Sneak Peak: Before & Now pictures!

Here's a sneak peak at some pictures from before we bought the house vs. what it looks like now.

living room

piano nook

what our living / piano rooms look like now (ignore any weird angles, I was trying out the panoramic feature on my camera - click on it to see it bigger)...
Can you tell the difference?

Trash day

I had gone home for lunch today, and while I was on my way back, I saw a neighbor putting out his trash bin for collection.  Immediately I thought, "What's he doing?  I just brought my bin back from the curb two days ago!"  Then I realized tomorrow is trash collection day.  You do the math.

I'm sure our neighbors love us.

(Tune in next time for "We still haven't put up window coverings in the front of the house" and the time after that for "That pile of dirt that's been sitting on our sidewalk for two months".)

Hunkering Down for Ike

Things sure were easier for this big snail to get ready for Hurricane Ike than for us! He just hid in the corner near our front door!

Let me back up some... Joe's parents (Tom and Gloria) and sister Emily came up Thursday afternoon from a Houston area that was on mandatory evacuation. Joe left work early Thursday and went grocery shopping for us, a HUGE help! Joe and I (along with all of A&M) were given Friday off - woo hoo! So the five of us are here at our new house getting ready for a storm.

Joe and his dad (with a very little of my help) moved all the loose pieces of stuff (from trash bins and window shutters to a koi pond and basketballs) from our yard into our garage. They also took off the screen door and nailed some wood over the doorway to our garage. Even with as bad as some of the wood looks, I couldn't watch them nail plywood to it - our "new" house! At the time we were expecting a still category one hurricane to hit right at Bryan / College Station.

the lawn

Last Thursday night we had another first - Joe mowed the yard! Yes, we've owned the house for over a month, and this is the first time we (the royal we) have mowed. If you'll remember, Michael did mow the yard for us a little while back, but it had gotten fairly unruly. It was a whole evening affair. Thanks to Britt who is letting us use his lawn mower while he's lawn-less this year, and Ross who let us borrow a gas can at the last minute. Oh, and Expert Village for letting us know you don't need to use special oil made just for lawnmowers - just 30 weight (hey, we're new at this). It look a while to get going and a couple of refills on gas, but Joe mowed until it was too dark to keep going (and only a little patch in the back was left). Thanks Joe - you did a great job! Joe says we have a really big yard. :)

We did some work this weekend, so stay tuned for more pictures soon!

give the people what they want

By "the people" I mean the people who read this blog.

By "the people who read this blog" I mean my parents. And mom says they like to see pictures.

Since Sunday night we've been trying to get a room ready for David, who will live with us until he gets married (end of September). I think he'll be glad it's no longer pink! Sunday night we moved all the wood and a loveseat out of this room. You can ask Ken, Bill, or my parents... moving the boxes of wood floor is no little task and there are still many, many boxes left. Joe also took out a bookshelf that was attached to the wall.

David's room Sunday

Monday night was my birthday (I hope to post soon about that on my normal blog), but we primed the walls in this little room.

Tuesday night we painted it our favorite green (Sweet Annie by Olympic), which I can't get to look the same in the pictures. (I tried to find a better picture online and ran across this blogger with not only the same layout as me, but the same problem in it photographing weird - she said "Really, it looks much less like pea soup in person!") Joe also spent some time cleaning some blinds to put up in there as well as spot cleaning the floor. David will come Wednesday or Thursday, and we should have the room at least mostly ready for him! The bathroom will have to remain a work in progress.

David's room right now

My life right now...

I'm not dead.

My mom called two days ago and then emailed again yesterday to confirm that I'm not dead... at least I know one person misses this blog when I don't post! She also requested pictures, so here goes:

spare bedroom
guest bedroom
kitchen

As you can see, we haven't really unpacked! There's a lot to say, but not much time right now. So you will have to settle for brief factual updates and hold your breath for the hilarious anecdotes.

Monday after work I spent over an hour on the phone with Verizon trying to figure out why our internet didn't work. Joe fell asleep during this time. Next we grabbed dinner and returned Bill's truck (THANK YOU! He let us borrow it all weekend!!!). Then we went to the house and cleaned. Unfortunately, Joe and I were fairly out of it, and it was around 9:00pm when we started. We quickly realized that we forgot our ice chest (to move the contents of our fridge / freezer). So we got most of the cleaning done and made another trip back to the new house. After unloading everything and showering, it ended up being past 2am when we got to bed - we did start late, but it sure took a lot longer than expected (I think it's always like that).

Tuesday I think everything caught up with Joe and I. We both felt very tired and sick (probably because of all the dust). I've stayed stopped up all week, but Tuesday was the worst - because of all the drainage, my throat hurt a lot and I felt nauseous (yes, I know you really wanted to know that). We ended up sleeping until almost 11:30am and decided to take the rest of the day off from house-related work (as well as paycheck-related work). We really needed that break. In the afternoon, a Verizon guy spent a couple of hours fixing the internet connection.

Wednesday we were back at work. Wednesday night was our church small group meeting, so we didn't get much unpacking done.

Thursday night we helped move some stuff from the church building and then stayed at home. We tried to hook up the washer and dryer because we are out of clothes. The dryer vent is so close to the dryer that we need to buy another short connector, so that didn't get hooked up. The tube that connects the hot water to the washing machine was left on by the previous owners, and we soon discovered why - it wouldn't come off! Joe sprayed WD40 and later CLR on it to try to loosen the corrosion, but the hose wouldn't budge. He finally decided to leave it on and just connect the other end to our washing machine, but found out that it leaks significantly, so that's not a good option. It's looking like the whole spout might need to be replaced. So Joe and I are thinking about having a date at Harvey Washbangers tonight - anyone ever been there? I just gave away four laundry bags because I thought we'd never use them again!

You can probably tell we've already had some adventures in our new home. Hopefully I will have time to write more soon.