James Ray Herring III
aka "Tripp"
Born: January 17th, 2013
Time: 4:39 am
Weight: 7lb 2oz
Status: Heartbreaker
Courtney went into labor on Wednesday the 16th, so I made the trek to sit and wait (for 15 hours!) for this cutie to arrive. He is beautiful, I know not everyone appreciates when people make baby posts, but this little man is worth talking about. He is my beautiful best friend, Courtney's baby and I have loved him since from the moment his conception was confirmed.
From here
To Here
And Finally Here.
Congratulations Courtney and James. This little boy is going to be spoiled by so many people. Particularly his Aunt Kasey. Love you guys!!
Another little announcement before I move onto regularly scheduled blogging....
I say this a lot, but my boyfriend is just the bee's knees. While I was away with Courtney in Kings Bay... He bought me a present... I really big, undeniably cool present.
Some background.... Last February, Brian expanded our entrepreneurial ventures to include buying and selling a couple cars. In August we bought a 1987 300ZX that had seen much better days. I loved the car, despite its apparent "jank" status. While dissembling this once road worthy vehicle, we learned that it is the most jumbled mess in the world. You have to take off everything to get to anything! Nevertheless, it is a pretty cool car...
And it made us a lot of money.
While I was gone... Brian bought me my very own...
It is a 1986 and it is a 5 speed (Woo, yeah for learning to drive a stick) and it needs some work, but I love it already. Brian is not particularly romantic, but this was such a hugely sweet and thoughtful thing... It is something that I would have never bought on my own. What makes it at least DOUBLY thoughtful is that he got it so that we could work on it together. We don't get a lot of quality time, and sometimes it is hard to sit back and enjoy ourselves, so this will be a great, if frustrating project. We DID manage to get it home by driving it, but that was an adventure in and of itself. Hopefully, we can find the time and patience to make this car something I am proud of. Thank you Brian, you are my favorite.
Now that I have thoroughly digressed from the topic at hand, lets look at the last 8 months.
Brian and I officially became home owners on May 24th, 2012. It was an incredibly exciting day and one that had been a long time in the making. Noteworthy: We could not have done this without the help of Kim and Frank Margittai. Thanks for the faith, you are helping draw our future road map.
Our official move in day was to be June 10th, that is when we were ending the lease on our apartment. So, we had just over two weeks to make the house move in ready.
Most people would probably celebrate, or clean, or start packing. We are not conventional like that, the first thing that we did after taking over the keys...? Cut a nice big hole in the bay window walls with a reciprocating saw.
Why you ask? The first item on our agenda was to deal with.....Termites! Luckily for us, they were not that bad, although we will probably replace a couple beams when we {eventually} replace the siding on the house, as they will be fully exposed then. Brian got his first try at drywalling, and we added the first item of "what not to do" onto our list, and that would be, assume that the people at Lowes are correct when talking about standards for drywall on an outer wall... We realized too late that our dry wall was 5/8 inches and not 1/2 inch... We now have a caliper for these things.
What next on day one? Rip out all of the flooring of course. There was vinyl in the kitchen and entry way and carpet everywhere else. The carpet was relatively new, but I am not a carpet person, stains, pets and smells. No thanks.
The pictures look nice and neat, but this was work. I was literally installing the last of the kitchen flooring as the boys were bringing over the first load of furniture. It was hot and hard and a huge learning process. I scraped glue from the floors, for hours... We also ripped up carpet nail boards and had to grind down nails protruding from the concrete. We learned to hate door jambs and handymen..and floor layers...and vapor barrier and everything to do with the project. We became well learned in coping saws, circular saws, cut off tools and miter saws... we now own all of these tools. David helped a lot and Shane was great too. My flooring is laminate, but I love the pattern it makes and think it is beautiful, if less durable than I had hoped. We have since decided that hard wood will be the flooring of choice for our own home, and probably a more durable vinyl/wood substitute for any rentals. I still love my floors though.
Looking back, we (I mostly mean me, but Brian was a great sport) may have been a little enthusiastic as to what we could take on in two weeks, but we managed and I love our decisions and the sweat (no ac! and in the middle of the summer!) and frustration that went into shaping our home.
As much as Brian was dying to make the decision... {maybe not really}...he allowed me to pick out the paint colors...and paint the entire house..by myself... with little exception. This is one of the many projects in the house that is still underway, however, the downstairs is complete, with the exception of a couple of touch ups. My kitchen is a wonderful light sagey green and the living room is a rich toupe that is warm but not too dark, I did the entry way and stairway in a lighter shade of this same color.
What else have we done? The floors, yes, but what about those stairs?
I am totally into photo collages today, as I have so many to share. Brian and I debated for a LONG time about what to do with the stairs.... It was going to be incredibly expensive to buy premade stair caps ($500 +) and we would have still had to stain them. They make stair noses that we could have attached our laminate to, but that seemed kind of flimsy, and I didn't like the process. FINALLY, Brian found our solution.
Hidden in the "Glutton for Punishment" section of Lowes (we seriously need a frequent shopper discount) were stairs treads and wood that we could turn into risers. We painstakingly measured, at least three times, each stair tread and riser and cut them to size... On that note... one would think that houses would be made in a square and orderly fashion. I can tell you from first hand experience, that at least in the 80's, that was not a priority. Our walls are not straight, our floors are not even, and our stairs are not all exactly the same. Anyways, next we painted the risers white and I stained and polyurethened the stairs. They do not match the floor perfectly, but they look great. Oh, and this project only cost us $230... A vast improvement over buying the premade kind.
