Just an update!

Well, it has just been one of those weeks at work. And today has pretty much capped it so far. I don’t even have enough energy for Friday Favorite Fives today, but it will be back next week.

House update: Last night we stripped the wallpaper out of the kitchen, so it now looks so much brighter and cleaner! I definitely want to get some paint up and see how it will look! We also scoured the kitchen sink and the entire bathroom with very HOT soapy water. It felt good to get all that done! And A showed up with his big new Shop Vac and we vacuumed out the back of the fridge (because apparently you’re supposed to do that every once in a while). We picked the color of our laminate, too. Hopefully this weekend we will rip up some carpet, which will relieve some stress! (But we’ve got our second wedding shower and I’m working on favors on Sunday afternoon, so we will be a little strapped for time! But we’ve already planned on spending Labor Day painting! I can’t wait!)

See you Monday!

Lowe's, McDonald's, and a trip to Walmart, too!

Well, last night A and I went out to our house...and it was empty! Amazing, I know! And so exciting! But we did discover a couple of things...

Namely, that the people who lived there before were really sloppy people and that we will have a lot more little odd jobs than we thought.

The whole place is pretty darn filthy. I don't think she cleaned at all before they left, and it's doubtful that she cleaned within the last few weeks, either. Deep dust everywhere, the floors were covered in oddsy endsy pieces of trash, and don't even get me started on the bathroom. (There was still a disposable razor and a bar of soap in there! Yuck!!) Plus, one wall in the laundry room is pretty much a third covered in a ginormous patch of mold.

But we progressed past our mild horror at the state of the place, and finalized paint colors in all but 3 rooms, because I ran out of colors that I liked. Which led to my trip today.

First, I headed to Lowe's to get more paint samples. I am really in shock that I needed more, seeing as how I came home with about 40 chips last time, each with 3 different colors on them. But I needed more. So the final 3 rooms will need to be decided on soon.

Then I bought wedding cake ribbon at Hobby Lobby, and made a stop by the carpet store to get the right laminate floor sample book, because I got the wrong one last time. (Then I ate a delightful meal of chicken nuggets and Diet Dr. Pepper at McD's. Yum!) Followed by a trip to the Walmart cleaning isle!

I bought 2 bottles of Tilex Mold and Mildew cleaner, 1 bottle of Tilex bathroom cleaner, a bottle of Murphy's Oil Soap for the cabinets, dish soap to clean out the disgustingly dirty fridge, a bucket and 2 scrubbrushes. Oh, and a broom, since I didn't have that yet. I spilled some of the bathroom cleaner in my car on the way home, but otherwise everything made it home in one piece and the dirt in my new house does not stand a chance!!

Now, I just have to ask, do people really live in that kind of dirt all the time? Or was it just the dirt from moving out? I was truly shocked at the amount of just plain dirt in the house, and I don't think a little dog and one cat made all that mess...

Finally!!!!

We have keys!! A and I are going over to the house tonight, where I plan to take all my "before" pictures! We are going to measure walls and stuff, too I think so that we can buy paint. I'm so excited, it's unbelievable!!

You learn something new everyday...

I have discovered that, much like wedding planning, buying a house is full of many many details that you do not initially consider when embarking on such a large scale decision! Phones, electric, trash, sewer, water, internet and a myriad of other concerns have suddenly emerged, causing us to get quite a workout on the cell phone so that everything can be switched when we finally (FINALLY) take possession! So far, we have phones and internet. Electric is sketchy, but switching is in the works. Hopefully. I think. It will all get done I know, but the in between can be slightly stressful!

And my calendar quote today is by Helen Thomson, and I kind of like it.
"A cat does not want all the world to love her--only those she has chosen to love."

I definitely feel like that sometimes.

I really need to cut back on the weekend activities...maybe someday I will accomplish that.

I don’t think I’ve had a weekend as busy as the last ever…or at least, in quite some time! I accomplished quite a bit, but I hate feeling like I didn’t get a weekend.

Friday night was the Heart concert, and it was AMAZING! Ann Wilson sounds just as good live as on a CD, and Heart overall puts on a really good show. Lots of hit songs, and engages the crowd really well. Or at least, I thought so! I bought a lovely t-shirt that lists the tour cities and has a cool logo of “Heart” on the front. (I was really wishing I could where it to work this morning, but alas! I am limited to my so not as comfortable dress clothes. Such is the life of a state worker, unfortunately. Just wait until I get my bookstore! Jeans everyday!)

