drawer pulls...

We accomplished another (very) small project last night...we attached drawer pulls to the 2 drawers we have in the kitchen. Up to now, we've just been pulling on the bottom of the drawer (there's a notch cut out) to open them, but I really wanted to get drawer pulls for them at some point.

Well, we were in Lowe's the other night and Jeff was looking at hinges for some of his cabinets, etc. in his shop. The drawer pulls and knobs were on the same aisle so I just browsed to "see what I could see". I was originally going to go with brushed pewter/nickel because I really like that look, but I found these brushed copper-colored pulls that I thought would look really nice with the mocha color of our cabinets. We got them home and they were perfect!

So last night we put them on and don't they look nice? I'd really like to have knobs (in the same brushed copper) for the cabinets but some of the doors, if you don't keep a hold on them, they bang into some of the other cabinets and the last thing I want is dents in our cabinets from the knobs! Guess we'll hold off on that for now.

I do love those pulls, though!

Merry Christmas!

"In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn."

--Luke 2:1-7 (esv)

...she gave birth to our Savior, our Redeemer...Jesus, the Christ...the Son of God.

I pray your Christmas was full of blessings, surrounded by loved ones and friends...and may we carry this Spirit all through the new year. God bless each of you!

in the Spirit...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I've had my decorations up for awhile (since the beginning of December, actually), but I haven't been able to get many decent photos of them for the blog. Lord knows, I've been trying! Sometimes my camera really frustrates me...

But here are a few photos to give you an idea of what the new house looks like with our "old" decorations:

Christmas goodies...

Well, this is a far-cry from anything to do with the house, but I want to post it nonetheless. I've decided to do some baking this Christmas season for various activities and for gifts. We have a few parties we attend every Christmas season and we have lots of friends.

Well, now we have new neighbors! So I thought that some homemade goodies would be a nice way to wish them a blessed Christmas. Here's what I've been up to:

Chocolate Crinkles

(these are Jeff's fave!)

1 cup cocoa

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

Combine ingredients, mixing well, and refrigerate overnight. Form balls and roll in powdered sugar. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Yield = 3 1/2 dozen

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

1 1/2 cups self rising flour

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup plus 2 tsp sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix flour and salt together in small bowl. Mix butter, brown sugar and sugar in a separate larger mixing bowl. Add egg, peanut butter and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour to mixture and beat until it resembles batter. Fill greased mini muffin tin wells with batter almost to the top. Bake at 375 for 8-9 minutes until almost done. Take out and press one mini reese's peanut butter cup into center of batter in each well. Put back in the oven for another minute. Yield = 3 1/2 dozen

I actually made one other recipe, M&M Cookies (with the red & green M&Ms), but I didn't think to take a photo of those before I put them into these bags...

Aren't they cute? I hope they like them.

I found it!

Finally! I found a long lost box in the storage facility today! For awhile now, I knew there were some dishes that I hadn't unpacked and I couldn't imagine where they were since (I thought) I'd gotten all the kitchen boxes out of storage & unpacked them. I even checked with my mom (more than once) to see if I'd brought this one corningware dish/lid I was missing to her house and left it. She said no (more than once).

I was also missing a small pottery piece that I use to hold my splenda packets for my coffee...couldn't find it in any boxes I'd already unpacked. I just had no idea where these things could be...

I went to the storage facility today to get my Christmas "tub" and the tree so I can decorate the house and while I was there, I thought I'd check through the boxes to see what was still left. It was mostly boxes of books (3 to be exact - geez!), but there was a box underneath one of those boxes that wasn't labeled on the side like the rest; only on the top. So I had to lift the box on top up to see what that box said and the label said "Glass Bakeware & Cookware - Breakable!" (pretty much every box was labeled "breakable" cuz you just never know...). A-ha! And when I opened it - ta da! There was my "lost" stuff! Hooray! All is well once more...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, All! I sincerely pray you all had a lovely Thanksgiving, as I & my family did. We headed to Lexington (NC) on Wednesday afternoon to see my family. My mom & dad, my brother & his wife AND my mom's parents (Gram & Buppa to me!) all live there so we were able to spend some time with all of them.

One thing we got to do that was really neat for me was to take a ride in my Daddy's truck. Most of you know that he has become a truck driver, driving big semis, tractor-trailers, whatever you want to call them...the big mamma-jammas! Anyway, I just think that's the coolest thing and he was able to take me out in the truck while we were home. He has a really nice truck with US Xpress and I was able to get up in it and see where he stores his stuff, where he sleeps, where his TV and everything is...it was just a really cool thing. I enjoyed riding in that tall thing and I really got an education because Daddy told me tidbits about the truck and how different driving it is while we were out.

We usually have our Thanksgiving meal as dinner on Thursday since my brother & his wife have Thanksgiving lunch with her family. I kinda like it that way because we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to have everything ready by lunch. We can take our time and not spend all day in the kitchen (although it always ends up feeling like that...). Our meal was wonderful. We had a lot of traditional dishes, like green bean casserole and mashed potatoes/gravy, but we also had a couple dishes we don't normally have, like sweet potato casserole and pineapple cheese casserole. We had tons of desserts including 3 pies and a new recipe I tried, Butterscotch Apple Crisp. Everything was very tasty and we all ate WAY TOO MUCH.