I love details. I think that they can make a space look great. A detail in our home that immediately struck a sour note for me was the outlets and switches in our home. As per 80's fashion, they were all ALMOND. This works for some people, I do not like it... I think it looks dingy and dirty. So, although perfectly functional, we replaced all of the outlets and switches in our house with crisp white ones. I personally think it makes a big impact against my freshly painted walls. I am pretty sure Brian is just glad I am happy with it.
Remember those details? Well, in addition to lovely almond outlets, this house came with some pretty ghastly light fixtures too. However, I am all about thrift and the idea of dropping $100 or more on a light fixture just does not appeal to me. I have a rather large collection of light fixtures thanks to our weekly garage saling, but most of them are for the bathrooms.
In the dining room, our lovely contractors installed this relic:
This might work some people. I am not those people. Luckily, good things come to those who wait. Brian and I went to a garage sale that we probably would have skipped if we had already been more successful that weekend. We struck light fixture gold. A woman was selling a piece of track lighting that was not only unopened, but also $10. We told her we wanted it, and she asked "How many".... and then produced two more from the house. That is $30 for $200 worth of lighting.
This is a change that I can live with.
I do not have pictures at the moment, but we added a ton of shelving, to our laundry room, closet and David's room.
The next item makes me cringe: The kitchen. This is a sore topic for me. I began my kitchen project in....AUGUST...it is now...January...it is still not complete. Lets take a look at the 80's veneer that was put over perfectly wonderful solid wood cabinets:
Brian and David LIKED this. How did I convince Brian that it was ugly? I painted the Kitchen green, which definitely changed his mind. I think this is very farm-housy...and totally not my taste. So, what was my vision for this space? White cabinets with nickel hardware. Well. First, we took down all of the cabinets and removed the hardware... Mistake number one. We then primed OVER the veneer with a "can stick to anything primer" at the advice of a person at a paint store...That was mistake number two. We then used quality paint and painted all 33 cabinets. Mistake number three? We used rollers and I had never heard of floetrol. Mistake number 4? Attempting to install and hang cabinets back up with new hardware. The hinges LOOK identical, but they are slightly different. This is still a problem that we will need to fix down the road. However. I am now sanding all of my cabinets with a belt sander, because, to say the least, the finished product was pretty horrific. It would not be a big deal to sand the cabinets, except... Remember that primer I used? Well, it does not like being sanded off. I have been stalling on this project and I really need to get back to work on it. For now, here is a picture of my messy, unfinished kitchen.
I think the vision is good, but the completion is a long ways off. I also intend to get a silver range hood, and do a back splash in glass tiles. More pictures when I have a better product.
Moving away from my shameful kitchen....
I talked earlier about being appalled at the idea of spending hundreds of dollars of thing at retail stores. What that translates to: I am cheap and my house has been mismatched and unfurnished for months. Not so anymore. I furnished my entire living room and dining room second hand, with the exception of one piece. It took a LONG time because I wanted it to still look a certain way, without breaking the bank.
Here it is:
Wall Sconces: $6
Table: $70
Bar stools: Free
Lighting: $10
Bar: the ONLY retail thing, $150 (and I love it, I love that it is affixed to the wall and fills the space this way)
Pillars: $4 on clearance
Sectional (not a great picture): $350
Coffee Table: $25
Entertainment Center: $50
T.V.: $125
DVD holder: $5
Everything is not finished yet, BUT, it is getting there. I need something for over my mantle, the wire piece is just a place holder. I also want to do some canvas panels for artwork and some floating shelves. The living room is shaping up nicely, and feels so much more like a HOME. And, I am proud of the budget for doing it. My coffee table, pictured without the metal insert, is actually an awesome handmade coffee table from Mexico that someone sold us. It has a metal firepit in the middle that I am {add to the project list} sanding down and repainting.
Future projects.... I have envisioned a built in in this space since I saw the house:
(only picture I have for a blank pallet!)
It took some convincing, but I have brought Brian into my plans and my way of thinking. I recently drew up the plans for said built in. It has several goals to accomplish: Hide a three foot wide tool bench, be a work space, provide shelving and storage, and to hide our filing cabinets and what not. I think that this space will be great for when we eventually rent out and sell this place. It gives our 2 bedroom home a designated office space without relinquishing much living space.
Here are the plans:
It will either be in espresso or black and will be simplistic from the outside, but, mask our needs on the inside. I want two inch thick wood, so it is strong and bold and sturdy. Above the desk we will have a light bar with little pot lights and we intend to install the outlets at the top of the desk for easy access. This is a project I HOPE to under take this year. My drawings are to scale and Brian and I both like the design. {But I am definitely not opposed to input}
This year has not been as productive as we had hoped, but we have still come a long ways from what our home originally was. I am proud of it and I love to talk about it...obviously. Big things that I want to happen this year: My built in, replace all the remaining, oudated light fixtures, re-do the bathrooms, finish the kitchen, paint all of the trim in the house, (this has not been done because I will have to first sand down ALL the door jambs and moldings) re-do the siding and windows.
Between the outlets and the light fixtures, I think we can add "electricians" to our list of amateur skills, as well as carpenters, painters, and bad cabinet hangers. And we have gained a vast knowledge of a LOT of different tools. It has been a fun, if challenging year, and I hope to have tons more to post in this next year.
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