Moving on Up (North, that is)

Okay, within the hour the movers come!! It's nerve-wracking, I tell ya!!!

The last week was unexpectedly spent with both of us working all day and then working all night at separate houses. We knew we'd be working a lot this week and we at least thought it would be at the same house, but no luck!! Anner did the pack-and-sell show until now there's nearly nothing left of her stuff!! Aaron painted baseboards, installed bathroom fixtures, awaited the arrival of the arch, and brought loads of "hand-deliver" items to the new house.

One night we both worked really late. Around midnight Anner had enough and went to bed. Too bad she locked the screen door so when Aaron arrived a couple of hours later he was locked out of the house. He knocked. No answer. He rung the door bell. No answer. He called her on the phone and listened to it ring on the kitchen table as it turned to voicemail. Still no answer. Finally he had no choice but to sneak around the house to her bedroom window and call her name, "Aaaaaanner, wake up!" Still asleep she mumbles, "What?!" "Wake up, you locked me out of the house." Ooopsie!! It could happen to anyone, right? Mom always said, "lock the door at night". Turns out this happend one more time before the week was done. Won't he be happy to live somewhere with no screen doors that lock???

So here we are...any minute now the movers come! Stay tuned for pictures of the new house all settled in!

The Intruders

Shhh...they're here.

Who?

The Intruders

This past week has been marked by would-be Renters traipsing through Anner's apartment of 10 years, looking it over up-and-down, and then sitting on her couch filling out applications...occassionally asking for a glass of water or a copy of the yellow pages. Anner calls them: The Intruders. Like seeing an ex with a new girl when you're not quite over it, Anner loathes these people. She made good efforts to make herself scarce when they visit but it doesn't always work. On the first visit by an Intruder, she planned to be at the neighbor's house eating brunch. Just as she buttered her scone and was about to put a dab of homemade jelly on it there was a knock at the door. It was a way-ward Intruder who didn't know where the apartment was. She had to be a grown up, shake their hand, tell them how great the landlords are....she didn't look them in the eye. Anner is not so happy about having to leave her apartment, but in the end it's a small price to pay (we hope) to be with her Honey.

This week about 70% of Anner's apartment has been sold, given away or packed. There's still some to go. Aaron was in Chicago for a much needed vacation with his pa. He got to go to see the Cubbies at Wriggly Field and had a great time. Anner had the neighbor kids over for one last "Camp Anner" at the old place. So far everything is progressing nicely. The office is slowly being overcome with boxes full of stuff Anner can't bear to part with. In one week, we'll be watching the mover pack up the truck and heading north.

Sunday is "pick up the dress day". We all have our fingers crossed it's perfect. We're also going to check out the floors which are completed and see the landscaping. We're very excited!! Then it's back to the apartment to continue packing.

Stay tuned for notes about the actual move and making the new house a home! Then it's on to figuring out the specifics of Wedding Weekend. Exciting times!

Things are cooking now!

My, oh, my are things happening like you wouldn't believe! Where do I start? I guess with the actual wedding stuff. We've been gathering up everyone's addresses so we're ready to send out our invites which... drum roll please... are now at the printer!!! Tomorrow I should be viewing the proofs and then we'll be on our way. That's gonna make it real, huh? :)

Dresses are being altered, shoes bought, my attire...well...kind of sort of thought about. Soon. Instead I've been focusing on everything else! As of today, the floors have been stained and have their first coat of finish. I could only really peak through the doors at them, but they are looking mighty nice. How about a few photos to give you a sense of things? We started with carpeting in most of the house...

and vinyl in the kitchen and dining nook (and UNDER the carpeting in one of the bedrooms)...

Nice, huh? Now we know that, in fact, we have oak in the living room, dining nook and hall with fir in the kitchen and bedrooms. Interesting. Anyway, they now look like this:

Not bad at all!!! Can't wait to really see them once the fumes are gone and the 2nd coat is on. Tomorrow I'll be going over and painting the baseboards so that they are all set to be installed on Thursday. Glad I have the day off!

Thursday night, with the floors finished and the bathroom essentially finished, we'll get to glory in the ongoing landscaping projects! My friend Scott has been going to town - and today we have 85% of what Anner has been dreaming of since I bought the house...a patio for chairs and a FIREPIT! We're going oh-so-artsy and it's going to look spectacular. Afraid you'll have to wait for the next post (or come visit) before getting a visual taste. He's also done a bunch of moving plants around (what few we haven't killed...or that the caterpillars and root weevils haven't eaten), laying out paths, pulling up sod, etc. Going to make our yard quite stunning come wedding time!

