Everything but the Kitchen Sink...

It seems we've done everything (realistic) we've wanted to do to make this house our home, except take care of the kitchen faucet. The one that was here originally was a long neck type, and while we liked to style, there was NO HOSE! It was so strange. We didn't even know they manufactured sinks without a hose. The old faucet also had separate hot and cold handles, which we weren't a fan of, and it wasn't aerated, which was a big water waste. It's not that we didn't want to replace it ASAP, it's more that we couldn't make a decision. We have been in the kitchen faucet section of Lowe's and Home Depot's 4 times and 2 times, respectively. Today was the day we finally made a decision. We chose another long neck style faucet, because we liked the way the original filled up the space. This new one not only has a hose (yay), but it is built right into the neck.

So began the installation process. As our luck would have it, the old faucet couldn't just be unscrewed and removed... of course not, that would be waaay too easy. The entire sink had to come out. Luckily, the previous homeowners did a terrbile affixation job.
The ~200lb sink was lifted out:


Then it got a much needed clean up:


New faucet installation and a wardrobe change for Steven:

Sink was reinstalled, properly:

Insert oohs and aahs here:

We're lucky to have Pat and Angel so close, so that they can help us out with these sorts of things. Pat helped with the sink (clearly), and Angel did our hair, and helped with some cleaning and laundry. They were repayed with a nice salad, homemade croutons, a Chicken Divan casserole (Paula Deen, of course), and 8 layer bars (previously known as 7 layers, but a secret 8th was added). If anyone wants any of these recipes, feel free to comment with your email address and I'll send 'em to you.

Nova's been especially attached to her buddy, as of late. We've gotten a couple of cute pictures, so we figured we'd share.

"People let me tell you 'bout my beeeest frienddd..."

She looks like she could use a bath, huh? :)

In other, very important news, our Silver Oak friends -Trish, Philipe, and Briana - welcomed their newest family member, Laney Nicole, on Thursday night. Spent some time with the newest Chibas yesterday, and she's absolutely beautiful. Trish was up and about, impressively, and as exhausted as she was, she was still so happy to be a mom for the second time and that's an incredible thing to witness. Congrats to the Chibas fam, and enjoy your babymoon!

More news... the Orlando Magic just beat the Celtics in game 7, which sends them to the NBA Finals! Yay!

Where ya been?

We know, we know. It's been ages since we last posted, but we've been outta town, and preoccupied with things left neglected when we first got our place... such as fishing :)

It's been quite nice to get back out on that water. Cliff and Laurie were in town for a visit this past weekend, and we spent most of Sunday fishing with them. Laurie is the only one who had any real luck with the fish though. She caught a nice flounder, but didn't share any :(



Onto house stuff... Some big things are about to happen, but we don't want to spoil the surprises... stay tuned ;)

Onto other important stuff... Our Silver Oak friends - Trish, Philipe, and Brianna - are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their newest family member. Trish is due any day now, and although she has a ton of family and friends for support, we're doing our best to make sure we're around if she needs anything. We can't wait to meet baby Laney :) :) :)

The Bees Knees? What does that even mean?

“He is not worthy of the honeycomb, that shuns the hives because the bees have stings.”
–William Shakespeare

Apparently, Shakespeare thinks we aren't worthy of honey.. who cares what he thinks, right?


The home we purchased came with a birdhouse on the tree in the backyard, matching paint color with the house of course. We were excited when we first moved in because we could see something inside, and assumed that since it was a bird house, it must be a nest... man, were we waaaay off. After about 2 weeks of looking for birds, we realized it was actually honeycomb, with a quickly multiplying swarm of bees to go with it. This past week, it had gotten to the point where we were afraid to let Nova out in the backyard, or even we were afraid to go out there. In all actuality, I think we were less afraid and moreso intimidated. Friends have given us different suggestions about what to do: eventually the swarm would abandon the comb, shoot the hose at it and then run inside real quick, bees are endangered so dont have them killed, they'll swarm and kill you like in the movie My Girl so have it removed ASAP, etc. Everyone had an opinion, and we didn't know what to do, so yesterday we started doing some research and calling around.

Meet our birdhousebeehive and then watch it meet its demise:



How to have a beehive removed:

1) Find a crazy person with a spacesuit, a tall ladder, a hammer, a crowbar, a hefty bag, and some ginormous guts:


2) Stay inside and take pictures through the blinds.

