I fell in love with our house as soon as we walked up to the front porch with our Realtor. I loved the layout and all the space it offered. We were used to a small 2 bedroom apartment, so the 4 bedroom house seemed like a mansion! It was in desperate need of a face-lift, but Adam and I could see beyond the lace curtains and wallpaper.
Making the house our home has brought me lots of joy. I loved picking out paint colors and finding the right furniture and decor for each room. We were lucky enough to have a few months to spend fixing it up before we moved in. We were able to make a huge mess and then go to our apartment to get away from it all.
Here's part one of our home tour:
Front
This picture was taken the day that we closed on our house:
We haven't done a whole lot to change up how the front of our house looks, but we have made some improvements:
-Had a sprinkler system installed
-Had the driveway mud-jacked
-Bought some patio furniture
-Added solar lights
-Got rid of the dogwood tree that was planted way too close to the house (The tree actually just fell down all by itself. I woke up one morning and went outside to go for a walk. As soon as I opened the front door, I noticed a tree on top of my car. It had somehow just fallen down. There weren't even any roots on the bottom of the tree! It was as if the previous owners just cut off a tree at the base and stuck it in the ground. Luckily, it was a pretty small tree so it didn't damage my car, but that was quite a sight to see. I do believe I just stood and stared at the tree for awhile, trying to figure out what to do with it. Adam was out of town, so I just drug it into the front yard and left it there for Adam to tend to when he returned. At least that solved the problem of the tree being too close to the house.)
Here's our front porch today:
We have plans to get a new front door and paint it a fun color. We'd also like to either repaint or replace the shutters. Eventually we're going to redo the posts and railings, but that might be a ways away.
Entryway
Here's how our entryway looked when we closed, complete with ugly tile, an ugly light fixture and ugly wallpaper.
We made some major changes in this tiny space:
-Removed the tile (This required renting a jackhammer and using it inside our house.)
-Had hardwood flooring installed
-Removed the wallpaper (My least favorite job of all the jobs we've tackled in our house.)
-Painted the walls (Can't remember the paint color.)
-Added artwork and a mirror to the walls.
-Added a small entryway table (We bought this table on Craigslist and refinished it.)
-Switched out the ugly light fixture with the light fixture that was crammed above our sink. It fits much better in this space.
Here's our entryway today:
Dining Room
This is what our dining room used to look like:
Here's what we've changed up:
-Had hardwood flooring installed
-Replaced the light fixture
-Painted the walls (Behr's Blue Agave)
-Added a wedding photograph
-Added a new pub-height table
-Installed new blinds (Don't look too closely or you'll see all the extra holes I drilled in the window frame trying to install them myself.)
-Hung a new curtain rod and curtains
Here it is now:
More of the home tour to come later!
Anyone who has dealt with infertility or losing a baby has dealt with all kinds of feelings. You feel anger, hope, sadness, grief, unfairness, confusion and so on. And it's okay to feel all of those things. I have given myself permission to feel all of those things.
When one of my dear friends posted on Facebook that she was pregnant, I had a complete meltdown. I was a hysterical, sobbing heap on my bathroom floor. And I felt horrible for responding that way. I was so mad at myself that I couldn't be happy for my friend that I love. It was perfectly okay that I responded that way. It's okay to be pissed off when you see pregnancy announcements on Facebook. It doesn't make you a bad person and it doesn't mean you don't love your friends.
I remember one particular trip to Target after I had just lost my baby. I saw a lady there who had two toddlers in a cart. They were being fussy and the lady blew up. She yelled at them and I remember stopping and staring. Having spent 7 years working in schools, I know how kids can test your patience. But in that moment, I was so angry with her. I wanted to tell her that she needed to appreciate every crabby minute she got to spend with her kids. And it was okay that I felt that way. Though, I don't think it would have been okay for me to actually tell her those things.
There was a time Adam and I went to Home Depot. We walked by a couple who had 2 little boys and one very clearly on the way. Without really thinking, I told Adam that I hoped she was having another boy. It was snarky of me and I didn't really mean it, but it was okay that I said it. It's not like I said it to the couple. It was my way of coping and it did make Adam smile.
My point in sharing these moments, moments that I am not proud to admit to, is to let others who are feeling these things know that it's okay. It doesn't make you a bad person. It just makes you someone who is learning to cope with a sad situation.
After Adam and I got engaged, we pooled all of our income into shared accounts. Adam was way better at keeping track of money and controlling his spending than I was. Don't get me wrong, I never spent beyond my means and did put money into a savings account. But Adam created a budget so we could save for wedding expenses and money for a house down payment. Boy am I glad Adam initiated all of this, but at the time I was very concerned that I would never be able to go shopping at Target or eat at McDonalds again!
We recently added another category to our budget: Jazzy. I am a bit embarrassed to admit this, but we spent $687.14 on Jazzy the first month that we owned her. To be fair, this amount did include her adoption fee and some vet bills. But, yikes! I guess we went a bit crazy and thought that she needed to have a multitude of things.
Here are some things that we didn't need to buy:
1. A Bed
Since I'm a girl, I keep more pillows on our bed than necessary. Because of this, Adam throws whichever pillows he's not using on the floor beside the bed. Jazzy has decided that this mound of pillows is her "bed."
2. Bones
Jazzy is very particular about the bones she eats. She will eat Greenies and Dentastix as soon as we give them to her. But she hides pretty much any other bone we give her in various places around the house. I don't know why we keep giving her bones, but it sure is cute to sneak around after her to see where she decides to hide them. We could have saved some money had we not bought her all of these bones that I dug out of couch cushions and behind beds:
3. Nail Clippers
The time Adam and I tried to trim Jazzy's nails was quite traumatic for all three of us. She hates when you touch her feet, so imagine how much fun it was to try to trim her nails. After about 30 minutes of wrangling her and Adam and I trying to work up the courage to actually squeeze the nail clippers, we got about 3 nails trimmed. It was at that point that we decided taking her to the vet to have them trim her nails was well worth the $9 cost. While we'll end up spending more money in the long run, we could have at least saved money by not buying the nail clippers at all.
4. Scary Wire Brush
Adam has bought Jazzy 3, yes 3, different brushes. He also buys her Burt's Bees shampoo and conditioner, which is probably better than the hair products I buy for myself, but that's another story. The first brush he bought ended up being a little scary. It's rather pokey and I certainly wouldn't want to brush my hair with it. The second brush was a little better. It fits in the palm of your hand and has softer bristles. The third brush is called the Furminator and had a rather hefty price tag, though Adam swears by it. He even shows me the pile of hair he ends up with after brushing her with it. Lovely. So, we could have bypassed the first two brushes and went straight for the Furminator.
5. Toys
Jazzy doesn't really know how to play with toys. If you give her one she'll look at it for a second and then ignore it. Her favorite games to play are chase, where she just runs really fast past us in the backyard, and bite, where she ever so gently bites on your fingers. She will occasionally chew on a rope if you switch it out for your fingers while she's playing bite. But then she'll just try to get your fingers where they are holding the rope. We could have saved some money by not buying her any toys.
She is one spoiled doggy, but we wouldn't have it any other way.
