New Blog Alert

Hi friends! I have a new blog address ... http://www.justatouchofgray.blogspot.com/

Come follow me!

Oh and please be patient while I'm working on getting it up and running! But for now check out the House Tour tab for all the BEFORE pictures. And don't worry there will be lots of new stuff!

xoxo,
Rachel

Our First Dining Room

It's official. We have a dining room! A real one.... with a table and 6 chairs! We totally feel like grown ups. By now I'm sure most of you are aware of my husband's handy-ness but in my opinion it has been taken to a whole other level. Furniture building. That's right... Ryan BUILT our first dining room table. He worked incredibly hard on this table and put so much thought and time into it. Measuring and more measuring, cutting and more cutting, sanding and more sanding, staining and more staining, trip to Lowe's after trip to Lowe's, etc etc. Words cannot express how special this table is to me. And the best part about it is - it was built from wood we tore out (when we replaced the trim and doors) from our house. It is a one-of-a-kind and I'm sure we'll have it forever.

Here are pictures of the process...

Laying out the boards the way we wanted them -- we spent some time picking out the 'good' boards and creating a pattern with the varying colors of wood that looked the best to us

Once that was decided Ryan numbered them to make sure they wouldn't get mixed up

Then he cut them to even lengths and nailed on boards to hold them in place

More wood striped from the house. These pieces are thinner, so he used them for 'finishing'.

This is the underside of the table ready to be flipped over... this was the "make it or break it" moment -- to see if the boards were going to lay flat, stay together, and look good doing it.

They did! So Ryan started to stain and seal the wood. Ryan and I actually kept going back and forth about sanding and staining the wood a different color versus leaving it natural and applying a clear coat. I'm so glad we went with our gut to stain it a different color.

On to the legs... The inspiration for the legs came from a table that caught our eye last summer. It's a beautiful table from Ethan Allen, but the $1500 price tag meant that it just wasn't meant to be ours.

{ethan allen}

But when you have a husband like Ryan - he will make it happen. He actually went to the store, took some measurements, came back home, and got to work. God love him.

Let me just tell you in case any of you are wondering... building furniture is an art form. I (and Ryan even more so) have a new found respect for this profession.

But here it is so far... lookin' good!!

I told Ryan I wanted to write something on the bottom and asked him what he thought it should say, and with no hesitation he said, "To my wifey". It was so cute, so I wrote To My Wifey: Merry Christmas 2010 (yes still retro-blogging here) and something about being built from wood from our first home.

Notice the 'finishing strip' Ryan attached to the front part... the side still needed its piece to polish off the visible areas on the underside.

Once everything was attached and secure it was time for the big reveal, aka flip over...

Ta-dah!!! It's just what we wanted... something unique, rustic, farmhouse-esque... and beautiful!

I couldn't wait to get it upstairs to see how it looks with our new linen upholstered nail head chairs...

Our dining room and yes we do actually use it :)

Close up of the table top - all the imperfections give it so much character!

From a different angle...

This old light fixture didn't last very long once we the dining room started to take shape. We needed something with a little more personality...

Like this!

Sorry for the dark pictures, but here's the room with the new chandelier

My my, how far we've come...

BEFORE

AFTER

I LOVE this table and I will never forget the craftsmanship, patience, love, and attention to detail that went into making it.

Now's who's ready for a dinner party!?

New Years Day

Happy New Year! Day 2 in the cabin was much more low key...

Playing cards...

Natasha & Jeff

Meg, me, & Ryan

Notice the squirrel on the wall. Yeah, we didn't notice it the first day either.

Aaron & Meg

Oh my gosh. We played Catch Phrase but you had to act out the word instead of describing it.
HILARIOUS.

What happened at midnight, you ask? MY BIRTHDAY!!!!! I wonder how they knew it was my birthday on Sunday ;)

The girls were so sweet to surprise me at midnight with birthday hats and cake!!!
Love them!

Happy birthday to me!

Driving back the next day we stopped by Adam's home town and he took us up the mountain to see this amazing view...

Cute :)

"Another fresh new year is here...
Another year to live.
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give."
-William Arthur Ward

You guys are almost caught up. At least we're in 2011 now...

New Years Eve

I know it's February, but I had to post about our New Years Eve trip to the mountains.

So how do six couples entertain ourselves at the cabin in the mountains? This is how...

First, there were g0-carts

Getting buckled in

Ready to race!

Plotting in his head how he's going to beat Ryan

Aaaand we're off!

They were going a lot faster than this picture suggests!

Vroom Vroom!

That would be my husband facing the wrong way on the track after a monster hit from Adam!

But he's back! And a thumbs up for g0-carts!!!

Then it was on to the arcade!

What did we buy with our winning tickets? Fun Dip, duh!

Now we're at the cabin!

Aaron and Candice

Some of the boys

Jenga time for the girls

Cartwheels were involved

And then there were upside down shots - YUCK

And what I like to call drunk hats

I took a lot of pics like this one... I think it's funny to look at everyone in the background

This one cracks me up... Christian is banging pots and pans (?), Grunke is cheers-ing the trouble mug (don't ask), Ryan is giving someone the finger, and Jeff and Natasha look like their having a serious convo in the back -- good times

Speech Speech!

Now tackle the speaker

Oh and how could I forget about the dance off

I love how Ryan is trying to twirl Meg and she just keeps breaking it down -- get it girl

Of course Big Buck Hunter Pro made an appearance

haha -- this was a plastic gun people, don't get worried

Stay tuned for Day 2...

*If you have a lot of people staying over in your house, and you're looking for somewhere to put them, then you should check out sofa beds.  They double up as both beds and sofas so you can use them to sit down when it's just yourselves, or as a bed when guests come round for a big party.  Check out the dreams sofa beds range by visiting http://www.dreams.co.uk/.