Lately

From the pictures:

* Last week we went to Aunt Lynn's house to help Chrissy before her move and hang out with them. Always fun to hang out, they are so much fun. Aunt Lynn's downstairs bathroom is the prettiest color of clue (pictured above)

*We have been taking lots of walks around close-by neighborhoods. We really love this area and love taking walks. A lot of trees and flowers are still blooming as you can see. 

*Harvey and I - he came with us when we were finishing up at the duplex - the tenants are in now and that is such a relief! 

*A fruit carving at the vegan/vegetarian fest Mary and I went to at Kent State yesterday, it was awesome! 

*Breakfast from our shnazzy new blender. We've been making smoothies at least once a day - we add lots of vanilla protein powder, fruit and even kale for extra vitamins. They are delicious!

*A rug I got for the attic space, everything is starting to come together!

General:

We have been keeping busy these last few weeks. We are so relieved to be done over at the duplex. The tenants moved in on the 15th, so that entire week before that was pretty hectic. There were lots of last minute projects to be done (like putting all the closet doors back on upstairs) and cleaning to be done. RJ was awesome that week and did most of the project solo. It was also the week before the last session of KidzArt classes started, one of my busiest times of the year. Luckily I got everyone set by Thursday so Friday and Saturday I went over and cleaned it up really good - I told RJ to stay home since he had done so many other projects that week. He also finished getting all of our stuff out of there too. So getting the tenants settled over there has been a big relief! We felt like we were both working around the clock because unfortunately our jobs weren't "on hold" while we were getting the duplex ready. 

The Friday before the tenants moved in we went Reed and Laura's to help Halley and Shawn move out.. we are so excited for them! They have a great apartment downtown Cleveland where Halley can walk to work. I can't wait to see it! All 8 of us went over that night to help load up the moving truck. Saturday they had a few movers unload the truck which was good because Saturday was also our last day before the tenants moved in!

Last week RJ was able to catch up on work and visit customers for a night. He has only been having to travel a night or two every other week which has been so nice. I love having him home all day! Even though we're both in our offices working it's nice to have lunch together or take a break to take a walk. We are so lucky!

Last week was busy busy with Project RISE because we have a big grant due soon. My boss estimates it takes about 80 hours to compile all the info and write the grant - it's the biggest one of the year. Needless to say everyone was asked to help out a lot. I  usually only put 1 day in the office but last week I did 3! I love helping out but I also have to get the KidzArt work done too, so it was a busy week! I will probably go in 1 or 2 days this week to make sure we get everything in on time.

More soon!

Upstairs bathroom before & after

Before:

The soap dish had fallen off so we did what any self-respecting home-owners would do until the re-bath.. covered it with saran wrap and tape.

Dirty old grout..

After:

We had the "re-bath done" where they make a mold of your tub and the walls and put in a shiny, new cover. We also got a new light fixture, vanity and new tile flooring.  We love how it turned out and the tenants will too! W always intended on taking off the wallpaper border, but the tenant liked it, so that makes it easier!

Life Lately

It's been awhile since I last posted so here are some of the pictures I've collected over the last few weeks.

* A little artist at the Spring Celebration on Saturday - it was an awesome Easter celebration for the shelter residents with activities for parents & children (I did the art activity), an Easter egg hunt and lunch. 

*RJ and I working from our couch before we had our offices set up a few weeks ago. 

*The Black Keys concert at the Quicken Loans Arena

*The cats sleeping in the bassinet Grandma brought for me / Harvey doing what he does best

*Making roasted red pepper hummus and eating it while we put together my clothing racks

Not pictured: 

*We celebrated Chelsey's birthday (a big one, 30th!) and Easter yesterday at Reed & Laura's. It was such a great evening.. I forgot to bring my camera so I didn't get any pictures unfortunately! 

This is a crazy week for us because our renters are moving into the duplex this weekend. That means we have to have it empty, clean and ready to go. Our closet doors are still off from when we got the carpet installed. They need to be sawed off and put back on, so that will definitely be a project. We also need to take down some shelves off of the walls and fill all the holes in the whole place, then repaint over those holes. It will definitely be quite a hectic week because I have a new session of art classes starting next week and have to get all the instructors ready for those. We are just trying to check off the <long> list one task at a time! We are excited to be totally moved out and done with the duplex after this week.. It will all be worth it!