Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Just another quick update....

As I said in my last post, we were planning on moving into the house this coming weekend but things have happened which is going to change the moving date to somewhere between April 2-4. What is a few days anyways after fourteen years?

My painting is almost complete, just a door jam here or there and some small touch ups. The hardwood flooring only needs to be buffed and have the final coat of poly put on it which Mr. B will do sometime this weekend after they install the tile. The carpet will be installed on Friday, it was supposed to be last week but they had to change the date to today then they changed it again because the carpet installer is covered up with work and we don't want to add to his load. My dishwasher will be delivered and installed tomorrow...YAY!!! This is funny to me because Mr. B had said a few weeks ago that he was thinking about just purchasing the stove and refrigerator now then the dishwasher later, I told him no way because we weren't moving in unless I had a dishwasher there. Turns out that the dishwasher will be the only kitchen appliance we will have for about five days after moving in... LOL.. guess I won that fight eh? The fridge and stove can't be delivered until April 9th, which is fine with me because we have a gas grill that has burners on it for sauce pans and we also have this mondo huge cooler that we can keep our cold items in until the other appliances are delivered. No stove and fridge isn't going to keep me from moving in, no siree!

Today has been one of those blah days. First of all I haven't been feeling well because all the pollen in the air doesn't agree with me so last night on top of a sinus headache I woke up at 2:23 AM with a bad migraine that just about sent me to the emergency room for a nice strong shot of pain killer in my bum. The only reason I didn't go was because moving hurt too bad. I hate all migraines but I especially hate those that come with a violent kick that last a few hours and makes you think you have a huge tumor bursting inside your brain because they drain you so bad. Today I have basically been like a limp, weak noodle. We had to attend my husbands uncles funeral today. I can tell you this wasn't good especially after just burying his cousin a couple weeks ago. His uncles death was a sudden one, massive heart attack after getting out of bed Monday morning. I pray that his family find peace during these hard times.

As I said earlier, the house is almost complete. It is odd how the entire building process has been so smooth and now that we are at the completion stage I am stressed out and frustrated, I just need to calm down and let it go as it will because it will happen in its due time. I spend my days over there piddling with this or that, mostly cleaning and re-cleaning just to keep myself and my brain busy. Yesterday I spent the day removing all the blue paint tape and plastic off the counters and cabinets. Tomorrow I will remove the tape and plastic from the top kitchen cabinets.

We had our final inspection on Tuesday morning for our "Certificate of Occupancy" and it passed so as soon as the flooring is in and I clean once more we can move. Just our luck, next week is going to be a very busy week for us but we are still moving. We will be renting a huge U-Haul truck so that we can get everything out of storage and to the house in one load, granted we will probably live with packed boxes for a few days until our schedules calm down enough to unpack but that is okay, at least we will be living there which is better than not.

Well I better sign off now and try to get some sleep since tomorrow is a full day for me. Y'all have a great Thursday, be safe and take care!

Sunday, March 25, 2007

I've got the power....

well, not "the" power but I've got some power. That is right, our electric got turned on in the house on Thursday(switched from temporary to permanent overhead)..woohoo! I went through the house flipping light switches off and on and my painters had a good time watching me do it. I just couldn't help but see what each room looked like with electricity.

A lot has happened since I posted last. For one the power was turned on. Second we had the fill line completed which was what I was worried about. The guy that was going to do it was backed up so we didn't know when he would get out to do it so we found another guy to do it for a great price. This guy also dug the fifty feet that Mr. B needed dug to finishing running the water line to the house from the pipe that runs to the well. I was raised on well water and wouldn't have anything else. We have that filter thingy to keep it clean so I am happy. We found a busted pipe real close to the well house and Mr. B got lucky and found the busted pipe on the first dig. He propped the pipe up with rocks so that it could dry and would be ready to repair the next morning.

Friday morning Mr. B fixed the busted pipe and then we had to call our contractor back to get the electrician back out because something was wired wrong to the water heater and the electrician fixed that while we were at lunch. Later that day Mr. B was finishing up the install of the hardwood flooring when I discovered we had a leak in the master bath sink. I called the contractor and our plumber will be back out Monday morning to replace a small pipe and we should be good after that.

Mr. B sanded our floors for the first time Friday night as well then he filled some small cracks that was in it. Saturday morning he sanded the floors for the second and last time, buffed them then vacuumed then he put the sealer coat on there. The sealer dries in about an hour so after that he put the first coat of poly on them. They are beautiful! I chose a number 2 common, cabin grade which means that the boards are all different colors, it has worm holes and knots in it , more or less it gives the floor character. You will know what I am talking about when you see a pic of them. I wanted a floor that had a lot of different color in them because of all the different colored wood pieces that we have. We used red oak and no stain. They are just beautiful and I can't wait to see them with the last coat of poly on them which will be done after the painting is done and the carpet is installed.

Our carpet was scheduled for last Thursday but Mr. B re-scheduled so that our painters could finish the baseboard without worrying about getting paint on the carpet. Friday our fill line was inspected by the environmental health department and passed so my dad moved all the dirt back into the trenches Saturday with his tractor and some equipment. The only other permit that we need now is the Letter of Occupancy. That inspection will consist of a gentleman coming in and flipping a light switch off and on, flushing a commode and measuring the distance between the bottom step and the ground to make sure it is the same distance as the other steps. That will be passed and we will get that too because we have power, water and we have measured the steps to make sure the distance is the same..heehee!

