Blogger Hello

Hi All! Long time no see. I've been super lazy this entire summer, so I took a much needed blogger break. Especially from the house blog. Typical me started up the house blog with all the motivation in the world, and quickly got distracted by more enticing things. Those who know me well also know of my short attention span....

What was I talking about?!

Ah...anyways.... Ross & I have been busy this summer, catching up and having fun with family and friends. And when we do finally have free time, we get about 5 minutes of work done on the house :/ But here's the latest with us:

1. Ross' job is an unending drama that I could drag on and on about, but here's an extremely short version: Ross is getting laid off from his HR Generalist position (as of 8/26) at NHS since they are 'restructuring' (aka downsizing) their HR dept. So instead of claiming unemployment come September, he applied for a Recruiting position at NHS (a step down the ladder, but a raise in salary since they eliminated so many positions) and succeeded in getting that job.
So all in all, he can work that position while he continues his unending job hunt. Unless he actually enjoys the recruiting position, then he can just continue working that job. But he's done recruiting in the past, and feels so-so about it. He really loved the HR Generalist position, so I hate to see him give up his job search when I know there has to be something better out there. And I don't think too highly of NHS any longer b/c of the numerous ways in which they screwed their HR employees over. ANY company has to treat their employees better than what NHS has showed us.

2. My job is still so-so. Nothing new. Moving on....

3. We are slowly making progress on the house. Mainly only when we have a free weekend, which are few and far between. It's been a busy summer. Ross has been working on the yard (i.e. tearing out weeds and bushes...aka, making it look way worse before it will look better....say, next summer?!). I've been working on the 2nd bedroom. It originally had parquet flooring, that we wanted to rip out first before installing carpet. So I ripped it all out in 2-3 hours (and saved it for a possible re-use?!), and we're ready for carpet to be installed next week. Once that's in, I want to paint the room, fix some of the wall where paint is peeling, and decorate it a little. I want it to be a spare bedroom (not that I really expect guests any time soon!), but we'll bring in Ross' old bed that is currently living in Stephen & Betsy's spare bedroom. I have big plans for this room since I have no inspiration/ideas for our own master bedroom which is desperately lacking in organization and decorations.

4. Lastly, I've deciced Ross and I have WAY too much clutter (aka, the 2nd bedroom was ALL storage), so I'm cleaning house and making a pile for Goodwill. NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING will go back into the 2nd bedroom unless I've used it in the past year. Our entire house is extremely lacking in organization, so I'm slowly making progress on that!

5. Lastly, Ross & I are eagerly looking forward to camping on Labor Day weekend with friends! This is only our 2nd outing for camping this season, so we're looking forward to it. And also our week vaca in Virginia Beach with my family in September, another much needed break! So still a few things to look forward to, and before you know it, summer will be over....

So that's all we've been up to. I hope everyone's summers are going/went well. I guess I'll see you back in about, oh, 3 months, when I decide to update again :)

Home Sweet Home

We're finally moved in and we love it!! I'm ecstatic and still in shock that Ross & I are homeowners! Even though we've been working on the house for the past 5 months, it didn't feel like our house until we finally moved in. And it still hasn't quite sunk in yet. I feel like for the first time in 4 years (since I moved out of my parents house), Ross & I can finally kick back, relax and settle down. No more worrying about where our next home will be be once our lease is up. What a joy!

The rest of this week is full of relaxation :) I have a few things to do to get ready for camping, which I'm eagerly awaiting! Ross & I don't get cable & internet until Wednesday, which I feel should be making me be productive, but instead, I'm fully enjoying having a piano in our house instead. It's been great to catch up on all the music I used to be able to play :) And Ross isn't annoyed yet...haha. Other than that, I've been touching up paint here & there, slowly unpacking boxes, and mostly 'putzing' around the house trying to feel productive.

Until then, I'll try to take some updated photos and share them with everyone :)

Oh Life...

I never been so stressed and exhausted in my entire life. I'm literally worn down and can't even think straight anymore. My mind is officially 'ka-put' (I'm even making up my own words now! well, actually, that's nothing new at all...). The house really took a toll on me, but I'm looking forward to move-in day tomorrow and KNOW that I'll finally be refreshed, knowing that we're finally living in our home. And renovations can come-and-go as they please, rather than facing anymore deadlines! And anyone telling us what should be done, when, and if.

Now that we've got our house in a 'livable' condition, I could care less about updating much right now. I just need some time to relax and unwind. Which is perfect that we're going camping Memorial Day Weekend with a great group of friends. It's just what the doctor ordered and I can't wait!

