Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Memorial Day Weekend

Over the river and through the woods,
To Nyquists house we go.
 Had another awesome weekend visiting with our niece and nephew.
 The four-legged fur babies were ignored and were sure to let us know they were mad at us.
Kel drove miss Kate in her car, that girl loves to be outside.
 He snuggled up with BDub
 All while this face was staring at us.
What about me guys?
 Long weekend of fun with the Athens family of four.
Until next time Athens.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Southern Style Summer

We kicked off the summer with a Thursday night concert 
 featuring our favorite artist Darius Rucker at the Verizon Amphitheater.
Kel and I laughed the night away with our friends Priya and Ankit
(there may have been some dance moves too).
We listened to songs from Darius' new album Southern Style, other classics 
and even some oldies from his Hootie & the Blowfish days.
Apparently concerts don't end until midnight these days. 
It was a long night and made for a very long Friday.
Summer has officially begun!

Monday, May 18, 2015

DCFH does Boston

Every year, I live for this weekend! My girlfriends from college plan a weekend together. 
We have many nicknames but the one that has stuck is DCFH- Dickinson College Field Hockey.
In our younger days, we would register for a half marathon in different cities.
After years of running 13.1 miles we have decided to hang up the laces and start enjoying the weekends. 
This year Tara, Deanna and I headed up to Boston to visit Sarah. 
I traveled up to Beantown on Friday for some quality time with Sarah & Nick. 
A night of brews, laughs and grilling is good for the soul.
Sarah and I got up early for a morning run around her new city.
 I'll be honest, I haven't run in months (remember I was and am still hibernating) but whenever I am around this girl I have an urge to pound the pavement and explore. Ever since our field hockey days she has been the person I try and catch on our timed runs. It never happened, Slyslop is too fast.
We ran 6.2 miles around Boston and it was fantastic.
We cleaned up just in time for lunch with the rest of our crew.
These girls mean the world to me. There is something about having good friends who know you from your college days. They know your secrets, your dreams, and they have grown up with you for 14 years. There is never a dull moment. We always pick up right where we left off.
Gone are the days where we ride our bikes to practice, or walk to each others dorms. We may live in different states, have "grown-up", and traded in midnight Deli C for Canolis but you always know who you can count on.
DCFH

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Hello Bdub

Ben, Becca and little Kate welcomed Bruce Wilson Nyquist to their family on April 30th.
Named after Ben and Kelly's late father, Bruce Roger Nyquist.
Nicknamed B Dub
Sadly enough I wasn't able to join the rest of the family to meet the little guy the day of his arrival, 
so a few days later, we drove up to Athens. 
He's got a full set dark brown hair, 10 little toes and 10 little fingers.
Bruce is perfect.
We scooped up Kate and took her back to our house for a fun weekend.
Sitting in the blue chairs and watching the "cars" go by. 
Picking up little rocks and throwing them.
Kate loved being spoiled by her Uncle Toe and Aunt Jen.
Walks in the neighborhood
A sweet tea party with her Uncle
Reisch found a new playground.
That girl has stolen our hearts.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Flying squirrels, bats, guano...oh my

We started to notice some activity coming in and out of the vents over our garage. 
By activity, I mean Guano. We had acquired new tenants living in our attic.

Kelly and I googled the issue and tried a few homemade remedies.
First, we considered bat boxes- different to find and then one of us would have to climb a tree to nail it. Even after that, there is no guarantee the bats would move out of the attic and into the boxes. 
Next, we sprayed the entry point with a water hose and out they came. 
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 
11, 12, 13,14, 15,16,17,18 ,19, 20....
21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 
28 bats

Sure, bats are beneficial, they eat all the bugs each night and tons of mosquitoes at night. 
The attic is a different story.

I called a few wildlife removal experts and based on their similar comments we had to move fast if we wanted to evict these squatters. Apparently bats are federally protected, May 1 through August  is maternity season for bats. A time they roost in attics and crawl spaces to care for their newborns.
That's sweet and all but our place is not a nursery for bats.
So we some pleading, we were able to have the wildlife removal experts come to our house on May 1st and install one-way bat exclusions. 
Here's a photo of two of the bats that they were able to locate.
The rest were hiding in nooks and crannies.
After the diagnosis, we learned the bats were coming in 3 different gable vents. So naturally, we had to take care of all the entry points otherwise there was no point.
The experts hung plastic one-way doors which allowed the bats to leave the attic and never re-enter. 

We waited one week and the experts returned to finalize the process.
They removed the one-ways and hung up new screens on the outside of the gable vents. 

Glad our tenants are gone...or so we thought. 
Days later we found one bat whose wing had gotten stuck in the screen. Guess he didn't get the memo to get out of the attic like his friends. RIP.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Happy Birthday to my Lovie!


My best friend, provider & protector, twin taurus, travel buddy, music dj, grill master, landscaper, therapist, keeper of my secrets...my everything.

Abracadabra

These past few weeks have dragged on.
There were days where no work was done to the house, and days that you felt like someone waved their magic wand. We are very pleased with the finished product. The house feels clean and new.
Check out the before and after pictures below

Turquoise walls no more!

Farewell orange walls 

Goodnight Animals on the wall
Adios tan walls and ceiling.
                                                
                              

Catch ya never brown shag carpet

  

Master bathroom reno


It is amazing how by removing that small wall the bathroom feels so open and airy.
Details from the bathroom
  
 Our revamped mudroom 

The cabinets were an Ikea hack that included Pax closets and the Liatorp tv unit and wall/bridging shelf. What do you think?  


Kelly changed out the chandelier hanging in the foyer with a new slim chandelier. 
It offers more light and isn't as heavy.

It's really nice to see your hard earned money come to life.
Time to relax and enjoy our beautiful home.