A Photojournalistic Approach to Homeownership

This will be someone's Christmas present. It could be you... if you are lucky!

My view as I walk in my house. Isn't it beautiful? Now, imagine it with white linen curtains on the windows in the green dining room and antique plates displayed on the wall behind my beautiful dining room table. *sigh*

This is the new light fixture for the entry way. I ADORE this light fixture. I want all of the matching ones...

Here is a matching one that I bought for the hallways. (Well, I bought 2 of them actually). They are larger in diameter, but shorter I believe from ceiling to tip. Anyway, they will be BEAUTIFUL and they were such a bargain! I really (REAAAAAAAALLLLLLY) want to get the matching chandelier!

Today I started painting in the kitchen (more photos soon), and here is what I discovered when I took off a switch plate. How hideous!!! Who would paint their kitchen that horrid color????

This is one of the Brandons, as we have been calling them, working on my plumbing in the bathroom. God bless Brandons.

List of what was accomplished today:

-Finished painting the mantle.
-Watered the lawn (for too long... oops)
- Bought bathroom light fixtures, hallway light fixtures, and entry way light fixtures
- Finished painting the ceiling in Hallway B
- Started painting (1st coat) the ceiling in the kitchen
- Taped off the kitchen to paint tomorrow
- Drew completed the 2nd coat on the red in the office... but ran out of paint (sad day)
- The Brandons removed the bathtub from the bathroom
- The Brandons found looooots wrong with the wiring in the bathroom
- The Brandons fixed the plumbing in the bathroom

-(non-house related) Girl's Bible Study - discussion of the power of praying for your husband - amazing. I seriously love the girls in my Sunday school class and I am so thankful to be able to meet with them every Thursday!

To Do:
-Sleep.

Homeownership: Day 7

Again, no photos because I forgot to take my camera, but I wanted to update specifically to thank Rebecca and Jeremy for all of their hard work today in our beautiful home. I am so excited about all of the work we got done today!

I spent the morning with the girls (G, G and D). We went over to the house to water the grass, played charades in an empty room while we were there, ran a bunch of errands and went back to Meme and Papa's for lunch. I ran out to Home Depot to meet Papa and get a couple of gallons of paint for the dining room and kitchen, and then back to the house.

Drew got a quote today for garage doors. Looks like we might have to sell our souls to make that happen, but the quote at least gives us something to save up for. It is going to be expensive!! Looks like the bikes and lawn equipment might be finding a home in the laundry room for a while.

Jeremy and Drew got all of the marble removed from the bathroom, but sadly, it did not all make it out in sheets like we had hoped. I am just so glad to have that part of the project finished. Now we just have to get the bathtub out, which looks like it might be more of a trial than we were expecting. Apparently, the previous owner put in the toilet AFTER the bath tub was in, and now Drew is going to have to saw off part of a board to get the tub to go sideways so we can get it out of the door. Right now, if you have to go to the restroom, you have to sit sideways, so, I hope it gets out of there soon!

Rebecca and I got the dining room 1st coat of paint completed today. It is a beautiful green color called Boston Fern. I think it will go nicely with my dining room table and with the other colors we have chosen in the house.

It is so nice to walk in the door and see fresh paint in such beautiful colors! I should take a picture of what it looks like when I walk in the door.

I met another neighbor today. I think her name was Joanna, but I am so bad at remembering people's names the first time. She started telling me about how stupid her dog is (Em, it is a really cute pug!), and then about how her son is in the hospital because he had a stroke, and another one of her son's died 4 years ago. All in all, it was a very depressing conversation, but she is old and drives a cool car, so, all is forgiven.

Well, I am off to shower and watch some tv on dvd... perhaps some Bionic Woman or CSI. More tomorrow!

Homeownership: Day 6

I never thought the day would come when I would be happy it was raining so that my grass would get some water... man, home ownership does crazy things to your brain!

So, here are some updates to our house process. It is a very slow process, but I can finally see things changing, so, I am still hopeful, although incredibly tired of cutting in. It used to be so much fun to paint my room... but now I have like 10 rooms to paint and the task seems daunting! And oh the checks I have been writing. There should be a warning label on the house when you get the keys that says "warning: prepare to write an abundance of checks with too many digits!" But that is just my tiredness talking.

I also have a growing list of injuries. I was hurting my feet all over the place, but I was lucky enough to get some new shoes yesterday so that I don't have to step on any more screws, or kick any more sprinklers, or the other stupid things I did. I also have bruises all over the place... Most of which are of unknown origin. One of them happened when I was trying to get the paint roller off the roller frame and slammed my arm into the sink. As most of you know, I am allergic to EVERYTHING, so, I am constantly itchy from all the crap we are stirring up in the house and lawn. Un-house related - I also think I could have possibly broken my pinky today... turning my steering wheel trying to get into the hideous parking space reserved for me at the apartment complex. It hurts :( And my cat bit me last night (I think he needs some attention). Enough whining... let's see some photos!!

