Stimulating the Economy

No sooner did we move into the new house and partially unpack, then it was time to head up to New England for a previously scheduled family vacation.  The timing was suboptimal from a house perspective, but we definitely needed the R&R!

While in Vermont, we did look for furniture to purchase for our new place, but unfortunately, we did not find anything.  We were also planning to take home Nick's desk with us; it has served for the last few years as his father's desk in the Vermont family house.  However, when push came to shove, it was decided that the oak desk would stay in the house, and his parents kindly offered to pay for a new desk for us.  Which brings us to...this past weekend.

This weekend saw the purchase of a pair of fairly big-ticket items for us, thanks to the aforementioned desk money and a generous graduation gift from one of Nick's relatives.  He has been talking for months (ok, it's only two months but that counts) about wanting to purchase a barbeque.  We had originally planned to delay that until Labor Day and the expected big box store sales, but with the graduation gift, he started rethinking it.  He was originally planning on purchasing a gas grill, but was swayed by a good friend, who pointed out that with the amount of time and effort we put into planning and cooking food, it seemed silly for us to go gas when charcoal makes the food taste better.  So he did his research, and had a Weber charcoal grill on his mind when we headed to Lowe's early Sunday morning.

 

One store employee, upon seeing our cart, asked what time the BBQ would be.  Wednesday!

Grill and accessories in hand (or cart, rather), we headed to the next destination: Ikea in Woodbridge.  This is a dangerous place to go given the multitude of things we always find ourselves interested in.  And Ikea on a Sunday morning gets a little nutty, but it was better than dealing with traffic on a Monday morning.  We had checked the website and Nick decided to purchase a corner desk in the Galant style, to match the desk we bought for me a couple of years ago.

Those T-frame legs are so hideous.  Truly.

It's a nice piece, though we opted for the chrome A-frame legs instead of the ugly silvered T-frame ones (again, to match our other desk).  We also managed to escape exit the store without purchasing anything else save a shelf unit to go with the desk, which was a pretty impressive feat.  Even more impressive was fitting the desk into the back of my car - that took some doing!  Then we almost weren't able to get it out again once we got home.  Then came the task of putting it together.  I think Nick had forgotten how much of a pain my original desk was to assemble - had he remembered, he might not have opted for the same style.  There was quite a bit of sweat involved, but thankfully no blood or tears.  We mistakenly bought the right corner desk instead of the left corner desk (yes, there actually is a difference) because my desk is much narrower than Nick had thought, but it still works nicely - just in a different orientation than he had originally planned.  With the double-monitor setup he has going on in there, I'm afraid I'm going to have trouble dragging him out of the office!

It's a bit cluttered at the moment (still unpacking) but you get the idea.

Other new town/new home details....Nick checked out the local twice-weekly farmer's market while I was at work Saturday and found it to be small but excellent.  There are fewer than a dozen vendors, but they have terrific produce selections and a poultry/meat vendor that he liked a lot.  Plus someone who sells seedlings, which may come in handy when it's time to start the garden.  We have also discovered that the local Wegman's supermarket is excellent.  It manages to combine a lot of the higher-quality foods we associated with our old Whole Foods with the range and prices we are used to seeing at more generic supermarkets, and it has a friendly feel to it.  I was concerned when we moved out here that we would not be able to find a good supermarket.  I am very glad that that fear was unfounded.

Nick hung the TV on the wall and I've put some art and other such pieces on the living room shelves, so the room is finally coming together.  We found a console table that we might use as an entertainment center at Ikea, but it's not in the budget at the moment and it's not supremely important. so a Pier1 chest we bought a few years back is doing the job for now.  We found our table lamps, which is excellent because with no overhead light the room gets quite dark at night.

Not the most well-lit photo but today was on the cloudy side.
Still get a kick out of those Star Trek skylights!
Lots of artwork piled in front of the fireplace that still needs a home in the house somewhere.

Have also been exploring variations on my commute to work.  The main highway (I-66) is a nightmare at rush hour, so before we moved I asked coworkers for suggestions on travel routes.  One involved taking a road called Vint Hill through farm and horse country before getting into subdivision and urban areas.  It seems to be working well so far, though I am concerned that things will slow down once school starts up next month.  My commute is about 45 minutes, more than double my old commute time.  With the exception of coming home really late at night after a long day, though, I haven't really minded the commute.  Why not?  Once I get onto Vint Hill (which takes about 8 minutes), my view for the next 15 minutes looks like this:

 

This is a remarkably relaxing way to start the day.