LIFE AS YOU LIVE IT: June 2013

Mount Major

30 June 2013

Saturday... my Dad, brother, L and I hiked it up to the beautiful Mount Major summit.


Located in Alton, New Hampshire... and South of Lake Winnipesaukee, the Mountain stands 1,786 feet in elevation and is a part of the Belknap Mountain range.

It was a good hike, taking about an hour up and an hour down, however a lot of the hike was rock faced, which was wet and resulted in a few falls.

If this is your first hike of the season, turn around and pick a different mountain.
Mt. Kick My Ass can be a little tricky if you're a beginner... out of shape... or me.


After we hiked slid our way down the mountain, we went for a swim in the lake, and then hit up the nearest Olive Garden (of course) for dinner.

After our adventure day of hiking and swimming, we parked our car in downtown Portsmouth and explored the exciting area.

They had this adorable cutout board in Prescott Park that we HAD to get a picture with. My dads face cracks me up!

Oh! L and I went to Boston on Thursday to deal with apartment details, and I couldn't help but share with you this gorgeous picture!

--Kaylie

Five on Friday!

21 June 2013

As I was browsing through my blog reading list this morning, I decided that I wanted to join the blog link-up party with Darci, Natasha, April, and Christina!


ONE.
I know I talked about this in my last post, but I am so obsessed with how the nautical stripes turned out that I wanted to share with you the final masterpiece! Give me a paintbrush and I'll create a masterpiece! I'll try at least. I taped the stripes off 12" from one another, and used the colors Casual White and Thin Ice. My current project is painting my parents master bedroom. So far I have painted all the walls two coats of "Casual White", and am thinking about painting one of the walls (that has two windows on it) a light accent color.


TWO.
My mom sent me this adorable calendar page. Sums next year up in a nutshell!
Everything I earn starting in August will end up going towards my sky high Boston rent. 
Depressing.
Very, very depressing.
Oh well! That's the price you pay to be right smack dab in the center of a historically rich, culturally diverse, beautiful city! ...and I'm OKAY with that!


THREE.
My dad gets into these phases where he finds food that he likes, and eats it over, and over, and over again! His newest fad is Olive Garden. He goes there mainly for his four huge bowls of salad. So, once again... we ate at OG again the other night... for the 4th time this week.
(Sorry for the blurry photo. It's hard to take pictures when you're dominating in cards!)

FOUR.
My brother and I wanted to explore the area that we live by a little bit more... so we took an afternoon to walk the trails of a Land Trust that is conveniently located two skips away from our drive way.
The trust is open for walking, running, hiking, horseback riding, basically everything except for vehicles, ATV's, etc...
The main path that starts in the parking area loops up by a pond that is located in the center of the Trust, and then back to the parking area. It's about a 2.25 mile walk (depending upon which path you take), and is nicely cleared. We made it to the pond (which is kinda creepy shaped), looked at it, and then walked back. There really wasn't a place to hang, as it was very weeded... but it was certainly a beautiful sight!


FIVE.
I returned back to work Monday! I took about two weeks off so that I could move and get situated in Maine. So basically, I just transferred stores so that it would be an easy transition. Everyone is so nice and friendly, and I am determined to learn the changes quickly. Feels good to be back in a working environment and have some more cash flow. 

Have a happy and enjoyable weekend! I'm thinking I'm going to be Boston Bound!

--Kaylie

Project Maine Update #2

16 June 2013

Maine Update!
Here is a link to the previous Project Maine post.


My Bedroom!

I finally completed my new bedroom in the new house (painting it that is).
Almost all the walls in the house are white, and I was just not feeling the all white color scheme for my bedroom.
I won't be living there full time come August, but when I come visit, I wanted to have a fun, comfy room to store my stuff and relax!

I envisioned gray walls and temporarily black furniture (until my furniture from Ohio is shipped here), with coral accents. 

I started off with painting all the walls a casual white. I had to put a couple coats on all the walls because it was such a light color. I went ahead and painted the interior of the itty bitty closet as well because... it was much needed! 

After all the walls had that color, I went to Lowe's and picked out a light shade of gray for two of the opposite walls 

 Buying this paint was quite the debacle. Dad and I picked out the paint color (Thin Ice), and when I went up to the paint counter to have them mix it, I ordered a gallon. Dad wanted me to buy a quart, and stirred up a little scene that the lady discounted the paint "to keep family peace". How sweet and nice is that!? She really didn't have to, Dad and I were just bickering a little about the amount we would need, but she went ahead and took a few bucks off just to be nice! Two thumbs up for great customer service!!

Here are some before and after pictures of the room!
I absolutely love how the nautical stripes turned out!

BEFORE
Taping the stripes out was no walk in the park! I taped them so that each stripe would be one foot apart.

AFTER

 The completed project!!

BEFORE
AFTER

BEFORE
AFTER

BEFORE
AFTER

The only furniture that I have in the room right now is a bookshelf that I painted black that houses some pictures, some flowers and a lamp!

 Ahhh yes, and this nifty looking, extremely large wine glass! I picked this baby up at a thrift shop, and looks like it would be perfect for storing corks!
(and there's my first coral accent! A picture frame that I tackled with spray paint)

 It's so cozy looking! I'm so pleased with how everything has turned out so far. The furniture that is in this room will more than likely end up in my apartment in Boston, so I am in search for a futon or sleeper sofa that I can temporarily use as my bed here!
  
--Kaylie

Project Maine and Boston News!

12 June 2013


Sorry I've been pretty much MIA lately!
I've been in the process of moving everything I own from NW Ohio to Southern Maine, and I am slowly adjusting to the chilly coast! While I read FB posts from my friends in OH hooting and hollering about the 90+ degree weather, I lay here bundled from head to toe in sweats under the thickest blanket I own. However, I love it and wouldn't have it any other way!

