Did you miss me?

Do you miss me? Now that I'm gone! LOL, for some reason my blog title made me think of this song.

Anyone remember it? I loved me some Jocelyn Enriquez back in the day and even owned the CD! #freestyle

Wow, it's been a minute since I last posted. Since I had some time in the midst of the crazy holiday season, I figured I would update you on some of the awesome things I've been up to since my last post (in October, eek!)

Well...

• Justin and I hosted out very first Friendsgiving! And had an awesome Thanksgiving with my family, too!
• I ate at a bunch of delicious places...
• We did some stuff around the house! Got our floors upstairs refinished and got an energy audit of our house, too!

These next couple weeks I'll be updating you on some things that happened in the past, some unfinished posts, and other miscellany. We'll just call them the "lost files." For some reason or another, these are topics I just never got around to writing or posting until now.

Yes, it's old news, but it's new news to you, right? Stay tuned!

Weekend Review: Getting our Move On

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that we were taking on a new home improvement at our house. After a wanting to do it for a while, we decided to refinish the hardwoods on our second floor. We've been wanting to redo our floors since this post about our tax refund from last year. After reflecting on that post, I think it is kind of interesting that we have now tackled two out of the three things on that list--the wrought iron fence and the floors. All that is left is the backyard, but hopefully that'll come soon. ;) I promise that I'll give you a full detailed post on the whole refinishing process (a process that I like to call "hardwood hell") but it'll have to wait since we aren't quite done and I want to give the whole process a full review...sorry! What a tease! In the meantime, I'll update you all on how we'd be living for the past few weeks.

 

Everything we couldn't pack, we had to move downstairs...

 

With us being exiled from the upstairs we set up camp in the living room with the aero mattress. After a couple days it was getting really uncomfortable. I apologize to any guests we have made sleep on it or any guests than may sleep on it in the future. I realize it sucks and we need to get a proper guest bed sometime soon...

 



 

Our clothes in suitcases and laundry hamper in the dining room. #hollalivinginsqualor

 

 

Despite all of the crap on the first floor, that didn't prevent us from doing stuff around the house. I spotted this mirror for under $30 at Homegoods. What a steal!

 

 

So of course I put Justin to working in hanging it since it's his most favorite thing to do. ;) 

  

 

I also thought I would be a good time to hang these wall sconces that we got for our wedding shower many years ago.

 

  

 

Voila! Again not properly styled, but deal with it. We got some cute candles to go with our sconces. I'll have to show you in a different post. :)

 

 

Justin replacing the ceiling fan light. The honey-do list never ends does it?

 

 

Random picture of Derby grinning ear to ear! #nobraces

 

  

We also helped our friends move into their new place. Will the couch fit?

  

 

The Sanchezes (Sancheeses? ;) taking a break!

 

 

 

All of us awaiting our reward for assisting in the move--Taylor Gourmet!

 

 

After moving, since we were in the neighborhood, we figured we might as well stop by Union Market. It has been open for about a year now and we hadn't checked it out yet.

 

 

One of the butchers was selling oxtail. I had never seen it in its whole form. Kinda weird but my mouth was still watering from the thought of kare kare (aka: Filipino oxtail stew in a peanut sauce)...

 

 

A shot of the inside. Definitely room for growth (I love me some Reading Terminal Market!) but still a good addition to the neighborhood and city!

 

 

I was in an ice cream kind of mood but a  cupcake from Curbside Cupcakes will suffice.

 

Our weekend was jam packed! That's a review of my busy weekend in a nutshell! Sorry for the lame-o conclusion...I figured I needed to say something in order to finish this old a$$ post!

How To Spend a Tax Refund - Home Improvement Style!

Justin and I got a pretty significant tax refund a few months ago and we have been trying to figure out how to spend it. Yes, I know that if you are receiving a tax refund (adjust your withholdings...blah, blah, blah) that means you are letting Uncle Sam hold too much of your money; however, for some reason we still get giddy when we hear that we are getting money back. We are planning on putting some of it toward a trip this Fall (location/date TBD), but we were going to use the other part of it towards what else? Home improvements.

