Landscaping Love

When we first bought our house there was ZERO landscape….unless you consider white rocks along the sidewalk as landscaping….Anyway, last March (2009) we put up a stone border and put in shrubs and flowers ourselves. Casey also fertilized the grass and took up all the ugly white rocks. This year Casey fertilized some more and we put in more flowers. It's looking sooo much better! I'm proud of us! Here are some before and after pictures! Check out the crazy gutter sticking out as well as the random shrubbery on the right...

Our neighborhood has "yard of the month" and currently our neighbor across the street has it! Our goal is to get that sign in our yard sometime soon ;)

Office Renovation!

We recently redid our office/3rd bedroom. Casey is in dire need of having an office since he is working on his masters at DTS and he has TONS of seminary books! Good grief. The pictures show just a few, but there are more in the attic!

Anyway, when we bought our house this room had a super bright, lime green wall. The picture below shows the color of the lime green, but it is after we had started painting the wall (shoutout to Rachel & Jordan for helping me paint! They were awesome and helped me knock it out in one night before Casey got home!). I wish I had gotten a picture of the big green wall beforehand so you could see the craziness! They got it on the ceiling and the baseboards. It looks like a kid did it. I'm betting it was since it is lime green. I don't know what they were thinking since they only did one wall and part of another. Anyway, here is our progress!

Our new bookshelves courtesy of Target! Since we HAVE to have bookshelves, I liked this idea because it's a little cuter than the standard-full-of-books-shelves!

The shot above is the latest shot, but I went ahead and put this one on since it shows them at an angle.

This part is still not completely done. We are going to put a cutsie chair on the right side where the DVD case is. The DVDs will probably go in the closet for now. We also need some curtains or some pictures for the wall because it looks a little barren, but I do like that it is less cluttered than it was a week ago!!

Bathroom Redo

Our guest bathroom has had a small renovation recently. About 2 or 3 months ago, Casey began to change out the light fixture and mirror. He started on it, and realized that he was in a little over his head due to some inconsistencies the builders made when they put in the light and hung the mirror. About 2 weeks ago, Charlie Rickerson came over one morning for about 30 minutes and helped Casey tape and patch the drywall (Casey had cut the huge hole, but wasn't sure how to fix it properly). After Charlie did that, we retextured it, painted the entire bathroom, and hung the new light fixture and framed mirror. Here are some pictures of our progress! We are really proud of it! :)

Here is what the bathroom looked like when we moved in. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the old mirror and light fixture, but just picture the vanity type of light with 5 bare light bulbs going across and just a standard, rectangle, sheet mirror on the wall.

Here is the new light fixture and framed mirror! Casey did a great job!
Our cutie black and white stuff

Our new towel hanging shelf instead of the old silver towel rack

I hung two black and white pictures that I took in Europe

Cinque Terra, Italy & Paris France

The vanity one more time!

Now that we're done with the bathroom we're working on our office. Those of you that have been to our house know that our office is basically the catch-all room and is extremely messy. We're working on it, and I'll post pictures of our progress soon!

Befores and Afters

Yea!!! We've been getting some work done on our house and it is coming along fantastically! When we moved in, there was absolutely no mantle on the fireplace...just unfinished brick that wasn't wide enough to set anything on. Well, we had one made by a guy at our church named Andy Rickerson (brother of Charlie). Here are some before and after pictures.

The Fireplace

Before picture...check out the 6 layers of brick above the fire pit.

Andy ripping away the top 3 rows of brick to make way for the mantle

lots of brick ripped away...a little scary at first!

After picture!!! We now have a mantle that we can set things on!!

Another after picture! We love it!

