Friday Five

1. So my little prince and his wifey (Bella) got some bad news yesterday. We knew Kanye was going to be tall for his breed... we didn't seek out a teensy yorkie by any means. However, at a whopping 9 pounds, the vet informed my mom yesterday that he is just too much bigger than Bella for them to have puppies. For small breeds, they recommend the boy be smaller than the girl and Kanye is exactly two times bigger than Bell (She weighs 4.5 pounds). It's just too dangerous. And to avoid an oopsie, one of them is going to have to get fixed. D is hesitant to fix K and my dad is hesitant to fix Bell. Must be a man thing!

So, our hopes of "Bellye" puppies are dashed. We really would like a friend for K at home so we're on the hunt again. But a mild hunt, because we have to wait for our new back door to come in (we special ordered one from Home Depot) so we can doggy door train our new addition.  Doesn't mean I can't look, right?

I'm head over heels for this looker. His name is Domino and he's at the Hobbs SPCA! I maaaaaay go look at him on my lunch break today. If he doesn't shed, wouldn't he just be the cutest pal for K?

2. D and I have FRONT ROW tickets for Jerry Seinfeld stand up tonight! I bought them last week after D dorked out when I told him Jerry was coming through town and doing a couple shows. I thought it would be a fun, surprise date night in the midst of all this moving and whatnot. We're both comedy junkies and Jerry is a hall of famer. We're REALLY hoping he picks on us during the show!

3. We hit our first homeowner speed bump on Wednesday. Our AC isn't working. Luckily the weather has been cool enough for no AC but D's having someone out to check it today. Fingers crossed it's not a huge kick in the teeth expense!

4. We're actually getting some unpacking done now that we're staying at the new house and it feel so good. We don't have nearly enough stuff to fill this house up, but I told D that it's kind of a nice season in our lives. We are just starting out and if you look at our house, you can definitely tell! I'm excited to hit Goodwill and consignment stores this weekend. I'm on the hunt for an entry way table, matching night stands, an office chair and, if I'm really lucky, an overstuffed reading chair.

Yup. About how things looked at the old house... just way way more spread out!

5. Alright, errrbody. Opinions. Nina Garcia hair color or no?

There's something about going opposite of the rest of the planet and lightening my hair for the winter that I like. And I knooooow it will damage it. And I knooooooow I'm trying to grow it out so damaging it isn't a good idea... but I wanna! And I pinky promise I'll condition the bejeezus out of it! It might be happening. Anyone have a good colorist in Midland, Texas?! (AND OMG I couldn't have been more pleased with who won Project Runway! I just saw the finale last night! Yayyy!!! I won't spoil anything here but that person was my pick from day one).

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The Good Guys - Customer Review Post

Buying a house is expensive. It's scary and overwhelming. It's exciting and causing me to have intense nightmares all night. Buying a house is not easy, but God Bless Texas. We had the absolute BEST luck with the PEOPLE we've met along the way. Just a whole network of Good Old Boys referring each other and providing excellent service. I thought I'd give a shout out to the stone cold badasses that have helped us along this process, in case you're in the market for some stone cold badass service.

1. Brandon McMorries at The Real Estate Company in Midland, TX. I am restraining myself from writing an entire blog post about what a rockstar Brandon was for us. We were referred to Brandon and we plan to refer him ourselves. He's great.

Brandon has been available nights, weekends, holidays. He patiently showed us 10 or so houses. He has a super sharp eye for detail and pointed out things about houses we NEVER would have noticed ourselves. He met us at Starbucks at 8pm on a Sunday to answer questions about our contract. He has given us strategy advice when it came to price negotiating. He is always a text away when I need him. He wears super starched Wranglers and uses words like "groovy" and "dig it". I miss him when I haven't talked to him in a couple days. He's a stand up guy and I can't say enough wonderful things about him. In this market, I'm sure he's swamped, but I'd never know it from the kind of service he's provided us.

2. Gil at Basin Foundation Repair in Midland, TX. Okay, so in west Texas, we don't see a lot of soil shifting. And I got tons of advice to get a foundation/structural ENGIEER to inspect our foundation, not a repairman, and I'll be honest, I ignored it. And I may live to tell the blog tale of how this decision bit me square in the bum. I had Gil from Basin Foundation Repairs out to do a free evaluation of our foundation and quote us any repairs he'd recommend. Oh, I know. Red flag. I knew this could be a huge sales tactic on his part. But here's the thing. He didn't quote us any repairs needed at all. He was really straight forward and said it looked really good. He shot elevations from multiple spots around the house and marked them on a floor plan for us and all the elevations were within 2/10 of an inch. He said that's great, gave us a write up of all the info he gathered and went on his way. I mean, FOR FREE, it was totally worth it to get those elevations taken. And with that kind of honesty, if we ever do need foundation repair, I'd be happy to work with him again.

