Bedroom - Day Two

The second coat of paint went on the walls the other day, and boy is our bedroom pretty.  We even got the bed moved in there so that we could sleep in a bed again (I've been sleeping on the floor because J always pushes me off the couch).  So a nice comfy bed always makes me a much happier camper in the morning.

The beds still on the floor because we have to pick up taller legs for the bed on our next trip to Ikea (we want to put some storage under the bed).  But I'll take a mattress on the floor any day to just on the floor.   

We still need to paint the trim.  I know we should have done that already, but oh well.  We wanted to see how it would look with the wood trim.  It's nice, but the last time this room was painted, no one thought it necessary to tape anything off, so now all the trim is covered with white paint (as well as the hardwood floors).  So the amount of visible paint is driving me nuts, so we're just going to paint it all white and be done with it.  We also are going to paint the dresser black in the spring.  That's gonna look awful nice.

Here's a  horrible, awful, who the hell did this, fantastic photoshop job of what I would like our bedroom to look like.  I actual would like to add crown molding too, but I forgot to photoshop that in.  Oh well. 

We're going to make a nice big fabric headboard (I'm hoping ours turns out better then the one I drew).  And the bed will be centered under the window at some point in the future, it's just not centered right now.

We also have these fantastic vases that will be going in the room as well as nightstands and some wall sconces next to the bed.  And of course some photo collages on the wall.  Then this room will be done and we can move on to the next one.  Which will hopefully be the living room.  Then we can get some furniture and actually live in our living room.  Boy, that's an idea.

Well I hope all of you have a fantastic new year.  I know we will and we have a whole bunch of projects lined up for this next years, so join us on our travels into adult hood and home ownership, it aught to be and interesting one.

Bedroom, Day One

Here is our bedroom before we started the painting.  It's an average room with average white walls.  Nothing really all that exciting. 

We took down the curtains and have decided to redo the closet a little bit.  We chose to go with the room with the smaller closet because the room itself is bigger.  I know doesn't make a lot of sense, but oh well.

All of J's clothes are still up in this one, but they'll be down soon.  We're going to redo the whole thing and add some nice white doors to it.

And here's the room after our first coat of paint.  I'm in love with this color.  Oh it's pretty, oh so pretty.  We went back and forth on the trim, but I think we're leaning towards painting it all white.

My teal, black, and white room is one step closer to becoming a reality.  Well the paint color isn't really teal, it's actually blue.  It's more in the turquoise family, but it's oh so pretty.

I can't wait finishing up all the paint and getting our furniture back in the room.  We're going to be making a nice headboard (black) when we finish up the paint.  And then I'll paint the dresser you see in the above picture black to match.  I'll finish up the room with artwork collages on the wall and our tall flower vases we've been saving for years.

So we're one step closer to getting this house the way we want it.  One step closer to it saying, ' this is our style and this is our house.'  Exciting!

And so I don't forget, I'm offering 15% off everything in my etsy store now until February.  Yoda needs a few surgeries, so to help pay for them all sales in my store will go towards that.  You can get more info about Yoda on my other blog; Three Fates Design.  Thanks and stay tuned for more exciting news.    

The Changes Have Begun!

Now that the holiday is over, we've finally started doing all those things that homeowners do to make a house there own.  Our first project, heat diffusers.

Old Heat Vent Covers

Now the old diffusers were made by a very talented person.  They were all hand made with different pictures.  But that's not quite our style.  So we replaced them with good old fashioned white metal diffusers.  What a difference.  I'm so happy with how they look.  Now I really can't wait to get the paint on the walls.  Oh beautiful Latte, I can't wait for you to go up.

New Heat Vent Covers

Then our next project wasn't really as simple as we thought it was going to be (isn't that how they all are).  There was a half wall as you walked in the front door. We wanted to take that down to open up floor plan as much as possible.  So J got out the tools and started taking it down. 

As we took it down, we learned that they the wall was built into the hardwood floors.  So who ever put up the wall, cut the floor up to put it in.  So now we have to figure out how to fix it.  Our solution, we're going to put in a nice tiled entry way.  It's just a small little area, so we can splurge and get some really nice tile. 

Look at that boy go!

But I do have to say, even with the hole in the floor, the living room looks so much nicer.  It's so open and big in here now.  Perfect.  Just what we wanted.

No more half wall!

J started to feel a little overwhelmed when we ripped that wall out.  He actually told me he was ready to go back to renting and he was going to play video games. I know he'll get over it.  And I'm sure both of our parents are waiting for the first phone call.  You know that phone call, the one where we are hysterical on the other end because something went terribly wrong and now they need to come fix it.  Yeah, I'm sure that day is coming. 

