Whew

We made it through our first Christmas at our new house!  It went well and Caden said, "That was the greatest day ever!"  So Santa did his job this year!  However, it didn't snow.  It's snowing now!  dumb

There are still a lot of things that need to get straightened out here.   I finally did a load of laundry and found out that the washer was leaking through the floor and dripping all over the basement and onto a bunch of stuff.  UGH!

Well that problem is fixed.  Now the dryer doesn't work.  awesome.

I haven't decided on my cabinet pulls yet.  We bought some, but I'm thinking they might be too small for the bigger drawers.

We finally picked up the last of the cardboard that was on the floor!  Yay!  After the New Year, it is game time!  Get to go "hunting" for some new furniture and other things to help make our house even more fun!

Gotta go, we need to put together our first Chia Pet.

No signs of stoping

It's a good thing I'm a "keep moving" type of person.  Because I don't have a choice at this point.  Moving, remodeling, two toddlers, a husband, a dog, a cat, photography, subbing, coaching, playing volleyball, helping friends and family with stuff, holidays, and sometimes I like to throw in bathing.  Haha.  Thank God I have babysitters when I need them.  I just realized that I don't think I took any pictures during Thanksgiving and we celebrated it THREE TIMES!  I hope I at least take some pictures during our 4 Christmases.

I will be posting some more house pictures soon.  And our house may not be organized at this point but our Christmas tree is up and the stockings are hung.   I also unpacked most of the kitchen boxes.  :)  Still waiting on that countertop.....

More progress

The cabinets are all set, the appliances were delivered yesterday.  We are now just waiting on the countertops.  The house still has cardboard all over the place.  Yesterday, I vacuumed it.  Ha.  We got new carpet upstairs and the rooms are ready to have things moved in.  I wish it wasn't raining today and freezing.  I'd like to move over some things.  It would also be nice, if I was stronger and didn't have a bad back.  Ha.

Some House Progress

So I wanted to get a Dinner Bell.  I'm not the loudest whistler.  And as I was walking around the house, I noticed this bell outside the laundry room/mudroom door.  YES!  There's my bell!


So here is part of our backyard.  We live on 1.5 acres and the backyard is awesome!  There was a surprise treehouse in the wooded part and there is a white picket fence.  I know cliche but still sweet. I can't wait until next spring to start some landscaping  Jimmy wants to cut down that tree in the middle of this picture.  And put up a shed in that area.




So here's the back of the house.  It needs a lot of work.  Can't wait to pressure wash it!  There is a brick patio that is just kinda, eh.  Ha.  Maybe this summer we will put up a deck.











Hey there's my dinner bell!  Ha




I'd like to put bar stools and a little bar off that big kitchen window as well.



Now, let's move onto the rest of the house.

So the kitchen cabinets were delivered.  We unpacked them all and then realized that they sent us the wrong ones.  So that's cool.  Now the remodel is taking a lot longer than we had hoped.  Not to mention that we had to tear out ALL of the carpet upstairs.  The renters, let their two dogs use the entire upstairs to go to the bathroom for 2 years.  No joke.  You would be AMAZED at all of the stains.  Some stains were so big, that the dog had to have peed there over 40 times.  It was unbelievable.   I really hope I never run into those assholes.






The dining room.   The color was called Wet Coral.  Ew.   Just ew.  









This was after we redid the floors.





And this was after we painted it.  I would like to do an accent wall with a high gloss stencil.  That will be a winter project.  I was also thinking of painting the upper part of the ceiling a grey as well, to make it pop.  I've seen people do that, and it looks awesome.  I'm going to paint the chandelier a different color and see how it looks before buying a different one.







Don't worry.  That hideous yellow in the foyer is gone.



The kitchen.  The floor was horrible.  Very slippery when wet white tile with pretty much black grout.  Jimmy & his dad laid down a porcelain tile that looks like wood.  Looks great!  My mom and I painted the kitchen.  The color isn't exactly what I had envisioned, but it will do.  I wanted something a little more grey.






Here is what color the spare bedroom was.







It's not a teal.



