Demolition: Day 1

Just wanted to give you a quick rundown of how our evening of demo went...

We found this fancy wallpaper underneath!

Love Haley's "this is sick" face!

Yes, my brilliant husband busted through that with his head...he has a knot on his forehead to prove it.

Looking from Guest Room to Bathroom

Guest Bedroom

Nathan & Kyle knocking down the ceilings

And our evening ended here considering we were all choking, coughing and couldn't breath.

Please excuse my unedited, rough photos and post.

I think I may have inhaled a bit too much this evening and it is time for bed.

We have a long day of cleanup ahead of us tomorrow.

Goodnight!

We are Homeowners!

It's official---we finally closed on the house!
Let the work begin and let the volunteers arrive...ahem, I mean workers.

We are now at 59 days until we have to legally be residing in the house.
If you think that's no big deal I would encourage you to go refresh your memory of what we just bought here.

Progress Report:
Utilities are turned on.
Budget Rolloff will be there tomorrow.
Releveling of the house will begin @ noon tomorrow.
Meyer's Roofing service will begin after work on Friday.

Here we go!
Wish us luck...or bring us dinner ;)

A Very Happy Valentine's Indeed!

What is this you ask?

Well folks, the wonderful lens featured above is the Valentine's gift that my amazing husband got for me!

(I guess he took a little hint from the constant prodding of my sisters and Mom)

Yes, he is a wonderful---mainly for putting up with me & all the women in my family!

I can't wait to start practicing with it! Let me know if you would like to be my guinea pig to practice on---I'm always looking for willing subjects to shoot!

Ok, I am done with all my gushy bragging on my husband and I will get to the point.

We are closing on the house tomorrow.
Hopefully.
At 9:30 a.m.
If they don't push it back again like the last 5 times.
But they won't give us the keys until Wednesday.
Because they are screwy and this process has taken FOREVER.
So hopefully.
I won't hold my breath though.
But I will keep you posted.

A Happy Valentine's, maybe?!?

My husband hates Valentine's Day with a passion.

I'm pretty sure he feels like it is a setup for every man to get in trouble year after year...

His thought is, "If I'm going to be nice to you why does it have to be on a specific day?!"

I love the man but he has never been one for sentimental things... He's a man's man that grew up with lots of man's men so needless to say I have learned to excuse it and honestly, I find his dislike for it it all quite comical!

I mean the first year we were dating he gave me chocolates and the movie "Just Friends". Should I have taken a hint??

When we were dating he joking told me he "was planning to set the bar really low so that when he did something sweet I would think he was the most wonderful thing ever."
....And it worked!

Unfortunately, I was not too bright and have spoiled him from day one!

Last year we tried the "don't do anything for me because we are poor college students bit" while we were both secretly worried that the other would do something. As always, I cheated and bought him something and in turn got nothing because I had come up with the stupid idea to do nothing when in all reality I think I simply wanted him to acknowledge that it was Valentine's.

After this saga I now understand why men think we are crazy and can never understand us!

This year for Valentine's I told him not to do anything for me again...
Immediately he put his guard up and wanted to know what kind of sick game I was playing as he began having flashbacks to last year.

I have been telling him the best gift he could give me are the keys to our new house!

If all goes as planned we really might get to close on Monday!

And if he really wants to buy me something I told him I wanted this new lens for my camera...

Happy 2nd Birthday Mallory!

Last Sunday we celebrated my niece, Mallory's 2nd birthday!

Here are a few of the pictures from her "Tea for Two...Two for Tea" party.

You think she is excited about being 2?!?

The menu includes this adorable teapot cake, cupcakes, pumpkin bread, fruit and some delicious chicken salad sandwiches!

She was such a ham while eating her cupcake...definitely put on a show!

She enjoyed it much better than last year when she had an ear infection and was completely uninterested in having her party...

Modeling her new swimsuit!

She loved her new dressup clothes!

Meyer Men...minus Neal

Look at the mischief in those eyes---I think she's going to be a handful for her parents (and her new baby brother or sister)!!

Yes, that means I get to be an Aunt again in July!! Woo hoo!

New House

We may have officially lost our minds this time

OR

maybe we are finally getting smarter.

Who knows?!?

You can be the judge of that over the next year while we renovate this gem...

Yep, you guessed it---we bought the beauty pictured above.

And if you think the outside is nice wait until you see the inside...

(Please pick up on the sarcasm---we are well aware that this house is terribly ugly)

I mean really, how could you resist the monkey on the front door!

Living Room

Looking from Kitchen to Living Room

Kitchen

Classy, huh?!?

Now we move on to the hallway.

Water heater closet

And on to the bathroom...

Don't you just want to come take a shower at our house?!?

Master Bedroom

Poorly sheetrocked and painted navy from the ceilings to the floor...

Guest bedroom AKA previous little girl's art project

Garage

Shop/Garage

Future Laundry Room...use your imagination!

Future bathroom...

The vines add character....right??

Man Cave, Office, Storage, etc.

Nice size back yard

Oh and I forgot to mention, we have to move in

60 days from closing!!

No big deal right?!?

We welcome all help....ahem, I mean free help!

Porch Addition

I have been feeling pretty 'blah' about blogging lately but oh well...

I will go ahead and post about our back porch addition as promised a while back.

Here is the best before picture I could find. No...we don't normally have that much of a mess in our back yard---we were heavily trimming the pecan trees so millions of little trees wouldn't pop back up in our flower beds come spring!

They probably will anyways...
Framed up
Slow progress...
Nathan acting like he was working...
After lots of caulk, fresh paint and tedious porch railing painting it is finally finished!
I enjoyed it much better when it was decorated for Christmas!!Unfortunately this dreary, cold weather has given me no decorating inspiration so it looks pretty sad right now...

In the midst of the last project, I got motivated to finish a project that was long overdue.
Painting the front door.
(It wasn't quite this bad but it wasn't pretty---this is after some sanding & lots of paint peeling)
What do you think about the new color?
Well, that's all for now...maybe I will post something more exciting in the next few days!

Oh and to end on a high note...
He just melts my heart!! Isn't he precious?!?