Memorial Day

With our extra time off from work (and together) today, we accomplished several things around the house. While Matt mowed the front yard, I scrubbed the kitchen grout. Yes, if you have followed our blog from its inception, I have done this before. But, being new to homeownership and fix-it-yourself-ship, I did NOT know you have to re-seal grout after you do anything abrasive to it. So, my nice, clean, white grout had turned grossly dirty. I've kind of divided the kitchen floor into thirds, and I completed the first third today. It's amazing how much brighter the kitchen seems with such a small detail accounted for. Just a minute ago I sprayed the grout I cleaned with sealer. It's supposed to last a couple years! I'm sure hoping so!!

After I scrubbed and Matt worked on the yard, we went out for a few errands. Sammy's collar broke at the beach (thankfully, we had brought her harness along with us as well), so we went to get her a new collar. I picked pink this time, because SO many people thought we saw a boy--between her name and her blue collar, it was an easy mistake to make. We actually got the wrong size yesterday, but we exchanged it for the right size today and even got a $1 refund in the process!

Then we stopped by Lowe's. We were deciding if we wanted to get a fan for the kitchen (Lowe's and Home Depot both had deals on fans this weekend) or the grassy accents for the front walkway we had seen on sale at Walmart the night before. We decided to go for the fan, but then we found the grassy accents on sale even cheaper than at Walmart, and for more than 1/2 of the price we paid for one several weeks ago when we were deciding between two varieties! Then the fan was cheaper than I anticipated, so we ended up getting both for about the price we had budgeted for one fan! Hooray! Matt also let me get a few marigolds for our front pots. We had planted some lily bulbs in them, but they have turned out to be some gargantuan variety that is way too tall for the pots. So, I planted the marigolds, replanted the lily bulbs into the ground, and then set out the "Aztec grass" we bought along the front walkway. I only had enough potting soil left over to plant one Aztec grass in the ground so far. But here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what it will look like. There's also a picture of the fan we picked for the eat in part of the kitchen.

Matt's trunk stuffed with plants!

The front walkway layout (and you can see the new marigolds in the bottom right corner)

This is the other kind of grass accent we were considering... but we liked the variegated better. After I took the lily plants out of this pot, I put the extra grass in instead. :) Matt says our front walkway now looks like we're monkey grass fanatics, since I even potted some, but I like the splash of color. :)

P.S. We have officially been homeowners and in this house ONE YEAR as of this weekend! I hope to post some before/after side-by-sides this week to show how far we've come!

P.P.S. The end of school year, though stressful and crazy, is much LESS stressful and crazy when not preparing to close on a house (as we were this time last year).

P.P.P.S. Happy 2nd anniversary to Lee & Amanda! :)