I was thinking teal with rose gold fixtures.  Oh and that spot on the rug up there....yeah that's a burn.  The effing renters BURNED the carpet!




The living room.   I really liked the color it was.  Didn't want to change it.  But the walls needed a lot of work from all of the holes from over the years.





These sheers and rods will be going back up.



I picked a color that is very similar and we stained the floors darker.







Ryder's room.  Yeah....



Chose the same color as his nursery.  I really like it a lot.







His favorite color is yellow and his room colors were grey & yellow so I just painted his closet yellow.  I figured it will be blocked by clothes and stuff anyway.  And it adds character instead of being plain old white.  Plus ALL of the closets needed painted.  Those renters are disgusting people.





So that's all the photos I have now.  I will try to take more asap.  We have done a lot more.  Just haven't had time to photograph it.

Ball is Rolling

Whew!

What a week!  Coaching volleyball, playing on my own volleyball & softball teams, ordering new appliances for kitchen, Caden started preschool, taking freelance photos, getting a root canal, ordered kitchen cabinets, taking photos at a charity golf outing,  getting into a car accident, birthday party,  taking more freelance photos in between watching football on Sunday...

So I need one of those, what are they called?  A break?   A vacation?  Yeah those!  WTF!?


Good news is that we are getting the ball rolling on our house!  Got the floor guy all set up to come and ready to demo!  This month is gonna fly by!

CFFD Summer Picnic

Stole these from Carey :)

Since I don't take pictures anymore.

10 yrs...

...and I still got it.  Started playing softball again!  I knew I missed it, but being out there, I realized that I have missed it so much more!!!

Also, I haven't "sprinted" in a SUPER long time either.  My legs are useless right now.

Woop! Woop!

The renters have bought a house!!!  Looks like Operation 1109 starts the first week of October!  Not as soon as they originally said, but whatever!  I can't wait to work on that house.  Love it.  Love it.  Love it.  I'll never forget my first impression of that house- "OMG.  I HAVE to have this house!"

Caden starts preschool in about 20 days!!!! These kind of things are creeping up on me!

Ryder's allergies are acting up again!  :(

Volleyball has been going on for about 2 weeks.  Today was the girls' first day of school, so practice might be a little unproductive today.  Ha

Tonight is Draft night for my Fantasy Football League.  This is my first time being the Commish!  I'm excited!

My volleyball league starts September 4th! That came up quickly!

Before we know it, it will be New Year's Eve!  : /

Stress Relief

I was feeling a little pissy.   Ha so I told Jimmy that I wanted to go to the batting cages and to the driving range.  I've never been to the driving range, so I wanted to check it out.

I wasn't too bad for my first time.  I hit it as far as about 190 yards, when I actually hit it. Haha.  There were a couple of misses.  HA!

I can't wait to go back!

Walking through town!

Aunt Susie came up to visit everyone for the 4th.  On the last day she was here, we walked through town and did some shopping.




We were in one of the girly clothing stores.  She asked Caden, "how do you like shopping Caden?"  He said, "Let's get outta here!"  HA!  No toys in the store = NO FUN!

House

Not excited for the August move in date anymore.  LAME!  

We are going to look at countertops today!  That will be overwhelming!  Got the cabinets & tile all picked out.  

Just might be ready with everything in time for the move!  **in october  :(

I kinda want to go through all of mu stuff that I have here at my parents' and just get rid of a lot.  But that probably won't happen.  Ha

Memorial Day

woop-woop

Starting to get somewhere!   Picked out the kitchen cabinets.  Just have to finalize some things and then order them up.  Also need to pick out the granite countertops.  But things are finally moving in the right direction.

I also need to pick out some paint colors for all of the rooms as well.


Blossom Time was last weekend, so I will have some more pictures to upload soon.

Daisy Incognito

Hair by Kim

Kim wanted to work on her portfolio.  So she did all of our hair and we took some shots of it!

Hanging out for Easter

cabinets, sunshine, and life, Oh my!

We finally went to the cabinet distributer and picked out some cabinets.  Now we wait on a price quote.    I'm not big on waiting.  Today is Friday, she said by the end of this week....


