More “Thank You’s!!”

We have a few new additions to the Wall of Awesome!

Gerry, Chalie, Katie & Carol helped our mom’s & Kate unpack boxes and get our kitchen more in order.

Caitie helped us with a new project in our bedroom closet {which you’re getting a sneak peek of!}.

Thanks for everything guys!!

Posted in Wall of Awesome | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Scrubtralescent!!

{like scrumtralescent but all scrubbified} {oh wait… scrumtralescent isn’t a word.}

Lately I’ve had dishwashers on the brain.

We have ZERO base cabinets but a gaping hole perfectly sized for a dishwasher. And yet, we have no dishwasher.

dishwasher's home

I’m not good at handwashing and will readily admit I am spoiled. I grew up having a dishwasher, had one in our college apartment, and one in our Newark apartment. The one apartment that didn’t have a dishwasher constantly had dirty dishes piled up in the sink. Apparently our habits haven’t changed because it same is happening here at home. We wait until there’s a bunch, instead of doing them as we go.

In fact, my dear cousin was over on Saturday and while we were working on other stuff, she washed our dishes. Wowzers. How awesome is that?!

And kinda wrong! Our guests shouldn’t come over and do our dishes. She’ll says she’s family but still. If we’re letting them pile up, we should be the ones washing them. Or ~ better yet ~ a DISHWASHER should be washing them. And since adding one only requires installation {no remodeling} it’s moving up the priority list.

For 2010, we are going to start LIVING in our home and not just existing around the renovations.

As we started looking at dishwashers, I slowly realized that either 1) There are too many options OR 2) The perfect dishwasher at the perfect price doesn’t exist. My head is spinning with options and specs but I think I’ve finally narrowed down some specs. Obviously the most important criteria is that it actually washes the dishes but the brands we’re looking at are pretty reputable. Energy Star Certified is also a must.

What else I’m looking for:

  1. Stainless Steel – narrowing options by color seems to be an easy & consistent thing to do across the board. All our other appliances {range & fridge} are stainless, the dishwasher should coordinate.
  2. Tall Tub & Racks – I want to be able to fit large items like pots, cookie sheets, & serving dishes in the dishwasher {what have we learned about my desire to handwash?}. I’d love the top to have a tall side/low side so big stuff can fit on both the bottom & top racks.
  3. At least 14 Place Settings – We have big families and lots of friends. We love to entertain & have people over. Room for lots of plates is a must.
  4. A quick wash cycle – Why do dishwashers have to take 2 hours per cycle?! A wine glass & plate I used for a sandwich just aren’t that dirty and I could wash it all by hand in less time than that! {Not that I would but I could if I wanted to.}
  5. Water saving options – While we do love to entertain, most of the time it’s just us. The ability to do half a load or light wash or whatever will save some water would be fantastic.
  6. Quiet operations – As we’ve mentioned a bazillion times, our home is a whopping 18′ wide at the max points! Moving the conversation away from the dishwasher would involve moving to the 2nd floor. Not exactly ideal. We need to be able to have conversations at a comfortable level while the dishwasher is running.
  7. A sleek front – This is purely for vanity & design aesthetic. It has absolutely now impact on the actual washing abilities of the dishwasher and probably shouldn’t even be a deciding factor. But it is. For me. I can picture our renovated kitchen {2 years down the road} and I want a dishwasher that will meld beautifully with my vision. Sure it looks a little indulgent when you look at our current digs but I’m thinking long-term. If we buy something to last for several years, that’s one less thing to be worked into the kitchen reno budget.

I’ve been browsing around online looking at options & pictures. Sunday, Rob & I drove around to Home Depot, Sears, & Lowes to check out some models in person. I’ve done more research online since then. I *think* I’ve got it narrowed down to 4 models across 3 brands. Feel free to weigh in!

All of the models below come in stainless steel, are Energy Star certified, have tall tubs, hold 14 place settings & have an aesthetically pleasing front. Variables left to compare include quick wash, uneven top racks, & dB levels.

Frigidaire FPHD2481KF
MSRP $799

Pros: Has a quick wash & digital display on the front {so you can see how long is left in the cycle}. The dB level is 51.
Cons: It doesn’t have the uneven top rack. The top rack is adjustable but I’m not completely sold on the adjustable thing yet. Most of the adjustable mechanisms I’ve seen seem flimsy but I don’t remember how this particular one is in person.

Bosch SHX6AP05UC
MSRP $899

Pros: Has a 30min Quick Wash & Bosch’s certified leak protection. dB level is 50! I also like that the controls are tactile buttons, not just a flat flexible layer of plastic that you press.
Cons: No uneven top rack. Again the top rack is adjustable but I’d want to play with it in person. It also doesn’t have any indicator lights on the front to let you know if it’s done or not.

