Spare bedroom
Office
Master bath
Back deck
Cute little shed (matches the house)
Front of home (obviously)
Front door
Front of home (obviously)
Front door
Thursday, June 25, 2009
More House Pictures
...and, no, not as in that TV show doctor, although I do watch it sometimes.
Spare bedroom
Office
Master bath
Back deck
Spare bedroom
Office
Master bath
Back deck
A Home with a Backyard :)
Jason making a hole for our mailbox!!!
*Sigh* It's so nice to have a home with a backyard. Jason and I were so fortunate to find a house in our price range, rennovated so we didn't have to do much of anything, and lo and behold by some miracle most, if not all, our furnishings and accessories matches the paint scheme of the house and decor in the bathroom. Girls you know what I'm talking about, I think guys could care less. Jason's mom came down last Saturday and spent that day and Sunday with us. Then my mom came Sunday afternoon to help with the decorating. She's a task master...thank goodness for her help otherwise I'd be sitting on the couch not wanting to touch another box or hang another curtain!!!
Several things we did...organize stuff, hang pictures, hang curtains and plant flowers, oh! and took A LOT of boxes to the dumpster.
We hung a lot of curtains and had some mini crises over it. It was imparitive to have curtains in the eastern most rooms because that's where all the light comes in in the morning thus heating up the rooms like an oven. They also are the furthest from the AC unit therefore taking longer to cool down. Our first major investment into "fixing" the house will probably come in the fall when we have to have blown insulation in our attic, wrap the air ducts with insulation and put in two whirlybirds on top of the house so the ventilation will be better. Ahhh, the things we learn when owning a house. I can't wait for our first electric bill. I think we will have to sit down to open it. Our house payment is much lower than what our apartment rent was, but I have a feeling that other bills and "house projects" such as the attic will help offset the savings. That's ok! We don't have to drive 35 minutes one way to work. It's more like 5 minutes!!! WOOT WOOT!
Curtain Mishap Story: So we had to drive to Ardmore to pick up a few things and get some pictures framed that we've been waiting to do for a LONG time...these are things you can't do in Sulphur (or haven't looked yet). The Wal-Mart in Sulphur is very small and doesn't carry enough stock and variety. So on to the slightly better Wal-Mart in Ardmore. We found more curtains that were PERFECT for the living room and dining room and extras for the two small bedrooms. When we got home, Mom was like, "Let's do this thing!" So I'm measuring and drilling holes to anchor the screws and my arm is getting tired. Ok, we got the brackets for the rod in place, now all we got to do is hang the rod. Whoops! The brackets are spaced too far apart and the rod won't reach. There was a small debate on getting a longer rod or just redrilling holes for the brackets closer so the rod can reach. We chose the latter. Mom gave some good advice...if you mess up something, it can be fixed. Fortunately I had some spackeling and filled the holes but haven't painted over them yet. Ok...so on to the new holes to drill for anchoring the screws. Remember my arm is tired? Well I had the drill at a wierd angle and was pushing probably too hard and I broke my drill bit. I was standing on the bench with a horrid look on my face and Mom is like: "It's allright, it's allright, we can fix it!" So after a taking a mental and physical break we fixed it. The curtains in the living room are beautiful. And of course the last set of curtains we hung over the doors to the deck were the best because we were pros by that time.
Some Pics:
Living Room Curtains (apply mishap story)
Looking into kitchen from living room
Dining area
Pros and Cons about living in a small town:
Looking into kitchen from living room
- Con: It's small...I'm definitely used to a bigger city with all amenities...such as a Target...I miss Target AND Bed Bath and Beyond.
- Pro: People are soooo much more friendly here!! The State Farm lady alone sold me on living in a small town. Others in our house hunting/closing have reaffirmed that.
- Con or Pro, you decide: I think in the week and a half we've been here we've seen at least 20 of our students.
- Pro: Commute is awesome.
- Pro: The environment is awesome. It's not flat in Sulphur. It's hilly and has a wonderful National Park with hiking trails. Biking could be a problem...maybe. Two nice lakes that we've found so far. It's got a lot of trees too.
- Con: The name Sulphur... There's a reason for it though. It's because of the sulphur springs (which used to be the city's name). I would have voted to change the name back to Sulphur Springs but apparently the towns folk didn't approve. Yes, it does stink in some areas. Particularly at the sulphur spring near downtown. Too bad the city wasn't named Siloam or Hot Springs...oh well!!!
