Martha's Vineyard

This was our little vacation to ourselves. Dan and I booked this shortly after we moved into our house, when we knew we would need a few days of just us. A few days to kick back, relax, catch up on sleep and not worry about what needed to get done or where we had to be. I have a hard time relaxing at home. Even when I manage to sit for a bit at night, I'm always thinking about what needs to be done. So this was our housewarming gift to ourselves. And, let me tell you, highly recommended. We had never been to The Vineyard, but we will definitely try to get back. It is beautiful.

The view from the ferry out on Friday... a little foggy to say the least.

The view from our room on Saturday morning... quite the opposite of Friday.

The resort from the sign below. Our room was in that part in the middle, if I remember correctly.

The resort from the beach.

The path.

Blue crab in the creek along the beach path.

Getting ready for our bike ride on Sunday.

State beach, a.k.a. the beach where Jaws was filmed.

Ginger bread houses in Oak Bluffs (the destination of the 9 mile bike ride).

Wind surfers in the bay - perfect day for it!
(a.k.a. the bay that Jaws swam under the bridge into.
Seriously, that's how the locals explained the landmarks,
according to the Jaws movie)

Hardwood floors!

Taking a cue from C.J. and Jill, Dan and I decided we'd give refinishing floors a shot. We decided to start small with the middle bedroom, since it's only about 90 sq. feet.

Friday night we moved out the furniture and tore up the carpet. We found some adhesive looking stuff under the padding, but figured it would come up with the sander. Sanders get everything, right? (that's what they call foreshadowing, ladies and gents)

Saturday morning, it was straight to Home Depot to set about renting the orbital sander. What a beast that thing is! Not that I would know much about it, as Dan did all the heavy lifting and all the sanding with it. But it looked intense. After a few passes, we started to become concerned since we weren't seeing much progress and the sand paper pads were caked in brown gunk.

This is after like 4 passes or so. Very little progress.

See the gunk?

Back to Home Depot we go, only to find out that there is most likely a wax build up along with the adhesive and the heat from the sander is causing both to melt and stick to the pads. Best bet is to keep sanding, according to the talkative and informative Home Depot employee.

After a few more passes, we really started to see some progress... but was it going to be enough to make the floors in this room match the floors in the rest of the house? No time on Saturday to find out. I think we called it quits and went out to the porch to share a few beers around 10:30.

Finally!

Sunday was a jam packed day in the Lehigh Valley, so nothing even got started until 10pm. At that point, I remembered some school work and left Dan to do some hand sanding while I finished that up.

Monday is when it really got interesting... It was time to clean it all up and get to the polyurethane. This was the test. Fingers crossed that a couple of coats of poly and we'd be done. Thankfully, it worked out beautifully, and Dan and I couldn't be happier with the results!

After coat 1. Looking good.

Super wet shot of coat 2.

Dry coat later Monday night.

We still need to get the base trim and put the radiator cover back in and the doors back on, but we are pretty satisfied. The floors were still a little tacky when I took the above photos, so I wasn't able to get a shot of where the bedroom meets the hallway, but, trust me, they could not be closer!

Time to catch up again...

Ok, so this is going to be a picture heavy post, since it's been, oh, 5 months? since my last post. Here's some pictures of things that have happened... Enjoy!

First, house warming party

Second, 80s party, obviously

3rd, family vacation in OCNJ.

The story behind this picture is great, but you've probably heard it by now... this is the lifeguard!

Dad-dad took Travis to the bathroom. He came out looking like this, with his shirt tucked in.

Jorja and I went for a pedicure, which resulted in sand pedicures for the rest of the week! Gotta love the imagination!

Travis wanted to wear Daddy's shoes! Too cute.

Christine and her boyfriend Mike came to visit. We went black-light mini-golfing. We had the place to ourselves, so there are quite a few pictures like this.

I had crab legs for the first time and am completely hooked!

Jorja conquered her fear of the gorilla, but Travis most certainly did not.

This picture is really only funny because of the close up below... the look on Travis' face is priceless!

A night out in West Chester when we get back from vacation.

A Phillies/Mets game with fantastic seats, even though it felt like 1000 degrees.

And probably the most important event of the last 4 months... Baby Lily Catherine Quirk joined us on 8/24/10!