a kiss to send us off

things will be quiet around here [the blog] for at least a week while ben and i travel up north for a relaxing week of...nothing. my coworkers asked me what books i planned to take along to the lake and i was embarrassed to admit i hadn't even thought about it. that's not like me at all. no time these days!

i thought i'd leave you with a few shots of our painted bedroom, which happened with the help and support of wes and maggie. pretty boring color—the color of drywall, actually—but i like its simplicity. it is revere pewter by benjamin moore, mixed at sherwin williams (of course!). we branched out and used satin instead of our usual flat. i know, i know, we're crazy!

ben's making a frozen pizza, then we're off to finalize carpet and buy some door knobs. out!

hex tiles on the floor

it was brought to my attention that no pictures were posted of the installed main floor tiles. here they are!

we are really happy with the final outcome of all the tile installed. the look is very clean and simple, perhaps even a little vintage. a lot of white with a little gray. i'm partial to solids, but the tile selections give the floor a bit of a pattern and definitely up the interest factor in a way that isn't trendy.

a few things: 1) these hex tiles were very affordable, which is good because we needed like 100 square feet. 2) however, the tiler said they were incredibly difficult to install. (and he knew what he was doing—he was a pro and did a great job all around.) the hex tiles came mounted on a 12" x 12" mesh backing but the tiles themselves were super thin. they slid around a bit when he was installing them, which is made obvious by a wider grout line in a few areas. oh well. i'm not worried about it.

oh yeah—we decided to go with corian countertops for the vanity (and it has nothing to do with the fact that someone from dupont posted a comment here the other day). like i said, i'm picky about speckles, and as beautiful as the quartz was, it competed with the marble tile and the "patterned" floor and didn't match as nicely as i'd like. conveniently, when we had our white corian countertops made for the kitchen, they cut out a large hole for our drop-in sink and gave us the extra material. well, i plopped the cutout on top of the vanity to see how it would look and it was love at first sight. (see above.) clean white. love it. (also, a phone call inquiry revealed that the high corian estimate we had received was due to the fact that two integrated sinks would cost almost $500. ouch. so we reworked the plan to include undermount sinks instead, which brought the cost down considerably. so lesson learned: ask!)

i've met with a few vendors to get bids for glass shower enclosures. we bought faucets and a toilet. looking at carpet tomorrow, still need mirrors and light fixtures. we've painted the closet, finished painting the trim, and will paint the bedroom tomorrow night. oh yeah, we need a closet system! we'll be out of town next week, and while we're gone, the trim and doors will be installed. as weird as it sounds, coming home from vacation will be fun because we'll see progress made while we were gone!

mitchell, sd

hello! did you have today off from work? we did. it's been a great weekend! we spent part of it in mitchell, sd. one of ben's high school friends, pete, was married in hawaii a few weeks ago and was having a reception mitchell. we had lots of car time (almost ten hours) and were eager to try the camera, but the subjects were limited.

we ate taco john's not once, but twice!

but things changed when we got to our destination, which is also home to the world's largest corn palace! yahoo!

the reception was on saturday night. we went over to pete's uncle's home again on sunday for a day on the lake. it was so much fun! they had these things called aqua scooters. they are kind of like the rocketeer in water. the guys also rode on segways, but i didn't get any shots of them. on the boat, pete, ben, me, and stephanie each tried wakesurfing. before long, it was time to hit the road. all in all, it was a fabulous day and a really great weekend with ben and friends.

happy fourth of july!

we have much to be thankful for—including freedom. what were your holiday plans? ben and i just got back from mitchell, sd. we took hundreds of pics on the trip (including both of these) and we are loving our new camera. i'll be back tomorrow to share more images. they may or may not involve a corn palace.

be safe tonight!

a big day in my world

 

i bought a camera today. if you've been following me here, you'll know this has been in the works for a long time. last fall i started researching. i took on some extra projects at work and put in some overtime hours. knowing i was saving for a camera was motivating! ben helped with the decision, of course, and has been very encouraging and patient.

[i just did a little practicing tonight when we got home—especially with depth of field. fitting that it was a fitzgerald book on the top of my pile. it looks like canon is about to announce a new 60d, but oh well. such is technology. we're going on vacation soon and i'm ready to get learning!]