Chicago Fun

So, I took my version of a "vacation" (i.e. no more than 3 days away from work and within driving distance) over the 4th of July weekend. We love, love, LOVE Chicago and try to go once a year. Every time, we're obsessed with it and want to move there. Oh well I guess! Anyway, seeing how I have a real memory problem--seriously, I hardly remember what I even did today let alone last weekend--I want to recap what we did for other to enjoy (I like to pretend people read this) but also for my own memories.

We left on Thursday night from Cinci. It was a long drive--there is always construction on the main highways to and/or from Chicago when we go, which sets you back for at least an hour or more--I'm talking dead stop on the highway, moving at slow crawl for an hour minimum. I don't mind that much, really. I figure this: Enjoy the ride. So we arrived late on Thursday night (around midnight Chicago time). We stayed at my friend Regina's awesome apartment in Logan Square. She wasn't in town, but let us stay anyway--score! We also helped care for her sweet and VERY talkative cat Otto while we were there. We <3 him--he's such a lap cat and he talks to you all the time.




Friday we slept in til about 9. Then we ate breakfast that we made in the apartment and were off to an architecture tour of my all-time favorite house in the world: The Farnsworth House, which is one of the most significant modern homes ever built in the U.S. It's located in Plano, Illinois, about an hour outside Chicago.

It's in the middle of nowhere--literally. Nothing but farms for miles and a few houses here and there--very rural. Let me tell you how much I love this house ever since I first learned about it during my studies in modern architecture and architectural history.
It's by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (one of my favorite architects) and it's the only home he designed and built in the United States. When mastering our architectural design software in college, we had to build computer models of homes of our choices and I picked this one. Love love love it. So I was very excited to finally go and see it in person on the 90-minute tour. It was beautiful and so cool to see it in person and walk around inside. I'm so glad we made the trip to see it. Here are a few photos I took.

After the tour, we stopped for lunch at a random place in a cute little town called Plainfield (I think). Mediocre food--bleh, but a cute area.

We headed back to the apartment and decided to hop the train downtown. We hit up Michigan Avenue because I wanted to go to the Nike store (I still need to find a few more outfits for my DVD shoot next week), but it sucked--nothing good. I did snag an awesome little dress at H&M for just 5 bucks though! Then we went in the Hershey store--totally touristy I know, but we were a little bored--we were in there about 1 minute--just long enough to see the 3 foot long packages of extra long Twizzler. WOW. I had to get out of there. I also had to snap a photo of Mies van der Rohe Way near the modern art museum, of course!

Walked around a little more downtown, bought some groceries at Trader Joe's and the clerk recommended a nearby vegetarian restaurant when we asked. It took us a while to find it, but it was well worth the wait. Karyn's Cooked. It's actually 100% vegan and WOW I have probably never seen so many healthy, appetizing, amazing veggie dishes on a menu. We got a bunch of free samples for a super charismatic waiter and I had one of the best meals ever. I could go back there every day! And I'm definitely going back next time we're in Chicago because it is that good! Dinner was late (finished after 10 p.m.) so we hopped the train back to the apartment. It was SO crowded b/c everyone was downtown for fireworks. WE could barely get into and out of the trains--that's how busy it was.
Watched a movie of Regina's (Eyes Wide Shut--totally weird and freaky!) and went to bed.

Saturday. Slept in late--til almost noon! It was rainy and grey out, which was a bummer b/c we planned to bike to the beach that day. So instead, we went to the Art Institute of Chicago Museum (courtesy of free passes from Regain who got her master's there) to visit their newly opened modern wing. It was pretty cool. They had a good modern architecture exhibit with drawings and models from some famous architects. I bought a small postcard book of Rex Ray's work (love him!) that I hadn't seen before. Afterward, we trained back to the apartment, ate our leftovers from Karyn's. Relaxed a bit for a few hours and finally decided to drive an hour to the nearby outlet mall...what can I say, we had nothing to do and it was rainy. It wasn't bad, actually. I got a super cute dress from BCBG that was like 75% off the retail price. On the way home, we stopped by Oak Park (which is famous for having several Frank Lloyd Wright homes, including his home and studio), then went home.

Sunday was finally a sunny day so we got out our bikes and biked for about 90 minutes. It was a lot of fun--we like to bike in Chicago b/c it's such a bike friendly city and we get to cover more ground than walking, but see more than we can from the train or the car. Showered and drove home.

Even though it was short, I felt like we got a lot in for just a few days! I actually felt like we were gone much longer. However, we were SO tired and slept in and got to work a bit late on Monday, and now I'm feeling like I need a REAL vacation from work--you know, like a whole week, like real people take. Someday!

Thanks for reading!