3) Have crazy guy... we mean, "the professional"... put the very tall ladder up to the hive:

4) Continue to watch safely from inside, questioning things such as, can bees sting through that jumpsuit, what's in that can in his pocket with the John Deere logo on it, why do beekeeper suits look so much like spacesuits, what if the bee suit has a hole, how much would someone have to pay you to do this, how crazy do you think this guy really is, if he plays with bees in a bee-proof suit do you think he'd play with sharks in a shark-proof suit, etc:

5) Watch him stuff rags in the holes, and question why he's doing that... as if we know of a better way to do this:

6) Make inappropriate jokes, amongst yourselves, about 2 stuffed holes here:

7)Laugh at his insanity some more:

8) Begin to question what happens to all of the bees he's leaving behind:

9) Adios beehivebirdhouse!

So, it's successfully removed! Yay! But wait a minute... what about that swarm he left behind? He told us the rest of the bees should be dispersed by Thursday. The key phrase being should be. Luckily, he says he'll come back and spray some more anti-bee juice (that's a technical term) if they aren't.

We want to touch on something for our earth-friendly friends. We're going to be honest: we're not sure what's going to happen to those bees. We did the most research we could about having those bees relocated to a nice bee farm (again, technical term), so someone could harvest their honey but that sort of thing just doesn't happen. We do feel really bad because of the whole bee population declining thing, but we were informed that beekeepers work very hard to keep a clean and healthy colony, and that wild bees are often riddled with mites. So, friends, we did what we could, and there is a chance that "the professional" will release them if he can find a suitable spot in the wild, but what's most important is that Nova is now safe to play in her big backyard again :)

"Let me play outside, please!" (Nova has manners)

Our First Weekend Away...

We contemplated blogging, because this won't technically be about our house, but we figured we'd keep everyone in the loop on our life :)

We just spent our first weekend away from our new home- the first weekend away in 5 weeks. For anyone who really knows us, that seems impossible. We're always on the go; between football season, fishing, and hunting, I'm not sure we spent a single whole weekend at home last fall. We headed out of town this past weekend for a good reason though: the Orange and Blue game in Gainesville. The Orange and Blue game is the spring football game, where it's defense vs. offense, and they debut new plays and players. It was pretty awesome, minus the tremendous amount of alumni with children, who were constantly back and forth through the rows. Luckily, it isn't like that during regular season :). We're lucky enough to have a best friend (Megan) who lives in Gainesville, so we get to stay with her- she's a great hostess, and it's much better to stay with someone who's like family instead of in a hotel. We left after work on Friday, and pulled into Gville around 8:30. Megan's dad and brother were also staying with her, and they got into town shortly after we did. Needless to say, it was a packed house, but we made it work. Meg's dad and bro stayed in, and we headed out downtown, to Nelly's. We met up with a guy Steven works with and his wife, Autumn. It might've been our first weekend away from our new house, but it was their first weekend away from their new baby, so they had us trumped.

We had a great time.. and here's some evidence:

Not ready yet...

Still not ready...

There we go..

Just being silly now..

More silly.. this time with moustaches...

Funny Megan :)

Cliche us...

Us..

Football Game:

Gotta have a couple shot..

Griffin family shot, minus Cathy..

Bffs :)

And out on Saturday night:
Bffs, round 2..

Us, round 2 :)

On Sunday, we decided to go a little out of our way, and swing into Steven's parents' place. Steven's cousin Jesse and her husband Evan are in town from Vermont, so we wanted to see them. We had a great day, playing some cards and ate some dinner before getting back on the road. We didn't make it home until about 10pm, but the weekend was definitely worth it :)

Update, update!

It's been quite some time since we last posted, but not without reason. We have been tremendously busy - Christina with schoolwork, and Steven with work-work, and although it's been stressful, we're both thankful to be busy in this economy. Bruce and Karen left last Thursday, and while we're sure they were glad to get home, we were sad to see them go. We had a great time with them, and got some things done, that we're not sure could've been done without Bruce's wonderful carpenter skills :)

Here's a couple things we've been up to:

-Removed and installed the new microwave. After all of that work, it was realized that the new microwave door was too square to open more than a 1/4 of the way, so the new one was removed and the old one was put back in.

-Replaced this wood 4x4. The original twisted 180° from the top to the bottom. Now it's much safer.


-Fixed the gable end and installed siding on the southside of the roof



-Installed a 4x4 so that the porch railing was no longer crooked (will soon be painted white)



-Most importantly, our living room now has a window :)
The Before - so dark!


During: When we first found out the actual original window was still there!


Construction time!


Since the old window was actually old we decided to put in a new more energy efficient window; eventually we'll replace all the windows to match.

Conference time and more construction:




Just a few more finishing touches...





And, finally, the after:




In unrelated news, we spent Saturday fishing with our good friend, Charlie. We didn't have too much luck, but Steven did manage to catch a snook that was just shy of the slot :)