One Whirlwind Weekend
It’s about time we told you about our adventures this past weekend. In a little over 48 hours we traveled through four states, made four stops to see various family members and even hit up two Ikeas located nearly 400 miles apart. But out of it we got some fun new posts that’ll be coming atcha as soon as we’ve recovered enough to write them. Here’s a timelined recap of the who, where and what-were-we-thinking (!) of last weekend:
Friday, August 7th:
- 6pm: Kick off our trip by heading two hours north to stay with my parents overnight in Northern VA.
- 8pm: Have a nice, home-cooked meal and spend more quality time with my cousins’ new baby girl.
Saturday, August 8th:
- 8am: Leave Northern Virginia, headed towards New York City. Stop at Target to pick up baby gift for our new nephew John who we’ll be meeting for the first time that night (gotta love babies- and Target!)
- 9am – 2pm: Sit in various traffic jams in Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. Surprisingly, still arrive early to destination in New Jersey (for an annual family barbecue with Sherry’s family).
- 2pm: Kill time before BBQ starts by visiting Ikea in Elizabeth, NJ. Spend an hour scoping out all the new products and snapping inspiration pics. Collect images for an UPCOMING POST about what we’re digging at Ikea.
- 3pm: Make our way over to nearby family event where lots of eating, chatting and bocce ensues.
- 7pm: Another family dog arrives (named Yoda). Burger and Yoda do not get along. Burger makes lots of embarrassing sounds. We forgive him.
- 8:30pm: Say goodbyes at family picnic, head towards Manhattan with Almost-Dr. Dan and his new fiancee in the backseat. Brainstorm UPCOMING POST where Dan dishes more science-meets-home-decor advice.
- 9:30pm: After some unintentional detours around New Jersey, finally find ourselves headed over the George Washington Bridge to drop off the smarty-pants lovebirds at their apartment near Columbia. Head towards Inwood where my sister, brother-in-law and new nephew John await.
- 10pm: The Johns meet for the first time. Sherry and I instantly fall in love with our newest family member. Burger and their cat Lulu, however, do not seem as enamored with each other.
Sunday, August 9th:
- 10am: After remarkably sleeping through the night with a newborn in the next room (!) Sherry hops up early to snap photos of my sister’s kitchen remodel (before breakfast starts cooking) for an UPCOMING POST featuring the before and after of a tiny NYC kitchen nearly doubling in size. Here’s the room when it was completely gutted (don’t worry, it doesn’t look like that anymore…):
- 11am: Breakfast is quickly devoured because it was delicious, but also so we could squeeze in more time ooohing and aaahing over the new baby. It’s a miracle that we don’t smuggle him back to VA with us.
- Noon: Leave Manhattan and after a few more unintentional detours around New Jersey, finally get headed in the right direction on the NJ Turnpike.
- Noon – 6pm: Spend car ride absorbing new Ikea catalogue and calling my little sister Carrie to strategize decor for her new apartment (now that her job has transferred her from Philadelphia to Northern Virginia).
- 6:30pm: Meet Carrie and her roommates at Ikea in Woodbridge, VA to buy supplies to spruce up her new space (like we did for her last place). Here’s what we’re dealing with this time. Yes, it’s technically a sunroom and not a bedroom, and those are sliding glass doors that made her room completely visible to her other roommates (made being the key word in that sentence).
- 8:30pm: Arrive back at Carrie’s apartment in Arlington, VA. Get strange looks from concierge as we haul lots of tools and Ikea boxes past the front desk (not to mention a chihuahua hiding in a pooch purse)
- 8:30 – Midnight: Furiously assemble Ikea furniture, hang curtains, and do our best to work miracles in one of our most challenging rooms yet. Hit many many roadblocks. Fight exhaustion.
Monday, August 10th:
- 1am: Carrie’s room is finally finished. “After” photos are victoriously snapped for an UPCOMING POST. Two weary travelers and one semi-hyper dog hop back in their car for one last leg of the never-ending weekend trip.
- 3am: Get home. Check blog. Collapse.
- 9:30am: Wake up. Go back to work…
So that’s a rundown of our crazy weekend and all the exciting posts headed your way in the coming week. What about you guys? Did you do anything intense and exhausting last weekend? Anything in the hopper for this weekend? Do tell.
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I don’t know how you guys managed to function Monday morning, unless it was sheer geeked-out design adrenaline!
