Just another thing we do...

I'm not sure if we've mentioned this yet, but I'd be surprised if Meg hasn't; we like good beer. A lot. We love trying new beers whenever we can. We like going to the Yardhouse because it has over 100 beers on tap. We'll skip the first pitch of a Red Sox game to try a new beer across the street at Beer Works. We've been hanging out with a brewery near our college since we could both drink, Newport Storm.

Newport Storm Brewery tour in the college days

Newport Storm also introduced us to our favorite yearly vacation spot, Block Island. They used to do a pub crawl on the island the weekend before the fourth of July. That has since stopped, but the beer is still being brewed and we still try to get to Block Island once a year. Most recently, this past weekend. We don't embrace the pub crawl the way we used to, but we still walk to the bars and visit as many as we can.

They rented a bus to take us to the Oar!

One of the best place we go to try new beers is brewfests. At the beginning of September, there is a big beer fest in Boston called the American Craft Beer Festival (ACBF). We've had the chance to witness this magnificent event twice so far, and hopefully we'll be attending again soon. This year looks a little booked, but maybe next year. Last time we were able to go with a couple of friends and we had a blast. With over 120 breweries and 550 beers, it's hard not to.

The most recent beer fest we attended was the Newburyport Beer Fest last month. Meg actually works with the coordinator, and her parents live in Newburyport,  so we had plenty of incentive to go. They had a lot of great beers, including Oskar Blues out of Colorado. We stopped by the brewery when we were on our Colorado beer trip. (What's that you ask? Well, looks like I have another blog post to write.) There was also live music and a raffle. I ended up winning the last raffle prize which was a bunch of swag from Ipswich Ale Brewery. Not bad at all.

In addition to enjoying good beer, we also enjoy brewing our own. I'll save that for another blog post too, but here's a sneak peek. Enjoy!

Matt's Areas

There are two areas that Meg left out of the house tour, she told me I'm in charge of blogging about them, so here we go, finally. We've only been in the house for 8 months...


I've got the basement and the garage. There isn't much to them except storage, and my AWESOME work bench(es). We also have a beverage fridge. It holds mostly beer, as well as soda and juice for when we have guests with kids. It started out as a full fridge/freezer that the previous home owners left, but that died 2 weeks after we bought the house. We were able to "donate" that to someone that was willing to take it to the scrap yard. It saved me the hassle of getting rid of it and he made a few bucks.

We had to buy a washer/dryer set before we moved in. We found a set on sale for half price and couldn't pass it up. We called our mortgage company to make sure a big purchase was OK, and got them. We couldn't be happier with them.

Somehow we were able to inherit a bunch of things for free. We got a bunch of stuff from Meg's parents that didn't make the move from their house to their new place. That included a drill press, table saw and a router with a table. We also got a bunch of cabinet pieces that we need to decide what to do with.

With our neighbor packing up and driving across the country, they're getting rid of a bunch of stuff too. So far, they have generously given us an old TV and stand as well as a bunch of stuff they put on the road for free, including a set of sawhorses. I ended up chopping the stand in half, putting the TV on the bottom half and using the top half in the garage to hide all the gasoline, motor oil and other home owner liquids. My office has also recently changed locations and got a whole bunch of new office furniture. Anything that wasn't going to the new space was up for grabs. Storage was a little confusing in the basement, so I grabbed what I thought would be useful. The first thing I put my name on was my new work bench. It's a huge table, 3'x7'. It's already been great. There was a sheet of glass on top that we'll show you in another post after we up cycle it.

The garage is a little tight, but we make it work. The lawn tools (including my reel mower!) are in the garage with the garden tools and other outdoor stuff while the workshop stuff is in the basement.

Eventually, and hopefully soon, we need to fit a 1970 El Camino in the garage. That will entail a lot more blogging from me, so stay tuned for that.

Weekend Adventures: the "athletes"

Because we already don't sleep enough with work and the new house, why not tack on endurance events to occupy our "free" time? A few years after living together we began to tackle exercise more seriously. Neither of us were getting any smaller...we ran our first 5k together about four years ago. It was the farthest either of us had ever run. Fast forward to this summer and we actually enjoy each others company during our 5:30 am runs around the neighborhood. This is possibly because we're still half asleep and don't 100% realize how crazy we Meg are is.

Matt has taken running to new levels. Last year he ran a 10 miler and this past May used his new found enjoyment of running to raise money for our troops coming home at the 9k Run to Home Base at Fenway Park. I'm really proud of him.

While I'm still trying to be a better runner, cycling has always been my true athletic passion. I'm about to ride my third Pan Mass Challenge, a charity cycling race supporting cancer research and care. It's in 9 days!!!  I'll be riding a century (100 miles) on August 4th. Training uses a good chunk of my weekend hours but the event is worth it. Wish me lots of luck this year because I haven't gotten in quite as much training as I'd like to.  It's also my Dad/daughter weekend, he rides with me.   

