Back Again

      So I disappeared there for a bit.  Last weekend we drove up to VA to do some minor renovations on our house up there.  Well, MacGyver did renovations.  He starting installing the bookcases to convert a storage room into a library.  The changes MacGyver has made to our house so far have been amazing.  I love our house.  I loved it when we first found it, and I have loved it since, but one thing was always clear in my mind:  The whole thing needed to be redecorated.  Badly.  It looked like the interior design had been done by an 80 year old mexican lady (NOT that I have a problem with 80 year old mexicans, I just don't tend to have the same taste in decor).  There was so much baby blue I wanted to vomit.  I am NOT a fan of baby blue.

       The only picture I currently have handy to demonstrate is this one from Punky's 7th birthday:

      The colors aren't all that clear, but you get the general idea.  The wall is baby blue and there is the atrocious hand painted boarder with purple, pink, green, and yellow, and all these flowers.  This is the kitchen wall.  The faces of the cabinets were painted the same as this border.  It was aweful.  I almost feel bad for saying that because someone obviously put a lot of work into it, but really.  Ick.  And it wasn't the only room with such "touches."  The master bathroom had a hand painted tree that looked like something out of Whinnie the Poo and included the same aweful colors as this border.  And it had a bird house nailed to it - to a tree painted on the wall.

      The room that MacGyver is now converting into a library had what I can only assume was supposed to be a forest sponge painted on the wall, but it was an epic fail.  Pastel colors, and baby blue in particular, were everywhere.

      After we had the unfortunate pipe burst incident last year, MacGvyer chose to redo the kitchen himself instead of having the insurance company contractors do it so that he knew it would be exactly right.  We wanted something warm, rich, and maybe vaguely Tuscan feeling.  And holy cow did he do an amazing job:

What is that built into the island?  Oh, that's right.  It's a wine cooler!

      These cruddy cell phone pictures don't even begin to capture how AWESOME our kitchen is now.  New tile floors, tile countertops, dark wood cabinets, gorgeous copper backsplash.  It is just perfect.  Even the new pot rack and wine cooler in the island and the warm textrured paint.  One of these days, I'll have to post some better pictures of this house.

      We also redid the bedroom in a gorgeous dark red.  The whole upstairs got beautiful dark wood floors.  We did the Master Bath in a dark slate grey with stone accents and an opulescent shower curtain that made the whole thing feel like a waterfall - with plants all along the ceiling.  Sadly, this was destroyed when the pipe burst and the contractors couldn't put it back the way it was.  But I'm not worried, it won't take MacGyver long to put it right.

      So we went to VA for the weekend.  We stayed in a nice hotel with a pool and buffet breakfast and all sorts of nice amenities.  It was a really lovely, relaxing weekend of just hanging out and bonding with my family.  Plus, I picked up a couple of much needed new tops on clearance.

      With super long drives on either end of the trip, MacGyver and I got to enjoy some fun long, rambling conversations and caffeine induced giggles.

      The downside is that, for some reason I have yet to identify, long drives have always just massacred my immune system.  So within hours of getting home, I could feel it.  That tingling in the throat, in the ears, the little itch that says "this is going to suck tomorrow."

      And it did.  Tuesday wasn't so bad, but it got worse Wednesday.  Not so bad that I was completely dysfunctional.  For better or for worse, I'm not the type of person to let sickness turn me into a sniveling mess on the couch unless it reaches a point where I am physically unable to move.  I wasn't unable to move, I was just very uncomfortable.  I took part of the day off Thrusday, and thanks to having the best, most considerate husband in the world, I didn't have to worry about dinner or the dishes or any other housework the whole time I was sick.

      Today, I'm feeling better.  Still a little head and throat achy, but nothing too serious.  Back at work playing catch up.  Being sick sucks, and it makes my brain all muddled, which I hate.  But it was worth it for the lovely weekend we had.

      One day, I'll do a post with much better before and after pictures of the various rooms of the house.  It is so beautiful now.