Joe the Plumber

Here's a little anecdote about home ownership, a true story that happened to us a few nights ago.

I was cooking dinner and throwing the food waste into the sink with the disposal as I was going. I had thrown some remains of an onion in the disposal earlier, and then later washed off a fresh head of lettuce and ripped off the outer leaves. I pushed all the scraps down the drain, turned the water on and then flipped the switch for the disposal. I knew the disposal was on because I could hear it running but it didn't look like it was breaking anything up. The water that was running was not going down the drain, but slowly filling up in the sink. I turned the disposal off to let the water drain for a minute. When I turned it back on, the disposal sprayed green-lettuce-pulp-water up out of the sink and lightly misted the kitchen. I yelled "OH LORD!" and Andrew yelled from the family room, "ARE YOU OK?" He hadn't been paying attention to what was going on and I guess he thought I was hurt. He came over to asses the situation while I wiped down the fridge, counter, floor, and other surfaces where the green-lettuce-pulp-water had landed. We decided to hold a large plastic mixing bowl a little above the drain so water could still get down but spray would not come out. After a few rounds of trying that, the sink was full of green-lettuce-pulp-water and nothing was going down. All I could think to say to Andrew was, "Welcome to home ownership!" and we both laughed. At this point I considered taking a picture because I was already thinking the situation would make for great blog fodder, but I decided I'd spare you all the view of the green pulp. Although it was pretty humorous, I started wondering what we were going to do to fix the problem. We know a good electrician but we don't have a plumber (where is Joe when you need him?), we certainly didn't know how to fix a garbage disposal ourselves, and for the first time in our adult lives, we didn't have a landlord we could call. It was up to us to fix this, and most likely would have to shell out a lot of cash in the process. This was the first major "malfunction" we encountered since owning the house, other than ones we created ourselves during various improvement projects. I started to get nervous.


Luckily, Andrew remembered we had an unopened bottle of liquid plumber so we poured most of that down the sink and let it sit for a few minutes. The next time we turned the disposal on everything went down just fine and the water drained. Crisis averted. No phone call to Joe.

Welcome to home ownership.

Pumpkin Carving!

Tonight we carved our jack-o' lanterns for Halloween. I have to admit we both used patterns we found on the internet, but I think we executed them pretty well. I told Andrew I was going to put the pictures up on the blog and have a vote on which one wins. Check out the photos!




























So cast your votes! Are you for Barack or the Kool Aid Man??? Are you a "Yes We Can" or an "Oh Yeah!"? Don't be shy, let us know!

Disclaimer: No political affiliations will be assumed ;)

Brrrr!!!!

A cold front came through over night and it got chilly here in Austin! When we woke up this morning it was 64 degrees in the house! Andrew had to figure out how to get the heat started in the house for the first time! Don't worry, it will be in the mid 70s by this afternoon, and back in the 80s again in just a few days!

Fun Weekend With Friends

So last weekend (October 18th) we made the treacherous trek up I-35 to Dallas for my friend Catherine's wedding. My dear friend Melanie was in town for the occasion, so not only was it wonderful to see Catherine get married, but it was great to be reunited with friends. For some reason I totally skipped over this event on my blog, so I'm rewinding a little to post pictures. Enjoy!




Brian & Catherine Wick!




The fab four, we must always take a picture!



ACU Girls! Go Wildcats!



Cake cutting at the reception




Andrew busting a move on Lindsey




Me and Mel, having to say good bye again :(

Fewer and Far Between...

As you've probably noticed, I haven't been updating as frequently on here as I once was. This weekend was the first "lazy" weekend we have had in months and it was great! We watched a lot of tv, napped on the couch, and caught up on some much needed relaxation. Andrew did a little bit of work on the front door, which more than I can say for myself. He needed to use filler in between the wood trim and the stone around the door since there were gaps around. Then he caulked around it and had to let it dry for several hours. Tomorrow we should be able to prime it after work. Then we'll eventualy get it painted to match the other trim on the house. Here is what it looks like right now.






