Home Sweet Home!!

Well it's finally official, Brent and I have purchased our very first home!!!!!!!!!! I'm still in disbelief that I have my very own home. It has been a long road to get here and I'm absolutely trilled my dream has finally come true. Brent and I closed last Wednesday, September 15, 2010 and starting moving the very next day. I kept good notes throughout the weekend of moving so I could remember all the fun memories along the way. We can't wait to share our new home with all our family and friends. Come on over anytime!!!

Below are the before shots, can't wait to get started on making it my own!!

Our beautiful front yard

Right view

Left view

Our foyer area

Formal Living area


Second Living Area (Brent's room as he claims it)

Formal Dining area (can't wait to have Thanksgiving dinner in here!!)

Kitchen

Eat-in Kitchen area

Brent's Office

Guest Bathroom (can't wait to tackle this one)

Hallway to the Guest Bedrooms

Laundry Room

Guest Bedroom

One-day Nursery Room

Our Master Bedroom

Master Bath

My beautiful escape from reality, my Backyard




Ok, here we go...

Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Closing Day

Brent and I were scheduled to close at 2pm Wednesday afternoon so when lunch time came around, we wanted to eat someplace special for our big day and Blue Fish was just the place. We got 2 Sunday Rolls and a Chocolate dessert. Perfect way to start afternoon!! After lunch we had a few minutes to burn so we stopped by Bath and Body Works and I picked up some hand soap for our new home. I got the Creamy Pumpkin and it smells heavenly!! So, we headed to closing and it took all of 15 minutes to sign our life away. Luckily, I have a very smart husband and he read every document a few days before we went to closing to make sure there were no surprises. We had to kill more time while all the paper work went through before we could actually get our keys so we headed to the mall and did a little shopping, and I found some really cute jeans!! After the mall we went back to the title company and picked up all our keys. It was an awesome feeling!! After we got the keys, we had to high-tell it to Basset to order our new leather sectional for the second living area before they closed. Luckily, they had one in stock and it was going to be delivered in just a couple of days, YAY!! After spending more money buying the couch it was finally time to go to our home and walk inside for the first time. I was hoping Brent would carry me over the threshold but he didn't. Oh well, I guess he couldn't read my mind. We did a quick walk through and smiled the whole time. My parents, Bub, Michelle and Jerod then arrived to check it out and to grab some celebration dinner at Blue Goose. After dinner, Brent was determined to begin steam-cleaning the carpets even though we had no electricity and it was getting dark. So, we went by our townhome and picked up his generator. We carried that big'o thing in and started it up. Within seconds the smoke alarm was going off from all the exhaust from the generator and I'm sure we were waking up our new neighbors. I told Brent to shut it down because we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow and we will get to the carpets as soon as we can. So we headed back to the townhome and tried to get a good nights rest.

Lunch at Blue Fish


Yummy Sunday roll

We splurged and got the dessert

At closing signing our life away


Keys to our new home!!!!

Walking into our new life together

Our first official guest: Mom, Dad, Bub, Michelle and...

Jerod



Thursday, September 16, 2010
Moving Day

Our busy day started off at 7am awaiting the arrival of our movers. Well, they didn't show up till 7:30am which ticked Brent off a little bit but nevertheless, they showed up and started moving right away. We had the movers scheduled for 3 hours but it ended up taking them till 2pm to get all our stuff moved from the townhome and into our new home. Good thing we hired the movers or else we would probably still be moving things days later. Once the movers left, we were starving so we jetted over to Popbelly's for a much needed sandwich. Soo good. After lunch, Brent and I parted ways and I took the van back to the townhome to get all the little stuff the movers didn't get and Brent went back home to get started on the carpets. He did an awesome job on them, now I know he is capable of cleaning!! As I was unloading the van, our neighbors to the left came out and I we chit chatted for a little while and got to know each other a little bit. I have already forgotten their names but they were really nice and had a 10 yr old daughter. Right after, Brad stopped by and was so excited for us. He helped us finish unloading the van as we waited for our pizza dinner to arrive. Pizza and moving totally go hand in hand. After dinner, Brad helped Brent put the master bed together then it was time for him to head home. We were pooped by the point, so we called it a night and spent our very first night in our new home!!

Time to move out of our townhome


Here come the movers finally

Thumbs up honey


Making progress

Brent sitting back taking it all in

Oh my gosh, we have so much stuff it seems like



Brent relifed his big hutch fit through the corner and into his office

I loaded this puppy all by myself

Pizza dinner

Getting the bed togethere


Friday, September 17, 2010
Let the fun of home ownership begin...