H-O-T

Met Stephen Jenkins (and Brad and Tony) at the Third Eye Blind concert in Columbus this past Friday. WOW. He shook my hand, signed my ticket, and was utterly dreamy. Mmmmmmmmmmm

We arrived at 3 p.m. and waited in line to get 2nd row, center standing spots for the show. But the pit was CRAZIER than ever and after a few songs, we climbed out. There is always so much more energy in the pit and it's way more fun, but it was so hot that day and people were pushing and shoving more than usual. Are we getting old or something? Either way, it was an awesome show, of course, and seeing the band in person at the end of the show (after a lot more standing and waiting) was totally worth it. I <3 3EB! A few more pics:

My New Favorite Room

Wow, it's been a long time since my last update, but that's to be expected coming from me. My life has been so crazy busy and work is taking up so much of my time that the last thing I want to do is spend MORE time on the computer. Anyway, I wanted to share some photos of the FIRST room we've actually completed in the house. I love this room so much that we are always spending time in here now. The wall color is the same as it was when we moved in, but we frosted the windows on both sides for a little more privacy (without hiding the beautiful windows). While this is mostly complete decor-wise, we have plans to rip down the tiled ceiling, add a couple outlets AND add a light switch so we can permanently hang the light fixture from the ceiling. Seeing as how it takes us years to complete any project, don't expect that any time soon. Any way, enjoy the view!


View from living room into sun room.




Window treatments at front of house (behind sofa) are IKEA shades, left there by previous owners. I plan to crop them and sew them so that they hit just at the window's ledge.


We frosted the windows with a kit from Home Depot for just $20. Bottom 3 panes on both sides of room are frosted and you can't see through them at all! They line up perfectly with the curtains on the front windows so there is an equal amount of privacy from the outside on all 3 sides of the room.


I wanted to put our computer in this room, which is the real reason we frosted the glass--so people can't see it from outside.

Yep, got that sofa I wanted from Urban Outfitters for a steal! Waiting nearly 2 years to buy it meant I got it on sale after Christmas, plus saved an additional 20%. Just $350! Back cushions come off if you wanted to use it as a small guest bed.

This stereo cabinet is vintage, from Mainly Art of course! I love it! Right not it hides lots of files and office stuff so that our office-y room stays clean and clutter-free!

A great knockoff of the real Nelson ball clock for only $40 that my Mom gave me for Christmas--finally found its perfect spot!

This Painted House, Year End Update

I've been meaning to post some pics of our newly painted abode for a while now, but it had been either too cold or too dark/grey outside on many of the days that I wanted to snap some pics. I finally thought to do it this past weekend, though, when I was bored, and they turned out pretty well. Here are a couple reminders of what we started with, which was a pretty greyish-blue color, but in major disrepair (as you can see). I decided to change the color to a snazzy, somewhat nostalgic navy blue, which I think really pops with the white trim and darkly colored brick. We also had to replace several of the cedar shingles that were rotting and in bad condition. Overall, it was money well spent. It put quite a dent into our savings, but we've already made up the difference thanks to both of our year-end bonuses at work and another financial windfall (Evan's dad cleaned out his safety deposit box and found dozens of $50 and $100 savings bonds that Evan's grandpa bought for Evan in the early 80's; they had matured and we cashed them in!) I quite like it. :-)

December was a good month. I was really busy at work (but that is nothing new). I was able to "realize" a dream of mine, of creating my own workout DVD, and we did that at work and now it's for sale in our online store! It was awesome and I'm really proud of how it turned out (you'll find a shared link to it on my facebook page). I got another 10% raise this year, which makes me feel just so fortunate considering the economic landscape and difficulties that so many other families are facing. Evan also got a HEFTY bonus at work, and his job seems stable, although his company is implementing a salary freeze for the next 1-2 years. I can deal with that. We both feel so lucky to even HAVE jobs.

We've been living on one income for yet another year, and putting almost our entire second income on my student loans. We continue to make a lot of progress with that. Assuming we continue at this same level of payoff, my student loans will be eradicated in about 5 years, which is AWESOME! I can't even imagine having two full incomes to live on, although I don't imagine we'd go crazy and start spending all kinds of money. I feel like we have a good balance. We stick to a monthly budget, pay extra on the loans automatically each month, and still manage to enjoy a few fun things here and there: dinner out about once a week, 100% organic foods from the grocery store (yay!), the occasional splurge on a movie or night out equipped with a trip to the bowling alley, and even the ability to add to our furniture collection and fix up the house a bit. This year, we took a couple small, long-weekend trips, too: Evan went to Utah (for work and then an extended stay to hit the slopes) last March or so; we went to Chicago, Atlanta, and I went to New York to see my brother. I rather like taking several short and inexpensive trips each year vs. one long and pricey vacation.

