I Left Troy Alone with the Girls for 9 Days - Prequel

So I have this friend. I've known her for 15 years. Which is crazy. I've known her more than half of my life.

This is Kristen:

This is Kristen and Me. In high school (sorry, it's bad):

Kristen and I have been through a lot. Like when we drink together and my feet hurt and she drops me in the parking lot and we can't stop laughing. This was supposed to be a shot of Kristen giving me a piggy back ride. But she dropped me instead and somehow, we got an action shot of us falling:

Or when Troy went TDY when Avery was a week old. And we were moving away from Dover and living in a hotel. And Kristen came to my rescue. Look how sleepy she is. That's sacrifice. Staying up with a baby that isn't your own:

She got married 3 years ago. We look better than high school, huh? We clean up well:

So let's pause a minute and list all the things that Kristen has done.

1. She came when Avery was a week old to live with me in TLF while Troy was gone.
2. She drove with me to Texas when Avery was 4 months old when we moved to San Antonio and Troy was already there.
3. She stayed a week and helped me unpack my house in San Antonio.
4. She came to Vegas when I was hospitalized for hyper stimulated ovaries and took care of Avery.
5. She came to Vegas for a week when I was on bedrest. She left 3 days before the twins were born.

Kristen married a guy in the military. This is him:

She moved to Florida. She's been living there since she got married. They got orders a few weeks ago to move back to Virginia. OH and she has a 5 month old little boy. Ain't he cute?

So go ahead a scroll back up to that list. I'll wait.

As her first move as a military spouse with a new baby, it can be SO overwhelming. SO much to do. On a plane I went to help her. I mean, not only was I ready for a trip by myself, but Kristen was doing her first move.

I left on a red eye from Vegas thursday night and arrived in Washington, DC on friday morning. I flew back to Vegas the FOLLOWING saturday...9 days later. Troy was with the kids all that time. He did great. They're all alive and accounted for. In addition, being gone really reinforced the importance and power of building your "village." I'm not entirely certain he would have made it without our village.

In addition, I got to see a lot of people I grew up with and have known me for years. As well as acquaintances that I have only met a few times, but am friends with on Facebook. Apparently, more people are reading this blog than I was aware of. I had about 12 people ask me, separately, a version of the question, "why aren't you blogging anymore?" Or "I'd like to fan girl stalk your babies and you're making it hard." Or "I am very invested in your family because you blogged about your fertility and stuff and I'm going through that now." So I'm back. And making a better effort. Promise.

The Failed Sales Pitch

We were warned by some friends about the vulture salesmen in the neighborhood once you move into your house.

The day DIY almost ruined our marriage, the doorbell rang 4 times. I thought that was impressive since we were only in the house from 10 to 5. We had technically owned our house for over a month before we moved in, so it made me wonder how many people had gone by our house and rang the door bell before someone actually answered it. I kept thinking (after our friends mentioned the doorbell ringing) that because we had waited over a month to move in after the closing date that maybe they would have all given up after almost 5 weeks of no response.

Apparently not.

We had 2 different security system companies, a woman who wanted to build us some custom closet organizers, and a man who wanted to install our blinds and do our landscaping. If you read the disaster DIY post, you can probably guess that we WERE NOT up for friendly visiting and listening to people try and sell us some stuff. Or have time. They are lucky I answered the door at all, frankly.

The second day we were putting up ceiling fans and I left after about an hour and was gone at Costco for 3 hours and then came back for about 2 hours. I was at the house for a total of 3 hours that day and the door bell rang 3 times. It was a landscaping person, a person selling water conditioners/softeners (who we actually called the next week and bought a Puronics water system), and repeat security system person from the day before. He apparently didn't get the message that we were busy and not ready to have a conversation yet.

Brian, who ended up calling later for the water purifying stuff, was great. I came to the door and said hi and he IMMEDIATELY was like "I know that buying a new home is an incredibly busy time, but I wanted to leave you my card. I sell water softeners and conditioners, please call me at your convenience for an estimate and demonstration of our Puronics water system."

Short, sweet, to the point, and not pushy.

Mr. Repeat Security guy needed to take notes.

I answered the door and recognized him from the day before. He apparently did not get the message that we were busy and not ready for sales pitches and conversations when we could barely deal with the problems we had created for ourselves inside. Mr. Oblivious had brought a trainee with him, hoping to intimidate me into hearing his schpeal and letting him in, but if you know me, you know that I don't intimidate easily.

This is how this conversation went.

Natalie: Hi. I remember you from yesterday.

Mr. Oblivious: Yeah, I thought I might have better luck today.

Natalie: You won't. We are still handling some things inside and aren't ready to talk to anyone. Our movers are coming soon and we need to handle as many of the interior projects as possible before the furniture arrives. Please come back in about 2 to 3 weeks. As I stated yesterday.

Mr Oblivious and really stupid who is about to put his foot in his mouth: Can I speak to the decision maker in the house instead?

Really? Like I don't make any decisions. Like my husband makes all my decisions for me. It's more like the other way around. No offense honey. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Natalie while raising eyebrows and pursing lips: That was totally the wrong thing to say to me.

Mr. Oblivious and try to back out of his words while removing his foot from his mouth: What I meant was the person who you make decisions with.

Natalie: Oh honey, it's too late for that. You obviously aren't married or you would know that if the wife don't approve, it don't happen. Don't bother coming back. We are done. Thanks.

I promptly shut the door in his face without a good-bye.

I told Troy what happened immediately and he BUSTED up laughing because he knows. "Happy Wife = Happy Life." Learn dude. Learn.

Can you believe that? I don't know who trained HIM but he certainly shouldn't have had a trainee.

Lesson 1 to all sales people. DO NOT INSULT YOUR INTENDED CLIENTELE. You will not make the sale.

PS. CPS security in Las Vegas...train your people better. That was awful. You would have gotten a call back if you had been polite. We went with the polite retired Air Force guy from ADT. Who came back EXACTLY when we asked him to. Not the next day. Better luck next time.

*NEW STUFF* WAHOOOO!

Sorry for my brief absence from the online world. Our family has made the final trek from Alamogordo to Las Vegas and are now here to live for real. Until our next PCS. Ugh. The thought makes me depressed. Anywho...

Last week, I shared with you all our new and updated to do list with all kinds of purchases crossed off. To make the wait for the reveal a little longer, here are a bunch of pics of our purchases!

First up on the list: BLINDS! Which if you read the post about Troy and I putting them up, you know how that went. We survived to live another day.

Next on the list - FANS! We purchased 6 of these and installed them. Somehow. Haha. These are the 3 extra bedroom fans. They are in the upstairs guest room, Avery's room and the downstairs guest room. I love how the edges look burnt. It moves some serious air. It's great.

