Dinner Parties!

Last week, the master bedroom was primed, the trim was painted, the trim was taped off, the walls were painted, the dining room furniture was moved in and the contents of the (endless!) boxes of kitchen supplies continued to find homes on shelves and in cupboards.


We made time for a grocery shop (conveniently close to Home Depot) and were fascinated by the variety available in the expansive suburban Stop & Shop.  We found further novelty in being able to purchase 10 cans of crushed tomatoes, a roast the size of my leg, and 2 gallons of orange juice without breaking our backs to cart it home.

Currently, all our lovely groceries are piled on the kitchen island as the pantry is still missing shelves.   The pantry door is where we keep the To-Do List: colorful post-its that are pulled down once the chore is done.

Saturday, roasting dishes and fry pans were located just in time to host our first proper guests, two friends from college visiting for dinner and a Peekskill-sleepover.
 
Before they were due to arrive, we tested the heat; we didn't want my girlfriend to California to freeze trying to sleep in a 60 degree house and we managed to set up the dining room furniture just in time for the occasion.

The girls helped me touch-up the paint job in the master bedroom.  I dug out my artistic paint brushes from the shed and we got to work while Russ cooked dinner. 

We hosted our our first dinner party at the dining room table and perfectly reminiscent of college, we ate pasta and drank too much wine.   The girls crashed in the attic under a pile of blankets and pillows and claim that it was very cozy.

Sunday was dinner party #2, and we had all the helpful movers (family!) over for dinner, the my-leg-sized-roast served on our fancy china.  After dinner my sister set up the china cabinet. One more fussy job done!

Today, we finish carpeting the master bedroom and maybe get to (finally) sleep there tonight!

Dust Settles

We've been hauling boxes, furniture and lamps in from the garage and starting to set up a "home" in Peekskill.  Its been a slow process with limited time to get the endless list of To-Dos done.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I ran loads of laundry (Russ was totally out of socks and had to borrow a pair of mine - yikes!), continued scrubbing the kitchen shelves and bathroom tiles, improvised curtains (yet to be purchased) and bath mats (the real ones are packed protectively under the china) and improvised dinners. We unpacked clothes and toiletries; hauled in dresser drawers and finally the dresser; moved out of the attic and into a temporary bedroom.

The plastering and sanding that has to happen in the master bedroom before a cozy coat of paint can be applied and the carpet laid was put on hold while Russ organized the transportation and delivery of a free 17' boat.  Its another possession that needs A LOT of work, but should be worth the sweat in the end.

Thursday, we cooked our first meal on the new stove and tested out the hundreds of TV channels.  Despite our chaotic DIY reality, we still find HGTV wonderfully entertaining.  The best part of this low-key evening was crashing on a mattress and not crawling into a sleeping bag at the end of the day.

We're all in!

One blow-out (not a tire this time) and 6 days since my last post, we are officially moved into the house.

The plaster has dried on the bedroom walls and the kitchen has been scrubbed from six-foot ladder high to on my knees low.  The big furniture moving weekend was glorious. Saturday and Sunday the sun was shining, the temperature was cool ... well except for the hot-headed homeowners who just barely avoided killing each other.

The final furniture pick-up on Monday night was the only rain soaked journey with the trailer and of course we were hauling the mattress and the pull-out couch.  We made it to Peekskill by 8pm (really good time for all the lifting, hauling, driving that had to happen after work) and had the mattress and box spring spread on newspapers in a spare bedroom before 9pm.  We left the fan blowing on it all night and by morning it was just about dry.  Thanks to Russ and Aaron's water proofing efforts, the couch was far less damp and actually looked slightly cleaner after a quick wipe down with a dry rag!

Boxes are stashed in every corner, blocking doorways and making use of the kitchen impossible.  My shiny new stove has only been used to boil the kettle and re-heat pizza.  I can't wait to chuck in a roast and fill the house with yummy smells ... In order to make that possible, in addition to clearing some boxes, I would need to find the roasting dishes and make time to grocery shop. Hopefully by the end of the week these activities will be higher on my priority list.

Currently, I am trying to figure out how to keep the bathroom warm enough to enjoy a shower ... add a wall heater, cover the drafty, poorly placed window, get the oil tank filled, maybe think about a larger hot water tank so the 2nd person to shower has more than 30seconds worth of hot water. We are coming into winter (fast) and we are already feeling slightly nostalgic for the (free!) high-pressure hot water we left behind in the Bronx.

Still promising pictures as soon as I can dig the computer out!  Actually, that is one project we have been totally on top of, we need to keep up with our social networking and email checking, so the internet installation was high priority.  Saturday the computer was hooked up and internet ready.  I even surprised Russ by adding digital TV and a phone line to the package.

Suburban living, we have arrived!