Friday, the 3 of us (me, Momma & Gram) headed off to Seagrove in keeping with what has become one of my favorite traditions. I don't get into all that is "Black Friday", but I do enjoy shopping the day after Thanksgiving in the "pottery capital of the world". We had a great time just being together and finding the neatest things. I was able to get some Christmas gifts, as well as a little something for me. :) The fall foliage was absolutely GORGEOUS and I loved every minute of the drive around Seagrove. We actually were able to watch a potter creating what they call a brie baker (you can see for yourself here), so that was really neat for us.

We came back on Saturday night so we were able to be with our friends today in church & Sunday School. That was important to us because we are so very thankful for our friends here, who are really our family since both Jeff & I live so far from our families. We are truly blessed in every aspect of our lives, and we pray the Lord would help us to remember that and keep us content with all that He has given us.

God bless you all throughout the rest of this holiday season!

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom...with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

--Colossians 3:15-17

documenting the milestones...

Most of you know that I'm a scrapbooker. Well, I finally started the house scrapbook this past weekend (part of the reason I haven't posted in a while). My Creative Memories consultant, Jill, held her 2nd scrapbooking retreat this weekend in Ocean Isle Beach, NC. I was able to go to the first one in April and had an all-out blast so I was really looking forward to this one. We had a larger house this time which means we had more room to spread out. It was so much fun! There were about 14 of us total and we all got a lot done. We ate tons of food, had lots of conversation, scrapbooked gobs of pages/events...and we managed to squeeze a few hours of sleep in there. :)

I got about 13 pages done in the house scrapbook which is not NEARLY as many as some, but I'm very pleased with how all the pages turned out. I took my time deciding on color schemes and how I wanted to showcase each day of progress. That's usually how I scrapbook anyway, but I think I took extra time just because I could (no where to go for 2 1/2 days!). I really enjoyed myself this weekend. I'm up through June 13 in the album; needless to say, I have a ways to go to complete it, but I have a feeling I'll be continuing on with the scrapbook after the house is built, similar to how I've done with this blog.

Happy Birthday, Babe!

Today is my wonderful husband's birthday (yes, on Halloween). He's turning a young 32 and every year, I think he just gets better & better.

This morning, I got up early & made him blueberry muffins (his favorite) for breakfast. Today he was able to take off early from work and do some things that HE wanted to do. Then tonight we went to Outback Steakhouse, his favorite restaurant, for dinner to celebrate. They sang to him & gave him a free sundae (which we were both too full to finish).

I asked him on the way home tonight if he'd had an enjoyable birthday...he said yes. Happy birthday, babe! I love you bunches and am so proud of what God is doing in and through you. I see more evidence of it every day...

"shop"-ing around...

I want you to see what my husband has been doing...the garage has become the "shop" - we knew it would. At our other place, Jeff had a nice shed in the backyard where he could go to "play". He did all his woodworking out there, had all his tools out there, his radio-controlled airplanes were out there, etc. We don't have a shed here. So he's been working on organizing his stuff and building this or that to house it all.

He put up these nice shelving brackets so that he would have a place, out of the way, to store his wood boards for future projects. He likes to purchase his wood from a place in Wilmington called Anchor Hardwoods. They generally have a pretty good selection of wood to choose from and Jeff can usually find what he needs at a decent price. On his shelves, he has a little bit of everything from pine & walnut to cherry & maple. These "shelves" are on the left side of the garage if you're looking inside from the driveway and they sit above the water heater there in the corner.

He's also put up some of the wire shelving, that you can see here, for some of his "tubs". My husband is actually pretty organized when it comes to his stuff. He organizes things in tubs like these so that it's all together in one place. He has different tubs for different things: a tub for all things electrical, a tub with things he might need when he paints (brushes, rollers, etc.), a tub just for caulks & silicones...you get the picture. All he has to do is remember where he put the tub that has the stuff he needs in it! So these shelves kinda help with that. And these he put up right to the left of the door leading into the house from the garage.

The biggest project is the "wall 'o' cabinets". Jeff is building all different sizes of cabinets/shelves, some with doors, some with pegboard, some open to house his stuff. He's building "shells" to fit shelves in and then he'll enclose those with different door fronts. The photo at the top gives you and idea of what I'm talking about. He's also including a desktop area where he can set things to work on or put his computer on for some tunes or woodworking ideas. Underneath the desktop will be some cabinets with drawers, etc. for more of his stuff. It's really coming together. You can see the start of the desktop in this photo.

It's a work-in-progress right now. I hope to show you more photos in the future as it becomes more complete. Once he finishes this project, he'll have a lot more room in the shop to work, which means he'll be a lot less frustrated and be able to just crank those woodworking projects out! And maybe there will be room in there somewhere for my (little bitty) car. Maybe. :)

attic floor...

