Fourth of July!

I hope everyone had a great weekend celebrating our country's independence! We hosted Matt's (mostly) entire family for the weekend and couldn't have had a better time. We didn't know how it would go for a couple of reasons: 1) We were going to have 17 people over and we weren't sure how our new, shy dog would react (Oh, I need a post on Hardy, don't I??) and 2) Our AC downstairs broke Thursday evening. Yes. In Texas. Over 4th of July weekend. The joys of homeownership, right? 

I will spare you the suspense and let you know it all worked out. Even though we had a second location we could use if needed, we were able to make our AC limp along for the weekend and it never felt too, too hot! Our AC is fixed as of this writing (Wednesday afternoon), so here is hoping it sticks for the rest of the summer...

But anyway, back to the 4th. We all had a great time hanging out, playing games, playing with my adorable 5-month old niece, and eating. I am really enjoying hosting people in our home and so glad we bought this particular house with that in mind. Even though we had 17 people in the house, it never felt too crowded and people were able to spread out and be comfortable. There were also some fun nerf battles that happened, too, because cousins :)

Here are some pictures, courtesy of my mother-in-law, because I was a bit too busy to think about breaking out my camera. So glad she shared these with me as I love looking through them. I hope you do, too!

Because when one of the cousins owns a unicorn onesie, you have to :)

Father & son both wearing fox shirts

Based on this picture, you would think we only ate healthy.
This doesn't include the 3 different types of cookies, 2 kinds
of brownies, 2 pans of apple crisp, and vanilla ice cream that
was also available :)

Hardy and baby Bethany were quite interested in one another, but
neither knew what to make of the other. So cute! 

Bench pressing of the youngest cousin

Avocado is pretty delicious!

Bethany and the great grandmother  :)

Evidence that Hardy can indeed sit on other people's laps besides
Matt or mine. I wouldn't have believed it, either.

No 4th of July post would be complete without fireworks :)

New Things

Wow. Though it is now February, January has been a month of new things! A new semester at work started, bringing with it new students and new challenges. I'm teaching 1 in-person graduate class and 1 online graduate class. I definitely miss teaching undergraduates, but I already know all the students' names in my in-person class so that's awesome. Teaching online is a new experience for me and I miss having the in-person connection with the students. The jury is still out on how it will go, but I will be grading their first assignment today so we'll see how they do!

Our new living room furniture was delivered this past week. It came a few weeks earlier than we expected, but we don't mind. I just love it and I think it fits the space so well! The colors are great, too, and it will be the perfect nap couch, I can tell :)

Perhaps most importantly, I am an aunt (again)! My sister-in-law had her first baby this past Thursday morning and I couldn't be happier. Bethany is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to meet her soon. (Sorry, not comfortable sharing pictures of a baby online until I have the parents' permission)

Hope you had a great weekend! 

Now It's Done!

And now it really is all done. I rescheduled a meeting I had today because I found out our dining room table and chairs were done and I couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving for them to be delivered. Gotta love having a flexible schedule! They were just delivered a few minutes ago and I had to share these pictures with you.

Sorry the lighting is so hard to get in this room...

Hope you love it as much as I do!

It's (Almost) Done!!

All of the house renovations are done and they look great! It had been 2 months since the original incident and it was certainly the process. We learned a lot about flooring, water leaks, and all sorts of other house things. There were certainly moments of stress and frustration, but it was worth it.

The entryway, love the floors!

We ended up getting a new light for the entryway since the electrician was
coming anyway. Love it so much more than the old one!

New dining room and light! And no hole in ceiling!

From the front door looking in; you can also see the new carpet.

New tile in the bathroom!

So there you have it! All that's left is for the dining room furniture to be delivered, and then we will definitely have people over to enjoy it with us. :)

House Update

On Wednesday our old hardwood floors were torn out of the entry way and formal dining room. That was quite the dusty process and also led to wasps invading our house. Fortunately we were able to stay at our church small group leaders' home that night! Yesterday they installed the new floors and I think you'll agree it made the whole process worth it!

I promise our furniture is black.

You can see the original color by the frame

This picture honestly reminds me of the lobby at the Tower of Terror

It is all over the kitchen tile and mats, so I could
only imagine our living room carpet is equally dirty.
Fortunately our contractor is getting us someone to clean the house :)

And the grand reveal-- our new floors!!! See the old ones here

Aren't they pretty?? It's hard to tell with these pictures, but
they have are hand scraped so they have some of the real wood look.

