Spring is Officially Here

Even though this is the beginning of our third spring living in North Carolina (we moved this week, exactly two years ago), I'm still amazed by the trees out here. They go through change so much more quickly than trees on the west coast do. In fall they turn beautiful colors for a few weeks, and then seem to all fall to the ground overnight. And in spring, in less than one weeks time, everything explodes with greenery.

Taken this morning off our deck:

And taken on Saturday, with a little preview of the back of our first prototype of the deck furniture we're building:

{Wedensday} What's Up

A random mid-week post for ya!

First, how is it already April? March straight disappeared in a haze of paint fumes or something!

Speaking of paint fumes....still working on painting over at the new house, pretty much every day. This past weekend we scraped the popcorn ceilings in the entry foyer, living room and dining room, and I've been getting a coat of primer on the ceilings each night this week. Tonight we'll get the coat of ceiling paint on, and then clean up.

A couple of more thoughts on popcorn ceiling removal--unpainted ceilings come off SO much easier! The first set of rooms we tackled were painted, so required a lot more muscle to do the scraping. These less used formal rooms weren't ever painted by the previous owners, and the popcorn material came off like butter. But on the down side, the unpainted popcorn was a whole lot more dusty once it was on the ground, so we had to be extra careful to wear dust masks the whole time. Plus, working over carpet meant we had to do a really good job taping down our plastic sheeting. But back on the positive side, doing these extra rooms only cost us about $25 for plastic and tape, since we already had all of the tools, primer and paint left over from our first weekend of popcorn ceiling removal.

I also had the joy of completely resurfacing the walls in the kitchen this weekend. Just one of many, many things I've looked at around the house, while muttering under my breath "OMG, I hate these people." Probably they must have had wallpaper up at one point, and did a really crappy job of removing it. Or else they're friends with the Lord of the Dance, and would frequently have him come over and dance facing the kitchen walls. Or possibly they thought it would be a fun game to attach battering rams to their cat's heads and watch them run into the walls. Otherwise, I have no idea how they could have dented the walls so horribly.

This was after my first pass at puttying the walls on either side of our pantry, and along the wall where our fridge will go.

After I let this dry, and sanded it all by hand, I then went back and puttied it all again, over the entire wall, scraping it with a putty knife until it was as smooth as possible. Yes, primer was needed after this step, and no, I haven't gotten to actually apply paint in the kitchen yet, because of all of these extra added steps. Apparently painting prep work takes about 2-3 times longer than I expect, every single time. But all of the work will be worth it in the end, to have non dented walls. I couldn't have lived with smoother ceilings than walls, after all!

In other, non house related things, work is slowly killing me. I'm still working 10-12 hour days, with no end in sight. Which of course makes house progress slower. If only I had a couple of weeks off, instead of a couple of hour chunks of time, we'd be a lot further. But oh well, gotta make money to spend it on furniture and painting supplies!

Luckily I'll get a little break this weekend. Friday night we're going to go see the Hunger Games (finally!) and out to dinner to celebrate my upcoming birthday. Then Saturday night I'll be going to a wine and crafting party, to work on Easter decorations. The night before the holiday isn't too late to start and finish crafting, right?!? Sunday we'll be having my brother and sister in law over for Easter dinner, so I've been checking out quick and easy recipes on Pinterest. Cooking and entertaining haven't been a priority for me lately, but hey, throw some Peeps and Cadbury Mini Eggs on everything, and you can call it Easter food!

Hope everyone is having a great week. I might not be back to update for the rest of the week, since I've got very little time to edit photos and write posts, so hope you have a great Easter too!

  

I Know I Already Got What I Asked For, But...

Well, my birthday is in a month. And I've been telling my husband for the last year that all I want for my big 3-0 is a house.

So, he's off the hook now for getting me a birthday present! But I can still dream about presents, right?

We have a deal that we're not allowed to buy any furniture for our new house for at least several months, since (boring, responsible) things like a new roof and maintenance and repairs are a higher priority. But if I had my way, we would also sneak in the purchase of some new deck furniture.

Yep, that's what I'd be asking for for my birthday, if I hadn't already gotten what I'd asked for. We have this huge new deck, the weather is getting nicer and nicer by the day, but it's sadly going to be months until we can really enjoy it with new furniture.

I know I've mentioned on here several times how we've been living with old furniture for years and years, waiting until we buy a home to get new things...well our current deck furniture might just be the worst of all!

I present to you exhibit A, from when we had our 12 hours of snow a few weeks ago:

See those chairs? It's not easy to tell from that angle, but a bunch of the white paint on the arms and legs is chipped off down to the metal. And the plastic woven parts are so old now that the plastic isn't very flexible anymore, so they aren't particularly comfortable. And worst of all, there is a seam in the metal where the frame comes together under your legs, and any time you sit on the chairs after it's rained in the past week, the chairs pee water on your legs from the seam!

Or maybe that's not the worst part. Maybe the worst part is that senior year in college, my husband found these chairs discarded under the stairs of his apartment building. And we've been moving them with us now for 8 years, because according to my husband, "they still work." I know, I know, first world problems.

