Tag Archives: house

happy things, (almost) july edition

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Rob’s out of town this weekend so I decided to take advantage and start watching True Blood. I saw the first couple of episodes at a friend’s place back when the series first started but I didn’t have HBO at the time so I never bothered to finish the season. It didn’t help that I wasn’t particularly enamored with the episodes I did see. I’ve since heard that the show definitely picks up after that point. And now that I’ve read the first 6 books of the Sookie Stackhouse series (which I enjoy), I thought I’d give it another chance. Hopefully I’ll like it much better this time around. 🙂

So it’s about that time for another Happy Things entry — this time it’s the (almost) July edition!

1. House-iversary! Rob and I have been living in our house for the past year. CRAZY. It really doesn’t seem that long. Particularly since we’re not even done furnishing or organizing the boxes in our garage. Not to mention that…

2. We JUST now (mostly) finished the work in our (tiny) yard. Yes, after a year! We had sod and pavers installed last September but since then, we’ve let weeds grow in the surrounding soil. Oops. Finally, two weeks ago, with my dad’s help, we got rid of the weeds, prepared the soil, and added plants. YAY.

3. The upcoming Fourth of July holiday. One of my favorites. Love how laid back it is. Not sure what our plans are for the long weekend but it’ll probably involve some work around the house. Maybe Rob will fire up the grill. 😀 And we can catch up on summer movies (still want to see Bridesmaids, X-Men: First Class, and Super 8).

4. Speaking of movies… HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2. !!! I can’t believe it’s almost over. *sob* I’ve already convinced Rob we NEED to see it opening weekend.

5. Two weddings and a baby shower. 🙂 I’m going to be an aunt! My cousin’s wife is pregnant — since I have no siblings, I’m claiming their (future) daughter as my niece.

Bonus happy thing!

6. Comic-Con. We’re going the full 4 days again. I CAN’T WAIT. This time we’ll have other friends with us — it’s going to be great.

Random. I’ve had Bruno Mars’s “The Lazy Song” on repeat. This is like my summer anthem…

Today I don’t feel like doing anything
I just want to lay in my bed
Don’t feel like picking up my phone
So leave a message at the tone
Cause today I swear I’m not doing anything

photo dump

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Sometimes I randomly take pictures with my iPhone and never do anything with them. So… photo dump! I thought it would be a fun little glimpse into my life these past few weeks.



Now that we have a mortgage, Rob and I are trying to be better at cooking at home instead of buying take-out all the time. We attempted to make margherita pizza. It’s not pretty but it sure was YUMMY.



We also made some amazing (if I do say so myself) chocolate chip cookies. Thank you, Martha. This recipe is a must-try!



Around the house. In our office, we bought this awesome Expedit to house our toys and books. Can you spot Diesel? Hehe.



We’re getting our yard landscaped at the moment. The motorcourt in front of our house is lined with pavers.



Here’s the current state of our yard. They framed the area where the pavers are going to go and have started to lay the foundation for the rest.



And finally, this week’s flowers. Beautiful yellow mums from Trader Joe’s. Because everyone needs some sunshine in their life.

🙂

work in progress

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I’m sitting at home watching COLLEGE FOOTBALL. WHAT. Seriously, HOW is it almost Fall? The summer went by in a flash.

It’s also been 2 months since we moved to our new house and it’s STILL very much a work in progress. We have yet to paint the 3 bathrooms (we got super burned out after painting the main living areas, kitchen, master bedroom, and office so we decided to take a break). Boxes of “stuff” in the garage need to be opened, organized, donated, etc. And we have to figure out what we’re going to do about the windows on the first floor (curtains… I think?).

BUT. We’ve made progress on other things this week so it’s been a good one. Which means… 5 Happy Things!

1. We finally received our dining table. LOVE IT. It’ll be SO nice not to eat on the coffee table anymore. The bad thing is that we only have 2 chairs so far. LOL. We’re waiting for the bench to get shipped.

2. The area rug we ordered 2 months ago is finally off back order and is getting ready to ship. YAY. Our living area has felt incomplete because there’s just random pieces of furniture everywhere. It really needs an area rug to bring it all together. Can’t wait.

3. We ordered gorgeous white plantation shutters for almost all the windows on the second floor and they’re finally going to be installed tomorrow. ECSTATIC.