We also stopped by a friend's Halloween party on Saturday night where there were about a million little kids running around in costumes. I'm pretty sure we were the only people there without kids so it was a little overwhelming but we still had a good time. Other than the Halloween party and church this morning, we have barely left the house all weekend!

On another note, for everyone reading this on the East Coast, our weather in Austin is finally starting to get "cooler." We had one or two nights where the temperature dipped as low as the high 40s, but the days are still pretty warm. I think on Saturday the high was 87, but for the next week the highs are in the low 80s, high 70s. The evenings are very pleasant though, and we have enjoyed taking the dogs on walks around our new neighborhood. Since we're slowing down with work on the house, we're finally being good dog owners again and taking the dogs out and exploring our neighborhood some more. There is an open field on the next block over, so one of these days we will probably experiment with letting Beamer run around there. In between walks, the dogs have been pretty good at lazing around with us the past few days.






I never put pictures up on here from my friend Catherine's wedding that we went to last weekend in Dallas. We had a great time and got to see some friends that we hadn't seen in a while. We also got to spend a few hours on Sunday morning visiting with my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Dallas. Maybe over the next few days I will post some pics from the wedding.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Honey Do List

All of the unfinished projects that we have keep running through my mind and I wonder where we will ever find the time to do them all. The house is definitely liveable, but there are so many loose ends to tie up on so many different projects.

Here are some examples:





There are no transitions between the tile in the kitchen and the wood floor in the family room and formal dining, just a gap where you can see the cement floor underneath. We bought one piece of the t-mold transition that we will use to see how it looks, but we need to buy several more feet, and set some time aside to glue them down. This is what it will look like:









I've mentioned on here several times that we haven't done the baseboards yet, and if you've wondered what it looks like, here is what I'm talking about:





Again there is a gap where the wood ends and the wall begins, not to mention the lack of paint along the floor where the baseboards will go. To do the baseboards on the whole first floor will be a pretty big project, so eventually we will need to bite the bullet and do it. Here is a picture of the one sample piece of baseboard we bought and what it will look like:





So those are just two examples but since we are on the subject, here is the longer list:

Finish baseboards
Finish wood transitions in kitchen, powder room and downstairs coat closet
Prime and paint exterior trim on the front door
Touch up around front door on the inside
Touch up green paint in family room & kitchen
Change ceiling fan/ light fixture in both guest rooms
Change light fixture in guest bathroom
Change all towel bars & fixtures in guest bath
Hang valance on guest bathroom window
Finish unpacking and decorating second guest room
Put a second coat of paint on master bathroom
Put up all fixtures in master bathroom
Install baseboards in master bathroom
Touch up paint in master bedroom

Then there are several outdoor projects we need to work on like raking, weeding, mowing, and trimming some branches.

And then sometime down the road I'd like to paint both guest rooms and the guest bathroom, but those projects aren't so urgent. I'd also really like to put a new door on the backdoor out to the deck, like a single french door or something with a window so you can see out to the backdoor and also let more light in. That is not urgent either but its on my long-term to do list.

I'm sure I've left a few things off that I will remember later on because that list seems way to short! Eventually we will have the list whittled down, but until then, any volunteers??? ;)

Mending Fences

One of the tasks we have been putting off for some time now is fixing the gap along the bottom of our fence in the backyard. For some unexplainable reason, the fence doesn't go all the way to the ground on one side of the yard. There is a large drainage ditch on the other side of the fence, so maybe that has something to do with it, maybe it was for run off purposes, but we haven't really figured it out. In some places the gap is as large as a foot in a half. That is definitely enough space for Macy to walk comfortably underneath, and enough for Beamer to slide under.










