Disarray!!!

That is the word that would describe our house right now.  The official painting party has begun and boy has it gotten messy around here. And I fear it will get worse before it gets better.  But that is okay because when it gets better, it is going to be AWESOME!

Our trusted painter came by yesterday and started prepping the ceilings and walls making significant progress as he spackled and caulked his little heart out.  Things are very polka-dotted around here, but I hear that it is a fashion trend for Spring, so we are good with it.

Oh and that hole in the wall with the cord hanging out...that was where the security system panel that we did not use lived.  We are VERY happy to be rid of it since it was completely non-functional and quite the eye sore.

Today Jerry the Painter was back and put our sample paint on the wall so we can be confused choose our colors.  Because we have an open floor plan, we are doing the kitchen/halls/stairwell in one color and the living room in another.  They need to complement each other since things are quite open around here.  This is view of the space from our couch (and an obvious old pic since James' Jumperoo has been in storage for quite a while now).

We know we want a gray for the halls.  And not a blue gray.  A gray gray.  Here are our options:

All these wall samples have done is prove that we are more confused than EVER!!  It's hard to tell on the computer screen, but the top 3 colors in each picture are more blue gray. The bottom 3 are more gray gray in person.

We also want a complimenting gray in the living room.  Here are the choices:

We like the dark but are nervous it is too dark.  Again...the computer makes the colors look more blue than they really are (sorry about that!).  DECISIONS DECISIONS!!

We have some time to mull.  Jerry will not start painting the walls until Monday so we can live with the options all weekend.  I'm sure we'll change our minds about 107 times before we make a decision, but we are positive that two of the colors on the walls now will be our colors.  We just have to pick them.  Wish us luck!

The Scary Age

I hit my own milestone over the weekend when I turned 35 - my official scary age.  It brings on memories of this (Warning: Expletive in the scene so lower the volume if at work!):

Age 25 seems like forever ago.  A decade to be exact.  I took a quick peek at my 2003 photo album to see what the heck I was doing 10 years ago.  Here's what I found:

Lots of hanging out with friends and my sister at concert tailgates and bars.  Definitely fun.

Fast forward 10 years and this is where I am at now:

Not so scary. :)

The birthday weekend was fan-tab-ulous!  It all started on my Birthday Eve with dinner and cake at the Q house.  Between the ice cream cake and the awesome gifts, I felt like a very lucky girl.

The morning of my 35th birthday began with hugs and giggles from my little man who then showered me with tons of awesome gifts.  Not a bad bounty - thank you Bubs!!

After a morning nap, we packed ourselves up and headed to Old Town Alexandria to enjoy the gorgeous day and grab some lunch.  This has become a little tradition for us as we hit Old Town last year on my birthday.  The big difference is our little man.  Last year James snoozed the day away in his car seat:

This year, he was a bundle of energy as we dined at Pizzeria Paradiso.  This kid LOVES to sit in a high chair at a restaurant and eat.  He truly puts on a show!

After lunch, we strolled up and down King Street, browsing in the many adorable shops that line the street.  James managed the brick sidewalk like a champ!

 

 

The day ended in Founders Park where we checked out the duckies and boats. James even made a new special friend (don't tell Lucy!) and had a ball walking on the green grass.

 

 

 

 

All in all, it was a great birthday.  I'm not sure why I chose 35 to be my scary age, but with my boys and my Lucy at my side, things don't seem so scary afterall.

The Wheels on the Bus

Since James turned 1, we have not done an update on his milestones and we think it is about time we do because he is amazing us with his new feats EVERY DAY!

• We are 100% on milk now which means more money in our pocket since formula is now a thing of the past.  THANK GOD!

• The weaning of bottles has begun.  We are down to a morning ba ba and a night ba ba with only sippy cups at school.  The morning bottle is about to go which makes us very happy because we are very tired of cleaning those bottles and their 100,000 parts.

• The walking is getting more and more refined - especially since he is in a new pair of shoes.  Don't get us wrong, he is still tripping and flopping to the floor, but he is walking more than he is crawling and he is doing a damn good job at it!

• James spent a successful few days in the care of Grandma Q., Grandpa Q. and Aunt Suzy while we took a much needed trip for our Anniversary.  He had a blast as did the baby sitters.  :)

• Over the weekend, while he was playing with his Fisher Price Chatter Phone, Mommy started singing "The Wheels on the Bus".  He immediately stopped, stood up and started dancing and singing and doing the arm movements.  We were STUNNED!  We sing this song to him all the time and never got a reaction quite like this.  I'm sure daycare plays a part in this development since they sing all the time.  Seeing this is up there with seeing him clap for the first time.  :)

We must admit, this parenting thing is exhausting ~ especially to an active, on-the-go 14 month old toddler, but it is worth every second.  

Out with the Old and in with the Newel

I have been dying to type that for days!! Woo Hoo!!

So we are doing a little project here at the Mangiaracina home and while we typically like to save the blog post until the project is 100% complete, we are just too excited to wait. 

We mentioned in a previous post that we will be starting a painting project and that is the truth.  It just hasn't started yet.  Before the paint gets slapped up on the walls, we needed to take care of something that has been bothering us since the day we moved into the house. 

The bannister. 

You are probably saying to yourself, that doesn't look so bad.  And it doesn't.  But if you were here and saw it in person, you would see that the construction is anything but good.  It is totally wobbly and the parts used are not solid or sturdy.  Plus it is not our style so it was time to go. 

Enter Doug Kidd.

This is the guy that has done some amazing stuff around our house including our windows and sliding doors, our front window bench, our pantry drawers and countless other projects.  We brought him in a few weeks ago to get an estimate on the bannister along with a few other small projects (more on them later!) and he called us during our 8 hour drive Monday to tell us he was ready to get started on Operation: Update Bannister.

We did our part of the mission - we ordered the beautiful solid red oak square newels for both the bottom and top of the stairs.  And in case you were wondering, the newel is the big base at the bottom of the bannister that keeps things secure. We learned a lot about the anatomy of a staircase during our newel search! 

Doug brought the rest of the parts and got started on transforming our space.  It was easy to pull the junky bannister down and we were happy to see that the parts were in fact screwed in and not glued to the walls and floor. 

After running a few errands, we came home to this:

Which soon became this:

And this:

The finished product is so gorgeous and it is not even painted/stained yet!!!

You may also notice that in addition to replacing the bannister newels and pickets on the upper and lower levels, we also added a handrail along the right wall to complete the function and look. 

Now that this sucker is in place it is time to get the painting party started!  Because of the size of the job and our recent lack of time to do anything other than chase James around, we decided to hire a painter. 

Enter John Montgomery. 

This guy has done many jobs at casa de Quartuccio and works closely with Doug so we are confident he is the right man for the job.  He will be painting the entire first floor (kitchen/hall/living room), the stairwell leading upstairs, the upstairs hallway, all of the ceilings, our master bedroom ceiling and James' bathroom.  Whew.  And I didn't even mention the outdoor job he is doing but that is another post for another time. 

We are still figuring out paint colors and will have some samples on the walls as early as next week.  We also are changing the light fixtures which we will share with everyone when they are all up and running.  Lots of stuff going on and all of it is exciting. We can't wait until it is all complete because we truly believe it will make our house look fresh and clean.  Stay tuned!!