I woke up Friday morning and the first thing I saw was a pretty little red cardinal in my backyard perched on a tree with a cute white tailed bunny below him. I knew it was going to be a good day!! After breakfast, I got my cleaning supplies and headed to the townhome to give it a good cleaning before we had to turn in the keys. It took me way longer than I was expecting but I got the job done. Meanwhile, Brent stayed home and tried to hook up the washing machine and dryer and ended up short-circuiting the dryer. So that was the first of many problems that arised that day. Later the cable guy showed up to install our cable and he fortunately discovered that we had a very hot electrical box. Brent immediately called my brother and told him about it and he said it would be an easy fix but we needed to turn the electricity off so it could cool down before he could work on it. So, Brent called the electrical company and they informed us that it would be $175 to turn the electricity off and another $175 to turn it back on. To top that, Brent discovered that they had already charged us $175 to turn the electricity on in the first place when we moved in yesterday. I couldn't believe it...welcome to home ownership I guess. Dinner time was rolling around and my parents came out to take us out to eat and hear all about what was going on. We went to Chilli's and shared a chocolate dessert after dinner to calm our nerves. Brent said he would call our home warranty people the next day to get it figured out. So, that night my mom and I started working on removing shelf paper in our master bathroom and ended up working till 1am. We shared stories and talked girl talk for hours. They decided it was too late to drive home, so we had our first overnight guest in our new home!!

Brent and dad looking up how to fix a short-circuited dryer

My wonderful mom helping me remove dirty shelf paper


Saturday, September 18th, 2010
Roll up your sleeves and let's get to work...

Saturday morning came early and we were all up and ready to get to work. My mom got working on the guest bathroom removing more shelf paper, I got to work moving items into the rooms they belonged in and Brent and dad bought the dryer part they needed to fix the dryer as well as new filters for the air conditioning unit. Around 10am, Basset arrived and delivered our oh so comfy sectional for our second living area. It looked and felt just as I remembered in the store. Yay!!! That afternoon, Vicki and Dave came over and not empty handed I might add. They were so sweet, they bought us our first housewarming gift - a step stool for the kitchen!! I didn't even know how bad I needed one until I used it about 20 or more times that day. Good thinking Vicki & Dave. Vicki also made us a homemade lasagna for dinner with all the fixings and after eating out for the past few days, it was nice to eat a home cooked meal. We set up shop in the formal living surrounded by boxes but that didn't matter, we were all together and enjoy the moment. Vicki joined my mom and I in the kitchen removing more and more shelf paper and replacing it was my foamy liner that I like much better. It took us all evening but we got it done!! Meanwhile Brent, dad and Dave went and got our TV and got it all set up and working. Once that happened we lost the boys to the TV, they were done for the day. Later that night, John came by to see the house and he ended up loving our new sectional. We called it a night around 11pm, we were pooped to say the least!

Our couch is here!!!!

My good'o dad replacing our filters

Brent checking out my dad's handy work

Thank goodness ya'll fixed that dryer

Vicki ripped up a full piece of shelf paper, I wish they all came out in one piece

Our first home cooked meal

Thanks Vicki


Sunday, September 19, 2010
A Day of Birthday Celebrations

Brent and I decided to take a little break from moving and enjoy the day celebrating with our families for their birthdays. Kathy's birthday is on September 14th, John's birthday is on September 18th and Michelle's birthday is on September 19th. Lots of birthdays in 1 week. That morning Mindi texted and asked if she could come over to see the house and of course I was so excited to show her. She brought Logan and Hailey with her and it was so cute to watch the 2 of them walk around discovering something new. After giving Mindi the tour, I had to head out to Mesquite to meet up with my family at Salt Grass to celebrate Michelle's birthday. Salt Grass was so good and mom and I got to finally give Michelle her gift that we had bought months prior...a Cricut!! After lunch, I headed back to the house and found out that the electrician guy finally made it out to fix our little electrical problem that could have potentially burned our house down. Luckily he fixed it no problem and because he was a day late in coming, we didn't have to pay for the service fee!! Yay!! When he left Brent and I both took a 3 hour nap...much needed indeed. I got up and started to get ready for John's birthday dinner at Dos Rios in Richardson. But before we headed out, Brad brought Jessie by to see our home. She loved it and can't wait for us to have our house-warming party...me too!! We all headed to the restaurant and had a great time sharing stories and catching up with John and Kathy's side of the family. Brent and Brad enjoyed a few drinks and John got some interesting presents. Oh, he was turning 60 by the way. After dinner, Brent and I called it a night and went straight to bed.

At Salt Grass for Michelle's B-Day

What is it, what is it??

Hope you like your new Cricut

John's Birthday Dinner

What a cute couple

Quick pic with the bro and Jessie

What could this possibly be...

A peeing stick, never seen that one before

John giving it a try

Of course Brent couldn't resist


Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Nice little surprise

I had to start back at work this week after being off for 7 whole days and it was such a pleasant surprise when I came home on Wednesday evening and found these cute pumpkins hanging out in my flower pot in the backyard. It actually scared me at first cause I saw them out of the corner of my eye and I thought someone was in my backyard. I had to make a few phone calls to find out who the mystery person was and it ended up being sweet Grams. She bought these for Brent and I and didn't know when she would be able to give them to us, so she had Vicki take them to give to us. Well Vicki thought it would be cute to set them in our backyard and let me find them. So sweet them two. Thanks again Grams, we love our little pumpkins!!