A New Love: Corktown

This past Sunday, I engaged in a first - the first time I've ever attended Detroit's St. Patrick's Day Parade in Corktown. One of my bridesmaids, Jenny recently moved to a loft with her boyfriend near old Tigers Stadium and invited Greg and I down to witness what can only be described as an event.

Now, I've gone to visit Jenny at her new place before. During these visits I've found that Corktown can only be described as a place lacking PR. The area is typically characterized by locals and media as the bad side of town ravaged by homeless and crimes. Yet, every time I go to visit, I am exposed to something new and fun - and not a mugging. From discovering a new restaurant to a new museum, every time I visit it's an incredible experience and one I would have never had if I stuck to the other side of the tracks.

This parade was nothing like what I described above. Greeted by a sea of green, irish-song-singing, jolly Detroit-ers, I fell in love with yet another Detroit tradition: St. Patrick's Day. As always, thanks Jenny for another eye-opening experience, the pictures below follow our day, sadly I didn't quite capture the aforementioned sea of green, but you'll get the idea.

Here's the view from standing on Jenny's side roof/balcony - old Tiger's Stadium with Greg happily posing:

Jenny and I in a partial sea of green during the parade. My favorite is the guy wearing the green avaition hat. If you looked closely, you'd see this savvy 80 year-old had glued Lucky Charms to it.

Greg and I smiling happily in the sea of green before I was pummeled with jaw breakers from the O'toole's float.

All in all, it really was a lot of fun. I'm hoping when my friends and family come to the wedding and have to stay in Flint (also an area plagued with a bad reputation), they are able to keep an open mind and have a simliar experience to ours in Corktown.

More to come,
Nicole

Final Destination

We did it! Last Saturday, our moving crew of Greg, Me, Melissa, Jeff and Greg's mom packed up our remaining boxes and large furniture pieces, loaded up the truck and moved to Clarkston! This served as the least stressful move ever for both Greg and I (seasoned movers now, due to college,. post-college apartments and summers afar).

Jeff and Melissa were kind enough to borrow (and drive!) a family friend's moving van for us for the day. We started at Greg's parent's house, loaded up his things, unloaded at our house, went to my old apartment in Royal Oak, loaded up my things and made the final trip back to Clarkston.

My hands were full for most of the day, but I did pause to take a couple photos intermittently...

Melissa pausing to smile in between lifting giant boxes of books and freezing outside..thanks Melissa!

Jeff hard at work and moving mattress #1 of 3 down the hall...thanks Jeff!

Piles of boxes - this is just the living room, you should have seen the rest of the house

That's me, tired, sore and oh-so-pumped to begin organizing!

I'll have the after portion up shortly!

More to come,

Nicole

Grand Reveal!

Patience has never been one of my strong suits, in fact, it's taken every fiber of my being to calm down and be patient with the house remodeling. Needless to say, I couldn't wait until Thursday, took a load of things to the house last night and snapped the much anticipated "after" photos of the kitchen and new bathroom. Enjoy!

Here are the "after" photos of our new kitchen. This is the dining room portion, we added hardwood floors, track lighting, low lighting, rugs, stainless steel appliances and a bistro theme!

Here's the actual kitchen part, I love how the paint turned out here and the new appliances are going to be amazing. Greg's mom, Paula helped a lot by adding contact paper to the cabinets, Greg's uncle, Greg helped us with all of the electrical work and Greg's dad....welll...let's just say the floor and appliances wouldn't be there without a hevty amount of his sweat. I cleaned like a mad woman. Again, and again.

Gotta love that new floor!

Ever onward, here are the pictures of the new bathroom. We actually found the design scheme in a paint swatch sample packet and feel in love with it in the aisles of Home Depot. This was by far the hardest project to date in the house, and is now, of course our pride and joy. This is the full bath. Here, we ripped out the lanolium, bathtub, old tub tiles, painted this pretty blue color, added tiles, a new vanity, marble double sinks, sliding glass shower door, new shower sides, new tub and all new hardware. I love this room!

Here's a good view of the new countertop, vanity and floor. This blue looks better in person, but you get the idea!
Beautiful new vanity and flooring.

You can see the new shower doors and trim Greg worked so hard on. It's been cool to see how similar our tastes are during this whole process too.

Last, but definately not least, here's the newly redone walk-in closet in the master bedroom. This is going to be amazing. Especially since the close alone is bigger than the bathroom in my current apartment!

So after all this work, what's the next project you ask? Well, here's the current living room...you tell me:)

More to come,

Nicole

"Before"

It's almost here! After another full weekend of balancing house repairs/improvements and wedding planning, we're ready to move in! The appliances are arriving on Tuesday, the kitchen and bathroom are officially done and the boxes are packed. Thursday, Greg and I are doing a little bit of clean up to make room for our actual things and take the "after" photos.

With that, I give you "before":

This is the master bedroom, granted we haven't changed much plans are in motion for a little color and walk-in closet organization.

Here's the livingroom...it's quite different now!

The kitchen got an "exereme makeover" Tye would be jealous of the work we did without calling him.

Look forward to the "after" photos on Thursday!

More to come,

Nicole