Jimmy had the past two days off and the weather was AMAZING!  Finally.  A nice day for when he is off!  We were able to do our walk into town routine.  Took the boys to the park, the football field, got cough pops at the Popcorn Shop, and played outside all night.  Apparently, my body isn't used to the sun yet, bc I got fried yesterday.  With the white dots and all.  Yuck.

Tomorrow I have our track season's final meet.  It's the big one.  All day long.  Gotta get up at the butt crack of dawn to go sit on a bus for 45 minutes.  Talk about vomit!  I got sick the last time we drove out there.  Lasted about 2.5 days.

I got to park in the driveway of my new house today.  I didn't really have to, but I wanted to.  Just to see it.  Pisses me off at how dumpy it looks bc the people squatting living in it just don't give a damn.  Only 3 more months and they are out and we are in!  I'm so excited to finally be in the house I've had my eye one for a couple of years!

Mr. Rogers!

We went to the PIttsburgh Children's Museum.  I didn't know there would be a bunch of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood stuff there!



His shoes!

Cause we are mature like that

where we're at

Coaching track, subbing MS/HS gym & health, taking freelance photos, playing volleyball, taking care of two little boys, and still having time to myself thanks to my mom & Jimmy's parents.

Seriously, I am looking forward to moving into my new house more than you will ever know, but I'm gonna miss the ability to go out after I put the boys to bed.  I need that "Me" time.

We had the first round of playoffs tonight- - we won.  Finally got some good blocking in.  Apparently, during a time-out the guys on the other team said they need to start hitting around my block.  AROUND MY BLOCK....on a GUYS' net!  Ha!  I didn't hear this, but I noticed that they did try to do just that.  We also took 2nd in the league. Hopefully we will be tournament champs!

My track team won today as well!  We had a lot of PR's, too!  Always great to hear that!  Especially when it's my hurdlers.

Jimmy brought the boys up to the meet, it was nice to see them there.  Plus we got to run around afterward.  They loved that.  Caden threw a huge fit when it was time to go home.


Tomorrow, my mom & I are going on a ghost hunt. Ha!  Becca told me about it- - and of course we were in, without a doubt.  Hope I don't bring any home with me.

I'm going to try to take more pictures.  I realize that I haven't been, but I also feel like the boys haven't really been doing much to take pictures of.

We walked by our old house the other day.  New owners were outside.  Caden said, "why are those girls at our old house?"  Ha  And every time we drive by our new house he says he can't wait to see it. I can't wait to CLEAN it.  The renters in there now are SOOOO gross.  I think it needs fumigated.

I recently went to the ER for the first time in my life.  Apparently, I'm super stressed out.  Yeah....We have 3 months and haven't picked out kitchen cabinets yet.  We don't even know where we are getting them.  And they will take time to come in after we purchase them.  I just want to have them for when we are ready to move in.  I want to get started on that ASAP.  Like the day we can get in there- - NON-STOP working.  I want in before the holidays, so I can enjoy the holidays with my family in my gorgeous new house that my awesome husband bought for us.

No joke.  This house.   We decided that we should start looking for a new, bigger house after Ryder was born.  Kids come with a lot of stuff.  Big, bulky stuff.  Yes, I know we could have made it work in our old house, but we wanted something even better.  So we started looking.  Well, one of the houses was "out of our price range, but [Jimmy] wanted to look at it anyway."  I said I wasn't going to like it when we got out of the car.  "It's a Cape Cod.  I don't like how the dormer windows cut into the room, making them smaller."  Step ONE foot in the front door - - OMG I want this house!  Then after the tour, I knew it.  I was hooked. From there on out, every house we went in was compared to 1109.  And  not a single house lived up to 1109.  I had to have it.  We kept going back & forth with this house. I wanted to know every detail that was said about it btwn Jimmy, the realtor and the owner.  I was so excited.  We put an offer on it and she didn't take it.  Someone else also put an offer on it and she didn't take that one either, so the dumb bitch rented it out to a family for TWO years (ends Oct 2014).  We sort of stopped looking for houses at the moment, bc we just couldn't find anything like 1109.  Then in the beginning of 2013, she asked us if we still wanted her house.  Um, DUH!  We put our house on the market and sold it in 11 days!  Well, crap.  Now we need a place to live until Oct 2014.  So July 2013, we moved in with my parents.  The renters say they want to try to be out by the end of the summer.  Cool Beans!  We have already purchased the new tile for the kitchen, laundry room, mudroom.  As well as our new double oven.  Saying that I'm super excited, doesn't even cover it.  Every time I passed this house for the past almost 2 years, I've dreamt of someday living in it.   And I can't believe that it's actually going to happen.






