The King Charles!!

As soon as Chad and I saw the basement, in our new house, we knew that it would be perfect for our dream "adult playroom".  We immediately began dreaming about what to do down there, but it would be a while before we actually started working on it.

Once we were settled in the rest of the house, we started looking at bar designs.  We consulted with family and poured over photos on pinterest.  We also checked out bars around the area.  Tough job, I know!  And then we found exactly what we were looking for.  We wanted to change a few things about the design, but this was the general idea!

Based on that photo, Chad began taking measurements and started shopping.  Here is how the room looked like at the beginning.

There was even a design book, complete with CAD drawings for every step through the building process.  For those of you who know Chad, this should not be surprising!!

Chad started working on the bar in November, and built the frame.  It took a few weekends, but it looked great.

                     

                     

Then it was time to finish off the service counter.   We decided to go with a UMD theme, so I wanted to have a design based off of the Maryland flag.  The flag is very colorful, and we did not to make the bar too busy, so we went with a gray scale version.  During the weekend of NYE, Mee-maw and Grandpa were already up, visiting, so Grandpa helped draw out the design.  I found it funny, how out of the four of us (Mee-maw is a CPA and Chad is an engineer), Grandpa and I were the ones who were doing math.  

A few days later, I sat down and hand-painted the bar.  And then I polyurethaned the heck out of it!  We definitely wanted to keep it protected, especially since the rest of the bar had not been constructed yet.  I am very happy with the way it turned out!

       

During a long weekend, in January, Grumpa and Grammy came up to help with the bar.  I came down with a stomach bug, so Grammy was on "kid duty", while the guys got quite a bit of work done.  Thank goodness for their help and extra hands!!  By the end of that weekend, we had a good idea of what the bar would look like, and what we still had left to do.

Putting on the bar counter!

           

The back counter!

Front Paneling Coming Together!

   

Next step: Staining!!!!  It took me nearly two weeks of working at night.   We picked a nice hickory stain color and decided on at least two coats.  It was amazing how good the bar looked once we got some color on it.  

           

While I was staining and polyurethaning the bar, Chad was working on the upper cabinets for the back wall.  And once he had those components built, I picked up my brush and stained those parts as well.  

Once the stain was dry and the polyurethane was on the bar, Chad was able to put on our foot rail.  It took some work to get the rail tight and right, but he figured it out and we love it.

Then it was time to install the back cabinets.  Chad did a great job!! 

     

The final product!!

We named the bar The King Charles, in honor of all of our family members with Charles in their names.  Some good company there!!  Our last step was hanging up the "King Charles" sign from Chad's grandfather's bar.  We also included the Bar light from the old bar. What a special part to our bar and a great memory for Chad and his family.  

           

We still need to unpack most of our bar gear, but we did manage to get some stuff put out.  And we want to do a backsplash in the middle of the back cabinets, but we are still deciding what we want.  And that is not going to stop us from enjoying the bar!!  All in all, we are very happy with the way it turned out.   We owe a big THANK YOU to our family, who came up and helped to make this bar exactly what we wanted.  

 Now we just need to open it up for some parties!!

Blizzard, January 2016

With a December that was mostly in the 60's and a January that was not much colder, I was beginning to wonder if we would have any snow this year.  Lauren kept talking about building a snowman and I really wanted to see if Charlie would freak out as much as he did last year.  He did NOT like the snow!

And suddenly, I hear the forecaster mention the coveted "S" word earlier in the week.  Of course, when it comes to snow, I have learned to believe it when I see it.  So I didn't get my hopes up much.  We would either get pummeled or barely get a dusting.

Move ahead to Thursday, and suddenly it seems like we are going to see quite a bit of snow.  So I made sure we had plenty of provisions and Chad made sure the house was ready.  The only thing left to do was wait.

On Friday, the 22nd, the snow began to fall.  And it kept falling and falling.  When we woke up the next morning, we easily had nearly 18 inches of snow.  And we were not even halfway through the storm.  The snow fell all Saturday and finally ended around midnight.

                           

Luckily, we did not lose power.  We were able to hunker down at home, eat delicious foods, play together, and just enjoy watching the snow.  Occasionally, Chad would venture outside to let Wrigley pee (boy, did he have a hard time walking in all of that snow), or to check on the roof of the shed and around the house.  But we did not really leave the warmth of the inside until Sunday, when the snow was no longer falling.