I have neglected to take pictures of the family room fan, but it is also ORB and huge. With a giant light. A boob light similar to the one below. You know what I am talking about.

We purchased 2 of these. They are in the loft upstairs and in the master bedroom. Some of you may have noticed that we chose to mix metals. We have ORB curtain rods, door handles and hinges. Then we have the stainless steel appliances, bathroom fixtures, shower surround, and 2 fans. It's all good baby. You may not have even noticed if I didn't mention it.

This is 8 X 10 wool rug that I found on one of the "girly" trips that I took out shopping. I love that the pattern is pretty traditional but the colors make it much more modern. The picture is really true to the colors as well. It's like a slate grey blue color. The tan/off white pattern looks really great with the tile in the family room. It's shedding a bit, but with the dyson that Troy got me for Christmas, it's fun to pull that bad boy out and go to town. So far, it's hiding Optimus's dog hair pretty well.

This picture is a dual show. At center stage we have our charcoal grey sofa. In the supporting role are the curtains. Oh the sofa. We were pretty set on getting a sectional. But then I got all practical and ruined that plan. I was like "we already have a sectional upstairs in the loft. If we get another one and then we move again there is NO way that 2 sectionals will fit in our house." So the compromise was that we would get a sofa and 2 recliners. WELL, OMG! Troy wanted 2 of those recliners that look like they totally eat you when you sit in them and have tons and tons of padding. I just prefer the more tufted/neat and tidy look. Well then we got all awkward because if you have been furniture shopping before the sales people are like VULTURES. I was glad we were arguing a little bit because they got really uncomfortable and left us alone. HA! We ended up compromising on a sofa and loveseat combo in a color I wanted and ALL of the seats recline. Including the middle seat on the sofa. The loveseat also rocks. EACH seat! Both sides rock independently of the other AND recline. With a button. It's pretty awesome. They are heavy. Oops. Poor movers.

The camera/light is totally blowing the color out weird so they look greenish, but I promise they are dark grey. And very pretty. Say "Hi" to my Dad. He came to visit.

Here is a picture of the curtains with the only picture we have hung up in the house. The curtains are a light blue color with silvery light grey leaves on them. The picture my Granny Tucker painted and it goes perfectly with the colors in this room. We haven't hung it at all since we got married so it was a nice surprise to pull it out of the picture boxes and see that it now fits perfectly somewhere in the house. And it's meaningful. Which I love.

These are the dining room curtains from HomeGoods. For $14.99. Ok folks that is just stealing! How pretty are those? And CHEAP! Major win for me at HomeGoods. I LOVE THEM! Especially since the next set were much more.

Now you can't tell from this picture, but that is actually 2 windows. I have 4 of these panels from World Market. I could have put all 4 panels up, but then all the fabric would have bunched up and you wouldn't have been able to open them at all. The windows are pretty narrow and there is about 10 inches of wall between them. Instead of just hanging 2 we decided to go with 3 to make the window look bigger from the inside of the house by hiding the wall. I'm pretty pleased with how that turned out.

Backstory on the curtains: I found those at World Market last summer. They are the extra long 105 inch ones...which retail for $42.99 per panel!! HELLS NO! So I went home and looked them up on eBay and someone was selling them for 80 dollars for 4 PANELS! YES PLEASE! I snapped those things up faster than Avery grabs for crackers. They are perfect because those are tall and skinny windows. They are 104 inches from the top of the window to the floor. Meant to be? I think so. And a great deal. Ebay swoops in and steals the win from HomeGoods.

This is the upstairs loft. The curtains I got at Walmart about 4 years ago and they hung in our family room in Dover. We had them in the dining room in San Antonio. Reuse people! Wahoo! This is actually a pretty dark room, even in the middle of the day, so I am glad they are sheer.

CRAIGSLIST!! I LOVE YOU! I got this for $30. I talked the lady down $5. So proud. My mom has had this EXACT table for as long as I can remember. She has refinished hers in the last 5 years or so, so the weird orangey color is out. I will be doing the same. When I saw it listed I was all "hey Troy look! It's my mom's coffee table." He was all "SOLD!! I LOVE THAT TABLE! GET IT NOW!" Dang ok. So I snapped that up. The other one is currently being used as a TV stand for the loft TV (that used to be in our room).

I cannot express to you how amazing these adirondack rocking chairs are. I sent an email to my Grandma hinting that I needed a housewarming gift/birthday present. To my shock and surprise, she agreed and bought them! HOW AWESOME IS SHE? The answer is, "The most awesome."

It's true love. Really. My mom bought me one and my grandma bought me one. A PAIR. They are gorgeous. Look at that tufting. Look at the color. Look at those legs. Have you ever seen a more gorgeous pair of stems on chairs? I haven't. They are some good looking ladies. However, they are shorter and squattier than I anticipated. As a result, they may have lost the coveted in-front-of-the-eBay-curtain-windows spot. The windows are so high I feel like the juxtaposition of the tall windows and short chairs may not be the way to go. I will let you know where they land. For now, the adirondack rocking chairs are sitting in the windows facing the grey ladies. Having a face off over who is the best. It's a tie. I can't decide. It's agony.

Oh the legendary barstools. You may have missed the post about them. They almost didn't come home with me because Troy didn't approve of the "hideous things." Yeah right, I do what I want. Look at them! They are lighter than the cabinets, so the color pops when you turn the corner into the kitchen. The legs completely match the cabinets so they look like they are floating. And because of the color of the chairs, they are making the backsplash pop too! They are totally flirting over the top of the island and granite countertops all "oh hey, how YOU doin?"

One of these things is new? Can you guess which one? Troy and I were pretty much in agreement that even though we needed to replace our electric dryer for a gas one, we wanted the set to match still. Mission accomplished. The one on the right is the new dryer. We are thrilled with it so far.

BABY GATES! She's a nutso about the stairs. It scares the bejeezus out of me. She is into everything. Seriously. She's a little scary. She's all climbing in the dishwasher, climbing on the back of the toilet, climbing in the cabinets. She's a climber. It's a problem. I really love the gate so far. We'll see how it goes. The gate has these knobs that screw open to tighten to the wall. A friend told us that she had this gate and you end up screw the knobs very tightly into the wall and then one day, your kid gets the Hulk like strength and pushes the gate over, taking dry wall with it. Hopefully Avery won't be a superhero and that won't happen. We'll see.

So that's the new stuff. We still don't have things on the walls and are unpacking the last few boxes. I will get you some updates soon my blog stalkers. Talk to you soon!!

Monday: The Day I Learned About My Husband's Non-Patience with Non-Living Things. More Specifically DIY Projects. And My Inability to Shut Up.

