Around the House

Posted on November 1, 2011

It’s now been over 3 months since we left Brooklyn and moved back upstate. In that time, we’ve gotten a lot done around the house. We:

Installed faux hard wood flooring in the master bedroom closets, painted the inside walls of the closets, and added wire shelving for clothes and hangers,
Replaced more than 60 missing outlet covers in the house (where did they all go?!),
Replaced two electrical outlets in the basement,
Set up a mini recycling center outside,
Set up our entertainment center in the living room, complete with a new 60″ TV,
Set up a dog run outside for our pups,
Switched the king-sized bed that was in the basement bedroom with the full-sized bed that was in the master bedroom,
Successfully combined two full sets of kitchenware, and threw out or donated old dishes,
Set up my home office in the master bedroom, complete with two bookshelves, a printer/scanner/copier/fax, a filing cabinet, and a desk,
Picked out paint colors for the master bedroom (though we have yet to paint!),
Applied a frosted glass window cling to our bathroom door (so that it’s no longer completely see through),
Fixed the lock on the front door (so the dogs can’t come and go as they please),
and, drum roll please……..
Installed a new shower unit in the master bathroom (more details on this coming soon!).

The inside of my new closet. The only thing on the list that I actually took a picture of.

Before we moved, I made it my goal to fully document all of the home renovation projects we did once we got to the house (à la Young House Love). Obviously, I’ve been slacking. But no more!

As much as we love this house, it needs a lot of work and we’re slowly giving it the attention it deserves, room by room. As we continue to make progress, I’ll be sure to keep you posted here with pictures and details. I’ll also be tracking our progress on the Around the House page, so feel free to visit for our complete project list.

Anyone else tackle any DIY home renovation projects lately? Tell me all about it in the comments!

Dogs and Moving

Posted on October 14, 2011

Since we’ve moved, the question I’ve been asked most often is:

“How are the dogs doing in your new place?”

Dogs at Home

Answer: Quite fine, thank you.

When we first got there, they weren’t really sure what was going on. We’re talking about two dogs who’ve never been off-leash, except at home and at the dog park. During the first couple of weeks, we’d let them out, and they’d sit by the front door until we let them back in. It was only when we let them play with my in-laws’ dogs (a 2-year-old pitbull and a 15-year-old German Shepherd) that they’d actually go off and run around in the woods. There were, however, a couple of problems with this:

My in-laws’ German Shepherd is old and cranky and doesn’t like to be around our dogs, since they’re still young and playful.
On the 3rd or 4th day we were in the new house, we got a phone call from our neighbor about the dogs being on their property. Oops!

So for the time being, we put our dogs on a run outside when it’s time for them to go potty, and we have to keep them separated from the old, cranky German Shepherd. When Dan and I are at work during the day, our dogs tend to stay upstairs in our bedroom, where they’re around familiar smells. When we come home at night, they do more roaming around the house and are slowly getting acclimated to the new environment.

Our dogs are definitely creatures of habit, so now that we have a routine for them, they seem to be settling in and enjoying themselves. At least, until winter comes.

Have you ever gone through a major move with pets? How did they handle it? Let me know in the comments.

Want to read a really funny story about dogs and moving? I suggest you visit HyperboleAndAHalf.com.

Operation Get Out of Brooklyn

Posted on August 3, 2011

Operation Get Out of Brooklyn: Complete

Operation Move Into New House: Well… we’re working on it.

Unlike most young couples who move into a new, empty house after their first year of marriage, we’re moving into a home already occupied by two other people. This requires us to be flexible, and to fit ourselves in among all of the pre-existing stuff. In order to make room for our stuff, we have to move things out before we can move things in. This means that, after a full week in our new home, most of our stuff is still sitting in boxes in whatever space we can find around the house.

We have made some progress, though. We cleared out the master bedroom, moved our bed in, hung up our clothes, set up my home office, gave the master bathroom a good cleaning, and washed about 40 loads of laundry. (You have no idea how nice it is to have our own washer and dryer again, after using public laundromats for 6 years!)

Of course, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Our to-do list for the house is five pages long and I have a mental list going that’s probably even longer. But unfortunately, a lot of our DIY projects will have to wait at least a few more weeks. We’re still in the process of buying the house, Dan’s still figuring out his job situation, we only have two cars between three people, and most of our limited funds are tied up in escrow. Until we close, there’s not much we can do, but in a way, that’s a good thing.

It gives us time to kick back and relax, and hopefully enjoy this upcoming weekend.