THE ONE and why patience is hard.

Greetings, friends!

This week has been a long and hard one.  I got some not-so-great news a few weeks ago which really put a downer on my plans and my overall mood.  With the top going up on the jeep last weekend and this good news, I was NOT a happy camper at the start of my week.  There was an opportunity for a change or a (re)new(ed) opportunity that I had a chance to take, but had to wait for it.  Perhaps this is the PERFECT time to mention that I was NEVER, EVER blessed with patience.  I typically see something, make it a goal, and then start on the path to achievement.  Being patient has never been a strength of mine.  But you know what?  I waited.  And waited.  And you know what?  The thing I waited for happened this week.  And it sets so many other goals/paths/other things to be patient for (ick) into motion.

And then?  This happened.

And this.

God is rewarding me for my attempt at patience.

And then? We went on just ONE MORE house showing.  We've been having a difficult time agreeing on the right one, although the things we want in the bones of the next house are typically the same.  For what ever reason, when we look at houses, we disagree on what is move-in ready or what we like and want to change.  I had all but settled on staying in our house for now.  And then, it happened.  We found what we think and hope is THE ONE.  I. Am. So. Excited.

PS.  How did this happen in all one day?!  To say we are blessed is an understatement.

We spent our Friday evening with some good friends and their sweet little two-month-old baby girl.  We have our second bedroom staged as a baby's room, so Baby K got to sleep in what was formerly my baby crib! 

She is the sweetest little bug and I am absolutely obsessed with her. :)

We attempted to finish the facia boards today but were rudely interrupted by rain.  They'll be done tomorrow if I have any say on the subject!

I'm ending the weekend with a new pedi to kick off the new week and this (re)new(ed) beginning!  I love this color because I think it's super summer-y!  Have a great week!

House Tour and a Sad Thing.

I feel like my blog posts keep getting later and later...but here goes.  I've posted how we've been doing lots of updates to our house!  So now, the final project (ish?) on the inside.  We're still working on painting the facia boards outside our house before selling! So pictures to come there once we are finally done.

This is (obviously) the kitchen.  I really love the new paint and think it fits well with the paint in the living room.

Another view of our kitchen/view of the laundry room/pantry area.

The pantry area turned mud room as well.  We don't have a mud room, so I used this shelving to put all our belongings (shoes, bags, etc).  It has helped a ton!  You may also notice the super fun chalkboard paint I used on the inside of our pantry door.  This is one of my favorite things I've done to this house (as well as one of the first) and I'm sure I'll miss it if we move.  

The living room with photobombing Frank.

The living room again...including photobombing Frank again :)

The second bedroom is currently staged as a baby's room.  No, we aren't expecting, but wanted to show the space of this room.  This room is a huge deal because we recently painted AND put up new baseboards.  It was a major overhaul, including re-caulking the baseboards and everything.  

The bathroom.  Our bathroom is fairly small, so I put up the baskets in the bathroom for storage and it has made a huge difference!  I love it!  We also painted this room and re-did the baseboards in here too.  It was a nightmare.  NEVER AGAIN.  I also re-caulked the bathtub, did I mention that?  :)  I'm proud of all the work I've done!! 

Our utility closet-turned-walk-in closet (it holds only my clothes--I have a problem).

Our room.  We removed a dresser from this room and there is now a TON of space!

I also planted all the plants that I had started in those decomposable block thingies..what are they called?  Starters?  Anyway, they're finally in the ground.  We have tomatoes, jalapenos, green beans, cucumber, watermelon, spinach, and another kind of tomatoes all planted.  Come on, babies!  Get growing!

And the aftermath of planting.

We also cleaned the pool this weekend!  It was also a huge nightmare because of all the rain we've been having. 

And finally, for the sad thing.  Have you seen this ten-day forecast?  It's like 8/10 rain.  So this happened:

IT'S A SAD DAY WHEN THE TOP GOES BACK ON THE JEEP.

Until next time, friends! :)

House Hunting and Why I Forgot to Update Yesterday.

