Paint

Pending the inspection and all that closing stuff, the Baddass and I bought a house. We're very excited. Its almost perfect... and it will be after we paint a couple of rooms. So I've been thinking about paint colors. I will need to paint the kitchen, laundry room, guest bedroom, master bedroom, and bathroom.

My mother, being a loving mother and who wants to help, suggested that I consult our family interior designer for colors. For just an hour consultation I can pay $200, visit with the interior designer we haven't seen since Mom bought living room furniture, and get a couple of paint swatches.

I took a home furnishings class in college. I can pick swatches for myself. So I went to Sherwin Williams today. It can be slightly overwhelming. Maybe it is easier to make decisions for you. Sometimes I wish I could pay someone to make all my decisions for me. Like what to eat for dinner, what movie to watch, how much to drink, etc.... Wasn't that on a Friend's episode once?

One Year

In the past year:

I got engaged
graduated college
got a full time job
moved out of my parent's house
got married
adopted a cat
bought a house

It's official. I'm a grown up now.

New Things

Tonight I am cooking with turnips. I have never had turnips... come to think of it, I've never even touched a turnip before. So the idea of me cooking them is crazy. But the Pioneer Woman put up a really tempting recipe. I'll let you know how it goes. So far the kitchen is smelling really good.

Oh and we put an offer on a house!

The Great House Tour of 2008

Well today is the day. We tour 7 houses to help us decide on which house to buy.

This was not my idea. I like the Courthouse, which is the new dream house mentioned a few posts back. The Husband decided he'd like to view a few more to help him feel validated in his decision of liking the Courthouse. I said okay and showed him some of the favorites I had saved from my Crye-Leike searches. (Crye-Leike has the best website to search for houses, just an FYI.) I thought he'd pick out two or three to look at. Oh no, he picked out six. And then added another one later in the week.

So today we are going to look at 7 houses. At the end of the tour I believe I'll be so confused I will refuse to leave our cool apartment ever again.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Agenda

Today's Agenda

Wake up, make coffee because Husband made snarky comments to his brother about me making him make me coffee.

Read unread literature cluttering the den area.

Admire all the new channels (with sound now).

Dust den.

Go to the grocery store.

Deep clean the kitchen for the first time since living there.

Be repeatedly grossed out in the process.

Plan estate sale shopping for the afternoon.

Lunch with the women in husband's family. Deny all alcohol because drinking early is not fun unless a beach or pool are nearby and someone to fix and fetch drinks is available.

Hit all the good estate sales.

Hit all the good thrift stores with the husband.

Come home to relax and enjoy the prepared chili ready for your in the crock pot. Enjoy Bosco's beer at home and a Netflix movie in p.j.'s.

Take expensive cough medicine, go to bed.

As you probably know the TV times are achangin' and we have to get some kinda converter box thing so we can continue to watch tv on our existing tv, despite the fact that we have bunny ears and it should be free... but whatev.

I sent in for the coupon/voucher thing months ago. I finally got around to using it today. I went to Best Buy shelled out $14 of my own moneys for this shiny little black box.

The rumor was that you get more channels and clearer picture than with the bunny ears all by themselves. So I was pretty excited to try it out. I plugged everything in, which took a few minutes because of all the confusing wires going to this, that, and the other. But finally, I was done. Every thing had been plugged into the write plug.

I pushed the TV back into the cabinet, put the batteries in (yet another) remote, and stepped back to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Its brilliant. I have twice as many channels and crystal clear reception. There is even a fancy guide function to see what is on and what is coming on soon!

Now if someone would just tell me how to make the sound work I'll be a happy girl.

What is the deal with me and my electronics not having sound?! My laptop refuses to have sound too and I've just grown to deal with it, but the TV?! Totally unacceptable.

Please help!

Thoughts

Buying a house involves many difficult decisions. Like where to put the bikes along with how much money can you pay a month without having to eat only ramon noodles.

The cat has hardly gotten off of an American Eagle shopping bag in two weeks. Mental note to self: don't spend money on beds and toys because he's going to prefer the shopping bags and the squishy balls given away at public events.

Taco Tuesday is a very good reason for living.

I want a baby blue Kitchen Aid mixer.

We found a new Dream home, one that might actually might become a reality.

Dream house on Holly is officially off the market.

Let's take a moment of silence....

My compact iPod speakers is competing with crazy neighbor's amps.

It's true what they say... you do eventually turn into your mother. My mother repeatedly said today, "You are my child!" I don't even know how many times she said it.

It all started when I went to an estate sale this morning. I purchased four matching 5x7 frames (once we have a house I think I'm going to do a grouping of wedding photos) as well as this little piece with four drawers. I don't even know how to really describe it other than a tall-ish, narrow drawer thing. I thought it was a kinda cute and had potential and it was cheap, so I bought it.

I was on the way out east to visit the parents (mainly because I desperately wanted to put my Christmas music on my iPod) and brought in my purchase to show my mom. She was very upset that she didn't get it and we proceeded to spend a few hours on fixing it up.

