Holiday Spirit

Well, last year David and I went to my dad's house in Asheville to pick and cut out own Christmas tree. We found this beautiful tree and it lasted for months. This year I was a little bummed that we would not be able to cut down our tree and that we probably would not have one at all. We knew putting a six foot heavy tree in the sunroom would be a bad idea because we would likely have to shove this thing around as we finished up the walls in there. So we found a tree top tree that was the perfect solution. it is about 3 feet tall and will be able to move around as we need access to the walls. I love having the real tree in the house and it is just enough Christmas tree spirit to our demo house.

My mom made the observation that there is plenty of room under this mini tree for gifts in small boxes...hint hint!
We also got a live wreath for the front of the house to add a little somethin to the house. love it!

look at those doggies in the window!

Funny dog pictures. Banks all stretched out sleeping and David with the dogs who are NOT allowed on the couch. Brooks is such a snuggler.

Scary Closet

David and his dad knocked out this project in about a day and they did a really great job! Behind the fireplace David wanted to add a doorway to create an electronics closet so we can hang a TV over the fireplace and have all the components hidden inside. He had the great idea to keep a skinny door and its frame intact from the master bathroom linen closet we gutted. So we reused it in the hallway and created his closet.

  

see all the scary stuff in there? wires and ducts for the fire place. it is not a pretty closet but it really is big and will be a perfect place to hide all the cable boxes and wireless stuff. Now my house as a tv closet, I really cannot complain about adding closets...keep em coming!

 He even added flooring to the gap on the floor where that wall was! What a great guy I have.

 David had the challenge of having to cut drywall to fit the gap on the ceiling and cap off the corner of the wall. it really looks nice and it is another project to check off the list. we are close to having all the dry wall hung so we can get someone in to mud and tape the walls, refinish the ceilings and then we can PAINT!

Got a new Tahoe & then we got a rental car...

This is the fancy new Tahoe that we had for about 10 days and then one morning David was stopped at a red light and a woman plowed into him. The witnesses and cops estimate she was going about 45 miles per hour when she hit David. It did not appear that she even touched her breaks. They hit so hard it knocked the spare tire from under the Tahoe off and David said it was laying in front of the car. Luckily no one was coming through the intersection and David was first at the light so he did not hit anyone although is car was pushed about 30 yards forward. She broke her leg, toes and had to have surgery but is recovering and very fortunate that no other medical issues were caused. The Tahoe has about 4,500.00 worth of damages to the lift gate, bumper and exhaust.

She does not have insurance. Wonderful.

After the wreck we picked up the rental car and headed up to watch the Panthers lose to the Ravens. we had great seats and a lot of fun! I got to meet up with my maid of honor Erin to do some tailgating and catching up! it was great to see her and our Charlotte friends too!

I will admit that forward progress has slowed on the house but we have gotten to have a little fun, a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Bullocks a boat ride on the Reel Jim to watch Flotilla in Wrightsville Beach and I have gotten my first DIY wedding project done and out to all my girls!

Tom.The.Turkey.

I passed a big milestone in my life this weekend. I cooked my first turkey! After years and years of watching, eating and celebrating all that is Thanksgiving I had never actually taken part in the turkey prep. Our neighborhood has a big Thanksgiving social every year and this year we volunteered to donate and cook a turkey (side note-David got elected onto the board of our neighborhood HOA and that same weekend he said "sure" to us preparing a turkey)

Well, he buys a 13 pound frozen turkey and put it in our fridge to thaw and we go about our week as usual. Friday I painfully realized three things...
#1: David has to work on Saturday from 10-3
#2: Turkey needs to be put in at about 1:00PM
#3: I will have to prepare and cook Tom by myself. YIKES!

OUR first turkey in the new house, of our relationship, and in my life I have to figure out on my own...this means I am a nervous wreck over this dumb bird!
The "thanksgiving day" went down like this, 8:30 pull the turkey out to realize it is still frozen (wonderful) we begin its warm soak. I go to our great amazing life saving friends (parents) house to hang out before getting my last minute groceries and they give me an awesome turkey roasting pan to start my journey. I get home with my pan and my supplies around 12:30 to discover this damn bird is still freezing. Alone, freaking and positive I am single handily about to poison the neighborhood I call David who also some what freaks and tells me to call his mother. I talked to his mother then to mine and they both walked me through the process (thank god)  I found the neck and pulled it out, I also found the little bag of gross goodies and almost yacked into the turkey. I would have called it stuffing but I got through it, cleaned it and put that sucker in the oven.