I have been so tired here lately because I am spending all my time over at the house. From the time I get up until the time I go to bed I am over there doing this and that. It is unbelievable at the things that need done to finish a house up. We are hoping to move in this coming weekend but it might be the first of next week before we get to because we want to make sure that the tile grout and all that is set. We are going tonight to purchase our appliances for the kitchen. I have decided to go with Kenmore appliances because there is more positive feed back on those than any other. Sears is the only place around here that sells Kenmore and they are having a friends and family sale tonight after they close at 6 PM. This sale will go from 6PM to 9PM and you can only go if you have a special invite from a salesman and since Mr. B and I were in there checking out the appliances we want in white the other day we got an invite. We will get thirty percent off of each appliance and free installation with my dishwasher which will save us $1003.00..pretty cool huh?

We are almost there! I am so ready to move in and enjoy it. Mr. B turned the air conditioning on Saturday while he was putting the coat of poly on so that it would dry by today. Later after we get back from church we will go check that out to see if it is dry.

Where our heating and air is concerned, I chose to have the air vents put in the ceiling. Mr. B wasn't too sure about that until yesterday when he turned the air on then he was sold. I didn't want to have to deal with the vents in the floor because sometimes you have to arrange your furniture different than you want because of them.

Remember me telling you that I was getting the new LG front load washer and dryer with the steam setting? I think I have changed my mind on that too. I have been reading feedback on that and bad things are happening with those. Not just the LG but all of them, as a matter of fact Maytag just had a huge recall on their front loaders. One thing that happens is the seal on the washer door goes bad quickly which allows the water to drip out and when it drips out it goes into the bottom where all of the electrical is and it is causing fires, houses have been burning down because of this so I am checking out a couple more washers and dryers that aren't front loaders but have the same tub capacity without the big long thing that sticks up in the middle.

I think I am going to sign off now and try to get a couple more hours sleep before time to get ready for church, y'all have a good day!

Be safe, take care and I love ya!


********************************************
Just a quick update... it is Sunday night and I am ecstatic! I finally purchased my kitchen appliances. I bought all Kenmore appliances and only one piece of that was the Kenmore Elite and that was my dishwasher. I spent more on it than I did on my range..heehee... but I am glad I waited because I saved a lot of money, more than the $1003.00 we thought we would save..YAY!!!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

so bright we've gotta wear shades....

I have posted some pics of the house but first I am going to ramble a bit about what has been going on in my life.

As most of you know, my oldest daughter turned 15 Sunday. Like any other normal 15 year old she wanted to get her drivers permit and she has been studying so hard for it. This morning I took her over to the DOT office to take the test but when we walked out of that office I was shocked and worried and my daughter was disappointed. No, she didn't fail the test, as a matter of fact they wouldn't allow her to take the test. They gave here the eye exam and she done fine with her right eye but when he switched to the left eye everything about her changed. The gentleman kept asking her to read back the lines and she was hesitating and moving her head a lot. The gentleman kept giving me these worried looks and I was just puzzled because I didn't understand what was going on. Finally my daughter pulls her head back from the machine and tells the man that their machine isn't working properly could they use another, while doing this she had a very irritated look on her face.

The man put her on another machine and she basically repeated her earlier behavior and even went so far as to tell the man that the current machine was also malfunctioning. At that point I asked the gentleman if I could look into the machine and of course he let me, the machine was fine because I could read every line on there and y'all know my eye sight is far from perfect. The gentleman looked at me and told me that we had a real problem. He said that C could read fine out of her right eye but that she had missed every single letter with her left eye. He told me this was something that we needed to be concerned about and we needed to have checked out. He gave me a form that has to be filled out by an optometrist stating that C either passed an eye examination or that she is being fitted for glasses. He told us that she could not take the permit test until that form was filled out by an optometrist and DOT had called the optometrists office to confirm the form. Unfortunately C's optometrist can't see her until Monday so we will go back to DOT Tuesday morning to get her permit. I will keep you posted.

I asked C how she had passed all the other eye exams that she had had in the past and she told me that she had cheated by scooting her head over so that she could view the letters with her right eye, she done this because she didn't want people to make fun of her if she had glasses. While driving down the road I kept asking C to read various signs and after that I am more concerned because she can't read hardly anything with her left eye alone. Right now I feel like a real lousy parent for not noticing how she always turns the right side of her face to what she is reading or looking at, throughout the day and evening I noticed it every time *sniffle*. So with all of that being said I would once again like to ask for your prayers for my daughters vision.


We finally have a move-in date set.....Friday March 30! One week and two days away and let me tell you I am ready!

I have still been taking pics of each step and I have some that were taken yesterday of the paint on the walls.

The first pic is of my kitchen. It is the only room in the house that doesn't have the first coat of color completed. I am very pleased with all of the colors that we chose and they look better than I imagined. This is the Green Smoke I told you all about for the kitchen and dinning area. Instead of finishing up on rolling this today they started priming the door casings and putting the first coat of paint on the doors. They also completed all of the caulking around the doors and baseboard. Please excuse the McDonalds bag, my painter brought my kids a cheeseburger he promised them the day before. There is a long story behind the cheeseburger that I will tell you all another time.














This is our master bedroom and I LOVE the color I chose in there. It is a very relaxing color to me. The pic doesn't do it justice but you get the idea. It is a pale yellowish green called Juniper Berry and it looks really good with the pink in the master bath. Just to let you know, all of our paint is Glidden paint.