Besides the house bringing me down lately, life just seems to be going against us. Ross has been having some tough times at work, and it kills me to know that there's nothing I can do. Yet here I am, relaxing and blogging at work (oops!) at my comfy job. I'm grateful for my job and enjoy it, but I just wish Ross could for ONCE say the same thing. ONCE, I'd like to see him get a break in the job world. For as knowledgable as he is in his field, and as hard as he works, I'm shocked by how difficult his career journey has been so far. And it just doesn't ever seem to give him a break.

I keep saying things will look up, and God's just waiting for the right time. But when?

Even I have a hard time believing myself anymore.

I know, we're not the only one who has things going imperfectly in life. We all have our own sets of problems. And we all do our best to deal with them. So I, by no means, am trying to say our life is worse than anyone elses. Just that our life isn't perfect either.

I know we have SO MUCH to be thankful for, but every now and then you just need an outlet to complain about life.

And while I'm sitting here in my melancholy mood, I get an unexpected text from my mother-in-law that reads:

"Did Ross tell you I have a smelly dead mouse under our kitchen island?"

HAHA....thanks Rose...it's just what I needed to snap me out of my mood! ha

And no, he did not tell me. Hopefully we can solve that problem soon! ewww....

25 Days to go!

Hmm....why is my countdown to moving in going up?? Oh, that's right. Because Ross & I have been working our B-U-T-T-S off on the house and STILL can't get everything done on our to-do list in order to get the house move-in ready in 2 short weeks. We've been mentally and physically exhausted for weeks now. So pushing back the move-in date is just what we needed.

Of course, Ross has been saying all along that May 7th was too soon, but I'm stubborn and it took me awhile to realize he was right :/ (why does that happen so often?...isn't the girl always supposed to be right in relationships?!) So I finally agreed that May 21st was looking more appealing, and my back agrees :) (On to other updates, my back is slowly progressively healing, but I feel I could've been 100% weeks ago if I wasn't working so hard on the house. It's a lose-lose situation.) So anyway, we'll still be moved in before camping, which was my ultimate goal, but nothing like taking it down to the last minute since we'll be camping Memorial Day weekend with a group of friends. Of course, it's also motivating me to get my back in top-notch shape so I can go white-water rafting with friends that weekend *eye roll please* My physical therapist already suggests I can't go...but we'll see. It's too soon for me to decide that I need to completely miss out :( And here's where my stubborn-is comes into play again! I know my PT is probably right, but I don't want to face facts just yet.

Lastly..Happy Easter to everyone :) Yesterday was a great day spent with family. Lots of great food, and good times. Sorry this post is not more Easter related...I have too many other things going on in my mind!

But soon it'll all be over. Perhaps not soon enough....

Let the Countdown Begin!

19 days to go until Ross & I finally move-in to our first house! That gives us 3 weeks and 2 weekends to get our to-do list done!! It's going to be another crazy whirlwind of a few weeks of work!

2 weeks ago, life was hectic as I was preparing the house to be painted with my friends the following Saturday. I finished what I needed to do, and painting with my friends last Saturday was a blast! We got the entire master bedroom painted, so the day was a complete success and we felt very accomplished.

After that hectic week though, Ross & I took a break this past week, catching up on some much needed rest.

This weekend, my to-do list was farely light. I touched up paint around the house, painted the kitchen, and finished painting trim.

For Ross though, his to-do list is huge! And I'm praying he can get it done quickly, as long as we get some much needed help from another guy this weekend.

Ross tore down the ceiling in the entryway/den because the old owners had these awful 'office' ceiling tiles up (very similar to the master bedroom ceiling, which we tore down). Then, he tore out all the old ceiling insulation since it was pretty much deteriorated. We bought new insulation (costing us another chunk of $$, ugh!) and are currently stapling that up in the ceiling.

Next, comes the fun part. Ross will need to find another guy to help hang drywall on the ceiling. A tough job since drywall is HEAVY and it's not exactly easy to hang it overhead. So hopefully we can find someone that is free sautrday so he can get that done and I can come in and drywall mud all the seams, sand, mud again, sand, and mud for a third time, and then paint.

AND in between all of this, we need to go carpet shopping and schedule it for installation before we move in!!

Oh, and I guess cleaning the house before we move-in would be smart too. Especially from all of the dust we've created from sanding.

