And I thought Joe and I had fun with OUR first dance...

Nothing in our house is level.

This goes for the hearth as well.  

Of course.

When we ripped up the stamped concrete, we found another layer of concrete underneath.  We need to build up this recessed area so when we lay the tiles (which match the kitchen floor) they are level and flush with the base of the firebox.  To do this, we will stack layers of plywood, on top of which will go the wonderboard, and then the tile.  But we can't do any of that until we create a level base for the plywood.

We were originally going to use self-leveling underlayment, but after doing some research we figured out we could just use some mortar.  So we layed some into the "deep" sections and tried to level it off the best we could.

Now our hearth looks like this:

We put the mortar base down last night, and we can't do anything until it dries.

So now we wait.

Bye Bye Brick.

So this is our fireplace, complete with dirty, ugly old brick and paleolithic era sconces.  It's one redeeming quality is the mantle.  Eventually, even the mantle will be replaced, but for now, it serves us just fine.



Anyway, we both hate the brick. Eventually we are going to reface the fireplace surround with stacked stone, but for now we just decided to paint it.




Ta da! We painted it a light grey (Timberwolf Grey, or something like that, if you ask Behr) which matches our silvery grey curtains that are opposite the fireplace. It really makes the room feel a lot brighter.



These sconces will be gone soon hopefully. Here's one in all it's broken falling down glory.



The next part of this project was to redo the hearth. I mean look at it. It's stamped concrete that is very dirty and stained. Not to mention the fact that the front is way lower than the back.




It had to go.  We thought it was one solid piece of concrete, but lucky for us, it came up in two parts.

Joe loves when I take pictures of him while he is carrying heavy objects.  He doesn't mind standing there at all.  :)

So this is how we left the hearth.

One step at a time.

The Windy City

Joe and I spent the last weekend in October in Chicago!  One of our friends was getting married that Sunday, so since I had never been to Chicago, we decided to make a weekend out of it.  We got there on Saturday morning and went straight to our hotel.  Our hotel had this pretty tree.

We happened to run into the bride and groom just as we arrived at our hotel, said our hellos, and then took an hour nap.  :)  (We had been up since like 3am, so we were exhausted.)  The good thing was that because of the hour difference, we woke up the same time we went to sleep.  My one goal for the day was to see the original Playboy mansion, so we did. 

I met a woman out front who said she lived there for four years (about 30 years ago!) and told me all about the inside.  I wish I got her name, I could have looked her up.

Then we went to Navy Pier for a late lunch/early dinner.  They have a gigantic ferris wheel that I could not convince Joe to ride with me.

We had hotdogs here:

Joe thought their accomplishment was amusing...

After hanging out for a while at the Pier (and paying $24 to park!!!) we went to hang out with our friend Tracy and her husband to be, Chris.  Here are Joe and Tracy in her kitchen.

We were only able to hang out for a little while though, because Joe and I had tickets to see a Chicago Blackhawks game.  They play here:

This was very exciting for me, since that is also where Michael Jordan played basketball with the Bulls. 

The hockey game was sort of terrible.  The Blackhawks weren't doing so well at the beginning of the season (when we went), and that night they were playing the Atlanta Thrashers, who only had one win on the season.  
We had fun anyway, and at least there was some good fighting at the end of the third period. :)

Since the game was less than great, I looked more forward to seeing the zambonis clear the ice.  I really wanted them both to reach center ice at the same time, but they just couldn't pull it off.  Talk about having a cool job.

The worst part about the game was that THIS GUY sat in front of me.  His gigantic melon head took up almost the entire neutral zone.  

And as you can see, if was not a great end for the Blackhawks.

Chicago was awesome, and I can' wait to go back.

*&%$$#!!@&*

Blogger is my enemy.

I swear I keep trying to catch you up on what Joe and I have been up to lately.

After three nights in a row of trying to compose a post, I have completed exactly half it.  :P  Every time I try to upload any pics, it just freezes.

Sigh. 

Busy little bee

Hey.

In the past few weeks I have not been great at keeping my blog up to date. Just so you know, there are many posts coming. I think they will be entertaining, since in the past few weeks I have been to Chicago, gone to a Blackhawks game & a wedding, been curling (yes, curling, like in the olympics with the rocks and the brooms), and become She-Ra Princess of Power.

I am dead serious.

Joe was He-Man.

We also managed to cut all of the remaining tiles for the kitchen, although we have yet to grout. I have been steadily adding inventory to my online store. Also, I have picked up a new addiction to caramel steamers from Starbucks. Those Halloween decorations I started? Yeah, I never had time to finish them. Maybe next year. The Giants lost to the Cowboys, somehow, which is bad. But a shiny new Taco Bell opened right down the street from me, which has me stoked.

That's pretty much it.
As if that weren't enough.

I promise new posts soon, complete with pictures.

Who says a lateral can't take you forward?

Or maybe you need fifteen, like the Trinity Tigers of San Antonio Texas. Losing 22-24 to the Millsaps Majors of Jackson, Mississippi, with only 2 seconds left on the clock, the Tigers snapped the ball on their own 40 yard line.

Watch the video to see what happen next.




Easily the most exciting and unlikely 62 seconds of college football, regardless of division.