Okay, here is where the sunglasses will come in handy. This is B's room, my middle child. She loves colors that most people wouldn't use and she has her own ideas about accents which I think is going to look great. This color is called Cool Lime and as I said in the pic above, it doesn't do it justice. You can step out in the hall and shut her door and then look at the bottom of her door and it looks like a neon green light is glowing from under the door.When her door is open that entire section of the hallway is light up with a green glow..heehee. Once we get everything in her room it will soften the color. She is going to go with mainly pale pink or as many call it "baby pink" and add some baby blue and yellow in the mix. There are a couple of things that are a bright pink that she is going to use as well.














This is C's room. Her color is called Orential Silk but I call it the calm in the middle of a storm..lol! It is a butter yellow and she is going to accent with pink as well but not as pale a pink as B is using. I think C is doing her room in polka-dots but at this time she hasn't made a final decision yet. This color is also a very calming color and it looks nice between all the other vivid colors in the surrounding rooms.














Last but not least, this is T's room. My office is done in this color except my office is five shades lighter which you could almost call a sky blue(I will post a pic of it when I do the re-cap from start to finish). When you come out of the kitchen and look down the hallway this blue really catches your eye, especially if you get past the green glow from B's room..heehee!In other words, the sunglasses could come in handy here too. This color is called Periwinkle Blue and we chose it because I wanted a happy medium blue that we could use because we are going with solid colors in his comforter instead of the normal Disney themes he likes. Using the Disney themes is okay but can be very expensive when it is time to change and that is why we chose to go with solids and let him use the Disney accessories of his choice to decorate with. I wished the sun had been shining when I took these pics yesterday but we had heavy rains and a couple of thunderstorms on the way. As you can see out the window in this room, it had just started drizzling a few minutes before these were snapped.














In this pic you get two in one. You get to see the foyer and living room wall color plus the raw hardwood floor. I chose to show this pic because sometime next week I will show a pic of the finished product. Mr. B is going to sand and put the first two coats of finish on the floors this Saturday then the painters will come in first thing next week and put the last coat of paint on everything then Mr. B will put the third and final coat of poly on the floors. Excuse all the dusty footprints you see on the floor but it is hard to keep them off when you still have the bare sub-floor everywhere else in the house.














I can't wait to get all of our belongings moved in so that I can see what it will all look like. Nor can I wait to spend the first night in there with my family. March 30 is our move in date if everything stays on schedule. We may have to wait a day or two longer depending on when we install the tile because the grout has to sit for twenty four hours before you can walk on it or put anything on it. With the way we have everything planned, the tile should go in and be set before Friday so that we can move in. Our schedule currently looks like this...

Thursday: painters putting first coat on baseboards and door casings.
Mr.B will install the rest of the hardwood.
Friday: Mr.B will finish the installation of hardwood if any.
Saturday: Mr.B will sand and put the sealer coat then the first coat of poly on the floors.
Sunday: R-E-S-T!!!!
Monday: painters come back in to put final coat of paint on everything.
Tuesday: carpet installed and start tile.
Wednesday: finish tile and put final coat of poly on the hardwood.
Thursday: pack our things here at my parents which isn't much, rent a large U-Haul truck for things in storage.
Friday: drum roll please..... WORK OUR BUTTS OFF MOVING AND SPEND OUR FIRST NIGHT IN OUR NEW HOME!!!!!


Like I said, this schedule should stay like right on but then again it might get knocked off a couple of days which is fine because the way we look at it is that we have waited fourteen years for this so two or three more days isn't going to kill us plus we want the flooring to have the time it needs to set and we aren't willing to risk messing that up. Hardwood flooring is very finicky due to the weather. For instance, if the humidity is high the poly can take an extra day to dry and set.

That is all that I have for now and I don't know when I will be back online but I am sure that I will be doing posts next week because I am so excited.

Y'all take care, be safe and know that I love you!

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Update

I just have a quick update on the house. First of all, it is ours now! We closed Friday morning about 10:30 AM. Our painters came in Friday and finished up with the priming that needed done so tomorrow(Monday) they will come in and put the first coat of color on all the walls, second coat on the bathrooms and utility room. My husband will be installing our hardwood flooring Tuesday and getting the first two coats of finish on it then my painters will come back in sometime during the week and put the last coat of paint on the walls. Our carpet will be installed on Thursday or Friday and the tile will be installed after all that is done. Sometime this week we have a guy coming out to dig the other 123ft of fill line that we needed done so that we can get that passed and get the power turned on. Once the power is turned on I have to call to get a Letter of Occupancy which consists of an inspection and once that is passed we can move in. We are looking at a week and a half to two weeks before we move in if everything goes smoothly and according to plan which it has thus far.

I have posted a pic! This is of the his and her sinks in the master bathroom. I have several other pics of various rooms in the house but it is taking too long to download so this is what you get for now. I am going to take more pics tomorrow to get the most recent updates which will include our mirrors, switch covers, light fixtures, heating and air unit and our front and back door painted however, y'all are going to have to wait until we move in and I am up and running with a cable modem before I post anymore pics. Once I am up and running I am going to do a post from beginning to end of our building process. It will have every pic I have taken of the entire thing on it.














I also have some birthday wishes to throw out to a special someone. Today is my daughters 15th birthday. Happy Birthday Chesney!!! We will be going Tuesday to get her drivers permit. This makes me a little sad because it is one more step to freedom for her. I am so proud of who and what she is thus far and I enjoy watching her grow and learn but there is always a voice in the back of mind saying "she will be out and making her own way before long". All of you that are parents know exactly what I am feeling. It isn't that we don't want our kids to grow up, it is just that it is sad while it is exciting too. If I were to write Chesney a letter it would go something like this......