I know what you're thinking: I suppose you could say I'm about as slack as a blogger could be, huh? SIXTEEN days since my last post??! That's pathetic.

But in my defense (because I don't think anyone else will come to my defense), I have been super-busy lately. Work has been pretty involved. I've had lots going on in recent weekends. And my nights haven't been my own with Jeff's softball games and cards needing to be made (of course I enjoy that but you know...). So here we are at the 19th of October. Jeff's last softball game (other than the rain-out and the tourney) was Tuesday and no one's coming to visit this weekend. So there you go. Time to post to the blog. :)

I do want to say that I did have house guests last weekend; my mom (finally) and her parents, my grandparents (affectionately nicknamed "the grands"). They all loved the house and we had a wonderful time together. Mom & Gram went to my bible study with me on Saturday morning while Jeff and Buppa hung out (in the shop for a brief time, but mostly at Harbor Freight since Buppa doesn't have one close by). We mostly chilled the rest of the weekend and just enjoyed being together. It really meant a lot to me & Jeff to have Gram & Buppa make the trip because it was a big deal for them to come all that way. They're not "spring chickens" anymore (and I say that in the most loving way!) and for them to make the trip to see us and the house tells a lot. Thanks, Grands! We loved having you! And you, too, Momma. Always!

Now, just a brief part about the house (since that is mostly the point of this blog). We've had the attic flooring down for a while, but it's such a boring thing, I only now decided that I'd post about it. There's not much to say about it except that Jeff's buddy, Henry Olds came out to help cut & put it down and they both worked their butts off one Saturday (thanks, dude!). We don't have much space up there, but it's nice to have flooring down to store things like fall/Christmas decorations, clothes, spare a/c units (?), closet shelving that we took down at the other place, etc. It's helped us clean up the living part of the house so we don't have so much clutter. It's not climate-controlled, obviously, but it does have light. Jeff helped ME install a motion-detection light up there. It pretty much comes on as we start going up the ladder to the attic, which is nice.

Stay tuned for more...and hopefully, it won't be another 16 days before I post again.

my fave season...

Can you smell it? The scent of fall? That glorious season God created? Fall, or autumn as some call it, is my favorite time of year. It's the time when things in creation start to change - the temperatures become cooler, the daylight gets shorter, the colors of the leaves turn...ah, fall. I love it!

It also reminds me of the time when families gather together to reminisce on all of God's blessings and what they're personally thankful for in their lives. We usually spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my family in Lexington since they're so close (and I still don't have any desire to attempt to cook a turkey!). My mom provides the house and the kitchen and I usually put together the menu. Then we work together to get the meal cooked and on the table. It can be a little hectic, trying to get everything to be done all at the same time and stay hot until we eat it with only one stove and one microwave, but I enjoy it all the same.

It's become a tradition the last several years for the girls to head to Seagrove, NC the day after Thanksgiving to do some shopping. Seagrove, for those who don't know, is the pottery capital of the "world" (as far as I'm concerned). I love the atmosphere around that area at this time of year. There's a slight chill & crispness in the air and everyone has their studios/work areas decorated for the holidays. Most of the potters usually have some celtic music playing in the background...oh, I just love being there. It seems like a different era when I'm there. And, of course, I don't get to go shopping with my mom very often so that's always a bonus!

Anyway, I didn't mean to get off on a tangent, but I do so love this season. I really just wanted to post a photo or 2 of some of the fall decorations that I've put up around the house. I have almost as much decoration for fall as I do for Christmas! I have a wreath hanging on our front door which I'm so excited about (we couldn't do that on our other front door). I also have some fall scented candles here & there. I have a fall colored table runner on our kitchen table and a matching table cloth on the "steel table" in the kitchen (that won't be staying in the kitchen...). In the center of the kitchen table is a basket arrangement of fall leaves, pinecones & ribbon. On the entertainment center, I have some ceramic punkins and a fall basket arrangement with some "sprigs" of fall "stuff" (that's the best I can do - you can see a little of the "stuff" in the photo above). I would've normally put that "ensemble" on the fireplace mantel but since we don't have that now... I also have a garland of fall leaves above the cabinets in the kitchen...very festive.

Take the fall season of 2007 to really think about all that God has blessed you with. And be thankful. There are so many who have nothing...we are TRULY blessed. Happy Fall, Ya'll!

first house guests...

My brother, Daniel, and his wife, Brandi, came for the weekend - our first house guests in the new house!

My brother and I share the same birthday, September 28, so we celebrated this weekend. He was celebrating year 27 and I was celebrating year 29 (ouch). It was nice to be together for our birthdays (but not the same as sharing a birthday party - we used to do that when we were young enough to not like each others' friends). They got to the house around 3pm on Friday and left tonight around 8pm.