SO even though we knew buying a fixer-upper was gonna be work, it just seems like the to-do list never ends! BUT I remind myself of where we started, and how FAR we've come since then. And I feel a little better :) I'll feel a lot better come May 7th on move-in day!! whew.

Exhausted

I love when my friends offer to help paint! It's such a great deal of help, and makes the biggest impact :) BUT there is a downside to it as well, namely, preparing the walls to be painted. Normally this wouldn't be such a big job, but since we just got the drywall up last weekend, Ross & I have spent every night after work at the house, drywall mudding the seams and getting it ready. So after an 8-hour day of work, it's home to make dinner, then over to the house to work for another 3 hours, then back home to shower and sleep. Repeat.

We've been dong this for about 2 weeks straight now. So understandably, we're beat. And I can't wait until this week is over.

Too bad drywall mudding is not a one-day process, but more like a 4-day process since it takes about 4 layers of 'feathering' and sanding, and drying time in between.

AND in all of this, my back is not healing as quickly as it should be. Last week, I felt great, not taking pain meds, etc. The neurosurgeon even said I was a great exception in not needing surgery after the herniated disc (it was great to see that I proved him wrong!). But this week, working every night at the house, the healing has taken 2 steps back. I'm torn between getting the house done, and letting my back heal. I just want to do EVERYTHING I can to help.

Anyway...I can't wait til Saturday to see all of my girlfriends and their respective others! It's amazing to see how many people WANT to help...and encouraging :)

And even though we'll be painting on Saturday, this feels like a break from what I've BEEN doing.

Mudding is no longer fun.

Not after being buried in it for 2 weeks!

Then on Sunday, I finally get a break from the house and some much needed girl time :) My best friend, Ang, & I are going to check out a Bridal Show for her wedding. Should be a great day! I can't wait to catch up with her this weekend!!

Dropping by to say Hi...

It's finally April, yet we're still seeing snow flurries. It's actually coming down pretty hard as I look out my window at work. Which is def. the cause of my lackluster mood today, even though it is Friday. The only thing keeping me going is thinking about working on the house and getting it done! Ross & I have been making a lot of progress. We've really stepped up and kicked ourselves into gear to get this house move-in ready by May, and I still think we're on schedule to hit our target. Of course, that's not to say everything will be done...but done enough that we can live there. And as stressful & tiring as it is to be working on the house almost every night after work, and on weekends, it's fun to see all the progress. Everyday we have something new to show people...."look what we did!" we exclaim everytime someone comes over. Surely they're getting tired of hearing that. And surely we're only the ones who could possibly be excited about the new drywall mudded seams :) BUT our room is finally looking like a room! And even more importantly...a home!

I'll try to remember to take more progress pictures this weekend too. I know you just can't wait to see more drywall :)

And until then, I'll pretty much be looking forward to Monday and having the chance to sit at work for a nice 8-hour break! Ha! (my managers often joke about this with me now seeing how exhausted I am come Monday morning!)

Sectional Hunting

Ross & I were THIIIIS close to purchasing a sectional this weekend. I wasn't even looking for a couch this weekend, but once you go shopping with mom ....well, things change, she's a very convincing person, ha! And we DO need a new couch for the house, so it didn't hurt to look.

I showed it to Ross Saturday night, but we decided to go home and 'sleep on the decision' before spending any money. Sunday, we showed up at the store with the intention of buying it, but were still too hesitant, so we walked away. Here is the sectional (shown in black leather, we would've ordered it in a chocolate brown leather):

What do you think?? Do you like the look of it?

I am still up in the air about it, so I'm glad we didn't go through with it. Especially since this was our first chance to look at couches. I think we need to spend a little more time shopping around.

Here are our main reasons for NOT buying the couch:
1) Worried about the leather. How does it hold up? Doesn't it scratch and begin to crack after wear-and-tear? (even though they said it wouldn't scratch, I find that hard to believe)
2) Don't like the 'look' of it.
3) Price. A bit steep for us, we'll have to be on the lookout for another sale if we do decide to buy this after all.

Those are a LOT of reasons to not want the sectional, so why the heck did we pick it out in the first place? Well, as soon as mom & I sat down in it.... HEAVEN! It was the comfiest sofa I've ever been in. Oh, my, gawd. Pure bliss. I'm not usually a leather person, but this was exceptional.