We left Friday for our 3 day traveling trip to Maine. The first leg of the trip we stayed in Pittsburgh with some family! Saturday, we traveled to the Jersey shore and stayed with more family, and then Sunday, we finished up the drive and arrived in Maine! Woo Hoo! It was nice to be done with all that driving!

 Driving around NYC was no fun at all! I would never wish that upon anyone! It was nice to see the beautiful skyline though!

 Does this not look beautiful? New England is so gorgeous.

 Finally!

The new house that my parents purchased is some what of a fixer upper. There are not so pleasant surprises left and right that we keep uncovering. The house is huge and has plenty of room, however it had some ancient wallpaper and curtains, awkward fixtures, next to no lights, and weird problems that the inspector certainly missed. What can ya do!?!

So we are trying to doll it up as best as we can to make it as homey as possible! 

For starters, Let me introduce to you our pool. I have ALWAYS wanted an in ground pool. Who doesn't? I have worked at pools for the past 4+ years, and love being in and around the water! Nothing says, "my day is going great" than a pool, with a floaty, a cool beverage in one hand laying out sunbathing! So, when I found out the new house would have a pool... let's say... I was pretty satisfied (not to mention my dad is half fish and practically has gills, so we were bound to get one eventually).

 So, being that we live in Maine, this pool certainly had to hold up to some pretty snowy weather! Just imagine all that snow melting through the cover into the pool. Okay, now that you have... check out what it looked like!
 GREEN and SCARY! You guessed it folks! Filled to the brim with yucky, nasty, green water!
 Ha! I was so petrified! I like to consider myself a pretty brave person... BUT when I'm skimming out snake skins and there are water spiders everywhere... I cringe a little. So with that being said, I won't be in that water hole until I can see the bottom of the deep end, it is as blue as the sky, and warms up about 30 to 40 degrees! I'm pretty sure it wasn't open for a couple seasons too. The lady who use to own the house was older, and I doubt she would want to do all the work to open and close the pool just for 2 or 3 months. The pool was pretty well winterized, which is good, and it seems (so far) to be in good condition (thank goodness!). Because it was winterized (professionally it seems), all the pipes were closed off and had caps on everything. SO, all those caps had to be removed.
 This here is my super brave little brother who jumped twice into the FREEZING cold, scary green water hole to remove some of the caps off of the drains. I mean, you can't see what's down there! I am such a wimp.

Okay, so enough of me scaring you with my pool. I will post more pictures and updates of it once we chemicalize (yes, I made that up) the crap out of it, vacuum it a few thousand more times, and heat that sucker up! It's already looking A LOT better, and you can almost see the drain in the deep end. Score!

Here's my project of the week!
My new Bedroom!

 I'm loving these hardwood floors... the trim, not so much.

World's tiniest closet.
Dad wants this room for his office... we'll see.

 Repairing the walls with primer.

The owners before did a terrible job painting this room this house. Obviously, they must not of ever heard of painters tape, and didn't believe in moving furniture. The trim is covered with paint, and there are spots where they painted around the furniture. Yikes! 
Oh well! Makes for a fun project for me! I'm thinking grey and white with splashes of salmon/peach! I would like to see two walls a casual white, one wall all grey, and then the opposite wall, casual white with huge nautical, horizontal stripes! Maybe? We'll see!
Dad's opposed to this idea. He is still convinced that it will be his office.

On an exciting note! I'm excited to announce that I have found an apartment in Boston!


Searching for an apartment in Boston has been an ongoing struggle! The market is so hot, that as soon as something goes on, it's gone a few hours later! Living in Ohio made the process next to impossible. That's why I decided to move to Maine when I did. Being accessible to the city made everything go so much more quickly and smoothly! My roommate and I visited the unit Tuesday, got accepted today, and are headed back into the city tomorrow to sign the lease! Thank goodness I can almost check that off the list. Definitely a huge weight of my shoulders.

We will be located in the North End of Boston, which is where most students end up living. It's only about a 10-15 minute walk to school (which is right downtown), and we have the T right at our hands. We are a block away from a hip, hop, and happening street, and are steps away from Quincy Market (which by the way, if you are ever there.... go to the Monkey Bar and buy yourself a Colada Twist in Faneuil Hall. Although $7 for a smoothie may seem steep, it is worth every last penny! Yum!). The unit that we will be living in has high ceilings, ceiling fans in every room, is on the 4th floor, big closets, and has an open kitchen and living room! It is definitely a Boston apartment, and has next to NO room, but I think we lucked out and got a good deal on an awesome place. Pretty Excited!

I will continue to bore or entertain you by posting pictures of the updates of the house!

--Kaylie

Mackinac Island

07 June 2013

My Oma, Opa, mom, dad, brother and I just got back home last night from a fun couple of days on Mackinac Island. Located up by the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Mackinac Island is only reachable by ferry, and they do not allow cars or vehicles on the island. Your mode of transportation is either your two feet, a bike or a horse and carriage! Known for their amazingly delicious fudge, the island attracts a tons of summer tourists. We've been up to the island several times before, and enjoy the peacefulness it has to offer!

To start off the trip, I feasted on one of these babies! Are these not the most delicious parfaits ever? mmm

The main street on the Island

 The brother and I

 The tulips were beautiful!

They are the cutest! 

So many HUGE horses!

My favorites (:



Opa had to remind this guy to hook the horses up from the back as well.


Another picture of the cuties!

This dog is so beautiful! Look at her gorgeous blue eyes!

The family at the Governor's mansion

Mini Golf!


The bugs here were crazy! 


OH! and I finally upgraded!! First post on my new Macbaby!
...and I love it!

Starting the move to Maine tonight!
I think/hope I have everything packed that I will need!

--Kaylie

 
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