Dear Chesney,

You are 15 now and I am wondering where time has went. Where did my little girl with chubby cheeks and pigtails go? It seems just yesterday that I held you in my arms for the first time and now here you are more than half grown.

When most people find out that I was only 16 when I gave birth to you, the one question that they always ask is "has there ever been a point that you have regretted it"? My answer to that has always been no. I have asked myself many times if I had the chance to go back and do it over would I change anything and my answer to that is also no. It has always been important to me that you know and understand that.

I miss you being small and snuggling with me all the time and looking to me for all the answers to your questions. Now from time to time you still snuggle with me on the couch or you come crawl in bed with me when Dad is up watching tv. You still come to me for answers but more times than not you want to figure it out on your own and you do a good job of it too. It also means more than words can say to me when every now and then you say out of the blue "I hope I am as good a mom as you are and have been".

I have known for a couple of months that all you wanted for your birthday was for you and I to go see Dierks Bentley in concert on April 12th. I knew this because you have told me five times a day since hearing the announcement that he was coming...LOL! I want you to know that it was a very hard decision for me to make to buy those tickets. What made me decide to buy them was the thought that if I didn't purchase them some day I would regret not sharing the experience of your first concert. I want to be a part of that and I will be a part of that on April 12th.

You are such a beautiful, intelligent, young lady and I am blessed that you are mine.

I want you to know that if you ever need a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen to you, mine is always free. I know that there will be times when I am the last person you will want to talk to but I hope that you come to me anyways. The one promise that I made when I found out I was expecting you was that I never forget what it was like growing up and how things that really mean nothing to an adult means the world to a teen. I try to understand and hear all of your feelings and I have always tried to never tell you that you didn't feel that way, I hope that you feel that I have kept this promise thus far.

I could say so much more but I will stop here. I hope your birthday was all that you wished it would be and I can't wait to go see Dierks Bentley with you. I hope you are not too mad at me for having them play the drums and cause a big loud scene over your birthday at the japanese steak house we went to last night.

I am proud of the Christian that you are and how you stand up for what you believe in. Thank you for being such a wonderful daughter!

I am proud of you and I love you!
Love,
Mom


HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY!!!!

I don't know when I will be back online because things will be hectic until we move in the new house so I guess I will see y'all when I see ya. In the meantime y'all take care and be safe and know that I am thinking of you and missing you!

Friday, March 16, 2007

closing...

First of all I want to reply to the comments on my previous post and it is easier for me to just do that here. I am having major probs with my internet connection so I am on my moms computer. Okay here goes....

Blither....thank you ! Hugs to you!

BSoholic....have I mentioned that it is so good to see you back in my comment section? Yep I love the stainless steel but the white will go so much better.

Lime....Woohoo..party at my place! I would love to have each and every one of you over once we get moved and settled. I would love for you all to see the house for real instead of pics all the time because the pics don't catch it all.

Jillie....I can actually see you getting kicked out of the G.S.!LOL! I have way too many cookies left but I got stuck with a case(12 boxes) of Samoas. Thank God for freezers! Um... moving day is sometime within the next two to three weeks. There are a couple more permits we have to get before we can actually move in. Once the time draws near I can give you an exact date but I can tell you now that it won't be long now!

Snavy....my bad! I meant to mention that we were selling them. Do you like Samoas..the ones with the coconut and chocolate? I can send you some!LOL!

Logo....I love them too but eat them less each year that goes by because when the month of March comes our world revolves around those darned cookies. I spent $98 on the cookies this year but that includes $42 for the case I got stuck with and several boxes that my kids opened that they weren't supposed to open. I have only eaten about six cookies all together this year.

Dan....no worries and no need to apologize, I haven't been an every day visitor on your blog lately either because of the dial-up. Thank you! You haven't missed my birthday, I was celebrating my husbands birthday Tuesday and trying to cheer him up because we found out about the death of his cousin the day before. My birthday isn't until April 29th.

T.C.....It is very hard going over there and not living there since it is so close to completion but the light at the end of my tunnel is getting very, very bright! All that we have left to do once the closing is over is install the hardwood, tile, carpet, finish painting, finish the fill line, have some grade work done to smooth things back out and then we get the letter of occupancy so we can move in. It sounds like a lot but it really isn't. All of the painting and flooring is already scheduled and will be complete by next Friday and the guy doing the fill line is scheduled as well.

It is after midnight here which means that we will be closing on the house in 10 hours..yay! I should be in bed because I have a full day scheduled but I am so excited that I can't sleep so here I am. Isn't it really weird that when I can't sleep I come here? Closing... March 16, 2007 at 10 AM. This will take place in my new kitchen! My builders beat their deadline by twelve days...YAY!!!!

Yesterday (Thursday) was a very busy day for me. Earlier on my contractor had told us not to get a homeowners policy until the day before closing so I have been calling around this week to get the best quote. The agency that we carry my husbands business insurance with called me back with the quote and I almost passed out! OMG! I wanted to ask if she actually thought that was a cheap rate because she was all happy and chipper about it and expected me to be as well. Let me also say that the high quote was from a very well known company that advertises to have the best rates ever...go figure! About five minutes after that call I received another call from another agent and I was doing cartwheels after this one. It was less than half of the other and better coverage plus I also bought the insurance that if in the event of my death Mr. B will receive a nice, big, fat check to pay off the mortgage with or visa versa and even if we pay our mortgage off early and one of us perish then the other still receives the check and the best thing about it is that it is very inexpensive. With that being said, if any of you do not have this then I would strongly advise you to check with your agent to get a quote. I had a disabled Aunt that lost a house after her husbands death because she couldn't pay the mortgage on her fixed income.