Friday night we opened gifts and then grilled out pork chops for dinner. We watched a movie later. Saturday, Daniel went to Jeff's bible study with him and Brandi went to my bible study with me. Then Daniel & Jeff got to work putting in surround sound speakers in the living room. We used to have that in our apartment in Wilmington when we first moved to the area...I'd forgotten how nice that is! We took a break and went to the beach for a brief time (until we couldn't stand the black flies anymore - ugh!). Then we came back & grilled out burgers for dinner. We drove into town to get ice cream at ColdStone Creamery (did you know you can sign up to get a coupon for a free "love it" on your birthday? click here to check it out) and then went back to the house to watch a movie (with our new surround sound). Today, we went to Sunday School & church and then out to lunch at Two Guys Grille (yum!). We came back to the house & lazed around (after all, it IS the day of rest!).

It was an enjoyable weekend with family. So glad to have you in our new home, Daniel & Brandi!

our (new) living room furniture...

At long last, I'm posting our new living room furniture. This is the major purchase we made in the process of moving (aside from the house itself, obviously) and we're pretty happy with it. Most of you know we had a sectional sofa before, with 2 recliners and a pull-out sofa bed. Well, there was NO WAY that was going to fit in our new living room. Believe me, I measured & measured, this way & that! I loved that sectional and was really sorry to see it go but our new living room area is more square than the area we had at the old place so it just wasn't going to work. So we set about looking at several furniture places, including Rooms To Go which is where we found our purchase. It's called "Thorne" and we got the sofa, loveseat, chair/ottoman & rug in the set. It's pretty dramatic, but you know me...

I'm a big fan of having lots of seating for our guests on those rare occasions when folks make the "trek" out to our place [ :) ]. We also opted for the sleeper sofa so that we'd have a 2nd bed for guests/family if we had that many at one time (it's been known to happen). And Jeff wanted the chair & ottoman. I kinda dig it myself...

As you can see, it's a dark green color with a khaki piping around the cushions, which I think really cleans it up - makes it look crisp. The chair & ottoman are a geometric design with (lots of) accent pillows on the sofa & loveseat in the same fabric. It's a good color that doesn't show Kassie's hair too much; we had that to consider when looking at the fabric/material it was made of, too.

I'm pleased with how the furniture fits into the room. We thought it was going to be a push to fit it all in with out it looking like it was just crammed into the room, but it worked out pretty well and every time I come in the front door, it looks better & better.

You should come try it out...see how comfy it is! ;)

something a little different, part 2

Doesn't our yard look nice? This photo was taken today in our front yard, facing the house (obviously). Jeff put out some fertilizer and it got watered quite a bit this week with all the rain we've been having so the yard is looking really nice. Thought I'd share that with you...

Alright, here's part 2 of the Q&A I started on Wednesday:

32. Is your microwave clean or dirty? Oh, it’s clean now, but give it time…give me time…

33. Is there anything under your bed? Nope
34. Chore you hate doing the most? Oh, my heavens…where to begin?! I don’t like cleaning the bathroom or dusting and I really don’t like ironing…

35. What retro items are in your home? Hmmm…retro…that has a lot of different meanings to different people…I’m not sure if any of my stuff qualifies…

36. Do you have a separate room that you use as an office? No, we have a craft/computer room (that is a DISASTER right now…).

37. If you have a yard, who mows it? Jeffy

38. Is there anything on your kitchen floor right now? Ha! I’m sure there’s crumbs & dust, grass, etc.

39. How many mirrors are in your home? Well, there’s 1 each in the bathrooms and then there’s one by the front door that our keys hang on and that’s all that’s UP right now…there’s another that’s leaning against a wall somewhere…so I guess the answer would be 4 (can’t just answer the question – gotta have details!).

40. Do you have any hidden emergency money around your home? Uh, no. We have a “hot date fund” jar that’s full of change, but that’s it.

41. What color are your walls? Bone (medium white)

42. Which rooms in your house have wallpaper? NONE! And we’d like to keep it that way…

43. Do you have a peephole in your front door? No
44. Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home? No…just steak knives (hey, those could probably do some pretty good damage!).

45. What does your home smell like right now? The living room smells like “Hawaiian” something (it’s an air freshener – I love it!) and the garage smells like sawdust. Other than that, there’s no other smells, which is good, I guess.

46. Fave candle scent? Oh, geez…I never can pick just one…let’s see…anything that smells like cotton/linen, autumn/fall or coffee.

47. What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now? I think we have some of those whole sweet pickles (ew, Jeff likes the sweet ones).

48. Who are in the pictures you displayed? Haven’t unpacked that box yet…I don’t have a single photo frame out right now.

49. What color is your favorite cup? I have a favorite coffee mug that’s pottery-style, brown & dark brown. Don’t really have a favorite cup.

50. Do you have plenty of cabinet space in your kitchen? I wouldn’t say I have plenty; I would say there’s enough. Would I like more? Yes.

51. Ever been on your roof? Nope

52. Do you own a stereo? Yes

53. How many TVs do you have? One in the living room, one in the garage/shop.

54. How many house phones? None; we only use cell phones.

55. Do you have a housekeeper? Are you applying for the job??

56. What style do you decorate in? My own; not really sure what you would call it. Just whatever works & looks nice.

57. Do you like solid colors on furniture or prints? It depends on what piece of furniture it is. We have a solid color loveseat & couch and a print chair & ottoman. It looks nice, I think.

