Lee and Chelsey's Adventures in Homeownership

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

2010-08-19T12:02:00.007-05:00

I don't know about Mary, but one of the major reasons our garden grows is my parents. Left to Lee and me, the garden gets a bit thicker with weeds than flowers. Although, we hope we have an excuse with the 100+ degree heat we've had over the past month.

Well, my parents were in town this past weekend, and we put them to work. Fortunately, they enjoy gardening, so we don't have to feel completely guilty! Mom brought us lots of goodies of the perennial variety, which she thinned out of her own garden, and we had some things we bought several weeks ago, so we had plenty of pretty things to add to our various flower beds. We really wanted to focus on the front of the house, because that's what everyone sees when they pull into the driveway. This ended up taking a little more time than we anticipated, because Dad and Lee decided to pull out the stump of the bush that Lee and I cut down last fall. It had very persistent roots, so they had to work hard to get it out of there.

After the stump was removed, hostas and other perennial flowers were planted in its place. The perennials all bloom at different times during the summer, so we should have a little color there all summer long.

We also created a flower bed next to the front door, where we (my mom :)) planted more perennials. We placed a pretty turquoise bird bath and a bird feeder there so that we can enjoy watching the birds from the dining room.

We then moved to the backyard where lots of weeds were pulled, and more perennials were added to the mix. There isn't a lot of color in the bed anymore, but it looks a lot better with everything cut back.

Our yard is really shaping up, and as a reward for our labors, we got a nice rain on Tuesday, which helped all of our new and old flowers. We hadn't had any rain in several weeks, and with all the hot weather we've been having, everything was looking really tough. Hopefully, we won't have to wait that long until it rains again!

Today was my first day back for the Fall semester. I'm really looking forward to getting going with another semester, because that means I'm closer to being done! As an "end of summer hurrah", we're heading to Chicago for the weekend. We're very excited about our little get-away, because we'll get to spend the weekend with our good friends (and awesome cousins), Darby and Stacey. Look for a post full of vacation photos next week!

Summer School

2010-07-30T21:33:00.003-05:00

Hi all! I wish I could say that this lengthy blogging absence was because we were busy doing things worth blogging about, but that's not the case. Thanks to the few of you who still faithfully check to see if we're up to anything exciting!

We've both been busy studying this summer, and unless you find ancient Greek art, the law of diminishing returns, fiscal policy, or financial models exciting, chances are you wouldn't have found blog posts on those subjects interesting! :) I'm done studying for the next few weeks, but Lee's still hard at it. His goal is to have his Associateship with the Society of Actuaries by November. Then he'll begin working toward his Fellowship. The fun just never ends around here!

We're hoping to get some more gardening done soon, so hopefully, we'll have some pictures to share with you. This pretty fern is sitting out on our deck, and it really seems to like it there. I'm hoping we'll be able to keep it alive inside during the winter and take it back outside next spring.

If you're anxious to see more home improvement, we hope you can be patient a little longer. We've got some big projects tentatively planned for this winter, so there should be lots to share then. We hope you're enjoying your summer!

Suburban Wildlife

2010-06-15T23:27:00.003-05:00

We see a lot of dogs and cats in our neighborhood. We even saw a possum last summer, but I never thought I'd see one of these guys in the yard.

Yep. That's a fox. I had to do a double take when I saw him run by the window. Evidently, our neighbor's flower bed was a great place to take a rest!

Much Better!

2010-05-28T16:52:00.003-05:00

Not many words are needed to explain the improvement new shrubs have made on our house's curb appeal. Here's a reminder of what the old shrubs looked like.

And here are the colorful, new Golden Vicary Privets we planted last week.

We topped everything off with black mulch. We're very happy with the way everything turned out, and now it's fun to pull into the driveway. All our neighbors have very nice landscaping, so we feel like we're starting to catch up, and based on the compliments we've gotten so far, I think the neighbors are pleased with our improvements, too.

We hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day weekend! We are so thankful for the veterans who have sacrificed so much to make our lives better and safer. May God keep all the men and women who are currently serving our country safe so that they can come home to their families.

A Pain in the Hamstrings!

2010-05-18T21:28:00.006-05:00

On Sunday, it quit raining long enough that we could begin the project of pulling out these 25 year old junipers and boxwoods.