Hello Friends!

This week has been very fun for us, and of course, busy!  Well, maybe just fun for me.  Remember last week when I said hubs and I decided to start working on the house?  And maybe even start looking for a new house?

Well, that happened.  We've been doing a LOT of things to the house, including repainting some crazy colors we had, decluttering a lot/getting rid of stuff, putting up new baseboards, staging our furniture, and even working on the outside. 

The first thing I did was paint the bathroom and the extra bedroom--that was on the last post.  Second, we knew there was a spot behind our bathroom sink where we needed new baseboard.  We found out later after MUCH searching that the baseboard we have no longer exists....or we just couldn't find it.  Either way, we now have to take out the old baseboard and replace with the new that we've purchased.  

We had to do this with the second bedroom, too, since the baseboards were painted black (wow...terrible idea).  Here's what it looks like so far :(

Another fun fact:  don't try to take off your baseboard with a butter knife.  This happened.

Yep, it's broken in the baseboard now.  AWESOME.

We bought new doors to put on!  Here's a before and after of the front door, and of the living room after the declutter.  I LOVE it.

And then?  We started working on the facia boards.  Holy facia board NIGHTMARE.  There is paint EVERYWHERE.  Here's the pre-paint.  You can tell there's some painting to be done around the new door, too.

And FINALLY.  The house hunt.  Now I know why the people on House Hunters always seem strung out and angry.  It is so stressful!  Two stories or one?  This town or that town? Three bedrooms or four?  Basement or no basement? Is there an office area? What does the back yard look like?  Sweet patio or pool? 

SO.  MANY.  QUESTIONS.

I can't decide.  But I'm over the moon about it :)

Anchor Fest and House Updates!

Hello Friends!  This week has been another busy week!  

This weekend was Anchor Fest 2013.  Anchor Fest is a fair/festival held in our town every year late May/early June.  I have always been a part of Anchor Fest, and it is always so much fun!  There is always plenty of food, including fried onion blossoms, grilled pork tenderloins and burgers, and shish ka bobs!  There are also carnival rides, booths that include crafts made by local people, and live music! It's a blast.  

This year hubs and I went and got some food and then drank a LOT on my mom and stepdad's front porch.  We drank with my high school friend who recently had a baby-she and I were up until 3 on Saturday morning drinking!  I had so much fun on Friday that I think I might STILL be hung over.

Moving on to the house...

Hubs and I have been making our house cutesy for awhile.  Okay, actually, mainly me and hubs agreeing with me.  It was beautiful house when we first bought it, but it is fairly small for us.  With us deciding we may grow our family in the future, we decided it may be time to think about a bigger house.  We have been looking and have several in mind...but I'll save that for another post. :)

My mom has her real estate license and has sold several homes in the past.  She watches a LOT of HGTV (sorry for outing your secret!) and knows a lot about what potential buyers look for and don't look for.  She gave us several tips and off we went to fix the minor things about our house!

We recently painted our kitchen.  I may have mentioned this before, but the final project looks something like this: 

Our living room gets mixed reviews.  My mom suggests we paint it since it's a dark color, but I feel like the color fits with the furniture.  Thoughts?

We had a couple other rooms that had some not-so-loveable colors in two other rooms: Andy's man room, and our bathroom.

The before:

(This was the only bathroom picture I could find!)

This room was a Mizzou orange with black trim.  The trim was a complete nightmare to paint.

We will be replacing the trim in both of the rooms.  However, here is one after (so far!).

I ALSO had to re-caulk the tub today.  It was gross, moldy, gooey, icky nightmare.   Ick, ick, ick.  

And the final product:

We also bought new baseboards and new storm doors for both the front and back doors to our house.  I am REALLY excited about these!  They haven't been installed yet, so I'll make sure to include pictures of these on my next post.

Since the tub was such a ridiculous nightmare today, I'm writing this post with a glass of wine and watching last week's Bachelorette.  I think I earned it :)