We made it the night before just to make sure it turned out okay. And boy did it! Tom kept sneaking back to take little tastes of it all night.
The frozen rum punch was delish!
Category Archives: Ground Control
This slushie machine is no joke.
We’ve been looking at these and researching them for a long time. Unfortunately the best ones are professional models that are expensive and huge! We finally bit the bullet for our upcoming annual end of summer party…
Cuddles at the bar!
I’m sitting at the bar and she crawled over from David’s lap…
to cuddle behind me in my chair.
Olive bellies up to the bar!
She was on Anna’s lap, but still…
Unexpectedly delicious.
So I finally took pictures of most of the newly redesigned house.
FYI We have had a few changes since these pics—that teal ottoman and gray loveseat are gone (long and sordid story that ends with us telling you to avoid Roomplace like the plague) and we have a leather loveseat on order. Missing rooms are the dining room and front room because we’ll need to rearrange that furniture again. I finally got around to taking the pics specifically because the ottoman was going away.
My friend Jodi Van Leer (J Van Leer Designs) was amazing in helping us figure out what we wanted, shopping for things, and pulling everything together. We trusted her implicitly and we couldn’t be happier!
Tom got to play woodworker and built:
- the walnut mantle surrounds
- the cabinet doors
- the birch forest (using trees we brought home from my parent’s house in the upper peninsula!)
- the stacked wood wall in the bar (my Pinterest idea)
- and new built-in shelves for the liquor in the bar (so now he finally has his “me room” (and not just a me wall!)—which we’ve named Ground Control)!
Other changes include:
- a new ceiling fan in the living room and a huge chandelier in foyer
- new fixtures to replace contractor-grade boob lights
- a new dining room fixture
- a new foyer table coming this weekend
- new bar footrails
- and a new fireplace tile surround and flooring…
We absolutely love everything and when it’s picked up and free of kid shit it’s freaking amazeballs. It was a shit ton of work and expense and we pretty much got it all done in two months to be ready for the big party! But we finally have our forever home that looks put together and adult!!
P.S. Here’s a Before and After!
Epic Paloozafest Blowout
Y’ALL, IT’S TIME TO PARTY!
We’ve all been cooped up with Covid and missed ALLLLLLLLLL the excuses to party…and you know we like to throw a house party…so we’re doing them all at once!
- Post-Covid Celebration
- Cascade Housewarming (7/2020)
- Tom’s USMC retirement (6/2021)
- BFF Anna-versary (8/2021)
- Our 20th Anniversary (8/2021)
- End-of-Summer/Back-to-School
Saturday morning and the Jello shots are here and ready thanks to Angela (she took the assignment when I ran out of time). But look at how well they fit in our garage fridge? It’s like it was meant to be.
About an hour before the party and I wasn’t even dressed yet. You think “Oh there’s only a little bit to do” but all the little things add up! Angela came over to help with a bunch of it and I’m eternally grateful. (Anna was picking up my kids from a class and getting the cupcakes.) It takes a village to throw a big party!!
Getting closer—getting the mixed drink dispensers ready! Peach Bellini, Rum Punch (empty), Vodka and lemonade, Beergarita, Bahama Mama.
David making his famous Trinidad rum punch! Yes that’s two full bottles of rum going in.
I forgot to take a pic of the food table but the dessert table was insane so I did takes a pic of that! We wouldn’t have needed to buy cupcakes at all! We had a few different kinds of cookies, two smoked cheesecakes, a German chocolate cake, a white cake, mini cupcakes, and Sam’s Club cupcakes!
Local-ish TiVo peeps!
We had to do at least one LipSense selfie!
The ribs were a hit. The pulled pork was amazing. And we have a ton of leftovers!
The only pics I snapped outside during the party!
The slide was a huge hit as expected. A few adults did go down towards the end of the night—butb it was actually cold by then so it didn’t last long.
David ended up making drinks for people at the bar…
And as we were saying goodbye to people, I discovered someone left a fern in our empty pot! (I had wanted to get succulents planted in it but never got to it with all the house stuff.) Turns out it was Ava, one of my gardener friends!
We just have great friends—from everyone who offered to help to the ones who loaned us things to the ones that jumped in to help before, during (putting away leftovers and doing the first round of kitchen clean up, and after (cleaning up the yard and house)… Thank you. We had a great time and I think everyone else did, too! Now to clean up some more and relax…
The bar has been named!
We have been trying to think of a name for our bar since we moved in. (Granted we hadn’t given it that much thought, but we would throw out random names.) Nothing was right.
The previous owners called it the Long Bar—I thought it was because it was a long bar…but it was their last name (LOL). Doh!
So I posted on Facebook and TiVo and got some good suggestions!
Hudson Bar
Time Flies
The Dirty Secret
The Dirty Habit
The Dirty Major
H³ Bar – Hudson Happy Hour
Major Bar
Barry McBarface
Bartholomew Drunkins
Hold My Beer
Pub Club
Ground Control
Major Tom’s
Major Tom’s Retreat
The UMF
Peep Bar
The Jolly Major
Oohrah Inn/Bar
Semper Fi Saloon
Major Intoxication
Major T’s
FU Bar
At Ease
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
AND THE WINNER IS…
Ground Control! Yes, lots of Ground Control to Major Tom references were made and suggested and Tom liked that one the best (and the bar is going to be his “me room” with all of his military memorabilia).
The bar is coming along…
We absolutely love our bar and it’s totally amazing…but it was missing a few things.
We really wanted footrests—so dad and Linda offered to pay for them as a housewarming gift! Tom installed them today and they are perfection!
And I’ve always wanted a slot machine and long story short we looked at a few (and I adjusted my expectations) and we decided on this one (it’s not crazy noisy)! The kids are going to go crazy! (That isn’t quite the final resting place—Tom will build something.)
More things are coming, too!! I can’t wait!
