Where we've been. What we've been doing. And why we're back.

Back in 2014 we took a break from the blog. 

Some big things happened in 2014. For one thing, we got married!

Getting married on a beautiful spring day in May!

And as you might expect, we DIYed nearly everything, from wedding invitation design to guest gifts (homegrown tomato plants). We even made our own wedding cake and invited all our guests to bring a dish to pass for a big potluck instead of catering. It was a super fun day...but a lot to prepare for! Not to mention that shortly before the wedding, Justin had a medical emergency that landed him in the hospital. And then a few months after our wedding, Justin had spinal fusion surgery. This entailed a long recovery process, during which we had to put all remaining projects on the back burner. It took a little over a year and a half for Justin's back to finally get to the point where he could be as active as he wanted to be--and resume projects. 

And we had projects galore!

Fixing the concrete in the small section of the garage, and building a mini-shop...

Before: what a mess!

Pouring new concrete.

Ah, much better!

Dividing up the basement to build a woodshop...

Before: what a mess! (am I sensing a theme?)

Coating the walls

Prepping the floor

Getting a layer of primer on everything

Ta-da! It's a woodshop!

Woodshop organization.

And then finishing one room into an office...

Before the walls were finished.

Drywall and doors added...

Justin's work-from-home setup before finishing the room

Justin's work-from-home setup AFTER finishing the room

Not to mention fixing the hideous basement steps...

And you can't even see the ugly half-ripped out ceiling here...

Improved basement steps

And some other eyesores...

This had been shelving, but outside, it's open underneath and gets drafty. We filled it in with insulation, and it sat like this for years. 

Finally, the window seat gets the finish it deserves!

OK...a lot of other eyesores...

Goodbye, ugly plastic shower surround...

Ah, much better! Justin will probably need to do a whole post about what a pain this was, though. 

But this isn't all that we've been doing. 

We've had some fun, too--we've done some traveling, kayaking, and camping. 

At Garden of the Gods in southern Illinois. We traveled to see the big solar eclipse of 2017!

At the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. in 2017.

At Caracol, amazing Mayan ruins in Belize in Feb. 2020 (we JUST made it back home before pandemic lockdowns started)

Kayaking on the Wisconsin River.

And we both got SCUBA certified in 2019! 

SCUBA training at a local pool.

Brigitte diving with a turtle in Belize!

And last but definitely not least, we got a dog (a very sweet chocolate lab named Winkie). 

Isn't she cute?

But this summer, since it's become apparent that we're not really going anywhere any time soon (Delta variant and all that), we've decided to make a big push to finish a lot of the projects left hanging over the years. That is really our reason for revisiting this blog again. So much of what we started 9 years ago is starting to FINALLY reach its conclusion. While this journey is far from over, we'd like to document the final leg. 

So, hold on to your hats! Things are about to get crazy again.