Another project we have is our front yard...this will definitely be a work in progress. Actually, when we were first shown this house by our realtor, we didn't even go look at it because it had such bad curb appeal. We saw the ugly white rocks on the sides of the sidewalk and the fact that there were no shrubs or flower beds, the grass was dead, and the yard was sloping and hated it. When we finally did go in it, a month or so later, we loved it, but promised to take care of the yard ASAP! So, thanks to our builder friend Steven English from cLife, we were able to get stone landscaping for an awesome price! Thanks so much Steven, for everything! We love it!

The Front Yard

Here is a before picture. Notice the flower beds...that's the only thing we've changed so far. Oh yeah, and that super long gutter that juts out on the right.

Here are some after pictures of our stone!! YAY!

I love the stacked look.

Love it.

We are getting another tree put in on the right side of our yard and still have enough stone left over to put around it, too!

The other side again.

Decorating by Lauren

Last week when I posted pictures of our black and white bedroom Casey got onto me because he said I should've just waited to post the pretty ones! :) The bedroom had already been completed, so he didn't understand why I posted old pictures.

I did it because I was too lazy to get up, take new pictures, and then download them all onto my computer! Ha Ha. Anyway, here is the finished project:

All of this was my bedroom furniture that I got in the 9th grade. It was all raw, and we stained it in when I was in high school. Casey thought it looked out dated, so we sanded it and painted all of it black! Then we found this super cute bedding! I LOVE the pillows.

Here are a couple of pictures from our "formal living room." At first I had no idea what to do with this space, but now I am glad we have it. I love these cute pillows I found at Burlington Coat Factory! Who knew?!

This side is still a work in progress. I guess the whole room kind of is. It just feels a little unfinished to me, but we'll see how it turns out.

Here is a picture of our dining room. This old table was my great grandmother's (but it's probably only from the 70's or 80's). She gave it to my parents when I was growing up, and my dad gave it to me. Kind of neat. We sold the chairs and got new, leather ones to replace them. They were really outdated. We thought that we might not find chairs to match, but we love these! The plates I got for Christmas from Casey's parents. I love that they are square. Then I recently found all of the place setting stuff on clearance at Target. I love Target.

That is all for now! Later I will post some pictures of our bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room :) Our office has a lot of work left to do, so it will probably be quite some time before I take pictures of it!

Black & Whiteness

Here are a couple of pictures of our guest bedroom....it is a little different now, but I was too lazy to get up and take some new pictures, so I am just showing some older ones. There is a headboard with the bed now that's not in the picture--it really makes a huge difference! Also, there is an armoir facing the bed that I don't yet have a picture of either. I'll take some good ones later :)

All of this furniture was my old stuff from back in high school. I actually got it in the 9th grade. It was all raw and we stained it back then, so it was a light pine color. Recently though, Casey and I sanded and painted all of it black! We think it looks pretty good! The cute bedding added a nice touch :)

I love the cute lamp, too!

WOOHOO!!!

Well, I have officially been stinking at putting pictures on my blog, but I HAVE NOW SUCCESSFULLY FIGURED OUT SCRAPBLOG!!! You cannot possibly understand my excitement! I have had my blog for almost a year, and I have never been able to do it! Tonight I was so frustrated, I almost threw my computer across the living room. I completely ruined my blog. Every time I opened it, it was just a tiny little picture in the top, right hand corner. No words. Nothing. I thought I had lost all of my posts and everything. Luckily, my artsy and computer savvy friend Rachel, called me back to help me with my emergency. (I hate to admit it, but I use to think I had some computer finesse, but I really don't at all. It has been a very slow realization). Anyway, I have now done a very simple scrapblog header. I don't care that it is simple. I love it.

So excited.

In other news...
Sunday after church I had the rare desire to get our office, otherwise known as the "junk room," into order. We have just been pulling a box out here and there to organize, but on Sunday we got it all done! It was almost shocking. Now we have all of our junk hidden in closets and all the rooms are neat and clean. They aren't all done by any means, but they are at least clutter free and clean! Yessss!

I promise to add a picture of the clutter-free room soon. Don't be alarmed though; it still has a lime green wall, thanks to the previous owners!