Yesterday (Thursday) I came in to find my electrician and my contractor in my house. I knew the electrician had a couple of small things to finish up so I had expected him but I had not expected my contractor. My contractor told me that Mr. B had stopped in before me and they done the pre-walk thru and we would do the big one tomorrow. My contractor said he asked Mr. B if there were any questions he had and Mr. B replied..." just get my wife in here before she drives me crazy". Mr. B then went on to explain that I had had a couple of "moments" this week regarding the house, closing and all the we have to do once they are done. I can't deny it, for some reason right before bed there have been two or three nights this week when I have just about went to pieces over various things we have to do, to be completely honest I have cried a couple of times to the point that Mr. B had to calm me down. Why this happened? I do not know because most of my nervousness left me when the cabinets were installed and the rest left when my bathroom was painted..heehee..I don't know what the paint on the walls had to do with it but it calmed me down. I do have to say that my bathroom does look pretty darn good!LOL!

My contractor told me that it will all go smoothly so there is no need for me to worry about any of it. He told me that he would explain every step that we need to do after they are done concerning the letter of occupancy and all that. He also told me that if I needed help I had his number.

I am ready to do this! I can't wait to sign my name on the bottom line and have those cold, metal keys in my hand. I just hope that the freaky "moments" I have had this week doesn't happen during closing. I think my "moments" are more of what you would call a small anxiety attack and I have no clue why I am having them, maybe because I want to live there already and just get this part of the process over with or maybe it is because fourteen years of dreaming is going to be one big ole' slice of wonderful reality when those keys hit my hand.. who knows!

So the next time I post, and I have no clue when that will be, I will be an official homeowner!

Y'all be safe and take care and know that I love you! :)

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

relaxing a bit ...

Hey all ! Thank you so much for your kind words regarding the death of my husbands cousin and thank you for the birthday wishes!

I didn't think that I would be getting back online any time soon but I had some time tonight while doing laundry and thought I would straighten my desk up and that went pretty fast so I had some time to kill.

Girl Scout cookies are almost over...YAY!!!!! March is normally the month that I plan nothing for because of G.S. cookies sales and booths. My daughter missed five booths last week because of being sick so her sales this year will be down but she nor I are worried about it, I mean it is just cookies. I talked with the troop leader today and Beth along with a couple of other girls in her troop have almost earned their Bronze award which as I have mentioned is the highest award that a Junior G.S. can earn. I am very proud of my daughter for this and I hope she continues to participate in the Girl Scouts until she is too old to be one, from there she can be a troop leader or get out if she wants. Her troop leader gave me her new troop number for next year and she will be the leader of that troop again..YAY!!! She is wonderful with the girls and she has been a leader for 22 yrs.

Yesterday the plumber was supposed to install all of my sinks, commodes and the water heater but as soon as he unloaded all of his things he was called to another job for an "emergency". He came back today and completed the job and apologized for having to leave yesterday. He was mad because once he arrived on the site where the "emergency" was he found out it wasn't an emergency at all but just an impatient homeowner, that didn't sit to well with him but since it was an hour away he stayed. I am just thankful that he got my house done today.

The electrician was supposed to come in today but with the plumber incident he will be here tomorrow instead. I am hoping that we can still close on Thursday because we will probably be attending Mr. B's cousins burial Friday morning.

I am no longer nervous where the house is concerned. I think being able to get in there and work helped with that. I am not one to stand around and watch everyone else work but in this case I couldnt' do anything until the contractor gave me the go , I haven't been nervous since, instead I am at the point where I am thinking "let's get a move (this wasn't intended as a literal move but it sure fits..heehee) on so we can get this over with because I want to live there already" LOL!

I am already arranging rooms in my head now and I know where I want most everything to go. I am excited to get the office set up. Normally I would go with light wood but in the office I purchased cherry stained wood. I went with simple pieces , a big desk , book case and a file cabinet. The office isn't very big so I didn't want to try to put too much in there, plus I have all of my lighthouse things to put in there and I think the cherry will look good with pale walls.

I do thank all of you for your input on the white kitchen appliances, white it is for me. I love stainless steel and have always wanted it but white would look so much better. I even thought about the bisque but I think the white would look better since all of our trim is gloss white. I think the white will help bring the color on the wall out.

The weather here has been beautiful the past week and a half. Today we hit 78 F and I enjoyed it so much. After the plumber left I went back over to the house to tape everything back up for the painters. I opened all the windows and it felt wonderful just to be in there with the windows open working. Can y'all tell I am past ready to move in?

Okay it is time for me to go , I hear the dryer buzzing downstairs. Y'all have a good night and a good day tomorrow. Be safe, take care and know that I love ya!

To my husband...

Before I go into birthday wishes and all that I want to ask a favor of you all.

Sunday evening, here in our county, the body of a male in his early to mid 30's was found down an embankment on the side of the mountain. This body was found by a tourist who stopped at a pull off to get a better look at the beautiful view. The tourist got out of his car and was looking around when he looked down and saw the body.

The authorities said the body had been there for a few days. They took the body to The University of Tennessee Medical Center (U.T. Hospital) to do an autopsy. We were watching the 6 o'clock news last night when they said the body had been identified by his fingerprints. The news anchor gave the name of the man and I watched my husband turn white as a sheet. It turns out it was my husbands cousin that was found.

The news report didn't give any other information and my husband immediately called his dad to find out if he had heard anything about this. My father-in-law hadn't heard and was going to make a few calls and see what he could come up with. By 10 PM my f-i-l still didn't know anything other than what the news report had said and none of the news stations even mentioned the body on the 11 o'clock news.