We both took a full week off work for Christmas, which was mainly so I could spend as much time as possible with my brother (in town from New York for 2 weeks). It was nice, but I get bored easily. But still, I'd say the whole week was more positive than negative: no family fights, no drama, nothing major to report. I got to see my family a lot and Evan's family, too. We had a good time.

Christmas was pretty good. We didn't get gifts for each other, but we did buy a few gifts for others, which is a little uncharacteristic of me. I LOVE buying gifts, believe me. I think it's so fun to find something for someone else. But I try not to be frivolous or spend more money than I'm comfortable with, which usually means no gifts. My family isn't big into gift-giving. Really, our parents just buy us kids gifts and that's about it. But this year, I made homemade granola for all my friends, co-workers and family members. I put them in recycled glass jars that I collected from food (pasta sauce, jam, etc.) all year long. We printed and framed photos of us for our parents and grandparents. I bought my mom a book (Eat Pray Love, which I'm also reading now), and Evan and I paid for a family dinner out for 8 of us--wow, was that expensive! My brother, sister and our significant others did a secret santa gift exchange, too.

Presents from my parents were downsized this year, but that's OK b/c I never know what I want anyway. My mom donated to NPR for me (something I've always wanted to do but would never really do at this point in my life), and I got the radio bookmark and the member card that gets you discounts at a bunch of places. She got me a cool sewing book I wanted by Amy Butler, and probably the coolest thing I got were two sets (normal and mini) of silicone baking cup liners. THESE ROCK! I make muffins and frittatas in my muffin pans all the time, but they're a pain in the ass to clean. These liners are AWESOME and make it so much easier.

Last night we rung in the new year with a homemade dinner and my best friends Liza and Ryan. I'm surprised I actually stayed awake that long.

Happy 2009!

Decision Time

It was hard. But Friday, we finally decided to NOT make an offer on the house. Things were already getting out of hand--the budget was higher than we anticipated. We were trying to do crazy things like sell now-low-valued stocks and cut into our savings to get the down payment, and we realized that we'd be financially strapped to carry both houses and even just the new one alone (assuming ours would sell). So while I'm glad we pursued it as far as we could--so that we'll never have to wonder "what if"--I'm a little sad to let the dream of it go. But I also realized that just because we feel a little down about it not working out doesn't mean that it's the wrong decision.

On the bright side, we love our house--really do. And we have some big plans for a few more projects that will really make it ours and make it even better. Plus we can afford it, which is probably most important of all, and still enjoy a pretty nice lifestyle while pursuing our financial goals at the same time.

So we had a good talk about it all on Friday, and today, we saw online that the property is under contract. It is 95% likely that whomever bought it will tear it down. Again looking to the bright side, at least I finally got to sneak a peek inside the house I admired for years before it will be no more.

In other news, we're heading to Atlanta this weekend to visit Evan's sister. I'm actually taking a day off work, too- woot! And tomorrow I'll spend all day long shooting a workout DVD, which means I'm also going to be REALLY sore for a few days. I'm tired and sore just thinking about it, but it's also sort of a dream come true.

Good night and stay warm!

House(s) Update

It's been a while, and I've got lots of new pics to share. I call this Houses(s) Update because it's about two houses, really. Let's start with the one we live in.

First off, I finished my first sewing project (on the sewing machine my mom bought me last Christmas). I'm bad at getting started b/c I can't troubleshoot. So it gets jammed and I give up. So with plenty of help from my friend Liza who knows more than a thing or two about sewing, I completed these curtains--pretty much all by myself. I measured, cut, ironed, and sewed them. She was mostly there for moral support, and to help me when I had to re-thread and un-jam the machine.

I am SO happy with the final results. Here are a couple pics of the curtains, made with my new Amy Butler fabric. I actually bought a few different kinds of fabric for future projects--more to come later!




Next up, we have a new rug! That makes 2 for the whole house--hey, we're getting there. There was this rug from Crate and Barrel that I wanted for months now. But I wasn't sure, and I knew that the new store was going to open here in Cinci this year, so my plan was to check it out there and see if I liked it, and if I did, snatch it up without paying shipping by ordering online. So I had to work late at a fitness thing on a Friday night, and I come home to find this very rug in the hallway. Evan had gone and bought it for me as a surprise, and even saved 15% b/c they were handing out coupons for their grand opening. I LOVE it and I think it goes really well with the new paining I made for the hallway earlier this summer.



And lastly, we have drywall! Evan and his dad spent about 6 hours on a Saturday dry-walling our "construction room". A lot of the hard work is done, but there is still a lot more to go: mudding, and sanding and sanding and sanding, following by priming and painting, and then attaching the trim/baseboard. Wow, I don't even want to think about it. But at least progress is being made. I hope this will be a completed room before winter is over.

