Weekend: Part III

I had previously shared how eventful my weekend was two weekends ago in this post and in this post. Well it is time to finish up before another weekend passes ;)


Sunday we had the most amazing breakfast with the other guests at the Walnut Lawn B & B that I had mentioned in the previous post. It was such a great way to start a Sunday! 1 week later and we still are thinking about the meal, yummy!


When breakfast was over, it was time to check out. We packed up the car and headed back to Bethlehem to get the "working" day started. We only had plans on sprucing up the exterior but then had to add on the leak cleanup. So as soon and I mean as soon as we arrived (1ish) we started working.


Painting and Power Washing
The hubby and I decided to divide the workload. I decided to start the painting (which I wanted to do anyway) and he with the help of my Tio Flor, went to power washing.


This work was something that we have been wanting to do since we moved in almost 2 years ago. The exterior (& the interior, I may add) has a very 1970-ish look to it. I'm talking peach doors, orange brick and a peach-ish wall. The front porch looked both dirty with dirt and moss but appears to have been painted dark brown at some point in it's life.

The white door is the primer. 

The original color matched the wall.

Doesn't the house look a bit outdated or is it just me? Go ahead you can tell me if I am crazy...if you dare ;). Ugh, I just hate the color of the front door. Actually I hate the front door. Period.


So we did some research using fliers from Home Depot and the website, Behr.com, to find a nice color palette for the orange brick and found it pretty quickly. I know it may sound crazy but we opted for Teal for our two doors (front and basement) and will be choosing a gray color to help pull out the grayish color in the grout. Definitely different from the peach but still should be an awesome color combo.


For those of you who are not sure about a color, I HIGHLY suggest you get onto HomeDepot.com and look at their paint samples. They are 8oz containers in the colors of your choice and they are only $3 a piece! I do believe they can only ordered online but they ship quick. We received ours in like 3 days no kidding. Since we weren't sure of which gray to go with, we ordered a few samples.

And the winner was... Gray Area! I will post the finished pictures when we are done.


As I mentioned earlier we had already chosen the door color. We chose for a dramatic and darker color in the teal family. In some lighting it looks hunter green (not my fav color) but in the light it does look teal-y.

After the 1st coat.

Unfortunately, since it took 5 coats (2 primer, 3 paint) to finish just the outside of this door, and the guys were power washing near the front door, I was only able to complete this door. Again, I will post pictures of the finished area.


As you can see from some of the pictures above, our front porch needed some desperate cleaning. There was an insane amount of moss covering it and whatever brown paint the previous owners used on the wood was severely chipping making the porch an utter mess. So I put the guys to work. They power washed the roof and the entire porch.

 My Uncle Flor helping out... Hi Tio! 

The hubs getting his wash on!

Leak Cleanup
To finally finish up the night, we had to do a little cleanup of the area that got drenched from the leak. Luckily most of the items can either be washed or wiped down. Unfortunately, the floor was not one of them. The rug was so saturated that it spread pretty quickly soaking half of the basement floor. The only thing that helped us was that the rug was a tile rug. We were able to pull up only those tiles of rug that were wet. Of course, the entire rug will need to be removed and replaced but this helped out for now. So the hubs and I took care of it and surprisingly it was pretty easy but it was because the saturated tile's glue had dissipated. I think my daughter could have removed those tiles. Anyway, here is a pic of the basement after removing the affected tiles.

Still wet even after the tiles were removed.

The beauty of being a homeowner...sigh!


THE END

The Weekend: Part II

To get yourself caught up, check out my last post about how the weekend started.

After the bathroom fiasco, we were able to start our road trip to Lancaster, PA. The drive was pretty uneventful except at one point we had to take a detour due to a pretty bad accident that closed down rt 222. Other than that, it was smooth sailing.

B & B
We arrived at our destination, The Walnut Lawn Bed and Breakfast in a couple of hours. We met the caretakers/owners, Tom and Sarah, who showed us our rooms and gave us a tour of the building. The hubs, Saya and I had a pretty nice room. It was cutesy, country decorated as you can imagine it would be in Lancaster County with handmade Amish furniture and quilts. There was a queen size bed, a sofa bed, 1/2 bath and even a balcony. The main bath for us was outside the room but it was only our bathroom which was nice. My MIL had her own room down the hall. Her room was a queen size bed with a full bath, also nice. I think it really was what I had expected a B & B to be.

Some Exterior pics

Front

Caretaker's quarters

Front - With Saya included :)

 Rear - closed in gazebo

Here are a few pictures of the inside of our room:

Always bring toys for the munchkins!

One of the things that made our stay at this B & B very much enjoyable was Tom and Sarah. They are one of the most nicest people we have ever met and funny too! They really made you feel at home and not at a hotel. They are just great people! On top of that is Sarah's AMAZING breakfast! O.M.Goodness! It was a wonderful feast.

