Man cave upgrade complete

All right, after much waiting and a debut at my birthday party on Saturday....here it is! The final "man cave" turned updated family room. I'm in love. It's so bright and airy and just cleaner. And of course, doesn't date our house to the year it was built...in the 1950s! Wahoo!!

With just some Ziner 1,2,3 primer and then 2 coats of Glidden paint, we had new walls! Then we had to rip off the tape, re-tape so we could paint all the trim white, then ta-da! The walls were done. Then it was time to paint the beam red :) And that was not fun because it meant more tape, more primer, and more painting trim. But in the end---totally worth it!!

Before I show you the new, how about a step back to the old....here is what it looked like when we bought it!

Then here were some pictures of our "updates" without painting it....

And finally, here it is!

Oh, and since the man cave is now in the basement....the mini fridge was moved to the real man cave!

Same pic...with the beam.

Staircase...

Room view from the stairs with the beam! I love the POP of color!

And my final addition......a wall of pictures :) I got a staircase template from Michaels, but the frames that went with it were WAY too expensive, so I went to Wal-Mart and made it work. I think it turned out great and it was a nice little addition to showcase all those wedding pictures that we paid for!!

Final project: Paint the railing. And DONE.

Don't remember what it looked like before?? Check this post out: original "before".

It's pretty amazing what a few coats of paint, some hard work and sweat, and time will do to transform a room!

Trolley pub crawl!

If you live in KC, have you heard of the newest transportation for a night out? It's called the KC Strip and is a trolley that runs from Waldo (south) all the way to Ameristar casino (north)...with stops at Brookside, the Plaza, Westport- which is the connection point between north and south trolleys- Crossroads, 18th and Vine, P&L, and finally the casino.....pretty sweet!

Anyway, a few weeks ago, Jimmy & I and a couple of my work friends and their significant others decided to head out on the trolley and meet up. We all got on the trolley at the most convenient location to all of our houses, so Jimmy and I started to Waldo and headed to the connection point in Westport. Unfortunately, the seamless connection was not really the case, as we were supposed to get off the bus in Westport and get right back on the other bus that takes us to Martini Corner to meet everyone....and then it started to rain, so we headed into Harpos for a discounted beer. That is another thing...you get great drink discounts with the wristband from the trolley. Sweet. So we split one beer. Kind of felt like cheap-o's, however, we only had 15 min....so we split it, but took 2 pictures...because we are that cool.

Jim with the beer.

Me with the beer. Yes, same beer.

On the trolley!

Here's what it looks like inside. Yep, it was just us.

So then we headed off to Velvet Dog and met some friends!!! So fun! Then we decided to get back on the trolley and head back to Westport. To Harpo's....again.

One side of the bus! Brian, Katie, Katie and Max....

And the other side....Jen, Britt, and Jimmy. So excited!

One of the best parts about the night was that this group of girls realized that we have one thing in common that we didn't know about each other....we all love photo hunt (erotic of course). So that is great news.....because I think everyone knows how much I'm into it as well :) So we spent hours at the machine, representing our great company, but Shim Shady still got the best of us. It was a good effort though.

And then we met up with some college friends and headed off to Tom Fooleries to end the night with the lights in the bar going on. We stayed out until THREE AM. Holy cow, I don't remember the last time we did that. But it was very fun, I wasn't really that hung over, and am looking forward to the next "college" night out! Wahoo!

Coming Soon...

Ok......I didn't disappear.....I'm still hear and wanting to be fully engaged in the blogging world. So I apologize if it seems like that is not the case due to my 1 post/week and general lack of postings.

I do have several posts "in the hopper" but need to finish them up. So sorry! But lots of changes and new things going on the Carter household that I need to blog about. This includes new jobs (no company changes), grad school news, ADVENTURES ON THE JO (aka I take the bus to work), new Pi Phi job, and the final man cave project :)

SOOOO....keep tuning in! I promise, you will be somewhat entertained....

I'm artistic??

...I guess so! Here is my handy work/art masterpiece I created for above our bed. I had something very specific in mind and wasn't finding anything in the stores. I really wanted something light blue to bring in some brightness to our bedroom since the walls are brown and our comforter if brown/blue, but mainly brown. We have 2 sets of sheets...one brown and one light blue, so when the brown ones are on our bed....brown really overtakes the room.

After searching and searching for the perfect artwork, I decided since I knew what I wanted, I might give it a try. Using some light blue paint and getting 2 canvases from JoAnns (I think around $25 with 40% off coupon), I started the design. I wanted to make the two canvases look cohesive and went with the swirl design that is part of the paisley design on our bedspread. Then I got a $2.94 sample of our wall paint from Home Depot since we didn't have any extra of that left.....so the brown swirls would match perfectly. All this talking of brown kind of makes me think of poop. Haha, do you remember THIS post that Jimmy and I got in a fight about paint colors and brown paint?? So funny........anyways....

Here's how it turned out....

Also, a semi-new addition were the curtains from Bed Bath and Beyond as well as the night stand lamps that I got at CostCo for only $29.99 for BOTH!! They were $39.99 but that week they were running a $10 manufacturers discount- score!