After getting home at 1:30 on Saturday morning (this is quite a feat for me, as I’ve never been one of the stay out all night people…I like to stay home and be a hermit most of the time), I got up at 8:45 to go with A and his parents to go shopping for wedding supplies at Sam’s. We got a ton of plates and cups, let me tell you! But overall, the trip was really successful. A and I even managed to bring home a mattress, foundation and frame! After all of our unsuccessful bed-buying trips, we managed to get a bed in under 20 minutes! It was amazing, and we are glad to have that done! We also ordered our new carpet for our new house…as soon as we take possession we will be ordering some laminate flooring as well (we need to match up with some woodwork on the walls). I’m so excited to get started!

Yesterday, (Sunday for you what-day-is-it people) I went to the birthday party of our flower girl (she was 4) and packed some boxes when I got home. Or at least, a box and a half…I’ve got plans to work more on that when I get more boxes.

And on top of all of that, I have been writing random thank you notes, and playing some Wii Pacman stuff, and trying to figure out what colors go well with “Cobweb” carpeting!

Can you say tired?

I am a homeowner!

After a long and grueling loan process, A and I have finally closed on our house! We are homeowners! Now we are just waiting for the old owners to move out...hopefully this goes a bit more smoothly than things have to this point!

Finally! Some progress!

We finally, FINALLY have a closing date for our house! That would be tomorrow. It’s such a relief to be making some tangible headway after the major struggle this has been! (I know I haven’t posted about it all here, but suffice it to say, it has been very frustrating at times.) After closing, we will take possession of the house 2 weeks later, or possibly sooner, depending on how the current owner’s moving goes.

I absolutely cannot wait to get in there and start renovating! Look out pastel pink walls, here I come!

Is a calm weekend in my future? The prognosis doesn't look good...

The wedding rings are bought and in and now we can get married for real! Well, we could have before I guess, but now A’s ring is in and we have picked it up so now we both have one and dontcha know that works so much better? And let me tell you, that ring is a beaut. I think he chose well. It’s silver colored and made of titanium, a real plus when you consider that he pours concrete. A tough metal ring is a good thing.

We have also picked up some carpet sample books and we are starting to work out logistics of what to replace and what to replace it with and of course, what colors to choose to go with the paint colors that I haven’t picked out yet either. But it is fun! And we found some super soft carpet that I think I could take a nap on quite comfortably. So soft. So, so soft, you could lay your face on it. I very nearly did in the store, but I refrained due to the fact that I have no idea who touched that carpet before me.

A and I rounded out the weekend by seeing our flower girl try on her dress (which my supertalented future mother-in-law made—very pretty) which was adorable. She liked to twirl her skirt where she could see it in the mirror. And we (A and I, not the flower girl) played some computer. FATE-Undiscovered realms. It’s quite delightful if you enjoy non-gory monster killing and magic spells and stuff. He fights the monsters and I control the health potions to make sure we don’t die. We have a very good system going, as I’m a bad fighter, and he gets so caught up in the fight that when he’s supposed to use a potion he doesn’t realize it and we die. So in the end our strategy has turned out to be very successful (level 23 is where we are currently battling, just in case you’re interested).

Oh, and we went to a figure 8 demolition derby on Saturday night. I didn’t really pay much attention because a friend I don’t get to see much was there and we were catching up, but what I did see was too many cars flipping over too many times. I’m so glad A does not do derbies anymore. My heart health has improved immensely.

A bit of this, a bit of that...

Well, summer is definitely here! I've been going over to my grandma's house every couple of days to help her pick blackberries...sounds nice, right? Well, it is pretty nice if you don't count the prickles that remain in your fingers and the little cuts you get from it. Which really doesn't count as a horrible experience. So I'd have to say I enjoy blackberry picking. With 2 days of picking, we've gotten around 6 1/2 gallons of them! Not counting the 2 1/2 Grandma picked the time she went before I started helping! Looks like some homemade jelly and blackberry cobbler are in my future! Yum!

And that was a ramble worthy of an award, no?

Other events in the page turning calendar include floor surfing (that's what I call it when we peruse different types and price points and kind of pretend we know what we're doing. ;) ), wedding shopping and planning and organizing, and packing to move. (I know I'm not moving for about 3 months, but I figure I had better start now if I'm to get it done at all within the schedule I'm hoping to kind of stay within.) I'm also trying to keep the whole moving thing as organized as possible. My aunt has just moved to a new house, and has come up with horror stories one after another because random things keep going wrong (nothing with the house, just service people, and her appliances, and etc.), which makes me a bit compulsive about controlling everything possible! But I'm kind of enjoying trying to pack things the best way I can into boxes. Many many boxes!

And that's probably enough rambling for a Pulitzer, if there was a Rambling Pulitzer. I wonder who would present that one?

I have discovered...

...that I quite enjoy looking at houses to buy! This weekend, A and I went and looked at 2 possibilities. And new houses are a plethra of opportunities to open and close doors and peek into cubbyholes and in general be a bit nosy! It was awesome! :)

And I have to say that both of the houses, though one a bit more than the other, had their possibilities. They are both CUTE little houses! The one we liked better was updated a lot more which I have to say, kind of increases its appeal for me. Especially when I'm feeling lazy. Which is very common hardly ever happens, of course.

The kitchen in the 2nd house (which is the one we liked better) was basically brand-spanking new, and had some really cool features in the cabinets! (A shelf that slides out from the cabinet is really all it was, but in my world that constitutes a fabulous reason for excitement!) It had one of those nice, easy to clean ceramic topped stove too that comes with the house.

All in all, the first house would require some major cleaning, basically new windows (or something because almost all the windows were surrounded by duct tape! I know it's a fix it all but really? Duct tape?), and the hardwood floors would probably need refinished in the near future...and while I'm not completely opposed to some renovation/update work in my future home, I would like to avoid the extra back-breaking labor expense and effort (there's that laziness showing its ugly head again!) if at all possible. So while the first house had some redeeming features, I'm not sure the redeemers were/are enough to balance out the work required to make it livable.

The second house is move-in ready, basically. Not counting the cosmetic work that I'm so looking forward to! There is a lot to be said for move-in ready! And it was just plain cute!

Our search is not over yet of course, we've only just begun. But let me say that this second round of looking was so much better than the first!

First House Hunt!!

Last Saturday was quite an eventful day in the Page Turning household. I applied for my first loan (with my boy of course!), I bought my wedding dress (!!! more on that later!), my little sister bought her first prom dress (really, when were they allowed to get so old? I'm protesting!), and me and the boy looked at our first house...

If that's what you could call it.


Me, my fiance, and his mom all piled into his truck to see if we could find a house (which was quite in the middle of nowhere, thank you very much) we were kind of interested in looking at for our first home.

Until we actually found it.

When we drove up, I felt a sense of foreboding that this was not quite going to go as expected. I may have felt this way because the house looked nothing like the ads in the newspaper or on the realty website. Well, ok, it did a little. It was recognizable as the house from those ads, but there the resemblance ends!

First, the roof was nowhere near the "newer" state advertised, nor was the siding...it looked dirty and run down.

The porch balcony thing was bowed and looked like a lovely rainbow. Now, don't get me wrong, I love rainbows...just not under my feet!

The door was open so we went in, much to my dread. Now, I know there is no one living in that house. I know empty houses will have a smell. I was prepared for that. But let me tell you, this house reeked.

The carpet was stained, and we saw that the inside floors echoed the balcony outside, and were bowed and sunken. They really did not even feel safe! So what do we do? We go farther in. (Actually, they went further in, and I followed for fear of being left behind in this creepy place.)

There were half empty cups sitting on old broken furniture that was scattered around. There were 5 Smirnoffs in the refrigerator. Trash and old junk was everywhere.

And the creepiest part of all was a little door inside a closet that led to an extra, tiny bedroom. With a toy race car set and apparently (I was too scared to look myself) a crib size mattress with a sheet still on it. It reminded me of the true crime shows you see where the little abused kid had to be locked in a room. This place was like a horror movie come to life! (And I don't even like horror movies!)

Needless to say, I am 110% sure that we will not be looking at that house any longer. I couldn't get out of there fast enough!