My husband is SO patient. With me. Most of the time. I'm weird and quirky. I like things how I like them. I honestly don't know how I got so lucky to find such a wonderful and sweet guy to tolerate all of my weirdness.

I have never met this tool throwing, cursing, exasperated, sweating guy until when tools were involved.

I have never seen this side of him. The most "DIY" thing we have ever done is put together an IKEA bookshelf. Actually, that's not true. In Dover, we installed a storm door that had a doggie door cut out of the bottom. Prior to the doggie door project, I was convinced that Troy was Superman with a power drill because he's a guy. Apparently that's not how a man is made. By their ability with power tools. I'm pretty sure that I blocked out doggie door installation from my memory because it was so unpleasant. This memory came raring back full force on our first day of "get-as-many-home-projects-accomplished-as-possible-before-the-movers-come-on-wednesday."

Picture me wondering why "this" isn't working or why "this" isn't going faster. Then Troy muttering why am I so impatient under his breath and it escalating to huffing breath and tool throwing and marching around the side of the house to pull a "Tebow" and kneel in the side yard, asking God for strength to finish without killing his wife. That's how the doggie door install went. We finished, but I forgot about this incident from July of 2009 until halfway through our first day of inside-our-new-house-work.

We Troy woke up Monday morning after our all of our shopping on sunday and was very optimistic. He was feeling confident that we could install ALL 12 of the blinds, ALL 6 of the ceiling fans, seal ALL of the grout, and seal the granite in one day. With a 15 month old. I knew better. And probably so do you. Especially after reading this list he wanted to accomplish. He's goal oriented and ambitious. Two of the reasons that I married him. However, neither one of us had EVER installed a ceiling fan or a set of blinds, but it couldn't be rocket science. I was feeling confident that our learning curve would increase exponentially after the first installation of each was complete.

Troy decided to start with the most basic ceiling fan that comprised 3 out of the 6 fans that we had purchased. My job was to open all the fans in the rooms in which they belonged and distribute the blinds in front of the windows they had been cut for. I finished my job while carting Avery around the house with me. I went up into Avery's room (where Troy was working on the first fan install) after about an hour and Troy was still bent over the directions, holding the ceiling fan mount in his hands.

Natalie: What's going on? The directions say that the fan installation should take about an hour. It's been over an hour. Shouldn't you be in the next room?

Troy: Really, Natalie? Why don't you just beat me while I'm down? I don't think I can do this. There is no "outlet box" to mount this to. *throws screwdriver onto the ground and throws the mount like a frisbee*

Natalie challenges Troy's manhood, thinking anger will motivate him (boy, was I wrong): Are you kidding? Jared installed 5 of these. Nate installed one and so did Dan. You can't do this? Do you need a help from a girl? Do you need to call Jared and get over the phone instructions?

*Disclaimer: Ok, I was totally being a bitch. I know. But we were on limited time. We were stressing. But my job was done. My next job was to watch Avery so that Troy could be successful at his job. Which he clearly was not. Anyway...

Troy: Natalie, you are not helping. Maybe it's just this ceiling outlet in the bedroom that sucks. I'm not totally convinced that it's designed for a ceiling fan. It might be designed for just a light. No fan. I'm going to try the one in the loft that is definitely already wired for a fan. That might be easier.

Natalie while snapping her fingers and stomping her feet: Good idea. We've been here an hour and nothing is done. Keep moving, keep moving, chop freakin' chop.

So we go out into the loft and I start taking blinds out of the box to figure out screwing them into the window. The directions are WORSE than Ikea directions. You know what I am talking about if you have put something together from Ikea before (image from Apt Therapy).

In the meantime, Troy has figured out how to mount the loft ceiling fan. Then he drops a curse word. Again.

Troy while climbing down the ladder: The screws are too soft. I totally stripped it and NOW I can't get it mounted all the way in the ceiling. Awesome.

He proceeds to unscrew the whole thing using a wrench. His arm is falling asleep. It takes 10 minutes because the screw is so long. He gets the mount off the ceiling and gets another screw and tries again. And proceeds to strip it with the drill. He curses. I laugh. I guess that doesn't help. Oops. Troy quits with the fans and decides to join in on the torture with the blinds. I am still staring at the horrible faux Ikea directions for the blinds.

The way they go together, there are two metal clamps that are shaped like a C. The "back" of the C sits flush against the window frame and then the "top" of the C screws into the inside of the window at the top and the side screws into the side of the window. The the blinds click/slide into the C. Trouble...here it comes. Not only have we not put in a SINGLE ceiling fan, but now we are having difficulty with the blinds.

Our issue was screwing in the screws on the top of the C that screws into the inside frame at the top of the window. Because it's shaped like a C, that means that the bottom of the C is in the way of screwing in the top.

Troy was swearing and throwing things again.

Troy: You are SO cheap!! It was $99 to have Lowe's come out and measure and install the blinds. BUT NOOOOOOOOO you wanted to save a buck and now we are wasting a whole day!!! This agony is worth $99!

Then I said the wrong thing. Well I actually started saying the wrong things about half a page up.

Natalie: I wanted that money for a rug and throw pillows!!

Troy: Oh, the necessary things in life.

So little does Troy know...

Swear swear, stomp stomp. Troy stomps down stairs to get his phone.

So what does he do? He calls Lowe's. He asks to speak to the window treatment department and talks to the specialist person.

Troy: We were in yesterday and had blinds cut. Can we hire someone now to come to our house and install them?

Dude: No, you have to do that at the beginning because we measure them. If anything goes wrong, or the measurements aren't correct we are responsible. But since you already measured, had them cut, and took them home, we won't install them for liability issues."

Then Troy got desperate.

Troy: What if we sign a waiver so that you aren't responsible if the blinds don't fit?

Dude: Sorry, no can do.

Troy: So you're saying we f***ed up from the begininng?!!

Dude: Well yes, but I can't say that.

And then I'm pretty sure that Troy hung up on the guy.

Back to the drawing board. And I'm pretty sure it merits a mention that Avery was napping though all this, by the way (I put her in a pack and play under the stairs storage area all Harry Potter style) because she can only sleep in the dark.

Then I did the bitch thing again. I was like, "Jared installed ALL THE BLINDS in their house by himself. We can totally do this together." He made a face. And possibly a hand gesture.

Lesson to everyone: You truly do not know your spouse until you complete attempt home improvement projects together.

Troy finally figured out how to use the drill extender to drill through holes in the bottom of the C to get the screws flush with the metal. The day was saved. Thank God. There really is a very steep learning curve once you get the first one installed. VERY steep. Like Troy was installing them so fast, I couldn't get the blinds and all the hardware out the box for the next window before he was done with the previous one.

