Weekend Update! (and Thursday and Friday too)

On Tuesday last week my little brother Spencer came to visit for a few days. He took an overnight flight from San Francisco where he was visiting his girlfriend (!!!) and arrived in Boston Tuesday morning. He hung out around my office on Tuesday (exciting stuff) and on Wednesday hung out at our house since I had to work. Thursday he came into work with me in the morning and then in the afternoon we decided to go and see the John Adams birthplace and house in Quincy. After driving in circles in Quincy we finally managed to find the visitors' center where we purchased tickets for the tour. You hop on a trolley to the first site where a ranger takes you on a tour of the two homes which were the birthplace of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. The houses are the oldest presidential birthplaces in the U.S.

Spencer in front of John Adams' birthplace.

After touring the birthplaces you hop back on the trolley to go see the "Old House" where the Adams family lived from 1788 to 1927. This house is much grander and the majority of the furnishings and artwork in the house are original.

The "Old House"

Next door to the "Old House" is the Stone Library. John Quincy Adams requested in his will that a fireproof structure would be built to house his collection of more than 14,000 books and papers. I think it's safe to say that Spencer and I were most impressed by the library. You can't take pictures inside but it's panelled with dark wood and there's a balcony level with a ladder leading up to more books. A large fireplace and a few desks and comfy chairs make it the perfect spot to cozy up with any of 14,000 books...

The Stone Library

After Spencer left on Friday to head back to work in D.C. Paul and I decided to go to Lowes which is one of our favorite "date spots." I'd been looking for a rug for the nursery and he'd seen some there that he thought I might like. We came home with the rug below (the colors in this picture aren't very accurate, I had a hard time getting a good shot of it). Since the nursery colors are blues, greens, browns and some red accents I think this rug will work perfectly.

New Rug for the Nursery

Here's a picture of the rug and the whole nursery. At this point it's a storage room more than anything else but imagine a crib where the bed in the corner is, the chair pushed back into the other corner, and baby paraphernalia everywhere and you'll get the idea. We have a little bit of painting and cleaning to do before December!

Nursery (aka Junk Room)

The other purchase we made was a light fixture for over our kitchen sink. We had ordered one months ago but the shipping date kept getting pushed back so we've been keeping our eyes out for another option. We found the light below at Lowes for $30 and while it's not QUITE as perfect as the fixture we'd ordered for $120 less in price we're just as happy with it.

Kitchen Light

Here's a closeup of the light. Obviously we need to do some patchwork and some painting and I need to whip up a valance or something for the window but after that the kitchen will finally be officially finished!!!

Kitchen Light

So that was the weekend. No fireworks, no parties, we didn't even grill as the weather was lousy. But for us it was good, we relaxed, spent some time together, and got a few things done around the house.