Nikki you hit the nail on the head. It was totally geeked-out design adrenaline that kept us semi-functional on Monday. Come 8pm we were useless though. And Jenny, your Wisconsin visit sounds super fun- we’re huuuuge suckers for any and all road trips. Even Burger enjoys looking out the window and whining for drive-thru food scraps.
xo,
s
Wow! That is one crazy weekend! Sounds a bit like our vacation to Wisconsin, although we stretched it out over six days, so it was a little more relaxing. Still 30 hours of driving though!
http://wordsonwendhurst.blogspot.com/2009/08/summer-vacay-in-wisconsin.html
Jenny
Oooh I can’t wait to see what you guys did with Carrie’s room! I’m sure it looks fabulous ;)
It must have been the weekend for road trips. We spent the past weekend driving 300 miles to Chicago and also visited IKEA while there. (That is the closest IKEA to our house, 5 hours away, so sad!) We also visited Galena, Illinois. It’s a charming historic town full of fun shops. Our weekend wasn’t quite as crazy as yours though!
Yay- you were in Inwood! That’s where my husband and I live! It sounds like you guys had a wonderful trip; road trips are the best!
great story, sounds as busy as my weekends usually but different things are going on. thanks for sharing.
We had a decor-jammed weekend too, but not as much as yours. We drove two hours to my mom’s house. She’s going through chemotherapy and wanted help getting some things changed around the house now that she’s there all the time. We changed her bathroom faucet, installed four new light fixtures, and put a new sprayer on her kitchen sink. I plan on going up again in the next couple of weeks to help her paint.
um, you guys are unreal. I can’t belive you survived not only the driving, but the creative mental toll! can’t wait to see what you guys came up with!
Yesss! Bocce! Always a family staple in our neck of the woods, too!
Wow! You guys are impressive – I can’t believe you fit all that in! lil John is so cute!
This weekend for us = Packing! we’re moving to a new house in one week…and definately procrastinating on the packing duties!! At least we have boxes now!
We stained our deck last weekend! We worked from 9:30am until 2pm non-stop. I haven’t posted pics on my blog yet because we need to do some touch-up work this weekend – by the time I got to staining the stairs I was totally exhausted. Needless to say, I missed a few spots!
I am heading to Ikea tomorrow!! I need some ideas. Will I see a post before then? If not – any hints??
Dawn from Birmingham
Hey Dawn,
The Ikea post will probably be up next week along with most of the others we mentioned but you won’t need any hints. We pretty much love everything at Ikea, namely some rugs, curtains, lighting and other fun and cheap accessories. Have fun tomorrow!
xo,
s
That’s an impressive and exhausting weekend! We had our second weekend in a row of interior painting last weekend (with a little fun thrown in for good measure). Hopefully phase 2 will be finished before this weekend (along with the final exterior touchups that are preventing me from sending you “after” photos!
Can’t wait to see what you did with that sunroom-turned-bedroom! And how funy – as I was furiously completing a living room paint job at midnight Sunday, you were right down the road doing similar whirlwind tasks! There’s nothing like the excitement of completion to pull you through those last few hours.
Hey, guys!!! I *knew* you were up to something when Sherry only posted once all weekend ;)
Yup – I had a crazy one, too. Left the house at 6:30am on Saturday morning with my 4.5 yo daughter, my sister, and my 10 month old niece just to drive 3 and a half hours away and scope out an overnight destination for a September surprise weekend for Sam. All Sam knew was “we have to leave early, we’ll be getting home late, I need $200, and your brother-in-law knows where we are. Love you!” :)
We booked a place to stay, picked out a few restaurants, took a ferry boat, road a golf cart around an island, stood in Lake Erie in the pouring rain, and drove the 3 and half hours back later that night. Mission accomplished, though. I think Sam and I are going to have a GREAT weekend in September :)
Can’t wait for all of your great posts!!! And congrats on Baby John – he’s so precious!!!
XO,
Jacci
Just found your blog recently and love it!
That does sound like a crazy, but happy weekend. I hope you had an electric screwdriver for the Ikea stuff. After years of fooling around with an allen key and a manual philips head, I finally got wise. Now I can assemble a tall Billy in just 11 minutes!
you guys are crazy! But I love it. And can’t wait to see the upcoming posts!
Yea Ikea Woodbridge! I could spend hours there. :) I also think I may know that complex where John’s little sister lives — the sunroom looks mighty familiar! Crazy weekend indeed though, glad you guys arrived safely back home!
Hysterical! I cannot believe you were in the Elizabeth IKEA – I was there at the same time and day and could have totally met you… and copied your ideas :-) Can’t wait to see the posts!!
Can’t wait to see what you did with the sunroom/bedroom. My weekend consisted of cleaning my garage (took a lot longer than your one hour since I did it solo while assembling shelving), painting the bathroom and doing other small projects around the house. This weekend will be radically different since we’re going camping along Lake Michigan. I need the break!