- Pro and Con: Word gets around...everybody doesn't know everybody, but it sure is close. A neighbor a few houses down from us knew we were teachers when we told him. Scary!!
So that's all I'm going to say about that, except that having a home with a backyard is sublime. However, I wish I could enjoy being outdoors without sweating and slapping misquitos. I will say that my backyard is perfect for having a sprinkler so little girls and boys can come over and play!!!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Living the dream!!!
Well folks...it's official...we've finally moved in to a house. YAY!!!!!! It has been a crazy mess and apparently it's still not over...joy!! Here's how it went down:
We were originally supposed to close on Friday, June 12 at 1pm. Ok. No problem...we were ready. Then a few phone calls and emails later, they called back and said we needed to close on June 17th. (they being the bank) Uh, noooooo....the bank said we could go ahead and close that Friday plus we had to move out of our apartment that weekend! So we sent the bank scrambling and they were able to keep the original closing date. So we go to close and it takes the sellers about 2 seconds to sign their paperwork...we walk in and there's a stack a mile high of what I'm only assuming what we should read and sign and initial...blah, blah, blah... First things first, however, the closing costs. We were quoted a cost and were prepared for that but when she showed us the actual cost it was almost $1,000 more. WHAT!!!! so needless to say we juggled some numbers to bring it down and were calling bank people left and right saying "what the heck?" Well after we did the juggling, "they" said "they" have to redo the paperwork and won't be able to have it ready until Monday. Ok. Monday rolls around and "they" call back and said it won't be until this Wednesday at 10am that the papers will be ready. It better be because the locked in interest rate expires that day!!! And boy did we get a good one!
So closing has been a nightmare, moving was a nightmare...we had wonderful people helping us, but with Jason working half a day and me doing other things, we didn't get everything packed the way I wanted to...that's ok! It worked out and we are moved and it is awesome!!! The house is a mess of course but we now have cable and internet so we're good to go. (Got that yesterday!) I've got the kitchen the way I want it...and the cabinet space is to die for!!! (Probably not but it is WAY better than what we had). ALSO! I now have a pantry for food to be placed in. In the apartment, there was nothing. I had to buy shelves to put the food on and ran out of space so much that it was spilling out to the ground... That's in the past, though!!! Speaking of pantries. I already have a house story.
Yesterday I was rearranging furniture in the guest bedroom and heard a noise and I thought oh, it might be a cockroach or something...I went to the kitchen with the flyswatter and then went to the pantry where I saw some previous movement. Opened the door and a MOUSE jumped out and attacked me!!!! Ok, well, it didn't attack me, it actually ran in one direction and I shouted and ran in the other direction. So I immediately went to Wal-Mart and bought two different mouse traps and some roach baits (you never know). The first mouse trap I used was not the traditional trap but it did snap and sort of hid the mouse once trapped. Cool, I wouldn't have to look at the poor thing when disposing of it. I set two of them using peanut butter as bait, stepped back and watched. Not a minute later Squeaky came up to the trap and stood there. I couldn't tell if he was debating whether or not to get the PB or he was actually eating it off the trap...I was thinking to my self, "Ok, any second, it's going to snap." It never did...so I checked both traps and Squeaky swiped all the PB off the traps without them going off!! Son of a gun!!! On to trap two! It was a glue trap with "professional strength" glue for catching mice. Is there a semi-pro or just regular folks mouse glue I haven't heard of? Anyway, I stuck a bit of PB on the sticky trap and set it down...not a minute later did Squeaky try it and got stuck! I was watching and immediately felt awful. He was desperately trying to get away and squeaking at the same time. I kept on yelling "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!!" but that didn't really sooth him. So that was yesterday, and the mouse is still alive but stuck and I'm waiting for it to die. I'm afraid if I put it outside, something is going to try to get it and get stuck as well (remember the professional strength glue). So it's still in my kitchen and I check the mouse every once in awhile for breathing. That's my first major house story! I'm sure many more are to come as a houseowner. We're living the dream, people!!!
If ya'll would like our new address, please email me! Hopefully we'll get our new mailbox put up today (the previous owners didn't have one!!!)
Cheers!