Here is the painted mantle and living room. I think it turned out very nicely. Now if I can just figure out how to get the fire place to look less... dirty. Well, I guess I'll just have to get over that, huh? The card on the mantle is a VERY sweet New home card from Lynda. I love cards!

This photo is of our ever growing painter's tape ball. It is currently about 8 inches wide, and that is just from the living room (although it is a very large living room, and the tape isn't balled too tightly)

These lovely boxes contain the tiles for our bathroom. Amazing how such simple items can cost so much! In this picture, there are 1050 tiles. Can you believe it? I am really looking forward to taking a shower in a brand new tub!!

This is the first coat of the "Daredevil" red for the office. When I was describing the color to Drew before he saw it, I told him it was Daredevil red, not Superman red. It is amazing how marriage makes you adapt to another person. Before, i would have chosen other descriptors, but with my wonderful sweetie, comic books are a better way to relate, haha.

Bathroom demolition, stage 1. We (and by we, I mean Drew and Jeremy) removed the cabinet above the shower and the top sheet of marble. Amazingly enough, they got it off without cracking it! Tomorrow the rest comes off... hopefully. Jeremy and Rebecca, have I mentioned how much I appreciate you both?

Papa came over today and we got the wall oven removed. I am very glad to see that there is wood behind it and plenty of room for a few shelves for a microwave and my kitchen aid mixer. I also chose the paint colors for the dining room and kitchen today, although they have not been purchased. I decided to make the dining room a pretty sagey green color, and the kitchen will be a greenish blue color. Next step, call Joanna and get her expert help on the bedroom!

More updates soon!

Etsy is awesome.

I want to tell all of my wonderful friends about an encounter I have had this week on Etsy. (Etsy.com check it out if you do not know what I am talking about... it rules).

A seller named BayMoon Studio had an awesome (thing) that I had been thinking about for weeks to get as a small thank you gift for my awesome realtor, Katrina. Sue, the owner of the etsy shop I am speaking of, was INCREDIBLY helpful, and shipped my "order" (long story, but Sue really rocks!) super fast! I received it today, and seriously can not wait to take it to Katrina! If it weren't already 10:20 and I thought Jackson wasn't asleep, I would go by and hand deliver this little piece of awesomeness.
Seriously, check out her stuff here.
Here is an example of other things she does:


Here are some other things that I really want to get on Etsy:

This is a totally cute kitty food bowl from creaturecomfort.etsy.com I think Clark would totally dig eating out of this master piece!

Ok, I seriously wish I had thought of this... and I seriously wish I had one! How cool is this knitted dissected froggie made by CraftyHedgehog.etsy.com

Cool reusable grocery bags from baggreen.etsy.com

These are cute moving announcements from hadleygetscrafty.etsy.com I love that there is a bird, and that they talk about nesting... cause that is totally what I do.This is a rubber address stamp from sweetpaperie.etsy.com Rebecca, this is the one I was telling you about tonight. She has a lot of different options, and I love them!



Don't forget to check out my shop too! ToTheMeasure.etsy.com

Home Ownership Day 2

Well, today was exciting and busy. Our dear friend Jeremy came over and was very encouraging and helped us start the demolition on our bathroom. It already looks better!!! We got the top cabinet out and the marble around the front... now we just have the 3 huge sheets on the side walls and the tub to get out. But we needed an alan (allen? Allan?) wrench to remove the water fixtures, so, we had to stop and go eat... which was probably a good thing cause I feel much better after some fries and a Dr. Pepper!

We also worked on painting a little more. We got a coat of tinted primer up in the office, and most of a first coat of the red color we chose. It is going to be really pretty once it is solid color instead of the blotchy-ness it is now. Plus, the color is called Red Pepper, which made me smile. You know me and cool paint color names!

I haven't taken any photos of any of the work we have done yet cause I didn't remember to take my camera today, but hopefully I will get a few posted tomorrow.

Tomorrow, our plan is to go on a hunt for a bath tub. I found one I really want, but it is a little over my desired price range... but with the people we found to do the labor, we might be able to afford it. The same tub at Lowes is about $150 cheaper than at Home Depot! Do they do price matching?

We are also going to go check out Discount Home Warehouse which is owned by friends of family friends. They take stuff out of houses that are being Demolished and salvage certain useable things. I think we might be able to find a bathtub here, and possibly some cool light fixtures.

I have also heard some great things about the Habitat for Humanity outlet, so, we might go check that out too.

And then of course... FIREWORKS! I love 4th of July! I could go see Fireworks every day!

I think by the time we are done with this house, I will have the thighs of wonder woman!

Day 1 of Home Ownership

The picture in the previous post... well, that room is now painted. And I am too tired to write anything else! Well, one more thing - we got a quote on redoing the bathroom, and it is going to rock.
That's all. More tomorrow.
Goodnight Never Never Land.

Home Owners!

Well, we did it! Drew and I officially purchased our first home today. I am so excited! This is now MY mantle, where my art work will hang, and my family's christmas stockings will hang, and where I will lay by the fire, and much more! I am so excited!! Come over if you want to paint (it's so fun, you can't believe it!)