I’m still here!

Sorry it’s been so crazy long since I posted, you guys! I’m still here, I promise.

And I’m living in a house that feels like a home and looks like a home. This past weekend was our housewarming parties with our families and now we’re getting ready for a party with our friends this weekend. There’s just too many of everyone to do them all in one day.

Last week was crazy with cleaning everything up and finishing all of our projects at the last minute. We may or may not have been totally exhausted when it came time to actually have the party.

Seriously though, we couldn’t have asked for a better day and it was so amazing to be able to celebrate our new home with our loved ones there with us. I loved bragging on Wyatt’s handiwork and showing people all the amazing stuff he’s built for me so far. I loved sharing our dreams for other future projects we’re excited to take on. But most of all, I loved seeing our yard full of kids running around with soccer balls and footballs and our cozy living room filled with people talking and laughing and eating. It was perfect in every way. Really.

I was still after-glowing yesterday morning when I thought about how blessed we were by everyone that came.

So now my focus is shifting to getting the new blog ready. Design and layout take a long time, as does coming up with content to fill the pages! I’m just now starting to dive into making it look and function like I want. My goal is to have everything ready and going by the holidays, but even sooner would be great! It sort of depends a little on how work goes for the next month or so…which is actually really busy right now!

I love having writing assignments to fill my days and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to do this for a living. It’s what I love and I’m so blessed to be able to do something I really enjoy..even if it’s challenging to get settled into a routine for managing my time and my household chores and the way I want to do so many projects around the new house.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on in our corner of the world. What’s new with you?

 

We bought a house! Let’s celebrate…later.

Remember back when I made that long-awaited announcement about our “big news?”

Well, then remember how all my friends and family have been begging me for a picture of our new house?

Well, you guys might not remember that because most people that comment on my blog do so in non-blog form. In other words, I’m always hearing things like, “Hey, I saw on your blog that…, I think…”

I’m all for communication, whether it’s in blog form, in person, or even a thoughful text message. Heck, if you really want to make my day, write me a letter. So I’m responding to all you well-wishes here, even though you didn’t leave comments on my super-awesome post that told you we’d bought a house.

So, without further ado, here are some updates on how the new house is going so far.

Closing wasn’t as scary as I’d thought it would be. By that time, the giant check with our down payment on it had already come out of our account, so the emotional damage had been done. This was all about getting through a huge stack of papers before having breakfast.

Yup, we signed all those. Yikes.

Hubs is just as happy about this new house as I am, even though he doesn’t have a blog to tell the world how much this house makes him want to jump for joy, smile a giant goofy grin, scream happy thoughts, and basically look like an idiot all the time because he’s so ridiculously happy like I did…oh wait, I hadn’t admitted that to you guys yet, did I? Oops.

But he’s still happy.

Ok, so this smile is a little forced, but trust me. He’s happy.

The real estate office where we closed even had a special message up on their board for us!

They even spelled our names right!

After all that signing, we’d worked up a pretty big appetite so we went to Wendy’s for breakfast. It was practically free with all the coupons we had to use.

Yum. Hubs is happy here, too, even though the biscuit is hiding his smile.

I went crazy and celebrated with a decaf coffee…

My first “coffee” in months. I’ve been almost entirely caffeine-free since August (Chocolate doesn’t count–we’re talking caffeine-added beverages, here.), and it was delicious. Does that mean I’ve forgotten what real, good coffee tastes like? Probably.

We’ve already started working on it, which is an enormously costly endeavor! How come no one warned us about all the added expenses you have when you own a house. Things like garden hoses and spray nozzles, trash cans, brooms, tarps, painting supplies…the list goes on and on. I sit at home and think scary thoughts about being self-employed, part time, all day as I dream big dreams for this house.

Anyway, our first project was changing out the knob and lock on the front door.

It went from this:

Dirty, old, and sort of broken…

To this:

Shiny, bright, and new!

Oh, and you wanted to see a picture, right?

Are you sure?

Well, ok.

I guess one little picture won’t hurt.

We are trying to wait to have lots of people see inside until we get some projects done. Even though it’s not a “fixer-upper,” we want to wait until we’ve made it our own before we have a house-warming party, and there are plenty of projects on our list already!

So, for anyone who’s curious, here’s our new home!

Hi, house!

We can’t wait to live there, guys, and to invite you all over to celebrate with us.

In the meantime, though, we will be accepting house-warming gifts in the form of Lowe’s gift cards.

Just kidding.

Seriously though, check out my tweets from yesterday (over on the side bar over there) for an update on how our first full day of “house work” went!