But there are still those 3 reasons holding me & Ross back, so we need to keep shopping. On the other hand, I know our choices are VERY limited due to my ginormous list of WANTS/NEEDS for our future couch:

1) a sectional with the 'wedge' vs. just a corner cushion, that way someone can still easily sit in the corner and I can sneak a floor lamp behind it for extra lighting :)

2) fabric, but only as long as the cusions come OFF, and I can throw them in the washer (a lot of cushions seem to be attached to the back of the couch, Hello?!?! How do you clean that?? And don't tell me SPOT CLEANING! Ugh, I don't think so. Not after a dog throws up on it (more than once). Gross, spot cleaning will just NOT DO! Now aren't you excited to come to my house?! ha! Surely I can't be the only one who's dealt with this! Kids will be just as messy one day...oh the horror.)

3) possibly leather, but I'm still uncertain about how it holds up. At least it would clean easily!

4) Size is a HUGE obstacle, b/c most sectionals are too big for the corner of our room, believe it or not. The one above was still 3" too big, but I could make it work.

5) Last but not least, it needs to be comfy :)

6) Oh, and price, we're not rich ya know.

Thought, anyone?! Leather vs. fabric? How leather holds up? Should the 'comfy-ness' outweigh the look of it? Perhaps I'm just too picky. HA! Oh the headaches.....

Looking Up

Yesterday was a good day...for the most part, until about 3:00 when the days seems to never want to end! But it got good again when I got home and Ross & I worked on the house for a bit :) We feel very accomplished today. After many days of deliberating how to best cut out some ceramic floor tiles in the kitchen to make way for a new wall that would fill-in an existing doorway, we finally did it! Thanks to the internet...our new best friend. It had suggested the right tool with the right blade, and even though we were still very skeptical that it would work and wouldn't shatter the entire tile, we forged ahead! Lucky for us, Ross' dad already owned the said tool (an angle grinder) so we only had to spend $10 to buy the suggested blade (a diamond blade). We agreed it was the best $10 we've ever spent! It worked like a charm, and cut out just enough of the tile so that we can put up the new wall without having to go ontop of the tile. Don't worry, I took a ton of pics, in case you're having trouble following what I'm talking about!! We were so excited about trying something new, and daring, if I must say so myself, that I kept snapping away! I'll share those pics on the blog as soon as I upload them.

Anyway, it's Thursday and I'm in a good mood once again. Although it always starts out this way until I get bored at work, and then grumpy, and then just plain exhausted. So let's hope today goes fast, and that winter goes even faster :)

Smell My Lemons!

Ever since Ross & I closed on our house, home renovations have taken off. It's been great and certainly a learning experience, but it's also exhausting. I'm completely and utterly tired. And my wrist hurts, I think I did a bit too much cleaning and scrubbing at the house yesterday, but it was all worth it. Now our new kitchen smells like lemons! Lots of lemons! I scream "I want my house to smell like lemons, dang it!" all day long when I clean, b/c right now, our house has a funky smell that I hope will go away when we get some of the carpet taken out and the walls painted. Mom was brave and cleaned our bathrooms on saturday. With rubber gloves. What a huge stepping stone. I can't believe what a difference clean bathrooms make! It's like I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and that our house is not a complete disaster anymore, but finally becoming a home. And after another 8-hour home reno day yesterday, our kitchen is 90% clean. All of the cabinets have been removed, de-greased, cleaned, lysol-ed, scrubbed, washed, and hung back up. I will have the cleanest home in all of Pennsylvania when I am through with it :) And it shall SMELL LIKE LEMONS! Even if the fumes ARE toxic b/c of how strongly they disinfect. SMELL MY LEMONS!

Homeowners

Yes, we are Homeowners, yes indeed! It's official :)

I feel odd though, like we just signed away our life. Well, ok, we pretty much DID sign away our life. Is that a good thing?! O well, I can't wait to start fixing up our ugly house! We'll be getting some plumbing and electrical work done first, and maybe get some estimates on new windows. But after that, let the creative juices flow :) Stay posted over on This House Our Home.

New Blog

Announcing mine & Ross' new blog, documenting all of our home renovation projects:

This House Our Home

We are so excited and eager to start making changes to our house that we thought we'd let you join us for the ride. Or perhaps I'm just going all blog happy and can't get enough blogging! Or talking about myself. Anywho! I hope you check it out. We close on the house in t-minus 5 days!

And please bear with us as we're using Wordpress for our new blog and I feel completely illiterate trying to figure out how to use it! You can thank Ross for making that decision :)

Let the DIY begin!