As you can see, they were really quite hideous. They might not have looked so bad except they really haven't been cared for very well.

Lee dug and I pulled, and eventually, we would get them yanked out of the ground. We usually had to cut the roots and try to pull them out separately. The first half of the shrubs came out relatively easily compared to the last half. The junipers at the end of the driveway didn't want to go anywhere, but we won.

As you can imagine, we were two hurtin' units yesterday...and today. At least we were both in the same boat, I guess.

Tonight, we went to the nursery and picked out some really nice privet shrubs that should create a nice little hedge between the driveways. When we got home, we realized we needed one more, but we planted the 5 that we had, and they really look nice. I'll post pictures once we're finished planting the last shrub and putting down mulch. I think it's supposed to start raining again tomorrow, so we'll see if we get it all done before we're stuck inside for another couple days.

Our Week in Photos

2010-05-14T15:21:00.003-05:00

A lot has happened in the past week, and the best way to share it is in pictures.

We spent a whirlwind weekend in South Dakota where we met this handsome little man:

His name is Caleb Matthew, and he was born on April 9th to my cousin Mardi and her husband, Matt. He is the sweetest, most adorable little guy. You'll notice he's sleeping in both photos, but I think that's because he doesn't sleep at night! :)

On Sunday, we had the honor of standing at the baptismal font as his sponsors. What a wonderful day!

We got home at 2:30 on Monday morning and then I stayed up all night the next two nights working on my final Space Planning project.

I presented that on Wednesday morning, and now I only have one exam left before I take a few weeks off. I learned so much great stuff this semester, but I'm really glad it's over!

I picked this bunch of peonies out of my garden. I would have left them, but we've had so much heavy rain this week that they would have just gotten ruined. They're so beautiful, and they take me back to our wedding day almost four years ago. Every time I see or smell them, they make me smile.

This weekend will be spent doing yard work. We have some hideous bushes that divide our driveway from our neighbor's, so we're going to tear them out and replace them with something a little more appealing. We hope you have a great weekend no matter what you're doing!

The Reason the Blog Doesn't Get Updated....

2010-04-26T15:33:00.005-05:00

It's mostly because not much of note happens in our lives, but the pictures I'm posting today are one of the major reasons the blog has been neglected.

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is called Design Presentation. I've basically been learning how to create and render (design terminology for adding color to a drawing) drawings that can be used to present a design to a client. In my opinion, it's good to know how to do these things, but these skills aren't actually going to be used every day. Why? They're time consuming, and no designer is going to spend a lot of time and money creating presentation boards and drawings for every client. It's just not practical. There are computer programs that can do all these things, so that's another reason manual drawing isn't used a whole lot.

All that being said, I've spent the entire semester working on this project, and Lee can attest to how much time I've spent working (agonizing, really) on it. Our dining table has been buried and this past weekend, much of the floor was hidden, too. I gave my final presentation this morning, so I'm very excited to say that I'm pretty much done with the class and ready to share the project with all of you.

The assignment was to put together a design for an entire one bedroom condo. We had to pick all of the furniture, fabrics, and finishes for the space.

Here are my three presentation boards. Not all the furniture is pictured on the boards; we handed in a notebook with the project that included everything. The boards are just a way to give a general feel for the design.

These are closer views of all the drawings I did. I drew and rendered everything you see. I started with just the measurements for the space and furniture I chose and then drafted it all.

(The bedroom walls on the above drawing look like they're leaning inward. They're actually straight; it's just the angle of the picture.)

I also did the drawing and rendering of the bench on the third board, but I forgot to take an individual picture of that.

So there you have it. I can honestly say that I feel so relieved that this project is over. It's nice to finish something I've been working on for four months! I still have a big project due for Space Planning in a couple weeks, and I'll be sure to share the details of that when I'm done with it.

I'll leave you with a picture of the lilacs that bloomed in our backyard. They've been open for a couple weeks, and today, they look like they're about done.

Have a great week!

Spring is Here!

2010-04-01T15:25:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted in a while, but I thought I'd post a few pictures of the pretty flowers blooming in our back yard. Because we didn't move in until late May last year, we had no idea what kind of early spring blooms we had in our yard. It turns out we have lots of daffodils.