Homeowner Update!

I guess it's about time for an update! My last update was Saturday, November 22nd and a lot has happened since then! We moved into our first house on November 25th (the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) and have had lots to do ever since! For a week we didn't have Internet, so I felt cut off from the outside world. It was okay though because we had a lot to keep us busy. I was so thankful that I had an ENTIRE WEEK off for Thanksgiving. Vacation days, in my opinion, are the #1 reason to be a teacher. I know that you should love kids and all that (and I do), but you just can't beat the vacation days with any other job. Casey and I debate our jobs a lot, and while his is super flexible during the day (he is able to leave and run errands if he needs to) and mine is not, he does not get near the days off that I do (duh!). Who else can say that they only have to work 180 days out of the year? I have 185 days OFF--that means I am off more days than I have to work :)

Anyway, back to the house. We had some pretty good help moving even though it was a weekday. Casey took off of work that day, and we also had both of our parents, Casey's grandmother, and Jeremiah help us move. We got EVERYTHING moved out of the condo and into the house in one day. Amazing. I thank Casey for being the "packing Nazi" for several weeks up to the move. Without him, nothing would have been in boxes. I absolutely despise packing.

The next day (Wednesday) Casey was as sick as a dog. He took off work that day, too. I was excited for him to be home with me until I realized that he wasn't going to be any fun! Thursday we went to both my mom and dad's sides of the family. Afterwards we drove to Austin and bought tickets for the A&M / UT game. I guess that has become a tradition for us! We have gone four out of the past five years. It's always a lot of fun, but it is MORE fun when the game is closer. This year was a little bit of a let down for me, but I know that Casey was excited to be in UT's new stadium. They added a section in the endzone. It holds a lot more people now. Of course, I still don't think it is cool as Kyle Field :)

Friday we slept in a little since we got home from Austin at 2:30 in the morning. We then went to have Thanksgiving with Casey's family at his grandmother's house (mom's side). We stayed over there for a while, but cut it a little short because Casey was sick again!! He had this stomach virus forever!

Saturday we did some more unpacking when Casey felt a little better. We also went with my mom and got a new washer and dryer at Lowe's. We went and saw the new James Bond movie that night. It was good, but not nearly as good as Casino Royale. I loved Casino Royale. And I really like this new James Bond. He is more rugged than the typical tall, dark, and handsome type.

Sunday I stayed home for the morning services while the new washer and dryer were delivered and hooked up. I went to the 4:30 service (we now have 3 services on Sunday! They are all the same, so that's nice when I want to sleep in:)!

Monday I went back to work. It was a hard day! I've learned that it is always really hard to go back to school after a vacation. I think the kids feel the same way. The rest of that week was typical. All work and no play. Ha ha. Thursday night we did get to go out with Charlie and Ginni! The came over and saw the new house, and then we went to eat at Snuffer's! Yum!

Finally the weekend came and Friday night Casey and I had dinner with his parents at Martinez! Yum, again! We also saw their newly painted house. It looks great! So great, it inspired us to go home and begin painting our furniture. We are painting two bookshelves and my old bedroom furniture. They are all pine and we are going to paint them black. I am excited to see how it all looks. So far we have only done one bookshelf...we have a LOT left to do. My bedroom furniture is made up of a LOT of pieces. Saturday we had the ELF BOWL all day. It is a football tournament that we put on for the youth group. It was awesome! We had 18 teams show up! It lasted from 9 to about 4:30. Last year's champs, the Rumble Bees, one it again! Protect the Hive! Today I stayed home again this morning to stay for the DirectTV guy to come and give us HD cable and DVR! This will be my first time EVER to have DVR. Casey told me he thought it would revolutionize my life (not his, just mine). I "tape" things ALL of the time! But I tape them on a VHS tape in my VCR. It is pretty outdated, I know. I am also really limited, too because the tapes are only 4 hours long, so if I am leaving 4 hours ahead of time my show won't tape! I am so excited about DVR!!! Yea!