Out with the Red, In with the New

It's times like this that I wish I knew how to sew! I've been wanting to learn for years now, but have not made the time or space for a sewing machine. You see, my latest pet peeve is mine & Ross' red couch:

If only there were a way to cover the red nicely! Sure, I don't mind it so much in this picture with the white throw and white pillows, but you see, that was just my way of trying to get rid of the red.....8 months ago! Now that we're buying a new house, I give myself an excuse to redecorate, and I'm done with red. OUT. Nada. No More. BUT you see, we don't exactly have money for a new couch, so I have to make do with what we have. My solution was a sofa slipcover:

Awful, right?! Any suggestions? Of course, I think it would help if it weren't so wrinkled! I literally pulled it right out of the package in all my excitement and threw it on the couch. I'm tempted to wash and dry it to get rid of the wrinkles, and if I still hate it, I may still try to return it!

I want to bring greens, yellows & neutrals in the new house, so my other ideas are to buy a green-ish throw to drape over the couch, maybe 2 to break up the white, and some colorful pillows. Do you think that would help?! I'm really at a loss. I guess it's worth a shot to accessorize first and then return it if I still hate it. But sadly, I think I'm willing to work with this, as ugly as it may be, than live with red for any longer. Too bad I couldn't just sew myself a customized slipcover. Now that would be 'snazzy' :)

My suggestion to my future self? Always buy neutral-colored furniture and accessorize with colors. Much cheaper than buying brand new furniture after only a few years of wear & tear.

Home Sweet Ugly Home

Ross & I had an exciting weekend....we looked at our first house! It was the first house we saw with potential .... our first inside tour of a house ..... and now our first accepted offer! That's right, we loved the house, the yard, the inside, everything, and put an offer on it Monday night. Tuesday morning at 10:00 am, Stephanie called to tell us that our offer was accepted :) First time's a charm?!

Before I get ahead of myself, maybe I should brief you on the house a bit. Here's a picture of our future abode (if everything goes according to plan, I'll get to that later!):


Isn't it so Frank Lloyd Wright-ish?! It's so unique, so lovely, so much potential!

And here are a few more pics:

This is another view of the front. That big window to the left would be our "living room."

Kitchen. It's the only updated room in the whole house, very modern-ish, I guess. I like the almost new gas range :)


This room comes off of the entryway when you walk in the front door. I think we'll make this a 'den.' Straight ahead is the kitchen and to the left of this room is the sunk-in living room.



Here's a good view of the living room. You can ignore my weird face :) Again, we have so many projects in mind for this room! Stay tuned...

This is the other side of the living room. Straight ahead is the dining room (with misc. furniture that was left behind that I'll prob. rehab :)

Here is our back-yard. I like to call this the "floating deck!" Even though we have an acre of land, this is pretty much our backyard for the time being. And it's very swampy, so when spring comes, we'll have to figure out how to fix that. I'd love to get rid of the deck and add a brick patio, but we have to figure out the drainage issue first I guess! One project at a time.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST...... Our mailbox!!............

HAHHAHAHA. Yup, this is what the owner's left us to work with. After hours of laughter over the mailbox, I'm kind of growing partial to it. Perhaps we shall keep it?! HAHAHA...

*ahem*



But let's go back to how this all began, and the roller coaster it's been and going to be:

I first spotted the house and drove past it last week. After inquiring about it, Stephanie, our Realtor, pointed out that it was a Foreclosure, so then I had to check with our Mortgage Lender to see if we would still qualify. He said 'yes', I said 'yay' and we looked at it with Stephanie on Saturday. Once Ross & I had the walk-through and decided that we liked it, we called in the 'rents to look at it and see if they thought it was also a good investment (as much as want to be all "grown up" and do this on our own, who the wiser than our parents to give us some insight?!). They also loved it, so they were happy for us.

Monday night, we sat down with Stephanie and put our offer in. Since it's a foreclosure, there are a lot of loopholes to get through. Things that normally the seller would help you out with, won't happen, since there is no seller, just a bank, who doesn't care a rat's toot about us! A lot of things are falling on us to handle, BUT we got such a great DEAL from it being in foreclosure that we just couldn't say NO.

Now it's time to pay to turn all the Utilities back ON, and get the home inspection. This is where our real anxiety kicks in, b/c the house is being sold "as-is," anything that they find wrong with it, is up to us to fix or we can exit the contract completely. So keep your fingers crossed nothing major needs fixed. IF we get through all the necessary steps, our closing date will be Dec. 20th. Can anyone say "Merry Christmas to Us!!" :) Until then, I'll keep you posted....