I LOVE BBB

I probably will not ever be able to express how much I love stores like Bed Bath and Beyond and Storables!  We picked up these great steals on Tuesday afternoon and are pretty happy with them now that we have set them up!  One of the items is the Made Smart Expandable Cutlery Tray for our silverware, which is just awesome!  No matter what size drawer you have, it will expand to fit your drawer and then locks into place.  We love love love the way it fits our drawer so nicely and that it has the storage areas on the sides for other items.

We also picked up this awesome Keurig coffee pod organizer while we were there.  It is called a Solofill My Solo Pad Automatic K-Cup® Coffee Dispenser and it holds 42 little pods in 6 separated compartments.  I love that this one is spring loaded so the pods are always at the front and that it can be turned whatever direction you want.  We loved that you could stand it up because it fits our kitchen best that way!

We need to go back and get more drawer organizers for our bathrooms sometime soon, but realized that we should probably take measurements first so that we buy ones that fit the best.  Until next time I guess!

J&L

Hot Tub Cleaning Time!

It was finally time to tackle the dreaded hot tub yesterday (Tuesday) morning!  If you see that green stripe down the middle, yes, that is algae growing in it.  And the water was even dirtier than it appears in this picture.  It took multiple brushes, cleaner, a Shop Vac, a Homer bucket, a huge cup, and a hose with awesome spraying capability to get this sucker cleaned out!

Old goggles drowned in algae and nasty water:

 Draining the water out the side: 

After picture!  We are very pleased with our outcome!

Oh and let it be known that we found one nasty dead lizard that looked like it had been floating there for months, two scrunchies, a gross old bandaid, AND a pair of goggles.  Not such a fun morning, but we can't wait until we get it fixed and it is a great place to relax at the end of a long day!

J&L

We moved in for real!

After two weeks and a few days, we actually moved in yesterday (Monday)!  Not everything was unpacked, but we were pretty close to ready.  We spent most of today (Tuesday) unpacking and are almost done now!  The things left to be unpacked are pretty much just things that we can't unpack until we have more furniture like end tables and bookshelves and those sorts of things.

Here are some shots of our bedroom and closet unpacking craziness:

And I went and picked up some plate stands from Michael's, so we finally got to set our China cabinet up for real.

While I was out getting plate stands, I also went and picked up some more pillows so we could get all of the pillowcases filled in the guest rooms!  We are all ready for Mama Shively and Grandma Nancy to come and visit next Wednesday!

Jared also got to unpack his xbox, so now we are finally able to use our new tv!  Yahoooo!  We are planning on watching a movie on it!

And the first meal we made in our house was lettuce wraps!  So super delicious!  Thanks to Aunt Lisa for the delicious recipe!

J&L

Two Week Update!!!

It is hard to believe that it has already been two weeks since closing, but it sure has and we have made so much progress in that time.  We were able to paint every paintable surface in the house and this morning our carpet was installed which meant that we could finally move in some actual furniture tonight!  We are missing quite a bit of furniture still, but that is the life of the newlyweds!  We look forward to finding things we like to fill the empty spots in the not too distant future.  Of course, none of these rooms are done yet, but it is a start!  We now have three beds to choose from, a couch to sit on, and a fancy table to eat at.  So much progress since last week when there was not a single piece of furniture in the house! I have to say that we were pretty happy that we finally got to open up all of our bedding and put out all of our china for the first time since we were given it for our wedding over 8 months ago!

Master bedroom:

China hutch and dining room:

China hutch closer up:

Family room and new tv:

Primary guest room (we accidentally left the comforter at the other house):

Secondary guest room:

Jared's ready room (I made him a temporary couch out of a mattress pad):

Thanks so much to Chas and Meagan for stopping by and helping me set up both of the guest rooms!  Carrying mattresses and box springs and making beds by myself is possible, but it sure is easier and a whole lot more enjoyable to have people to help!

And not that this really has to do with the progress of the house, but Bella is very happy with the carpeting and the house in general.  She seems like she is finally starting to feel at home, which we couldn't be happier about.  Sorry for the plethora of pup photos, but I just might think that she is the cutest pupster in the entire world!