So it was time to get on all of our snow gear and head outside for some fun!!  Lauren had a blast.  She stomped through the snow like a champ, and loved it when Chad threw her in to big piles of snow.  It was too powdery to make a snowman or form snowballs, but that did not stop Lauren from trying!

     

Charlie, on the other hand, did not have as much fun.  He walked around a bit, but once he fell and got snow on his face, he was done.  I managed to get him calmed down enough for a few family photos, but he lost it again when Chad threw a snowball, that hit him in the face.  Playtime was definitely over!!

After that time in the snow, Chad and I had no problem feeding the kids lunch and putting them down for a nap.  Which allowed us time to work on digging out the driveway.

A boy, who lived down the street, came by and offered to help us shovel.  We definitely took him up on that offer, while Chad and I took turns shoveling.  Although Chad shoveled more than I did, I would like to think that the short breaks I provided gave him the extra strength he needed to finish the job.  

Towards the end, our next door neighbor came by with his snow blower and helped us out a bit.  Also, a state plow came by and was able to break free the final bit of snow at the end of the driveway.  

After all of that work, it was time for a much deserved beer and a picture!!

           


Next, we woke up the kids and took them back out into the snow.  Lauren loved the big piles created by our shoveling, and she happily climbed them over and over again.  Charlie ventured out a bit and seemed to enjoy throwing the snow around.  Small steps!!

                       

Now that everyone was rested and in better moods, we checked out the side of our house that had the huge snow drifts.  I was carrying Charlie and quickly discovered the snow came up to my hips.  It was very deep and even more difficult to navigate when I was carrying my big boy!!  Of course, Lauren was so light that she barely sunk in to the snow and had no problem walking around!!

It was fun to watch all of that snow fall, and it felt great to dig out from the storm.  But it is Wednesday and the kids and I finally left the house to take Lauren to swim class.  School is canceled for the rest of the week, we just started getting our mail, the trash hasn't been picked up this week, and I am officially ready for the snow to melt and for life to get back to normal.

And then I will look forward to the next storm!!

First Scare Of The New Year!

Chad and I arrived back in Virginia on the January 1st.  Mee-Maw and Grandpa had been here watching the kids, while we were in NC for a wedding.  It was pretty late at night, and Mee-maw mentioned that Charlie appeared to be a little under the weather.

The next day, Mee-maw, Grandpa, Lauren and I headed to the University of Maryland to watch the Lady Terps play basketball.  Chad stayed home with Charlie, who had a slight fever and suddenly began vomiting.

The next day, Charlie woke up with a higher fever (102 range) and clearly did not feel well.  He was very clingy and just wanted to be held.  As I was preparing lunch, Grandpa was holding Charlie and noticed that he seemed very warm.  During lunch, Charlie vomited again, and when I went to change his clothes, I took his temperature.  When the thermometer read 105.1, it was clear that we needed to take him to the emergency room.

Grandpa went with me, and it was fairly painless.  They admitted him and ran a few tests.  One for the flu, and some chest x-rays to rule out pneumonia.  The only time he was not freaking out with the doctors was when they came to roll him down to the x-ray room.  He loved that part!  Once the tests were over, Charlie finally allowed us to leave him in the bed.  He looked so tiny there, but he did manage to get some rest.  

After a while, the tests came back and Charlie was diagnosed with pneumonia in his left lung.  Fortunately, his fever broke while we were in the hospital, and they sent us home with antibiotics and instructions to watch him carefully over the next few days.

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The next morning, Charlie woke up and his fever was gone.  He finally had his appetite back and was getting into everything once again.  It is truly amazing how quickly kids can bounce back.  

We finished the round of antibiotics and he is just fine!!  It was scary at the time, but now we can say we survived our first trip to the ER with a child.  Hopefully there will not be many more in our future!!

NYE Wedding!

Our good friends, Brian Slevar and Amanda Rott, were getting married on New Year's Eve, and there was no way Chad and I were going to miss that!

Mee-maw and Grandpa came up to watch the kids, and we headed down to Greensboro, NC for the festivities.

It was a beautiful ceremony and an awesome reception.  Chad and I had a blast, and both agree that it was one amazing way to bring in the new year.