We've rehearsed, now on to the real thing...

So we've been kind of stingy with posts and pictures not only because we've been engaged in the kind of hard work that demolishes all possibility of having beautiful yet chaste bridal fingernails but also because we wanted the rehearsal dinner at our house to be a kind of "Grand Reveal" for our friends (without the "Oh my GOD!!!!"s and tears and hugs you see on HGTV).

We also didn't want our friends' amazing work ethic to show us up. Receiving the Honorary Piece of Disturbing Junk Award for his tireless service to 517 and all foolhardy enough to live there is Eric Stewart. In a ceremony that was not televised (kind of like the technical awards during the Oscars), Eric received this fine coal stove cover pried out of the concrete of the fireplace in our living room:


The more Antiques Roadshow of you might notice that there are two metal prongs sticking out of the plate. This allows the recipient to either wear it suspended from a chain around their neck or to nestle it into any empty hole they might desire. We did not see Eric wearing it around his neck when he left. We stopped asking questions there.

Here is Eric at the untelevised awards ceremony with Woody's mom Nancy. Note how he is leaning slightly to the right. At this point the award had "disappeared." Again, we stopped asking questions:


Without the decorative plate and pounds and pounds of soot-covered brick, the fireplace looks much different! Josh and his business partner Randy came by and completed all the rock work (I suppose you could say they "rocked out") in ONE day -- thank you Josh and Mariah for giving us all the rock as a wedding gift!

A closer look:


We put my stuffed raccoon (literally, no euphemism there) up for a nice slow braise. If it doesn't cook up nice at least we can still use it to continue to terrorize Maddy.

The rest of the living room is looking polished and cozy. Nana Witte and Dan gave us the only wedding gift that Maddy has truly enjoyed -- a rug:

Maddy now no longer needs to expend the massive energy required to jump on the couch and can just sack out on the floor. Much like Woody does when he can't expend the massive energy required to jump on the couch.

The bedroom also looks very posh and huge these days:


It's amazing how much more roomy a space gets when you do not have a 42-inch-television, bookcase, dresser, coffee maker, crock pot, coffee table, love seat, drying rack and, for good measure, a Christmas tree in there. I won't deny that Woody and I got lost trying to find our way back from the master bath at night. But when we started leaving a trail of bacon bits back to the bed things improved.

The guest room in which Eric will stay when he returns in September to work on building our outbuilding, er, to work on the production of Avenue Q, contains no furniture that has to be inflated before being used. We hope that he is psyched about this.