Board & Batten

We've been doing a bunch of house projects lately, mostly paining. It's addicting once you start! You see the transformation in one space and it makes you think of all the other spaces you could change. The big project on our list was the dining room, we've been planning it out for a long time and getting up lots of courage to actually tackle it. Painting is one thing but board and batten is a little more permanent. It includes saws and nail guns and that's a little intimidating. 

We started by taping off everything and measuring and then measuring again. We went to the hardware store and priced out supplies, we calculated and planned and borrowed tools. Then we planned a Saturday we could actually execute on all those plans. Christopher was the procurement manager when we went to Home Depot on Friday night. He counted all the tubes of caulk and liquid nails. He watched the worker cut the boards and waved to all the people we saw.

Bright and early the next morning we set to work getting all those boards on the walls. We got the boards (the horizontal pieces) up before Topher's first nap- the compressor and nail gun freaked him out a bit but he was mostly just curious about what the heck was happening to his house. While he napped I measured and Thomas cut the battens (the vertical pieces). We had to measure and number each piece individually since we live in an old house and nothing is straight. When Topher woke up all we had to do was slap them up on the wall. And by slap them up on the wall I mean carefully glue, measure and level each piece before nailing it.

Installing the battens went much more quickly than I expected it to, Thomas watched Topher and I installed all 30 of them in about an hour. I was quite intimidated by the nail gun at first but it wasn't so bad. I didn't even shoot myself in the foot or anything! We managed to get all the caulking done that afternoon too.

We spent the following week painting each night after the baby was in bed. This part seemed to take forever! It was such an intricate process to make sure everything was coated nicely.

Then it was time to try and figure out what color we wanted for the top portion of the room. We had originally wanted grasscloth wallpaper but after pricing it out we decided on paint- much less expensive! It was between Benjamin Moore Twilight (left) or Benjamin Moore Galapagos Turquoise (right).

I really loved the Galapagos Turquoise but in the end it was just a little too green for the vision I had for the room. We went with Twilight and it's perfect! It's such a rich, deep looking blue with just a hint of green in the bright afternoon.

The finishing process on a project like this seems to take the longest time. It was two coats if white plus touch ups, two coats of blue plus touch ups and then making sure everywhere the colors met was perfect. You really see imperfections in such contrasting colors.

The end result could but be more perfect to me. It's almost exactly how I'd imagined it would turn out and has completely transformed the feel of the whole house.  

We've now completely covered all of the yellow walls on the main floor! Next up is probably the stairway but that area has some very interesting issues were going to have to work around. I think we might take a break from home things till after the holidays!

Philadelphia 2016

In September Topher and I went on a little weekend trip with a couple of my old mission companions. Sister Halverson (Nicole) lives in DC and Sister Stellet (Desiree) was visiting from Australia. Philadelphia seemed like an interesting place to visit and relatively easy for each of us to get to. I was a little nervous about flying with Christopher since last time we took a trip he terrorized the entire plane. This trip didn't even seem to phase him. He was laughing and made friends with everyone near us. He had a guy a few rows back playing peek-a-boo with him and he loved reaching for the reading light. He was such a trooper. 

We arrived in Philly a few hours before the girls so we relaxed at the hotel for a while before heading out for dinner. Christopher was obsessed with the bathroom in our hotel and was so excited to jump in his little crib.

 We went for a walk through town in search of some food. We were staying just a few blocks from the Philly City Hall which is one of the largest city halls in the country. It's absolutely stunning!

We ended up at Reading Terminal Market (the oldest market in the country) and found ourselves the first of many Philly cheesesteak sandwiches we would eat over the weekend. Topher was a big fan! On our way back to the hotel we spent a little time exploring the city hall grounds. Topher played in the splash pad and we made some friends at the LOVE statue. It was such a lovely little date night with my baby boy.

Nicole and Des ended up getting into town very late at night so our adventures together started the next morning. Our first stop was breakfast and then it was off to Independence Hall. I wish I would have heard more of the history of the building but Christopher was getting tired so we spent the bulk of the tour in the hallway.

Just across the street is the Liberty Bell and a visitor center. I am not much for museums so we quickly buzzed through and got to the meat of it- that big old cracked bell. I'ts sort of funny seeing something like this- so iconic, something you learn about from elementary school- you look at it and just think, well, there it is. It's a bell and it has a crack.

That evening we headed to a quirky part of town, reminded me a lot of the west village in NYC. We spent some time walking down Elfreth's Alley. People have been living here since the early 1700's making it one of the oldest residential streets in America.

We totally skipped Geno's and Pat's for cheesesteaks on this trip. I hear the lines are long and they are a little overrated. We opted for a place called Sonny's Famous Steaks instead and it didn't disappoint! So good we ended up going back the next night too! As always, Topher loved it and demanded more and more until it was all gone. This kid really likes food!

Our next stop was Franklin Fountain which is not, as I initially thought, a water feature. It's an old fashioned soda fountain where they mix up just about anything you can imagine. I ordered the Hemingway's Dream which was like a hundred different flavors in your mouth all in a row- pow! pow! pow! It was amazing!

On Saturday we went to Amish country in Lancaster County. It was a little more touristy than we expected which was a bit disappointing. I think there are probably a lot more authentic towns in the area but we didn't have time to search them out. Most of the town felt like an outlet mall full of generic craft stores where you could buy junk made in China. There were however a few great, authentic Amish stores like this quilt shop that was literally piled to the ceiling with beautiful, handmade quilts.

We enjoyed a walk around town alongside horse-drawn buggies and plenty of fresh country air. We found authentic Amish soft pretzels- Topher was, once again, a huge fan!

That night we just hung out at the hotel and relaxed. For some reason Christopher loved to flop himself on the puffy pillows on the bed. We played a game where I would chase him across the bed and he'd belly flop into a stack of pillows. It was so much fun!

On Sunday we attended church in the brand new church building adjacent to the brand new Temple. Both buildings are stunningly beautiful. We continued our tradition of letting Christopher touch the Temple. I hope that as we travel around the country and world with him he will get to touch many Temples and feel the significance of that place. I want him to learn the power of being worthy to enter the Temple and worship there someday.

After church we made another quick stop at the LOVE statue before Nicole and Des headed back to DC. Topher and I had the rest of the day to spend together just the two of us on a little date. I absolutely loved it!

We headed out for some brunch on our way to Rittenhouse Square. Topher got his very own kids meal complete with a giant bowl of all his favorite fruits. He ate very politely and made friends with everyone in the restaurant. I was so proud of him! We stopped at the most delicious smelling donut shop and picked up a couple for a snack at the park. This was a very good decision.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the park was full of lots of fun people to watch. We sat in the shade and saw the water fountains. There were street performers and lots of interesting friends to make. We took a long, leisurely stroll back to the hotel to pick up our bags and catch a cab back to the airport. I really fell in love with Philly on this trip. Everyone was so friendly and the city had a charming character to it. I can't wait to go back again!

The flight home was short and sweet (thank heavens!) and Topher once again made lots of friends on the plane. When they opened the overhead bins after landing in Boston he tried to climb from my arms into the luggage area. It looked like he was doing pull-ups and he had the whole plane laughing and counting his reps. We had a great trip but we were so happy to be home and see dad!