Up until recently, Beamer just liked to peak around under the fence and look out to the other side. Luckily they haven't tried too much to get out, but recently Beamer figured out how easy it was to get under the fence and became really interested. Once he gets out he doesn't try to run away, I think he is mostly fascinated with the fact that he can go under the fence. Here is the view we have been getting of Beamer lately:







And just so you could get the full effect, I took a short video of Beamer's David Copperfield act, with Macy as his assistant.








Unfortunately I didn't catch these all on the same video, so here is Beamer trying to get back into the yard while his little sister terrorizes him.






Obviously if this continued it would be a problem, so tonight Andrew went about cutting some wire fencing and stapling it to the wood fence. Here is the play by play:















The fence isn't entirely "mended" yet; there are still a few more feet of wire fencing to be added. The wire is surprisingly sturdy, though, and even if Beamer could bend it, it would be quite uncomfortable for him to try and squeeze under it. I don't think we will have any more disappearing acts from now on.

And one more video, just because it's funny and a glimpse into our everday life with the doggies. Macy loves to dart around the yard and chase Beamer and bite all over him, and he loves to ignore her. It's love.

House Photo Update!!

Some photos of the guest rooms and guest bathroom to tide you over till I do a real update! Maybe later tonight! Enjoy for now!

Hey Good Lookin'... Whatcha Got Cookin?

The new oven has arrived!!! I have several pictures to update you on so I put them in a short slideshow.

The new oven arrived yesterday around 10 am and I spent about a good hour reading through the manual because I had no idea how to use it! It's really quite smart for an appliance! Andrew was the first to really "use" it, he heated up some soup on the stove top yesterday afternoon. I baked in it for the first time today, and so far I think it's great! I'm really amazed at how quickly it can preheat and how it has so many different settings to turn on and off automatically when you program it. You can basically cook an entire meal without even being home. I wish LG would come up with a robot that removed you dish from the fridge and put it in the oven...

It also has an interesting feature called the "Sabbath Feature." I guess GE was the first to introduce this feature and then other manufacturers followed suit. You can read more about it here if you're interested. I wasn't aware of this, but from what I can tell, strict interpretation of the Torah and Kosher Jewish traditions prohibit anyone from "lighting a fire" during the sabbath. In modern times this extends to turning on an oven, which would make it difficult to prepare a meal. Star-K, a kosher certifying agency has approved this technology, so I guess it's a big relief to Jews who observe kosher laws. It's cool that ovens are so smart, but I'm glad to be a gentile!!

Moving on, I pretty much have finished unpacking and arranging our master bedroom. We still don't have nighstands (I am using a wooden barstool and Andrew is using the floor) but other than that, everything is done. The over all look of our room is a French Country motif with toile pattern through out and several fleur de lis. I've had the toile for a while now but I really wanted to extend the French Country theme beyond that, so I found a few fleur de lis accents to use around the room. You can see all of these things highlighted in the slideshow. I can't say I've ever been to France, but I thank the French for their decorating inspiration! The master bathroom still needs a second coat of paint which I might get around to this week. We have not put up any of our towel bars or fixtures since we were waiting to finish painting. We have been using over the door hooks for our towels, so it will be nice to eventually have real racks for our towels!

Last night we attended an engagement party for Lindsey and Jake so it feels like my matron of honor duties are officially starting. It's fun to get to be apart of all of these events with them and I can't wait till we host our bridesmaid/ college friends shower in January! I already had made a few purchases in preparation but I can't divulge on here since I know Lindsey reads this!

Today we had some friends over for my work friend Riana's birthday. This was the first "big" function we've had at our new place and I think it went pretty well! It got off to a slow start since most everyone was late, but we kind of expected that. We grilled burgers & hot dogs for 11 people and had a lot of other munchy items. I baked a German Chocolate cake for the occasion, which was the first thing I made in the new oven! Riana's baby, Kade, just turned 1 a few weeks ago and he is adorable! He is such an easy going and fun baby and they are lucky to be able to bring him to so many places. I hope someday our kids are as easy as Baby Kade. We all had fun and most importantly Riana had a good time. We have lots of left overs, but that is never a problem for us! Since we started early, everyone was gone before 8 and we were done cleaning and doing dishes by 8:45. That is a good party!

