Just in time...

I survived the crazy weekend - with something like 10 hours of sleep total. If that.
Here's the recap bullet style:


Friday

• Date night with friends Jen and Michael.
• A Thai restaurant for dinner.
• A coffee shop for dessert, coffee, and more connecting.
• We haven't seen them in a while and had a great time.
• Jen does interior things and offered to help me with paint colors and stuff for the house.
• Say it with me - hallelujah.
• I don't think Dan could stand much more indecision and war-raging paint chips.
• Those things get brutal when you bring other brands into the mix.

Saturday

• Early meeting at the university I work for as-needed. (Read: never because my campus Public Speaking classes have been moved online. You tell me how that makes sense.)
• Dan came along and we met with Mandy and Chris for lunch and book browsing.
• It's funny when you're looking in the photography section and find a book that should belong in the HOLY-COW-THAT'S-ADULT section.
• I guess those types of photographers need some how-to books also.
• We didn't buy any books - score a point for not spending on things we don't need.
  
• We wasted time at Lowe's and Target getting ideas.
• Met with friends for dinner and game night - with Apples to Apples and Cranium Turbo.
• Lots of laughs, puppetry, humming, and competition.
  
• We stayed at my parents' house instead of driving all the way home.
  
• Word to the wise: sleeping on the couch is only fun when the couch - and blanket - is big enough. But when you're sneaking in in the middle of the night - and your younger brother has taken apart the bed from your old room - you have to make do with what you find.

Sunday

• Dan had an early meeting at church for more website work he's doing.
  
• He tried to get me up but I was dead tired.
  
• As soon as he pulled out of the driveway, I was wide awake. Go figure.
  
• I got to drive my mama's fun little Tiburon to church. It doesn't have a built-in back massager like my car, though...aka "bump in the trunk." I might have to remedy that for her Christmas present.
  
• Once Dan and I got back to my parents' we all had lunch and then took apart some exercise equipment that my parents are letting us borrow for the house. Exercise regimen - HERE WE COME!
  
• We headed over to a brother's house to help him with networking issues, and had dinner.
• Finally, we were home with a couple hours to spare until bedtime.
  

Monday

• Back to the daily grind of work.
• Met with our small group for the third week of our Consumed journey.
• We were challenged this week to buy everything with cash (no credit - we hardly use anyway) and give up one thing that consumes our time. I think this is consuming my time right now, but Mary Ellen won't let me give it up (wink, wink). Maybe I do need to give up the evening computer time now that my photos are all uploaded, and the blog is updated.
  
• Dan wanted to go all extreme with the week-long challenge and give up one thing that consumes our time, and NOT SPENDING ANYTHING at all. He's already borrowed cleaning supplies from a friend so we can clean our house this weekend (and his friend made up a hilarious joke email about the whole thing).
  
• Dan's so hard core - he gave up TELEVISION for a week! He's allowed to watch it while we're home for our lunch hour, but that's it.
• The band on my wrist is to remind me of the challenge.
  

Are you tired of bullets yet? I am.


A neutral? We haven't made much progress on packing because it's hard to pack when YOU'RE NOT HOME. Or when you just plain ole' have other stuff to do. We are on track, though. The living room, dining room, and decorations/wall art are pretty much done. This week is planned for the office and I have no idea where to start. Blogging probably isn't the best place to start.

A positive? Construction is making its way to us with the expansion of the main road here, and it seems we'll be moving just in time. Or maybe not fast enough, as Dan thinks. The orange barrels and large machinery are not pretty, and people don't know how to drive around them.

Another positive? Even though we're moving away from the nice expansion here with a bike trail and whatever else, our new neighborhood has two pools, sidewalks and nature trails, and a park that's all quiet and all for us insiders (and their GUESTS). Awesome possum.

Yet another? I was thinking about our moving announcements the other night and Dan came up with the best idea for them. He's so creative. They're in the process now... just not sure if I will send them out right after we move, or if I'll wait and combine them with a house-warming party.

That's enough babbling for tonight. I'm going to see what I can get done while there's time!

P.S. We get our house in LESS THAN TWO DAYS!

See you on the other side...

...of the weekend, that is. I have about a half-hour to post before Dan and I kick off one crazy weekend. Every day is booked.