We also have a lilac bush that started to bud this week. I'm looking forward to the lovely smells of lilacs in the next month. Our grass has been green for the past couple weeks, and the weather has been in the high 70's/low 80's this week. It really feels like spring is finally here!

This weather has put us in the mood to do some landscaping projects, so we're anxious to put our DIY skills to work in the yard this summer. Lee's also wanting to start a container vegetable garden, so we'll see if we're true gardeners or just garden appreciators.

We wish all of you a very blessed Easter weekend. What a wonderful God we have! We will be spending the weekend with Lee's family, and then it's back to work! I only have about a month and a half left of school, so projects are in full gear. Be looking for a post in the next couple weeks where I'll share some of the projects with you. I'm finally starting to get a real taste of what interior design is all about, and while it's stressful and LOTS of work, I'm quite certain it's where I'm supposed to be. Too bad I didn't know this when I was 18!

Happy 50th Birthday, Mom!

2010-03-03T18:07:00.004-06:00

Today is my Mom's 50th birthday! I may be biased, but she is one of the best Moms ever! I've also felt blessed to think of her as one of my best friends. We have such a great time when we're together, and I wish we could get together even more often.

Here is our first official photo together. It was taken almost 24 years ago. I think it was probably love at first sight for both of us! Sorry the picture is kind of small.

Here we are on the Mother's Day after Lucas was born in 1990. Isn't her hair great?!

This picture was taken this past Christmas. My cousin, Mardi (who is like a sister to me), is in the photo with us. You can't tell from the picture, but she's about to become a Mommy, and I can't begin to tell you how excited we are to meet her little boy! We look like we're related, don't we?

Mom, we wish you the very happiest of birthdays and hope you have many more! Love you!

These Are the Days of Our Lives

2010-03-01T22:45:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Much like our dining room table, we've been buried. And if you look closely at this picture, you'll know what has us buried. The best thing I can say about it is that it has made this miserably cold and snowy winter go by a little more quickly!

I'm about half through the Spring semester. With Spring break just over a week away, I'm frantically trying to get all the mid-semester projects and papers finished. I have a feeling I have some long days and nights ahead of me. I'm taking Space Planning and Design Presentation, two of the hardest classes in the curriculum. They're quite time consuming and require a lot of manual drafting, but I'm glad to be getting them out of the way. I'm also taking a History of Furniture class which is quite interesting.

Lee has been busy with clients at work and working on attaining his Associateship in the Society of Actuaries. He hopes to have that completed sometime this summer. The furniture class I'm taking is on Monday nights, so Lee comes to campus with me and studies in the library while I'm in class. I like having a chauffeur take me to campus!

We've also embarked on the implementation of a healthier lifestyle. We bought an elliptical machine last month and have tried to make healthier eating choices. It seems to be working, as I've lost 8 lbs, and Lee has lost 5 lbs. I'm putting this out here to keep us accountable! Although, if only our moms are reading this, we don't have many people keeping us accountable! I really think we're doing pretty well at staying motivated, so hopefully we'll meet our goals.

I'll try to do better at keeping the blog updated. It might not be about the house; home improvement projects are at a stand-still for the time being, but hopefully you like hearing about what we're up to every once in a while!

Kitchen Appliances

2010-01-19T14:46:00.005-06:00

Our kitchen took a giant step into the 21st century this past week with the addition of new, stainless steel appliances. The old appliances were original to the house, which means they were as old as we are. We actually had to replace the refrigerator right after we moved in, because the old one didn't work when we plugged it in, so we decided that our Christmas gift to each other would be the rest of the kitchen appliances. Here's a reminder of what the kitchen looked like right after we moved in (and before we removed the wallpaper):

And here's what it looks like now:

It's amazing what a difference new appliances make in a 25-year-old kitchen! We're very pleased with the change, and we actually want to be in our kitchen now! We have more plans for updating the kitchen, but this should tide us over until the funds are available.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

2009-12-14T16:26:00.004-06:00

Our Christmas decorations are up, and this house really does look great decked out for the holidays, if I do say so myself! I was a little worried they wouldn't get put up, but I got them up by the 6th of December, so I guess that's not too shabby!