This is our pale strange looking turkey even the dogs weren't interested in begging for Tom yet, that all changed once he got into into the oven and started tanning.

Tom getting his tan on about 2 hours in...

  Here he is all cooked and tan and Oh.My.God. delicious! We loaded him up and carted him to our social where I stood nervously wondering how he would cut and serve and taste. I may have played my cooking card to soon, I fear that now I will have to supply social dinner staples from now on based on how well may very first turkey tasted. I probably should have botched it so that they would not expect much from me or would never ask me to cook again! No, I knocked it out of the park and I am super excited to have done my first turkey well. 

How he still has 10 toes is beyond me!

Boys and their toys...This monster was wheeled through my kitchen and David was beyond excited to begin tearing up the master bathroom floor

WAIT! HOLD THE PHONE. I wish I could make this up. I am typing away watching David hammer the edge of the wall we took down in the entry way. He just asked me to please hold the ladder because he had his finger stuck in the wall...HUH? Is this my life? Hold the ladder so I can pull my hand out of this wall honey. sigh.

here is the jackhammer episode of my life.

yes yes it is...I am actually planning on marring this stud muffin. Work boots, mesh shorts, white tee that's my boy!






Hey sneaky brats! What is this world coming too?

Home Sweet Home?

Let me explain the delay in blogging...I COULD NOT LOCATE MY COMPUTER. By Sunday October 31st we were so over moving that I seriously backed my truck up to the front door of the rental and began chucking things into it. No rhyme or reason just get it out of that house and into the other one! We live in the guest bedroom, the kitchen, we have a mini family room set up and the rest is...

IN THE GARAGE...

please note the spare bedroom, office, weight bench, fans, oh! Christmas tree stand. Its all in there somewhere. There was no room for the bike gang. they have a sweet sweet net house on the back porch, and to think David wanted to rip that thing down...where would our poor bikes sleep?

sweet entertainment center huh?

the moving crew takes a nap...

dinning room meets home office meets kitchen.

well, these pictures were taken on Saturday. By 6:15 pm on Sunday you could no longer see the counter, table, "desk" and most of the floor. This lasted until I came home from work to find the dogs had begun eating the drywall and spread it willy nilly all over the house. Thus beginning the massive clean up fit.

ShopVac

What is this wonderful thing and why have I not owned one in 24 years? David's parents showed up with this amazing contraption to help us with out clean out, clean up as we move.

This weekend we switched front doors. Behold the door she picked out. Please note this door costs $590.00 at Home Depot (we checked it out while we were buying the new far less expensive door we put up)

really? Ew? ok moving on...check out the new door, we are going to paint it black to match the light, numbers and add black shutters next to the window after we tear that out too when we redo the kitchen! David's momma planted the front flower box with the indestructible monkey grass! Note the MSU gnome out front! GO STATE! also, the black dog mat made the journey down the street to the new house!

Check out our curb appeal!
Now, moving inside we added the wall to the guest room sealing it off from the sun room...

inside~ check the new fan and the wall David and his dad built! we will live in this room until the master bedroom (and my awesome closet) are finished!

here it is from the sun room! We figured for resale and for privacy we should wall it in so that we can have proper company and a party in the sun room at the same time! : )
OH! check out the appliances in the kitchen! we did the ol'switch-er-roo! moved our appliances from the rental and it spruced the place right up! David's mom cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom and I think we will have our first real dinner at the new house this week (after we move the dining room table of course)

and look at the "new" dinning room light! Next is the view from were the couch in the living room will be you can see the new door, mantel, kitchen it is a nice view of the house we OWN!

You gotta appreciate the small things...the beginnings of David's "man zone" I changed th curtains because I despise mini blinds.

we got some major cleaning done, some walls in, some packing done & one week left to complete the switch. Lets hope it goes smoothly...

blurrrrrrr

Well, as the line between demolition and destruction blurs right before my eyes there are a few wedding things I had to tackle. I have picked a wedding planner (who I adore) and I have picked my girls (also adore). Last night I asked two (YES TWO) of my bestest pals to be my maid of honor.
I knew that everyone would say yes but I was nervous to ask these wonderful girls to be in my wedding. David of course BAM BAM BAM had his list and his dudes asked the night we got engaged (guys sigh) I on the other hand knew who I wanted to stand beside me on my big day but wasn't sure how to ask...is there an etiquette about this? I am pretty sure I did it wrong?! Anyway, I wanted to ask everyone in person which I accomplished with my high school girls Whitney and Jenni while they were in Wrightsville for labor day (they said YES YES and we proceeded to drink 29387273 bottles of Andre) perfect!
Then I saw Kate in Charlotte shortly after we got engaged and as we were thumbing through the bridal mags she got me I asked her to be my maid! ha She squealed yes and we hugged it out!
Welp, I called my step sis and asked her too and she said HOORAY YES! ok got it!
We had a big weekend in early Oct where we started the demo and then had a big brunch with my mom, stepdad Pat and dad, stepmom Billie and David's parents and also Lindsey (wp) and her hubby Gray! I was nervous about HER meeting my parents I told her I felt like we were dating and I had to introduce her to the family! Phew everyone loved each other and we visited a venue on Wrightsville Beach that I adore...my #1 choice. (info to come about that once we get it finalized)
I had to call Erin and Taryn because I was bursting at the seams!! Erin is my college roommate and fellow MD native. We ran together and lived together for 2 years of college. We have been through tons and I am thrilled and blessed to have her in my life. Taryn and I were freshman year roommates in the dorms and I was in her wedding Aug 2009. She is my closest married pal and I am expecting lots of married life advice (not really). I am going to call David's "sister"-childhood friend this weekend to join my crazy group of maids and then my group is complete I really feel like it is a great mix of high school girls with college girls, sisters and after college "adult" friendships. It will be a very fun supportive group and I am so excited.
We have the wedding party picked out, the venue we love and a wonderful planner-our two year engagement seems to be off to a great start!
BACK TO DEMO LAND I GO!
we bought a new front door tonight, we have dry wall to hang, and I have so much to start moving this weekend. Deep breaths as we toe the line between demo and destruction...am I really going to move into our "new" house? here goes nothin...

T.G.I.F-U Thursday!

This has really been the week from hell. I had a minor freak out about the fact that our life of having two houses is over in a mere 10 days. Here are just a few more pictures of our demo adventures...there used to be sliding glass doors in this hole. we have framed it in to make this the back wall of the master bedroom. Andrew in there is finishing up the frame for pocket door that goes to the WALK IN CLOSET the boys built me! I am so spoiled-the room is a rectangle shape and we were trying to figure out where/how to hang a tv etc...solution? my new 6 ft x 11 ft walk in closet!! once complete you will walk through the closet into the master bath located behind Andrew and to the right. HEAVEN!

Its the little things in life...check out my new fancy light switches! and no more hanging wires! this is the entry way to the house. It is so much more open that open door is the master and there is Andrew again working away on my closet! (can you tell I love my closet? I need more Tory's to fill it-Don't tell David)

oh hello girls! how do you like the new house? Banks says yes...Brooks looks hungry. the usual!
Also-I forgot to mention one GIANT task on the new house check list...it wasn't that huge to me but David was obsessed with correcting the popcorn ceilings. Right? most people would never notice but Mr. Bullock tackled this project with a fury!

 Ta-da! smooth ceilings (for a boy who loves popcorn he sure hated this popcorn!) CHECK!

Demo House

It is a two bedroom two and a half bath with a fenced in yard on the end of the cul de sac.

Here she is in all her glory! Van is not ours, beach cruisers ARE ours!

Objectives to complete before we live there full time:

1: Knock out entry way wall

CHECK!

#2: take up the floor in the sunroom...

 CHECK!

this is the solid oak beautiful floor we tore out of the sunroom on the house. we ripped it up not knowing what was under it. the middle picture is my excitement to find glazed brick floors! the story behind taking up this beautiful floor is that the handicap woman who owned the house before us build a platform/stage over the brick sunroom so it would be wheelchair accessible. unfortunately for us, it made us very close to the ceiling, ceiling fans, and the door fame was about an inch above the top of my head. That floor had to come down. Happily it is going to Annapolis to be the family room floor at my parents house! 

10.13.=L.O.V.E.

Well, talk about a count down! In two years I will be the Mrs. to a Mr. and that is very exciting and sort of frightening. Two years seems like such a long time but with the way the months have been flying by lately I fear that I may blink and it will be Oct 2012. I will do some demo photo posting tonight but I just wanted to take a moment to recognize the day and give a little cheer to 10.13.12.
tata