One other small house update is a new light fixture that Andrew put up. This one hangs over the entry way at the front door. We now have all the light fixtures on the first floor replaced, and they look great and very updated. You can see the picture of it in the slideshow.

It's been a fun weekend full of friends, food, home improvement, and most importantly for Andrew, football. Congrats to all the Texas fans reading! Andrew and the dogs are now pooped, as you can see from the last pictures in the slideshow.

Thanks for checking in!

It's All Good in the Hood

Well we've had some microwave woes the past few days but there is a happy ending. This past weekend when we ordered our oven we also purchased an over the range microwave to match. I was really excited about getting an over the range model because it frees up so much counter space. Also you may have figured this out by now, but I'm kind of obsessed with everything matching, so the idea of having all matching LG stainless appliances was heaven to me. Well my bubble was burst yesterday morning. We had scheduled the electrician to come install the new microwave for us on Tuesday and I went to work while Andrew stayed at the house with Jimmy the electrician. Jimmy had said it would take about an hour so when Andrew called me around 9:30 I was anxious to hear how things went. Bad news- it ain't happening. After removing the vent hood and looking at the options, an over the range model really wouldn't work for our space. If we were doing a complete remodel and putting in new cabinets it would be a different story, but as is it would require a lot of work to put that microwave in and still wouldn't look that great. Sigh. Figure out plan B.

It didn't take me long to get on Homedepot.com at work and start looking at vent hoods. Since the old oven and hood were an off white, we couldn't keep the old hood with the new stainless oven. I was sad to discover that LG doesn't sell hoods, so my dreams of having everything the same brand were over. I found several stainless options that looked pretty good so by mid afternoon I had called Jimmy back and scheduled him to come over again in the morning to install the new hood. After work yesterday we went to Home Depot and bought our new hood. Again, this is a total nerdy homeowner moment. I can't say that I've ever paid any attention to hoods at anyone's house that I have ever been to, yet when it came to picking out mine it had to perfect. It's amazing how you can be so opinionated over something you never thought about before. We found a hood that I was happy with and since it was significantly cheaper than the microwave we were returning, we got some credit back.

This morning Jimmy came over and installed the hood. I could only stick around for a few minutes before having to leave for work, but Andrew called me when it was done and he was on his way to work, and this time it went very smoothly. He said it looked good, but kind of funny with the current white oven. I admit my totally nerdiness, but it kills me to have to be at work all day while there is something new at the house that I can't see. I thought about it all day long, and even when Andrew called me at lunchtime from home I asked him again "So how does the hood look?" When the clock hit 5 I was so excited to go home and see the new hood. So here are the pics! I'm sure this isn't as exciting for everyone else as it is for me so just humor me.





I'm really happy with the hood and have come to terms with the fact that I will have to have a microwave on the counter. So it's all good. I also have to give our electrician a plug (no pun intended) because he is awesome! We've had him do several things for us over the past 2 months and we would never use anyone else. His prices are great and he is extremely friendly and helpful. He always seems to be available whenever we need him and he always remembers us when we call, so if you're in Austin and need a great electrician I'll give you Jimmy's info!


The only other news I have is that I put up the last two pineapple valances in the family room. They look pretty much like what the others look like, but it wouldn't be right if I didn't put up a picture.





I haven't done any work around the house tonight and it's been great! I was actually really tired so I took a nap for a while, but woke up to watch Project Runway. If you remember a while back I mentioned that I was playing a game with a bunch of people from home based on Project Runway (think fantasy football for girls). Well my last remaining designer was elimintated tonight but I wasn't too upset. It was between him and one girl that I really wanted to go on, so I was happy for her. I pretty much had no chance of winning at this point anyway, since there were people with a lot more points than me and who still had designers in, so I wasn't too sad to see him go. This show is so addicting!

