Category Archives: House

Sleepover!

Sleepover!

So, last night was our first official night in the house- YIPPEE!

Okay, okay, I know, a bit sad. However, thanks to Jared’s friends Asa and Aashish, we were able to move all the “big stuff” over to the house. You know, like the queen-sized bed, the piano, the double bed, the couch…. things that I couldn’t possibly help Jared load into his truck on my own. So I contributed by packing smaller boxes and making peanut butter bars for the guys. Our way of saying “thank you.”

Last night was a lot like a hotel stay; we haven’t moved a lot of food over, missing a lot of the essentials, but now we have more at the house than we do here at the apartment. I think I will get used to it sooner than later; but it’s just hard to believe this is OURS. OUR house, OUR yard… just… WOW!

Stevie has been LOVING it. He was running up and down the stairs, going in circles around the main floor, and his tail was CONSTANTLY wagging. He is so excited about the extra room. I think he will settle in just fine. 🙂

The bees are gone!

The bees are gone!

The backyard is overall now a safer place. The huge hive of bees has been sealed up and there are no signs of a new hive forming. I do wish that there was a way we could have removed them alive from the tree and transplanted them, but it would have probably done damage to the awesome tree. Oh well.

Other bug updates: all bugs in the house that we find are dead! Meaning, the rate of new bugs showing up is slowing down considerably, and by the time we see them, they are officially dead! Considering the fact that seeing a live spider or cockroach or any creepy-crawly or flying thing can send me into a state of cardiac arrest, and then those creatures show up starring in my nightmares, this dead bug thing is very very good!

The temperatures here in Texas are HOT!!! Today, outside the house was about 103, and inside was 95. Can I just say, YUCK! It’s really killing our grass, and as our sprinkling system consists of a hose, a nice spray nozzle, and a rotating sprinkler, it’s a lot of work to keep up with! So our grass looks a lot like this:

Dying Grass

Some places, it looks a lot worse. 🙁 At least I have managed to keep the majority of the plants alive! woohoo!

So today, I was attempting to revive the greenery about the house by water and vacuuming up bugs in the house, waiting for the AC guy. (Yes, I am aware that the middle of the day isn’t the best time to be watering. Until we move in, we aren’t motivated enough to do late night/early morning watering.) The window was 1-4pm, and the house was 95 degrees. Guess who actually got pretty far behind? Yup, the AC man. So there I was, doing activities in the sun and then coming inside and vacuuming/unpacking some items that I moved over there today… and I think I got too much sun. Drinking water wasn’t really helping… so around 3:30 I called Jared and asked him to call the AC people and see if they were EVER going to come, because I couldn’t handle the heat anymore!

Jared called me back, and the window had been pushed back to between 5-6pm! And they couldn’t call to give us this time estimate? Must I suffer, hoping that ANY MOMENT sweet, cool relief from the AC could be coming?  Well, Jared told me to go home, rest for a hour, then go back, or he could leave work and go there for me.  I got home and decided that I couldn’t go back. I was dizzy, I had no energy, and even with my glasses, my sight was off and on blurry. Time to sleep for sure.

So Jared ended up taking a break from work so he could meet up with Mr. AC guy, and now we have AC. Hopefully that will make moving so much easier!

On other news, Stevie is doing much better. The bumps are all but gone and he’s not sneezing anymore. He does enjoy getting meds because they come with the magic items “Cheese” or “Peanut butter.” It makes me laugh, because he actually gets excited when he sees me opening up his medicine. A dog that WANTS to take his medicine?! Not to mention, he is hilarious when he gets peanut butter. Here’s a vid of IggyJack (NOT STEVIE!)  that can give you an idea of what Stevie looks like after he gets peanut butter; except Stevie’s tongue sticks out about 4 inches for a good 30 seconds after he gets the stuff.

(Warning: Video may lead you to laugh, giggle, and can cause strong yearnings for a cute dog. There’s some great links associated with it, like IggyJack gets shot, IggyJack gets a tissue… etc. Also, you may want to play it with the sound off, other than the shot one…)

Us vs The House

Us vs The House

Things at the house are going pretty well, especially because I have a lot more time. I still have occasional trainings for work and appointments, but it’s been great not having so much to do every day. Summer break is one of the greatest creations ever! We even are going to be going to Utah next week- woo hoo! Gonna visit the families and maybe some friends too- we are so excited. We’re even thinking about stopping by Moab on the way up to do some hiking and what not- I love Arches National Park.

On another positive note, my headaches are slowly improving. Nothing had been working, really, so on the suggestion of my grandma, I have been trying a chiropractor. I’ve done several appointments now, and overall, I have noticed a significant difference in the headaches and their intensity! (Thanks for the suggestion, Grandma!) I learned that my neck is too straight and the vertebrae aren’t all exactly aligned correctly, so we’ve been working on that. I am just hoping  it’s not a fluke and the pain keeps going down and away!

