New Year, New Blog

NEW YEAR, NEW BLOG

Well, it's really the same blog. Just with new content. Exciting, right? I'm not even convinced that anyone checks here anymore, but that's okay. 

2011 was a pretty monumental year, and a lot of it is worth recapping even if only for my own benefit. The highlights, of course, were sealing the deal with Don and marrying him on the beaches of Maui, and moving into the house we worked so hard to have. 

While those are pretty big (okay, HUGE) events, we have even more reasons to say 2011 was one of our best years yet.

A rundown:

January - Admittedly, January was kind of a low-key month for us. We'd already broken ground on the house, but the weather was awful for most of the month so there wasn't a ton of progress. We did go to the Home Show, though, where we won a free garage door opener and some carpet cleaning. That just may have been the highlight. 

February - Things moved along with the house in February, despite some major errors. We celebrated my nephew's second birthday over french toast. I went nuts subscribing to home decor and DIY blogs. 

March - In March, I moved the rest of my belongings out of my house so that my renter could move in. I'd been in that house for five years, but I didn't really have any emotional attachment to it. It was actually kind of a relief to move out of it. Meanwhile, we were furiously trying to sell Don's house because we were sure we'd be moving into our new house in just a few weeks. Instead, we learned that our house might not be finished at all.

April - We kicked off April by celebrating my 30th birthday in Las Vegas. I had a conference there for work, and the timing worked out perfectly so that we could stay an extra few days to ring in my fourth decade of life. I had my first experience making drobi. 

May - Things really moved along at the house. Don's house still hadn't sold. My cousin, Mindy, came for a visit to see if living in Indianapolis was something she'd like to do (spoiler: she's still here!). My mom visited and taught me how to properly re-pot house plants. 

June - Don's house sold! Thus began my frenzy of selling tons of furniture on Craigslist, and the dance of figuring out where we were going to live until our house was ready. We ultimately moved into a hotel room, which was actually pretty great. I learned to appreciate the continental breakfast and rather enjoyed throwing my bath towels on the floor, knowing someone else would pick them up by the time I got 'home' from work!

July - After a big Fourth of July celebration with Don's family, I took off for a week on the beach with my family. While I was there, Don closed on our house and moved our stuff in. I quickly determined that the best way to buy a house was from another state.
 

August - Just a couple of weeks after moving into our new house, Mindy moved in with us. We had (and continue to have) a blast showing her around town, taking her to the State Fair, a Colts game, and to some of our favorite spots around town. And we inherited a piano! We capped off August with a visit to Evansville to see our friends Kara and Mike and their adorable family. 

September - The highlight of September was spending a week in Hilton Head with my dad and brothers. It was a great way to say goodbye to summer and unwind after a few hectic months of moving in and getting settled. 

October - On October 6th, Don asked me to marry him. That day is right up there on the list of my favorite days ever. A few days later, I bought a wedding dress and we booked flights to Hawaii. That kicked off our eight-week engagement, most of which was spent with my head in the clouds, so very excited to be married to my best friend. 

November - The blissfulness continued in November with a fun night out with some of my favorite people, welcoming our newest nephew, Reid, into the world, and celebrating Don's birthday all within a few days. We hosted a great Thanksgiving for my family, and took off for Maui on November 30.

December - I intend to do a whole series of posts about our wedding and Hawaiian honeymoon, but it was absolutely the trip of a lifetime and we can't wait to go back to Maui. Those eleven days could not have been more perfect. 

photo credit: Anna Kim Photography

We came back and shared our first married Christmas with our families in Ohio and across Indiana, and still managed to wake up in our own home on Christmas morning and enjoyed spending the entire day in our pajamas by the fire. It was fitting that we wrapped up 2011 with a champagne toast at midnight with good friends.

We can't wait to see what 2012 brings!

Happy New Year!

Blogging is Harder Than I Thought

It's true. Posting to the blog on a regular basis is far more difficult than I anticipated. I have PLENTY of content floating around in my head, but getting those posts on to this website has been a challenge (obviously). I have a newfound respect for the nearly 150 bloggers who I have listed in my Google Reader who do a fabulous job of posting regularly. Then again, maybe I'd have more time to devote to my own blog if I didn't read so many others. There's just so much good stuff out there.

We closed on our house a month ago today, and it's been a busy, busy month. We've gotten a lot done, but still have a lot do. In the midst of it, we're both working full-time, have had a steady stream of houseguests (which we love!), and we're desperately trying to enjoy every moment of summer before we sink into our winter hibernation. So, there hasn't been a lot of time for posting blogs.

Still, we've been productive and there's lots to share.

Perhaps most importantly, we've got a new roommate. My cousin, Mindy, has taken up residence and we're absolutely thrilled about it. She's so fun to have around (except for those times she guilts me into doing Turbo Jam workout DVDs with her in the living room - just kidding Mindy!). We're trying to show her all the awesome things about being a Hoosier, like taking her to the state fair for turkey legs and frozen bananas:

She's also been a huge help in unpacking and organizing. The baked goods that are regularly appearing on the counter don't hurt either. That's what Turbo Jam is for, right?

I'm hopeful that things calm down a little bit this week and I can take some updated pictures of things we've accomplished (and still hope to accomplish), and then get those posted here soon!

Now Taking Requests

Last week, we got a very special delivery to the house. It arrived in a old red pickup truck and a trailer.

Within minutes, this beauty was set up in what might normally be a formal dining room. Don and I are not exactly formal dining room people. If we're going to do formal dining, I'd prefer it be in a restaurant. But we knew when we designed the floorplan for this house that we'd need space for a piano, and this room was perfect with all of its natural light and open space.

The piano is a 1921 Kimball, and it was a gift from Don's parents. A very generous one, at that. They'd had it for years, and it went largely untouched for most of those years. While it's not in perfect condition and will need a little bit of love, it's absolutely playable.

In fact, I had a fabulous time going through my piles of music on Saturday and working my way through them. I'm rusty, that's for sure. But I'm so excited to have something to play on again!

Sorry for the crappy cell phone picture with bad lighting. But thanks to Don for taking it!

This room is right at the bottom of the stairs, and it's been so fun to come downstairs in the morning and see the piano there. Even though Don doesn't play, we both really, really love having the piano in our home. And after giving an impromptu concert to the cats over the weekend, I'm almost motivated to take some lessons again. Almost.

Weekend Projects

We took a break from unpacking and organizing after work on Friday and went to see Crazy, Stupid Love (which is fantastic, by the way) and get some dinner. But Saturday morning we were right back at it with a full list of projects to tackle.

After a quick trip to the farmer's market - we have a fridge now, we needed produce! - we made what has become our daily trip to Lowe's and rushed home to get started.

First up, a ceiling fan for the master bedroom.

That picture is a pretty good indication of how we've been living the past two weeks.

1) The ever-present cat. She refuses to allow us to get anything done without her being right in the middle of the action.
2) That's my still-packed suitcase from my vacation three weeks ago on the floor.
3) Unmade bed. Mismatched sheets.
4) Apparently this is Don's standard uniform for house projects. Black shorts, black dress socks, no shirt.
5) Wall hangings sitting on the ground, all throughout the house. We haven't hung a thing.

But look! He's using the instructions! And they worked beautifully. Here's the end result:

Here's what else we accomplished this weekend:

We installed knobs on the bathroom cabinets ...

We (okay, Don) got the new water softener hooked up ...

We hung up the shower curtain in one of the guest bathrooms, once I finally located it (the curtain, not the bathroom, ha) ...

And we stocked the other guest bathroom with trial-size everything. We're ready for guests! Come visit!

And, of course, we watered the lawn incessantly. The front yard is sod, and the back is seeded. We really don't want to re-sod or re-seed next spring, so we're doing everything in our power to get it take root now and not die off in the hot and rainless summer we're having. We're starting to see a little bit of success in the back, thankfully!

There were two other projects that happened over the weekend, but they'll warrant their own posts later this week. They're that exciting!

We've Fallen In Love with a Fridge

Last summer, we were asked to choose our kitchen appliances from a list that our builder gave us. While we were fine with the oven and microwave options, we knew the refrigerator, dishwasher, and gas cooktop options weren't what we ultimately wanted. They gave us a credit for those appliances and we started researching decibel levels on dishwashers and debated refrigerator door styles. 