Jessica
We were originally supposed to close on Friday, June 12 at 1pm. Ok. No problem...we were ready. Then a few phone calls and emails later, they called back and said we needed to close on June 17th. (they being the bank) Uh, noooooo....the bank said we could go ahead and close that Friday plus we had to move out of our apartment that weekend! So we sent the bank scrambling and they were able to keep the original closing date. So we go to close and it takes the sellers about 2 seconds to sign their paperwork...we walk in and there's a stack a mile high of what I'm only assuming what we should read and sign and initial...blah, blah, blah... First things first, however, the closing costs. We were quoted a cost and were prepared for that but when she showed us the actual cost it was almost $1,000 more. WHAT!!!! so needless to say we juggled some numbers to bring it down and were calling bank people left and right saying "what the heck?" Well after we did the juggling, "they" said "they" have to redo the paperwork and won't be able to have it ready until Monday. Ok. Monday rolls around and "they" call back and said it won't be until this Wednesday at 10am that the papers will be ready. It better be because the locked in interest rate expires that day!!! And boy did we get a good one!
So closing has been a nightmare, moving was a nightmare...we had wonderful people helping us, but with Jason working half a day and me doing other things, we didn't get everything packed the way I wanted to...that's ok! It worked out and we are moved and it is awesome!!! The house is a mess of course but we now have cable and internet so we're good to go. (Got that yesterday!) I've got the kitchen the way I want it...and the cabinet space is to die for!!! (Probably not but it is WAY better than what we had). ALSO! I now have a pantry for food to be placed in. In the apartment, there was nothing. I had to buy shelves to put the food on and ran out of space so much that it was spilling out to the ground... That's in the past, though!!! Speaking of pantries. I already have a house story.
Yesterday I was rearranging furniture in the guest bedroom and heard a noise and I thought oh, it might be a cockroach or something...I went to the kitchen with the flyswatter and then went to the pantry where I saw some previous movement. Opened the door and a MOUSE jumped out and attacked me!!!! Ok, well, it didn't attack me, it actually ran in one direction and I shouted and ran in the other direction. So I immediately went to Wal-Mart and bought two different mouse traps and some roach baits (you never know). The first mouse trap I used was not the traditional trap but it did snap and sort of hid the mouse once trapped. Cool, I wouldn't have to look at the poor thing when disposing of it. I set two of them using peanut butter as bait, stepped back and watched. Not a minute later Squeaky came up to the trap and stood there. I couldn't tell if he was debating whether or not to get the PB or he was actually eating it off the trap...I was thinking to my self, "Ok, any second, it's going to snap." It never did...so I checked both traps and Squeaky swiped all the PB off the traps without them going off!! Son of a gun!!! On to trap two! It was a glue trap with "professional strength" glue for catching mice. Is there a semi-pro or just regular folks mouse glue I haven't heard of? Anyway, I stuck a bit of PB on the sticky trap and set it down...not a minute later did Squeaky try it and got stuck! I was watching and immediately felt awful. He was desperately trying to get away and squeaking at the same time. I kept on yelling "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!!" but that didn't really sooth him. So that was yesterday, and the mouse is still alive but stuck and I'm waiting for it to die. I'm afraid if I put it outside, something is going to try to get it and get stuck as well (remember the professional strength glue). So it's still in my kitchen and I check the mouse every once in awhile for breathing. That's my first major house story! I'm sure many more are to come as a houseowner. We're living the dream, people!!!
If ya'll would like our new address, please email me! Hopefully we'll get our new mailbox put up today (the previous owners didn't have one!!!)
Cheers!
Jessica
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Well that was dumb: part II
Well, yes I did something dumb...again...no TMI though.
Every spring/summer I look forward to the warmth and being outside. I love it!!! This past weekend Jason and I went to Comanche for Jason's Mom's birthday. Ruth had the boys and so it was a big get together. Devon and Bryce (nephews) had each double header baseball games that Saturday starting at 9am. Well we didn't get there until 9:45 but Bryce hadn't finished his first game so we all cheered, etc.... I wore a shirt with no sleeves and long pants (I thought we would be going out that night). Can you guess where this is heading? Well double headers mean long games and I stayed out in the sun way too long. Was there an offer of sunscreen? Yes...and I put some on my forearms to even out the farmer's tan I was already getting from riding my bike. But I didn't put any on my upper arms. That's where the dumb comes in....Ruth and Cliff were like, you definitely need to sit in the shade, now!! I said ok. I did and so did Jason. Now we both look like Lobster man and woman from Mars. Jason's face is completely red except where his cool looking sunglasses were on his face. The upper portion of my upper arms have tiny blisters on it. Every so often I'm putting Ocean Potion on for soothing purposes.
I texted Ruth to never let me say no to sunscreen. You'd think I'd learn from all the other bad experiences I've had...but noooooooooooo!