Now we are battling the house. The biggest problem so far is BUGS! All over. We’ve found several interesting varieties of bugs inside and outside the house, including but not limited to: spiders, pill bugs (roly-polies), fire ants, and roaches! Some really, really big roaches. *shudder* We even have a hive of bees that recently took up resident in the knothole at the base of the great big tree.

Bigtree- far away

Apparently, the weatherstripping of at least the doors really STINKS and lets lots of buggies into the house through the cracks (big enough to see light from the outside through!), so we’ve been trying to play around with fixing that. We also have gotten some quotes on trying to eliminate bugs, but so far, they are all pretty dang expensive.  Jared was thinking about taking the hive on by himself, but fortunately he’s changed his mind about that. A lot of it can be DIY projects, but some of them (the bees) probably should be handled by people who really know what they are doing and have the proper protection from a zillion bee stings. We’ll figure it out though.

We’ve also been cleaning up the inside of the house; it was vacant for several months before we got in there, so things like the tile and carpets needed some deep cleaning (especially thanks to those bugs). In fact, they could even use some more, despite my on-my-hands-and-knees-for-several-hours cleaning efforts. heh. I also spent a couple hours scrubbing down the used fridge we bought off of craigslist.com. It’s a pretty new fridge, but the previous owners didn’t clean it out very well, so it was stinky, dirty, and even had some bugs inside it.

The only serious mishap that has occurred was trying to figure out the awning that goes over the back patio. It’s tricky- it’s a lot lik the awnings that go over camping trailers. Jared was struggling to figure it out and so I offered to help him. (My mistake, I am clumsy and not good with hardware stuff anyways). Somehow, the awning rolled up while I was holding the bars, and snapped my fingers between two of the metal supports of the awning. OUCH! We seriously thought my fingers were broken for a few days, but they look normal and are only a bit stiff and sore now, and I have full mobility, so we figure it magically only bruised the bones.

You can sort of see the evil awning right above the window here:

backyard patio

So overall, Operation: Take over the House is  in full swing and progressing quite well! I can’t wait til it’s ready enough for us to start really living in it…. I get so excited to think of that. 🙂 Life is good, we’re working hard at the house and job stuff, so we have a lot to be thankful for!

Officially Homeowners!

Officially Homeowners!

So…. after a very painless 45 minutes of interpreting and signing papers, we received all the keys and garage openers to our new home. I have to say, I had heard that buying a home is a terrible process and that it wouldn’t be the most pleasant experience, but the only problem we had was with our contact person for getting our interest rate for our loan. He was horrible at getting back to us. Other than that though, it was great. I really LOVED our agent, Meta- she is great at what she does, and she really loves it and works hard at it. She even got us “closing gifts”: a door knocker with our last name engraved on it, and a cute little silver platter that has a picture of a home and says “Bless this house” at the top of it. Good for using or decoration. 🙂

Naturally, we immediately had to go and admire our purchase. We are just so excited. I was just happy to see the place, but Jared was very good at examining every nook and cranny of the house AND yard. 🙂

These pictures were taken the night we decided to buy the house, but they can give you a fairly good representation of our new home.

Here’s the front of our lovely home.

Front of House

This tree is now a beautiful maple tree and pretty flowers:

Back of house 1

Here’s the backyard patio and in the corner is a cute little fountain…

backyard patio        Backyard fountain

And here are some of the lovely trees. See that little thing in front of the tree? It was a bird bath that reached to my waist or so…

Bigtree- far away            Big tree closest                 Medium tree

And some inside pictures of the kitchen, decent-sized pantry, and entryway (with the nice tile work…):

Kitchen 1          Kitchen 2          entryway

And the cool lamp in the formal dining room and the fireplace:

Dining room           Fireplace

That’s the most exciting stuff for now, since it’s not furnished…yet! Tomorrow we change the locks and I start doing a deep cleaning. 🙂

On another completely unrelated note, I am OFFICIALLY DONE with my first year of teaching! I am so pumped that I made it through. There were some rough spots, but considering some of the health issues I had and the completely different system I was trying to use to grade and teach (Marzano’s “Rubric” system), I think I did pretty well.

It’s going to be a busy summer with work trainings/meetings and moving/working on the house (especially the yard!) but I am so pumped and excited right now. We were truly lucky with how reasonable the sellers were and having Meta as our Realtor-  everything just worked out so well for us. Now… time for bed so I can be ready to clean the house tomorrow!

House Hunt- UPDATE!

House Hunt- UPDATE!

So….currently…. We have a contract! As long as nobody pulls out (*knock on wood*) we have gotten the contract for the house we want! I am so excited. Great price, good house size, seems well taken care of, and great yard! It’s in a really nice, beautiful neighborhood. It’s been quiet every time we’ve driven by on our own, at different times of the day… and there’s no homeowner association fees. 🙂

Pictures will be coming shortly!

I am so excited…. I was doing a happy dance in front of some of my coworkers today! They probably thought I was crazy…crazier than they already thought I was. 🙂