Merry Christmas !

Left to right, my cousin, Julie, me, Julie's daughter Kelli, Julie's stepdaughter Brittany and my mom, Connie.

Just a heads up

I'm gonna blog more. At least I'm gonna try. Just a warning.

1 Year Anniversary

Well we have been in our house for 1 year now and it couldn't have gone any faster. We had a few glitches (some of them self-induced....Brandon hitting the propane tank with a dozer isn't anyone's fault but ours, wait, what? His!) but for the most part it's been fantastic. I don't have our bedroom or the upstairs the way I want it yet, but that will come. As soon as we get the carpet laid in the basement we're going to move the furniture from upstairs downstairs and also move the big tv above the fireplace. Then the upstairs great room will be 'great' for just sitting and doing nothing I guess. The basement will be our main living area from now on I think.

Christmas is here. I guess. It's been quite a few weeks with Steve's mom and dad being so sick and being put in a nursing home. Everyone's been sick with colds and flu, but we're still going to celebrate Christmas. This year it isn't about the gifts. It's not about the money. It's about family and being happy and HEALTHY and thankful for what we have. I know I am very thankful and will continue to be so into the New Year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Carpet anyone?

All we lack at this point is a small piece of trim in the bathroom and some carpet. It will happen after the first of the year probably. We've already had several drinks at the bar and guess what? It works! Yay!

Here are some pictures. Oh, we're also lacking a pool table. Wonder if the people who bought our old house would want to part with the pool table?

Some bar photos

Some more basement photos

This is the bathroom.

This is where the bar will go.

This is the area behind the bar where the sink (left) and fridge (right) will go.

The TV will go on the wall to the right of the fireplace then we'll put another tv behind the bar.

This is where the pool table will go.

Ready for electrician and plumber

Brandon's got all the framework done. The rooms that you see framed in are a bath, closet and the area behind the bar. Plumber and electrician are both coming this Thursday.

Mid-Summer

I cannot believe Summer is 1/2 over. Time flies I guess. We've been very busy hanging with friends and family and had lots of company. My Aunt Mary Jane and Bub were home from Atlanta. As always we had a great time and took not ONE SINGLE picture. What's up w/that? Not sure. She loved my house and I believe her exact words were, "I woudn't change a thing." That's nice to hear.

The landscaping/flowers are coming along. Here are some new pictures.

Brandon's started on the basement. I expect it to be finished by Christmas. He's not happy unless he's got a project. I guess I can't complain. It's better than being married to a lazy bum. :-)

I'll post more pics when I have them!

Just some additional pics.

Brandon finished up the stone tonight in the 96 degree heat. We have to still work on the other side of the front door and that should be this weekend.

Enjoy!

We just passed the 5 month mark

For only being here for 5 months, I think we've made remarkable progress. The landscaping is pretty much done. Just waiting on our river gravel Tuesday night and then that will be pretty much done. Yay. I'm not messing with mulch. Just decided I didn't want to do that each year.

This was a good weekend. We pretty much just worked outside. Brandon moved tons of dirt and planted some more grass seed. I worked on the flower beds and then we had a cookout for some friends while we watched some racing. Here are some recent pics. Notice our new inhabitants. The lady that came to measure for my shutters in my bedroom told me we have an Eastern Phoebe and those are her babies. So we've named her Phoebe and she craps all over my sidewalk. Thank you, Phoebe.

Hey Look! I'm updating my blog! FINALLY!

Here's a pic of our living room with our new furniture. I think I finally have it decorated the way I want it.

Things are going great! We're loving life in our new home. A.C. has adjust just fine. He still drools but I just deal with it. And it's still disgusting. They poured our concrete pad this past Thursday. It looks great. We're having someone else finish it out to the road. He will hopefully get here in a week or two.

We also started on our landscaping. That is interesting seeing as how I know nothing about plants. Thanks to Mom and Steve for all their help! We've so far planted ornamental grasses, hostas, seedum (sp?), black eyed susans, dianthus and bleeding heart. Oh and we also put a wheeping cherry tree and some box woods in. Right now it just looks so bare. I know it will take a while for everything to fill in.

Brandon has been working on the yard for a few weeks now. He really has it looking nice. He filled in all the low spots and we're pretty much ready to seed. Hopefully we'll have grass soon!

Oh and I got a new truck. It's an '08 GMC Denali. I like it a lot. I guess I'm just a truck girl.

Hopefully the next pictures I post will have grass in them!

Well, it hasn't been without incident

We have had some minor (& major) things to work out, but overall we're doing well. A.C. (my 8 yr old Great Dane) is having a horrible time adjusting. I think he's starting to come around. He wouldn't go to the bathroom outside, he chose to do it the minute he came inside. And right before company was to show up. Also, Danes drool. A lot. You don't notice it so much on carpet, but you do on hard wood and it stains. It's disgusting. I have to use a Mr. Clean eraser on the floor and window sills to get the stains off. I also am having a good time 'Swiffering' the dog hair daily. It is not fun. I love my dog dearly though and wouldn't trade him for the world. It is what it is.

Last week our lights started dimming and then coming back on full. I called the electric co and they said it was inside the house. Something was draining the electricity. It was quickly determined it was the geothermal unit. They had to order parts (which aren't in yet) and we are currently running on 'emergency heat'. Then Saturday Brandon ran over our buried propane tank and all the propane shot out of the top of it. He's very very lucky he didn't blow himself or us and our house up. That was $900 worth of propane basically vanishing into thin air. But it could have been worse.

Other than that, things are great. That's all I have for now!