4. We’ve been procrastinating on getting our yard landscaped because we were lazy, didn’t want to incur the cost, fill in other excuses here. Finally, Rob hired someone today and they’re starting work tomorrow. YAY.

5. 3-day weekend here I come!

You know you’re getting old when furnishing and decorating your house makes you positively giddy. 😀 Pictures… someday.

this week’s happy things

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This weekend we finally finished moving out of our apartment. YAY! It’s so nice not to be shuttling back and forth. Too bad tons of our stuff is still in boxes, we have butcher paper covering some of our windows (LOL), and we don’t have a dining table yet (we’ve been eating standing up on our kitchen island or on moving boxes in front of the TV — CLASSY!). Rob also strained his achilles last week (probably from moving — we’re not entirely sure) so painting and planning the landscaping for our yard is behind schedule. Seriously, it’s only been 2 weeks and already home ownership is tiring.

Haven’t done a 5 Happy Things in awhile so it’s about time…

1. Getting asked to be a Matron of Honor in my best friend’s wedding.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEE. I’m incredibly excited to be a part of what is sure to be an amazing wedding!

2. Going to Comic-Con next week.
Rob and I have FOUR DAY passes. AWESOME. Programming was just released so I’m currently scouring through everything to figure out what I want to try and see (hopefully White Collar and The Vampire Diaries). After the craziness of moving, I’m really looking forward to some time away.

3. The Kindle price drop.
I’ve been wavering back and forth (and back and forth) about getting a Kindle. I never thought I’d want one — I love the feel of books. But lately I’ve been reading much more and now with the price drop, it is VERY tempting. Maybe I’ll treat myself for my birthday. Or get one of the refurbished ones. Only $110!

4. The release of the new Harry Potters and the Deathly Hallows trailer.


CHILLS. Seriously.

5. Craig’s list.
Last week I posted our old coffee table in the free section and after just a few hours, I received 80+ email inquiries. Gotta love it.

BONUS!
6. White Collar and Psych premiere this week!
Summer TV is awesome.

I swear I will finish the TV meme. Someday. 😀

30 Days of TV Meme: Days 8-11

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Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!

So yeah. I pretty much disappeared. Besides working, Rob and I have been prepping, painting and moving. OMG. It’s an incredible amount of work. In the past week, we’ve painted the entry, great room, staircase, 2nd floor hallway, and master bedroom. And there’s still many more rooms to finish. We thought we would be done with the entire house this weekend but that didn’t happen. We totally got burned out. Not to mention that the movers came last Friday so we’ve also been busy unpacking and trying to get things organized and livable. We’re getting there sloooooowly. Very slowly.

Catching up (a little) with the meme (I’m such a failure at these)…

Day 08 – A show everyone should watch



Friday Night Lights. This show is AMAZING. I think many people get caught up in the football/sports aspect of it and don’t give it a chance. It’s so much more than that. Football provides the framework but this is about small town life in Dillon, TX and the people that make it their home. The characters are likable and real, the storylines are rich with emotion, and the show’s not afraid to take risks (some bad – Tyra & Landry’s season 2 storyline, some good – turning the show upside down at the end of season 3). Catch up on DVD! You won’t regret it.

Day 09 – Best scene ever



From Dawson’s Creek episode 3.22: The Anti-Prom…
Joey: I’ve been meaning to ask you something all night, Pacey. Would you like to dance with me?
Pacey: Yes. (they move to the dance floor) How come this feels so right?
Joey: It was those dance lessons.
Pacey: (he looks at her earrings) Where did you get those? They’re not you.
Joey: Why? Because I’m just a poor tomboy or… Dawson gave them to me.
Pacey: Nah. (raising her hand with the bracelet) See this? This is you. It’s not showy or gaudy. It’s simple. Elegant. Beautiful.
Joey: It’s my mom’s bracelet.
Pacey: I know.
Joey: How do you know?
Pacey: Well, because you told me. Six months ago. You were wearing that blue sweater with the snowflakes that you have. You were walking down the hallway at school. I was annoying you as per usual. You said, “Look, Pacey, I just found my mother’s bracelet this morning… so why don’t you cut me some slack?”
Joey: You remember that?
Pacey: (whispering) I remember everything.

LOVE THIS SO MUCH. The ultimate romantic moment.

