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!!



Road Trip: Charleston, NC

Last I left off, we were waking up in Charlotte, NC with plans to continue on South.  After a quick breakfast at Breugger's Bagels (not too bad BTW), we packed up the car and headed out.  The drive was much shorter - about 3 hours that turned into less since the speed limits down there were crazy high!

Since check-in at our hotel wasn't until 4:00 PM, we decided to make a stop on Sullivan's Island before hitting up historic Charleston.  We were told that Poe's Tavern had the best burgers in all of Charleston by more than 1 person, so we knew we had to check it out.  We were not misled.  De. Li. Cious!!!  And the place was adorable which made it all the better.  I think the best part was the wall paper in the restrooms made up of Poe's book pages.

After our yummy lunch it was time to check out the beach.  Typically, Charleston boasts temperatures of  low to mid 70's in April.  That day it was 57 degrees.  Not really beach weather, but we didn't care.  This small town had some beautiful houses and beautiful views and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

After leaving town, we cruised through some more beach towns including Mt. Pleasant and went over the famous Arthur Ravenal Jr. Bridge.  This bridge is apparently the #1 most popular attraction of Charleston according to Trip Advisor.  It's a cool looking bridge, but #1?  Seriously?  Had we not gone to Sullivan's Island we would never have experienced this marvel!  :)

After going over the wonder of all wonders, we drove through the historic downtown area of Charleston in search of our hotel.  As we made our way, we were in awe of the amazing houses that lined the streets.  When people talk about old Southern money, they aren't kidding!

Our hotel was located right in the heart of the historic district making it very easy for us to navigate to all the hot spots in town with ease.  Before heading to dinner, we made our way to the open air City Market to check out the goods.  Dating back to the early 1800's, the low building "sheds" housed meat, vegetable and fish markets rented for $1.00 a day.  Now it is home to lots of local vendors selling their goods to friendly tourists like us!  Along side the market buildings the streets are lined with historic buildings that house shops and restaurants. We took advantage of all of the above and got some much needed goodies.  We also got to see many a horse and carriage drive by - a BIG tourist attraction in Charleston.

Thanks to a tip from friend Amanda McDorman (THANK YOU!!), we headed to Cru Cafe for dinner and had an awesome meal. Seriously - I asked them if they can franchise in Centreville, VA so that we could eat there weekly.  Definitely yummy.  

After our good eats, it was time for the main event of the day - the Old Charleston Ghost Tour.  We are big fans of ghost tours.  Our first one was back in the summer of 2011 in Harper's Ferry.  It was good, but it really does not compare to a Ghost Tour in Charleston.  How can it when you are in a town with so much history?!  We met up with the group in Washington Park and were introduced to our guide for the evening, Mike Brown.  Mike was a little creepy in his look and his mannerisms so he was the perfect guy to lead us on this tour.  Turns out he is internationally known and has been featured on the Travel Channel, Home and Garden TV and the BBC.  We were in good hands.  

He told lots of spooky stories and took us to a lot of scary places that really made us me feel really creeped out.  Of all the stories, the one about the lady in the long black dress continues to freak me out.   Named one of the most haunted places in the United States by the Travel Channel, restaurant Poogan's Porch was a former home of the St. Armand family.  Zoe, one of the daughters, was the last of the family to live in the house before it was transformed into the restaurant that it is today.  She is not always so happy that her house, which was renovated after a fire, is not what she remembers and that all these people keep coming in and out so she pays visits now and again.  The most spooky is when Zoe appears in the mirror of the ladies room when a patron is washing their hands.  Can you imagine?!!  You are finishing up your business, washing your hands when you look up and see this person staring at you?!  I'm sorry - there is something not right about it!!!  Here's a look at the restaurant from that night - anyone see Zoe??

After that story, I was officially spooked and had to watch an episode of Friends before going to bed.  All in all though, the tour was fantastic.  Along the way, we got to see some great buildings including a local library (which was hosting one of the many weddings that night) and St. Michael's.  

Day two in Charleston was a leisurely one but was also jammed packed at the same time.  We seeked out a cool brunch spot the night before and landed at Eli's Table.  It was a nice morning so we sat in the outdoor courtyard and feasted on eggs, bacon and bloody mary's.  We then hit up the market to grab some gifts for the baby sitters at home and then King Street for some retail therapy.  This particular area in Charleston is home to your typical retail outlets (Gap, J Crew, Anthropologie, Aldo) as well as trendy boutiques and high end shops.  My favorite store was The Oops Co. filled with "irregular" items from name brand catalogs.  We even found a store named after our little man!

A big portion of our day was spent on another tour that focused on the history of the city as well as the beautiful homes.  We once again met in Washington Park and had a chance this time to see it in daylight.  Impressive.

We learned a lot and saw a lot but the one thing that sticks out is this - the real Frank Abagnale lives here:

Who is Frank Abagnale you ask?  He is the guy that made all the fake checks and impersonated a Pan Am pilot.  No?  Well you may remember that Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed him in the movie "Catch Me if You Can."  

I bet that helps.  Well, he is now a very rich man and recently bought and restored this historic house with a price tag close to $3 million.  Some other sites included this former pub/brothel which is the oldest structure in the city (now for sale if you are interested):

A former slave apartment building that turned into tenement homes when they were freed:

A mansion that has been in the same family for over 150 years (members of the family still live in it today!):

Cobblestone streets:

And relics of the past like this boot scraper next to the front door:

It truly is a beautiful city and we are really glad we took the time to see the sites and learn the history.  Our day ended very casually with pizza at Andolini's, a local College of Charleston hot spot.  

The final day of our trip was spent on the road.  It was an 8 hour drive up I-95 to get home and we hit it armed with a really great audiobook called Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.  We find that listening to a book makes a drive that long go a bit faster.  We also got to see some very interesting sites including South of the Border:

A motel called the Come On Inn (genius!):

And lots and lots of police officers.  We thought this guy was pulling us over, but it turned out that we were the lucky ones!

We made it home in time to pick up our little man from daycare and got the biggest smiles we have seen in a while.  We had a great time and luckily, Grandma & Grandpa Q. along with Aunt Suzy had a great time babysitting which means more trips may be in our future.  :)