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?

Renovations

We closed on our house on April 15, and I started deep cleaning the next day! After all the work that we have been doing though, the deep cleaning has been undone.. but at least I know when I sit on the toilet it doesn't have leftover booty cooties. So maybe it wasn't ALL for nothing. I'll show you some before and after pictures so far. We have until May 30 in our apartment, so we are trying to get everything done before that date.

One guest room before...

after the primer to cover that awful blue..

After with a nice beige. Looks a lot brighter to me now. My mom was over this day to help paint the color. It was nice to have her company.

Before. Guest room #2. I can't look at this much longer.

Lets cover it with a nice masculine dark green. After all, this will be our office space and Dustin's manly room. I know deep inside he wants it to be his naked room. His. Not mine. Though it's hard to have a manly room with a butterfly fan over your head. That's gotta go too.

Before Master room- a weird grayish beige that looks like what the builder would paint it, but the owners actually did. Lets cover it up and make it new...

After.With beige room number two!

Upstairs guest bathroom. Before here with a few samples on the wall...

After. I was going for a nice fresh gray, but this actually turned out a very very light green with a bit of gray in it. It's nice and works for me.

And a real after picture- We are tearing out that gross linoleum in both bathrooms upstairs. All the paper and cement stuff is all off and Dustin is putting on the Hardiboards tonight to prepare it for tile this weekend. He and my dad are doing the tile. Dad I guess agreed to help cut, and Dustin will lay. I guess it's payback for when Dustin and Bruce helped tile the entire downstairs of my parent's house- before either of them had married me and Mandy.

Before- our bathroom with linoleum on the floor and everything- actually half on half off at this moment.

After. I wanted a very very light blue, but after drying, this turned out a bit more baby boy blue than anything... We'll see if I end up painting it over. I don't want to think of it at the moment. I'm thinking it might not look as blue once we get everything back in and get towels and everything to go along with the shade.

Another view of the bathroom.

Just starting to scrape up the floor...

Dustin got really sweaty this first scraping night. All this is ready for Hardiboard too!

Adios linoleum!!!! Oh, and see that carpet under there? Say adios to that too- we are getting new carpet for all upstairs!

Before- downstairs half-bath. I really did like the red. I'm a lover of red, but there were too many holes in the wall that needed patching up, and it was kinda dark in this little space, so I decided to lighten it up.

I also had to prime this space,too. I hate priming. it's like painting a space twice.

After! I like nice soft greens. Very calming. It's a bit brighter now too!

All this was a very bright yellow before. No more!

Going up the stairs

Top of stairs, rounding the hallway

Hallway with our room at the end and both guest rooms on the right.

View into our living room. This was an orangey brown before- you can see the color in the older posting of the house. But I painted all downstairs living areas the same beige as upstairs. I think it's a good overall neutral color.

From base of stairs into living room space. Our entire downstairs is tiled with gorgeous tile- we love this feature of the house!

Before.This is the picture of the front room before the previous owners moved. That yellow on the wall was everywhere in the house.

After. Front room/dining room where we will keep our table

I painted all upstairs rooms and all bathrooms, well, with help from my mom with that first guest room. All within 4 days. Then this last Saturday I asked if my parents and Kyle and Keisha could come help finish the upstairs and do our really high walls in our stairwell with their tall ladders. They of course wanted to help, and did waaaay more than I asked them. They not only helped finish the upstairs hallway but continued to the living and front room! I was so happy and grateful for all that work! So within 5 days my house was almost entirely painted! Whew!

I finished the kitchen the next day in the same color as the upstairs guest bathroom, and painted all closets white and primed all pantry shelves with a rust/water sealer. My next project will be all doors and baseboards and pantries and closet shelves. and laundry room. I forgot about that room. I think I'll use some of that light green used for the halfbath. I'll post the rest of the pictures when all those are finished.

So far my back aches like it never has before, my wrists and forearms hurt worse than they ever did when I cleaned teeth; I fractured a bone at the base of my left foot pinky toe, and I get paint in my hair almost each day I paint. I have decided to quit trying to pick it out and just grabbed a pair of scissors and started cutting it out. Small sections at a time. I also have pretty in shape calves thanks to all the calf raises I have done on the ladder to do ceiling edges and reach into small closet corners.

I have had the greatest time being alone a few days and accomplishing so much. I have to say, I'm a pretty good painter now too. So, my biggest piece of advice I would like to give you on that subject is: Always take the tape off the walls before the paint dries. It will peel the paint off if you don't. I for some odd reason did not realize that. So now I have to go back to each room and touch up the edges where the paint's edges are messed up. I wanted to scream. I just about did- my family was there when I started peeling, and laughed at my yelling more than anything. Good thing I bought a box cutter the day before and was able to salvage most edges by cutting the tape/paint edge.

Getting our house ready really has been fun, and we are excited to be near the end!