58. Is there a smoke detector in your home? Yes. Brand new ones!

59. In case of fire, what are the items you would grab if you only could make one quick trip? I have thought about this so many times…and I still have a hard time with it…we’d get the cat, of course, and our cell phones to call 911, and then I’d REALLY like to get my scrapbooks but it would be tough (they’re all in a box right now so it’d be pretty easy!). I’d probably get my camera, too. The rest, although I would be DEVASTATED, could be replaced.

60. Do you know how to work your electrical box? Pretty much

61. What temperature in your home is most comfortable to you? between 72 & 74

Well, do you feel like you know a little more about our (new) home? Hope it was a pleasure for you to read through. I enjoyed answering the questions and am glad I could share them with you!

something a little different...

First of all, I wanted to post a photo of me & Jeff at my cousin's wedding in Maryland a couple of weekends ago...don't we look spiffy??

Now to the point of this post... We all know those questionnaires that go around in our emails. You know, the ones that ask you all these questions about yourself that 1) you really have to think about and 2) your friends probably didn't want to know about you in the first place. Well, I got one from my friend, Jen (who is notorious for sending these things around), but it's a little different. It's questions about your home! Well, since I have a brand new one, I thought it might be kind of fun to post the Q&A here:

1. What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now? Dial Antibacterial (green)
2. Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? No
3. Is there anything moldy in your refrigerator? Well, not right now, but that’s not out of the question in OUR fridge! Ew, I know.
4. Are there any dirty dishes in your sink? Nope, I just put them in my (awesome) dishwasher!
5. What would you change about your living room? I still love it cuz it’s brand new but there are some unpacked boxes of stuff sitting in there...like to get rid of those...
6. Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? Dirty – see question 4
7. Do you have a can of mushrooms in your pantry? Uh, no, I think I used them in a recipe recently.
8. White or wheat bread? Nature’s Own Butterbread…it’s so soft!
9. What is on top of your refrigerator? Actually nothing!
10. What color is your sofa? Dark green with khaki “piping” around the edges...it's new.
11. What color or design is on your shower curtain? Master bath is yellow/blue/green plaid; guest bath is brown, olive & dark aqua flowers (but not girly or Jeff wouldn’t let me get it…).
12. How many plants are in your home? ha, ha…that’s a joke, right? Are we talking live ones?
13. How many candles are in your home? Let’s not even go there…
14. Is your bed made right now? Uh, no.
15. If you have a coffee pot, what color is it? Ahem, we have a KEURIG coffee machine and it’s black.
16. Electric or standard can opener? Pampered Chef (standard)
17. Comet or Soft Scrub? Neither (aren’t those both totally 80’s??); I use Clorox sanitizing wipes in Fresh Scent & Fantastik (Herbal Scent) in the toilet/tub.
18. Is your closet organized? As much as it can be for having used it for only a month; I can tell you, not everything's in there yet...
19. What color is the flashlight that you use the most? A flashlight? Hmmm…I think we have a yellow one somewhere?
20. What kinds of things are in your junk drawer? Oh, how I WISH we had a junk drawer…right now, we have a junk “box” (the box we packed the junk drawer in) & it has things like pliers, batteries, playing cards, caulk (?), old drivers’ licenses…pretty junky.
21. Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home? It depends on what I’m drinking…it’s probably half & half.
22. Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now? Sadly, no.
23. If you have a garage, is it cluttered? You have NO idea…
24. Curtains or blinds? We have those faux wood blinds in all the rooms except the kitchen, craft/computer room and our bathroom (I LOVE them!). Eventually, we'll have window treatments but that's not real high on "the list" right now...
25. How many pillows do you sleep with? 2 for me, 2 for him, although we just got new pillows so maybe we’ll be down to 1 apiece (if they work).
26. Do you sleep with any lights on at night? No, but our alarm clocks have bright enough light…
27. How many ceiling fans are in your home? Every room except the kitchen; there are 4 total.
28. How often do you vacuum? Uh…well, the carpet’s new…I think I’ve vacuumed it once or twice…
29. What color is your toothbrush? Lavender
30. Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch? Yes, I do! It doesn’t say “welcome” but it’s a mat…does that count then?
31. What is in your oven right now? Nothing now, but just tonight, I made (veggie) lasagna for the first time in my life! It turned out great; I'm very excited!

So that's the first 31 questions...there will be a "part 2" to this because there were 62 questions in that questionnaire! Did you learn anything?

guest bathroom...

Okay, sorry for the delay in posting. I haven't had time to really do much with the house, much less get a post done on the blog. I do have a good reason, though! We were out of town for Labor Day weekend - up in Maryland for my cousin, Melinda's wedding. It was beautiful, by the way, and it was really nice to see that part of my family that I don't get to see very often.