My husband is really upset about this because he and "S" were really close growing up. During the teenage years, like most, my husband and his cousin "S" tried a few drugs and drinking and continued to do them for a while. My husband grew out of most of this by the time I met him and he drifted away from "S" because of the drugs and drinking. Five or six years ago we read in the paper about "S" getting caught with some drugs and spending some time in prison over it.

We ran into "S" about three months ago in Wal-Mart and it really bothered Mr. B because even though S was only 35 he looked 60 from the hard drugs.

Today is my husbands 35th birthday and one he will never forget because of this death. He is trying to put on an "I'm okay" front but I can see through it and I know that he is hurting. Mr. B has prayed and prayed for S since seeing him three months ago and now he is just torn to pieces over this. Mr. B and I were driving down the road last night and he was basically thinking out loud. He kept saying things like "this is bad because I know that he was probably killed over drugs" or "I hope somebody didn't take him up there on that mountain and beat him to near death then throw him over while he was still alive and he laid there for days alone" or "I hope it was a fast death for him".

I am sure the same thoughts are going through a lot of minds tonight because there was no vehicle or anything else found at the scene and the authorities obviously expect foul play because they are being real tight lipped about it which is normal in cases such as this. I just pray that they release more info later today about it. Mr. B and I will be going to visit S's parents today and I hope that they can tell him more because right now his mind is running in every direction trying to figure out what happened.

Mr. B said tonight that the sad thing is that S was such a smart, tender hearted, talented person who had his whole life in front of him and now that life has been snuffed out because of bad choices.

With all that being said I would like to ask all of you to remember my husband in your prayers and the rest of the family. I pray that I can be a ray of sunshine through the clouds for him as he has been for me many times.

Now for birthday wishes.....

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful man as a husband and a father to my children. When I asked Mr. B a month or so ago what he wanted for his birthday he told me that he wanted our new home completed so that we can move in. His wish didn't happen before his birthday but it was very close because we close on the house in a couple of days and then we should be moving in by April 1st, depending on how fast the power company is about getting our electric turned on.

Mr. B,
Thank you for always being there when I have needed a friend. There are no words to explain my love for you. After 16 years together you still cause me to get butterflies in my stomach when you walk in the room , sometimes it is when you walk through my thoughts during the day.
HAPPY 35th BIRTHDAY, I love you! I hope to share many more birthdays with you!

Love,
Heather

Monday, March 12, 2007

sneak peek...

Okay so I couldn't stay away especially since I can't sleep tonight. I had nothing better to do than sit here and wait on pics to download while I played a few offline games. I am going to be extra busy the next couple of weeks but I will try to post some pics one day.

This pic is of my kitchen cabinets. The drawers that you see on the counter and the extra cabinet sitting where the stove goes is one that will be sent back. That cabinet was busted and so was the drawer to my vanity in the master bath. The vanity drawer is on order and they have already replaced the kitchen cabinet so my contractor will be picking the busted one up this week.

This pic was taken on Thursday as soon as they were completed. The kitchen looks much different now because the walls are primered but this is what my cabinets and counter top look like.














This isn't a very good pic but it is a wall in the utility room. The color is called Traditional Tan and it will be in the foyer, living room, hallway and of course the utility room. You will get a better pic of it next Monday because my painters will complete the painting on Friday or Monday.














This pic is of the guest bathroom. The color is called Mexicali Rose. This pic just doesn't capture the true color but it gives you an idea until I can take a better pic.














As of right now this is my pride and joy. The master bathroom. The pink in here is called Irish Rose and it is more of a country pink, mauvish kind of color. I can't wait to see it when they get all the trim painted and everything because this color will stand out good against the gloss white trim. I will get a better pic of this room too once the painters complete all of the painting. I chose this color because it is the color of the roses on my comforter. I was originally going to go with pale yellow but since our bedroom walls will be a yellowish green color I thought that the two colors would clash so I chose the pink and I am so glad that I did.

The first door in the pic to the right is the entrance to the bathroom. The tub is behind that door and as you can see the his and her sinks are to the left. The door on the left next to the window is the linen closet and the door on the right is the little room our commode will be in. I will have a pic of that tomorrow afternoon since the plumber is finishing up tomorrow. I wish these pics were better because the two pinks are completely different. The pink in the guest bath is a lot darker but the flash on my camera makes them look almost the same.















As you can also see in these pics the doors , baseboards and door casings have not been painted yet, the painters will do all that on Friday. I am excited to see my kitchen walls completed.

I am very glad that I held off on ordering my kitchen appliances until after I saw the kitchen cabinets and counter top installed because now that I have seen them I have changed my mind. I was originally going to go with stainless steel in there but I think that white would look better so I am going to go with white appliances to continue the fresh, open look. The stainless steel would just darken it up and I don't want that.

Well I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of my colors. As I said before, I won't be around much for the next couple of weeks because we will be completing the house but as soon as I am moved and have a cable modem I will post pics of everything that you haven't got to see. I will be throwing a small birthday party for my sweet husband here Tuesday so swing by then.

Y'all take care and be safe and remember that I miss and love ya!

Saturday, March 10, 2007

so tired but in a great way...

Hello out there ! How are all of you? I miss y'all so much and I can't wait to get back to my regular blogging schedule!

This week has been a very tiring week for me but I am tired in a good way. Each morning I have hit the floor running at about 6 AM. I have been working over in the house as much as possible which has been mainly at night. Almost every night this past week I was over there until about 11 PM. I was getting ready for my painter to come in and prime the walls so I had to put plastic over my cabinets and vanities. One night I had to put some primer on some of the walls myself so that the vanities could be set and let me tell you, I enjoyed every minute of it!