So there you have it. I can kind of paint. Well, not really at all, but I can paint swirls.....

Surprise Date #3: Deluxe Movie Experience

The third surprise date (see #1 and #2 here) took me by surprise because at the last minute, I remembered it was my turn to plan something! Luckily, I had a few ideas packed in my back pocket. Jimmy loves seeing movies, but loves "broken seats" aka old movie theaters. But with the new invention of Cinema Suites and Fork and Screen at the AMC theaters, I thought we would give that a try with comfortable seats, food and of course beer (which I knew he would love).

Not sure where we are going, but excited!

Laughing after I told him that we were going to Schlitterbahn which is a new waterpark in KCK. However, with no swimsuits, I guess that wasn't too convincing :)

And we arrived downtown at the movie theater! This place is super fancy with a HUGE fountain drink area.

Arrived at our seats. Then Jimmy ordered a bucket of beers and the man next to him wanted to share.

Trying to get a shot of the fancy seats. Fail.

A little better. So cool and fun!!

We did get there early and ordered dinner. I got an awesome steak salad (delicious!) and Jimmy got some macaroni and cheese with waffle fries on the side. And the food was actually really really good. The most amazing thing is how few seats there are in the theaters and there are only 6 of them. But I guess for the $25/ticket, they are probably making lots of money! However, $15 of each ticket (so $30 with 2 tickets) goes towards your food/drink that you purchase, so it's not a bad deal!

We saw Inception and it was INTENSE. Great movie that kept us both on our feet the whole time!! I'm still a little unsure with the ending, but it was well worth it! Overall, a fun surprise date that got us back home on a Friday night early and in bed by 10. Haha. Couldn't ask for anything better :)

AND the pictures below are a preview of an upcoming post. Two weekends ago, we started on the final painting project of our house- since we have painted every other room in the house- the family room (old man cave). The dark paneling had to go, and that's exactly what happened. I cannot believe how much better the room looks!!!!!!! More to come on this. However, the first roll stroke of primer about killed Jimmy. Then he got over it!

ABC: He's Hooked

Last night was the series premiere of ABC's the Bachelor Pad, which is the new series that ABC is trying to make money off of from the "rejects" of previous Bachelor and Bachlorette seasons. All I have to say is, if you like the drama of the Bachlor and Bachleorette, you will like this show because that's pretty much all it is.

Well anyways, Jimmy and I have both started working out in the morning. 5:30AM we wake up, take the dogs out and he goes down to the basement to do P90X and I do the elliptical and watch Primetime on demand (love that). This is all in effort to "hang out" with each other more because ever since we moved in together after our wedding, while we see each other all the time, we both kind of felt like we didn't get to really spend quality time together. Especially when we'd get home from work at 5:30 and work out. SOO- new solution is work out before work. Two days in, we are liking it I think and spent ALL night hanging out last night.

Well- let me correct that previous statement. I working on painting the trim in the family room and was going to watch the Bachlor Pad. Jimmy sat down and started watching it, saying how stupid it was...but was hooked. He watched the WHOLE thing and probably had more commentary than I did. So hilarious! He and Willy sat together and were very intrigued. Since he's never watched the previous shows, he had no clue how dramatic and crazy some of the people can be. Of course, I knew all of them (pathetic) so could add my previous "history with them". Haha.

Here are some candid shots of Jimmy very into the show at the end during the rose ceremony. He was really upset that Elizabeth stayed because he does not like her at all apparently.

Look at his hands on his face- so upset.

And that's the end. So until next week Jimmy....

In the mean time, if you want a funny recap that will soon be up from Lincee, check out her blog here. Always a good laugh on these crazy shows!!


PS What do you think of the new and improved light paneling?? I LOVE IT! Almost done...

Grade card

Toby was shedding all over the place like a mad man when we got back from Branson on Monday. Like our house looked like a disaster and my dad even vacuumed! There was just SO much hair. Well, that meant it was time to go in for a haircut. Toby hates them. He whines an mopes and hides after he gets them. We found out it might not be because he's embarrassed of his new, sexy hair 'do, but because he did not properly behave at the groomer while mom and dad were away.

They gave us his report card; here's a summary:

- He has dry/flaky/itchy skin (aka shedding) (which we knew)

- He got an "I'll be better next time" on his progress report. AKA he was biting the poor groomer people while they were trimming his nails and paws.

He was not a happy camper last night when he got home and spent the majority of the evening in his cage. I think it was because he was thinking how he would "be better next time".

Poor guy. It's ok, I still love him. On the upside, his hair cut does look really good. They didn't leave his leg hair long.....making him look like he's wearing UGG boots. But now that I'm realizing it, the other people might have left the boots because he did not enjoy when they shaved him there.

Carter Family Vacation

First part explains what we did most of the time....watch 7 kids entertain themselves :) How freaking cute! Everyone is onto Maren and Norah's song (Sweet Caroline, but their version is Sweet Norah Bug) and apparently have been singing it ever since we left Branson!

The second part is the adults at night and boys being boys. Mike and Jimmy were both having a little too much fun quoting King Pin all night and I decided to secretly tape.

Overall, a great family weekend with tons of fun! More pics to come!

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