I should have thought to get a picture before I started cleaning it, but I finally thought of it after I had taken the drawers out to start cleaning.

We puttied holes and did some touch up today. This afternoon my mom was going to purchase some stain that she needed for another project that will work well for this project. So in the next week or so, we'll stain it.

It is actually two seperate drawer sets from sewing tables that had been put together. After stain and a little more support, its going to be an amazing piece I can't wait to use.

Spirit

Oh my! I have caught the Christmas spirit in a big way. I've had a slight urge the past few weeks to listen to Christmas music, but it has been my rule in past years to wait for after Thanksgiving to begin Christmas celebrations. (This rule excludes Christmas present shopping, I like to get that chore out of the way so as not to interfer with actual Christmas celebrations.) I caved one afternoon last week at work. After so many hours of the same tedious task, I just needed some kind of pick me up. It was a momently fling into the merriness.

However, today a co-worker had Christmas music going at her work station in the back. WRVR, our mellow, dentist-office radio station, had already begun playing Christmas music non-stop.

Then after work I was driving a very short distance to Target. I didn't want to be bothered with plugging in my iPod and the unplugging and turning it off once I arrived at the store, so I turned on the radio... to WRVR.

Big mistake!

Jingle Bell Rock was playing. Only one of my very favorite Christmas songs. In fact, it was such a short trip I had to stay in the car until the song ended.

Yeah, so Target is now fully stocked for your Christmas needs, as am I.

Well, we saw the dream house. However, there is already a contract in the works, so it really doesn't put as at the advantage. Plus, we're not 100% ready to actually buy the house... you know, paper work and such. The house is adorable and in really great shape, there are only minor things that would need work. And my table doesn't fit in the tiny dining area, but there is a space that we could use as a dining area.

We weren't ready to put in a contract yet, so our realtor suggested we go look at some other houses she had sent us to be able to compare what we could get in our price range. We saw a complete dump at the top of our price range, really a disaster. Then we saw on that is great, but on a busy street. And there was one that looked perfect, but they had just rented it out a few days ago. Major bummer.

Our realtor is going to tell the other realtor on the dream house that if the other contract doesn't work out, let us know, but for now we'll pass it up. The good news is: we've got time to wait for another dream home to come on the market, we've gotten to see a few houses in the area and know what we should be looking for. Definately not time wasted.

Our lease isn't up towards the end of February. Which means we really shouldn't be thinking about moving out for another couple of months. However, since finding this dream house I can't stop thinking about it. I'm impatient to see it. Just so I can know if it is as fabulous as it looks.

But if I do see it and it is as fabulous as it looks then I'm not going to wait on pouncing on it.

Have I told you about how fabulous our current home is? Its actually a condo/apartment. We were lucky enough to find one for rent about the time we were looking for an apartment to live in once we were married. Its seriously amazing. THE single most coolest apartment in the city. And I'm not exaggerating.

And despite how much I love this place, I'm still ready to find my own really cool home. Why is that?

Our realtor sent us a few listings to look at today. There one in particular I can't stop thinking about. Hence the post at 4:30 am.

We have a disobedient cat. How do you discipline a cat?

Christmas is around the corner

After a month of deliberations we have finally chosen a Christmas card... sort of. You see, I love this thing on Etsy called alchemy. I posted that I wanted a custom made Christmas card and people can bid on it. They send in their suggestions and what they'd charge me to do it. Its pretty much awesome. I had about 30 bids to make my cards. It was a very difficult decision, but I finally chose a bidder and soon I'll have my very own custom created Christmas cards!

Which brings me to a very perplexing question. How early is too early for Christmas? I try to keep all Christmas themed things for after Thanksgiving. Black Friday means bringing out the Christmas cds.

I have however, gotten a head start on my Christmas shopping. I'm actually practically finished. I would start wrapping except I feel like I must have a tree to put them under. Otherwise they'd just get dusty and a dusty Christmas present is a sad Christmas present. And we can't have that.

Fall

The leaves are changing here in Memphis and its so beautiful. I particularly like driving down East Parkway. It reminds me just how much I love midtown.

I took these pictures on Saturday in our parking lot.

Election 2008

Off the topic: I hate election coverage. Just before 8 pm CT the brilliant newscaster say something to the effect of: At 0% reporting, we have determined that it is too early to call Arkansas.

WTF? Are you serious? I wonder if these people just talk and then realize how dumb they sound after they said it.

Every morning I leave for work and the chairs are pushed under the table and the kitchen sink is empty. When I get home every single chair is not in the same place and there are multiple dishes and glasses in the sink. What kind of cruel messy elves visit my house while I'm at work?

I have spent the last 8 hours looking at houses... either driving around or by looking on the internets. I've given myself a headache and some really tense shoulders. I think I need a back massage.

I have a feeling the next few months are going to be very stressful.