Going Green. Ghetto Style.

Darin and I are probably about as into recycling as the average person.  We do our part and recycle our plastic, glass, aluminum and paper.  And furniture.  And I'm not talking about bringing our unwanted goods to Goodwill.  Take a look at our garage.

We have an actual shelving unit for a garage on the left.  Not bad!  To the right of that, we have the top half of my old entertainment center that I've had since 2004.  We have reused that in every place we've lived in since then but now have finally purchased a "real" entertainment center for the lower level of our new home.  Of course, we'd hate to get too classy too quick and get a nice TV stand for upstairs, so the bottom half of the old school entertainment center is still being used up there.  I have to say though, who knew that this cheap entertainment center from Wal-Mart would last five moves and be no worse for wear?!  Under the top of the entertainment center (now known as a "work bench") we have an old filing cabinet.  It's match is actually still in use in our study.  Next to the "work bench" we have a very old desk that Darin purchased from an antique shop while living in Minneapolis.  This thing is so banged up, I always forget where he got it and accuse him of dumpster diving.  It is now home to all our nails, screws and packing tape.  I'm sure there are other things in there as well, but if you read the post about my hoarding tendencies, you probably can imagine how many rolls of tape we have acquired over our many moves and I'm fairly certain I could outfit an entire hardware store with our nails and screws.  No joke.  In fact, Darin just told me yesterday that I'm not allowed to purchase anymore hooks.  I've only used two hooks in all the places we've lived, but seem to have purchased 2500 of them!  Next to the desk is our IKEA dresser.  I like to think that baby is still standing because it was put together by myself and Louisa, but I'm guessing we just got lucky.  It now houses a drawer overflowing with Darin's car washing "equipment". For the one time a year he washes our cars by hand.  (After all, it is more green to go to the car wash.  And we are very green people.  Clearly.)  And for those of you who are wondering, yes, that is my radio circa 1993 on top of the desk.  And it still works like a charm!  Rounding the corner we have a Bacardi display stand that Darin "rescued" from a liquor store many a year ago and then a bookshelf that looks much better from afar than it does up close.  

I think it's very obvious that we are very conscious about reducing, reusing and recycling.  Can you say the same?  

NOT PICTURED: black bookshelf home to all our (OK, my) paint and painting equipment

 

Da Plane! Da Plane!

Well, everyone makes mistakes, right?  Unfortunately, this mistake of mine shines as a beacon of light for all the world to see (or so it seems).  We painted the study this weekend.  It is bright.  It is so bright that Darin and I are worried planes will start using Rye Harbor Court as a landing strip.  We stepped outside last night to get the full effect in the dark and see what our neighbors will be seeing.  It was an eye opening experience.  Darin's comment was "Well, at least there are plenty of street lights so ours isn't the only light on the block!  That helps to tone it down a bit."  Uh...a bit...but not nearly enough.  I'm all about bright colors and bold choices for paint, but this is taking it to an extreme.  A very bright extreme.  I plan on starting to find decorations immediately to tone this eyesore down, but until then, I just try to not walk by the room and ignore the glow emanating from it.

Oprah taught me "Doubt means Don't."  I had a lot of doubt when I opened this can
and I should have listened to her advice!

No picture can truly capture the color of this room.  

In more interesting news, I had a doctor's appointment today and heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time!  It sounded like a horse.  The doctor said everything looked good and there were no problems.  And, most importantly, we find out the baby's gender on July 21st!  I cannot wait!  I can't believe I'll be 20 weeks already!  Time flies!  Anyway, at this point in time, the baby is the size of an onion.  Aww...our little onion.  :-)

Free at last! Free at last!

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.

It's a Peach!

Hi All!  Well, since Darin and I have removed ourselves from all family and friends, I thought it was high time we created a blog of some sort to keep everyone informed about what's going on in our lives.  So, here is my first stab at it.  Bear with me as I figure this all out!

As most of you know, we had our first OB appointment in Houston today.  It was very exciting to see our little baby on the screen.  It's really a feeling I can't put into words except to call it truly amazing.  I have not allowed myself to become overly excited or attached to this pregnancy (even though it's my first and that's difficult) because of fear of miscarriage in the first trimester.  After our appointment today, however, it is impossible to not be completely in love.  To see a little being inside my belly moving, stretching, waving and sucking it's thumb...amazing!  And to think that it's only the size of a PEACH!  Darin and I are still giddy with excitement and it's been 12 hours.  So, 13 weeks down and 27 to go!

In other news, Darin and I will be closing on our new house on June 17th.  We are very ready to be out of our apartment and into our new house.  We will be living in the subdivision of Eagle Springs and our home is actually just a few blocks from one of the elementary schools in the area.  It's a fantastic area with lots of walking paths, swimming pools, shopping and, well, pretty much everything.  It's approximately 30 minutes from downtown Houston, 20-30 minutes from one of the plants Darin supports and 45 minutes to the plants down South.  Overall, it's in a great location and we can't wait to get settled.

Once we do get settled, chances are I will be looking for a temp job for a few months until maybe November.  Darin and I do not plan on me working after "Tax Break" (as Darin lovingly refers to baby Coble) arrives so we shall see what kind of employment I can find for a few months.

Anyway, all is well in the Coble apartment besides the fact that we're in an apartment!  Here are some cute pictures of the puppies and Louie to sign off.  Boy, are they in for a surprise in a few months!