We ended up getting all the blinds installed in less than 2 hours. The first one doesn't count because it took an hour and 15 minutes. Ooo that looks so bad when written out. So a total of 3 hours and 15 minutes for 12 blinds. We have two more coming that are custom ordered. From 10am to 330pm we got all the blinds in. We spent the first 2 hours messing with the first fan that was a total fail. Then we spent another hour with the loft fan and THAT was a total fail. Then we spent an hour and 15 minutes arguing about the first set of blinds and then called Lowe's. After getting a "you are on your own" lecture from Lowe's, it was 1:30pm. That's when we starting rocking and rolling. We were done by 3:30 with blinds.

Then we moved onto hanging curtain rods on the sliding door off the kitchen and the big window in the family room that has a custom blind set coming. It was very important to us to have something covering all the windows on the first floor before we left to drive back to Alamogordo because all of our stuff would be inside and we didn't want any creepers looking around. Goal accomplished. With a very little yelling. I think Troy was feeling bad. I was too. Extra effort was made to be nice.

True story, we didn't have a tape measure. Who does that?? The inexperienced people right here (points at self, Troy should have known better). Troy fashioned a crazy craptastic one out of the extra long curtain rod box. And our first attempt to hang the curtains level was a fail. It's ok. If at first you fail, try again. And try we did. After some more yelling and tool throwing. We bought spackle. Don't worry.

Overall, it was a stressful day. Troy and I NEVER fight or talk to each other like that. Home-ownership just brings out the bitch in people, I guess. When we got back to our lovely hosts' home and told them our progress for the day, they thought we did great with our productivity. Especially while chasing a 15 month old up and down the stairs. Ugh. Read my lips writing: BABY GATES.

It's this exact situation that demonstrates why we have a pre-lit Christmas tree. We disagree on exactly how the lights should look, how to string them, how dense they should be, where they should sit on the branches (all over versus strung on the ends of the branches), and the color (white lights TROY, he always wanted colored ones...ewww). We learned that after the first 2 years of marriage the day we put up the tree has nothing to do with the "spirit of Christmas" but rather a giant lights argument. Our tree is the best $100 dollars we ever spent. Christmas literally got better. Because we didn't walk past the tree making adjustments to the way we wanted it to look while making sure the other one wasn't watching. And it would end up looking a hot mess. He wanted a pre-lit colored lights tree. EWWWWW. Troy would beg to differ. He would have spent the $100 on blind installation.

I actually learned a lot from this horrible day. It was our first time doing DIY anything. I love DIY blogs. Young House Love is my absolute favorite. I now know that they are liars. HUGE! Or the most polite people ever and just put on a happy face. There is NO way to DIY anything without something going wrong. Or at least not going the way you expected. You cannot be that cheery about DIY. I just cannot be that positive when things don't go the way you envision! Why can't everything go perfectly and exactly the way you plan??? That, my friends, is the reality of DIY. SOMETHING will go wrong. SOMETHING! Get ready for it and plan on it. Except for that you can't because you never know what it will be.

Things I learned on day 1 of DIY:

1. Don't challenge your husbands manhood by comparing him to the success of others DIY projects. It's not nice.

2. Use a tape measure and a level. Always.

3. Pilot holes are your best friend.

4. Sometimes reading directions is not helpful. If you are doing multiples of something, make your errors in a room that you don't frequently enter and hopefully no one will notice your practice project.

5. If your spouse yells or curses or throws things, it's (90% likely) not your fault. You'll only make it worse by yelling back and taking it personally. Stay calm and drill on.

6. If you have young children awake while doing these projects, close drill bit cases, extra hardware bags, and the tool box. Then you won't be tempted to jump off the ladder and almost die to prevent your child from trying to eat a drill bit.

Oh don't worry. There's more. Troy brought Jared over that night to get a fan tutorial. And we got all 6 in the next day. And I made it to Costco. It was love. We had a GREAT day. We definitely learned a lot on day one. Just because things went poorly. So day one: massive fail in communication and support. Day two: success because of day one's failures.

Troy, I love you so much. I will promise to be more patient with you. You are always so patient with me. You humor my weird and quirky and silly personality traits. Thanks for putting up with me. You're the only one who does. You know the saying, "a face only a mother could love"? Well my mother has told me that I am emotionally draining. And you put up with me anyway and want to make more babies with me. I got me a good one, I tell you. Hands off ladies, he's mine.

Anyone else have a horrid home improvement story? Or just a great story about a stupid fight with your significant other? Fight about Christmas lights?? It sure would make me feel better right now.

The Big Bad To-Do List...Cut in Half

A little while back, I shared our list. It's big. And a lot of things that are on it need to be purchased. I am proud (well, actually a little horrified) that most of the things on the list have been accomplished/purchased. My mantra "that's what savings are for, that's what savings are for..." It's on repeat in my head. Continuously. Every day gets easier.

This is our first time buying a house, so sticker shock on things that you have never bought before is crazy. Blinds, ceiling fans, and curtain rods was an arrow straight to the heart. An extra long curtain rod will kill you. It's more vicious than the Hunger Games. Thank God for military discounts. We don't have that many windows in the house, but window treatments are expensive. The blinds, then the rod, then the curtain. Dang. But SO worth it. It is amazing how window treatments diminish echos and make the room feel more home-y. It's true love. Really. "That's what savings are for." Repeat.

We left Alamogordo on Saturday at 4 am.

Avery and Optimus did great. I'm terrible in the car. I'm all "are we there yet?" 15 minutes later. "are we there yet?" Every 15 minutes. It was 12 hours in the car with 2 stops. One for breakfast and one for lunch. By the way, the McDonald's maple oatmeal with fruit is AWESOME! We made it to Las Vegas in a total of 13 hours, with stops, which was AWESOME! Avery LOVES to read. My Mommy heart SINGS every time she walks up to me with a book and signs "read" and hands me a book. Then she turns her back to me and plops forcefully right into my lap. I love her.

So we pulled into town saturday night at 4 pm west coast time. All of the shopping occurred on Sunday. 3 hours at Lowes, an hour at HomeGoods and Tuesday Morning, 2 hours at Ashley Furniture, an hour at Pier 1. It was crazy. Even as I sit down to write this and again to read it again, I can't remember if/when/what we ate. I know we did. But I cannot remember. That's how much of a blur this day was.

Anyway. Here is a list update.

- Blinds - buy from selectblinds.com - DONE and installed - we ended up buying them from Lowe's because it was cheaper. We were also able to have them cut while we shopped and pick them up that day. We had to special order 2 of them because the windows were almost 97 inches wide. Can you say custom order?

- Ceiling fans - DONE and installed - we bought 6 of these. Don't even get me started on that nightmare. Actually I am going to tell you all about installation. Just not right now.