  

On a completely different note, we have been trying to decide what to call our house since if you were to say meet at the Fisher's, it would refer to multiple homes.  Jared's parents call their house Fisher Family Funhouse and his sister calls hers House Divided, but we only seem to be able to come up with silly names like the Green Machine, Jarenella, and Big Green.  Any clever suggestions are welcome as we know we need to come up with something better than those!!!

We are very very very proud of what we have done in the last two weeks and are getting very excited to officially move in on Monday. We are also looking forward to sharing what we have accomplished with my Mom and Grandma, who are coming to town on the 15th!  Their beds are all made and we can't wait for them to help us tackle the garden in just under two weeks from now!

J&L

Carpet Installation

We were so thankful that it didn't rain this morning because it meant that the installers were able to finish our carpet this morning and early afternoon!  I have to tell you that we could not be more pleased with our choice.  This carpet was scary expensive, but oh so worth it as it feels like you are walking on a cloud.  We went with the top of the line silk carpet by Mohawk in our Master, the family room, and the back hallway and went with a little cheaper option in the three spare rooms.  The carpets flow well though and we are very happy with how everything turned out. Here are some snapshots of them laying down the carpet before cutting and stretching and tucking it and all of that.

Family room: 

Archway to back hallway: 

Master bedroom:

Master closet: 

Jared's Ready Room: 

 Primary guest room: 

Secondary guest room: 

Hall closet: 

Back hallway: 

And here are a few shots of the carpet all finished and looking pretty before we cover it up with furniture!

Master bedroom: 

Master closet:

I am not going to lie...Jared and I could not help but dance all over our new carpet.  It is amazing and I don't know how we lived before we experienced this under our feet!

Next post will have pictures with at least some furniture moved in!  Looking forward to sharing them with you!

J&L

Almost Carpeted!

Today was the day we were told to be ready for carpet, so we got the house all ready.  Last night, we cleared out all of the rooms including temporarily removing one of the closet systems as pictured below because it balanced itself on the ground and they would not have been able to get the carpet under it properly.  

So, at about 9:15 this morning Jared called the carpet company because he had not heard anything about when we needed to be at the house and no surprise, they were waiting for us in our driveway, so we quickly threw on some shoes and rushed over there to let them in.  They got all of the rooms tacked and padded within a few hours, and the second they were starting to get ready to cut carpet it started pouring.  And every time we thought it might let up, it just started raining harder than before.  So, they decided they would cut the carpet at the shop this afternoon and then lay it quickly tomorrow morning.  Sad because we thought we were finally going to get to put things in place tonight, but okay because we would rather they do it right and us not end up with spots all over our brand new carpet.

Oh, and other hiccup.  Rather than asking what type of threshold we would like our carpet tucked into (either silver or gold), they just decided on a color for us.  We walked in to grab some water as we had been hanging out on the porch watching the rain and I saw yellow gold shining up from the floor and I honestly was sent into a panic.  Yellow gold accents look beautiful in some homes, but since our house has all silver appliances and doorknobs and faucets and EVERYTHING, this yellow gold he had picked out for us simply was not an option.  I am so glad Jared decided to talk to him because I wasn't sure how to say nicely that I really didn't like what he was doing as I was a bit flustered at the time.  As Jared bsically told the man though in some sort of words resembling this, "if you knew anything about my wife, which of course you don't, you would know that making a choice without consulting her is a big no no." He quickly remedied the problem and while they didn't have enough silver threshold to complete the job today, they had already decided they would have to lay the carpet tomorrow, so it was not a big deal to grab some more silver at the shop tonight.  Thank goodness.  I honestly think I would have cried if we paid all this money and it wasn't exactly how I wanted it.  A little high maintenance today?  Maybe.  A woman who knows exactly what she wants always?  Precisely.