As much as I don't want to do this, I don't want to repeat myself to everyone if it can be avoided. When I went to my appointment with my OBGYN on Monday, the ultrasound showed our baby had stopped living about 3 weeks ago. My doctor didn't know why, but things just happen sometimes especially if the baby isn't developing properly. My body wasn't letting it go, so I had to have a surgery ( a D & C) the next day to remove it and clean everything out. We are awfully sad about this, but the doctor said that having this happen twice in a row isn't likely, and that it was a good sign that my body can at least get pregnant and hold on to a baby so well. He told us that we can start trying with Clomid again in a couple months after everything has had a chance to heal. I am thankful that Dustin and both my parents were with me during my stay; it made the time pass a little easier. I know that we will be able to have children in this life and that alone gives me comfort.

Little updates

I guess I should at least update a little bit sice it has been a few weeks since my big news posting! I have yet to actually vomit, but I have had many smell and food aversions that make me gag if my nose gets a big whiff, but I really am quite impressed with how well i have been feeling. I am insanely tired all the time and my heart beats faster now and I get out of breath each time I have to go up the two flights of stairs to our apartment. How I can't wait for the day we can say adios to these stairs!!!

Speaking of saying adios to the stairs, we are closing on our house on April 15th!!! We will not move in immediately though. We want to get all the big projects done first. Such as painting the entire inside of the house top to bottom and replacing all the carpet upstairs and tiling the upstairs bathrooms. There are a few other projects we will do, but I want to get those done before we move in. We are most likely going to hire people for the carpet and the painting and have some companies in mind to get quotes from. The only two things we talk about now are the house and the baby!

As for our little lovebug, my next appointment will be on Monday the 5th! I will be 12 weeks 1 day when I go and I'm pretty sure they will do another ultrasound!! Dustin says he is going to try and make as many of my appointments as he can. He doesn't want to miss a thing! I think that is way sweet and I'm so thankful for such an involved and loving husband. I really have been blessed with more than I deserve.

Lastly, we decided to downsize in the pet department..... Yes, we gave Phoebe away to a family friend at church. The family has lots of kids and she will get plenty of attention over there. It was hard to do because we do love Phoebe, but my stress level was rising and I knew I didn't want two dogs once the baby came. I cried a little bit when we had to leave her, but we had stayed over at the family's house for a while to get her acquainted a bit before we left. I think she will be taken well care of. Sophie was a bit sad for maybe half a day, but now knows she gets all the attention and seems to be doing fine and dandy! We are happy about that... we weren't sure if she would get all depressed on us or not. She can get weird sometimes.

There's my updates, and I will write more on Monday with some pictures!!

2+1=3!!

Well two weeks ago on Saturday, February 20th at 6:15 AM I couldn't wait a minute longer and decided to take a pregnancy test... and it came out incredibly positive! I took one later that afternoon to see if it was still positive, and got the same, very instant, result! aaahhh!

I called my OBGYN's office that following Monday and they scheduled an appointment for two weeks later- today March the 9th. I have to say I was so excited for this appointment that it felt like Christmas Day this morning! All day long I prayed that we would at least be able to see a heartbeat flutter since my estimation only put me at 5 weeks. Dustin met me at the office and as we were waiting, I started sweating a little bit and getting nervous and excited all at the same time. A few of the girls came in from their lunch break and gave me a high five because they were so happy to see me come in for pregnancy this time instead of more blood tests and Clomid checkups. I absolutely love my doctor and his whole staff! Everyone was hugging me and telling me congrats before I even went in to my little room!

Anyways, so Dustin and I were waiting, giving our medical backgrounds again for the nurse, and nervously joking around. We were brought into the ultrasound room to do all the work I needed and the ultrasounds all at once. My OBGYN was the one doing all the work, since he has been working with me for over a year in trying to get pregnant. He started the ultrasounds, and after measuring and looking a few ways I told him I thought I was only about 5 weeks along based on when I took my round of Clomid....He told me there was no way it was only 5 weeks! He measured at 8 weeks 2 days!!! Dustin and I were completely surprised!! We had no idea I was that far along! That means we were actually already pregnant when I took this second round of Clomid! (which is just fine, the dr said so..) I even had a negative pregnancy test before I started! Well, he then turned on the Doppler and a heartbeat came on very clear and strong- I asked, 'Is that my heartbeat?' Dustin and my Dr laughed and said 'No! That's the baby's heartbeat!' I was so nervous, I thought it was MY heart that he said was so strong! I was told right afterwards it was 158 beats a minute! I loved seeing the little flutter of a heart on the screen. It made me tear up and feel so calm and happy inside that everything was okay.

We are both just so thrilled and we are looking forward to my next appointment in 4 weeks! But we are looking forward to October 17, 2010 even more!!

Our little lovebug

This one has the measurements and due date on the bottom.

He took a 4D picture to check a few things to make sure- the baby looks like something I won't say.. you could probably figure it out for yourself... If you don't know what you are looking at, the baby is the hangy down thing near the top left of the circle. I just thought I would include this for posterity sake. :)