Vacation is over, or at least the last vacation planned and based on my Saudi income. We are getting used a more sustainable and realistic married life. Being married is great, by the way.
Hiking at Crowder’s Mountain:
I picked our latest hiking location and chose Crowder’s Mountain, where I used to do some rock climbing as a kid. It’s a challenging hike with a lot of improvising as you make your way along ledges that make up the narrow ridge of the mountain.
Amanda handed me a camera with the self time engaged… we made the most of it.
This time we didn’t panic once the self timer was engaged…
Home Improvement:
The Kitchen Sink:
One day our kitchen sink started to fall away from our counter top, prompting a combined DIY and plumber assisted project. This led to our first trip to Lowes together and the first time we’d have to make real home related furnishing or design decisions together. They didn’t really have what we were looking for so we decided to look on amazon where we buy almost everything from.
We were disappointed to find not much more than some silicone glue was holding the sink up.
We never really thought the sink was that high quality to begin with, plus the sink was stainless and the faucet was chrome. We picked out a composite sink on Amazon, a brass faucet, and even found a plumber. Amanda and I installed the faucet before he arrived to install the sink.
After…
We reinforced this one with some side mounted brackets (bought off amazon) at the plumber’s recommendation. They were really easy to install.
The Kitchen Table:
Much of the main furniture (couches, beds, kitchen table) in our home was mine, and much of the accent furniture (side tables, chairs, lamps) was Amanda’s. This has worked out relatively well, except for one thing… Amanda hates my old kitchen table…. to be perfectly honest, I didn’t really like it much either. I bought it on a one day binge at Ashley furniture where I picked out all my post Peace Corps furniture and made one sales associate’s day. The Faux Granite top scratched up quickly, and it has always been especially apparent in the light.
Original.
Painted, pre-finish.
Finished and staged.
Luckie’s at the Lake:
The Luckie family did their annual summer vacation at Lake Keowee this year, really making it convenient for Amanda and I. We had some great nights out at Keowee with Mom, Dad, Shannon, Steven, Nichole, and Avery. We laughed at the Republican debate, had some great food, played cards, and Steven introduced us to Settlers of Catan. On our last full day at the lake we rented a boat, explored the lake a bit, and went tubing.
Looking Ahead…
On one of my off Friday’s Amanda and I took the day to look at some housing options for the future. We know our 2 BR place isn’t going to work forever and wanted to see what was planned / under construction in walkable downtown neighborhoods here in Greenville.
This townhome has a great second floor 26 foot long patio, and the builder is going to live in one of the units telling us it is probably built pretty well. It had a great view of the downtown skyline.. but notice the power lines.
We really fell in love with this condo project too, and had a chance to pick out one of the penthouse units before their marketing campaign started… we decided to stay nimble and unattached, ending a multi week fascination with upgrading.
Sunday Morning Runs:
A buddy from high school has recruited me into F3… Faith, Fellowship, & Fitness, a Christian men’s workout group. I’m participating in limited capacity right now, but have been getting out of bed pretty regularly for the 7.5 mile Sunday morning runs at 6 AM. I’m a bit sore right now writing this… but am glad to be getting back to running good distances.
Football Season:
I’m excited for my first football season in a few years. We made it out to opening day at Clemson and are hoping to get out to the Notre Dame and Georgia Tech games later in the year. Below is the new occulus from our parking space that we’ve never actually parked in.
Apple Picking… Because that is what married people do…
Labor day morning we didn’t really wake up with any plans, but by mid morning we were in the car and headed to the North Carolina mountains for some apple picking, the most stereotypical activity married upstaters can do in the fall.
That apple is too tall.
We weren’t too far from Asheville so we decided to grab lunch at Sierra Nevada’s tap room and restaurant.
And that brings us to today. I’m glad were caught up. We’ll work on making some new memories worth sharing soon.