Here are the top three improvements we are contemplating:

1) Backyard Redo

Ever since we moved into our house we knew that we would have to redo our backyard eventually. After this incident, it became even more apparent that our backyard concrete slab was unsatisfactory. Last fall I applied for DC's RiverSmart Homes Program, which gives money to DC homeowners interested in bayscaping, rain gardens, rain barrels and pervious pavers. Pervious pavers are landscaping surfaces that allow water to seep into the ground rather than in storm drains, which thereby reduces the pollution that might end up in location streams and waterways. We were interested in replacing our cement slab, and for homeowners interested in installing pervious pavers, the program offers a $1,200 subsidy.

Last month, someone from the RiverSmart Homes Program came over to do a stormwater audit of our house. Upon realizing that our entire backyard was concrete, she said that the removal of the concrete, installation and the pervious paver materials would cost anywhere from $20-25 per square foot. For an area the size of our backyard, that would be upwards of $10K! Yikes. The $1,200 subsidy definitely wasn't going to go a long way. With that said, redoing our entire backyard in pervious pavers was out of the question, but on the bright she said that including green space in our design would reduce the costs. So in a few estimates that we've requested, the designs have included grass and planter boxes with the pervious pavers. We're just waiting on one more estimate to see if this is the route we want to take.

2) Repair and Refinish the Hardwood Floors Upstairs

Although we have wood laminate on the main floor, we have original hardwood floors upstairs. Before you go into your "oohs and ahhs" about the original heart of pine hardwood floors, I have to burst your bubble and tell you that they are in crappy condition. They have always been in terrible condition and this is another thing we knew we would have to fix down the road. Some parts just need to get sanded and refinished like this part in our master bedroom.

However, other areas will also need to get repaired like this part in the hallway.

It is clearly damaged and was poorly patched. Because this area is located in front of our upstairs bathroom, I'm surprised we haven't gotten splinters from it or stubbed our toes on the jagged area more often. This area has been subjected to doggie pee (Can you image how hard it is to clean? It sucks.), but we have just learned to live with it nonetheless. If we choose to fix the floors upstairs, I know it won't be as "fun" compared to a new backyard, but it's much needed and of course it'll add value to our house.

2) Wrought Iron Fence and Hand Rail for the Front Yard

As much as we love our neighborhood, one of the worst things about is the trash. There is trash everywhere. I'm not saying that we live in a dump, but we do live on a high traffic street (between the metro station and a Safeway) where there is always an errant piece of trash laying around. Passersby just don't know how to use a trash can, even if their life depended on it.  And where does the trash end up might you ask? Our front yard and sometimes our treebox.

The trash my friend is blowing in the wind...

The neighbors to our right have a fence so when the trash gets blown around, its stops right at the fence and into our yard. During the Fall when we rake leaves, Justin always grumbles about it without fail! Come to think of it, the fence would also prevent any extra leaves from blowing into our yard as well. As evidenced by our neighbors, a solution to prevent the trash from coming into our yard would be to fence it out! Plus, we'll have a fenced in area for the boys (aka: Louie and Derby) to play in.

Get us out of here!

You must to admit that nothing is more charming than a DC rowhouse with wrought iron fence! :)

If we decide to go with the fence, we figured we might as well do the hand rails, too. Last year when we were renewing our homeowners insurance, we not only got pinged for a lack of handrail on our back steps, but our front steps as well. The insurance company didn't make us rig up a handrail for the front steps, but they put us on notice that'd we might be penalized for it in the future. I feel like a handrail would complete the look of the fence and make for a overall cuter facade!

If you were in our position which one would you choose? A new backyard to enjoy for the summer? A shiny new hardwood floor to brag about? Or wrought iron details that add instant curb appeal? I would love to get all of this done, and all of it will get done eventually, but which one would you do first?