New homeowner toys

When you move into a house for the first time (your own house) you start spending money left and right. There are a TON of things you don't have that you never really thought about. From the outdoor hose to the plastic bag holder to the picture hangers, it all adds up. And then there are some bigger, more expensive items you have to buy:


Lawnmower


Leaf blower

The things you have to buy when you are an adult.

Back from the holiday break...

Sorry for my absence the last couple of weeks but I was having a relaxing/stressful holidays back in OKC.

I will post more on the holidays later but just wanted to let everyone know we are back home in Dallas and posts coming soon.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and Happy New Year!

I can't even look

My friend Kathleen (of JeremyandKathleen) just did a post on her guest bedroom, which is looking lovely. However, it reminded me of the terrible state our guest bedroom is currently in. I can't even look at it.

See for yourself:

In the midst of all the moving and unpacking and integration of Chase stuff with my stuff this room became the catch all. "Just throw it in the guest room." And it is driving me insane.

Chase has been charged with going through all the crap in there and cleaning it out. Especially since we have guests coming in a couple weeks who need to sleep in there.

Gah, I hope this gets taken care of today. I just can't take it anymore.

New Homeowner Curse

It's true, there really is a curse on new homeowners. We have experienced this over the past couple weeks and it has been quite frustrating.



1. Water line to the fridge not tapped properly, leaking and not getting to the fridge

2. No water to the dishwasher

3. Bi-fold door to laundry room broken, won't stay on track

4. Washer leaking during draining

Luckily my handy fiance was able to tackle several of these items. Hopefully these problems are as big as our curse will get.

I know there are some people out there that have some horrific new homeowner stories. Please share, and make me feel better.

In the Closet: Part 2

As promised, the "after" post on the closet makeover project.

Over the weekend my dad came back down to Dallas with the newly built closet structure and we got to work.

A quick shot of the before as a reminder of what we were working with:


The first thing we had to tackle was setting up the center shelving that would also serve as the anchor for the side shelves and clothes rods.


We also had to pry off the old boards that were holding up the one long rod we had before. This also caused some holes in the sheetrock which we ended up having to patch and spackle over.


Once the center shelves and side shelves were up we set out to paint the entire unit and the part of the side wall we repaired. The closet took about 3 coats, 4 in a few places.


Then it was time to measure and cut the metal closet rod down to size for our three separate rods.


And finally, bring in the clothes.


What a huge difference. While it is still a bit of a struggle to fit both Chase and my clothes in there, it is much better than the single bowing rod we had before. And it is SO pretty and organized.

Quick House Project

Now that Chase has moved in we are beginning our list of house projects.  I posted about the beginning of the closet makeover and will have a final post on that tomorrow.  But in between letting the coats of paint dry in the closet we swapped out a light fixture in the dining room.

Before:


This light fixture was too heavy and dark for me.  And, we aren't positioning the dining room table under it, so it really was not serving a good purpose.

So I went to my neighborhood Lowe's and got a great deal on a track light for that area. Chase set to switching her out. We shut off the electricity in the room and went to work.



After:



Much better. And we can position the lights to the exact areas they are needed.

A Little Bit of Holiday Cheer

The move to the new house in Dallas was perfect timing because I immediately got to decorate for Christmas, one of my absolute favorite things to do.

Chase, my mom and myself set the iPod to my Christmas collection playlist and set out to fill the house with holiday goodness.

Here are a few pics to showcase the process...


Chase unloading some decorations


Putting ornaments on our first Christmas tree together


Stockings were hung by the Chimney (book case) with care


Look at the camera Paisley


Our Tree


Trying out our holiday aprons

Oh how I absolutely LOVE Christmas! Happy Holidays everyone!

In the Closet

The first real project we are tackling in our new house is the master bedroom closet. In the listing for the house when we bought it, it said "walk-in closet." While technically, this is true...there is a little bit of space to step inside it, its not a traditional walk-in. And right now, it consists of one very weak and buckling closet rod. Needless to say a lot of unclaimed space that we can't let go to waste.

This weekend my Dad came to visit. One of our projects was going to be purchasing a pre-made closet package to transform the master closet into an actual useful storage space. As it turns out, those packaged closets are a piece of crap. I should have known.

Lucky me, my Dad can be handy with the tools when he wants to be. He graciously volunteered himself to design and build (he is an architect) a custom closet for us. Yippee!!

This is the closet as it is now:




This is the sketch my dad put together for what the closet will become:



The plan is to have one center set of shelving with shelves and rods on either side. This will maximize the height of the closet and allow us different shelving and rod hanging levels. This will also help Chase and I merge our closet!

I am pretty excited about getting this brand new custom designed closet. The plan is for my dad to build it this week at his house in OKC and come back next weekend to Dallas to install. A post on the finished project to come.

Black Friday

Black Friday is one of my favorite days of the year.  My mom and I have been plotting and shopping on this day for many years.  For those of you who are not familiar, check out the Wikipedia definition for Black Friday.

Basically, its the biggest shopping day of the year with the best deals you will find all year.  This year I was after an LCD HDTV regularly priced at $429 on sale for $249.  Yahoo called it the Black Friday deal of 2009.  It was happening at Target.

In order to score this TV (my mom also wanted one) we had to set our alarm clocks for 3am and be at our neighborhood Target by 3:30 or so to get in line.  The doors opened at 5am so we had to make sure and get there plenty early.



Bonus: we also got free Marcel Wanders designed tote bags. They are super cute. Our reward for being their so GD early!

For the big ticket items Target handed out maps to show where in the store those would be located. (insider tip: the sought after items are never in the department they would normally belong.) The TV's were going to be in the women's department. Lucky me, I frequent that very department quite often. I was ready.



The doors flew open and we all shuffled in (careful not to actually "run" because we had been warned we would get kicked out for that). I quickly made my way out of the main isle and to the back of the women's clothes and snuck in behind the TV's and grabbed two! We got em! Once we secured ours, we watched the rest of the loot, probably around 50, disappear within a matter of seconds. It was intense. But victory!

Can't wait to do it again next year.

sidenote: my mom and I were also featured in the Daily Oklahoman as part of a Black Friday story. Check it out here.

Note: let me apologize for the lack of posts as of late.  I moved and just now got my internet hooked up.  It has been rough without it.