3. Laura McFaddin at Stewart Title Company - She was really patient during closing with all of my questions, and it wasn't the annoyed patience, or the "talk down to a first time buyer like she's a child" patience. It was genuine, kind patience. She wanted me to completely understand what I was getting myself in to. She wanted me to understand the risks and the fine print. She also took some time to explain how beneficial it is to pay extra principal and pay off a home early. I didn't pick the Title company, our seller did, but we did get lucky with her. I really liked working with her.

4. Brandi Marquez at Nationwide - We did have some heck with insurance because the roof on our covered porch was "un-insurable" and needed to be fixed before we could get a policy. Apparently, some insurance companies will give you a "rider" and give you a week or longer to get the repairs done after closing. Copeland Insurance would not allow this. And even though they did have this very strict rule that gave us some headaches, Brandi busted her TAIL to get me what I needed. And when it started raining a couple days before closing and I realized I wouldn't be able to get the roof done beforehand, I called her and, I hope I'm not throwing her under the bus here, but in order to keep my business, she gave us a one week rider so that I wouldn't have to delay closing! My hero! :)

I also had perfectly decent inspectors, my lending agent gave me perfectly fine service, our roof repair guy was punctual and capable. But overall, these four "good guys" really went above and beyond and I wanted to give them some luuuuv. 

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Boob Tube

Well would you just look at that! I have to be excited about this top ten ranking this week because we're going to Norman this weekend and... undefeated at Norman is never a fun weekend for Tech. Last time (2008), I found myself eating brownies out of the pan and drinking wine like a boy just broke my heart after we went to Norman. *sob*

I'm just going to say it, blogosphere. While I have been known to craft every now and then and I can occasionally get on a workout kick, my most favorite hobby is watching TV. Real talk. It's my favorite way to recharge my batteries.

I try to keep it to one show a night (that sounds like a lot when I put it that way). Here are my current favorites:

Key & Peele
Grey's Anatomy
The Mindy Project
Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition
Homeland
Fashion Police
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
The Biggest Loser

Aaaaand that's more than seven, so clearly I don't stick to my own one-a-day rule.

So anyway. The move Saturday went swimmingly. Shout out to Casey and Ashley. It took four engineers three trips with two trucks and one trailer. We were all wrapped up by 11am on Saturday and we didn't even have to call in the troops (my family). We did party crash my parents house to watch the Tech game (Wreck em!) and wait for the AT&T technician to call because he was scheduled to hook up our cable and internet between 11 and 1 on Saturday. To save you some expletives... he did not call.

When D called to check on the status, he was informed that the technician reported that we called him and told him we wanted to reschedule. Liarface. I may have forgotten to call and get our gas connected and now we don't have hot water at the new house so we're basically glamping at our old house until Wednesday... but I would NEVER forget nor cancel our cable connection appointment. That's crazy talk.

So now they won't be able to hook it up until THURSDAY of this week. I won't go in to all the shows I'm missing due to this hot mess. It will upset me too much. a;sdogiha;swdlgkjas;dlgfka;asgfdha;sld I WANT CABLE!!!

At first, I thought this would be a fun technology detox. Force us to be productive at the new house. Maybe... take a walk. Introduce ourselves to our new neighbors. But by 7pm on Saturday (about 4 hours without cable) I was having withdraws. And last night, when I was watching Crocodile Dundee on DVD (clearly D's choice) instead of Homeland, I was full on, crackhead cable tweaking.

So, if you happen to see me peeking through your windows this week, watching your TV from the shrubs in front of your house, please don't call the cops. Have mercy on me.

(Sorry for no pictures today... I had my phone in my car and my hands full of boxes all weekend)

Happy Monday, Blog-loves!

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Empty House Tour

Our Realtor, Brandon mentioned during the house hunting process that D and I had "vision". We could see past the wall paper and dated kitchens to see great layouts and good bones. Realtors will say anything to make a sell, but I hope you all have "vision", too, as I show you around our new home!!

Here's the floor plan with our tentative room labels. We want to be the type of people that have (and use) a workout room and we think D could benefit from a space of his own (D's Room) but if it ends up being wasted spaces, we aren't too shy to cut our losses and reclaim the square footage for something else.

This is the entry way. I should have gotten a close up of that tile. It's... interesting. It's quite a first impression for people visiting. At first I was thinking about replacing it someday with herringbone marble tile... but I've grown to love it a little. My mom said the same thing I did: "I could work with this!"

Here's the view from the entry way in to the living room. I had every intention of staining the fireplace a darker, more red tone of brick... but with the rug in there... I may be having a change of heart instead of a change of hearth (har har har).