We just had Christmas with Lee's family on Saturday, and we'll be leaving on the 23rd to spend a little over a week in South Dakota with my family. We hope you all get to spend some time with the people you love over the holidays, too!

2009 has been a busy and exciting year for us, and we can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2010. We hope you've had a great year and are looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior. God's blessings to you in 2010!

Happy 50th Birthday, Dad!

2009-11-20T21:01:00.005-06:00

My dad turns 50 today, so I just wanted to take the opportunity to wish him a happy birthday!

Dad, I feel so incredibly blessed to be your daughter. Thanks for being such a great Dad! You've taught me the value of hard work and that I can do pretty much anything I set my mind to. You've always done your best for our family and you've shown me how important it is to have faith in God, and for that I will always be grateful! We hope you have many more happy birthdays! Love you!

The Finished Product

2009-11-14T17:19:00.004-06:00

Here are the pictures of the finished house. We've decided that we probably like it a little better than we did initially, so hopefully we keep liking it!

So, now we've tackled our biggest project, but we still have a lot more to do. We haven't really decided yet what we'll do next, but it will probably be painting our bedroom and taking down the vintage 1980's wallpaper in our bathroom.

Wood Rot, Noise, and Paint Colors....Oh, My!

2009-11-13T09:12:00.009-06:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to get a post up; things have been pretty wild around here. The semester at school is winding down which means non-stop homework and projects. I can't wait for December 15th when the semester is over and I can relax for a few weeks!

Adding to the craziness, we've been in the midst of our biggest home improvement project yet - replacing siding and painting the house. The workers started on Monday, November 2 and they're supposed to finish today. Fortunately, the weather the past two weeks has been perfect, so they've been able to work every day.

Here are some before pictures to refresh your memory of what the house looked like before:

Having never gone through a project like this, we weren't really sure what to expect, and boy, did we figure it out quickly! It turns out that the process of tearing siding off a house is a very noisy one! Who knew?! There were days we weren't sure if we'd come home to any walls. They

spent all last week tearing off and replacing the rotted out siding. I think we've mentioned our wood rot issues before, but the best way to explain it is to show you pictures so you can see just how bad it was:

There were actually places where we could push a finger through the siding, and as you can see from the bubbling above the window, it's really no wonder our windows were leaking. Well, the guys got to work and replaced most of our siding on the north side of the house:

With all the siding replaced, it was time to start priming all the new wood and get all the gaps caulked:

To be perfectly honest, this whole process has been less than thrilling. When we bought this house, we didn't really take into account that we'd have to work with someone else to pick out a paint color. Our neighbor has already replaced her windows, and they're an almond color, so this kind of dictated what colors we could choose. We really wanted to go with a darker color, but she wanted lighter, so we had to compromise. We went with a light beige, and while it's looking really nice, there's a little frustration with spending all the money to have the house painted and not being completely thrilled with the color. I'm sure it's more of an issue of getting used to the new color than anything else. We'll probably really like it in a month!

I'm going to make you wait for pictures of the finished project because the project isn't completely finished yet! We got a new light fixture and numbers for the front of the house, so those will be going up today or tomorrow. I'll try to get a new post up by Sunday, so check back again to see what our house looks like now!

Mission Accomplished!

2009-10-19T19:37:00.009-05:00

After I wrote the last post, I started to wonder what exactly we'd gotten ourselves into. It was going to cost a lot to rent a ladder, and we would have needed ladders of varying heights because of the slope of the ceiling. I was considering just hiring someone to do it when Lee suggested that we buy a telescoping pole and some kind of edging tool. I didn't think it would work, but he felt pretty confident in his plan. As you can see from the title, he was right.

It took the two of us, together, about 20 hours to complete the project and we were really sore when we finished, but we were pretty proud of ourselves. Did I mention that Lee had a nasty cold, too?! What a husband! Actually, it worked out pretty well because he stayed home from work so he wouldn't share his germs, so he was able to help me paint on Thursday and Friday. There's no way I'd be finished yet if he hadn't been here. Did I mention that I have his cold now?! I guess it's a small price to pay to have this massive project finished!

We're really happy with the way it all turned out. The colors are great, and it's starting to feel more like our house, which is really good!