We made a quick (and wise, I've decided) decision on the cooktop so that it could be installed in our granite, but we waited to order a refrigerator and dishwasher, mostly because we had nowhere to store it. We lived in a hotel for almost three weeks, and while the Residence Inn was good to us, I'm not so sure they would've been okay with us having a fridge delivered to the front desk. Still, we'd decided months ago that this beauty would be coming to live with us:

So, we waited until after we closed on the house to place the order. And after some extensive research, we figured out that we could save about $700 if we ordered it from an online wholesaler, WDC Appliances, rather than buy it locally. We knew $700 was nothing to scoff at, so we went for it even though it meant living in our new house for ten entire days with no refrigerator. A gracious neighbor kept all of our frozen food for us, and we managed with a cooler and some ice for the rest. But mostly we went out to eat for every meal (which wasn't that much of a stretch from our usual routine anyhow). 

Yesterday, the Samsung RF4287HARS finally became ours, but it wasn't without a fight. One of the sacrifices we made to save that $700 was that the delivery company only brought it as far as the driveway. 

We had already determined that it would be easier to go through the front door than through the garage, where there would be more turns and doorways. Getting it to the front door wasn't too bad, and the two of us even managed to get up the two steps without too much issue. 

Then it hit us that the box was too wide to fit through the frame. We took the box apart, hoping it would give us enough room to get through the door.

Close enough. Lucky for us (er, me), Don's brother showed up at the perfect time and helped him maneuver it through the door and onto the dolly. Nice socks, Don!

Thankfully, it didn't take long at all for Don to get the water line hooked up and everything in place. And now, it looks like the refrigerator was made just for our kitchen. We couldn't be happier!

Once we've had a chance to use it for a while, I'll be sure to post how it's working out for us. But for now, we're completely smitten.

(And by the way, WDC Appliances was great to work with from start to finish. We'd absolutely use them again!)

Welcome to Our Home!

I've been debating how best to go about doing a virtual tour of the house, and outlining projects that we've already tackled, or plan to tackle someday. I still don't really have a good plan, so I'll just start at the start: the front entry.

The main foyer is a pretty big area (that rug is bigger than 5' by 7'), and it has a cool little arched nook off to one side that is just screaming for some big artwork or some kind. Right now, we have this sofa table that we found at Target a few years ago set up there, but I think it might be a little too small for the space.

The lamp was a recent find on the Lowe's clearance rack. The candlesticks are from Red Envelope, and the rest is just stuff I found in boxes that needed a quick home, so they ended up here for now. The vase on the floor was put there in an attempt to hide the lamp cord, but I realize it's pretty ridiculous there and needs a new home.

I'd really like to find a big, round rug for this area (I love this one and this one), but that's pretty far down on the lengthy list of things we need/want to purchase. So for now, we're using this old floral thing which is serving its purpose just fine.

Off to the right of that picture (or to the left as you come in the front door) is what will eventually be my home office. At least, I hope it is. There's still some debate among my Board of Directors over my work-from-home status. We'll see.

Back to the foyer ... this is the light fixture that the builder installed in that area.

It's your basic boob fixture (you can't tell me it doesn't look like a boob). I think the 10-foot ceiling and large area call for a larger fixture, and I'm considering bringing in the fixture from the home office, instead.

It doesn't exactly scream 'foyer' either, but I think it's better than the boob. I have a different fixture that I eventually want to hang in my office, so this fixture will come down either way.

What do you think this space needs? A decorative coat rack, maybe? Should I scrap the console table and find some cool accent chairs instead?

Where We Live

It's been a solid two months since I posted anything, and almost three months since I posted anything worthwhile, but I'm happy to report that we now LIVE here:

It's a real house, with a real yard and everything. And we love every inch of it.

There are a number of reasons I quit posting house updates, not the least of which was that every time I posted a positive update, we took two steps back. The building process really wasn't an enjoyable one for us. There were days when we thought it wouldn't happen, and all of our time and energy was for nothing. We honestly wondered if we wanted this house TOO much.

We didn't close on the house until July 15, far later than we'd anticipated. In hindsight, the delays may have been a good thing. Don's house sold, which meant we wouldn't have to carry three mortgages between the two of us, we were able to save more money to put down initially, and it made moving in that much sweeter. All of our headaches were worth it. Even the three weeks we spent living in a hotel were worth it.

Would we do it again? Well, no. Probably not.

Now that we're living in the house, I'm finally okay with getting back to this blog. There's no longer that risk of chronicling a process that didn't have a happy ending. And now that the HOUSE is built, we can start building the HOME.

So, the two people who haven't deleted me from their Google Reader can look forward to more posts soon!