Since Wednesday I have had a very sick child on my hands. My eleven year old has been very sick since late Tuesday night. I was sure she had strep throat but when I took her to the doctor Wednesday night the test came back negative. The doctor done a more thorough swab of her throat to be sent to the lab. He told me she had a virus and that she could go back to school on Thursday but when she woke up on Thursday she was even more sick. She was running a fever of 103.3 Thursday morning and thank God I was able to get it down with children's Motrin. I called the doctor back on Thursday and they told me to give her until today and if there was no change or if her fever went back up that high again then they would need to see her. When I took her to the to the office Wednesday her doctor was out with a family emergency so she had to see another doctor that I have never met and I didn't really like that. She got up this morning feeling a bit better. What fever she had today was low grade and her throat isn't as sore so I am praying that she is on the mend. She missed three days of school over this sickness and I figured she had tons of work to make-up but when I went to pick all of her assignments up she only had two worksheets to do. Each of her teachers wrote that they had went really light on the kids since this next week is spring break ... whew... thank God for that!

So much has been done to the house since I last posted on Wednesday. The kitchen cabinets and counter tops have been installed and they are beautiful! I have a pic of them but I am not going to show them right now. Both bathroom vanities have been set and since they match exactly what is in the kitchen they are beautiful too! All of my interior doors have also been installed and the shelves in the closets, linen closets, and pantry have been installed. As of today most of my walls are primered and both bathrooms and the utility room actually have the first coat of colored paint on them. I LOVE my master bathroom! I chose a color called Irish Rose which is a dark, country pink mauvish kind of color, it is beautiful! I also like the Mexicali Rose I chose for the guest bath. It is more of an indian red pinkish color and I love it. When I look at it there is one word that comes to my mind and that is "festive". When I look at the master bath walls the one word that comes to my mind is "peace".

My sinks will be installed on Monday then the electrician/ heating and air guy will be in on Tuesday then on Wednesday we do the walk thru then on Thursday or Friday we close. Once we have the keys the painters will come back and paint then the hardwood flooring goes down then the tile then the carpet then I clean it then we move in! LOL!

I am so excited ! Anyways, you probably won't see much of me for the next two to three weeks so y'all be safe and take care!

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

(insert loud, excited screams here)

While you are imagining me screaming excitedly, also imagine me doing the biggest best happy dance you have ever saw! I got some really great news yesterday and that is why I am so excited.

I had to call our contractor yesterday to find out when we could send our painter in to primer the walls. The painter goes in Friday but the good news is that we will meet our contractor for a walk-thru on Wednesday March 14th then on Friday March 16th we do the tender meeting which means we get the keys to the house.....YAY!!!! I am all excited and nervous now but the nervousness is a good kind of nervous now. Oh yeah baby... we are almost there!

So today I want to show you my gorgeous ceilings that were completed last night around 9 PM. I went over there about two hours ago and got a few pics. Our trim guy had just left from dropping off our cabinets before I got there and I got a pic of my kitchen that has boxes with our cabinets in them. I will post that another day!

This is what my ceilings look like. I love them! This is part of the living room ceiling and the dinning room entrance. The drywall crew was back this morning to make sure that there were no spots that needed sanding or anything like that because even though they had lights on it last night they can see better during the day light hours.















Mr. B are getting ready to go over there and start cleaning out that small wooded area behind the house and the fence row that runs up the side of our property. I will get pics of that. Tonight I will more than likely go over there and start priming the walls of the bathrooms and the utility room so that they can be painted before the plumber comes on Saturday to finish. My goodness, there are no words for what I am feeling right now. I couldn't explain it to you if my life depended on it. I can tell you this, all of the worrying,wishing,and sacrificing over the past fourteen years has been well worth it.

Even though this experience isn't over yet I want to thank each and every one of you for reading and interacting during this exciting time in my life. I love all of you!

Thank you ,
Heather

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

a small bump in the road....

It is one of those nights where I am really tired and just can't sleep so this is where I am.

Our drywall crew told us around 10 AM this morning that they would be finished later today. Mr. B and I went to Knoxville and picked up our 60 gallons of paint for the house and had lunch. By the time we got back around 1 PM the drywall crew had left. All of the windows and both doors were open in the house so we figured they had just went out for lunch and would return to complete the job. They never came back! I am a bit aggravated over this because they knew that we had our painter scheduled to come in tomorrow and spray on the primer coat and now we have had to put him off. All I can say is they better be back tomorrow (tuesday) to finish or I am going to get all out of sorts over it.

Once they complete the drywall I have to go in and wrap all the windows so I will probably be doing that late tomorrow night or if you want to get technical about it since it is after midnight , tonight! Right now is not a good time for the drywall crew to do this to me. Our trim guys are supposed to be coming on Wednesday to install the cabinets , vanities and trim but if they don't get finished by noon today then the trim guys will have to wait until Thursday to come in so that my painter has time to primer everything. I can't really complain at this point because thus far everything but power to the temp pole has went mostly smooth. The thing is that we are down to those little things that really hit a persons nerves, or in my case those little things that really hit my little percentage of a nerve..LOL! Let's just say this isn't a good time and you ladies know what I am talking about.

I torture myself by imagining us living in that house and that makes things worse because then I want to be in it like yesterday instead of three or four weeks from now. Patience has never been a virtue for me but this time I am going to have to dig around and see if I can't find some. Right now I am just hot and irritated. It seems my body has been on overheat all day long then add in being tired then add in sinus and allergy problems and you have one touchy woman!

