Christmas

Well I might be a tad late for any Christmas posts, but I find myself restless with no projects going on at the house. So I finally decided to go through my Xmas photos :)

Ross & I celebrated in Alabama, just the two of us and the dog. It was quiet and relaxing and all around pleasant to not have to stress about traveling. But, point of the story... there are only pictures of us. B-o-r-i-n-g. I know. Sorry we don't have any cute kids to fill your time with! And I have 3 collages, so yay!! Lots of pictures of us!! lol

Clockwise: Ross getting Stella Artois glasses from his 'secret santa' Mike; Me trying to capture on video dakota unwrapping her toy; Mom Seibert gave me a historical book on our current neighborhood!; Ross' beer book from Mike; Demon dog hates her xmas pig; My cute clutch from mom; Dakota and I on christmas (awwww)

Clockwise: Do I look good in this hat?!; Dakota digging for her toys in the bag full of gifts; Ross always receives presents related to 'steel' now, although he quite enjoys them, haha; Me & my new steam mop from Mom S.; my new ornament from Ang; Me enjoying my homemade chex mix snack from Ang...yum yum yum...

Clockwise: Ross received very cool Pens artwork from mom & dad; my 'secret santa' Stephen bought me some baskets to hang in my mudroom (my pin from pinterest :) and a shirt; Some more ornaments, including one for our new house!; Dakota decided she was done and curled up on Ross' lap

All in all, Ross & I were very blessed this year and received many gifts from friends and family afar. I hope the rest of you enjoyed a wonderful christmas as well!

*Kristin*

House Tour!

I kept promising to share pictures of the house, but then it dawned on me to just take a video :) This was the first time using the video function on my dslr so bear with me!


Of course, after watching the video there are 1,001 things I forgot to mention, but here are a few:

- Ross is re-wiring some electrical work in the kitchen for the new mudroom, so pardon the random holes in the kitchen walls and missing faceplate on some of the switches.

- The old W/D closet will eventually become my new food pantry!

- The mudroom is not finished being painted in case you hadn't noticed the half pink/half gray walls. I painted the one wall gray and that's the furthest I got :) The board & batten behind the w/d and bench area will remain white and crisp. I can't wait to have this room done! And my W/D should be arriving on the 14th, yay!

- The backyard was raked into rows of pine straw. That's not a look we're going for, just ran out of steam to finish raking it all!

- There's a handicap pull bar in the main hallway (you see it hanging down). The screws are stripped and we have yet to bother getting rid of it. And the hallway is not as yellow in person as it came out on video... it's actually a pale yellow, but regardless, it will be repainted one day!

- Our cars are still parked outside b/c the garage is full of stuff! We just look like avid Kia promoters :)

So, all in all, you can see where we updated the master bedroom, guest bedroom and living room. And you can see how the rest of the house is coming along. It's all a work-in-progress but we'll get there eventually!! :)

*Kristin*

And the saga continues...

Have you heard or read about my washer/dryer rants on Facebook? Maybe so. But just for fun, let's recap what this past week has thrown at me. Don't worry, it has a positive spin (no pun intended!) at the end of my ranting :)

Let's recap: Ross & I rented a W/D in the apartment b/c we didn't want to end up buying a unit we couldn't use in a future house (aka electric vs. gas dryer). When we moved into the house, we moved the W/D with us but ultimately couldn't hook up the dryer b/c 1) we are redoing the laundry room including moving the water lines and dryer vent and 2) the dryer plug wasn't compatible with the new plug we installed. So I stalled. I held off on doing laundry for as long as possible. At about week 3 or 4, I did one load in the washer, and had to line dry undies, socks and some pj's. They took 6 days to dry. And they dried 'crunchy.' O well... at least we had clean underwear!

So I kept telling myself that I could hold off until the brand new units were delivered, which was scheduled for Saturday, 12/14, which was only a week or two away by that point.

In the meantime, we had to return the rented W/D which were sitting in the middle of my kitchen for 3 weeks. It took Appliance Warehouse FOUR attempts to come pick them up. Frustrating. The first time, Ross was home all day but they didn't show. Second attempt, they went to the apartment address. Third attempt they didn't call first, and being that they only work during my work hours, I was at work (duh?). Attempt #4 on Friday, I took a few hours off of work so I could wait at home for them. I would no longer rely on them calling first. And they finally came and hauled the w/d away. Hallelujah! (and they also didn't call first again, good thing I stopped relying on them :)

My W/D was set to be delivered the very next day. I was dreaming of dancing socks. Had my entire weekend planned out to see how many loads I coud get done. I was so excited for my pretty new front loaders to arrive! And then? The delivery company called. They damaged both my washer and dryer while loading them onto the truck. Wahhh wahhhh.