We're looking forward to Friday, February 29th. At 9:30am. That's when we'll be CLOSING ON OUR HOUSE! It's official. We got the plat view of our land, too, and added that to the sneak peek album.

On Tuesday as the Presidents Day sales were coming to a close, we bought our first major appliance - a refrigerator. The house comes with all other built-in kitchen appliances, but sadly not a fridge. We forked over a lot of dough and feel like we should join some kind of "We love fridges" fan club. Hopefully fridge ownership is all we dreamed of and more.

With the pile of paint chips I'm drowning in right now, and the number of colors I drawn to, I'm about ready to paint each wall in the house a different color. I think that would look really nice...eclectic even...right? I do love color - but I'm thinking the walls need to be neutral enough to match any kind of colors/furniture I bring into the rooms, without being boring. I need serious help.

Where was THIS when I was writing out my mile-long to do list within my Google calendar?! It integrates with Google stuff! Man, so cool...

Time to jet out of here - until next week...

Operation inspiration...

Happy week o' love. Do you see the names of those two paints in focus? Hehe.

Did you know that I married one fabulous guy? It would take some time to list all of his great qualities, but I will give you this one: he's a fellow list maker. We're both making all sorts of lists for this home-buying process.

Last week I made a list of every room in our apartment, listed the major things that need to be packed and cleaned in each room, and also divided up the apartment into zones. Different zones will be the focus each week until we move, and I've duly noted the things in each zone that can only be done upon move-out. And before you say that I'm going overboard, if I don't have this kind of direction and time line the packing won't get done. We'll be reliving the craziness of our last move - when we had THREE MONTHS and left the majority of stuff until the very last week. Not happening again.

There are basically six weeks until operation move-out when we have to be completely out of our apartment. YIKES. Even though Sheri says (from wise experience) that we'll want to stay at the new house as soon as we get possession, and I'm not one to argue with experience on big, exciting things like this, there is at least ONE thing we need to do before we can spend the night in our rockin' new house: de-winterizing. I don't think the neighbors would be too keen on accepting a new way of fertilizing our yard until we get the plumbing in order. So that's one thing on the list of to-dos once our closing happens.

While they aren't in list form, I've also been creating some inspiration boards for the rooms. I am in love with this paint line, but not with the price, so I need to see if I can find similar colors or order a fan deck to have the colors matched. Here are some inspiring things I've found online lately.

1. I'm really digging the photos over a window sill or door frame.
2. That's a whole lot of frames and stuff on shelves, but I sure do like it.
3. More staggered stuff on shelves. Can you tell I like shelves?
4. I think I want an inspiration wire in the new office. Not sure where I found that photo.
5. While this bathroom would be amazing, I manly want the wall color for our bedroom/bathroom. It would go great with the dark brown furniture we have.
6. We have an entertainment center similar to this, but in black with glass cabinet doors. Dan assures me that ours can look as good as the one above once the speakers and crap aren't sitting on top, and the video games are removed from the shelves. Here's hoping.
7. The most I've ever put on top of our toilet is a candle. I really like the look of more things. Can't remember where I got this photo either.

Wednesday - Sheri was rolling through town and Dan and I had planned to go take measurements and more pictures of the house (somehow we didn't have enough), so she stopped by and we gave her the royal tour. It was weird to show her with nothing in it, but quite fun...made me even more excited to get in there already. We had Cheddar's for dinner and came back to the apartment to watch American Idol. I'm going to miss the little guy that lived in his car - I really liked his piano performance and unique voice. Then, Sheri made us watch Ghost Hunters International... crazy Sheri and her ghost shows. ;)

Loveday - After work Dan and I had a list of things to do together that included shopping for a refrigerator, getting paint chips, stopping at Hobby Lobby, and having dinner. It was nice just to spend time together - doing things that we were excited for. We didn't find a fridge yet, but got to take in all the different options and prices.

Today - is completely open for the taking. Let's see what all I can get done.

Since a bunch of people have been asking us for more house photos, hopefully this will satisfy the curious - check out a sneak peek of THE INSIDE. And a friendly warning - the previous owners liked blue and other bright colors.

Time to fix some brunch with the hubs and make this Saturday good!

I'm pleased to introduce...

...the outside of OUR NEW HOUSE!