Anyway, I will post some pictures later from our Thanksgiving week! Happy Sunday!

On a Happier Note...

We bought a refrigerator and oven/range last night! We got two excellent deals!! We went into the scratch and dent side of Conn's in Mesquite and found a stainless steal refrigerator that is normally $2,800...it didn't have the price tag so we asked the guy how much it was. He said, "I think that one is 1199, but I'll check to make sure." He went and checked and it said 1499, but he said, "since I told you I thought it was 1199, I have to give it to you for that price if you want it." We went and looked at that particular fridge at other stores and sure enough, it was almost 3,000 at other stores so we went back and bought it for only 1199! We were so excited! It is one of the new fridge's that have the nice freezer drawer on the bottom. It is really nice!

Then we went to Best Buy and got a great deal on a stainless oven/range! We got the floor model and told them how cheap some of the stoves were over there. The manager asked how much theirs was and I told them it was 540 at Conn's if we opened up a card, while Best Buy's was 599. She said, "well how about you get this one for 499!" I am pretty sure my jaw dropped because I was not expecting her to take 100 dollars off of the price just because Conn's had one for 540. It was great. Casey and I were both on a high after getting such great deals on our two new appliances. We can't wait until they are delivered to our new house on Tuesday!

Disappointment....

We were supposed to close on Thursday afternoon, but everything went wrong. The title company in Houston that we have to use is mean and incompetent. We ended up closing yesterday afternoon, BUT we didn't get the keys! =( So we don't get to move in today like we had planned! We are supposed to get our keys on Monday, so hopefully we'll be able to move in on Tuesday.

I am just sad because I have the whole week of Thanksgiving off and really wanted to be moved in today so I could spend the whole week painting and unpacking. It is sad =(

Pray that nothing else goes wrong and that we can still get the keys on Monday!!!

Packin' Up!

Time to update! Not much has been going on lately. Casey and I have begun packing for our move. We are still supposed to close on our house on the 18th and hope to move in the weekend after that. I have the week of Thanksgiving off so moving in the weekend before that works out perfectly! I will have some time to paint and unpack. Casey and I have decided that we are going to go to Austin on Thanksgiving afternoon and try to get a couple of tickets to the A&M/UT game! We have been able to do that before so we are thinking that we might be able to again. Wish us luck on that!

These are some pictures of our Halloween weekend. We went over to Charlie & Ginni's to hang out with them and some other couples and pass out candy to the kiddos. It was good fun. The boys played with the wii pretty much the whole time while we girls made candy, caramel, and chocolate apples! Very yummy! Then, the next day I went with my mom to Laura's baby shower. It was very cute and girly :) Here are some pics of that weekend!

Casey and the rest of the boys playing a video game!

Me and Ginni hanging out!

Madison, their cute puppy
Laura's Baby Shower Cake--Welcome Aubrey Kay!

Cute diaper cake! They made it themselves!

Me with the mommy-to-be!

Laura with the grandmas and one great grandma!

Future Scrapbooking Room :)

Well, today is two days from the day we are supposed to close on our house! Very exciting. We are hoping to lock in a mortgage rate tomorrow. Anyway, because of all this...I am going to share my plans for my future scrapbooking room :)

I am hoping to get all my scrapbooking stuff organized and put away nicely, but also cutely!

Here are a few pictures that I've been looking at to get ideas:

All of these are inspiring, but my very favorite is this one. I think I am going to get one of these shelving units (probably from Ikea) and do the same thing with red or a different color. I've never been a really big fan of red, but I do really like this look.

What do y'all think?

And now, here is my little reminder for everyone to vote tomorrow!!! I thought it was super cute so I stole it off of Ginni's blog, and I have to give her credit!

VOTE TOMORROW. (preferably with the blue elephant...)