Back From The Dead

I'd like to tell you that Ang and I have had some sort of awakening and that we will be posting more regularly but that simply isn't the case.  If we only update this thing once every six months you should consider yourself lucky and know that the post will be most epic.

2011 was a rad year - here is a recap in photos:

We slayed it in Hawaii and even met up with my folks while there

Purchased a new home and performed a little interior decorating

Celebrated a 1st Birthday

 Caught a couple games at Petco Park

(Check out the creepster goatee behind us)

Flew our niece out for a few days for her birthday

Scoped the Zoo Safari Park, SeaWorld and the SD Zoo

 

We stopped in Vegas at Hash House and dined on a torso sized pancake

 

 Got stung by a bee while trying to eat it

 Spoiled Zooey beyond belief

 

This is how Zooey sleeps sometimes

 Spent a few days in Boise & McCall for our Anniversary

 

 

 Caught a Saves The Day show

 Halloween'd up the house

 

Toured the USS Midway with Bob and Dorothy

 Celebrated our first Christmas in the new house

Zooey's First Birthday

We celebrated Zooey's first birthday back in May.  Picked up a few party favors and headed over to the dog bakery to grab a couple K-9 bday treats. We seriously love this dog like it's our child - I wonder if she knows how spoiled she is.

Living Room Remixed

Over Memorial Day weekend Ang and I decided to renovate the living room of our new place.  8 days and several working hours later - we learned that we highly overestimated how quickly we could get it done and also underestimated the cost.  After numerous trips to the hardware store and many a drive-through, we finally finished the remix this past weekend.  Here is the transformation to J+A steeze in picture form:

BEFORE

DURING

The house was flipped back in 2007.  They did several things well (i.e. kitchen, rewired whole house, new bathrooms) - but there were a few things Ang and I were left scratching our heads at.  Specifically, we didn't understand why they would paint over the exposed wood beams in the living and dining rooms.  That was the first obstacle we decided to tackle.  In the pictures above you will notice the beams are painted a dark brown.  We stripped the paint (freaking messy by the way) and stained the wood to it's natural color.

The next step in the process was to paint.  We felt like the color scheme when we moved in was too "dirty" feeling.  The majority of the walls were a light brown and the accent wall was a dirty brown.  The colors really made the room feel a lot smaller.  We wanted to open up and brighten the room.  We painted the major walls all white and chose a mid-gray for the accent wall.  We love the cleanliness of the look and it really does make the room feel a lot bigger.

First round of paint

Second round of paint

Zooey wondering what the heck is going on

FINISHED PRODUCT

In addition to painting the main walls white and the accent wall gray, we also changed out the nasty track lighting with this cool overhead bell-shaped light.   We've been on the lookout for a couch that fits the layout of the room as well as our steeze at a reasonable cost, but we were striking out left and right. While perusing the local Ikea (if you couldn't tell already we have been doing a lot of shopping at Ikea) our eye caught this gem of a couch.  Seriously, it fits the room and matches our color approach perfectly.  

We tried opening up the room even more by adding the wall mirror.  Also, big props to our buddy Josh Graham for the amazing owl painting. There are obviously a lot of other things we changed with the room and a few other things we would still like to do, but it feels great to have completed this project and start making this place our own.