As Mr. B and I were unloading our paint today my mother-in-law stopped by. I almost disgraced myself in front of her because I got real nauseated all of a sudden and just about tossed my cookies. My body has a mind of it's own right now and it isn't agreeing with anything I think is best. That has me irked as well because I hate not being in control of my body and right now I am anything but.

Scents have been nauseating me a lot too. I woke up Saturday morning and since then my smell has been magnified by like 100. I gag at the smallest smell of anything. We are having revival at church and last night (monday) a lady walked by me and I actually gagged at her perfume. Her perfume was a very light scent and one that I like and normally enjoy smelling but not tonight. I am just all out of whack right now. My appetite is coming and going . Mr. B took me to one of my favorite places for lunch today and I had maybe ten bites then I lost my appetite. Weird but true and for those of you wondering , no I am not pregnant and shame on you for thinking such things about me... LOL! (shiver) That was a scary thought!

Anyways that is what is going on in my little world now , how about yours?

Sunday, March 04, 2007

life in the fast lane...

It has been a few days since my last post so I thought I would get on and give an update on the house. Things are going good ! I was going to try to do a post Friday but didn't have time. I went to Belk Thursday morning, for the fifth time in less than a week, and I finally purchased a comforter set for the master bedroom..YAY!!!! That is one worrisome thing off of me! The comforter set that I bought is one of their bed-in-a-bag deals where you get the overstuffed comforter, the oversized sheets (for pillow top mattress), two shams, and a bed skirt. The curtains that go with this set are next on my list because they too are marked down. I don't know how I looked over this set the first four times I was there but I did, then on my trip Thurs. morning I walked that way and it was like a brighter light glowing down on it and I knew when I saw the pattern that it was mine!

One reason why I had trouble picking for the master bedroom is because I have most always had a floral print theme going and I wanted to try something different. I had my eye on a couple and thought to go with a modern theme than with a country theme, however, I am country at heart and found just the thing. The comforter looks like a quilt but where the stitches should be there is a small green vine and each square is different. The colors are several shades of green, some rose and mauve kind of colors, cream, pale yellow, blue and light turquoise. I know it sounds ugly but you just have to see it, which you will the minute it is on my new bed in my new house! I also wanted something that was feminine yet something that you could work some masculinity in. With that being said let me tell you my wall colors . The bedroom walls will be Juniper Berry which is a pale green, it has more yellow in it than the kitchen green does so it doesn't look anything like my kitchen green. My master bathroom will be Irish Rose which is a dark mauvish, rosy pink ... everyone should have known that I would get my pink in there one way or the other...LOL!

My painter ordered all of our paint on Friday and Mr. B and I have to go pick it up in the morning, all 60 gallons of it. The drywall crew should be done with the mudding of the sheetrock and doing the knock down on the ceilings by tomorrow evening or Tuesday around noon at the latest. My painter will then come in and prime everything, before the painter comes in I have to go in and wrap the windows, front door and back door to keep the primer off because they are spraying it on.

The trim crew is scheduled to come in on Wednesday and Thursday to do the trim, hang the cabinets, and set the vanities in the bathrooms. See what I meant by the title of this post "life in the fast lane"? Things are starting to really pick up and I am thrilled that all of my colors are finally picked and ordered. Tonight at church I gave our Pastor back his color palette he let me borrow to search out my colors, I am so glad that I don't have to look at that thing anymore!

Oh yeah, we have purchased our mattress set for our new bed it is pillow top and I can't wait to sleep on it for the first time. Now we need to buy the rest of it , the headboard, footboard, dresser and nightstands.

So I wanted to show you all some pics of the progress. This first pic is of the side window in the masters. The wall the window is on is where our head board will be setting. The door way you see to the right is entrance into our closet. Of course my son just happened to walk out of the bathroom and in front of the camera as I snapped the pic..LOL! This is also the first coat of mud that the sheetrock got, it looks very different now with the second coat on. I wish that I could get the entire master bedroom in one pic but it is just too big and I have tried every angle but it won't work, half of it gets left out every time.














This pic is of the living room. I am standing back towards the hallway entrance. As you can see our drywall crew has been busy all day. This was taken on Friday also and it is the first coat in this room too. They put the second coat on Saturday and should come back tomorrow and finish sanding and do the knock-down on the ceilings.














I will be painting behind where the commodes and water heater go as soon as the primer is dry because my painter is fitting us in for the prime coat so I am going to pitch in and help. When the time comes to actually paint I will be helping then also, I knew I wouldn't be able to resist helping somewhere!

I'm tellin' ya folks , it won't be long now! I am going tomorrow to purchase my oldest daughters comforter. She and I went to Belk today so she could look around and she picked a pale pink down comforter for her room. That comforter is 50% off right now and believe it or not but I didn't have my wallet on me so I couldn't buy it today. I had cleaned out my purse this morning and forgot to put my wallet back in in my rush to get done and that means that I was driving with my license.

I need to go now and get in bed and try to get some sleep because this is going to be one of those really busy weeks for me. Not only will I be working in the house but our church is having a two night revival on Monday and Tuesday. If the drywall crew finish tomorrow then I will be working over there until the wee hours of the morning tomorrow night vacuuming the sheetrock dust out of the windows and then wraping them and the bathtubs to prepare for the painter and his sprayer.

Y'all have a wonderful Monday! Be safe and take care!

Long time blah blah...

It has certainly been a while since I've been here. Sometimes I think about deleting this blog and being done but I also think I am goin...