Holy crap! Talk about a busy weekend! Although quite frankly, I’m way jealous of all the IKEA and decorating fun you guys had! I love how everyone (even Burger) gets involved in all your adventures! You really should start renting John out to those of us who have partners who don’t find IKEA so fun. :-)
WOW, you guys did a lot in one weekend. We spent our weekend working on our Family Room still. We are almost finished. We put up new custom bamboo shades and some of the base molding. We have a long weekend ahead of us as well with finishing up the molding, caulking everything, touch up paint, etc. Soon we will be able to start decorating. The most fun part for me will be the decorating. http://www.lifamilies.com/chat/topic-446593-1.html
What a great post. Can’t wait for the UPCOMING ones.
Is that an organic SwaddleDesigns blankie that the new John is snuggled in? If so, that is an amazing blanket, and I am proud to say that I know the owner of the company, and that our kiddo modeled (whilst swaddled) for some of their advertising when he was an infant.
It sounds like Burger has the same tendencies as my chihuahua, Roxy. Why so antisocial, fur friends?
Great weekend – sometimes those busy ones with a goal like that are the most fun, even if you are exhausted at the end! I’m a huge fan of Ikea, but I was wondering if you own, or if you know anyone, who owns an Ektorp couch from Ikea. My husband and I have been debating about getting one and if would be helpful to know if anyone would reccommend it or is happy with it.
Hey Christin,
We have heard several Ektorp owners rave about their purchases so we are confident that it’s a great choice. In fact we just included one in a custom mood board we did this week (we will be posting it next week so stay tuned).
xo,
s
while you headed to my neck of the woods (jersey) i was down in virginia. we swapped places, perhaps even crossed each other on the road and didn’t know.
i went to williamsburg for some busch gardens and water country fun!
i tried locating the magazine you were featured in but no such luck *le sigh*…
My husband and I (along with a few family members and hired helpers) are building a house…just a small DIY project-ha! This last weekend we started working on the inside (which is one big room since the house has a steel frame.) My mom and I unloaded, cut, and moved 260 stud boards for my dad and husband to use to frame the walls. Thank goodness for the nice breeze to give us relief from the Texas heat! Tomorrow we are taking the day off from our real jobs for a shopping trip to a few salvage warehouses…we are hoping to reuse and recycle materials to use in our home (so far we have quite a few antique doors and light fixtures that with a little TLC, I imagine looking great and unique!) I love Young House Love (your creativity, frugality, hard work ethic, and passion)! Keep up the good work and fun. Curious about our house? http://www.theweldhouse.blogspot.com Have a great weekend!
Hey
You guys look like you had a great weekend! Tiresome, but a blast I’m sure. The baby is too cute….look at those cheeks.
This past Friday was my birthday so I went out to eat with my sweetie and his family…ate until I could pop…desert {Chocolate Mud Cake with warm fudge and ice cream..YUM}. Saturday my kiddos took me out for lunch {more dessert…Key Lime Pie..YUM} and that evening my minister had a dinner for my son {he recently started training as a City of Columbia Police Officer!!} lots of food from the Islands and what else??? Sweet Potato Cake with Cream Cheese frosting…YUM YUM!! Boy…I need a diet ;O)
Yikes! Your weekend was crazy! I’m jealous though – NY & NJ are my old stomping grounds and I’ve been having withdrawls.
Wish I’d known you were going to be at Ikea Elizabeth – I could have totally rearranged my schedule to stalk/meet up with you there! Would have just loved to say: “LOVE YHL!!! Just found it a couple of weeks ago but am hooked!”
I’m glad my husband and I aren’t the only ones doing crazy weekend trips like that. It’s totally exhausting, but exciting to be able to see so many family members.
And by the way, what a tease! I can’t wait to see all these upcoming posts you’re talking about. Especially your sister’s room makeover which looks like quite the challenge.
Wow, what a weekend! Of course, on the west coast you’d be bookin it to make it through 4 states! We didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. A friend’s engagement party and a stop at the Jim Hensen Muppet exhibit at the Experience Music Project (cool music/geekdom museum here in Seattle). Had a giggle fit with my mom (classic) because apparently I was waaaaay into Bert and Ernie as a toddler (aka hard core obsessed, which I don’t remember at all).
Can’t wait to read the upcoming posts! They sound great!
This has almost nothing to do with your post, but you should check this out: http://simplystated.realsimple.com/simplystated/2009/08/an-uncluttered-fireplace.html. I checked the Real Simple blog right after yours, and immediately thought of you. Maybe it’s the white chicness of it?
Wow, what a busy weekend. This must have been a long week for you guys so far. I always feel really tired during the work week after a super busy weekend. I can’t wait to read the upcoming posts, especially the one about the Ikea bedroom makeover… although I will have to be patient. You guys are such teases. ;)
In the middle of sprucing up my 50s bungalow – you guys are such great inspiration!
