The Fennels: August 2014

So I've mentioned on this blog (at least more than twice) that I really wanted to post before and after pictures of our condo. In fact, the first time I mentioned this was probably in my second or third post ever written. Well for all of you who are homeowners, you know that your house is never "completely done."

I've learned this over time. There is always SOMETHING I going to want to do -- and because of that, I'll never consider it "done."

So why not post how far we've gotten so far, right?

PS: I was REALLY hoping to purchase stainless steel appliances for the kitchen. I feel that would have been the "cherry on top" -- who knows, maybe we'll be buying some new appliances before we know it.

So, we moved into our condo on December of 2011. These are the pictures from the listing online:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Nothing really different.

Except the gnome!

New countertops!

New curtains. Same table as previous owners! (we wrote it in our offer! HA!)

New carpet/blinds/curtains

New carpet/blinds

Spare bedroom needs a little love.

But not the closet!

Pretty bathrooms

Finished basement

Patio

We love our pond!

That's it for now.......!!

Monday morning tomorrow. :-(

Our long awaited vacation!

A roadtrip. We love love love roadtrips. And we've put so many miles on our little one year old hatchback, but each vacation just keeps getting better and better. Someone pinch me. I'm so blessed and grateful.

So for this vacation, we headed down south to Kentucky to drive the famous Bourbon Trail.

Now, A LOT of people have never heard of the Bourbon Trail before -- but Hello, I'm the wife of the biggest beer and bourbon snob you'll ever meet - so of course, we knew about it. Matt was counting down the weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds..... until we got into the car and headed for Kentucky.

We were able to stop along the way to say HELLO to my BFFN and her hubs, Lubchek. We celebrated my birthday, her cat, Stella, the invention of Which Wich, and watched half of "Outcold" before going to bed.

We are SO cool. Hey! It was a weeknight, ya'll.

The next morning, we woke up and drove the three remaining hours to Lexington, Kentucky to start at the first distillery. And OH MY GOD - Lexington is SO beautiful. The downtown area is as adorable as the country horse farms (where they breed the Kentucky pure bred racing horses). And you guys -- the houses of these horse farms...........----- I've never seen bigger mansions. Multi million dollar homes. Absolutely Stunning.

The bourbon trail consists of:

Town Branch
Woodford Reserve
Wild Turkey
Four Roses
Makers Mark
Heaven Hill
Beautiful views
Winding back roads
......and more (Jim Beam and such).

We visited the six distilleries and had a FABULOUS time. The first night, we stayed at the Hilton in downtown Lexington -- which was one of the most beautiful hotels I've ever stayed at and the second night, we went to our first bed and breakfast that dated back to the CIVIL WAR. So cute!!!!!

On top of that -- on Friday night, we ended up at some little winery off the beaten path and met the most amazing VEGAN couple, a Frank Sinatra fanatic bartender, and a UIC grad and his wife (in small town Kentucky!) A couple bottles of wine in, Lauren, James, Matt and I were outside enjoying the sunset and making plans for that evening in downtown Lexington.

Fast forward one hour = Jaclyn's asleep in the car.

The next morning, we woke up and headed to Cracker Barrel for the SECOND time of that trip, indulged in things cooked in butter, milk, and eggs (We're NOT perfect, people! Vegans can cheat sometimes, too!), and headed to some more distilleries.

Matt ordered a $25 two ounce pour glass of Four Roses bourbon (neat). And I can't believe that I was totally okay with it. Vacation mode.

Makers Mark was by FAR my most favorite. Plus the old man tour guide was so cute. His name was Herb!!!! And he was the ONLY tour guide to actually teach the tourists how to actually SIP and TRY bourbon the CORRECT way.

Four Roses was Matt's favorite -- because well, he likes the Four Roses bourbon the most.

We had a private tour at Town Branch (our first stop) which was super fun.

Matt got his birthday gift early this year. The diamond anniversary bottle celebrating the head distiller of Wild Turkey's 60th anniversary. (Matt's birthday is in DECEMBER).

I got a cool Wild Turkey fedora. #obsessed

Ernie and Lulu stayed in a "Kitty Kondo" at Pine Ridge Pet Resort in Madison. It even had a personal cat climb and window for them to look out. Only the best for our babies. And we missed them dearly. And talked about them often.

We rushed home on Saturday night because we were ready to pick up E & L and enjoy our sweet, little condo home.

Enjoy the pictures.