I can't believe tomorrow is Thursday already... this week is really flying by for me, which is a good thing! We have a lot going on this weekend, and since the house is getting closer to done, there isn't as much work to be done so we can live a little.

Have a good night!!

Pineapples Up!

This will be a quick one, but at least I have a few photos to share! I tried not to overwork myself tonight because I wanted to enjoy this evening, but I couldn't help doing a few things. I had a great dinner with a small group of ladies from church, and will begin going to a small bible study with these ladies every Monday night. It is a very informal time of sharing, eating and visiting, so I am looking forward to these weekly meetings already after the first.

When I got home I decided I'd put up a few of the pineapple valances, since I've had them in my possession for a week now and have only put up one. I've been dying to see how they look in the rest of the house. I put up one on the window in the breakfast area and one over the kitchen sink and I am loving them! They add such a cute touch to the house! Tomorrow night I will put up the remaining two in the family room. The first floor is so close to being done!!





The other thing that I kind of alluded to but never actually acknowledged on here is that the wood floors are OFFICIALLY done!! The small remaining square of concrete at the bottom of the stairs was covered this weekend, and we have NO MORE FLOORING TO DO!!! I am so happy with how the wood turned out and still kind of in disbelief that we did all this ourselves. If anyone was every considering doing wood floors themselves or paying for installation I would HIGHLY recommend doing it yourself! Installation is a racket!!! If you can do it yourself and make it look this good I can't imagine every paying thousands of dollars to have someone else do it! Sheesh! Won't it look great with actual baseboards?!?! ;)





Well that's all for tonight! Hope everyone's week is off to a good start!

Well we definitely had a busy but productive weekend! Friday night we made a trip out to the Salt Lick in Driftwood for some delicious barbecue and birthday celebrating in honor of my friend Eric from work/ ACU. There was a huge group of people there for the festivities, but us work people mostly stuck together. Since it's "family syle" it's basically all you can eat, and we ate a lot. We also brought some leftovers home with us because you can never have too much barbecue.

Saturday I did a bunch of shopping/ errands while Andrew watched some football in the morning. In the afternoon we made trips to Lowe's and Home Depot because we haven't bought out either store yet so there still continues to be things that I need. I bought a bunch of house plants which kind of makes me feel like an old lady, but at the same time I really like having them around the house and I think they make it feel more homey. The one I was most excited about was my tree I really wanted and I LOVE! I am such a nerd. But anyway, now we have a tree next to the dining table and I'm going to treat this thing like my baby and hopefully it will live a long and healthy life. There are pictures of all the plants in the slideshow below.

The other thing we bought (ordered) at Home Depot is a new oven!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!! We planned to eventually replace the oven but thought we would wait till next year to do it. The current oven is really old, I'm guessing it's original to the house so like 15 years old. It needed to be calibrated because the temperature was off by like 50 degrees, which obviously makes a big difference when you're cooking. Andrew was going to do some research and attempt to do this by himself, but since we have been busy with other things it hasn't happened yet. All the cooking that I have done has been stove top since the oven isn't really operating up to par. Anyway, I was really just wanting to get a new oven since the old one looks like its from the colonial era and works like it too. Well last week Andrew returned all the left over wood from the floors to Home Depot and they credited him 400 dollars which we did not expect! We are also about to get back our security deposit and pet deposit from the duplex which will be a pretty good chunk of change. Basically we had some cash coming our way that we had not expected to have, so I took it as a sign that we were meant to buy a new oven. It took a little convincing, but eventually Andrew saw the sign also and we took the plunge and ordered it. It's going to be delivered new weekend in all it's shiny stainless steel glory, and I cannot wait!! It's a LG gas oven, so it will match our LG fridge. Here it is!!