- Family room:

- rug - DONE - 8X10 from Tuesday Morning. If you haven't heard of this place, you, my friend, are missing out. It's more awesome than Home Goods selection wise, but not has well organized.

- sofa - DONE and delivered - we got 2 sofas is a charcoal grey from Ashley. They were having their huge stock sale so we jumped on that.

- curtains - DONE and hung - from Target for the family room. I also purchased curtains for the guest room from HomeGoods. The dining room curtains are also from HomeGoods. We are reusing (from Texas and DE) the ones hanging in the front room, Avery's room, the loft, and the upstairs guest room. We bought 4 blackout curtain panels from Tuesday Morning for a STEAL.

- buffet/sideboard (antique?) - hunting craigslist. No winner yet.

- sofa table/coffee table - DONE - I found one on Craigslist (needs some refinishing) that is going up in the loft and the storage ottoman from up there is staying downstairs. We are also splitting the side tables so one is staying upstairs and the other one is going down in the family room.

- Curtain rods for the whole house - DONE and installed. Also a nightmare with so many and Troy's awesome patience. Sarcasm. I will tell you about that too. We are still married. No worries.

- Patio furniture (adirondack chairs and I found a DIY dining table we are doing) - 1/2 done - my grandma sent me 2 white rocking adirondack chairs for my birthday. Troy and a friend put them together one night. They are SO gorgeous! We still want to get a patio table for some outside eating.

- Matching wingback chairs for the front living room (library area??) - DONE - my mom bought me a GORGEOUS pair of grey linen chairs for the front room. They are tufted and amazeballs.

- figure out something for the master retreat - for now, we are using this as an office/Optimus's room. For serious.

- TV stand for the loft - DONE for now - We have a temporary solution and we are using our old coffee table from before we got the storage ottoman. In Texas, it sat out in the garage the whole time. It is very happy to have a new home.

- New TV for master or loft - our bedroom TV is now in the loft. So we still need a TV for our room. Not a priority. Maybe in the next year.

- Furniture for the master (not a SINGLE piece of furniture matches, including the night stands) - this is not a priority right now. I on the craigslist hunt. If I find something awesome, I will be sure to let you know.

- toddler bed for Avery (or go right into a twin bed?) - we are going to get a safety rail and use her crib whenever she is ready to transition.

- Entry table by the front door? - still on the hunt

- Bench to make the breakfast nook table a 6 person table? - still on the hunt

- 2 bar stools for the island - DONE and in use - found these are Pier 1. They were having their end of summer "everything is 20% off sale." These were not marked down at all. I talked to the manager and was all "DUDE, the windows said 20% off!" She was all "these aren't on sale and aren't included". I was all "give me 20% off for false advertising." She was all "ok." WIN!

- Gas dryer - DONE and delivered - we picked this out from Lowe's. It was delivered the next day on "nightmare DIY day." The delivery guys did not find us in the best spirits. Especially since our gas wasn't getting turned on until wednesday. Oops.

- Backyard landscaping - this is definitely a priority but not right now

- Deep freezer for the garage (costco?) - we priced these bad boys at Lowe's and Costco. We are still trying to decide if we want to get the cheaper deep freezer or just get an extra refrigerator so that we can keep soda pop, extra juice, milk, and beer out in the garage. Will keep you posted.

- baby gates - 1/2 done - We need 2 of these. 1 for the top of the stairs and the other for the hallway between the kitchen and dining room/entry to the bottom of the stairs. We have installed one at the dining room/entry way wall to keep her away from the stairs. It looks awesome. It's a nice one with a locking metal door. Avery is super smart and is already trying to figure out how to open it. But she is too short to slide the button to the right, lift the door, and push it at the same time. She is obsessed and it scares the crapola out of me.

So there were 22 things on the list when we started. We have crossed off 12. I am counting the patio furniture as half because we still want an eating area and the baby gate as half because we still need another one. So a little more than halfway done! And a lot of the stuff that is left is not time sensitive. Or is Craigslist worthy. YES! We are feeling pretty good about it overall.

What is left do you ask?? Why I have a new list!

- Antique buffet/sideboard for the family room from craigslist
- Patio EATING furniture - BUILD IT
- Figure out something functional for the master retreat
- TV for the master bedroom
- Craigslist furniture for the master bedroom
- Avery's big girl bed
- Entry table for the foyer
- Bench for the nook table
- Backyard landscaping (pool)
- Freezer or fridge? The debate continues
- Baby gate for the top of the stairs

Pictures to follow of all the goods. And conversation play by play during DIY installation of blinds, ceiling fans, and curtain rods. Let me tell you folks, it wasn't pretty. It was pretty funny. Looking back on it now. Not so funny at the time. At all. Here is a preview of the goods:

Those are new dining room curtains from HomeGoods. OBSESSED! I love them :) "That's what savings are for...."

Our LARGE To-Do List

I sit in a very small room every day. I haven't lived in my house or had any of our stuff for almost 6 months. It has given me a TON of time to think about projects, decorating, cooking, and landscaping. Now that we have officially closed on our house and hotel living is almost to an end, pinterest is an addiction. The end is near and crafting is about to begin. I have a blank slate of a house. IT'S AWESOME! Sort of. Not on the budget.

The problem is, my head is exploding with ideas and excitement. I started to not be able to sleep because I was stressing that I was going to forget something. So I made a list. I am a list person. It helps me be sane. I wrote it all down. And I know I will be adding to the list or taking things off as I realize some things won't work or others that will. Here it is. Avery got excited too and kind of grabbed it and started waving it around. And crumpled it. And took a bite out of the top left corner. But it's ok. I can still read it. And now if something happens to it, it is now documented for all time via the internet. Go technology.

I just wrote things down as I thought of them, not necessarily in order of importance. While I was at the gym one day, Troy happened upon my list. I'm pretty sure he almost had a heart attack because I put a family room rug up higher on the list before getting a gas dryer.

Sidenote - Apparently, most of Nevada uses a gas dryer and very few homes have electric hook ups. WHAT? I have never heard of this. Maybe because I have lived on the east coast most of my life. Do you have a gas dryer? So yeah, we need to buy a gas dryer and Craigslist our old one. So sad. I love it :(

So Troy grabbed my list and numbered things so I was aware of where the priority of purchase lies. I know TROY! Many of the things on the list are DECOR choices not necessity, but things that down the road may be purchases for tracking down on Craigslist, thrift stores, or things that we DIY. And sometimes (ok lots of times) pretty trumps function. For example, jewelry. Doesn't do anything except look pretty. But everyone wears it. A watch does not fall in this category.