So then I had to talk to Samsung, the manufacturer of my new w/d. Unfortunately, my washer was on backorder until February. Noooo!!! They advised that I go to Home Depot (where I bought them from) and see if they had any other models in stock that could be delivered sooner. Home Depot price matched me on a slightly better set. Yay! But? It was also on backorder until January :( So here I lie. Unable to make the world turn, ha! I was defeated. I must wait another 5 weeks, so now I need a Plan B.

That's when I had my 'aha' moment. Why not go back to our apartment complex to use their W/D's in their laundry center? Yes, we no longer live there, but I was desperate. And I had to pay for them anyway, so what did it hurt? THEN... I went to the apartment complex next to ours, which is much larger, and used their laundry center!! So the good news? I was able to finish 8 loads of laundry in 3 hours. Woohoo! But I did spend $30 in quarters :/ A sacrifice I was willing to make!

And if you ask why I didn't just go to a Laundromat, it's because the only one I knew about is in a sketchy part of town overtaken by foreigners. Aren't they always? No thx.

I am now one happy camper (with clean undies). Just picture me driving all over town using any washing machine in sight, lol. And I'm happy to report that this Plan B shall carry me over until my new set is delivered in a few weeks.

Desperate times call for desperate measures....

*Kristin*

Patience

God grant me the will to be patient.

I have not been a very nice person for the past few weeks. I'm stressed beyond my limit. I've snapped at Ross countless times. I'm stressed about the house, the projects we're trying to accomplish, about family visiting, about dakota and everything in between.

Yesterday was another breaking point. I went grocery shopping after work, came home to immediately start on some projects that had me covered head to toe in drywall dust. Got another headache (which seem to be on and off for the past few weeks now), showered, only to discover the water wouldn't get past luke warm, then finally sat down at 8:30 only to discover that dinner was nowhere in sight. Just once it would be nice if Ross would offer to cook dinner.

On top of it all, Dakota has been acting up every morning. I spend more time cleaning up after her than I care to admit. She's 5 & 1/2 years old and I still feel like she's not housebroken. Frustrating beyond words.

We have no hot water this morning, so I asked Ross to call the plumber. He thinks the burner under the water heater just blew out since we've had some pretty rainy/windy weather the past few days. And being that the water heater is in the crawl space, it doesn't have a lot of protection. I hope that's all it is b/c I can't take one more problem in this house.

It's been almost 5 weeks since I've had a washer/dryer. The new washer/dryer are being delivered saturday, and I can't wait another minute. Not only is 5 weeks a long time to wait for ordinary laundry, but when you're renovating a house, we have stacks upon stacks of dirty work clothes, rags, towels, etc. building up on top of the normal laundry.

And last but not least, we may need to look into purchasing a new furnace. I thought we could wait, but Ross wants to pounce on a deal he found. Our savings is below the thresold that I'm comfortable with. I knew that buying a house brings initial costs but I just want to STOP spending money.

I'm just praying that all of this will pass and over the next few months things will start to turn around. Projects will finish, family will visit, holidays will pass, and we can start saving again.

God grant me the will to be patient.

*Kristin*

Thanksgiving and Life in the New House

Well I really was going to update on how the new house has been going, but then remembered that a holiday just passed and could update on that too!

Ross & I had no plans for Thanksgiving. We were actually relieved and happy that we weren't traveling during the busy season. So we stayed in Bham and ate out for our Turkey Dinner. I didn't really have the energy or resources for cooking in our house yet, so eating out was the plan. The buffet I was excited about was already booked, so we made reservations at a different sit-down restaurant and $100 later, were thoroughly dissapointed ....Shoulda/coulda/woulda went to Cracker Barrel! Ho Hum. It gives us something to laugh about at least now, as soon as our wallet stops hurting. Afterwards, Ross took me to see Catching Fire. He hates these movies as much as the Twilight series so I was happy that he was willing to bear it! :) But I loved the movie and it lived up to my expectations! And my popcorn was soaked in butter. It made up for our crappy turkey dinner. I think this holiday was the first time we truly realized how much we  miss our families on the holiday. I always knew when we lived in Pgh how lucky & fortunate we were to be able to celebrate with both families at every holiday. Maybe again one day! Until then, we need to make some of our own traditions.

