We're really moving!

Mark your calendars for April 9th...that's our moving day! I promise :)

Until recently, our house mainly felt like a big project that was never going to be finished. It was a place to paint and renovate, but it didn't seem like we would ever actually live there. Well, the day is soon approaching! 


We put up the new shelving in our pantry on Saturday, and I'm really excited about it. The old shelving was sticky and rigged up with tape and wooden pieces. When we took it down, we patched up at least 60 holes before we painted. Guess how many holes it took to put up the new shelving? 11! The new shelves are also 20 inches deep (8 inches deeper than the old ones), so I have much more room for my pantry stockpile! And, the shelves can be adjusted to different heights if I decide that I want to change things around!

Before

After

We also have the shelving in our master bedroom closet almost completely finished. Lowe's is out of the shelves that we need for one wall, but we've got the system in place, and that's the tedious part. Once we buy the shelves, all we have to do is pop them in where we want them. 


The next step in the process is packing...our favorite! We've done a lot of packing since we got married. We moved into Presidential where we lived for the spring 2008 semester. Then, we packed up some stuff to move to Baugay's for the summer. Then, we moved back to Presidential for the fall 2008 and spring 2009 semesters. Then, we packed up everything and moved it into storage for the summer. We moved back to Baugay's for the summer, and then we unpacked everything from storage into our apartment at Rivermont for the fall 2009 and spring 2010 semesters. Then, in May 2010 after Travis graduated, we moved all of our stuff back to Baugay's where we've been ever since! Now it's time to move again! We've gotten pretty good at packing, labeling, and organizing in the past 3+ years! The good news is that even though we're saying that we're moving April 9th, if we don't get everything moved on that day, it won't be the end of the world. I don't think Baugay will be auctioning off our stuff before we have time to come back for it...haha :) 


Well, I'm going to make this a short post because I've got a lot to do today! Hope you're having a good week so far :)

Lessons of Life from Paint, Mud, and Sandpaper

Last weekend started off a bit rough. All of the rooms in our house were painted, and it was time to paint the closets. Except that I didn't want to paint the closets. In fact, I didn't want to do anything except move all of our stuff in and stuff the closets so full that we wouldn't be able to paint them if we wanted to. I was tired of painting; after all, we'd been at it for 2 1/2 months...

When we first started our painting marathon back in January, Travis wanted to paint every room including all closets and the garage before moving in.  Then, the next several weeks flew by, and we quickly realized that if we didn't do something, it would be the end of the summer before we moved in! So, we came to a compromise. We would paint the pantry and master bedroom closet (basically, the essentials) before moving in, and we would paint the other closets (linen closet, coat closet, and the other two bedroom closets) and garage afterward. So, I was satisfied with that. I didn't really think we should worry with painting them in the first place, but after some convincing by him and others, I agreed.

But, suddenly, it was the middle/end of March, and we still weren't moved in. Every week that passed I was getting more impatient. Then, Travis decided somewhere in there that he thought it would be a good idea not only to paint the pantry and master BR closet before moving in, but that we should take down all of the shelving and replace it with totally new shelving as well. It's just the perfectionist in him. And I just about had a meltdown. I could just see this taking weeks and weeks, and we would never move in, and what's the point of painting a closet anyway when you can't even really see the walls after your stuff is in there?

You see, this painting project has been a real learning experience for us. We definitely have different standards of quality when it comes to work. 

Here's Travis's thought process: "Do it right the first time; take your time and don't take shortcuts; buy the nicest stuff, and it will last a long time; it doesn't matter if you're painting a closet or the living room, you put the same effort into it."

And here's mine: "Do a good job but don't obsess over the little details that most people (especially me) won't ever notice anyway."

You can see how those philosophies don't exactly hold hands and love each other. 

The problem lies in the fact that although I may not notice the little details (like the paint in the closet or the shelving in the pantry), Travis does. And "the popcorn from the pantry will taste better with new shelving up and fresh paint on the walls." Yes, he said that. I guess that's what I get for marrying an engineer. It's all in the little details.

So, how do we get anything done when we work together? Here's what I've discovered:

1. Compromise: Sometimes, it's just not worth arguing about it, even if I think he's crazy or he thinks I'm irrational, etc. We meet in the middle, and come up with something that will satisfy (at least partially) both of us.  This is why we aren't going to paint every closet before moving in, but we did paint two of them.