When we got home last night after dinner and saw them for the first time, I knew it was all worth it. Yes, there is still tons of work to be done and we don't want to use our living room or kitchen, at least something is done and it is gorgeous!

I Love Home Ownership

Or not. I'll let you be the judge. 

So a few nights ago we wake up at 1:30 AM to what sounded like a heavy rainstorm, except the noise was coming from inside our house. Obviously not good. Come to find out the water supply line for one of the toilet upstairs broke, spraying a large amount of water everywhere. There was enough water to start leaking into the formal dining room below. And by leaking, I mean streaming. Out of the AC filter. And the ceiling. Yeah, it was fun. Matt quickly turned off the water and we were able to get a water restoration crew out to clean up the mess. 

This is after the water has been removed, but before all the fans were put in.

The vent where the water was gushing out. If you look
closely, you can see some cracks where the water was flowing, too.

The guilty water supply line...

And ALL of the fans and dehumidifier in the dining room.

Can't forget about the octopus, used to dry inside the wall.

Upstairs, taking up the carpet to dry the floors.

We had these large fans and dehumidifiers in our house for a little under a week. During this time, we were pretty much confined to living in either the study upstairs or our bedroom because it was quite loud. Seriously, when we cooked in the kitchen we wore earplugs. We moved a card table, chairs, and TV into our bedroom, so that certainly helped, but after 4-5 days, we started to get antsy. 

Fortunately, our insurance agreed to cover all of the repairs, so the deduction we have to pay will go quite far. Along with all the drywall repairs and whatnot, we'll be getting new carpet upstairs and new flooring downstairs. That obviously adds new complexity to our already-busy lives, but it is a good stressor when it is all said and done. We were very fortunate that we were both home when the burst happened (Matt had just gotten home from a business trip the night before) and we caught it fairly quickly. The damage could have been much, much worse so we count ourselves blessed!

I do have to say that while home ownership does have its downsides, we are still glad we bought this house. It's only been 5 months but we've had a lot of fun already and consider it home. 

Journeys of Home Ownership

Being a first time homeowner is nothing if not overwhelming interesting. We have now lived in our house for a little under 2 months and have learned many things already. I'm sure it will only get better with time, right?

Lessons we have learned:

• Something is always broken. 
• Literally the night we get back from our anniversary trip one of our alarm sensors break. As a result, we can't set our alarm. Due to all the rain, the alarm company is flooded with service calls (apparently rain does weird things to alarms?) and they can't fix it for another 10 days. #FirstWorldProblems.
• During this time, my garage door decides not to open automatically. Call our home warranty and set up an appointment for the following Monday to get it fixed. We receive advice that it could be the sensor. Matt does something to it (magic, I'm sure), and it now works. #YayForSavingMoney!
• Always bag the bones.
• So it turns out just throwing trash into the garbage can doesn't guarantee it will fall out into the garbage truck. 
• You will go on dates to Home Depot and Lowe's.
• See above. #YayForFlyRepellant                           
• Get to know your neighbors.
• You may have to ask them if their dog is up-to-date on their rabies vaccines. (Don't worry, they were.)
• I know nothing next-to-nothing about:
• Lawn care
• Electrical 'stuff' and GFCI outlets
• Insect infestations
• Granite counter tops 
• What, they have to be sealed?
• Your parents & Google know everything.
• See all of the above

House Tour

And I now present to you, less than a week after move in, a tour of our new house! All of the boxes are gone and everything has a home. May not be its permanent home, but it is in some place. We just have to hang curtains and put some pictures on the wall. Without further ado...

The study; the walls are more blue than they look in the photo

We will eventually get new furniture in here so everything
matches. Also I think I need more bookshelves...

Living room looking into kitchen.
Please ignore the mess on the coffee table.

And also ignore the art sitting on the floor in front of the
fireplace. Ultimate location TBD

Dining area

Master bedroom

The man cave/Matt's study upstairs. Will ultimately have a TV & sofa in the back half.

I spy Nerf guns

And the prettiest room in the house, the guestroom!

I can't wait to have people here to stay! :)

Formal dining room; this set is from my grandparents

Entryway table (also a piece from my grandparents)

So there you have it! Hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures!