happy halloween, vol 3 (house)

just some house decor

glitter pumpkins that i made last year






my halloween wreath. it needs a bow.
(its also brighter in real life)




yummy cookies!

yIKEs!

we are back!!
FINALLY, after 2 whole weeks we have power back. and it is lovely, let me tell you!

we weren't back in the stone ages though, my in-laws got power back pretty quickly, so they let us borrow their generator. although constantly getting gas for it gets old, so we didn't run it much. i did at night for a light and a fan, but mr. tough guy refused and slept in the heat. i did it too a few nights, but its not my preference. and of course everything in the fridge went bad, thankfully we got it cleaned out before anything started to smell!

so here's a run down of the past 2 weeks. on thurs (sept 11, i feel bad b/c we forgot about it! we even commented on the flags being at half mast. shame on you ike for overshadowing it!) work closed at noon and we went ahead and started getting the house ready.
brandt got a call saying he would have to report to work at noon on friday, so we went ahead and boarded up.

my sad boarded up house :(

so the next morning we loaded up animals, me, and stuff, and headed to brandt's parents house. from there he went to work, where his shift lasted 23 hours!

so the storm... ugh friday was the longest day ever! we just sat and waited. everything was closed it seemed like. they made it to sonic before it closed, waited over half an hour for our food, and they ran out of buns! so we got our burgers on texas toast (which was delish!) and then we waited and waited!

no better place for patio furniture... it wont blow away!

waiting...

me in a hurricane!!

we went outside during the eye, which lasted about an hour. it was still raining, but not hard. and then the eye passed and it all picked up again! that was crazy, this wind and howling just came out of nowhere and we all ran for the house!

once it all ended we ventured over to my parents. i talked to her about 3am and found out that they had a tree in the house :( so i was in a hurry to get over there!

trying to get down the road

tree on my parent's house!

then we went by our house, our only damage was that we lost our patio roof. but thats easy to deal with!

road to my house, you can't really see thanks to the car 
backing out, but there are trees blocking the street!

sky light!

more pics tomorrow so this doesnt get too long!

our island paradise

well, paradise isn't the right word, but having a kitchen island is nice! we've been thinking about getting one since we moved in. the previous owner had one, and it seemed really handy. 

i was out shopping with my mom and sis at homegood (love that store!!) and just walked up on it! it was perfect!! so we brought it back to my house and set it in there. it took a day or so to get used to having something in the middle of the room, but we like it alot now!

and the best part is, it matches EVERYTHING perfectly!the top and our cherry cabinets are a perfect match:

and the cream/white color of the rest of it matches the doors and trim! (and the current fridge & countertops, although those aren't permanent, we are patiently waiting till we can replace them!!)

so the lesson for me here is, be patient! i tried several times to talk brandt into getting an island that i know wouldn't have matched well just b/c i wanted one. and then i stumbled upon this one, and it looks like it was made for our house!

oooh and a hurricane is coming! exciting? scary? both? i'll let you know in a few days, but honestly, i'm leaning more towards exciting :) of course, this would happen the summer we buy a house!!

my cabinet!

of course i can't find the "before" picture, but here are 2 "during" pics and a finished one


so now it is sitting in our dining room hiding all our extra kitchen stuff!

reason #256 why i love my concrete floors...

you know how on tv when bad things happen, it all goes in slow motion? definatly how this happened:
last night i was finishing up the hutch that i have been redoing. (it looks awesome, but worthy of its own post) brandt walked into the dining room to talk to me, and as i turned to face him the can of varnish slipped from my hands and fell to the floor. in landed upright, but as it hit, the contents flew upwards and outwards all over the floors/walls/table/hutch/me. long story short, it cleaned up easily, and i finished my project! and i love my floors!

we are living in a maze of boxes...

well, honestly it is not that bad. we didn't have a good experience with movers. granted, it meant less work and no knuckles getting slammed into doorways while lugging furniture around. but it was really strange to have someone else's hands all over our stuff with no regard. i quit watching when i saw them heave our new suede couch into the truck and then flip it so it was standing on its armrest, and scoot it to the back.

one of the movers had a horrible attitude! what did he think he was going to do when he got to work that day, bake cookies? take a nap? you work for a moving company! so in order to speed up the process, brandt jumped in and helped with the loading. (i gave them gatorade, that counts right? even if it was the gross lemon-lime pee flavor.) however, the movers were getting grumpier so brandt finally just stopped them and was like, lets just go. so off they went to the new house, where i was waiting, along with our mini-zoo.

once there, it was just easier to tell them to put everything in the front room, aka future game room, since we have no furniture for it yet. my labels that i made and stuck all over my boxes were in vain i guess, b/c they didn't seem to show any interest in sorting my boxes out by room and delivering them there for me. *sigh*

once again, brandt was there helping unload and got them out of there super quickly. left behind for us to move: our big boxy tv's, (our bank account hasn't let us convert to the light flat screens yet), the elliptical, the Christmas tree, and several other less bulky items.

so here's what we were up against:

here's the view when standing on a chair!
good thing we don't have cable yet...
we aren't going to have free time for awhile!

painting day!

we got in there before the big move and did some painting! thanks to
mom jen kyle and of course brandt! and my dad who supervised
(aka walked around and watched) *these are from sat 4/19*


the first stoke of paint!


jennifer's wall


before:


after:
(the white dots aren't really there... not sure what was happening)


taping in the bathroom:


my screen installer/window frame cleaner
fyi: he works for bbq, i'll get you his number if you want to hire him


before:
off of the living room, where our comp desk will go, when we get one


after:
oops i didn't take a pic w/o the tape... but you get the idea


before:


after:
not so bright IRL... and looks great with our couch, as soon
as the boxes are gone (never, it feels like) i'll post pics!


master bed & bath done:
bath is a darker shade of the bedroom turquoise


and just for fun...

don't lean against the wet paint!

closing pics!
sorry they are so tiny... that's how i got them in the email

thats just one signature of maybe 100... i've never signed my name so many times before!!

its ours!

so we closed monday, and we met the former owner of the house. she was amazing! she and her brother did all the work on the house themselves (he is a contractor) and she loved it so much she is "retiring" from being a social worker and is going to start up her own business decorating and renovating! amazing! (and i'm jealous!) she took the time to go through the house explaining everything, why they did this, how this works etc... and then through the whole yard and went over *every* plant and what they were/how to take care of them. brandt looked a bit bored, but i enjoyed it!

so saturday we are heading in to start painting! we aren't doing a whole lot, just a wall here and there to add some color. pictures will be up soon!

oh, and so cute... she brought a camera to the closing and got pics of us signing the papers, since its our first house :) those will be up to as soon as i get them!

happy weekend everyone!

our soon-to-be home!

here it is! we are supposed to be closing on the 15th, but that could change i've been told...

don't judge this book by its cover, the inside is totally unexpected, based on what the exterior looks like...



(note: none of the furniture is ours)

this is a view from the front living room towards the entryway



heres the kitchen from the back living room. i LOVE that the walls don't go all the way up to the ceiling!



and heres the back living room with a bright view of the backyard. there's a covered porch out there!



if you are interested, here's the link to the rest!