On Sunday before check-out, we were all (including other guests) invited for breakfast at 8:30am. We sat at a family size table in the dining room. Here we got converse with the guests and owners while enjoying a wonderful meal. It really felt like we have known everyone for years.

OK, back to the meal! Here is what was on the menu that day was:

• Cantaloupe topped with Vanilla Yogurt
• Scrambled Eggs
• Bacon (perfectly made I may add)
• Potato & Sweet Potato hash
• Baked French Toast (OMG)
• Peach Muffins
• Peach and Mango Salsa
• Angel Food Cake with Chocolate Pudding filling for dessert

Can you see why we loved the meal so much? It really was made with love! I will be providing a small review of this B & B in a later post, so check back later.

Shopping
The whole reason we came to Lancaster in the first place was for their outlet shopping and oh my did we shop till we drop. The hubs was in charge of keeping Saya busy as my MIL and I went shopping for little miss. It was great that the Rockvale Outlets had kids in mind as they had two outdoor playgrounds for them to play in. So that is where little miss and hubs disappeared to while we got our shop on.

Our intentions were to go Fall/Winter shopping since this little girl has everything imaginable for the Summer but we didn't have such luck. This was kind of surprising since usually during the season, they usual have the next couple of season's out. So we did our best and really ended up with more Summer clothing but she got some toys as well. We even got a cute little number from the Gymboree outlet for our family's Memorial Day picnic (pictures to come). Think Navy Tutu with red and white stars and a cute red tank for it.

One of the things Saya really needed was PJs and of course Carter's was our savior. They had tons of PJ's. The only problem we had was getting the right size for the onesie with feet PJ's. For some reason they run huge! I'm totally serious about this. The 2T PJs looked tall enough to fit my 5 year old nephew, no kidding! So we settled for the 24 month PJs which will be big but it should work for Fall. Anyone else have this same issue with Carter's?

Long's Park
When we finished with shopping, my MIL really wanted to do something else. Dutch Wonderland (1 mile from the outlets) was closing in a half-hour so that was out of the question. So we decided to go to Long's Park. Long's Park may be Lancaster's largest public park. We've went there for an Arts and Crafts fair for our 1 year anniversary trip. A beautiful park! What's also special about this park is that it was the park my hubby as a child would go to so they could play. My MIL would take them every weekend during the Summer so that they can enjoy the day. A special place for both him and his brother where they have tons of memories. I have to say, it is really cool for me to be able to see where the hubby spent some of his childhood. It makes it special for me too. We just can't wait until Saya can understand this and enjoy it too!

After shopping and visiting Long's Park, we picked up dinner for my MIL and Saya and dropped them off at the B & B for the night. It was time for Date Night #2 for Mommy and Daddy!

Date Night #2
While I was freshening up, the hubs was going through the Lancaster magazine trying to come up with a place for us to have dinner. There were so many places to choose from it was overwhelming, so the hubs made the decision that we were going to John J. Jeffries (JJJ) in the Lancaster Arts Hotel in downtown Lancaster.

We've seen JJJ before when we stayed in the Arts Hotel for our 1 year wedding anniversary. It was a unique but lovely hotel! Unfortunately, since Saya was all of maybe 3 months when we stayed at the hotel, we didn't get to experience JJJ. I am not joking about the JJJ experience! It was SUPERB!

We enter the restaurant and sit at the bar waiting for a table to open. We are totally under dressed (me in a t-shirt, jean skirt and croc flats and the hubs in shorts, t-shirt and socks with Jordan sandals) but no one seems to notice other than other patrons (screw them and their tighty undies!).  Anyway, we get our table for two and was assigned Miss Ellen as outrwaitress. Miss Ellen was wonderful! So cheery and smiley but the perfect balance!

Let me preface the talk about their dishes and say that JJJ is an Organic, local and fresh restaurant. We've never eaten at such an eatery but man oh man was it great. You could totally tell the difference!

Getting back on track... Miss Ellen brought us a unique "bread" plate. It was homemade fresh Foccia strips, mini banana muffins and something new they were trying, a raspberry smoothie of some sort in a Chinese soup spoon. Every single piece including the smoothie was delish!

Next up was what they call the "Small Plate". This is their appetizers. EVERYTHING sounded amazing but in the end we chose their "Pork Belly Love". Here's another O.M.G! It was truly an amazing experience!

It was:
A small piece of Pork Belly lying on top of stone ground grits that were lying on top of a Johnny Cake (corn cake for the folks that don't know) with real maple syrup! That was some serious stuff! The hubs and I were amazed at how yummy it was. I'm actually drooling right now. Oy!