Oh, so here are some pictures of our house with the new carpet padding, which is super cushy by the way.  We couldn't be happier.  We were walking around on it pretending like there was carpet there just because we were so happy to finally have a soft surface to walk on in the house.  By the way, the carpet pad we picked and highly recommend is made by Mohawk and it is called

Since we had quite a bit of spare time in the house today when they were installing all of that padding, we took some time to unpack two boxes and do some other little things that had been bothering us like taking down the sunflower decorations at the front door including the little ringer bell and the outdoor coat rack.  Not going to lie - the house looks that much better with these gone.  Now we just need to get rid of that green!!! All in time...

We were also so fortunate to have had our lovely retired electrician Grandpa Fisher over to help us with a few electrical issues we were having.  Two of the issues were fans that the previous owners had made a mess of.  With one of the fans, they had shattered a light bulb and then just left the metal base of the light bulb in the fan, so it took some clever maneuvering to get that out without getting cut.  With the other fan, we had to completely replace the part that one of the light bulbs screws into because they had mangled it so badly.  Thank goodness he was there to take it all apart and wire that new lamp holder in.  So thankful for him.  We also had an issue with the dimmer seriously overheating in the kitchen.  I want to say that it was a dimmer that could handle a max of 650 watts and the former owners had over 800 watts tied into it.  So, no wonder it kept popping brand new light bulbs and practically catching on fire - it had no way to handle all of that.  So, while Jared was at Home Depot, he picked up a new dimmer that could handle up to 1000 watts and it has been much cooler since then thank goodness!

And last but not least, we got a chance to set up one room - our dining room!  It is not very decorated yet, but at silly as it is, we feel really good having at least one room set up and ready to go!  

We are so looking forward to setting everything else up tomorrow when the carpet guys leave!  We will finally be ready to sleep in the house and have some visitors (just in time for my Mama and Grandma Nancy to get here on the 15th)!  Oh, and don't worry Mom, we have plenty of gardening for you two to do, so don't worry!!!

And one last thing.  A warning to all of you who have any painting in your future!  If you get stuck painting the extreme parts of the wall (the high highs and the low lows) and doing baseboards and edging and all of those super fun things like I did, please please please either choose to sit or kneel down or wear very supportive shoes.  Like a rookie, I decided to paint squatting down while balancing on my toes in bare feet or standing on my tippy toes on the top step of the ladder in my bare feet to reach those high vaulted parts of the walls and I am paying for it.  I am pretty sure I sprained the joint in my right big toe and getting anything done is not very much fun now as it is painful to squat down or pretty much walk in general.  So, don't do it!  Wear shoes and try not to stand on your toes too much!  Don't be a rookie like me and ruin yourself for days to come.  But, I am a trooper and this house party must go on!

Carpeting tomorrow!  Can't wait to share the pictures tomorrow night, so be sure to check back for the official two week update!  Thanks for all of the support!

J&L

We moved everything...except ourselves!

We decided that since the rest of the week is supposed to be filled with rain and stormy weather, today would have to be the day to move everything over to the house.  So, we rented a 10-foot Budget truck and in just 3 trips (2 from Jared's parents' house and 1 from his sister's) in 24 hours, we got everything moved.  Well, at least everything we remembered to move.  We realized right after we returned the truck of course that we had forgotten the couch for Jared's ready room, the gigantic bean bag, and his locker which we still haven't even really figured out how to move thus far as we think it may require taking it apart to move it.  BUT, we got all of the important things moved.  Unfortunately, that includes our bed, so until we actually move over there after the carpet has been installed later this week, we are sleeping on the floor.  Bella doesn't seem to mind, but I have to say that both of us have slept better.

I forgot to catch a picture of the garage and our dining room and how filled they are, but here is a picture of our living room with our brand new huge TV (mega thanks to Grandpa Ken and Grandma Susie), a huge sectional (big thanks to Uncle Dan and Aunt Cassie for their sofa), most of our bedroom furniture, and a lot of the dining room stuff too.  Thank goodness we at least got to keep a walkway through the room.

And I think that is all for now!  Carpet should be coming on Thursday if all goes as planned, so we are starting to feel like this is actually real at last. Yahoooooo!!!

J&L