And the next project of the day was the band studio.  J and his band mates are taking down the paneling in the new "studio" and putting up new walls that will be hopefully sound proof.  I really do hope that it's as sound proof as possible.  I don't know how much I want to hear them practice.  They have to replace the drywall on one wall because the last owners just put up paneling as walls.  Just paneling nailed to some studs.  Not very sound proof.  That's the current project.  Today is "demolition" and then hopefully it will only take one more day to put the walls back up.

Tomorrow's plan is to go to the grocery store for some actual food, not just frozen pizzas.  And when we get home, the ceilings will be started.  J has a show tomorrow night (at the High Noon Saloon, if you're in the Madison area), so I'm sure I'll be doing the painting tomorrow while he practices and gets ready, but who cares.  I want the damn paint up. 

So more pictures tomorrow.  I'm hoping those pictures will have some walls with paint on them.  ;-)

What did you get for Christmas?

Well this has been one heck of a Christmas.  It's unfortunately the first Christmas that I can remember that I didn't have some form of a tree up, but that's okay, I'll get over that some day.  I'll probably be scarred for life now, always remembering our first Christmas in the new house without a tree :( but I'll deal with the broken heart of living in a tree-less house.  I don't know if you notice, but I'm not really over it and I've let J know everyday how sad I am.  But anyhow.  

J and I didn't really celebrate that much or even exchange gifts.  But I guess we bought each other a house, so that's probably the best Christmas gift ever.  Okay, that IS the best Christmas gift ever.  And we did get each other little things.  J got me (and himself) an awesome travel tea mug.  I love tea and buy a lot of loose leaf tea, so these are perfect for us.  I will be getting got him a single cup coffee maker.  It's not one of those k-cup kinds, it just takes normal coffee filters and coffee, but only brew one cup at a time.  We got my boss  the same one for the office.  He likes it and I think it made J was a little jealous, so I got him one.  It's a nice cuisinart one.  I'll have pictures of it when it finally arrives (hey give me a break, we just moved last week).

We also went and picked up some paint.  We're set for the living room/dining room, kitchen, hallway, and master bedroom.  I figured those rooms were enough to start with for now, then we'll move on to the other rooms.  I'll hopefully have some before and after pictures soon.  We went with Latte for the walls in the living room/dining room, kitchen and hallway.  Then deep red for one of the walls in the dining area.  Then of course a wonderful blue-green for the bedroom.  Oh I'm so excited about the bedroom.  You have no idea.

And of course the best part of our paint store trip; we picked up a color deck.  I have been dreaming about one of these for ever.  Not only will I be able to use it to pick out colors for the rest of the house, but I'll be able to use it to create new color combos to use in my art work.  That was totally worth the trip to the paint store.

We also made our first trip to the home improvement store since we've become homeowners.  I can attest to the fact that once you own a home, those stores take on a whole new feeling.  We became completely overwhelmed the second we walked in the store.  Was it the first time we've been there?  Hell no, we've been there hundreds of times, but now we're homeowners, so we have to care about everything in the store.  We did manage to calm ourselves down long enough to buy a few lights for the front entrance way and the hallway, as well as a lamp (our first nice lamp ever).  We also picked up paint supplies and some caulking crap for J's studio in the basement.  Oh and we picked up registrar covers to replace the ones the house came with.  I know, he was a very skilled woodworker, but I'm sorry, they just aren't our style.  The plain, simple ones are fine in my book.        

So as you can see we had a wild and crazy Christmas (we did spend it with family, so not all boring).  Oh the lives of homeowners, EXCITING!! ;-)

The Metro System

So I'm going to take a little break from talking about house crap today.  There really isn't all that much so share right now, we didn't do anything except get the appointment for cable set up yesterday.

But anywho, I would like to do some venting on how I feel about the city metro line.  I'm fine with it.  I'm more then happy with it, but it seems to me, not everyone is.  Most people seem to see the city buses as their own personal taxi service.  I just don't understand it.  The buses are a privilege not a right, don't go bashing them right now.

Our new house is a block and a half from a bus stop.  That is a huge plus for me.  I walk a whole block and a half, a bus picks me us and then takes me practically to the front door of the vet school.  How fantastic is that.  It saves me the money it would cost me for gas as well as the whopping $745 parking pass.  Oh and my sanity, because driving in this town in not really all that fun.  Some of the people here are insane when it comes to driving.  But I digress.  The fact is, I ride the bus for free (next year we'll have to pay a small fee for our passes).  It saves me a crap ton of money and I don't get all pissy and up in arms when the bus is behind schedule.

Especially right now.  I'm not sure if some of you have heard or not, but the Midwest is completely covered in snow.  And then on top of it, at least here, we're experiencing sub zero temperatures.  So that means any snow that didn't get completely cleared from the roads is now a pure frozen ice mat.  So everyone SHOULD be driving slower and more careful.  And that's exactly what the bus drivers were told, Be Safe and don't worry about being a little late!!  And I completely agree with this.  I'd rather the bus drive a little slower then me die because the bus ran off the road.  But as I found out the last couple days, no one else sees it this way.