That's about it for the house. We also installed a new dishwasher that's super sleek and has those hidden buttons on the top instead of on the front. It's been pretty nice, seeing as how the old one didn't even work (and we basically went months without being able to use the dishwasher). I wanted to get this one in and finished by Thanksgiving (we hosted 11 people this year), and boy, am I glad I had it!

On to house #2: We met with an architect and took a second look at the dream house. We got a rough estimate from him to fix the house, and it's pretty involved: new roof structure, masonry work, re-doing all interior walls and finishings, remodeling the kitchen and baths, replacing windows, etc. Yikes! However, the estimate was pretty well in line with our thoughts, but a little high. I'm super nervous about the whole thing, but I think we are going to make an offer within a week. Our offer is low, no doubt about it. But it could very well be the only offer they get, so maybe they'll take it. Who knows? I flip flop every day. It's very risky--after all, construction and remodeling usually goes over budget and estimates, and then we'd have to carry our mortgage and pay on a construction loan, and then sell this house--it's crazy. I think I'd actually feel a large sense of relief if they don't accept our offer or if something stops it from happening. I am not a risk taker, and I don't like feeling "this way". Things sure would be tight for months, maybe years, and we've be paying a mortgage near the top of what we could afford. I don't like that idea, but I'm trying to think long-term. And in this case, the long term investment is excellent if we can remodel and purchase this house for the price we have in mind. Still...

Larger than Life

So we checked out the dream home yesterday (there I am!). It was cold and pouring down rain when we arrived for our noon showing...and I'm talking about the inside of the house. I'm sort of glad that I got to see it during this bad weather, otherwise I think that I would have glossed over the extent of the damage. But the heavy rain wouldn't let me ignore it: puddles throughout the house, even in the areas without the wall/roof damage. And those large puddles leaked through the subfloor and into the underneath garage and basement, too. I thought that the house looked bad from the exterior, but boy, I had NO idea just how bad it was until we got to this showing.

The realtor let us know that this house has had many showings in the last few weeks, and that two people he brought through were "crunching numbers" and would likely make an offer soon. I asked, and yes, both of those two parties had plans to level the house and rebuild something else on the lot. How sad!! He also said that the price was about to drop again (probably another $20-25K I'd guess), and that the land value alone is probably worth $125K. Not sure if that's his way of encouraging us to offer soon and to offer high or what.

We brought our architect-trained (turned landscape designer) friend Ryan with us, figuring he'd have a good sense to the extent of the damage. He actually said that it wasn't as bad as he expected from his first (exterior) look a few weeks ago. But I was overwhelmed! I figure there is just no way we can take on a project like this. I might be more inclined to do so if I really loved the interior. I see it has GREAT potential. The public living space alone is pretty cool and quite open and large. But it has just 2 VERY TINY (about 10x10 ft) bedrooms and is very cramped in that area. To me, the cost of fixing the damage PLUS the cost of renovating the house to be larger or more livable sort of makes this not worth the money. In the end, we might as well just build a custom home for what it'd take to save this house's shell. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but still. I was dead set on giving up on this after that look.

But I woke up this morning with the house on my mind and I still keep thinking about it. Not sure why. I think it's just my emotions taking over, b/c it's sad to me that people would level a house as unique and beautiful as this one--even when it's pretty much beyond repair--and also b/c I can just picture us living in a home like this. But I need to not be irrational. Something else will come along, and our house is pretty sweet as it is. Well, it was fun to think about. I'm going to share some of the interior photos Evan took. Of course, he didn't think to take a photo of the front room of this house, which is gorgeous and still in perfect condition. So all you'll get is the mass destruction for the most part. Note the large puddles throughout. Descriptions are BELOW the photo they apply to.

Cool fireplace in the front-most room that you see on the exterior shot of the house. This is the only shot we got of that room, but it's got a wood, angled ceiling with large exposed wood beams, built in bookshelves, and large wall-to-wall-to-ceiling windows. The hallway you see in brick here leads to the front door of the house.

Me in the open living area (lovely candid shot). I'm facing the front room (in the photo above). This is an L-shaped, open living area you see me in. To the right of this photo would be the large, busted out window in pictures below. To the left and behind the paneled wall is the kitchen. Behind the furthest paneled wall is the front-most bedroom of the house.

Living area at the side of the house, directly behind (and open to) the front room. The very large picture window is completely gone and rain is pouring in (that tarp is like a too-small band-aid).

The kitchen is fairly large and in very good, mostly original condition. Very little ceiling/roof damage in this room, but lots of water on the floor.

Kitchen, another view. If you're standing and facing the kitchen like this photo was taken, the busted out living room window is directly behind you.

Full bath (there is also another half bath). This is actually the best room in the house (in terms of damage), believe it or not!

Front-most bedroom, just behind the living room with the busted out window.

Front bedroom ceiling again.

Back-bedroom at the corner of the house. This is the worst ceiling/wall damage. Hello outside world!

Back bedroom again.