Here is the list as I wrote it:

- Blinds - buy from selectblinds.com
- Ceiling fans
- Family room
- rug
- sofa
- curtains
- buffet/sideboard (antique?)
- sofa table/coffee table
- Curtain rods for the whole house
- Patio furniture (adirondack chairs and I found a DIY dining table we are doing)
- Matching wingback chairs for the front living room (library area??)
- figure out something for the master retreat
- TV stand for the loft
- New TV for master or loft
- Furniture for the master (not a SINGLE piece of furniture matches, including the night stands)
- toddler bed for Avery (or go right into a twin bed?)
- Entry table by the front door?
- Bench to make the breakfast nook table a 6 person table?
- 2 bar stools for the island
- Gas dryer
- Backyard landscaping
- Deep freezer for the garage (costco?)
- baby gates

And here is how Troy numbered it:

1. Blinds
2. Ceiling fans
3. Gas Dryer (I actually think this should be first...but hey, he can wear dirty clothes if that is what he chooses)
4. Sofa for family room
5. Curtains and curtain rods
6. Family room rug
7. New TV for master or for loft
8. Backyard landscaping
9. Toddler bed for Avery

He didn't number anything else. He actually was like, "everything else is up for discussion. We don't actually need any of that other stuff on your list." Well you know what TROY, Momma hasn't had a house in 6 months and I can do a lot of this stuff on the cheap so BUCK UP! I'm gearing up for some serious Craigslisting and I'm hoping soon we can discuss a budget for either all of my projects or a room by room budget. We'll see.

In recent news, we bought a new dining room light fixture. The builder grade looked cheap. The lighting "upgrade" was the exact same fixture in ORB. But you know what? You can't fix ugly with a new color. Not in this case. It just looks small and chintzy in such a nice, big, new space. It doesn't have shades on it. It's just a few light bulbs. Ew.

Enter Joss and Main. HELLLLLO GORGEOUS! I love Joss and Main. They have some really really nice stuff for great prices. This is where I found our new dining room chandelier.

It is ORB so it matches the other lighting upgrades that we did in the foyer and breakfast nook. And look at the glass shades! They're pretty. We shipped it to Nate and Karen's house. They live about 100 yards from us. So it's awesome that I can still buy things as I find them for a great deal and ship them to our neighborhood. The chandelier retails for $279 and was on sale for $119 with free shipping. YES! So anyway. That is our official first home owner purchase.

I plan on craigslisting the other fixture. But I might spray paint it and hang it in our master bedroom closet to make it fancy. I joked with Troy about painting it and hanging in the potty room in our master. Apparently that's not funny.

Once we get there and I see our stuff in the house, I'm sure the list will grow and we will have some things to do/change/buy for each room. Thus a budget for each room. And then if I come in under budget, it can roll into the next room :) That sounds like a win-win to me. We'll see. Especially since Troy's list for the backyard includes a pool. Ouch. I need a job.

Color Decisions and Art

I did a post a few weeks ago on our new house with the floor plan and plans for things we had changed, plans for things to do. Just to refresh your memory, here is the floor plan layout.



The upstairs loft is the lucky recipient of our current living room furniture. We love love love that furniture. We are putting it up there for several reasons.

1. The laundry room is upstairs. We need some comfy furniture to sit on and relax on because I am sure I will be spending a lot of time up there. Playing with Avery, doing laundry, hanging out during nap time.

2. The loft is going to be the playroom. I don't want our house to look like a daycare blew up inside of it so Troy and I decided that we are going to attempt to keep most of Avery's toys upstairs and rotate a few things downstairs in storage bins to keep her stuff from taking over adult areas. We'll see how that goes.

3. The size of that stuff is not appropriate for the family room downstairs. That room is HUGE! This house and it's general dimensions are significantly larger than anything we have lived in. It's almost 2700 square feet. The 2 houses we have lived in prior to this were 1400 and 1250 square feet. The general dimensions of EVERY room are larger.

4. We now have 3 "living rooms" to furnish. If you go back to the picture, we have the room directly to the left when you walk in. The dining room is just past that on the left, which we already have furniture for. Then there is the main family room right off the kitchen in the back of the house. Then there is the loft, where our current furniture will live. Here is the picture of our current furniture.

With that said, we currently have NOTHING for the downstairs 2 additional living areas. We that's not true. We are keeping our TV and media stand from the living room downstairs in the family room. Our TV from our bedroom is going in the loft. We only have 2 TVs and don't feel an urge to have one in our bedroom right now, especially since we have so many areas to choose from to hang out with the baby girl.

I have had a blasty blast exploring pinterest for ideas since we have so much freedom with this house. To avoid any arguments about colors or furniture, this is my current tactic. I pick out 3-4 things that I like and could totally live with. Then Troy gets to pick out of those things so that he gets to be part of the decision making process and I know I am going to end up with something that I'll love too. All images are from www.design-seeds.com. They take a picture and input the picture inside colortopia. Colortopia pulls out the main colors, accents, and a neutral and color matches it so you know which paint to pick or whatever. Which is awesome. I recommend everyone try it. Especially if you are color impaired. Like me.

So I pinned 3 images from the website and Troy got to pick out of the 3 which one he wanted. Here are his choices.

Which do you think he picked? He picked the middle one. I was excited because the rest of our house is pretty much shades of teal, green and brown. Adding in some red and grey seemed so bold and different. But totally doable. I read somewhere that to make your house flow, the colors of a room should be a bold, a bold, a neutral, and pastel. THEN you pick whatever one of the main colors in that room are and then use it as an accent in another room. So his choice worked perfectly for our house. We already have that same color teal in several rooms. So that is going to be our accent to give the room flow and tie into other areas.

Here are some colors I found:

I also have picked these as kind of "inspiration" pictures with colors and things that tie together our kitchen/family room area.

Here is the art that I bought. I tried to pick things that were meaningful and to help document our military moves. I LOVE this print. It's from Molly Mattin. The teal, red, green, and grey are perfect. And the other pops of color will be fun too. Some of the little cities in DE are awesome.

Troy and I never got a cutesy sign for our wedding. When I saw this, I was like, Happy 5th Anniversary to us :) The way the artist does it, you get to pick your background color and you give her all the info for what you want it to say. She was great and emailed me a couple of times. Her shop is Cedar House Keepsakes.

I found this by accident. I just typed in teal and red prints and let my eyes glaze over as I scrolled until I found something that caught my eye. I LOVE IT! The paper feels awesome. The colors are gorgeous and the artist was SO quick. Her shop is called Mandipidy. I also loved this because I was in the play "Guys and Dolls" in middle school (my first play) and this was my favorite song in the musical. So now we have a print of the song.