There was a woman at the bus stop this morning just bitching away at anyone who would listen about how she felt about the buses being late.  That they were huge vehicles and they didn't need to drive slow.  They could easily pick up the pace and be just fine.  Ummm, okay, and that's why I don't like driving here.  That sort of attitude.

The buses are not your personal taxi.  They do not cater to you, they come when they come and just shut up about it.  It's not like it's a lovely summer day out and the roads are free and clear.  No, it's the middle of winter in WI, things take a little bit longer.  And even if it wasn't winter, the buses must obey the rules of the road.  They can get stuck in traffic just like someone driving can.  Shit happens.  Luckily Metro has a little up to the minute tracker that tells you when the bus is coming.  Just check that, it's pretty accurate.  I just don't see the point in getting on the bus and ripping the driver a new one.  It's more then likely not their fault.  Sit your ass down and enjoy your (more then likely free or discounted) bus ride.  And if you're late to work, take the earlier bus, it's that simple.  And if you don't want to do that, drive yourself to work, or call a damn taxi.  Just don't complain about something you won't be able to control.  Calm down and life will be a little better.  Am I thrilled to wait in the ice cold weather for the bus, no not really, but it beats having to drive myself.  And really, who gets that upset over a bus being 5 min late, life's to short to get upset over something that small.

Okay, that's all for now.  I'll share with you how I feel about the rude people on the bus some other time.  :-)

I DID IT!

Hell yeah, I drove that stupid truck back last night with no problems at all.  I even pulled it into the gas station without any problems.  Yeah, I know I'm awesome.  We were talking to the guys at the rental place and they said that the trucks suck in the snow.  They just had to move all the trucks from on side of the lot to the other for the plow to get through and that took them 4+ hours.  I should have gotten a picture of it before I took it back.  I actually should have gotten a picture of it stuck in the road, but we didn't seem to find it as funny at the time.  But all is well in the giant rental truck world.  It's out of our driveway and safely back at the rental place.  Thank god that's over.  Now we can focus on more important things.

Like unpacking and painting.  We have made progress in that category as well.  We have the bathroom unpacked as well as most of the kitchen.  It's actually starting to feel like home.  Even the cats have come out of hiding and are exploring.  As for Yoda, she pretty much didn't miss a beat.  She's loving the new place and all the room.  So all is well so far.  Lets just hope it stays that way for a while.  :-) 

We Did It!

So, we did it, we became homeowners.  We are the proud owners of a 3 bedroom ranch house.  Awesome!

We're even almost completely moved in.  We rented a big ass truck on Saturday and filled that sucker.  Thanks to the help of three of our friends, it really didn't take that long.  We even beat the storm.  Although I did have to drive a few towns over to pick up the truck, which didn't make me happy.  And then J made me drive the truck, the 26 foot truck, full of our stuff.  So I pretty much drove the 40 some odd miles thinking I was going to die the whole time.  But I made it and I did okay.  We almost got the whole truck unloaded before the rain started.  

Then we made the mistake of not returning the truck that night.  How is that a mistake?  Because when we woke up the next morning there was a foot of snow on the ground. And then came the failed attempt to try to return the truck during a snow storm.  Lets just say it wasn't pretty and we may or may not have gotten a huge rental truck stuck in the road outside our house.  Luckily our new neighbors are supper nice and helped us out and got it unstuck and back in the driveway (that's after I called the rental truck emergency hotline and talked to a tow truck driver, so then I had to cancel that).  I called the rental place and told them we needed an extra day added and they said they were giving everyone an extra day to get trucks back because of the storm.  So luckily we didn't have to pay extra for that.  But unfortunately our road wasn't plowed until late and J didn't get the driveway plowed until even later.  So there sat the truck, and that's where is was when I left for work this morning.  So it looks like we will be getting a late fee, but I'd rather be safe then save 40 bucks.  But we're leaving work early tonight to try and miss the late night commute and getting that truck back ASAP.  I don't need to rack up any more charges on it then needed.  Lets just hope I can pull into a gas station to get gas without running anyone over.  Check back in tomorrow to see if I'm still alive.       

Aaaaaaaaaah

Yup, that's pretty much how I feel right now.  Tomorrow is the big day, closing day.  In just a few more hours we will be at the title company buying our first house.  Holly shit!!!  That's how I feel; I'm exhausted, nervous, excited, stressed, happy, etc, etc.  And we haven't even closed or moved yet.  This better be worth it.

☜ Yup, that's a Three Fates Original right there.  I know I'm an awesome artist.  It kinda looks like I'm showing you some "see food" and I think I might be naked, I'm not sure.  Maybe I better stick to beads and glass. 

