Ethan and Katie's Adventures in Living…Together

It’s been forever since we have posted. So long that I’m not entirely sure anyone is still reading.  BUT, we have a good excuse…we’ve been so busy becuase we got ENGAGED!

Over the holidays, we planned a roadtrip during the Christmas and New Years break.  After much debate, we decided to head east and hit up Park City by way of Las Vegas, my new favorite place.  How it took me this long to realize the awesomeness of Vegas is just beyond me.  After spending a great night in Vegas (we stayed at the Trump), we hit the road early in order to make it to Park City by dinner time.  Little did I know that Ethan had made reservations at a restaurant at the top of a mountain, which was only accessible by sleigh ride.  And little did Ethan know that Park City was in a different time zone than Vegas.

We flew through the beautiful desert landscape, stopping only for gas, in an effort to make these reservations.  Once we arrived in Park City, we collapsed and rested for a while (all that being-a-passenger-in-a-car stuff is exhausting!) until it was dinner time.  Ethan was still playing it cool and I had NO idea that anything was up.

Around 6pm, we made our way over to the sleigh (which is pulled by a Sno-Cat) and managed to get ourselves into the cab of said Sno-Cat. This ended up working out to our benefit, as they were grooming the mountain and our route up the hill took us through about 6 snow making machines.  The folks in the sleigh said it’s the coldest they have ever been.  And these are the hard core skiing type.  

Once at the top, the group strapped on snowshoes for the last 50 yard trek across the snowy (and flat…thank God) landscape, lit only by the moonlight.  At this point…Ethan started acting differently.  He kept pulling me to the back of the group (there were about 30 of us in a single file line) to “look at the surroundings” and “take it all in”.  Me, being nervous about group seating and not being able to sit together at dinner, kept pushing him to the front of the line.  And I might mention here, that it was about 9 degrees out.  I wasn’t about to hang back and risk getting lost in this tundra.  So Ethan kept pulling and I kept pushing.  Eventually, he won out and there we were, a few yards from the restaurant, when he asked someone to take our picutre.  After the picture, here is how it played out:

Ethan: I love you
Katie: Love you too [turns to run to restaurant to ensure good seating]
Ethan[grabs me]: I want to spend the rest of my life with you
Katie: Me too [turns to run to restaurant to ensure good seating]

At this point, Ethan realized the only way to stop me was to get down on one knee.  Cue the tears.  I started freaking out and jumping around in my showshoes.  Ethan shows me the ring, and then snaps the box shut.  What!? Is he serious? What was going on here…

Ethan: I’m not about to take this diamond ring out of its box, in the DEEP snow, in the moonlight. 

Fair point.  We run (awkwardly) to the restaurant, take off the snowshoes and he puts the ring on me. I am of course telling everyone I see.  Turns out the staff already knew.  He had coordinated it with them!  And low and behold…we had reserved seats.

Pic of us at the restaurant

Last week, Ethan went to Europe for work and I found myself all alone in our house for the first time.  I survived, but throughout the course of the week I acted as if I had never been home alone in my lifetime.  As if those years I spent living by myself had never happened.  I did all of the stereotypical ‘freaked-out-girly’ things like sleeping with the lights on, checking the locks every hour and turning on the alarm each time I walked into or out of the house (even to water the plants in the back…never know who could sneak in the front.)  Every sound I heard, I was convinced was someone breaking into the house.  The ice maker, the washing machine, the air conditioning…all were out to get me.  And God forbid the front or back outdoor motion lights go on….

While Ethan was away, I also got to experience some fun aspects of the house that I don’t normally get to, such as scaling the electronic gate, in heels, at 11PM when it decides not to open…or killing a cockroach the size of Texas in our bathroom. 

Now that he is back, the washing machine isn’t as scary and I don’t have force myself to stay awake until my eyelids are so fatigued that they won’t stay open anymore.  I’ve also decided that dealing with gate and cockroaches are activities I will leave to him…he is just so much better at them then I am.

This past weekend, we took a break from working on the house to head to South Beach for 5 days with Ellie (Ethan’s sister for those who don’t know) and her boyfriend Derrick.  We all had the best time on the much needed break! 

We managed to pack a lot into the trip including snorkeling in Key Largo, an Alligator Farm in the Everglades (where they did an alligator feeding), lunch and cigar shopping in Little Havanna and cocktails in Coconut Grove.    Of course we hit our fair share of Ocean Drive, the beaches, the pool and Lincoln Rd. 

Below are some pics, all from Little Havana.  The first group of pics are from Gomez Park, which is a member’s only dominos/cards area (the rules include “Don’t come drunk” and “Don’t bring guns”). We also went to a cigar store, which is where Schwarzenegger gets his cigars.  Also did a little shopping in a grocery, which was interesting – most of the produce was like nothing we had seen before (we bought something that looked like a mango that the guy swore was an avocado, turns out he was right), and there was a DEFINITE language barrier.  Despite that, the guy kept giving us these little “apple bananas” (which you can see Ellie eating in the picture)!

Domino Park

Domino Park

Cigar Shop - Back Inventory

Smelling Tobacco Leaves

Learning how to Wrap a Cigar

Market

Apple Banana

After much debate, we finally decided to hire painters to do the outside of the house.  Hundreds of paint samples and mock-ups later, we landed on a dark tan with brown accents or as Sherwin-Williams calls it, Roycroft Suede.  We gave the painters the name and paint # and let ‘em loose.   That evening, Ethan texted me  “garage is painted”.  I responded “do you like it?”  Crickets…  So I called and asked.  He said “ummmm, I want to get your opinion on it.”  Not a good sign.   Here is what I showed up to…it’s DayGlo Orange.  We could walk out at night and feel safe since we had the sun in our backyard.

Shining Bright Through the Night

Our painters are obviously color blind, right?  That’s what we decided too.  Someone’s about to get fired for having to redo our garage at no charge.  After we peeled our eyes away from the giant Cheeto, we ran to the store to get the RIGHT paint samples mixed to test on the house, so we could prove to the painters that they should consider switching careers.  At the end of the day, our house looked like an artist’s palette, but we felt confident that the color on our garage, of the orange family, did not even come close to matching the one we wanted, of the brown family.

Next day, Ethan calls the painters to read them the riot act and after some back and forth we learn that the the color on our garage is…just a primer.  Sigh of relief (and cue tail between the legs).  But really…a) who uses a bright orange primer and b) doesn’t tell the homeowners?

Official!

It’s official!  Escrow has closed.   The house is owned.  A very good thing because we’ve already had a $izeable amount of work done on a house we didn’t technically own!  Stay tuned for a cheesy photo of us in front of the house holding the keys and a “sold” sign…