2022: Be Nice to Me

 

Hi All!

Haven't had much of a drive to come on here in the past year.

Truly because not much has happened to me for me to need or want to document it but believe it or not, things have still happened lol.

I'm not sure what flipped on in my mind but I have hope for 2022 being pretty decent. 

Here's a recap of what happened in 2021:

January-March: I started taking Archie on more walks around town because I knew I needed to get him and myself into a more active routine. I tried dieting but when I didn't see much of a result I figured it didn't work and stopped caring about it. I went shopping with my friend, May, and had dinner with her and Sam. Travis and I stayed inside most of the time since it be cold and ordered from a few places in town we usually wouldn't go to. Our refrigerator went out around this time and we had finally had enough money saved to get our driveway done but we definitely needed a refrigerator more than a driveway, sadly.

April: The snow melted and I hated how our patio/deck looked so we got new furniture and lights for out there which made me love it so much and I spent A LOT of time out there the summer of '21. We had planned on staining the deck and putting up a pergola but every chance we had it rained or we couldn't decide on what to do.

May: We added a bit more curb appeal to our front walk way with some new plants and grasses. We put in a new door and window in our main floor powder room and it was an improvement we needed for sure. In late May, we went to Milwaukee for my 28th birthday and stayed at a fancy hotel and spent too much on food and drinks. We went to Ikea for Travis' first time and unfortunately didn't buy anything because we didn't have any money lol.

June-August: This summer was mostly spent at home lounging. We rode our bikes a lot more and even went to and around Lake Wazeecha, about 12 miles, which is a lot for me. I spent some much needed time with family in Big Eau Pleine again and had a nice visit from my Aunt. 

September-October: We had a picnic with Travis' family and then went on our yearly camping trip. It was later in the season so there weren't that many other campers in the park. We only stayed for a day because it was supposed to rain the morning we were leaving so we left in the middle of the night. The Sunday after we went to the Packers-Steelers game at Lambeau and had the most amazing seats ever, 35 yard line, front row, right behind the Steeler's D-Line bench! The next day, my mom and I went up north to have some fun craft time with the Timmerman ladies. We made wreaths and yarn sticks lol. Mid-October I went to my first work trip and stayed in a hotel alone for the first time which felt super weird but I spent most of the time with all of the people at the training anyway. 

November: Luckily throughout the entire year neither Travis or myself contracted Covid or if we did, we didn't notice and hopefully didn't pass it on to anyone we came in contact with. I know I hate hearing about it but my GOD I just want it to go away. We tested negative before we went to Thanksgiving at my Aunt's in Madison or as they call it, Steins-giving, since we all drink out of ornate steins they've collected over the years. My parents joined us for the first time this year.

 December: Earlier in the month we visited my brother and his family in Hudson for Christmas. We ate in a heated green house downtown which was super cool and played new board games I got for Christmas. Check out Hues and Cues, its harder than it looks! Travis' Birthday was also just a nice day at home and I got him a cake from Carlo's Bakery this year. The next weekend we were supposed to go back West to have Travis' family Christmas but it snowed so much that we didn't want to chance driving in it. The Tuesday before the holidays I stopped by my Grandparents house to give them our grandchildren gift to them and well wishes since I wasn't going to be seeing them on Christmas this year. Christmas Eve I went ice skating with my boss and her family and then we spent the evening at my parent's house (I got rollerblades!) and we said our goodbyes since they were going to be leaving the next Monday. Christmas day was spent at home just Travis and I, the way we like it. We were both spoiled rotten. Later that day my friend Van came up! She was originally supposed to come up that Wednesday but stupid Covid ruined all of our plans! New Years Eve was spent at home while Travis worked until 10; we watched a bit of the ball drop but it wasn't much to write home about, kind of a lame holiday in my opinion! 

That's all I can remember based off of pictures and Instagram posts since I stopped writing in my Journal. 

This year we're looking forward to finally doing our driveway!!! It's not the most glamorous thing to spend a ton of money on but Travis is really excited to not have to shovel/snow blow our shitty bumpy/half gravel driveway for another winter and be able to play basketball properly as well. I'm just excited to rollerblade on it lol.

We're also planning on doing a few more renovations such as the main level flooring and the stairs. I want to paint the upstairs hallway and finally hang our portraits I did a few years ago. I think we'll finally finish staining the deck and the front porch as well. 

Travis and I talk about another doggo but we'll see what this year brings on. 

