Home Sweet Home

We're there!! We are finally homeowners and no longer have to go up to a third floor while breaking a sweat just to take groceries in, no longer have to listen to drunken high school graduates in the hallways, and no longer have to share a paper thin wall with a neighbor! We have much still to do to get moved in, such as buying a bookcase or two and a computer desk. Both were already provided in our apartment as built-ins. So for now I am trying to get as much put together downstairs as I can and then hide the rest in the two guest rooms upstairs!

Our carpet came the day before we moved in thankfully. We didn't have the best experience with this company even though they were on the top of the list for best companies in Kingwood. But it's all done now, and we love the carpet! It smells like a new house with new carpet smell and lingering bits of paint.

Dustin also is enjoying our location- it cuts his travel time to work to only 20 minutes! We also love that we are so close to practically 75% of our ward members! We have finally joined the in-crowd.

Well here's a few pictures, but don't judge too much yet because so much is still in boxes and piled up everywhere!

Here's our carpet, but it looks a little different in person. It is a medium beige undertone with flecks of maroon and green and brown in it.

Our bedroom

One view of our living room and our awesome couch.

front room/ dining room

another view of living area

into the small kitchen. We are planning on getting an island in that open area.

our bathroom...awesome tile, huh? You can pat Dustin on the back for that.

Guest bath

The guest rooms...full of junk we can't put away.

Beautiful hallway carpet!

Oh! who's this? It must be Dude, our newest family member....:) He's a Shih Tzu 7 week old. We couldn't turn him down and bought him from our friends Hollie and Matt. We liked the name they gave him so much we kept it. Oh, and did I mention he doesn't shed a single hair?!Ever!

So adorable sleeping- he doesn't like to sleep on the bed- just on the tile.

Finally Dustin has another boy around.

Dustin made a hole in our make-shift fence, but he made it a bit too low and we didn't think about the actual small size of Dude's head due to all his hair, and he could poke right out through it. We have since covered it up with tape, so it's a window now instead of a small door.

My parents also got one of the litter too, but they shaved his hair already because they think he gets hot. Now you can see how small they actually are!

Sophie already loves these puppies, and is learning how to play a little more gently. She lets them tackle her down which is super cute to watch.

I think some of you may be recalling that we gave our other dog, Phoebe away...so why would we buy another one? Well I'll tell you- we want to find a good dog! Who's smart!! Sophie is on her last straw with us and we don't know what to do about her. But we were told that these Shih Tzu dogs are very smart and live to please their people. Already Dude has done great- he's gone to the door a few times when he needed out, whined in the night just to go 1 and 2 outside, and uses his wee wee pads in his 'room' area. So far he's scoring major points with us. We may let him stay :)

Doors and Tile

First off, I have to say that my parents have been serious die-hards in helping us finish the big projects at our new house. Dad brought over his huge compressor and paint gun and sprayed all the doors with a nice fresh coat of white- they are no longer an old white that turned yellow. Ew. He did an amazing job!! In the meantime my mom helped keep me sane by helping with paint touch-ups and lining some cupboards with me. It has been so nice having my family around so much to help. They've done so great, we won't ever be able to repay them.

Our beautiful doors on day one of their facials- the next morning Dad had a better layout with all the doors and sprayed the other sides. He's definitely pro status in my books.

*A few days later*

Dustin prepped both bathrooms for grout and cleaned out all the cracks of the underside glue stuff... can you tell I didn't have much part in laying the tile?

One last view before grouting!

This is our bathroom. Sophie refused to leave us alone. She was in our faces the whole evening.

Here's awesome Dad showing Dustin the techniques and tricks of putting grout in. We eventually just gave him that job. He was doing pretty good at it.

Lets take some pictures while Dad works, how 'bout it?

Good work Dad. We like just watching.

Sophie just watched too. Like our wood floors? Very classy...

Mom, Dustin and I went behind Dad and washed up the floors and smoothed out the grout. Here's the guest bathroom.... pretty huh?!

And our bathroom! They still have a bit of a film on them from the grout, but that will just stay there until everything dries and we will wash it more thoroughly. I also have to go around the floorboards again and do paint touch-ups in both bathrooms.

It was so great to have Mom and Dad come over and help with this- we got it done in less than 2 hours! They both pretty much hauled Dustin and I kicking and screaming to our own house. Neither of us wanted to see or work on the house that evening. I had gone earlier in the day to line some cupboards and paint a little with Mom, and those few hours were enough for me! But we are so glad all the big stuff is done inside the house so we can now clean things and prepare for carpet next Tuesday! It feels like a huge weight is off our shoulders to have the painting and tiling done! Dustin especially- he was the tiling pro, doing all the measuring and cutting and laying all himself. He did a superb job at it! I wouldn't expect anything less from him with a job like this.

Next week- pictures of the carpet! yessss...

A Favorite Commercial

This commercial never gets old to me. I laugh every time!

We go au naturale

So what do you think? Should we just leave the floors and have 'real wood floors' for a while? Minus the tiny nails lining the edges... those will keep anyone from messing up the painting job on the walls!

See those shiny doorways and trim? I repainted those too! We don't have any doors on anywhere, but it keeps things more open, right? Just don't come up to a bathroom too quickly without announcing your presence.

This was after Dustin placed the hardiboard- he did a great job with this. Tons of hard work here. Don't worry, we don't just squat over the hole here- we do have one more bathroom in the house with an attached toilet.... but that door is off too. I do like our new seat in the tub now though. Now I can shower sitting down.

On to tiling!!! it actually matches our downstairs tile extremely well. We didn't even plan it that way. We are just naturally THAT good.

Dustin is now working on laying and cutting the edges in our bathroom. It's looking great! This is Dustin's first tiling job! He got some help from my dad the first day of laying out everything (was a very good thing we had an experienced eye!), but he has been the one to lay everything. He has done a spectacular job!

We are so close to finishing we can almost taste it! One more quote for carpet and we will make our decision and have it put in soon. I have the laundry room to paint now and all the doors and I will be done painting! I'm more excited about that than anything. My wrists hurt so bad they were actually waking me up last night. Wrist brace anyone?