The last print I bought was to document our short PCS to San Antonio. I didn't want all the prints from our moves to be the same, although I considered getting one like the Delaware one, but for Texas. However, Delaware is small and Troy and I pretty much saw the whole state. I don't know if you know this, but Texas is HUUUUUGE! And we only saw San Antonio and went to Dallas for a weekend in the 6 months that we lived there. So a print just of the San Antonio area seemed more appropriate. I really really like it. It's very graphic and contemporary. It's just the skyline, but it's really awesome. It's from DB Artist. There are TONS of skylines to pick from in different large cities AND you get to pick the color background that you want your print to have.

Troy really wants me to find something from New Mexico, but I am kind of on the fence about it. When it comes down to it, Troy will have lived here for almost the same amount of time that we lived in San Antonio. BUT IN A HOTEL ROOM!! Isn't that crazy?? That's also kind of the reason I don't want to get a picture to document our time here. Because we are staying in a hotel room. And Avery and I have only been here since June 11th. Troy was here for 2 months by himself before we arrived. What do you guys think? Yay or nay for the New Mexico picture?

So those pictures are the jumping off point/inspiration for our kitchen/family room space that you can see in the floor plan up top. We are looking for a big sectional and fun rug in there too because the floor in there is tile. Not fun for toddler knees and mommy bottoms. And if you didn't already know, when you have young kids, you spend A TON of time on the floor playing and crawling around.

We have a HUGE list of things to do/buy. Well I have a ton of stuff. Troy has a few priority items. And lets be honest, they are really important. But craigslist and I are super friends and I think I can get a lot of the "we don't need that right now Natalie" items for a slamming good deal. I'll be back with that tomorrow as well as a recent purchase for our house was made that my Dad will be helping us install :) YAY for some progress. Even though we aren't there yet. So sad. Catch ya later!

"Adult Time" in Vegas Without Baby Avery

So we finished with our house paperwork signing on Saturday around 4:30pm. So much initialing. And dating. And because I couldn't remember what day it was on EVERY SINGLE PAGE I kept asking what day it was. I think the office lady thought I was a moron. She sold me a house anyway. Maybe Troy came off well.

One of our friends drove us down to the strip so that we could check into our hotel. Weird thing about Vegas that I did not know? It is set up like a bowl with the strip at the bottom. Providence (where we bought our house) is on the northwest side of town and it is on the lip of the bowl. So what does this mean? You can see the strip from our yard even though it is 30 MILES AWAY!! So weird. This is our first time living on the west coast and we are used to rolling hills and tall trees. Where we are from, you are lucky if you can see to the end of the street, much less 30 miles away.

ANYWAY - so we check into our hotel, The Luxor, and this is the only picture I got of the inside:



As you can see, the INSIDE IS HOLLOW! I had no idea. I feel so fooled. The elevators run up the sides at a diagonal, very Willy Wonka if you ask me. Unfortunately, we were staying in the west tower, so we did not ride in them. I wondered if you could hear everyone's voices and the slots clanging from your room because it is open all the way down.

We checked into our room which was fitted with gold fixtures and complete with hieroglyphics. Very egyptian. And tacky. And appropriate. We also received a coupon book at check-in, of which we decided to take full advantage. We headed down to the hotel bar, where they were having an "all you can drink" evening for 25 buckaroos. With our coupon book it was $20. YES! The bar was very baroque. I didn't take any pictures but here is one from their website. Huge chandeliers, crushed blue velvet tufted booths, and some cool architecture. We hung out and had drinks and talked for about 4 hours. Which was SO great because sometimes I feel like since Avery was born, all we talk about is her. I felt like we existed in this little bubble, sitting in a huge booth for 10 just the 2 of us, chatting for hours. It was great.



Sunday we got up to explore. We walked around on the strip and had lunch at this awesome place called Lynyrd Skynyrd. It was a BBQ place that served drinks out of mason jars and had confederate flags everywhere. The live musician was really cool. He stood on the stage, just him, his guitar, and his Mac computer on a stool. He played a few chords on his guitar and recorded them. Then he looped them to play over and over again while he recorded new chords over the top of those. He recorded things one at a time on top of those chords like snapping, beat boxing, or knocking on the guitar until he had full music and percussion in less than 2 minutes. Then he played and sang over that. Very cool. I wish I had recorded it, but alas, I did not.

We also gambled. We played craps. And lost $100 very quickly...thanks to Truth Finck for building Troy's craps confidence. You can pay us back when you come visit you lucky charm you. After getting slapped down by dice, we tried our luck with roulette. My sister's husband, whose name is also Troy (oh, the irony), sent me a text saying "Put $50 on red for me" which we did. And WE WON!!! But then we were feeling lucky and played again and lost that too. The house always wins. We should have known.

Then we headed out to the pool. Which let me tell you, was THE BEST part of the trip because of the people watching. It was amazing. First of all, there was a sign outside the pool that said "$10 for alternative pool entry" and we were all "NO we already paid to stay in the hotel, we are not paying for pool entry also." So we go out to the pool deck and the bouncer girl was all "oh no, it's free for hotel guests unless you want to go to the pool party located inside the planter barriers and you two don't look like the type." I was SO offended. What? All of a sudden because we are married and have a baby we can't go to a pool party?? Whatever bouncer, give me a towel.

So we start looking for chairs and we end up finding a set of chairs near the forbidden "planter barrier." Suddenly, my head snaps up and I stare. I. Cannot. Stop. Staring. I am so naive. Alternative pool party. Meaning alternative lifestyles. Meaning a bunch of guys dancing in teeny tiny bathing suits on the pool deck. With each other. And drag queens in sparkly red carpet dresses. To Lady Gaga. Welcome to Vegas. You better believe I turned my pool chair in a complete 180 so that I could watch that. Forget the book I brought. Troy grabbed us a bucket of beer and we stared and had a grand ole time.

After pool time, we headed up to our room to shower. Then we hit up a Vegas buffet. It was pretty delicious. Troy bought tickets for us to go see Cirque du Soleil online. The tickets were $124 per ticket. They should have been printed on gold paper. Not the color. The 14 carat kind. We went to the show. It was "eh." Honestly we were both disappointed. $250 for a show and we expected it to be spectacular. Not so much. Sorry to disappoint.

We went back to our room and went to bed. We got up Monday morning and decided to take the hotel shuttle to the hotel for $7 per person rather than a cab, which the front desk said can cost more than $30. Crazy. The best part about the shuttle was that some of our "friends" from the alternative pool party were waiting as well. Troy and I chuckled.

We went to the airport together because my flight to Charlotte was at 2pm and Troy's to Phoenix ---> El Paso was at 4:30pm so we decided to check in, go through security, and have lunch in the terminal. We considered gambling (because yes, there are slot machines ALL over the airport) but then decided against it because we had already thrown some money at the casinos. We parted after lunch at Chili's. You read that right. The place I worked all through college. I LOVE AM OBSESSED WITH IT! I think most people NEVER want to eat somewhere they worked for 4+ years, but not this girl. Sidetrack over.