2. Patience: What's important to me may not be important to him and vice versa. If it's that important to him that it will make his popcorn taste better to eat it from a newly renovated pantry, maybe I should just agree to the new shelving and paint. If I take a step back, I realize that it's going to get done eventually. We will move in sometime this century. And it's not worth getting upset over the fact that we haven't moved in yet. 

3. Love: We really do make a great team. Yes, we butt heads occasionally...sometimes every weekend. But, in the end, I love that we're different. We each bring our own mindset and ideas to the project, and when we work together, we end up with a great outcome! I think every room in our house looks way better than it did before we got a hold of it. (That's a teaser for the upcoming "after" pictures in a few weeks...haha). Working with someone on a big project like this can either be a disaster or a success, and it all depends on your attitude.

I'm glad to say that our house projects have been a success so far! :)

So, here are a few pictures of our recent work before I end this novel:

Here's Travis's newest toy (he gets one just about every week...haha). Meet DeWalt, the Cordless Drill:

DeWalt was a lifesaver when we started taking down all that shelving!

Part of the pantry shelving before we took it down

Dismantling the pantry

Master BR closet before we took the shelving down

Let's just say we mudded and sanded well over 100 holes after taking all that shelving down. Then, we painted the walls. After this weekend when we put up some new shelving, the pantry and closet will be new-and-improved for sure! Told you we work well together! :)

Tentative move-in day is April 9th. But don't hold us to it :)

Come back, spring break!

Even though I don't really miss college that much (at least the studying and tests part), one thing I do miss is having spring break. Once spring break gets here, it means that summer is right around the corner. The weather is warming up, and I just want to get outside and enjoy it! When we lived in Presidential, we used to really enjoy spring break just staying in Tuscaloosa. We almost had the whole campus to ourselves because everyone else was at the beach or at home! It was fun to walk around the Quad, throw the frisbee around, play tennis, and just get caught up on everything. Now that we're "grown ups", spring break is just another work week I guess. Oh well! I'm still loving the fact that it stays lighter later at night; I don't think that will ever get old. Just seeing the sun and not having to wear a jacket outside automatically makes me happy. 

Last weekend was a very productive one! We got the guest bathroom painted, and it was a lot easier than painting the master bathroom since it's smaller and there are less things to paint around. It looks much better gray than it did sky blue! With a nice shower curtain and some towels hanging on the wall, it will look complete! We've still got to hang the mirror back up and do some touch up spots, but other than that, it's pretty much finished. Completing the painting in the bathroom means that we've now painted every room in whole house, minus closets and the garage! Whew! It's definitely taken us a while, but I'm really happy with the way everything looks. 

Our painting station :)

Travis fired up his lawnmower and weedeater on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and he managed to make our yard look way better than it did on Friday. Those purple flowery weeds were taking over! Good news is they are gone now...at least for a few more days :) He had a big grin on his face while he was cutting the grass because he'd "been waiting to cut the grass at his own place for years." I guess it will get old after a while, but he definitely had fun with it last weekend!

Travis's new toy!

This weekend, we're going to work on painting the pantry and the closet in the master bedroom. The tedious part will be taking down the shelving and putting it back up; the painting shouldn't be too difficult hopefully. Once we get those two done, we'll be ready to move in I think! :)

Travis is playing laser tag tomorrow night with a bunch of the guys from church, so I think I'm going to move some more of my kitchen stuff over to the house and get my cabinets organized. I also need to measure all of the windows in our house for blinds and buy some paint for the closets. 

Yesterday, Mom and Jenn came up to see all of the progress we've made on our house. It was the first time for Jenn to see it at all. I think she's got a spot picked out on the La-Z-Boy to sleep in next time she comes :) We also went to this thrift store right down the road to look for furniture possibilities for the house. I didn't find anything, but Mom ended up getting a new lounge chair for the lake house. All it needs is a cushion, and it will be good to go!


Today I met Travis, Alisha, and Emily at Chuck Wagon for lunch. It's this little hole-in-the-wall BBQ place in Madison that reminded me a lot of City Cafe with a different menu. It was really good! And, tonight we're eating corned beef for supper with the Grant fam and Tyler. Should be a fun time!
 
Hope you remembered to wear your green today (or hurry and put some on if you didn't!).

:)

Getting closer!

