Antiquing Fun

I had a surprise open weekend day the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend, so I decided to grab my friend and do a little antiquing in Deale, Maryland. We LOVE shopping in Deale because there is such a fun variety of antiques, consignment stores, and local artist shops. On this trip, I actually had a few things I was looking for, but when it comes to this type of shopping… you just have to trust that the right items will find you.

Here are the treasures I found:

Linda Lloyd Etchings, $28 each

I initially pointed out the chipmunk etching to my friend, because her boyfriend has a pet squirrel. But then, when I was doing a second loop of the store, I saw the bird etching by the same artist.

The artist, Linda Lloyd, was famous for her wildlife etchings and from the research I did, I’m guessing these are from the mid 70’s. The bird is 95/100 and the squirrel is a one-of-a-kind artist proof. I love them both and they will be perfect in our living room once I put it back together. The chipmunk has a crack in the corner of the glass, so I’m thinking of changing out the frames to something a bit more gold and gilded. I’ll keep you posted on where they end up!

Hamilton Letterpress Drawer, $21

I love this little letterpress drawer with all the fun sized little spaces. If you tilt it on its side, there are even handwritten letters on each spot that shows which letter lived where.

One of my loves is typography and graphic design, so this find was a perfect fit for me. I’m thinking I will hang it up and put little stuff on display – perhaps a mix of small gemstones, lego people, whatever else catches my eye.  Fun fact: there is actually a Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Wisconsin and I would totally go if I lived closer.

Original Oil Paintings by Glenn Stewart, $25 each

I’ve purchased a small oil painting by Glenn Stewart in the past and I love his little creations. He paints up a storm and then drops a stack of canvases off at a local art studio. I went through his latest pieces and found these two, which I love.

I’m not entirely sure where they will end up in my house yet, or if I’ll leave them unframed or mat and frame them. All I know is if I see affordable, original art that I love… I’m going to buy it and add it to my collection.

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Master Bathroom: Demo Day & Progress

We are FIRMLY in the ‘it gets worse before it gets better’ stage of our renovation project. The stage where there is a light dusting of drywall dust all over the house, everything is a mess and things are displaced into weird rooms.

You know, this stage:

As I mentioned in my planning post (Master Bathroom Planning: The Before), we knew this project was going to snowball. In order to turn our spare room into a master bathroom and walk-in closet, it was going to impact not only that room but our bedroom, living room, kitchen and current master bathroom.

We started with Demo Day on Sunday, April 24th. My dad, Travis and I ripped out 3 walls of drywall, the carpet and ceiling fan in the room that will become the master bathroom. We also ripped open the wall and part of the ceiling in the living room/kitchen to make way for plumbing and heating.

And yes, I yelled out DEMO DAY before ripping down a wall with my bare hands. As you do.

Here are some pictures from that first day:

Bathroom side:

Living Room:

Then, the following Friday, my dad and his helper framed in the new space and put the shower stuff where it will go in.

Last week, things got a bit more interesting. And messy.

On Thursday, my dad and his helper did more framing, added some drywall, moved around some electrical outlets/switches and started working on the shower situation. Then, on Saturday, my dad took down the drywall between the new master bathroom and our bedroom and re-framed and drywalled a new wall which made our bedroom 26” bigger.

The plumber did the first day of his 2-day job where he started running all the plumbing from the basement, through the living room and up to the new bathroom. This meant my dad had to take out MORE drywall in the living room, which resulted in a total mess. I left the house for the day, so Travis assisted my dad and according to him walked up and down the stairs a billion times.

Here is where we are now:

Same view as above of looking into the closet/bathroom:

Current status of the shower:

The view of my bedroom wall when I left the house on Sunday morning:

And the view when I got home (the black mat is where the door will be):

And my living room right now:

As I mentioned… A MESS. But a productive mess? This is exactly 2 weeks into the project and I think this is as bad as it’s going to get before it starts getting better. Or, at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

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Upgrading my Peloton Bike Shoes to Shimano

You know how sometimes you don’t know how uncomfortable something is until you take it off? Well, I had no idea how uncomfortable my Peloton biking shoes were… until I replaced them with a pair from Shimano.

One of my toes had been bothering me and I didn’t really think too much of it, until it kept bothering me for more than just a couple days. I started paying attention to my various shoes when I’d put them on to try to figure out the culprit and found that it was my Peloton bike shoes. When I would stand up out of the saddle, my foot would slip forward and one toe would bump and rub on the end of the shoe. On top of that, the shoes have never really been what you would call comfortable anyways. They were pretty narrow (and I have normal width feet) and just felt very stiff.

I had never used any other bike shoes though, so I figured that was just how bike shoes fit. Kind of how ski boots have a specific feeling to them.

Anyways, I decided to order a new pair and read good things about Shimano brand bike shoes. I did a ton of research on Amazon and decided to go with these: Shimano SH-1C100 High Performance Cycling Shoes.

I’m normally either an 8.5 or 9 in shoes, so I picked the 8.5/9 size. The cost at the time I ordered them was $100 and they are still at that same price as of when I published this post.

NOTE: The shoes do NOT come with the Delta Compatible cleats (the part that attaches them to the bike pedals). However, since I already had Peloton shoes with the cleats on them, I just used the provided Allen wrench to take them off my old pair and put them on my new pair. If you were buying these new – and not replacing a previous pair with them – you would also need to purchase these for $15: Delta Compatible Cleats.

I made the switch to the new shoes about a month ago and OHMYGOSH it is a world of difference! The toe-box and mid-area has so much more room in width so they are not squeezing your feet into them. They easily clip in and out of the bike pedals and are super comfortable when I’m pedaling in and out of the saddle. My only regret is that I wish I would have purchased these 260 rides ago!

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