April, I have plans for a girls trip to the Mall of America since we freaking love shopping and later in the month,Van might visit again too! No big birthday plans as of yet and no big travel plans either. I hope we can get to Lake Michigan this summer and I'd like to cross off carnival ride on my summer to-do list along with swim or water park.

Hopefully I take photos and actually remember to write down things that happened or things I'm doing even if they're just everyday occurrences. I'm also trying to take more photos on my Instax mini11 and so far this year I've taken one photo of Travis and I after we got home from watching Spiderman: No Way Home. Keep an eye on my Instagram since that's where I post more regularly in stories. 

Stay tuned!

xxoo,

Myia

Summer House Projects | 2020

Hello All!

This spring, Travis and I have taken to the outdoors much more than last year and have really kicked it into high gear with our house projects.

So far, we changed out all of our exterior lighting to match the lights on the front of our house. 

I ripped up all of the over grown hostas that were lining our back deck and we put in new mulch and re-lined the plant beds. 

Travis took down the old 60's deck railing and replaced it with new ballasts and they look amazing!

We edged the sidewalk to the garage and found out that it's not just an offset rectangle, there's weird elephant ears off the sides...it's whatever I guess. 

I got a new umbrella as the one we got last year was "tan" but when we got it, it was almost green? So now we have an ACTUAL tan umbrella. We didn't truly agree on a color, he wanted brown and I would've rather had white, so tan it is. 

I got it off of Amazon, by WUFF Bluu 10' Patio Offset Umbrella. We don't have it bolted into the deck so we don't have the extra long legs to help stabilize it. 

I had ordered a SUPER CUTE outdoor rug last summer and either Target or UPS lost my order and I was truly upset because it wasn't available anywhere else or this year. 

SOO I bought a new one this year from Target and it is the 5x7 Tassled Outdoor Rug Charcoal by Opalhouse. 

The cushions are the only deep seat grey outdoor cushions you can get from Walmart (in the store) I think they're the BHG one's. Same with all of the pillows. 

The patio set was from my friend and confidante, Mollie. Hi Mollie.

The lights are from Home Depot, and they're the same lights that we have in the front of the house and also now on our garage and our side entry. They're the "Colonade Collection 1-Light Sand Black Outdoor Wall Lantern Sconce with Clear Glass". 

I love them!

The lumber is all from Home Depot, including the ballasts. 

Here's the before:

This was most likely built in the 1960's and super chunky and the lattice was stained from the red stain which was obviously never kept up.

The "flower beds" were overgrown hostas with red crescent moon pavers and I took the whole. thing. out. 

Hit me up if you want some red brick pavers.

Hosta's are around a lot of peoples homes and most of them look great but they're definitely not for me and mine were overgrown aaaaaaand so I just removed them. 

We plan on staining the deck floor, the steps and the tops of the railings the same color and painting the tops and bottoms of the rails for the ballasts white along with the horizontal bars along the bottom. 

Don't get it? I'll show you eventually...

Now to the front!

SO! 

Here's a glimpse at what the exterior looked like before we purchased the house.

First off, can you see how the tree to the left of the house is now COMPLETELY leaning versus the bottom photo? You almost can't see it in the bottom photo because it's such a drastic movement from the storms last year. We're getting it removed sometime within the next month and that'll ease my mind whenever we have storms for sure. 

Overall, the façade wasn't terrible but again, the flowerbeds were overgrown and it was very dated. Immediately we painted the door because it was black and gold. We changed the lights, mailbox, and house numbers last fall and it totally changed the look. This year we planted new shrubs and flowers and laid down mulch. We extended the front steps and made it about 3 inches taller which then required another step. We basically just built around what was existing. We also squared off the columns as they were QUITE "classic". 

We're doing the same paint/stain scheme as the back deck. 

Travis added the shaker shingles to the front and this will be stained as well. 

We won't be staining anything until the treated lumber is completely dry which probably won't be until next year. 

We've also decided to remove the shutters (because they do NOTHING) and I'm going to paint the frames of the windows black. Simple. 

I'll do the same with the door but we're eventually going to get a new front door. 

Bonus, here's a couple other angles:

Those metal awnings on the side, girl, we took off almost immediately. Same with the camper awning attached to the back of the house. I'm not 60, I'm sorry Mom and Dad, but it's for sure not for me.

Let me know what you think of our improvements so far!

We have a TON of projects we want to do this year so stay tuned.

xxoo,

Myia