I can finally see the light at the end of tunnel with all of this painting. Hooray! We got the study and guest bedroom pretty much finished up this past weekend. They are both the same color (taupe), and they look great! Both of the rooms have window seats, and one of them needs to be painted white (it's currently pink--the old room color), but that could even be done after we move in.

This weekend, we are going to try to start AND finish the guest bathroom. It is currently painted "sky blue", which matches the counter top the previous owners put in. We're going to re-paint the room a light gray color, and eventually I'd like to replace the counter with something a little more neutral. 

In other house-related news, we are now the proud owners of a programmable thermostat, a weed-eater, and lawnmower. Actually, Travis is the proud owner of the lawnmower and weed-eater since I'm hoping not to ever have to use them! :) The thermostat is up and running after Travis installed it Monday night. It looks nice and it shouldn't be too hard to use. He's hoping it will save us some money on our power bills this summer. The yard is looking pretty rough with the weather warming up some-what and all this rain we've gotten, so the grass/weeds really need to be cut soon. We're hoping to rope Andrew into giving us some landscaping advice sometime in the future....we need help! We've got enough other projects going on right now, though, that we'll probably wait until next spring/summer to start planting bushes and flowers.

Yesterday, I spent some much needed girl-time with Emily Smith. I really enjoyed lunch and the afternoon just hanging out! We need to do it again soon :)

Today is the last day of a class that Travis has been taking this week for work. It's on "Rotorcraft Fundamentals", and it's being taught at UAH by one of their professors. In case you were wondering, a helicopter is a type of rotorcraft. (I didn't know that until recently!). The project that Travis is working on at work involves helicopters, so he said the class has been really helpful. 

Yesterday, I got a good deal on a magazine for Travis. You probably know that he's pretty interested in personal finance. He keeps meticulous records in Quicken, we have a budget spreadsheet in Excel, and he enjoys reading books like "Stocks for the Long Run" (haha). Well, yesterday on Eversave, they had a deal where you could get a year's subscription to Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine for $6. But, I had a $5 credit on the website just for signing up a few weeks ago, so I got it for $1!! That's like 8 or 9 cents an issue!! I love getting good deals :)

Time to get to Kohl's (for another deal--I have a $10 coupon on any $10 or more pre-tax purchase, so I'll just have to pay tax if I can find something I like for $10!!) and head to the gym after that. I've been going about 4 times a week, so gotta keep it up :)

Hope you're having a fabulous week! 

March is here!

I'm absolutely loving this beautiful weather we've been enjoying today and yesterday. It reminds me of sunny California...can't believe it's been over a year since we were there. Time sure does go by fast. 

Speaking of time, it's almost been a year since Travis graduated and we left Tuscaloosa. Now, that's crazy. I guess we're fully in the working world now. I've been thinking lately about how much I miss t-town. It was easy to take for granted having so many friends our age around. Now, we have a few friends up here that we hang out with occasionally, but for the most part, we don't do a whole lot...at least with friends our own age. Everyone I work with is at least 15-20 years old than me, and I'm sure it's the same for Travis. And, we love Kelly Spring, but there are very few people our age there also. I wish that I could just gather up all our friends from college and transport them up here permanently. Anyone in their mid-twenties who lives nearby want to be our friend? :)

Here's my weekly painting update: We've got the cut-in finished in the study. Yay! Our goal is to finish the study and guest bedroom this weekend. They are going to be the same color (taupe), so it makes sense to paint them at the same time. We'll probably dedicate next weekend to the guest bathroom, and the next weekend to our closet and the pantry, and THEN maybe we'll move in. I think we'll probably end up painting the other closets and garage after we move in...otherwise, it'll be this summer before we get there...haha. As it is now, it'll probably still be the end of March/first of April before we actually move. 

Travis ordered a programmable thermostat and a lawnmower online last night, so he was excited about that. The thermostat was only $65, and it's supposed to save you a lot of money on your power bill every year. 


This is my week to work Thursday instead of Tuesday, so I'm up at the crack of dawn (actually before) for the next two days. It sounds awful, but I actually like getting it over with early rather than staying late. Starting work at 5:30 AM means getting off at 2 PM, and that is awesome.

Spring break for Alabama and Auburn is week after next, I believe. This will be the first spring break since before I started kindergarden that I won't have off! Last year, even though I was already working by that point, they let me have the week off to spend in Tuscaloosa with Travis. Sigh. No more long breaks unless I take ETO. That just makes me look forward to Fripp Island even more! P.S. Jenn, you need to come up here during spring break and see us! :)

That's about all for now. Thanks for reading! 