My next couple of weeks are going to be just as busy if not busier! I’ll be moving from California to Virginia. packing a housefull of furniture, driving cross country, finding a place to live, registering brother in high school, starting new job at the Pentagon (I’m in the Navy), shopping spree at IKEA (yay!), praying that I run into John and Sherry somehow, and learning how to live without my hubby for 6 months!!<He's also in the Navy, and he isn't allowed to move yet :(
I’m moving across town this week and keep hoping that John & Sherry will magically appear at my near west end condo for some decorating consultation.
Can’t wait to see the Manhattan kitchen remodel as I’m an NYC dweller, too. Fortunately the pre-war apt that my husband and I bought 2 years ago had already had the kitchens and bathrooms redone when we moved in…
I feel you on the crazy driving. We drove back from Nags Head NC to Philadelphia PA on Saturday. After running into traffic on the Chesapeak Bay Bridge and the Maryland state line we thought we were totally in the clear. We were wrong. We forgot the Phillies were in town and we hit traffic on 95! But, I am sooo proud to say that our Jeep only used one tank of gas. Can I get a ‘what what!’ for 25 miles to the gallon!
LB
The IKEA in Elizabeth is the one right my us!! I could have waved as you drove past on the turnpike.
We had a crazy NJ/NY weekend, too!
I love road trips! It sounds like you two had a great time and still manage to squeeze some fabulous decorating. Please, come by and I really need your help with a design dilema.
Well, last weekend we scurried on over to the beach Ocean City, MD) for a nice summer getaway. Gotta love a close beach! And this weekend we have a friend’s wedding and a possible living room makeover that’s WAY long overdue (pics to come after it’s finished, of course!). Tonight I’ll be spray-painting some goodwill finds for the living room, too, so that should be fun fun fun. Other than that, it’s just another weekend at the Puhl House (which isn’t actually a pool house but a townhouse… just to clear up any confusion).
I hear you, Young Housers! I had a similar weekend but with many different forms of transportation. See it here, http://factsoflauren.blogspot.com/2009/08/planes-trains-automobiles.html.
Last weekend, we finally found flooring for our remodel of an old barn, continued work on the electrical wiring and then discovered [more] major carpenter ant damage and spent the rest of the weekend [carefully] taking out major support beams of our house and porch and replacing them.
http://thelifeaccounts.blogspot.com/2009/08/we-got-it.html
I’m exhausted just READING your post!! Can’t wait to see the results!
Wow! Glad to know we aren’t the only ones NOT resting on the weekends. Things are crazy here. I spent last weekend driving 8 hours with my sister to visit my other sister in Northern VA… we could have crossed paths! Anyhow, did a lot of walking and sightseeing in DC and had fun!! Ready for a ‘true’ weekend now.
Since you asked-last weekend we spent 11 hours scraping wallpaper from our bedroom walls, then painting, putting up baseboards & chair rail & new vent covers. As I am writing this, my husband just filled the nail holes, sanded and is getting ready to stain the new woodwork. I’m hoping to put the room back together this weekend. I’ve had our new bed (just the wood parts of course)in the garage for about 3 years, so I really hope it’s not broken or missing pieces!
Cristin, I wanted to chime in on your Ektorp question. I have the Ektorp loveseat and it is so comfortable. I take naps on it all the time! I wish I had gotten the Ektorp sofa, but only for size. After awhile, the cushions get a little flattened, but you can punch up them up and then they are all soft and plump again. (A good time to do that is when you are stressed about something :-) I’ve had it about a year, and it’s my first couch, but so far I think it is pretty sturdy.
Great post, John! Sounds like a fun (but busy!) Weekend. I’m curious — what do you guys do with Burger when you go into Ikea (or anywhere similar)? I plan on getting a small dog soon and would love to travel with it, too!
You guys are such an inspiration for when I’m a future homeowner and I can’t wait to put all the ideas to work!
Good question! Burger is pretty much always at our side when we travel, he even went on our honeymoon to Alaksa. He’s a member of our little family and such a great traveler- in fact one of the reasons we got a small dog was our love of road trips since we knew a smaller dog would be more manageable. See, since Burger is so little, we were able to purchase a small pooch carrying bag (basically a canvas purse with mesh on each end so the little guy has ventilation and can easily breathe). And most establishments don’t mind at all if we carry him around that way (Ikea included) although for restaurants we like to try to eat outside or leave him at the hotel (or person’s house that we’re staying with) since some people mind a pooch in their restaurant- even in a bag. Hope it helps!
xo,
s