Making Progress

The painting has begun! We started last Friday with the master bedroom, and it's pretty much finished. We may need to roll it again (at least in a few spots) to make sure it covered well, but I definitely love the color!!! It's a really pretty caramel color called Butte Rock. It's darker on the walls than in that sample picture, but it's just a very warm, inviting color. Definitely beats the pale blue color that WAS on the walls...


We also got started painting the master bathroom last weekend. It will need to be rolled a second time, but I already love love love the color (Adobe Beige). It's hard to tell from looking online, but it's basically a lighter shade on the same strip as the paint in the bedroom. It really looks great with the dark cabinets and the cream-colored tub and shower. I'm so excited!!


Next up, I think, will be the kitchen. It's going to be a really great shade of green that I found. I think it will look good with the floor and cabinet colors. 


La-Z-Boy is having a one day sale today on the living room furniture that we've picked out, so tonight, Travis and I are going to go up there and order it. We're going to get a 3-piece set (sofa, loveseat, and recliner). We measured our living room (even spread out sheets and towels in the floor in the size of the furniture pieces), and I think there's room for it all, so I hope it looks good and not too crowded. The furniture itself is really comfortable, so it'll be a nice upgrade from the old stuff we have now :)


Yesterday, I picked up my ring from Kay Jeweler's. I'd been without it for about 2 1/2 weeks! When I took it to have it inspected a few weeks ago, the girl told me that it needed to be re-rhodium plated. I had no clue what she was talking about! But, she held my ring up next to a ring in their display, and my ring (which is white gold) looked really yellow next to theirs. Apparently, all rings made of white gold are dipped in rhodium, another metal which is used to make the white gold look more white. Eventually, the rhodium wears away and you need to have your ring re-dipped in it. I asked the girl how often I need to do that, and she said that it really depends on your skin (I guess your body chemistry differs?). One website I read said that they recommend the re-rhodium plating every 12-18 months! I don't know why I'm just now figuring this out; after all, I've had a ring on my finger for 4 years now!! Actually, I've gotten my ring re-sized several times, and one of the prongs had to be tightened once, so I think they must have re-rhodium plated it every time, and I just didn't realize it (although I knew it came back looking great!). So, now my ring looks all white and sparkly again. I'm so glad Travis got the extended warranty on my ring though! Who knows how much money I would have had to pay every time I got it re-dipped or re-sized!?! 


Travis got back yesterday from a quick trip to Tuscaloosa. He went down there Tuesday afternoon with his boss, Danny. They spent the night Tuesday night in a hotel, and then they spoke to two freshman EE classes Wednesday morning about the PIF and the co-op program. Travis said it was a good trip. They ate at Chuck's Fish for supper Tuesday night. We never went there when we lived in Tuscaloosa, but he said it was really good. Breakfast Wednesday morning was at the Waysider (I'm jealous!). The presentations apparently went really well though--one of the ladies in the co-op office emailed Travis and Danny to thank them for coming and to tell them that they had kids lining up outside of the office after the presentation was over. I'm figuring that this won't be the last time Travis goes down there for something like this :)


Well, gotta get busy! Hope you're having a great week so far :)

We're Homeowners!!

I'm a little behind here, but we're officially homeowners!!! We closed on our house last Thursday, so we've had about a week for it to sink in. Closing day was pretty chaotic. Apparently the snow and bad weather delayed a packet of information from getting here from Nashville that Regions needed to determine the official total amount of money that we needed for closing. We were suppose to close at 4 PM, and we didn't find out the total until about 3:55...no joke! We were already at the attorney's office, so our loan officer at Regions had to bring our certified check to the closing for us! It was pretty stressful, but I'm glad it all worked out. 

As for the closing itself, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. We did sign a ton of paperwork, including one form stating that our names were really our names...haha. The attorney was awesome...he explained everything in simple terms to us, and the whole thing was pretty laid-back and casual. When we got the garage door openers and keys from across the table, my first thought was, "Is that it? We really own the house now?!" But, a week later, it's sunk in for sure. We don't have to have a realtor let us in the house...we can go whenever we want to! 