But can y'all see why I'd really, really like some new deck furniture?!?

And this is the set I'd love to get, with comfortable, water resistant cushions, and a table big enough to actually sit more than 4 people:

The Belmont 4-Piece Brown Wicker Patio Thick Woven Conversation Furniture Set - $699 for the set

As well as the Belmont Wicker Patio Dining Furniture Collection - $709 for 1 table, 1 bench and 4 chairs

Plus I'd need to get 4 extra matching pillows to place on the built in bench on our deck, to extend the seating area - $38.98 for 4 pillows

I've got it all planned out how this pretty new furniture will fit perfectly on our new deck. To scale, of course:

Sigh! Maybe by mid summer we'll be able to buy all this furniture, to actually get to enjoy our new deck. Perhaps it can be our anniversary presents to ourselves. I know my husband isn't caving on the fact that technically he already got me what I asked for for my birthday. :(

Do you ever dream about birthday presents you know you won't be getting?

 

Light At The End Of Our Tunnel?

Written March 24th, 2011 (But in real-life time we should be arriving at our new house tonight, a 2,800 mile drive from our old home in California, and tomorrow is my birthday!)

Well, it’s been a while since I wrote about our big move, and by now you guys are probably all caught up on all of our moving stresses. At the time I’m writing this, we’re 8 days away from our moving company coming to pick up all of our stuff (yes, we decided to go with the pros, instead of doing a Uhaul ourselves, after my in laws gave us a Christmas check that basically covered the difference between the cost of professional movers and a Uhaul). We’re also 11 days away from me having to drop off my car to be shipped across the country, and 12 days from heading out on a crazy drive across the country with all of our pets in my husband's car.

Things are finally coming together this week. But I sort of feel like I did about 2 weeks out from our wedding—I’m either super calm, because I’m crossing things off my list and feeling good, or I’m super stressed, because I keep thinking of more things to add to my to do list, and there’s just not a lot of time left to get things done, and I'm not getting much sleep due to the stress.

Luckily earlier this week I found out that I get to keep my job and work remotely, which was also causing me a lot of stress. Keeping my job is the best thing for us, and I’m really looking forward to not commuting 1.5 hours day, and getting to work with a kitty on my lap in my PJs if I want. But for a while there I was almost hoping they wouldn’t let me keep my job, just so I’d have more time before the movers come to get stuff done!

In other good news, and I think I already mentioned this, but we signed a lease on the house we’re going to rent for the next year. Last week (that would actually be March 12-18) we spent 6 days vacationing with my in laws in Florida (I have so many pictures that I haven’t even looked at yet, but let me just say, manatees, gators and wild dolphins are awesome!), then flew up to North Carolina at the end of the trip (March 18-20) to try to find a house to live in, in less than two days. This had me extra stressed out because usually you aren’t approved on the spot for a rental, they have to take several days to check your references and employment history (um, I hadn’t told my company about the move until this past Monday, so that just added extra stress). So we had to find at least 2 or 3 houses we would be willing to rent in a super short amount of time, put in an application for our #1 choice, and then fly back across the country without knowing anything for sure, and do nothing but wait in anticipation. Thank god we ended up getting our first choice house, and our backups were pretty nice too, but going into that weekend I was super anxious that it wouldn’t work out.

But luckily it did, and here’s a look at our house for the next year! It’s 2600 square feet, so we will have plenty of room for our pool table in the basement, two separate home offices, and I get to continue having a bedroom to use as my walk in closet.

{Source}

The best part is that the rent is over $1,100 less per month than we were paying in California, so the savings will be a nice addition to our down payment on a house next year when our lease is up.

And there it is, the light at the end of our tunnel. I just gotta keep that in mind for the next few stressful weeks, that it will all be worth it, because in a year from now we will be home owners!

Now I’m off to continue my stressing and crazy must-get-it-all-done-because-there-is-no-other-option state of existing. It will all be over soon, and hopefully my husband and I, our pets, and all of our belongings will make it to our new home state in one piece. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the day after I’m publishing this post all of our stuff with the movers will arrive. But as I write this, we still have no idea, since the moving company only gives you a delivery window of 7-15 days from the pick up date, and we won’t know for sure when our stuff is arriving until about 48 hours out.

But wouldn’t that be the best birthday present tomorrow, to get to start unpacking? I think once we finally just get to the east coast, and get all of our stuff, all of my stress will just melt away. Or if not, there’s always wine! :)

Happiness Is: My Husband Being Older Than I Am

Today is this guy's birthday!

(by Shoot Me Now Photography)

I love that for the next 5 months I can give him crap about him being "so old." That is, until my birthday in April, when we'll be the same age again.

The hubs wanted me to combine his birthday and Christmas presents this year, to get him a new laptop, so he won't be getting that until Christmas. However, I did get him a useful, but joke gift, to open this weekend. Fans of Always Sunny In Philadelphia might be able to guess what it is....

We've got another jam-packed fun weekend planned, including a party, a bee meet up, hiking, and lots of other fun activities. I can't wait to share next week.

Hope everyone has a wonderful first weekend of November! (Wow, can you believe it's already November?!? Where did this year go?)