If you hang a right in the living room, you'll go into the hallway and be greeted by your first dose of wallpaper in the guest bath. Oh, and seashell sinks. This wallpaper is dated... but again... kinda cool. I'm going to try to "make it work" for phase 1 and if I hate it down the road, it'll come down with the rest of the wall paper. Peyton loves those gold ball drawer pulls but I'm not such a fan. Those will have to go.

 If you hang a left in the hall way, you'll find Peyton's very favorite room: D's room. That back wall has confetti wall paper on it and Peyton just squeals for joy when she goes in there. The border is "fun" too. This will be a space for D to put... guns... and boy stuff? Unless he shows an interest, de-wallpapering this room will be last on my list.

It also has a walk in closet for more of D's stuff. Cute baby not included.

At the other end of the hall is the guest room. I love the windows in here and it also has a walk in closet (craft closet, anyone?) Oh yes, and yet another "fun" border. 

AND LOOK what was stuck to the guest room window!!! This was the moment I knew this house was meant to be mine. An old Midland Mirage Futbol Club decal! This team was THE team in Junior High. *sigh* good times.

The last room on that side of the house is tentatively the workout room. We thought office but we would never use an office. We spend all day in an office! No walk in closet in here but it does have two regular closets. Kind of odd... but I'm sure they'll come in handy.

Close up of the golf wallpaper border in there. 

Okay, now back across the living room, here, we head toward the kitchen. This picture was taken before closing... that's the seller's furniture. That doorway there is on the top of mine and D's hit list. We want to open it WAY up to create some flow... but there will be some electrical work required, so it won't be a weekend project. It may have to wait until after the holidays.

That door way leads you to the breakfast area. The site of our "Doggy door dilemma". The wall paper makes you a little dizzy if you look at it too long but luckily, it's vinyl so I think it will all peel right off in one piece. That project will NOT be waiting until after the holidays.

If you keep going (to the left of the breakfast area in that picture), you'll head off to the laundry room (we'll come back for the kitchen). So... I guess I'm going to have to learn how to do laundry? Those tiles are 16" tiles if that helps you understand how huge this space is. It has a sink, which in my mind is a dog bath but I suppose some people "pre-soak" and "hand wash" their laundry? Foreign concepts to me. 

Down the hall from the laundry room is the master bedroom and yup. You guessed it. MORE wallpaper border! But we love the vaulted ceiling and the fact that we're going to have space for TWO bedside tables! Woot woot! It's the little things, people.

We are going to have to do something about these weird saloon doors going from the bedroom to the bathroom... they don't even close and I will need a sound barrier between me and Daryl's shower singing (Just kidding. He has the voice of an angel. Just kidding again.) 

The master bathroom has a stand alone tub that looks beautiful but I will only ever use if I break my leg. Baths give me the germ heebie jeebies. *shudder* But ignore that pretty bath tub (and the green wallpaper above it) and focus on those two glorious doors on either side of it.

Oh baby, oh baby, they are HIS AND HERS walk-in closets! Time to buy more clothes so I can fill mine up!

There's also a water closet in the master bathroom which I think is pretty swell. It will need a real door, as well, but separating the toilet from the rest of our getting-ready space seems great! There's also a big shower in the bathroom but somehow I missed that when I was taking pictures. Use your imagination. A shower with textured plexiglass covered in soap scum. YUM!

Okay, so back to the kitchen. This is the view from the breakfast area to give you some perspective. That striped wall paper just won't quit. That's not a double oven you see there. That's a very old (but very BIG) oven with an antique microwave on top. Maybe, someday, when I save my pennies, I'll be able to afford to replace it with double ovens. 

And do you see that glowing, angelic room through that doorway that my Aunt Sharon is standing in? That, my friends, is my most favorite room in the whole house! D got his bedroom... I've staked claim to this room!

THE CHRISTMAS TREE ROOM!!! Some people may mistake this room as a formal dining area... no no. Look at those windows! This room, with it's 14' ceilings, was BUILT to hold a beautiful Christmas tree. Well... it will next year. This year, we'll have to make due with a beautiful 8' tree because a new, big tree isn't in the budget.

And during the rest of the year, it shall be my sanctuary. I plan to put a small desk in there for blogging, a big cushy reading chair, and then I plan to leave the rest clear for yoga! The tall ceiling will make practicing inversions safe and those windows will just make me so happy. Oh man, it makes me want to do a back bend just looking at the picture. I may even hang light pink curtains in there and see if D chooses it as a battle.

And there you have it! That's the new house! Lots of wallpaper, lots of space, lots of potential! Prepare yourself for the before and after posts coming your way. My mom and I already started ripping the wallpaper down in the breakfast area! 

Thanks for visiting! Have a great weekend, friends!

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