Today, I went to the house to take a bunch of "before" pictures. I know a lot of you are curious what the inside looks like! It's going to look a lot better once we re-paint, do a little updating, and move our stuff in, but this will give you a general idea of our house...

Travis actually took this picture on Sunday before the snow melted, but here's the front!

The foyer (with coat closet to the right)

Coat closet

Family room (door goes to the back patio)

Fireplace

Looking from the back door toward the front of the house

Looking from the family room into the dining room

Dining room

Looking from breakfast room into dining room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Breakfast room

Looking from kitchen toward family room and dining room

Looking toward laundry room and door to garage

Laundry room

Pantry

Master bedroom (closet on right, bathroom on left)

Master bedroom

Looking toward hallway

Master bath

Separate tub (there's a shade that pulls down over the window!)

Double sink :)

Hallway to other bedrooms

Guest bath

Linen closet

This will be Travis's study (once it changes color!)

Love the window seat :)

Closet

This will be the guest bedroom

Another window seat :)

Same bedroom

Walk-in closet

Garage

Extended driveway for extra parking

Backyard

 

Back patio

So, there you have it! We're planning to re-paint almost every room, so that will help make it our own. I think I've got the colors picked out for the bedrooms, master bath, family room, dining room, and kitchen, but I'd like to try out some samples on the wall to decide for sure! Updates to come!

What a weird week so far...

It's just been crazy! Sunday night, we got MORE SNOW! It started around 8 PM Sunday, and in only an hour or two, the ground was already covered completely. When we woke up Monday morning, we found even more snow than on Christmas day! 

5 1/2 inches in the driveway, but I measured 7 1/2 outside our door downstairs!

Our cars are getting tired of the snow...

Snow footprints

Baugay's house covered in snow again!

Someone had already ventured out on the roads!

Mailbox :)

Trav looks so happy about the snow!

 
Redstone Arsenal was closed yesterday and today, so Travis has been off all week so far. They are opening back up tomorrow, though, so he'll have to go in to work! Poor thing!

With the roads being pretty treacherous around town, most of our surgeries yesterday and today were cancelled. However, I still had to go to work! It was utterly ridiculous. Basically, the hospital's inclement weather policy is that you either have to make arrangements to get to work for your shift or spend the night at the hospital, or you get a written warning and disciplinary action. I can understand that reasoning for departments like the ER, but I work in outpatient surgery! Most of the surgeries are elective...not life-threatening! But, apparently, they want to treat everyone the same, so I had to come in just like everyone else. My sweet husband drove me there both days, and luckily I got to leave early so we didn't have to drive home in the ice and the dark! Out of my two work days, I've worked about 6-7 hours and taken care of 3 patients. It was a total waste of time and gas money. Oh well! I did my time (or part of it at least), so at least I won't be fired...

Moving on, Thursday is supposed to be our big closing day, but I'm not sure it's going to happen. The sellers' realtor is hopeful but not positive they will be able to get the repairs done in time "because of the weather". I'd like to remind her that if they'd gotten started when they first found out the results of the inspection, we wouldn't be up against the clock like this! Luckily, if we have to push the closing date back, we've got our good interest rate until next Friday the 21st. Cross your fingers that it works out ok! We did get the results back from the radon re-test, and the house averaged 1.0!! We were so excited! I guess the big ugly PVC pipe is worth it after all :)

P.S. Happy birthday to the best mom in the world! When I told Travis how young she was turning today, he said, "That doesn't seem right...she seems about 43!" So, Mom, we think you're definitely still young at heart :)

New year...new things to talk about!

It's been a while!!

Things are just now starting to get back to normal after the holidays. Travis is back at work this week, and I'm working my normal Monday, Tuesday, Friday schedule. It's actually kinda nice to get back into the routine!

The past two weeks were fun but pretty hectic. We enjoyed our time in Trussville with my family for Christmas (although it didn't last nearly as long as it did when we actually had "Christmas break!). Christmas Eve, after we ate with the Cushing clan at Granny's and opened presents, we grabbed our stuff and drove back up here to Baugay's. It's a good thing we didn't wait until the next day to leave because when we woke up Christmas morning, this is what we saw...

The view outside of our apartment

 
I knew they had been talking about the possibility of snow on the weather forecast, but I didn't actually think it would happen! It really was a white Christmas!!! We must have gotten 4 inches at least....and it was so pretty :) I think that's the most snow I've seen in Alabama since the "blizzard of '93. 


So, Travis and I got ready and went out to head over to Cheryl's for Christmas at their house. First, we had to uncover one of our cars though!!

The snow even covered the driveway and roads!

He's such a good husband :)

While Travis was uncovering his car, I took the opportunity to take a few more pictures...

Baugay's house looked like a Christmas card picture!

The view looking down the street

So, we set out on our journey...not wanting to be late. Luckily, Highway 72 was pretty clear of snow (from all the cars that had already driven on it). The worst driving was on the less traveled roads. This next picture makes it look like we were driving in a snowstorm!

Snow everywhere!

 I wanted to make a detour before our Christmas celebration though. So, we headed over to our house (that sounds weird to say!), so that I could take a picture of it covered in snow :)

Beautiful! :)

We finally made it to Cheryl's house in time to open presents and eat an awesome lunch together. 

The Grant girls before lunch

 After lunch, we all headed outside to make a snowman and have a snowball fight. It was a lot of fun! Sir Melts-a-lot turned out pretty cute too :)

The building process

Almost finished!

Sir Melts-a-lot!

Us with our masterpiece :)

No pictures from the actual snowball fight (I was too busy throwing them and getting hit!), but here's an "after" picture:

After the snowball fight

 The highlight of the day, however, was not the snow, the food, or the presents because....ALISHA GOT ENGAGED!! I was so surprised and excited...I think I probably scared Tyler because I was squealing so much. Her ring is so pretty, and I'm just so happy for them! They are planning to get married sometime in late July/early August.

Right after they told us

The ring!

I'm sure I'll be talking about wedding planning a lot on this blog, so just get ready!

Then, on Sunday (the 26th) for lunch, Travis and I finally got to celebrate our anniversary..haha. We went out to eat at P.F. Chang's, and it was really good. Trav had never eaten there, and I hadn't been in a long time, so it was fun. 

It was still snowing on Sunday!

Last week was a crazy, busy one. I'll break it down for you:

Monday: Work 
Tuesday: Work, then Grant cousins Christmas party
Wednesday: Wedding venue/dress shopping with Cheryl and Alisha all day, then I taught the K-1 Bible class at church that night
Thursday: Work, then fondue night at Cheryl's
Friday: Work, then furniture shopping all afternoon, then we went out to eat with Matt and Maggie, went to see their new house (which is so nice!!), and then played games and spent the night at Matt's house
Saturday: Watched Bama embarrass Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl with Matt, Tyler, Alisha, and Emily. Then we met Darlene at our house to measure the living room and breakfast room so we could get an idea of what furniture would fit. After that, Tyler and Alisha came back over and we ate pizza and played Settlers of Catan. 
Sunday: Church x 2, went to a reception in Woodville for Jeremy (he's leaving for Afghanistan sometime soon), and then had a birthday party that night after church to go to.


 WHEW!!! Makes me tired just to type all that. Needless to say, I was pretty tired and irritable by the end of the week. Even though we got to do a lot of fun stuff, those weeks where I don't get any kind of a break just wear me out. So, that's why I'm kinda glad to be back to our normal schedule. 


As far as the house goes, we're still supposed to close next Thursday (the 13th). The radon mitigation system was installed last week, so we were able to take a look at the pipe when we went to the house Saturday afternoon. The pipe is in the master BR closet. It's pretty big and ugly, but I guess it's better than breathing radon, right? You can't see it unless you go in the closet and turn around because it's in the front left corner, so at least that's good. We've got our homeowner's insurance decided on. The termite inspection went well. The appraisal's finished. Now, we're waiting on the radon re-test (to make sure the system is working), and then the sellers are supposed to get a handyman out to fix a few minor things. I can't believe we'll be homeowners in a week!! Scary and exciting!!


Well, I think I've talked your ears off enough. Hope you've had a happy holiday season and a great new year so far!! :)