The other thing was the wind at the ball field. It was ridiculously crazy!!! The bad thing was the wind was blowing in our faces across the ball field and dust and dirt were flying in our faces. I brought a towel to sit on but I used it to shield my face. It didn't work that well. When I cleaned my face with wet naps there was dust all over...it looked like I had washed off all my makeup...I didn't even have any on!! When we finally got home after 6 hours at the ball field, I was cleaning out my ears with q-tips and in my right ear was literally tons of fine dirt in there. It was so gross!
Anyway...there's another dumb story and I this time I'm paying for it with pain. Stay tuned I'm sure there will be another dumb story coming up soon.
In other news....I've been packing up a storm here in the apartment anticipating the move this weekend. I'm excited and for some reason I like packing. I don't know why but I do... It's because I love organizing, I think. When I was packing my precious pottery, I was reminded of the good old days at the museum in the collections packing stuff up... aahhhh the memories...
June 12th is our closing date, which I now realize is the anniversary of the day I moved into my first apartment in Waco as an independant career girl!! Cool!
Love to all!!!
Every spring/summer I look forward to the warmth and being outside. I love it!!! This past weekend Jason and I went to Comanche for Jason's Mom's birthday. Ruth had the boys and so it was a big get together. Devon and Bryce (nephews) had each double header baseball games that Saturday starting at 9am. Well we didn't get there until 9:45 but Bryce hadn't finished his first game so we all cheered, etc.... I wore a shirt with no sleeves and long pants (I thought we would be going out that night). Can you guess where this is heading? Well double headers mean long games and I stayed out in the sun way too long. Was there an offer of sunscreen? Yes...and I put some on my forearms to even out the farmer's tan I was already getting from riding my bike. But I didn't put any on my upper arms. That's where the dumb comes in....Ruth and Cliff were like, you definitely need to sit in the shade, now!! I said ok. I did and so did Jason. Now we both look like Lobster man and woman from Mars. Jason's face is completely red except where his cool looking sunglasses were on his face. The upper portion of my upper arms have tiny blisters on it. Every so often I'm putting Ocean Potion on for soothing purposes.
I texted Ruth to never let me say no to sunscreen. You'd think I'd learn from all the other bad experiences I've had...but noooooooooooo!
The other thing was the wind at the ball field. It was ridiculously crazy!!! The bad thing was the wind was blowing in our faces across the ball field and dust and dirt were flying in our faces. I brought a towel to sit on but I used it to shield my face. It didn't work that well. When I cleaned my face with wet naps there was dust all over...it looked like I had washed off all my makeup...I didn't even have any on!! When we finally got home after 6 hours at the ball field, I was cleaning out my ears with q-tips and in my right ear was literally tons of fine dirt in there. It was so gross!
Anyway...there's another dumb story and I this time I'm paying for it with pain. Stay tuned I'm sure there will be another dumb story coming up soon.
In other news....I've been packing up a storm here in the apartment anticipating the move this weekend. I'm excited and for some reason I like packing. I don't know why but I do... It's because I love organizing, I think. When I was packing my precious pottery, I was reminded of the good old days at the museum in the collections packing stuff up... aahhhh the memories...
June 12th is our closing date, which I now realize is the anniversary of the day I moved into my first apartment in Waco as an independant career girl!! Cool!
Love to all!!!
Monday, June 01, 2009
Well, that was dumb...
Have you ever said that to yourself? I did a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was so funny that I had to share... Sorry if it's TMI!!!!
So, Jason was running errands or something...he wasn't in the apartment. So I was like, great I can go to the bathroom without having to close the door. *ahh, the little things* The only problem was where I chose to do that. The "guest" bathroom is in the main hallway of the apartment. From inside the bathroom you can see the living room and entryway door. So while I'm "in the moment" I look out the bathroom doorway and see that I have conveniently left the blinds to the windows in the living room open. How unfortunate for the persons who walk by and peek in!!! So, I'm thinking to myself, well, that was dumb...
Fortunately for me AND others...no one walked by ;-)
So, Jason was running errands or something...he wasn't in the apartment. So I was like, great I can go to the bathroom without having to close the door. *ahh, the little things* The only problem was where I chose to do that. The "guest" bathroom is in the main hallway of the apartment. From inside the bathroom you can see the living room and entryway door. So while I'm "in the moment" I look out the bathroom doorway and see that I have conveniently left the blinds to the windows in the living room open. How unfortunate for the persons who walk by and peek in!!! So, I'm thinking to myself, well, that was dumb...
Fortunately for me AND others...no one walked by ;-)
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