We are officially free from apartment living and it feels great! I snapped this picture as the dogs were waiting in the car and I was on my final trip up and down the stairs with the last of our stuff. (That would be the reason for the shiny complexion. I have no "pregnancy glow," just "Houston heat sweat"!)
We closed on the house on Friday, June 17th. It had us pretty worried as we were supposed to close at 9am, then it changed to 11am and then it changed to "we'll call you when we're ready. Stay close to the area." Thankfully, at about 2pm we got the phone call that they were ready and soon enough, we were homeowners once again!
That first night we put some of our stuff from the apartment in the house, got the phone, internet and DirecTV set up and geared ourselves up for the painting to be done the next day. Thank goodness Darin's friends from Purdue who live in Houston volunteered to come help us with the painting. I have no idea what possessed them to do it, but it's almost a week later and I'm still grateful. Plus, it makes it a lot more enjoyable when you have the help of friends. Thanks Ellie and Greg!
After they left, it was up to Darin and I to finish the kitchen. I may need to remind some people that this is the first time Darin has helped paint in all the time we've lived together and all the rooms I've painted with the help of my mom...Louisa...Kasi...myself.... Apparently, he's quite a bit more coordinated than he first let on with the paint brush and I will make sure that he's helping from now on. Besides, with those sexy painting clothes, who wouldn't want him around?!? :-)
After Darin's initial reaction to the orange paint in the kitchen, "Um...you think maybe we should just paint one wall first and see how we like it?" and a comment Louisa made when years ago we painted my bedroom in Woodbury orange, "It feels like we're standing in a highlighter," running through my mind, we dove in and got the job done. I'm afraid Darin got the brunt of the painting in this room as I was not even close to tall enough to reach over those cupboards. We finished up with me cleaning up all the paint and supplies and Darin sealing the grout in 2 rooms. It was a late night, but we got so much done!
The color is growing on Darin now, but he was singing a circus tune the first time he walked in after work. I love it and it's going to look so much better after we get all the decorations up and some furniture in this joint!
The movers showed up on Monday around noon and were done unloading the huge semi by 3. It was amazing. More amazing is how much stuff we have! It's slowly but surely coming along and everything is finding a home, but it's quite the process. In all my experience moving, I find the kitchen is the hardest room to get organized. It proved to be true again after I had to rearrange the cupboards 89 times.
Now, the kitchen is all put away except for the random items I didn't know we had or don't know why they were in the kitchen to begin with. The master bedroom is slowly coming together also. We have 10 foot ceilings throughout the whole downstairs and in the walk-in closet, we need every inch. It's actually a little sad to see the gluttony and money in that one room when I've worn nothing but t-shirts and spandex capris for the last 7 weeks. Darin is so lucky to come home to that! But, the closet is still the bain of my existence.
Louie, Josie & Boomer are loving having a house instead of the apartment. The dogs get a real kick of running up the stairs and hanging out up there when things get too boring on the main level. I think they're looking for Louie up there, who has pretty much claimed that level as his own. Josie and Boomer are really enjoying the yard though. It's so nice to be able to just let them out instead of put the leash on, walk them down 3 flights of stairs and walk around with them until they decide they've had enough. Unfortunately, they are obsessed with the roots of some of the weeds in the yard and have done quite a bit of digging. Darin and I have a lot of work ahead of us in the yard department. It's not looking so pretty. This is a picture of their latest handiwork.
Anyway, we are loving the new house and it feels more and more like home every day. We look at each other daily and say, "I can't believe we live here!" Hopefully we'll be sticking around for awhile, but only time will tell... Until then, we're going to soak up everything Houston has to offer.
