Bacon (Officially)

The breeder asked us if we had a name for him so he knows his name when we come get him. We thought she might think we were crazy for calling him bacon but it's perfect. He looks like he is growing quickly and plumply. He is now just about completely covered in wrinkles and his ears are taking over. One ear looks like it wants to stick up. Five more weeks and he will be taking over our apartment.

hbrdshry on AT

Two new posts up on Apartment Therapy:

Look! Camouflage Switches

How To: Hang a Cycloc

Enjoy!

Scouting

Some pictures from our weekend in NH. This first image is where we think the wedding tent will go. The sheep will be on the other side of the fence by then.

More here

hbrdshry on AT

Our first official AT Boston post went up today - an homage to the Boston renter. We'll continue to link to our stories from here. Enjoy!
How To: Move Successfully

Baby Bacon

More not-so-blurry pictures of Bacon. Isn't he handsome?





(from Tuesday)
Its blurry but official. World, meet our Bacon.





We'll be going to pick him up on July 5 and couldn't be more excited!

Honorable Mention and a New Part-time Gig

Neither *boy's or my apartment made it to the finals in AT's Small Cool contest but I did receive one of the few Honorable Mentions by the Northwest judge, Philip Wood. Yea! Who knew my little blue apartment would be so well-received. Wonder what my "special gift" will be...

On a related note, we got the AT Boston job! In the end all 4 Boston finalists were hired and we're meeting up in person this weekend to discuss how this will all play out as we develop the Boston branch of Apartment Therapy. Wish us luck!

The Beginning

Less than two weeks in the new place and we're still unpacking boxes. The place is looking worse rather than better these days so we've only posted "before" pictures thus far (from moving day). We'll be documenting our progress as we settle in and make this place our own. Stay tuned.

Maybe Bacon?

News of the first definite pet puppy from our breeder in D.C.! We thought we wanted a brindle puppy but this little guy is pretty gorgeous. Could this be our Bacon?

This is what he would look like all grown up (his half-sister).

She breeds for show dogs only but, within those litters, always has a few pet puppies. Learn more about this wonderful breed here.

Balance & Order

Just over a year apart these photos show the transformation of the Bear Hill house. Work happens in short stints of a few weeks at a time but it seems like they can finish a tremendous amount of work in not a lot of time. We have stuck to the original plan and over the last few weeks work on the more public face of the house began. The bedroom dormers are done, the roof is finished and they are quickly putting up the bump out.

4 days into the orginal demo

A year later and all new windows

The windows are more about what they do to the interior

Almost unrecognizable from the original photographs, the house now has a strong presence and feels grounded and balanced. exaggerating the trim on the eaves of the roof of a small house helps give it a weightier feel and can look almost cartoonish in drawings but the effect is hard not to notice. What was a house with no character now asserts itself, not to mention all the windows opening up to a nice bucolic view. It is just a shell now but the interior should slowly take shape as funding permits. *girl and I will check out kitchens this weekend while we are IKEA getting little things for our apartment.

Sustainable and Eco-Fashionable

*girl's superpower is an allergy to all metallic elements. So, more out of necessity than choice, we've been searching for non-metal wedding bands. I came across a number of unique alternatives including Easy Bake Oven rings, antique ivory, and tattoos but nothing felt right and the quality and longevity of some of these options seemed questionable at best. Wood was something we talked about early on but didn't seem like a truly appealing option until we found Nicola and David Finch of Touch Wood Rings. The quality and look of the rings is amazing. Best of all, we found them just in time to get on the schedule for August when David will take an entire month to make ours rings to our exact specifications. Now we just need to decide what we actually want and design them. A few examples:

Color, Color, Everywhere

We have unpacked all the clothes but the boxes of books and pots and dishes remain sealed. We decided to attack this whole "settling in" thing from a different angle and start with painting. The living room - full of two bow front windows, a built-in wall of bookcases and a fireplace - we painted with Benjamin Moore's "Silver Fox," seen below...





Goes wonderfully with our green stripe/floral curtains and new BluDot couches. The dining room is painted with the bluish green below which we spotted in an Apartment Therapy post. Thanks to the blogging world we were able to contact the girl who owns the studio and she gave us the custom paint code for this color. Its a happy medium between my old living room blue (also a custom mix) and *boy's green wall.





Pictures of these colors in our own apartment will follow soon...