Yesterday was our final walk through.  It went well.  We met the woman selling the house, she was nice.  She has all the manuals for everything in the house ready for us and she showed us how the childproof outlets work (she had to ask herself).  Everything seems to be in order and I guess we're ready for tomorrow. 

We're still waiting to hear back about our moving truck.  They let you reserve them online and then they don't get back to you until the night before to officially confirm everything.  They don't really leave much room for you to make other plans if you can't get what you want.  That's starting to stress both of us out.  We just don't want to have to drive two towns over to pick up a truck, the millage would cost a fortune.  Living in a small town can be so frustrating at times.  Oh but we won't have to worry about that any more, "big city" here we come.

We have a group of friends that will be helping us.  I just have to feed them and fill them up with beers.  I can do that.  I can't believe anyone volunteered, it's December in Wisconsin, I sure as hell wouldn't want to help a friend move.  But we have awesome friends.  They are so awesome they will help us move in the middle of the winter while it's snowing.  Yup that's right, it's supposed to snow this weekend, but at least it won't be bitterly cold, it will be in the 30s.  It'll feel like summer.

So home ownership here we come.  Again, holly shit, are we really doing this? 

This is the Week!!!

http://www.fotosearch.com/BCD117/jptm12/

So this is the week.  We have our closing on Friday and then moving on Saturday.  Holy crap, I can't believe it's finally time.  I'm ready for this.  I'm ready to leave the JC and not look back.  Well okay, I'll still go to the outlet mall there, they have an awesome kitchen store and a great tool store, as well as a Coach store (yes Coach handbags).  But I'll avoid the town.  It's not like it's a bad place to live, I'm just done living in a little town in the middle of nowhere without a grocery store.  And I've defiantly had it with the little monsters that live on our street.  I'll be so happy when they are just a fading image in my rear view mirror.  Monsters, just monsters.

But enough with that (maybe I'll share some stories at a later date).  We are almost completely done packing.  All that is left is the food in the kitchen, the sheets and blankets on our bed, and some odds and ends.  I'm proud of J for letting go of so many things this last weekend, the homeless shelter will be getting boxes of men's clothes soon.

Our house is a maze of boxes.  They are everywhere.  Nacho is so upset with the boxes, Toonces is pissed off because of the boxes, and Yoda is loving it.  I'm pretty sure that dog would be happy no matter what.  And I'm sure she'll think that we're going to a party (don't say that word around her, it makes her go insane, because she likes to party) for a while, then it might dawn on her that it's her new home.  Maybe not, you know what, she probably won't even notice we moved.  She's not dumb, she's just a happy dog that is happy as long as her boy and girl are around her.

So we're ready to go, and I'm very much looking forward to the Glass Nickle pizza I've been promised on Saturday.  Mmmmm, Nickle nuggets.  Num, num, num.    

One and a half weeks left!!!

We're so close now I can taste it. We only have a week and a half left before closing and moving day. WooHoo, I can't wait!!!

But with the big move comes new furniture.  Our couch is only a couple of years old, but it's a sectional and the chase part is in the wrong direction for our new living room.  Boo that couch.  So now what are we doing?  We're looking at new furniture. Blah.  I'm not a fan of furniture shopping.  I'm pretty picky about what I like and it always seems to be the opposite of what J likes.  And my least favorite thing is the sales people that follow you around when you don't need them, but then when you do, they are nowhere to be found.

But anywho, this is the sectional that we're leaning towards.  It's the right color and it's the right size.  The ottoman doesn't come with it, but I do like it and so does J.  I think it would work really well in our new living room.  We were looking for another couch with a chase, but I think if we get the (overpriced) ottoman, it will be like a chase.

We're also looking into getting a new TV.  I think our current one is fine, but J wants a new one.  We have an old school rear projection big screen TV, that takes up a large majority of our current living room.  I think that our new living room is big enough for it, but J's ready to trade up for a flat screen.  So that means we'll have to get an entertainment center.

We like this one from Ikea.  It's simple and best of all pretty cheap.  You design them yourself so that if fits your room and your TV, so that's kinda cool.  I like the idea of the solid doors so that no one can see our massive amount of DVDs and PS3 games.  It will be nice to be able to keep everything out of sight.  Much better then the book case we're using now.

We're going to go dark with the furniture and light with the walls and floor.  The hardwood floors are a beautiful blond color and we're thinking about getting a light tan colored area rug.  J was a little worried about it being to dark in there, but the bay window lets in so much light, that I don't think there will be a problem.   

Then in the future we like to get a pair of chairs or a love seat for the living room as well, but that can wait a little bit.  We'll probably go with a lighter color for that and maybe even a print (fun).

Oh a complete living room, I can't wait to look like we're homeowners and not college kids anymore.  I think we've been out of college long enough, we really need to graduate to a big people living room.  Adulthood here we come!!!