And I think that's it for this edition of the Anner and Aaron wedding blog. I'll just end by saying how excited we are with all the folks who've said they hope to make it for the various parts of the weekend. We can't wait to see you all!

Cheerio,

Aaron

Questions, questions...

There have been three big questions that we've learned are the first everyone asks:

1) Do you have a date yet? - yep: August 1st weekend, 2008

2) Where is the wedding going to be? - happily, it's going to be nice and intimate in our newly landscaped backyard

and

3) Where are you registered? - well... umm... err... this one has been a sticking point for us for awhile... but not anymore! First, let us say that your appearance at our weekend celebration is more than present enough for us! And if you'd like to bring your own digital camera and take candid shots during the celebrations, we'd love to have copies! :)

If you'd like, we'd be greatly honored if you'd like to make a donation to your favorite local charity or one of our favorites - http://www.mercycorps.org/.

Or, if you'd like to do more, we have registered at our wonderful local nursery - Sky Nursery (http://www.skynursery.com/, 206-546-4851). You are welcome to give them a call or stop in (I'm afraid it can't be done online) and they have our registry there. Our hope is that you might gift us with young plants and gardening items that will grow with our relationship and which will help make our landscaping even more wonderful for the wedding ceremony!

Dress-a-rama

.

You never imagined it could happen...but for all you skeptics out there, here it is! Your one and only chance to see Ms. Anner Charrier in both a white (well, mostly) wedding gown AND a veil!!! Amazing. And can you believe she DIDN'T choose that one for the wedding? Sometimes I just don't know what she's thinking. Hah!

And here we now pause and give a huge thank you to Anner's good friends Jane (pictured above in a lovely strapless little number) and Cynthia for making the dress shopping infinitely more fun!

...and the house, too!

Anner and I don't tend to do things halfway. Nope. We're strongly in the "well, if you've got time to do that, why not also do all those other things and really tire yourselves out" camp. :) So, though it's not exactly wedding related 100%, I thought I'd toss in a quick update on all the remodelling going on pre-wedding. For those who don't know, we decided that this would be the perfect time (i.e. - post proposal and before Anner moves in) to do some remodelling on the house/yard while I could come over and live with Anner until things are done - nice to not need a hotel!

Things started off with me tearing down an 8' shed from the backyard which was a real eyesore. Not so much room for the mower and potting soil now, but the yard looks MUCH bigger. And we now have room for the 15'x20' tent for wedding weekend!!! Part of the shed was recycled (a friend took most all of the 2x4's for using to make his new art studio), part went to the dump and the remainder should head there this week. I can't tell you how glorious it is to look out my bedroom window and see trees and greenery instead of a shed. Very, very nice.




Next up was redoing the bathroom. For the last two weeks our tiny bathroom has been in the process of a complete re-do. Goodbye '70's Renter Chic decor, Hello new tub and tile surround, new water-saving toilet, new shapely sink, new drywall, new subfloor and vinyl, new fixtures, new new new! Hopefully it'll be finished tonight or tomorrow, but there's still a little lee-way before the next big event.

"What?", you say. "There's more?" Why, yes. Thursday morning Doug of Restoration Hardwood Floors will be coming in to pull up our 70's carpet, remove the vinyl in the spare bedroom/kitchen/dining nook, and re-finish the hardwood floors underneath! We're pretty excited about that. Don't know what they'll look like under everything, but we think it should be some fine oak flooring. That's the hope, anyway. Regardless, it's definitely going to change the whole look of the house! Can't wait.

AND, while that's going on, one of my frisbee friends will be starting on landscaping the yard! We've got big plans there, too...we'll see how much gets done before the wedding weekend, but hopefully you'll get to see a lot of it. And be a part of it as well! "A part?", you ask? Yes! Just wait for the "we're registered!" post for all the details.

Don't you love a good teaser ending?

Get Dressed Already!

Things sure do progress quickly when you set your wedding only 3 months after your proposal!!! I'm happy to report that wedding weekend dresses have been purchased and are in the process of being tailored. One big check off the list! I still have to get my finery, but I'm not too worried about that. You may not believe it, but I think that's one thing I can be pretty easy about choosing. Of course I say that now...

Oh, and in case you're wondering, we'd like the wedding day to be "casually elegant" (or elegantly casual...whichever works for you!). No suits needed, but we'd like folks to look nice. All the other events will be casual, though Anner will have some mighty nice dress-ware to show off.

Next up - registering! We should have all the details there in the next few days so stay tuned.