Kitties and Kegorators

Everything came together this weekend for our Housewarming party. We had great food, beer, and great friends! A lot of preparation was made for this weekend, and the last thing on our TODO list was to install our kegorator in the basement bar.

Bartender Not Included

When we started looking for a house, we knew that a basement bar was something that we both wanted, but it wasn't on our MUST list. But when we found the house on Adams Drive, we knew we lucked out! Half the basement is finished, and there is an unfinished bedroom that backs up to the built in bar, the perfect spot to put a kegorator! We purchased the previous owner's fridge with the intent to use it in the basement. 

Mike once again used his Googling powers and found a company called Beverage Factory, which specializes in home beverage systems, http://www.beveragefactory.com/. We got everything we needed from them to install our kegorator for $160. Now all we needed was Mike's dad, Jeff, to come up from Colorado Springs to help Mike install everything. 

Jeff was able to come up last weekend, and while they worked to install the kegorator I made myself scarce and set off to do some estate saleing! More on that later ... 1st up, READ THE DIRECTIONS (always important), empty the shelves out of the fridge, and build a shelf to support the keg ...

Next step, following the directions of course, Mike drilled a hole for the tube that goes from the keg to the tap ...

Ok, so at this point you are ready to install the wall tap. In our bar, the tap was being installed into the wood paneling, so to give it more support Mike and Jeff attached it to a 2x4 on one side. 

The final step is to tap your keg, and get to drinkin'! But there was one small oddity about our bar that we needed to rectify ... In order to get in the bar, you must open the half door, and crawl under the shelf that runs along the bar! No one can figure out why this door was installed without some sort of hinge allowing easier access. So before Mike and Jeff were done, they wanted to add a hinged door to the bar. To do so they had to remove the molding from the shelf, cut where the hinge should go, install the hinge, and reapply the molding ... Voila!!! 

This is about the time when I returned with my acquisitions. I managed to hit 3 sales, and the antique mall, all in about 4 hours! Here are my finds

Copper napkin dispenser, flower cookie cutters, vintage kitchen clock, copper measuring spoons, about 50 plastic coasters, and a handmade lantern

My favorite find of the day was the lantern. When I'm out estate saleing I have a list of sales that I plan to hit, and I use http://www.estatesales.net/ to find them. If I see a sign for an estate sale, I'll drive by to check it out, but can I just point out to everyone that an estate sale is different than a garage sale or moving sale!!! An estate sale implies that the owner has passed away or is willing to part with everything in their home, and it does not take place on a lawn. I can't stand when I drive off my route only to find some housewife calling her garage sale, an estate sale!

Anyway, back to the lantern, I found it by following a sign, and it actually was an estate sale. The owner was there, and she was in the process of downsizing into assisted living. She had the lantern priced at $25, and I offered her $20. She told me she would give it to me for $20, but only if I really loved it because her husband's great-aunt had made it for them! I told her, not to worry, that I loved it, and that I had the perfect place for it!

Special thanks to Jeff for all his help! 

I can officially say that our TODO list is done! However, that only means that now I can focus on all the small little projects that I want to do including painting the foosball men on our vintage foosball table (U.S.A. vs. The Netherlands), and stenciling the vinyl window shades throughout the house.

Kitten Intermission!!! 

I would like to introduce everyone to the 4 most amazing cats in Denver, CO (heck maybe the world), Mr. Bojangles, Lucky Boots, Barbara, and Detective Ricardo Tubbs ... 

Mr. Bojangles

Lucky Boots (and Mike)

Barbara (and Matt)

And now for your viewing pleasure, a video featuring Detective Ricardo Tubbs, brought to you by The Ambitious Procrastinator herself, http://theambitiousprocrastinator.blogspot.com/

Save Your Relationship With These Easy Picture-Hanging Tips!

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! Hope everyone is taking the weekend to be "labor-free"!

Manhattan Poster by Jim Datz

We set the date for our housewarming party for September 17th, and to get ready there are a few things left on our To Do list. 

1st up we need to hang pictures. In the past, hanging pictures has tested our relationship. There isn't much else that will bring us both to the edge like hanging pictures, and Friday afternoon I prepared myself  for gritted teeth, clenched fists, and angry storm-outs. In addition to the art that we already had, we had ordered several posters from allposters.com, and 2 awesome prints from threepotatofourshop.com. In the past we had ordered the posters we wanted, and then made a trip to Michaels to pick out frames, but this time Mike found vendor on amazon.com called arttoframes.com.

For all the frames we needed, we easily would have spent over $300, but thanks to arttoframes.com, we only spent $130, including S&H! Each of the frames came with the necessary tools to hang them with. 

Once Mike had attached all the wires we were ready to hang, so I braced myself ... but guess what??? These frames were the easiest frames to hang I've ever used! Pick your spot on the wall where you want your picture, hammer in the nail, and hang your picture! SO SIMPLE! Here are just some of the pictures we hung using the frames from arttoframes.com

Unfortunately, not all of the pictures we hung were so easy. So once again we had to employ the old adage "Measure twice, cut once", or in our case "Measure twice, hammer once". There was some disagreement as to placement, but overall it was a the best time we have had while hanging pictures (the beer, and comic relief ala Justin Savidge helped).

Since I've been plugging arttoframes.com this whole time I guess it's only fair to talk about one other product that we picked up this weekend, the Come With Me Kitty leash and harness. When we lived in our old apartment we let the cats out onto the balcony, but now they are not allowed outside, and are devastated. We decided the harness would be a great idea, and picked it up while we were at Target. Let the hilarity ensue ...

We thought if we put the leash on the clothes line, Boots could walk up and down the grass, but needless to say she never figured that part out ...

                                                                                                                                                                        

... So Mike decided he would try and walk her, that also did not work out because she kept eating the grass instead. So we ended up looping the leash through one of the patio chairs ...

... Meanwhille in the house, poor Mr. Bojangles was left only to watch his arch enemy have the time of her life outside ...

After making sure that Boots was safely secured to the patio chair, I ran inside to get a drink. When I returned, (inside of 3 minutes at the most!), this is what I found ...

... My cat is an escape artist! Don't worry, she didn't go far, but thus ended Lucky Boots' outdoor adventures!

I should mention that Lucky Boots is THE Lucky Boots from theambitiousprocrastinator.blogspot.com! I also received these awesome pink pillows from Nikki, made using her tutorial!

We found this fabric at Ikea