Dana Burland

I write this with paint stained hands and a sore body. On Saturday we took 6+ car loads of stuff over to the new place. How did we get so much stuff ? And why when we unloaded it in the new house did it look like nothing? Anyway, we packed our cars, drove to the house, unloaded and repeated until it was 10pm and we realized we hadn’t had dinner yet. Bless you, Palermo Pizza for being open and tasty. There’s just about nothing left in the apartment that can fit in a car, including our kitchen. I moved it all which meant much to Ben’s dismay we had to eat our salad from Palermo’s Saturday night sharing one spoon. Oops. Today we spent all day cleaning the house (the blind slates—EWW) and replacing outlet covers because someone once thought chrome was a good idea. Tonight we’re priming the apartment walls back to white. Each roll over on our bright blue living room wall and I’m reminded of how hard Ben worked to set up this apartment for my arrival when we first moved in togeth...

Last night we took our first of what will be many trips to Lowe’s for home stuff. It was getting late and by the time we checked out we were getting kind of tired. As we wheeled our shopping cart to the parking lot, complete with a six foot ladder hanging precariously off the bottom rack, I had a terrible realization—ain’t no way a six foot ladder gonna fit in my car. We had loaded the car up already with a couple big items from the apartment thinking we’d move them to the new house after a quick trip to Lowe’s. I now know “quick trip to Lowe’s” doesn’t exist. So, at 7pm in the Lowe’s parking lot we unloaded the pre-loaded guitar, Christmas tree, full set of lacrosse pads, full set of golf clubs, a few boxes of wedding decorations and two sets of Rollerblades onto the pavement. Then we loaded in the ladder, and thankfully everything else back in with zero (and I mean zero) room to spare. Whew. This must be home ownership.

While I’ve been elbow deep in spray paint, wood glue and thread working on project: wedding; Ben’s been working on another big project—project house. We reviewed a budget together, and occasionally I’d put down my crafts for a field trip to an open house, but for the most part Ben handled it. And he totally rocked it. This past Friday we closed on our orange-garaged-ranch in one of our favorite neighborhoods. We’re smitten! Not by the orange garage but with the layout and space, the big deck out back, the proximity to our favorite spots around town, and the price tag which came in below our initial budget range. We’re home owners! Somewhere in the next two weeks we’ll get the keys, by the end of the month we’ll be fully moved and between now and then I’ll probably melt into a puddle of excitement 3-4 times. It’ll be bittersweet leaving this apartment —the first place we built as our home together, and honestly, the cream of the crop as far my experience living in apartments has...

Man, you learn all sorts of things when you sign on to have a Jewish wedding. This month’s lesson was in ketubahs—and their cost. In addition to a state marriage license, a ketubah is a Jewish marriage license. It’s typically half art, half text—an agreement on the relationship between husband and wife. The ones I’ve seen are beautiful, and rightfully so, since many people hang them in their homes as a visual reminder of the vows they’ve made to each other. It sounds lovely, but a little more research proved purchasing one would run me at least $150, with some topping out at over $1,000. Which, even on the low end was over what I really wanted to spend. Enter my Photoshop savvy bridesmaid Jill. With the help of the Internet I found some designs I liked, and with the help of our rabbi I found some text to modify. I sent both to Jill and what she came up with is beautiful . It’s the right mix of eclectic and modern that make both Ben and I comfortable. The language will closely mir...

Wow-wee, this is my fifth annual review blog post?! Hold—I’m feeling old and getting verklempt. Ok, moving on. 2014 was a heavy year. Big, great, fantastic things happened; so did sad, hard, difficult stuff. Looking back, I’m shocked at just how much happened. Have a flute of Champagne with me to celebrate another year with me, would ya? I might need two. I rung in the New Year with a good friend and good country music . Grand Rapids got slammed with one of many polar vortexes —so cozy! And then? Ben and I got engaged ! What else happened? Who knows, I was busy being love-blind. We skied ,  I read ,  I did yoga upside down and fell asleep in corpse pose. Ben and I made progress in wedding planning and I closed out my first solo big work project . Also—I said goodbye to one of the most influential swim coaches I ever had. (Read: "sad, hard, difficult stuff" from above.) As I tend to do in the indoor winter months, I got busy crafting and cooking and coo...