It's kind of hard to tell from the pictures, but the living room is a shade darker than the dining room. At certain times of the day, you can't tell much of a difference, but at night, it's pretty obvious that the living room color is darker. It's amazing what lighting will do to a space!

I wanted to end the post with a picture of the beautiful tree in our front yard. It's starting to turn, and it's really pretty. I noticed today that the leaves are starting to fall off of it, so I guess we have some raking in our future!

We're Painting Again!

2009-10-08T21:42:00.004-05:00

After two months of no major home improvements, we're back at it again. I have been absolutely swamped with schoolwork, so the house has taken a back seat. I'm finally half-way through the semester (insert cheering here) which means I don't have class next Thursday and Friday, so this weekend, we're going to start the process of painting the living/dining room. We had intended to hire someone to paint it, but with all the other expenses we've had/will have with the house, we've decided to tackle it ourselves.

Why would we not want to paint this space ourselves? The ceiling in the room is two stories high which means we're dealing with about 17 ft. tall walls! Hmmmm. This calls for a tall ladder. Well, we're going to give it a try, and hopefully, we won't break our necks in the process! The ceiling also needs to be painted, but that will eventually be hired out. We will gladly pay money to not have to paint another ceiling!

The paint colors we've chosen are Sherwin-Williams' Quiver Tan and Universal Khaki. You've seen Universal Khaki before, as it's the color we painted the kitchen. It will be painted in the dining room and on the landing upstairs. Quiver Tan, which will be the living room color, is a darker color, so it will add a little contrast while continuing the flow we're going for throughout the house.

There's still a possibility that the outside of our house will be painted yet this year. We're just waiting for our neighbor to get her quote. This is the worst thing about owning a duplex. We can't change the color of the outside of the house unless our neighbor does it at the same time, so we're hoping that will all be finalized soon and it won't be too late to get that done before the winter weather hits.

We've also had some excitement in our lives. As you've probably already heard, Lee has gotten the opportunity to do some work internationally. We don't have many specifics yet, so I won't go into too much detail, but it's looking like Lee will be spending an extended amount of time overseas after the first of the year. This came as quite a shock to us, and to be perfectly honest, I was not all that happy about it! The thought of being here by myself for several months is not appealing, but there's now a possibility that I might be able to go with him. We'll keep you updated as we get more concrete information.

Check back for updates on the painting situation!

The Desk is Here!

2009-09-15T22:15:00.003-05:00

We finally got to go pick up the desk on Saturday! After doing some measuring, we discovered there was no way we'd be able to fit it into our little, 2-door Honda, but we were fortunately able to borrow a friend's pickup for the day. Thanks, Dustin!

The desk does look nice in the space, and after some input from friends/relatives, Darby and Stacey, we've decided to place it in front of the window in the office. We still don't have a chair, but I think a dining chair will have to suffice until the perfect studying chair is found.

On the window replacement front, we've gotten a couple bids from different companies (talk about sticker shock!), but we've decided that perhaps we'd be smarter to put some money into our rotted siding. New windows won't do us a bit of good if water can still get in through the siding, so windows will probably be tabled until next year. New siding means repainting the house (which needs it anyway). Sometimes we just have to look at each other and shake our heads as we see all of our dream vacations slipping away. Why didn't anyone tell us that every spare dime would go into this house before we bought it? We're sure hearing it a lot now! It will all be worth it, right?!

Catching Up....

2009-09-03T23:28:00.005-05:00

Wow! Where did the time go? I've been meaning to get a post up for a couple weeks, but to be perfectly honest, our lives haven't been all that exciting and the first couple weeks of school were a little stressful! I think I'm finally getting used to my new schedule, although I don't think I'll ever enjoy spending all my free time doing homework!

Like I said, we really haven't been up to much as far as the house is concerned, but we have taken care of a couple little projects that are worth sharing. First of all, a little progress has been made in the office. We have purchased a desk which we will be picking up next weekend. We put it off as long as was possible, but with my work-load from school and Lee needing to start studying for his associateship exams, another workspace is badly needed.

Another addition to the office has been curtains. They're a shiny, platinum color, and they really help to bring the room together (even if all the furniture isn't there yet). It never ceases to amaze me what curtains can do for a space. Once we get new windows upstairs, the ugly blinds will be replaced with a roman shade.

