Now that the wedding is over and our lives have turned to some sense of normalcy, I was finally able to decorate for my favourite season (well, tied for first with summer). Melissa’s Grandmother had given us a bunch of fall foliage to use at our wedding so I was able to use quite a bit of it to decorate our house. I purchased a few small decorations at Hobby Lobby and Joann (can’t beat those clearance prices!) as well.
I love our little home.
We took Jess (Melissa’s childhood best friend) to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium!
On the left is the very first zoo trip Melissa and I went on together, back in October of 2018. On the right is us today. Same spot.
“Do you, Melissa/Jessica, take Jessica/Melissa, to be the wife of your days, the companion of your heart, and the friend of your life? Offering her your love and encouragement, your trust and respect. To keep her in sickness and in sorrow and to be loyal to her forevermore? And to stand united in the face of adversity and bask together in the light of good fortune as together you create your future?”
“I do.”
“I do.”
Always.
Bathroom vanity cabinets [and floor] before:
Bathroom vanity cabinets [and floor] after:
We did a Harry Potter theme for our first time pumpkin carving together. Melissa made Dobby and I made Hogwarts.
Every year a small town near us, Saint Mary’s, does a Nature Walk along the canal. Some friends of mine were reeneacting there so we vistited with them and then took a nice walk along the canal.
Jason, the husband of one of my closests friends, Vanessa (who will be officiating our wedding) offered to take our engagement photos.
WE LOVE THEM.
As one of my friends said, “Jason did an amazing job. He truly captured your personalities and your love.”
I couldn’t agree more.
I found this beat up old wardrobe [hidden gem] at a ReStore for $16. It was originally $19 but I think they were so excited to see it go that they gave me a discount!
I tried to salvage the old veneer as much as possible but some was either already missing or was too far gone. So what I could salvage I glued down and the parts that I couldn’t I used “plastic wood” to fill in. After some sanding, priming, and a couple of coats of paint, here she is. I used a light blue (it’s hard to tell in the photo). Sort of like a Robin’s Egg blue with a little grey in it. I love this colour.
I thought about buying new pulls but I’ve found, in my years of refurbishing furniture, that swapping out hardware is one of the hardest elements. This wardrobe, if I had to guess, is from the early to mid-20th century. The distance between the screws in 4.5″. They don’t seem to use those dimensions anymore. I searched all over and found maybe 3 options for pulls with that distance. And they were way out of budget ($9/each). So I just decided to paint the old pulls. They turned out MUCH nicer than I thought they would. So, they stayed.
This is serving as my dresser now. The left side is a mini closet but I bought a hanging cubby to use as makeshift shelves. In the future this will probably go in the nursery for our babies.
Melissa and I are in the process of s l o w l y updated the house, little by little. Project number one was redoing the bathroom floors. The previous owners put CARPET down in the bathroom. Which we think is totally gross. With all the guests coming soon for the wedding we really wanted to change the floors ASAP.
The entire carpet was glued down and we were worried it had been glued to the subfloor. With all the water dripping on the floor we had no idea what state the subfloor would be in. Thankfully though, we discovered that they had carpeted over the linoleum thus making the floors waterproof. Plus the linoleum was MUCH easier to rip up than the carpet.
The most difficult “surprise” for us was when we removed the toilet. The wax seal was either so old or improperly installed that it had leaked. Years of water leaking and pooling under the toilet resulted in a gross, rusted flange that broke because it was so brittle. We were able to find a replacement one that wasn’t too costly and installed it ourselves, with a fresh wax seal. So now the toilet is leak free.
The finished floors! We are also planning on refinishing the walls, painting the cabinets navy blue, replacing the sink, counter tops (maybe), and replacing the trim. But for now we are just going to enjoy the beautiful, and more sanitary, floors!
I (Jessi) was struck down with a bad case of Strep Throat this week. Pain started Wednesday early morning (I woke up around 2am to a mild fever, swollen lymph nodes, and an extremely painful sore throat) and became so severe that I had to leave work an hour early on Wednesday. Melissa took me to Urgent Care shortly after I got home. Doc said she could “smell the strep” (gross) and could see the lymph nodes in my neck because they were so swollen. I had to call off work on Thursday and Friday as well. My fever broke late Friday evening but it wasn’t until Saturday that I began to recover. Thankfully I didn’t pass my germs to Melissa.
The boys were excellent nurses during my illness. Though they had a tendency to fall asleep on the job.
I was still on the mend on Saturday but I needed some frische Luft so Melissa and I decided to visit a local pumpkin patch (another “First” in our relationship!). We drank some fresh squeezed cider, ate kettle corn and fresh doughnuts, and picked out some pumpkins.
I’m thankful I’ve found someone who loves Fall as much as I do.
An Awfully Big Adventure 