Maytag MDB6759AWS
MSRP $649

Pros: Price! By far the least expensive & it has the uneven top rack that I really like. At 59dB, it’s not the quietest but still not super loud. I also like that it vents on the front, not out of the top {& under the counter}.
Cons: No 30 minute quick wash. I really wanted a quick wash cycle but it has everything other than that. Are the extra couple hundred saved worth not having it?

Maytag MDB8959AWS
MSRP $949

Pros: It has the uneven top rack AND InstaWash cycle {Maytag’s quick wash cycle}. At 56dB, it’s quieter than the cheaper Maytag but not as quiet as the Frigidaire or Bosch.
Cons: Price. Nearly a grand!! That’s just a lot of money. And I haven’t see the top rack adjustable mechanism in person; I’m pretty judgemental about how those work and would need to try it out before any final decisions are made.

So that’s what we’re looking at. Any first hand experience or suggestions for us? Things you’d look for in a dishwasher? Have another recommendation to throw in the mix?? Models to beware of?

Posted in 1st floor, kitchen | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Merry Christmas 11 Days Late

While I shared Christmas Cards Draft v.1 {& even last year’s card} in time to be appropriately festive, the actual version wasn’t so lucky. There were grand plans of writing and scheduling the post for Christmas morn. DASHED! Dashed by the last-minute Christmas scramble of sewing & shopping, cookies & wrapping paper, festiveness & family.

So now ~ 11 days after Christmas ~ I’ve finally got my act together. I’ve still got 1 day left in the 12 days of Christmas, so I’m deeming this perfectly appropriate. It’s my blog and I say so.

Without further adieu, the 11 Pipers Piping bring you. . . . . . . . {drumroll} . . . .

THE CHRISTMAS CARDS

The cards took quite a bit of assembly but it was really the wrap-around labels that took the most time. I bought this border punch but didn’t realize until it arrived that it only punched two crests at a time. D’OH!! In the end, there were three edges to the labels ~ upper crest {laboriously punched}, zig-zag {cut with pinking shears}, & straight edged {good ‘ole paper-cutter}.

While I really love the bracket shape of the Upper Crest punch, I think the zig-zags gave us the most bang for our time. Scissors with shaped blades {like pinking shears or scalloped edges} or a rotary cutter with fun edged blade would be the way to go for future projects.

The envelopes were metallic crimson from Paper & More. The envelopes aren’t as dark as they appear on paperandmore.com; they’re more of a rosy red than deep deep crimson. But that wasn’t a huge deal for me. I’ve actually used this company several times and have always been satisfied with their service & shipping. The vellum is also from them.

 Inside the envelope was this –

A postcard wrapped with vellum. The “Merry Christmas from Brick City” is printed on the vellum in the same color red as the envelopes.

The photo was taken by Kamila Harris during our anniversary shoot and Rob wrote the copy to go along with it. I designed it in Photoshop and they were printed by VistaPrint.

Merry Christmas!! We hope everyone like them as much as we did.

And yes, the Gary Cooper stamps were intentional.

Posted in crafty | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Happy New Year!

The week between Christmas & New Years is always the busiest for us. My poor husband has Christmas, our anniversary, & my birthday within 7 days of each other. Last night was our annual New Years Eve/ birthday party. It was awesome and I didn’t take any pictures {except the 2 in this post}.

We had quite the menu but my favorite features were the mashed potato bar & bacon wrapped dates.

Did you hear that, Katie Bower? BACON.wrapped.dates. They were spectacular.

And nothing says love like carbs & fats in the form of a sundae bar.

Proper updates coming Monday! 2010 is going to be a rocking & totally productive year.

Posted in general | 1 Comment

Happy 2nd to Us

It’s our second anniversary. I’m sitting in bed, not because we’ve been romantic & lazy, but because it’s the only warm spot in the house. Thank you, heated mattress pad; you’re super clutch.

Our heat is off again. It’s 55 degrees inside. That’s not even the second lowest it’s ever been! It was 52 before we fixed the thermocouple and 48 a couple weeks ago.

We woke up to water oozing out of our radiators and puddles in the basement. The system flooded again. Not as bad as a couple weeks ago {if you follow me on twitter you may remember that tweet} but bad enough. It took 10 bucket fulls to drain the system and 5 shop-vac fulls to suck up all the puddles.

The breeze coming in from the closed window doesn’t help the heat situation. We’ve established the windows are crap but the one next to our bed is particularly bad. We can see daylight around the edges where the panes that move up & down meet the frame. If you’ve been with us for a few months, you may remember that we used the plastic to weatherize them before. Well the double-stick tape that comes with the plastic sheet is crap. The plastic pulled right off it. Today, we fixed it.