Say hello to Dan's car while you're at it. Boy are we SUPER STOKED to close on our SUPER DUPER house. Let me say SUPER just a few more times for good measure. We went over yesterday to get shots with the last available sunlight, and ended up losing the light while talking to a neighbor in our cul-de-sac. She absolutely loves the neighborhood, and I think we will too. Her house is actually the reverse of ours inside (totally different outside), so it was cool to see how she laid out her furniture. That's when I became really excited - because our house was a foreclosure and didn't have ANYTHING in it to give an idea of the true space.


After our offer was accepted on Monday, we locked in our loan interest rate by Wednesday and were almost instantly approved. We received our loan paperwork yesterday, and had it signed and sent on its way today after pictures and lunch. So many things bouncing around during one week's time. Dan's looking to close by the 29th of this month - so we'll have a whole month to paint + do what we need to do + move stuff in gradually before we have to move out of our apartment on March 29th. We'll see if that plays out. Wow. Wow. Wow. I simply cannot wait. I've been looking at rooms and paint colors online, and bought a few magazines last night for room and storage ideas.


Random fact: when we move into the house, it'll be the first time I've ever had my own garage spot. I'm especially stoked for that. My little car is especially stoked for that. I'm also looking forward to my monster walk-in pantry, laundry room, jacuzzi tub, and so many other things in this house. Dan, of course, is looking forward to finally having a garage and a place for tools and building things. He can build and fix ALL he wants.


Okay...LOOK what we saw when we pulled up to take pictures today. Yesterday = FOR SALE. Today = SOLD. That's awesome.

For the rest of the night - laundry, a little cleaning, and a little packing with Dan. His little brothers are here with their faces glued to video games for the night, so it may end up to be a game in itself to clean and pack a few little things around them.

We don't have any plans tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. And I'm off!

Wow...

Last weekend - chalk it up to another one out and about. Saturday we had a list of to-dos to take care of, which included Dan setting up computers for a client and me looking for new glasses (unsuccessful), along with finding food and seeing the Super Bowl service at church (very funny). Sunday we continued with our new little habit of alternating Sundays between parents. We used to only see mine every other Sunday for a few hours and then fit in visits with Dan's whenever we could because they normally take longer (with double/triple the family members and little brothers that want video game time with big brother). Now we are trying to make it more fair and I'm missing what used to be some fairly free Sundays.

So while we've been balancing up the last month with more friend and family time, more getting out of the apartment, and just more - which was my goal to get out of my computer chair more - Dan's happy with all the extra socializing but I've been very uncreative, unproductive, and working up an unexpected meltdown that erupted Sunday morning. What can I say...I'm an introvert. I like my "me" time and being at home. Maybe I'll get used to these full weekends and varying activities eventually, and be able to take advantage of my weeknights again instead of aimlessly perusing the internet, uploading my photos, doing the dishes, and plopping on the couch...or I'll just go postal. We'll see.

I was optimistic on Monday. I felt good - until 4:00 when I was tired from a long day and ready to bulldoze whatever was in my way. I had just finished talking to someone at work about an issue when Dan came up to me and said "They accepted our offer." With my head in a fog he had to repeat himself a couple of times while I protested in disbelief, "No they didn't."

THEY.
ACCEPTED.
OUR.
OFFER.

By the time I actually believed what he was saying, I wasn't going to scream at work, although that may have been a funny scene. I was in shock almost as much as I was at our engagement, when I had my jaw on the ground for about five minutes before realizing I was supposed to give an answer to, "Will you marry me?"

Holy cow. They really accepted our offer. Dan called our realtor when we got home from work, and found out there was actually only ONE other offer placed (the second one must not have been placed). The other offer was higher than ours, BUT they tried to make changes to the contract and that was a no-no. THE HOUSE IS OURS! I still can't believe it. I keep looking at the listing online and drooling. Not sure yet when we close on the house, but it will be within 45 days - before the end of March. Time to start packing...and looking for a fridge to match the other appliances.

Thank you so much for your thoughts.

Today - I'm still in shock that within 45 days we'll be painting and making the house our own. Dan has some work to do tonight, so I'll be seeing what I can get done as well. I have our website invitation samples on my mind, and I want to get them done. I have about a week's worth of daily photos to download from the camera and post on flickr. And I have a newly formed habit of creative block that I need to kick to the curb.

Let's roll Tuesday evening.