Over the course of Saturday and Sunday (today) we got some things hanging on the walls so it's starting to look like a real house. I got up the curtains on one window and the formal sitting area is looking really cute now. We also painted the trim for the door frame and nailed it up with the nail gun. Andrew put in a few nails at an angle, effectively nailing the door shut which was hilarious/ infuriating. He had a better attitude about it than me. He was going to attempt to saw his way out but quickly realized that would tear up the new door we have worked to so hard to get in and finish. He stopped that plan pretty quick. My plan was to yank the door open, which worked and only caused a tiny bit of damage but no one will ever notice... anyway, we have a door with a frame and we can walk in and out of it so we're all happy.

It's after 11 so I should think about heading to bed. Hope everyone had a great weekend! Enjoy the pictures!

Decluttering with Deregulating

Last night we watched most of the vice presidential debate while doing work around the house. I didn't get to see every minute of it, but I heard most of it. My goal for the evening was to "declutter" the house, but the word I kept hearing over and over again on the tv was "deregulate." Anyway, I made it my mission to get rid of all the boxes that were lingering on the first floor of the house and make the area start to feel more liveable.

When we moved from Virgina to Austin, we knew we were going to be renting a place smaller than what would fit all our stuff. This was one of the reasons why I was always ready to buy and get in a bigger place, so that half our belongings wouldn't have to be in boxes anymore. Last night I unpacked all our wedding china and crystal, most of which I hadn't even looked at in over year. I love our china, so it was fun to unpack it and see it again after so long! We also have some other serving pieces, etc. that we got as wedding gifts that I had totally forgotten about but was so happy to see again! Unpacking these boxes was like opening presents all over again! I also have to give a lot of credit to the movers and the people who packed all of our stuff in Virginia because not a single piece of china, crystal or stemware was broken!

After I got all these boxes unpacked, the formal living/ dining room really started to look like a place you might want to live/ eat! I also put together a few tables I had ordered from Target, two matching console tables, one to be used as a sofa table and the other as a side table along the wall, and a matching coffee table. I'm really happy with how these look considering they are from Target. Also pictured above is an antique china cabinet that belonged to Andrew's great great grandmother (I can't remember exactly how many greats) that was give to us by one of his aunts. Now that we have a real house I am planning to refinish it and restain it to match the other pieces and put some glass in the door, and make it look beautiful! I think it's neat that we have this piece and I really want to make it look good and continue to use it for a long time. Right now it is housing all our crystal stemware that was haphazardly put away in there however we could make it fit. Hopefully I'll get around to refinishing it in the next few weeks and then I'll arrange its contents a little nicer.

And lastly, the family room... with NO BOXES!! Also, the latest addition is the pineapple pillows, but hopefully soon we will have the pineapple valances up! I am really loving this room and it only needs a few more touches before it is really done. I also am picking up a shelf for all our dvds/ video games today from Best Buy so I am excited to have some storage in this room. That is my one complaint about this room... there aren't any built-ins or anything, and not a lot of room for big book shelves, so there's really no storage space. I was really excited when I found this dvd holder on Best Buy's website because it doesn't take up alot of space but it will hold 144 dvds, AND it's espresso wood with silver accents, so it TOTALLY matches everything else in the room! Yeah I know, I get excited about the little things.

Once we get some stuff hanging on the walls and all the window treatments up the first floor will mostly be done (in terms of decorating). We still need to finish the baseboards. Then it's on to upstairs, which means attacking our bedroom. Our bedroom has all the furniture arranged where we want it, but there is clothes and junk EVERYWHERE. I really need to sort through and take some clothes over to Goodwill because I don't wear half of this stuff anymore! One of the guests rooms is pretty much done, it had to be since Aubrey was staying with us last weekend during the festival. The last room that will get done is the second guest room, hopefully in the next couple weeks.

Well that is pretty much all for now. Oh yeah, one more thing. We paid our FIRST mortage payment on October 1, so now this blog title is infact, true. We have officially entered the world of adulthood and will be forever indebted to Wells Fargo from now until eternity... or the next 30 years.

Thanks for reading!