More Rooms Done!

Even though the living area was the first area done, it has taken awhile to get it picked up enough to take pictures. It always seemed to get the overflow from other projects. Now that we are going to have rowers staying with us on and off for the next few weeks - we thought it should all be picked up. That actually means that the whole house, except for our bedroom, is put together. We are really pleased with how the living room came together, and we love our new couch and TV. They are a perfect pair - super comfy and a great picture!

Here's lots of views of the new living area:

View from the kitchen.

View from the dining area.

View from the stairs.

View from entryway.

Another Room Done!

While Matt was gone this weekend seat racing for a quad in Connecticut, I officially conquered the office. Unfortunately, I have not yet conquered the paperwork that belongs in the office. At least when I finally face the mound of paper, I will be in a room with a nice soothing blue. It is very light blue - in fact, it is almost a neutral color.

The office also is our official "rowing" room. We decided that it was the perfect place to display all of our rowing memorabilia, medals, and pictures. We are so pleased with how it all came together.

Here are the pictures that you are all waiting for:

Getting ready to paint - that is always the toughest part. I certainly won't be sad if I never see blue tape again after we finish these projects! See that lovely radiator - I learned that those little cheap black foam paint brushes are definitely the best way to tackle painting behind radiators.

It is a small room, which makes taking pictures pretty tough. Hopefully you get the idea!

Where all the paperwork is going to happen - eventually.

Bicycling Philadelphia

As many of you know, I am going to be completing (hopefully!) my first triathlon in two weeks. In the process of training, I have grown to love biking. Really for the first time since I rowed in college, I have found a physical activity that I truly enjoy.

That said, I knew that I was going to miss the Lakefront Bike Path in Chicago. It was such an enjoyable place to ride my bike, plus it was safe and I had the ability to ride for long distances without riding on roads. Plus, I was going to miss taking my bike to Rockford and going on nice long rides with Nancy. When we moved to Philadelphia I was afraid that I might not find something similar here. But I've been exploring some now and I am so very pleased with what I have found. I got over my fear of riding on the roads with cars and ride my bike the .5 mile down to the bike path along the Schuykill River, which is the same river that Matt rows on. If I ride down toward Boathouse Row and follow the path all the way downtown, I can get in a 10 mile loop. I had planned to take pictures of this path today, but it was crazy busy and wasn't safe to stop. Plus I was beyond frustrated with the traffic from a rowing race and a running race.

When I got to the turn-off that I take to go home, I decided to keep going to see if I could figure out how the path connected to the Wissahickon Preserve. I almost didn't do it because I was a bit nervous, but I am so glad I did. The path is absolutely beautiful. I know that I will be riding there often. I don't know how far it goes, but I think it is about 20 miles.

Here are some pictures of the scenery. There are no captions, well because I don't really know where I was or what I was looking at!!

A little about blogging...

I know that many of you that follow this blog probably are not very familiar with blogging. Actually, it is something that Matt and I are really learning as we go too.

If you would like updates - then you can follow the blog and it will email you when we make new posts. Otherwise, you can simply check in occasionally.

If you click on the posted pictures, they will open up bigger so that you can see the detail a bit better.

You can leave comments if you feel like it - which means that other people (family and friends) can see what you said and can also reply. In other words, a blog could be a conversation place. Leaving a comment would also allow you to request more pictures or info about different posts.

As we learn more and add features, we'll keep you posted on the add-ons.

Growing a Green Thumb

We've been busy - so many projects with our new (old) home. Having a yard for the first time is certainly a new challenge. One of the reasons that we loved this house was because of the backyard. We really wanted to have a little patch of grass, which is really what it is. Thankfully though it is no bigger - we'd probably be out of our league.

We still need to finish clearing all of the poisonous stuff, but luckily our neighbor helped us identify some of it. We also need to clear out some metal trash that someone decided to pile behind our yard. Eventually, we want to add more plants to create some privacy, buy a patio set so that we can eat outside, and a fire pit and a water feature are also on our eventual wish list. Hopefully, we might be able to find a fire pit soon so that we can enjoy it during the fall. We just haven't found one yet that fits our space well. Matt's parents bought us a couple chairs for our brick patio and have really enjoyed them.