Again, their selection of "Large Plate" dishes was outstanding as well. They had sides like garlic potato puree/mashed potato + fried livengood potatoes + duck fat potatoes + chimichurri sauces + risottos to compliment chicken, steak, salmon and so much more! Enough to have a hard time choosing!

In the end, hubs chose a Baked Chicken dish drizzled with a chimichurri sauce that was on top of fried livengood potatoes mixed with greens and onions and I chose the Thistle Grass Fed Dry Aged Steak that also came with the livengood potatoes mix. Both dishes had a very nice amount of food for the prices and again they were so delicious! My steak was so thick that even when I cut skinny pieces I had huge amounts of steak in my mouth! One thing to note is that the hubby does not eat Chicken at restaurants because of getting food poisoning twice but he was in love with this chicken! Yes, in love! I just couldn't believe he chose it over the Salmon since he is a Salmon eating man when we go to a steak house. Anyway, these dishes were so good, I can't even explain how they really were. Totally memorable! We will be back!

As you can imagine, we were pleasantly stuffed. BUT since we were there we had to at least take dessert back home. We chose the yummy sounding Girl Scout Tagalong Cheesecake! You know what? We never got to eat it!! We totally left it in the cooler and forgot about it until days later. I know, BOO to us! Well I guess it gives us another reason to come back. If you are looking for something different, then you should go too! :)

And that my friends was the end of The Weekend: Part II...on to the next!

The Weekend: Part I

This weekend was probably one of the most interesting and eventful weekends we have had in a long time.

Here let me break it down for you:
Part I:
     Date Night #1: Hunger Games
     Shower Leak

Part II:
     B & B: Walnut Lawn
     Shopping
     Long's Park
     Date Night #2: Dinner

Part III:
    Painting
    Power Washing
    Leak Cleanup

Date Night #1: Hunger Games
So it all started with Friday. Did the usual; drove my commute, went to work and drove home. When the hubby came home from work, we headed out to the Rave theater at the Promenade shops for Date Night #1 to go and finally see the Hunger Games. I won't review it here because I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone yet but I will provide a separate post with a Spoiler review. It needs to be reviewed.

Because the movie started at 7:15 and the hubby wasn't able to get home until 6 with a 20 min ride ahead of us, we didn't get to eat dinner. So we stuffed our faces with movie junk food (we rarely do this): hot dogs, nachos & cheese and of course Reese's Pieces and Twizzlers. Felt like crap afterwards but hey we had to eat!

That was it for Friday.

Shower Leak
Saturday morning arrives and we were up early to prep for our road trip to Lancaster, PA for some outlet shopping, date night #2 and to stay at our first Bed & Breakfast. Why Lancaster, PA you  may ask? It's not all horse & buggies. There are many things Lancaster County has to offer! Not to mention that is originally where the hubby is from so we got to go back to his stomping grounds.

Getting back on track...

Anyway, as usual, MIL takes a shower followed by myself. Before the hubs went to take a shower, he had to go retrieve a clean towel from the basement. That's when he noticed our laundry room rug was wet. He checked where we previously had a leak and noticed it was wet. To see where it came from, the hubs checked out the back of the shower to see if the previous leak got worse but all he can see was that the shower head was pulled from the wall, which caused a little extra water to escape. Maybe that was the cause.

Little back story...What I have never mentioned before was that on Christmas we found our shower leaking.  The shut off valves were sealed behind a wall that the hubby had to break open. This is when hell began. Previous owners, quite frankly, did a horrible job with the shower install which lead to this leak. Lets just say there is duct tape to hold up wood, different types of wood being used and bungee cords to keep pipes in line. I'll let you digest that.

Here are pictures of some of the nonsense:

 The origination of the leak

Opened wall with such goodies as bungee cord 

OK, so back to the story. The hubs decided to test this the theory. He made sure the shower head was flush to the wall (as it should be) and had me run to the basement to see if it was still leaking. To my horror, it was leaking alright. It was freakin' raining in our basement both in the laundry room and outside of the laundry room. WTH! The basement carpet was not just soaked but fully saturated. Anything stored under the ceiling, such as the filled hampers in the laundry room and Saya's art table outside the room with her drawing pads and accessories all got soaked. This just didn't make sense. There had to be a burst pipe or something.

So being the "troubleshooter" that he is, the hubs had to see what was going on. He returned to the bathroom. The first place he looked was under the shower and that is where he saw it. Whatever it is that attaches the shower drain to the drain pipe was missing. Nothing was there. No trace of it either. So naturally the water was going to go everywhere since the drain was not attached. Another WTH!

Since our bathroom guy was out of town till Sunday and we were heading out of town, there was nothing to be done on Saturday. We continued our plans until our return on Sunday.

To be continued...