So I'm posting about the guest bathroom tonight. I really enjoyed putting this room together. I'm not saying it's completely finished but at the moment, I don't have any other plans for it. It's usable as far as guests go and even decorated a little bit. :)

I found the shower curtain at Bed Bath & Beyond. I just couldn't resist it; it's my colors, for pete's sake! I then went over to the towel section and found towels that were the perfect color to match - lemon grass and dark chocolate. You can't see in the photos but I found a small bath mat at Linens 'N' Things to put in front of the tub that's the same dark brown/chocolate color. It's soft... We put a curved shower curtain rod in there which we thought would help to open up the space in the shower stall (it does!). It's very "hotel-like"... :)

The bowl that's sitting on the sink is one I already had from Pier One. I was psyched when I unpacked that & realized it matched perfectly!! And, of course, I have antibacterial foaming handsoap from Bath & Body Works (love that store!) in Tropical Passionfruit scent (mainly cuz it's green & it matches).

So that's pretty much it. I do have a photo in a dark brown frame that I'm thinking of hanging in there, but I'm still undecided about that. It's a photo of a couple of palm trees that I took in Hawaii and it matches pretty well, but I feel like if I put that up, then I have to go with the palm tree "theme"...is that silly? For now, it's just being stored under the sink in there...

What do you think???

laundry room...

This post may not be as exciting as some of my other posts (...have any of my posts really been exciting???), but there are those (like my momma) who will be just as thrilled to read this one as my other ones. The reason? She wants to SEE the house sooo bad, and this is the only way she can for now. One day, Momma. You'll get here one day! :)

Anyway, the laundry room is by far the least exciting room in the house, but it's one of the few that's pretty much done, and the fact that you can call it a "room" is exciting in itself to me, since I've never really had a laundry "room" - just a laundry area, really.

I had the multi-colored baskets in our bathroom cabinet at the old house and I thought they would add some "excitement" to the laundry room here, so I decided to put them on the shelves there. One is holding all the huge ziploc bags we used to move clothes, pillows & such, one is holding miscellaneous canisters of air freshener or pre-wash and one is holding all of Kassie's "stuff". I do have room to the right of the dryer to put my ironing board, broom & (new) Swiffer WetJet (that thing is "on-time", as Henry would say!), as well as a small trash can.

I think Jeff's plan is to add one more long shelf above the one that is there to hold items that need to be kept but that we don't necessarily need to get to very often. Thankfully, I can close the bi-fold doors to any "clutter"! :)

not just any garage...

One of the main projects Jeff had in mind for our new home was to put down an epoxy on the garage floor. There are some really good advantages to putting down an epoxy including covering up any cracks in the floor and making it a little easier to sweep out. That's not to mention it just looks great (and all your buddies think it's cool)!

So Jeff set about doing some research on the different brands/types out there and finally decided on Shield Crete from Sherwin Williams. He chose one of the 4 colors they offer and put it down late Saturday night after we moved in (a week ago).

He needed 2 kits to do our double-stall garage and I think it took him between 3 & 4 hours to finish it. I've included some photos in the different stages so you can see how it went on. You roll the paint on in sections (and we all know Jeff is an expert "roller of paint"!) and you sprinkle the decorative flakes in those sections. As the epoxy dries, the flakes sink down & embed into the epoxy. It's really a nice touch without being to "un-manly"... :)

It takes a while for it to dry and then for it to be dry enough to have foot traffic or items (such as heavy power tools) sitting on it, so he put it down late Saturday night so it would have all night and all day Sunday to dry. We were able to walk on it Monday. He gradually began moving his shed at the old place over to the garage this week while he was off from work.

I think he did a fantastic job on it and I know he's glad to have it done. It changes the whole look of the room, to the point of making it look more like just another room of the house instead of a garage (that is until he gets all his "stuff" in it!). And I think it will give our garage floor a lot more life in the long run.

...projects...

So we - er, I mean, Jeff has been working on some projects around the house since we moved in (I've been working on "projects", too, but they're of a different nature). He had several things in mind to be done to the house relatively soon after we moved in so he and his buddies got to work straight away.

First up was the attic ladder. We definitely need to utilize the storage space we have in the attic but to do that, we have to be able to get up there. Jeff had already purchased his attic ladder of choice from Lowe's and we'd been storing it in the storage facility down the road from our new house until we could move in. Friday came ("come get your keys, Wenzels!") and with it came Joel Greco, Joey Alphin & Brian England. They came to help Jeff put the ladder up. And they did a reallygreat job. I personally have not tested it yet, but I think Jeff has and he feels perfectly safe on it. Thanks a bunch, guys!

Next was the A/C unit that Adam Batts & Joel installed in the garage. Jeff knew with the garage being mainly a workshop for him (with an extremely small space for my car in there when he's not working on one of my projects) that he would need to have some sort of climate control so he could work no matter what the season. [I married a smart one.] He got the unit from Adam's wife, Melissa. Her family owns Pleasant Heating & Air. The guys came out and installed it for Jeff on the Saturday after we moved in. They worked their butts off and I know Jeff (and I) really appreciate their hard work on that. It's so nice in the garage at any given time. It's more like another room of the house now, instead of just a garage. Thanks, guys!