Wish us luck this year with our goals!

Meg's PMC profile: http://www.pmc.org/profile/MB0343

Her fundraising necklaces in her Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/101302673/bicycle-necklace-for-charity

 

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Blogging the Real Stuff & Our Dedication

A few months ago a buzz started around "blog world". It's time to get real with our readers. Why paint a pretty picture? We all watch reality TV for a reason! The drama, it's ok to let a little drama into blog world.

We're learning from what we like to read about. Over on Young House Love, I like when John shared the story of the leak in the roof, they became real to me in that post and made me want to read more. And a friend just started to blog about the Husband's side of pregnancy. Matt is following that one for warnings! We started our get real initiative in our post about Free & Cheap Projects. Were talking about keeping decor expenses in check and working at making up for going a little overboard in the beginning.

Because we hope to always blog the real stuff, good or bad, we are officially dedicating our blog to:

The Weekend Warrior

The real side of this blog, 18 Preston, is that Matt and I are weekend warriors. This is why you don't see regular blog posts. We both work 9-5s (actually make that 7-6s with a working lunch most days.) I travel for my job. I'm sleeping in hotel rooms about 6 nights a month, have been making Boston - LA flight every other week for the past four months. I drafted this blog post on an airplane. We can only get to laundry on the weekends. I regularly fall asleep on the couch by 9pm on Fridays. Sometime we feel like we're sprinting a marathon just to get to the weekend. And of course, then they go by so quickly!

So we're hoping to feature the challenges of home projects when you only have the weekend, those 48 precious hours each week to get those DIY projects done. If you're a weekend warrior and have tackled a large project we want to hear from you! Even if its just your handy man (husband/s.o.) who is the weekend warrior tell us about your self.  And leave a link to your blog in the comments section below!  Tell us what worked, and what didn't. How did you break up the project? How many weekends did it take? Tell us all about it! We want to feature other Weekend Warriors, just like us
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Summer in Instagram

I'm trying to get Matt on the Instagram bandwagon as well so you can see what we've both been up to, but for our first Instagram post you'll have to check of what my summer has looked like so far.

1. Some early games at Fenway Park and Matt's Run to Home Base

2. Coffee on the porch on the weekends

3. Making beer cocktails! This one is Hogarden mixed with a raspberry lambic

4. Two craft fairs so far for my Jewelry work

5. Several custom bridal orders completed

6. Produce from my garden

7. I LOVE oysters! Had some for our anniversary date

8. Cirque du Solie in Boston for our anniversary

9. Longest bike ride of the summer, 65 miles finished off with Ben & Jerry's

How's your summer so far? Is anyone capturing it with Instagram?

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What We're Cooking @ 18 Preston

I (Meg) cook ALOT.  It is hands down one of my most favorite things to do.  We're still surprised I haven't found a way to make it a living yet.  Last night we tried a new recipe from the latest Food Network Magazine and it was so delicious we had to share.  I often make tweaks to recipies either to make them more simple or so I can use what we already have on hand.  This one I stuck to and it's perfect and so incredible easy.  Add some brown rice and this is a perfect meal to impress some guests who love fish!

Soy Glazed Salmon with Cucumber Avocado Salad - by Food Network Magazine

Photo by Food Network Magazine

Get the recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/soy-glazed-salmon-with-cucumber-avocado-salad-recipe/index.html#

We're collecting more of our favorite recipes on this Pinterest Board.  Follow along to see what else we're cooking @18 Preston!

Dining Room Art Update

My heart was set on my large gallery frame wall the minute we knew the house was ours. My plan all along is to change the art out seasonally, using the frames to bring some decor into our home. I've never been too big on holiday decorating and I think I'll enjoy this subtle approach.

If you caught our first post about the dinning room update you saw what found a home in the gallery frames first. In true Pinterest fashion - paint swatches. While I still love these and have tucked them away to be seen again next spring it was time for our summer update.

The backstory about our summer gallery art is a spring trip we planned to Newport, RI. We went to school in Rhode Island and take an off season trip to Newport once a year. The trip has two missions. 1) eat at some of our favorite restaurants, and 2) visit our favorite antique store, ever! The Armory, to pick out vintage post cards of Newport.

Turns out we couldn't get reservations anywhere we wanted and the antique store was closed for renovations! Luckily there are still Irish Pubs, Starbucks, and Etsy. I found these post cards in an Etsy shop and they are perfect.

The Mount Hope Bridge one is our favorite because it's a Roger Williams University landmark, where we met! There is also a single frames antique postcard of Purgatory Chasam in Newport, where Matt proposed.

And this art update fell into our "free" & "cheap" projects list at $15 for the post cards mounted on scrapbook paper from the stash.

Have you done a cheap of free project lately? link it up over here!