buck contacted us last week and said we are scheduled to be on the air 9/18. HGTV's website says the show will air on 9/11 at 9:30. I guess we'll just have to tune in to find out. :-)

Here is the rundown of the show from the website.

Designer Taniya Nayak compares three great rooms in Baltimore that were recently renovated with budgets of $50,000 each. Along with a realtor, they look at a modern great room with horizontal metal cabinets, a contemporary great room with a wood-burning fireplace and a spunky great room with a built-in bar.

I'm assuming we are the spunky great room with the built in bar. I'd prefer bad ass over spunky, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers.

More Turkey Pictures

Houseblog Schmouseblog

While I should be in the backyard slaving away at landscaping and plumbing, I felt like writing a blog entry about Turkey. Procrastination is a beautiful thing.

While in Istanbul we took a cruise along the Bosphorous.



The Blue Mosque was also pretty impressive. The intricate tile work was amazing.



There were tons of stray cats throughout Turkey. This one was escaping the days heat in front of the Blue Mosque.



I liked the look of these doors. I'm thinking about blowing it up to hang on the wall.



While the Queen was smiling here, we were less than impressed with the cave cities in Cappadocia. They are neat and all, but after we saw one we were ready to go.



The cave churces at the Goreme Open Air Museum were much better than the caves at Derinkuyu.



The town of Goreme in Cappadocia was impressive. Our hotel room was in a cave. If you look behind the Queen you can see the valley is filled with cave dwellings.



While riding ATV's around Cappadocia we stopped to pet a horse that was tied out on a hillside. Another lady was stopped by the horse reading a book and enjoying the view. The horse wasn't hers.



The highlight of Ephesus was definitely the Celsius Library.

Backyard Landscaping Update

While I may not have blogged in a while, this doesn't mean we haven't been busy. We installed crown molding in the living room, had HGTV over for filming, and have been busy on the backyard. While I'm sure you want to hear dirt about HGTV's visit, I'm going to cover our progress in the backyard. :-)

The last post of the yard show the space as being a lot better than before the concrete work, but it still looking prison-esque. It was 342% better than the untouched version, but I think the place is now approaching 514% better. Here is the space as you last saw it.



The concrete work was done, but the gate and fence wasn't in and the planter bed is sufferring from a severe lack of dirt and plants. These problems have been remedied, and the Queen is now enjoying the space much better.



The horizontal fencing and gate is in place. I am quite pleased. This Saturday was spent creating a drainage system in the planting bed, and Sunday hauling 4,000 lbs of dirt to fill the bed. The low voltage landscape lighting is showing off our walls and new tree, and looking swanky while doing so. We even managed to get our fancy new Forest Pansy Redbud over the 2' tall planting bed. I wasn't sure how to get the tree in the bed, but after building a ramp it wasn't too bad.



The tree will have small pink flowers in the spring, with new leaves showing a purple color all through the season. I originally wanted a 'Bloodgood' Japanese Maple, but the redbud was only $115 and allowed instant coverage between our seating point at the table and our neighbor's back deck. The Japanese Maples were considerably more for the same initial size. Eventually the redbud will have a 18-20' diameter spread, which will help to canopy the area.



I still need to hook up the plumbing for the spigot in the back and plant the boxwoods and other plants, but all that will come in due time. And by due time, I mean this weekend.

Keep on the lookout for a guest poster to cover the first two topics I mentioned early in the post. :-)