Thank you Jimmy.  I love you!!

gobble gobble

So Jimmy & I are not huge fans of oven roasted turkey.  In the [almost] ten years of our marriage, I have NEVER made one.  Until NOW!  And it turned out pretty good!  

first picture of the year

I realized that I didn't take any pictures in January.  How sad is that?  And this crap is the first thing I took a picture of this year.  DEPRESSING!

Why is it still winter?

I'm so glad I took advantage of the last two days of 60º weather.  The boys got to play outside both days, Nicole & I got to catch up and go for a walk...and now there is a winter storm.  The electricity has been going on & off all afternoon.  Everyone is out snowplowing their driveways.  I'm sitting inside with my coat on (including my hood).  I just want to be done with this.  I know I'm not the only one.  And I think I've been doing a good job at not complaining about it.  :) But it's hard.

Good news though: we get to go in our house tonight!!!  I'm excited!  Even though I leave pissed off every time bc the renters are disgusting.  But we are going in for measurements, so we can get some estimates on our kitchen remodel and the hardwood floors.  They aren't exactly the color we would like and it would be nice to get them refinished & sealed well before we move in.  All cost dependent of course.

I'm really excited to move into this house.  I catch myself looking at pictures of it all of the time.  It's going to be so much fun!


I'm excited for the kids, too.  I think they are going to have a lot of fun in the house.  Plus with the treehouse in the backyard!  bonus!

uh oh

Good News: renters are moving out in either July or August.
Scary News: I need to get going on my kitchen remodeling.

I have an idea of what I want, but I don't know where to get everything.  I don't even know where to start and I've already remodeled a kitchen before.  

winter...

is still here.  I haven't been taking pictures because I've been kinda busy.   I'm going to try to take more soon.  I need to start planning my kitchen remodel for our new house, so I may be a little preoccupied.

I'm really excited to get going on it.  But I don't know where to start.

My thought process:

Antique white cabinets that go ALL the way up.
Dark cherry island
Change range to gas
Already have double wall oven
Get new fridge, but what fridge do we want?
Single big stainless steel sink
Refinish the white dishwasher to stainless steel (since it's pretty much new)


What kind of countertop do I want? We did the Wilsonart HD in our last kitchen.  Looks like granite, but it's laminate.  It was great except I couldn't do an undermount sink with it.  I really want an undermount sink.  My parents have granite and I feel like every time I set a glass on it, I'm going to break the glass.  I don't want that either! And what color do I choose?  I was thinking dark for cabinets and light for the island.

Now for the floor.  The tile in there now is hideous and dangerous (super slippery).  Do we install tile or wood?  I like wood.  Do we do the tile that looks like wood?  Well that's what we were planning for the master bathroom.

Oh the master bathroom.  Had to have the shower floor redone.  I don't really like it.  Doesn't look like the picture.  So what do I do now?  Maybe I'll like it when I get in there.

The other bathroom...the tenants in there now ripped hooks off the wall so there is a giant hole in the drywall.  I'm thinking wainscoting that goes 3/4 up the wall.

Kinda can't wait to repaint the rooms.  Give it that fresh new smell.  Which will be an improvement from the disgusting turtle & dog smell throughout the house.  ew.

Hoping we can refinish and change the stain color of the wood floors downstairs as well.  That would be stellar!  That is all cost dependent.

So for now, I gather ideas.  Try to put it all together.  I only have 8 months & 3 weeks to figure it out.  Haha