We parted. It was a successful weekend. Buy a house. CHECK! Stay on the strip. CHECK! Ogle an all boy dance party. CHECK! See a show. CHECK! Gamble. CHECK!

Fun was had by all. Especially Avery, who stayed with my mom and stepdad in South Carolina.

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

We Bought a House!!! (almost)

As many of you know, we went to Las Vegas over Memorial Day to buy a house. Talk about close calls. Troy flew into Vegas on wednesday the 27th and I arrived the next evening. We were both leaving monday morning. 4 days of house hunting. That's it. No pressure right?

We had made plans to stay with some friends that we had met at Troy's training in San Antonio, Dan and Holly Miller, on thursday and friday night. Troy made arrangements to stay at the Luxor Hotel (the Egyptian pyramid hotel on the strip) for saturday and sunday night. We were optimistically hoping that we would be done house hunting by saturday and could have relaxation vacation time starting saturday afternoon after only house hunting all day friday and saturday morning. SUCCESS!!

We met our realtor Leisl on Friday morning at 10am. She had made arrangements for us to see models in new developments. After doing some research about the area and viewing several school district ratings, we decided that building was the best option. The housing markets in Las Vegas hit a peak in 2005 and then crashed (along with the rest of the market). For us, this meant that homes that had previously sold for 400k+ were now selling for a whopping 100k. The "nice" and "safe" neighborhoods were now in a situation where the "riff-raff" were moving into the big homes because they were more affordable. The school and safety ratings had gone down down down. This left us with the option of moving further from "the strip" and towards Troy's new base (with the Indian Springs label) seen here:



We were looking build in the FAR northwest area called Providence. There are tons of COVERED parks, a YMCA that we get to use for free because Troy's base is SO far and there are no amenities there for families, and the schools are rated a bit higher than the other areas.

ANYWAY - we had appointments to go meet with 5 different builders on friday. The first 2 offices were a total bust. Based on our timeline, we wanted to be in our home by no later than September 1st. The office administrators looked at their builder maps and stated

1.) There was nothing available already under construction with our needs to be ready at that time.

2.) They could not build anything from dirt that would be ready by our desired move in date.

Well sugar. Onto builder #3. Where we came across this beauty.




They had 10+ more to choose from in various stages of build from framing to all the way done and ready to move in. Awesome. There was a house on a corner lot and the couple who designed/built it had backed out last minute for personal reasons but it was good to go. As far as lots go in Vegas it was HUGE.

Let me give you a mental picture of what MOST yards are like in Vegas. Picture this. You walk out the sliding back door. You can literally lean out the door and do push ups on the back fence. No space for a swing set. Or a pool. Or to do yoga. The side yard is big enough for the air conditioner. Thank God for that because you need some cool air. But that's it.

THIS yard is about 40 feet from back door to the fence. And because it is a side lot, the left side is the same size. It's huge for Vegas. Troy was sold. Literally.

BUT we still had to go to 2 more builders. The 4th was ok. The 5th one had a floor plan that made us giddy.






And to top it off, the office administrator said that they had a corner lot. After seeing the corner lot in the 3rd builder we were all "YES!! This is the house!" Then we go to the house to look at it. Wop Wop...same kind of lot as a majority of Vegas houses. What a downer.

By the end of the day, we were SOLD on the other house with the big lot at builder 3. So we went back and made a deposit to show INTENT of coming back to make an offer and sign paperwork the next day, Saturday morning. Here is a picture of the front of the house:



Here is what you see when you walk in the front door with the steps to go up (to the master and master bath, 2 other bedrooms, another full bathroom, the laundry and a loft) on the right (pay no mind to our friend's son or gawk at him because he's so adorable):



Here is a view of the kitchen, looking back towards the front door. You can also see Troy and our realtor Leisl:



Here is the view at the top of the stairs looking towards the loft and 2 bedrooms and the bathroom:



Here is the laundry room off the loft:



Our master bathroom connects the bedroom to the closet so here is a couple pics of the bathroom:





And here is an up close shot of the kitchen stuff so you can see the colors and details:



So those are the high spots in terms of pictures of the house. The people who "designed" it and then backed out at escrow picked several things we would not have done, but mostly things that we like a lot. For example, we requested that all the doors be changed from this:



To this, called a Santa Fe Plank door:



We are also changing all the door knobs, hinges, and the hanging fixtures from silver to oil rubbed bronze. We also requested the builder install a garage door opener...because really?? Why wouldn't the people who built the house put one in? SO weird. We are going to have to buy blinds and ceiling fans as well. The ceilings in every single room literally look like a pot light with a light bulb screwed into it. Kind of weird. And those are high priority items because:

1. It's hot and we need some circulating air and
2. It's hot and we need to block out the sunlight

We will definitely keep you updated on purchase choices for this as well installation. We don't have a ton (or any) of experience with DIY projects so my Dad (HI DAD!!!) will be assisting with some of these projects right off the bat.

We also plan to install a pool at some point. EEEEEE! Scary big project but again:

1. It's hot and
2. It's good for resale value

SO to refresh your memory, here is the layout of the house we bought:



You can see all the optional upgrades listed on the sheet. We have the extra cabinets (3 up and 3 down) in the kitchen and the double sinks in the master bath and full bath upstairs. The downstairs extra room is another bedroom and the 1/2 bath down is upgraded to a full bath with a shower. The loft is open. The master bedroom also has the option of a "master retreat." We are not crazy about that change in the floor plan because 1. We NEVER "hang out" in our room, not even to watch TV so that seems like wasted space and 2. We would rather have the extra bedroom. We asked the builder to put the wall and closet back in but they said that we would have to pay out of pocket for that. She also said that it would cost us more to use their builder to do it than to get a general contractor to do it down the line. So we decided that we'll try the master suite option for a while (or have it be Optimus's room) and if we aren't feelin' in, we can either hire a general contractor to do it or convince my Dad to help us do it (HI DAD!!!).

We are most excited about the backyard because there is space to have a pool (yay) AND a yard for little ones to play. Double points to Troy for insisting on the big yard. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), we have a hard core Homeowners Association. We have to have our yard landscaped within a year of purchase (um hello what about saving for our pool???) and have everything approved through them. BUT having a hardcore HOA saves us from having pink houses and ugly landscaping in our neighborhood which is good :) So we'll see how all this pans out.

Now you know what's up with the house situation. We are doing a remote close on June 26th and Leisel is doing the final walk through for us. We are hoping to having household goods delivered August 20th. Because we haven't had our stuff since February. Do the math...that's 6 months. And we're living in TLF. Can't wait :)