Random ramblings

Painting: We started and finished painting the hall and laundry room last weekend. Woohoo! The hall was yellow, and now it's cream. The laundry room was lemony-white, and now it's cream. They both look much better. Sunday afternoon, we both decided that we're getting burnt-out on painting though. We've been at it for over a month now, and we're just ready to be finished! What's left? The guest bedroom, the study, the guest bathroom, ALL of the closets, and the garage. Maybe we'll get started on one of those this weekend, but it's going to be hard with the gospel meeting at church going on too. Oh well, I'm looking forward to the meeting, and it will be a good break from what's becoming our normal weekend routine. 


Other House-Related Stuff: Travis got started lining some of our kitchen cabinets on Monday, so I'm excited about that. Once they are all lined, I'm going to start moving some of my kitchen stuff over there. I've got so much that I could probably have enough at both places to make do for a while. We also met some of our neighbors Friday night. They were really nice and seemed to be pretty close to our age, so it'll be fun to get to know them better!

Work: Travis has a 3-day week this week. He had Monday off for President's Day, and Friday is his normal off day. I have my normal 3-day week too, except our off days are totally different. Go figure. Work has been fine so far this week....nothing too exciting, but nothing bad either. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day too. 

Weddings: Yesterday, I ordered my bridesmaids dress for Alisha and Tyler's wedding! Only 154 days to go :) Now it's time to get started planning the bachelorette party of the century! :)


Well, I feel like my blog posts are getting really boring, but we really haven't done too much that's very exciting lately. Our lives have mainly been working and painting since we bought the house. When we finally get finished, maybe we'll have social lives again. I can't wait to have people over at our house....that'll be so much fun! We did go out to eat with Matt and Maggie on Saturday night, but that's about the first fun thing we've done all month. Oh well. I just keep reminding myself how blessed we are. Good health, family, friends, jobs, etc. We have so much to be thankful for! :)

 

Another week...another update...

I cannot believe we're already over halfway through February! 2011 is going by so fast. Travis and I have been homeowners for over a month now...that's just crazy. No, we still haven't moved in. Yes, we're still painting. Haha :)

One day, the painting will end. 

Possibly not until next February, but it will end.

Seriously, though, we are making good progress. The dining room is completely finished, and the living room is almost there. We've got to roll it a second time, and it will be done. It looks awesome! It's a darker shade of beige than the dining room, and it looks great with our new furniture. Everything is coming together! Next up, we'll paint the hallway and laundry room, and after that, the guest bedroom, study, and guest bathroom. Finally, we'll paint (to satisfy the OCD in my husband) all the closets and the garage. Whew. My original hope to move in by the end of February seems pretty unrealistic now, but no worries. Maybe by the middle of March??

This past weekend, we got a wonderful break from all the painting when we went to Trussville to celebrate my favorite sister's birthday. We worked on taxes for part of the time we were there. Isn't that sad that doing taxes was a nice break? :) Mom made some awesome BBQ in her new crockpot along with the normal fixins like potato salad and coleslaw. Made me wish summer would hurry up and get here!

We had a low-key Valentine's Day on Monday night. I guess this is the 4th Valentine's Day we've been married (crazy!), and we usually decide to cook supper together rather than go out to eat with everyone and their brother. Last year we made Baked Salmon, but this year we decided to try something a little different. Everyone probably knows that Travis LOVES seafood. Lobster, crab, shrimp....all of it. Well, I found a recipe called Lobster Colorado that involves lobster, steak, bacon, and lots of butter. Sounded right up his alley, and it was! It turned out really good, especially the lobster part. We also had Texas Toast and salad to go along with it. It was a quick and easy supper to fix, which was great considering the fact that I didn't get home from work until about 7 PM.


Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about the moron who poisoned the trees at Toomer's Corner in Auburn. Apparently, they've already found and arrested the guy who did it. Good. I just can't believe someone would do something like that. It definitely made me mad when I heard about it, and I hope things don't escalate from here. It's one thing to have a heated rivalry, but it's another thing to let it get out of control and start doing stuff like that. I hope both Alabama and Auburn fans will act classy about this and not let it go any further. And I hope the guy who did it won't ever be allowed on either campus ever again.

"Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. " ~Romans 12:17-21


That's all for today! Have a wonderful rest of your week :)