Anyway, living in the house has been ok. I know, I sound so pessimistic, but I'm stressed, and it's overwhelming.... again. Just like the last house. There will always be a million projects to do. And I still wonder if we should've just bought new. Yes, new houses also have their projects (I've been told), BUT, at least they have new appliances, new plumbing, clean carpet, etc.  Ross & I have one out of 3 bathrooms up and running, though we're already realizing it's almost a complete demo job. The kitchen still makes no sense to me. It is HUGE but laid out so completely wrong. I have to walk from one end of the kitchen to the other to get dinner made. And never seem to have enough counter space. Another complete demo job. But again, we just don't have the means to make any of those renovations, not for awhile. I guess I'll resort to camping out at the nearest home improvement store, waiting for a home improvement show host to ask me if I need any work done at my house!! "Yes," I beg, "Yes!!!" Ah, wait. Those shows only take place in Canada. Ever notice that?

We are however making progress in the laundry room/mudroom. It will hopefully be as nice as all of my pinterest inspiration when it's done! A project that was supposed to take 2-3 weeks though is now on Week 4 and we still have at least 2-3 weeks left. Bad planning! And I haven't had a washer/dryer for 3 weeks now. Ross doesn't seem to think this is a problem. Ugh. I'm trying my best to be patient.

Hopefully in a few weeks I can breathe a sigh of relief. Fingers crossed.

*Kristin*

Settling In

We are finally moved in!! Well, 99% moved in....

The movers came on Saturday and moved a majority of the furniture to the new house. They left behind the piano b/c they needed three guys (even though I specified that when scheduling the move) and didn't have enough room on the truck for the washer, dryer and big screen tv.

Ross & I had to make 4 more runs on Sunday to get the remaining small stuff, clothes, laundry items, and most importantly, the 40" tv, which was a hilariously played out event in case you caught that pic on facebook :) It was our last run and here's how it all went down between Ross & I:

Kristin: I was thinking, we could bring over the smaller tv today. That way we have a TV in the house.
Ross: *looks at me like I'm crazy* Seriously, Kristin? You can't go ONE day without a tv??!
K: Yes, I can! BUT... I CANNOT go one day missing the Walking Dead tonight....
R: Oh, crap. *pause*  You're right. We need to get our tv.

So at the apartment, Ross is carrying the 40" tv ready to load it into the backseat of my crossover, only to realize that it won't fit. He looks at me with dissapointment, pauses..... smiles, then briskly walks around to the front passenger seat and sits down.... all while holding the tv.  It still cracks me up ust thinking about us driving down the highway with Ross gripping the tv in the front seat. My initial reaction was "seriously, this is how we're transporting the tv?!!" as he commanded, "just drive, this will work!" And it did. And we didn't even have to miss a Walking Dead episode. If that's not true dedication, I don't know what is :)

Overall, the weekend was just overwhelming and I couldn't wait to get it over with, as I'm sure all moves are, but Ross & I were still in good spirits and it helps to have some laughs along the way.

Today, I have movers coming again to grab the last 4 big items, so fingers crossed they are bringing 3 guys like I asked and the truck with a ramp so they can avoid steps. And then it will be official! Officially done with apartment living, forever?? Only one can hope :)

*Kristin*

Little by Little

Last weekend was supposed to be our move-in day to the new house, but unfortunately it got delayed to this Saturday. Which actually is working out better even though I'm still eager to get this all over with!

But with the extra time:

• The electrician finished and we have an updated breaker box in the house. And the power is turned back on!
• The plumber should be finishing up today or tomorrow. He had to update our water heater and move the W/D hookups
• The carpets should be cleaned tomorrow. Fingers crossed that the 3rd time's the charm.... I've already been stood up twice so hopefully this new company is better at showing up!
• I finished the living room!! :) ...as far as painting goes
• I'm almost done with the master bedroom. It'll feel good to have freshly painted walls, ceiling and trim done in 2 rooms when we move in!

And on top of that, Ross & I rented a Uhaul last weekend and at least moved most of our boxes to the house. Now only the heavy furniture is left for the movers this weekend. I tell ya, I'll be so happy to be done with the move. And I knew how much I would dread it even back when we began house hunting. Moving is the worst!! Especially when you start to realize how much crap we own (even though I feel like we're pretty good at keeping the clutter down)! I feel a spring yard sale calling my name :)

*Kristin*