Day 10 – A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving



Burn Notice. Rob started watching this show and I just wasn’t interested. The burned spy premise sounded intriguing but nothing about the cast (specifically Gabrielle Anwar) or the advertising appealed to me. Yes, I’m *that* superficial. Fast forward a few years later when I happen to catch an episode and instantly fall in love with Michael Westen. He’s smart, witty, and unbelievably charming. I’ve only seen season 3 on but hope to catch up with the beginning soon.

Day 11 – A show that disappointed you

Heroes. It doesn’t even get its own photo that’s how bitter I am about this show. Season 1 was so great — an ordinary group of people discovering their powers and figuring out how to go about their lives. But it allll went downhill from there. They ruined perfectly good characters with lame storylines (Hiro’s time travel in season 2 was an absolute snoozefest, Peter in Ireland also comes to mind). Characters were introduced only to let them fall by the wayside (Maya, Elle, Monica). Story arcs were unclear and confusing (only season 1 had a fulfilling arc – after that, I had no clue what the point of each season was supposed to be). What wasted potential.

The rest of the prompts…

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diesel’s new domain

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WE CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE AND PICKED UP OUR KEYS TODAY.

!!!!!!!!!!



This exterior photo is actually from a few weeks ago before our final walk-through. See how Diesel is showing you his new house? 🙂



The view of the great room from the entryway. Look at the hardwood! OMG. So in love. We covered it right back up, though, because we’re going to spend the entire weekend painting before we move in.



We brought a few small things over and Diesel quickly got settled. I think he loves his new house.



Except he’s not too excited about having dirt in the yard. We have to get some grass and plants in there soon.

SO AWESOME.

and so it begins…

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THE PACKING.

We’re supposed to close on our house in about 2 weeks (OMGOMGOMG) and we plan to move a week after that so Rob and I have sloooowly started to pack up things we don’t use frequently. Our apartment is a total DISASTER ZONE. Yikes.

So… anyone need desks, side cabinets, or a coffee table? We’re giving ours away. 😀

it’s getting there

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May House Update.

Our closing date got pushed back a week and a half… so we’re looking at late June again. How cruel.

Oh, well.

We decided to take a look at the progress over the weekend and found that…



The exterior stucco has been painted.



And the interior is really getting underway. The crown molding, kitchen cabinets, island and countertops have been installed. Along with the white subway tile backsplash we picked out! It’s so shiny. The hardwood floors are also hiding underneath the butcher paper.

*happy*

less than 60 days

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April House Update.

OMG. They’re building our house so fast that we’re within 60 days of closing now. We thought the house would be finished in early July but now it’s looking like mid June. WTF.



The exterior is scratch coated (next steps are the brown coat and finish coat) and the drywall and windows are installed inside. We actually did a pre-drywall tour a few weeks ago and got the chance to walk around. The progress amazes me.

adventures in DIY projects

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When Rob and I move into our house, the walls are going to be white. We had the option of having the builder paint it for us before we move in but the additional cost was more than we wanted to pay and we could only choose one color. So yeah. That wasn’t going to work for us. Since we’re not too keen on white, we’ve decided that we’re going to paint the whole darn house ourselves. We decided to get some practice by painting an accent wall in our apartment. !!!

After some online research, we chose Benjamin Moore paint and a few weeks ago, we went to our local Ace Hardware to pick up paint chips in different shades of blue and gray. We taped the chips to our wall, made sure to consider the colors in various lighting situations (day versus night), and ended up choosing an airy pale blue called mystical blue (don’t you love the name?).

Prepping and priming the wall took the longest.



We had to clean off the wall and tape the edges.



I was in charge of cutting in around the edges and corners (omg, this takes for-freaking-ever) while Rob rolled the wall.



Priming made it a really bright white. Ugh, it looks so ugly. Thank goodness it’s just the primer.



After the primer dried, we started painting! And compared to the primer, the paint went on so smooth and so FAST! The wall is about 95% done in the above pic. The blue is really subtle in the daylight.



Here’s the finished wall at night! See how the blue becomes a different shade?

That ONE wall took us about 5 hours. Not to mention the 2 trips we had to take to Ace because we didn’t buy enough primer and paint the first time. YIKES. I can’t even imagine how long it’ll take for us to paint our entire house. The wall’s definitely not perfect, though. We got lazy and didn’t tape off the ceiling so the edge work at the top of the wall is rough (I couldn’t keep my hand steady!). And there are a couple of small spots that don’t have enough paint. Oh, well. Overall we’re happy with it! 🙂