Blue painters tape now holds the plastic sheeting firmly over our windows. It’s super klassy {with a K} and if our home wasn’t a construction zone I might have cared how it looks. Honestly, it’s pretty ghetto looking but it does the job. And our home IS a construction zone, so I’m not caring. New windows will be all that sweeter.

So now, we’re lying in bed {dressed in matching AMH hoodies courtesy of my brother} reading “We Got Steam Heat“. Currently we’re on page 54 and my reading aloud skills are rapidly improving. I don’t remember reading aloud this much since I taught preschool that one summer. It’s kinda fun and we both get to learn without reading over each others shoulder.

We took off the steam vents {from our radiators} and boiled them in vinegar. The book recommends doing this as a fix for getting the crud out of them. I’m 95% sure this has nothing to do with our problem but we had the vinegar on hand and it made us feel productive. Now the entire house smells like easter eggs.

A repairman is coming Monday and we’re educating ourselves in the meantime. Oh the joys of home ownership. This isn’t how I imagined we’d be spending our second anniversary but I’m happy. We’re a good team and it shows in situations such as these {I drained the boiler, Rob shop-vacced the puddles}.

Now if you’ll excuse me, we have to go put all those vents back on all the radiators.

Posted in Mechanical / Utility | 6 Comments

Creepy Dolls

While cleaning out the homes of grandparents and great aunts & uncles, you come across all sorts of stuff. Heirloom quilts, old family photographs, and other little treasures are carefully tucked away, packed in boxes and drawers for safe keeping. It helps tell your family’s history & story.

Today, while packing up Uncle John’s apartment, we found an old letter written in 1851. It was facinating to read but what a loved even more was the handwriting. “Chicken-scratch” would be a compliment to my handwriting but Abigail (the author) had beautiful penmanship. (I wonder if I could scan it in and figure out how to make a font from it…)

But then you come across some stuff that can only be called bizarre. Like these air freshener dolls. Heads glued to the top, with plastic arms attached to pipe-cleaners. Zuh?!??? I believe “these are the stuff of nightmares” was my initial reaction.

I wondered who thought it would be awesome to make these and who was excited to received them. But then I remember all the weird crap I own and am slightly endeared to their creepiness. When my grandchildren clean out my home, they’ll be in for more than a few head-scratching, eyebrow-raising discoveries. And that makes me giggle.

Posted in general | 6 Comments

Merry Christmas Eve

We’re taking today off from blogging to spend the day hanging out & celebrating with family. Of course by posting this, we’re actually blogging. Either way…back to the food!

Merry Christmas!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Best Neighbors Ever

This weekend it snowed and we weren’t home. While Brick City didn’t get as much as Eva, we weren’t looking forward to shoveling it when we rolled in at 11pm on Sunday night.

As we unloaded the car ~ dreading trudging up the snowy stairs with our overnight bag & cookies ~ we saw this:

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That would be a completely SNOW FREE sidewalk and stoop.

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With salt, so it doesn’t ice over!

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I cannot begin to describe how wonderful this was to come home to.

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I could have gone over and given a GIANT sloppy wet kiss to our neighbors. Except that would be weird.

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So instead, we just went over with a plate of homemade love.

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And a heartfelt THANK YOU!!!

Posted in general | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

A Piece of Newark History

I’m guest posting over at Glocally Newark. Come check out our latest eBay find!!

I’ll give you a hint…

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Posted in Locally Newark, vintage finds | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Christmas Traditions

The last week of Dare to DIY. {tear}

Monday, Dec. 21: Dare to… have traditions!

Everyone has traditions for the Holidays. Tell us all about your favorites or start a new tradition to share.

Christmastime brings with it a lot of traditions for both our families. In fact, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day are a whirlwind of activity. Luckily our parents live all of 10 minutes away from each other, so the back-and-forth from family house to family house isn’t such a much.

Christmas Eve goes: graveside -> brunch -> movie -> mass -> 7 fishes

Christmas Day goes: brunch -> presents -> dinner -> pollyanna -> Greed {game}

But one of my favorite, non-familial Christmastime traditions we have is the Christmas in Carol & Song concert. Rob and several of our close friends used to sing in it every year throughout college. It’s so beautiful & festive.

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Happening a couple weekends before Christmas, it just gives me the Christmas-warm-fuzzies.

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And this year, John got down on one knee and asked Jenn to marry him!

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That would be the same John & Jenn that helped us scrape wallpaper off the bathroom walls back in July! {Our first non-family additions to the Wall of Awesome!}

Jenn & John

Congrats guys!!

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What’s your favorite holiday tradition?

Don’t forget to pop over to Kim’s and check out everyone else!

Posted in Dare to DIY, Non-house | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments