It Begins...

I am exhausted and it's 1:30 am so I'm not going to be long. Today was a long day! I woke up early enough to run by the house for 5 minutes to look at the paint colors in the morning light. This would have been a great idea except for the cloud cover we had this morning. Oh well. At least I got an idea of what the commute would be like from the new house at the time of the morning.

Work seemed to drag on (again) but I think it's going to feel that way for a while since I'm so distracted. Also it didn't help that is was the last day before a 3 day weekend. After work we came home for a bit, ate dinner and then headed over to Home Depot. We bought paint and lots of paint supplies, as well as some other things we needed. By the time we got back to the house it was about 9. We got to work taping off the trim, window frames, outlets, etc. Taping the ceiling was a pain in the butt because we have yucky popcorn ceilings and tape does not like to stick to them. We will be having the contractor scrape the popcorn ceilings and repaint them, but for the time being I didn't want to slop paint all over them so I was trying to be careful. While I began painting Andrew started experimenting with the baseboards. We have to pull them all off in the rooms where we are getting new floors. They look kind of crappy anyway so we think we are just going to pull them all off and replace them on the first level of the house. After some finagling he got the first baseboard off and after that it went like clock work. I got most of the living room done with the first coat of paint and he got all the baseboards off. We left the house around 12:30 impressed with how much we actually accomplished. I wish I had my camera over there with me tonight, but I will be sure to post some pics of our progress over the weekend. There is still a lot of work to be done!

Starbucks Full Circle

Well it is official! We are homeowners! I didn't get a chance to write last night because there was a lot going on. I almost didn't get a chance to write tonight either, but I'm making some time for it. I imagine now that we are out of the "planning" phase and into the "doing" phase, I will have less time for writing on here. I will try to still keep up with it as best I can.

I'll try to summarize the closing process briefly. We got to the title company a few minutes before 1 and Paul was already there. We went in the room with the lady who was doing our closing at pretty much 1 on the dot. All of our paperwork was ready to go so there was no delay with that. She began handing us documents and briefly explaining what each page said. Most of this stuff is over my head so I let Andrew ask questions if he needed to and I stayed quiet for the most part. Paul was pretty reassuring about the whole thing and we really didn't have to many questions, so it was just a matter or signing all the pages. It was over before I knew it. By 1:30 we were driving down the road trying to decide where to eat lunch. The whole process took about 20 minutes. It was completely opposite of most of the horror stories I've heard about closings. In fact, it went so quick, it didn't really feel real.

The other reason it didn't really feel real was we didn't have the keys yet. The seller wasn't coming in to do their end of the closing until 3 o'clock. I almost cried when I heard this. Also it takes a little bit of time for the lender to receive all the paperwork and release the funds, or something like that. So the lady said they could get us the keys later in the day, or possibly in the morning. There was no way I was waiting till the next morning to get the keys. I wanted them RIGHT NOW. Then I remembered we had an appointment with the electrician at 8 am, so we definitely needed the keys before then. Paul came to our rescue and said he could come back for the keys and bring them to us later on in the day.

So I left feeling a little disappointed, relieved, but wishing we had the keys or something to show for it! Eating lunch at Freebirds helped to lift my spirits, but then we didn't know what to do with ourselves after that. I suggested we go to RoomStore and order our furniture and Andrew was on board with that. So that's what we did! We had been in several times and looked at it so we were ready to buy when we walked in the door. Since this weekend is Labor Day, they had a sale going on, so we got some money off on the deal. The furniture will be delivered on Sunday the 7th of September. I can't wait to get it! After we left RoomStore we went on home to hang out for a while. Paul called around 4 and said he could meet us at 4:45 to give us the keys. He wanted to meet at the Starbucks at Mopac and William Cannon. The great thing about this was on August 25th, 2007 we were in Austin looking for a rental property before we moved down, and we met Paul for the first time at this same Starbucks. It seemed very appropriate that this is where we would meet to get the keys for our first home purchase. I made Paul and Andrew take this cheesy picture. Paul was goofy and looks like a total nerd, but he was definitely a better sport than Andrew. Thanks for everything Paul!!! This is the part where I give Paul a plug and say if you need a great agent, we happen to know one.


So after we had the keys and officially felt like homeowners, we immediately went to the house. We walked every square inch and looked at every little detail. We played with all the light switches to see what they did (there are still a few I'm not sure what they do). We looked in the darkest corners of every closet and studied the thermostat and played with the garage door opener. Its weird how many little nuances there are in a new house. It takes a while to get everything figured out. Since the paint samples I ordered had come in, I wasted no time in trying them out. When I first put the green "Grass Cloth" on the wall I about freaked out because it looked neon lime green. After it dried and I put three coats on it, it looked like what I imagined, and I'm very happy with it. I'm also very happy with the yellow-gold "Honey Bear" color for our master bedroom. I'm still tackling the formal living/ dining room because the color is not working out. The one I originally picked out "Castle Stone" is supposed to be a light khaki color. On the wall it looked like a light, bright yellow. Today I bought two more samples so I now have three different colored blobs painted on the wall. I am waiting to let them dry overnight and then will see how they look. So far I have been frustrated and disappointed with these shades, because they look COMPLETELY different on the wall than on the swatch.

While we were trying out the paint last night, my friend Ellen from work called and wanted to come by and see the house. Her and her husband Jeff just bought a house a few months ago, not too far from our place. When they showed up they had brought us a bottle of wine and some toilet paper! Necessities!! We have gotten a lot of use out of both. Luckily I had brought some plastic cups over to the house in case we might want a drink of water while working. We looked super classy drinking our wine out of red Solo cups. The toilet paper was a great idea that I had not even thought of. Sometimes you have to use the bathroom in the empty house!

By the time we went to bed last night we were exhausted. It was hard to concentrate at work today because I wanted to be at the house. The electrician was there most of the day doing work, most of which was unexciting. The one thing I was excited to see was the new fans he had installed in the two upstairs bathrooms. I know this doesn't sound very exciting to most, but if you have bought a home, you know how anxious you are to see the results of any additions or improvements. Even bathroom fans. We spent a good amount of time over there tonight trying out the paint and letting the dogs run around and check the place out. Here are a few pics of the dogs in the empty new house.
We think they like it so far... they mostly tore around the rooms sniffing every inch and running around like maniacs.









They seem to like the yard although Macy is a little hesitant to leave the deck at times. There are other dogs in the yard that backs up to ours and Beamer and them are getting acquainted. There have been some hostile growls and barks but for
the most part just curious sniffing.
They will get used to each other after a while. The dogs are still kind of confused by the garage and the big door going up and down. Macy definitely doesn't like the loud noise. It will be interesting to see how they adjust to the new place. I'm sure they will like having more space.

Well it's getting late and I have had two long days so I'm ready to hit the sack! I'm looking forward to the three day weekend, even if I will be spending most of it painting! If you're here in town, feel free to stop by!!

AHHHHHH!

I'm at work, it's 10:20 and I can barely think!!! Only one and a half more hours!!! I'm going craaaaazy!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I Love You Tomorrow, You're Only a Day Away...

Tomorrow is the big day! I hope I can sleep tonight! I'm feeling pretty sleepy right now so hopefully I can get some rest. We are both going into work until noon and then heading up north for the closing at 1. We are both feeling pretty good about everything at this point, and a lot of the anxiety we had has been lifted, for several reasons. I think we might need to fire our real estate agent, though! Just kidding.... Paul told me the other day he reads this sometimes so I had to get a jab in at him. I guess our biggest anxiety at this point is getting TO the closing! It would sure help if Paul would e-mail the directions properly!!

We finally got an estimate from the contractor. The first estimate we got was from the partner of the friend-of-a-friend guy. He quoted us several THOUSANDS of dollars more than we ever dreamed of paying. Then later in the day his partner (the guy we actually know) called and gave me another estimate, one that was actually in the ballpark of what we were considering. I guess the first guy gave us a quote based on making a lot of money off of the deal, but Rob just wants to give us a good price and wasn't concerned about his cut. So that is good news, knowing we can get the work done for a reasonable amount. And it was one of the better conversations I've had with him, he wasn't pushy or opinionated, just nice.

I can't believe it's really happening tomorrow! I'm so excited to have the keys and get started on the whole thing! I'm sure I'll have lots to say tomorrow night, but for now I'm off to bed! Thanks for reading!

Ode to The Neighbors

Over the last few weeks since I've started blogging I've been talking about all the exciting plans we have for moving into the new house. One thing I have overlooked is the one (and maybe only) downside to moving out of the duplex, but it is a big downside! We love our neighbors!! I am going to be so sad to leave them behind when we move. In our old house back in Virginia we only knew one set of neighbors, they were retirement age, and we could never remember their names. When we came here we weren't looking to make friends with anyone on the street, it just happened that way. We first began talking because our dogs always wanted to play together and liked to sniff at each other between the fence boards in the backyard. Eventually we let them run around together in the front yard and we started chatting. After a while this became an almost nightly ritual that I looked forward to. And then after couple of months of chatting in the front yard, I guess they liked us enough to invite us out with them. It happened to be George's birthday, and I won't share too many details on here, but Andrew jokingly threatened to punch George in the face, and they all wondered if he was half serious. I guess that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

It's been almost a year now and we've shared a lot of fun times. We have barbecued together on many occasions, stayed up late playing video games, hiked with the dogs on the greenbelt, celebrated all of our birthdays' together, gone to concerts, and drank many a cold beverage in the front yard. They have turned out to be some of our best friends in Austin! I'm glad we'll be just a few minutes away still, but I will miss the ease and casual feeling of having friends right next door.

I have to share one of my favorite stories regarding the neighbors. One evening Jaime sent me a text message to see if the we wanted to come outside with the dogs. She meant to send the text to my cell phone but accidentally sent it to the house phone. Andrew and I were sitting on the couch watching tv when the house phone rang once and then the answering machine immediately picked up. It began recording in a robot sounding voice, "Can Beamer and Macy come out to play?" We just about died laughing. When we opened the front door to go outside Jaime had no idea why we were laughing so hard until we told her. None of us had any idea that you could text a land line and it would actually speak the words!

Fast forward a month or so to my birthday. Jaime decided to be cute and send a text message birthday wish to the house phone for me to hear when I got home from work. She wrote out the words to the birthday song by the Beatles, and where the music would play she typed "na na na na." For whatever reason, when Sprint translated this text message into audio, "na" became "North America." Listen here and get ready to laugh. Besides the obvious hilariousness of it, at the end, instead of pronouncing her name "jay-me" it chose to pronounce it like the Hispanic male's name. This event has been one of our favorite jokes ever since. After this, I will never be able to separate birthdays and North America.

So here are some pictures of us with "the neighbors" (I use it as a collective term for all four of them) from my birthday party and on the way to see Ghostland Observatory.












































We have had some fun times. Jaime, George, Mel, Iggy,
Marika, Richard and Lucy, we will miss you guys, but there is no excuse for not coming over to visit!







And just as a glimpse of what is to come, our new neighbor are the "crazy people on the street with the ugly house." That's right, they are the ones with the neon blue house with teal trim. You won't have any trouble finding us! We're right next door!

Three Days!!

According to our official Countdown Timer, we close in less than three days! This weekend was fun and flew by, but I'm afraid the next few days are really going to drag. Our appointment is on Wednesday at 1pm, so I will leave work around noon. I really only have to make it through Monday and Tuesday because Wednesday will barely count as a day. I also get to go into work late tomorrow because we are meeting the contractor at the house tomorrow morning at 8:30, so that will help make tomorrow not feel so long. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that we can actually GET INTO the house tomorrow at 8:30.

Yesterday was a fun and long day, and a great distraction from thinking about house stuff! I was so glad to be involved in something else for once, and something that was fun! It was Lindsey's birthday, so all of her family was in town, and we spent that day doing wedding things. Her sister Bethany and I are going to be the the maid/ matron of honor, and her step sister Lori is one of the bridesmaids. We went to an awesome new bridal salon near the Hill Country Galleria called Signaure Bridal Salon. Lindz had pretty much already found the dress she liked there, but she wanted everyone to see it. Let's just say we all approved!


While she was finishing up on the bridal side, she sent us over to the bridesmaid section to take a look at the dresses over there. She had already seen a few she liked but she wanted us to look for ourselves. We picked out a few we all liked and headed to the dressing room to try them all on. It was a unanimous decision on the dress Bethany had on first, which was great because it was Lindsey's first choice, too! Unfortunately the only color they had it in was a coral-y pink color and we will be wearing it in Espresso (brown). Of course they had swatches so we know what it will look like, but I can't wait to see it in person in the right color and in a size that isn't falling off of me. Here is a pic of the dress, but I think pictures don't do it justice! It really is a very flattering fit and looks much better on a person than in the picture or on the hanger. In fact, when I first saw it on the hanger I thought it was nice but wasn't in love with it yet. As soon as I saw it on Bethany I knew it was the dress for us all and the other styles couldn't even compete. I wish the other girls could have been there with us, but we are so spread out across the country. The other three bridesmaids will all be in Austin at some point over the next few weeks, so hopefully they will get the opportunity to see it and fall in love with it also.

Lindsey's mom also tried on an AMAZING mother of the bride dress that we all loved. Dana is a hot mom and this dress is definitely a great look for her. In just about an hour Lindsey got her dress, the bridesmaids picked out ours, her mom found hers, we all got measured and ordered our dresses. It was too easy! Since we were done so early, we headed across the parking lot to the new Little Woodrow's and all had drinks! We finished off the night with some delicious City Market barbecue brought in from Luling, "moist" chocolate cake, and Mexican Train dominoes!! It was a great day, but I was tired when I got home!

Throughout the day we tossed around some ideas for what Bethany referred to as the "Bach Party" (pronounced "batch", sounds like short for bachelorette). At one point Lindsey mentioned that she would love to watch the Sex and the City movie at the party, which gave me and awesome idea. Unfortunately I will not get to live out this awesome idea because when I looked into the pricing, it would cost several THOUSAND dollars! Lindsey and Jake love to go to Alamo Drafthouse to see movies, so I thought it would be awesome to rent out a theater at Alamo and watch the movie, and do dinner and drinks there. It would have been perfect because the one downtown is less than a block from Pete's Piano bar, which is one of the places we'd like to go for the Bach Party. Unless one of us wins the lotto in the next 6 months, I don't think this is going to happen, but if it did, it would have gone down as the best Bach Party in history.

Today has been a lazy Sunday so far. We went to church this morning and then came home and napped and lounged around. One thing I really need to do tonight is some cleaning and laundry! Our duplex is about to be listed as up for lease which means people are going to start coming through to see it. I'm really not looking forward to this but it's a necessary part of the process. It's kind of weird situation, because it's not like we are trying to get our house sold, it's not even our house. But at the same time, I don't want a stranger to come in and see piles of dirty laundry or dishes around, it's just kind of embarrassing. If our landlord is able to find a tenant for the end of September, we can get refunded part of September's rent, so that is some incentive for us to try and get the place leased.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend! Hopefully I will have good news to report tomorrow after our meeting with the contractor! Thanks for reading!

I Can't Believe I Forgot!!

The other night when I posted my ideas for our masterbedroom, I forgot to add something. After I had already put together the colors and everything, I found this picture in a Pottery Barn catalog. I couldn't believe it, because it was almost the exact same colors as what I wanted, and even the headboard of the bed looks like ours! The wall color in the picture is more of a sunshine-y yellow, and ours will be more goldy, but its still a very similar look. The blue and white bedding is very similar to ours, although ours of course is the toile pattern. Anyway, just wanted to put this up here!