The other major thing (so far) was the storm door on the front of the house. I love fresh air in the spring and especially in the fall (my fave season...can't wait for it to get here!) so I really wanted a door on the front that had a screen in it. Also, I wanted a storm door simply for the fact that I like leaving my front door open when I'm at home (Kassie, our cat, appreciates that, too). The problem was that Jeff flat out told me he wasn't going to fight with a full pane of glass in the summer & winter months and a full screen in the spring & fall months. I was going to have one or the other for ALL of the months. Hmmm...that was a problem. But did you know that they have doors that are both without ever having to take one or the other out??? At Lowe's (yes, they know Jeff by name...), they have a glass storm door that has a dividing line in the middle and all you have to do is "unlock" the middle part and pull down from the top of the door and the glass slides down into the bottom section while a screen unrolls from the top. So you have screen in the top half and glass in the bottom half (I can live with that). It's the coolest thing ever! So Monday night, Jason Parker came out to help Jeff put in the cool storm door. His sweet wife, Jackie, brought dinner, bless her kind heart! The door works great and it's so nice to be able to leave my front door open now! Thanks so much for your hard work, Jason!

I'm sure we have (many) more home projects in our future but I wanted to share those with you for now.

we're in!

You'll forgive me if this is brief...and maybe it won't be so brief...we'll see. But I know some of you have been wondering how the move went and when I might post something to the blog. Well, I might've posted something before now but we had some issues with our DSL switch-over so I just last night was able to access my email and internet connection for the first time in a week. I wanted to just get a quick update and a couple photos up to keep you in the loop.

The house, of course, is still a disaster area, but we're making progress. We flew Jeff's mom down as our "cleaning crew" and GOD BLESS HER SOCKS OFF! It was such a load off knowing that our previous house would be cleaned while I was busy unpacking our stuff. And it was just nice to see her, too! :) She was here from Saturday to Wednesday.

I have the kitchen put away (I think; until I find another box labeled "kitchen") and some other miscellaneous things. We're waiting on the rest of our furniture to arrive this Saturday and then we'll be able to do more with the living room. Our bedroom seems to have become the "catchall" room so that will be long in coming together, I think. We both have our computer desks set up in the back bedroom so we can at least check email (and post to the blog!) but that's about all that's happening in that room right now. No crafting yet; I haven't unpacked my stamp/scrapbooking stuff yet...mostly because I don't know where I'll put it at this point (Jeff will eventually build me a wall of cabinets to store my stuff). The guest bedroom & bathroom are pretty much set up but the bedroom is a work in progress as I have more plans for that room than the budget allows right now. :)

I want to take this opportunity to give A THOUSAND THANKS to those who were able to come out and help us get moved in: Joey & Amy, Brandon & April, Adam & Bekah, Adam & Melissa, Trent & Anjie, Brian, Scott & Brooke, Matthew, Joel...and to those guys who came out again to help do other house projects like attic ladders, a/c units & storm doors: Joel, Adam B. and Jason - you'll never know the value of your help! We are so blessed to have such kind, caring friends - we love you all!

More posts to come as we work to get our house unpacked and looking just the way we want it!

emptying out...

Yes, the rooms are emptying out...those are the shelves in my makeshift "craftroom" sans my stamp sets. I gotta tell you, that made me pretty uneasy - to have to pack all my stamp stuff up. You can be sure that will be one of the FIRST things that get unpacked! :)
Everything is getting piled in the living room where we have no sofa/sectional anymore (we sold that Saturday to the very excited proud new owner of our sectional). Jeff's pretty glad we don't have to move that honkin' thing...that joker's heavy!
We're pretty much to the point of just throwing things, pretty haphazardly and with no real direction, into a box and taping it up. The question to ask yourself is this: Will you/we be using this in the next 2 days? If the answer is no, PACK IT UP! I cleaned the coffee maker, in fact, last night in preparation of packing it, after asking myself that question.
Jeff is mowing the grass for the last time as I post this... We're eating cereal & sandwiches for meals... The countdown is on - 2 more full days and then we're off to the attorney's office to "close the deal"!

it is done...almost

We had our official walk-through with the builder and superintendent today and everything went really well. We had our realtor, Lisa Matthews, with us since she has experience with this sort of thing. We only came out with a very short list of things that need to be taken care of, and Tommy, the superintendent, informed us that most likely those items would be taken care of today. We're both very pleased with how the house looked on the inside (wanna see? click here); the only things we even saw were very minor cosmetic-type things to be fixed. The builder, Gary, was very nice and had great tips on upkeep of the house that would save us money in the long-run. Super-nice guy. Both of them.

In other news, THEY MOVED OUR CLOSING UP!! We are now closing next Thursday, August 16 (instead of Friday, August 17). The sales guys wanted to move it up one day because they said although they aren't planning to have any "snags", if something happened at closing on Friday that caused it to go longer than anticipated, it would possibly be Monday before they could give us the keys. Uh, no. No. It won't be Monday. With it being on Thursday now, if we encounter a "snag", we'll get it resolved before the weekend and still be able to move in over the weekend. Yeah. That's what we're doing.