Here's the backyard for now:

Using our sprinkler for the first time so that the little grass that we have doesn't all die. We are going to have to plant some seed in the fall, but for now, we'll try to save what we have.

Our new chairs that we love. They are super comfortable and we eat many meals out here in the evenings. Hopefully there will be a fire pit here in the future!

View of the backyard from our comfy chairs on the patio.

4 Years - and we finally get to paint!

This past Thursday, we celebrated our 4th anniversary. We really have so much to celebrate, especially with the new house. We took some time away from our paint brushes and scrubs to get dressed up and head out to dinner. It is tough finding new restaurants, especially when we had so many favorites by the time we left Chicago.

We ended up going to a place called Derek's in Manayunk, PA. Manayunk is a really cute part of town that has a lot of boutiques, stores, sidewalk cafes and bars. It is about a 5-10 minute drive from our house and reminds us quite a bit of Chicago neighborhoods - including the tough parking! It will be fun to explore it some more and find some favorites. Unfortunately, Derek's won't be a favorite. It was great food but a bit overpriced as far as we were concerned.

Here are some pictures from the evening:

We didn't even plan it - but flowers and fruit are the traditional gifts for your fourth anniversary.

Matt was none too pleased with me for taking this photo - his legs were sore from rowing, and we had to squat down to get within view of the camera for the self-timer. I kept messing it up. Oops!


Note the color of the kitchen walls in the picture above - here are some pictures of the kitchen now!

Matt trying to squeeze between the fridge that had been moved out for painting and the wall. Eventually we decided that jumping the counter was easier.

Liz smiling because she is finally done painting that kitchen! Little did she know that her hamstrings would be ridiculously sore the next day (and hopefully not the next day and the next day!!) from all the crazy positions she had to be in to reach all the little spaces.


The paint was called raspberry jam - but we think it looks a bit more like raspberry sherbert. It is bright and cheery, and we love it.

These are some embroidered tea towels that one of our groomsmen's mother made us for our wedding. We are finally using them - as curtains! Yes mom - I'm going to iron them and fix them. This is just for a quick picture!

One Last Chicago Visit

Before we moved out to Philly, Mom Laura and Emily came to visit Chicago one last time and help us start getting organized for the move. We sure will miss our visits in Chicago because it is a great town, but Philadelphia seems to have a lot in store for us as well. The stories that this old city of Philly has are pretty amazing, and we can't wait to learn them.

Here are some pictures from my adventures with Mom and Emily in Milwaukee, WI (about an 1.5 away from Chicago):



This one is the product of Emily trying to teach me how to take a decent cityscape picture. You should have seen my first attempt!



Part of the reason we went to Milwaukee was to see the dome of the art museum open and close. It was not the best weather, but luckily it didn't keep us from seeing it.

See - it's almost closed now!

Laura and Emily at the Milwaukee Miller Brewery. Mom liked a lot more of those beers than she'd ever let you know!

Only Wisconsin would have a Cheese Castle - and obviously we had to stop. No there was not actually a castle made of cheese, but there was a ton of different cheeses there. Lots of yumminess!

Welcome to Philadelphia!

We've been in Philly for over two weeks now. Matt's mom and dad helped us load of our lives in Chicago and drive out to Philadelphia. They stayed a few more days and helped us tackle unpacking, some quick repairs, and some initial runs to our soon to be favorite store (or at least most frequented) - Home Depot. Their help was so invaluable - we can't imagine having done the drive to Philly or unpacking without them.


Then a few days later, my mom and sister drove up for a week. They also were invaluable in helping us get settled in - purchasing our first couch, painting, painting, and more painting, and tackling the tons and tons of poisonous weeds in our backyard. Unfortunately, my mom is now suffering from a terrible bout of poisonous something or other - I guess I should have looked harder for that long sleeve shirt for her. Sorry mom! She's such a trooper though.


Soon we'll post some pictures of the house before we started the renovations. Then we'll try to post some pictures as we make progress with all of our projects.