So, 6 more days. Less than a week. To get all the rest of our stuff packed and ready. Omigosh. :)

"yards" of grass...

Went out to the house tonight and we have grass! And bushes! As a matter of fact, the yard is done. The inside is done (with the exception of a few things that need to be corrected; things like switches that don't work or don't turn on what they're supposed to turn on). We have electricity & A/C (oh, how GLORIOUS that was to feel when we stepped into the house!). They are planning to do the inspection tomorrow and hopefully have the CO (certificate of occupancy) by tomorrow or Thursday. Then our walk-through will be Friday at 8am.

We are 9 days away from moving into our very first home...I can't begin to tell you how excited we are...

my beee-uuu-teee-ful stove...

It has been a week since I've seen the house and I was going into withdrawal! Jeff goes by everyday on his way home from work so he'd been telling me the things they'd been doing, but today was the first day we got to go see it. They have pretty much finished the inside. The carpet is down in the entire house and the linoleum is down in the kitchen now. It looks good! My "beee-uuu-teee-ful" stove is in - boy, am I excited about the fact that it's a smooth-top...it really doesn't take much, you know? You can see in the video just how excited I am about it. :)

They have also put in things like towel racks in both bedrooms and all the doors have doorknobs now. We have big gigantic mirrors in each bathroom, too (you can see that in the video, too...oops!). We're starting to measure the rooms to try & figure out how we're going to place our stuff...

They've picked up all the debris in the yard and have re-graded it in preparation for the sod. That will be going in pretty soon, I suppose, since the walk-thru will be NEXT FRIDAY!!! I can't believe we're 2 1/2 weeks away now...it seems like we took so long to get to this point, and yet, it seems like they just started the house.

lots of "little" stuff...

Wow, between the last two days of progress on the house, we have had a lot of "little" miscellaneous things installed. We went up to the house a little later last night and I just didn't have the energy, honestly, to sit down and post to the blog. Tonight, however, I have a little more energy so I'm going to cram what I would've posted last night into tonight's post, too. Hope you don't mind. :)

Bear with me as I try to remember everything they've done to the house in the last two days (and this will probably be pretty random, too).

Let's see...they have put down the vinyl/linoleum in the 2 bathrooms, they have installed all the light fixtures and/or ceiling fans including the one on the front porch (the workers are so nice; they offered to put up the fan we bought for the porch if Jeff would bring it to them the day they were working on that [yesterday] - so he did!). We have a ceiling fan/light fixture in the living room and the master bedroom and light fixtures in the kitchen, bathrooms and the other 2 bedrooms (the bedrooms are prewired for ceiling fans, though). They have wired for and installed all the outlets and light switches. They have the dishwasher, microwave oven and water heater installed. The microwave went in today and it's super-nice! It's a hood microwave so it's right at eye level and seems really roomy inside. They also poured our driveway and sidewalk today! Jeff says, "Now it's starting to look like a house.", like it didn't before! :D

housewarming!

Our sweet, sweet friends threw us a housewarming shower Saturday evening and we had the best time! It was hosted by Joey & Amy at their home and the weather was beautiful! We were able to sit outside and just chat and watch the kids (young & old) play. We had yummy appetizers to snack on and then we opened presents! We received so many nice things, things that we'd registered for (by request of the hostess) at Target & Bed, Bath & Beyond. We are so blessed to have so many kind & caring friends. Then Joey fired up the grill and we ate some more! The whole evening was such a blessing to me & Jeff, and we especially want to thank Joey & Amy for hosting and those who were able to come celebrate with us. We missed those who weren't able to be with us...we love you all.

counter tops...

Hey, look at this...2 days in a row I'm posting!

They installed our counter tops today at the house. It's really hard to see in the photo what color they are, but it's kind of a mix of a really light clay color and beige-ish tan. Is that sorta clear? As mud? Well, hey! It's kind of like a "mud" color! :) I crack myself up sometimes...

Anyway, we also had 2 big boxes sitting in the house when we got there tonight: our microwave oven and our dishwasher - WOOHOO! The microwave will go above the stove (that's a smooth-top stove) and the dishwasher will be at the end of the counter, beside the sink, next to the patio door.

paint...

The interior of our house is now painted! When we got out to the house tonight, all the walls were painted with the "bone" color we picked out (one of 3 choices, mind you - we would've gone with a little more color if it was up to us!). The doors and all the trim were painted white, as well. Boy, it really looks sharp with the little bit of contrast there. Everything is just so cleaned up. I wish you could see the video I took, but it was too large when I tried to upload it. Bummer. But hopefully, you can see the paint color and how nice it looks from the photo, and NEXT TIME, I'll try to remember to keep the video a little shorter!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's had an interest in our "house-building journey" and who's been checking the blog periodically. I've had lots of comments and compliments on it and I appreciate the feedback. I've really had a fun time with this blog and I hope it's kept you pretty informed on what's been going on. I'm sure it will continue on, even after we've moved in, with things like how we're decorating it to make it our own, landscaping/gardening (ha!) and the like. Stay tuned, and thanks again to you all!

30 days from closing...and counting...really fast! :)