Another little project we tackled was the removal of a hideous bush from the front of our house. It was a Japanese type cedar of some sort, and it was really an overgrown eyesore. The bush was blocking the view of the street from our kitchen, so it had to go. Hopefully, next summer, the stump will be removed and a flower garden will be put in its place.

It was a little sad as Lee was sawing it out to think that that bush has probably been there for as long as we've been alive. And now, every time I drive up the street, the front of the house seems a little bare, but I'm sure I'll get used to it, and next summer, when it's replaced with bright, colorful flowers, it will look much better.

We've also begun the process of getting bids for replacing the windows. We're not planning to replace them all now, but we'll probably try to get about half of them replaced and then do the rest next year. We're also going to be getting bids for the repair of all the wood rot on the north side of the house and to fix the front step, which has a big crack in it. We'd like to get all these projects done in the next couple months before it gets cold.

This weekend, we'll be in Nebraska for homecoming at NELHS and the alumni reunion. It's hard to believe we graduated from high school five year ago. So much has happened since then!

I'll try to stay on top of the blog posts from now on, but if it takes a while to hear from us again, just know that nothing too exciting is happening!

We hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! And we can't forget.....Go Huskers!

Back to School

2009-08-16T20:13:00.007-05:00

My summer is officially over! I'm back to school tomorrow, and while I'm excited about the classes, I'm still a little nervous about the unknown. This will be the first time I've been in school full-time since before we were married, so it will take a little adjusting on my part!

I'm really looking forward to my classes. I'll be taking classes on drafting, professional selling, materials and resources for interiors, and history of furniture. The information in these classes will really be immediately useful now that we have the house and we're making changes to it.

I hope all of you have had a great summer!

More Home Improvement

2009-08-11T20:49:00.002-05:00

As promised, here is my account of random home improvement projects I've done, as well as an update on our crusade against ants.

The last couple times we've posted to the blog, it's been about the office. This will be no different! There were a couple other little projects we've done there to get it how we like it. First was repairing some annoying little imperfections in the wall. We've noticed that along most of our outer walls near the ceiling there are these little bumps. You may know these as nail pops. These happen when the nails used to secure the drywall to the studs start to back out, pushing the paint up into a bump like the picture below. Click on it to zoom in.

I fixed these nail pops by installing drywall screws near the pops, then tapping the nails back into the wall and patching the wall with spackle. Theoretically, the nails shouldn't back out again since the drywall screws are now holding the drywall to the studs. We'll see! I kinda liked doing these because it gave me an excuse to use my new cordless drill again...

The other little project I did in the office - and have been doing as we move from room to room - is replace all the electrical outlets and light switches. We're switching from the existing ivory switches to white ones, as well as from toggle switches to touch-style switches.

Doesn't that look nice? Well, it better because I'm not replacing them again! Actually, this project really isn't that hard either once you get used to working with the receptacles. I initially had trouble getting the wires out of the old switches and outlets since they are "push-in" style instead of the kind where you curl the wire around and fasten it down with a screw, but after doing about 10 of them, I'm getting to where I can replace them pretty quickly. I did find one thing particularly disturbing, though, on the one outlet that was replaced by someone more recently than the others.

Click on the above picture to get a close look at it. You can see the round holes where, obviously, the wires are pushed in. The slots next to the wires are for releasing them. Duh, right? Well, as you can see, the slot centered in the picture looks a little bit abused. That's because the genius who installed this outlet pushed the hot wire into the slot used for releasing a correctly installed wire. Now, I'm not an electrician, so I don't really know if that's a big deal, but I was able to pull the hot wire right out of the outlet. Any of you electricians out there let me know in the comments if that's a potential fire hazard.

Next, I thought I'd make a quick comment on drywall anchors. I won't go into much detail so I don't bore you to death - wouldn't want to kill off the few readers we have! I've found that drywall anchors can be really useful as long as they're actually in the wall. Due to my lack of experience, and in my opinion, the crummy quality anchors included with our new towel ring and TP holder, I pushed some anchors into the hollow of the wall. Fortunately, we had some others lying around the house. The difference between the ones we got with the bathroom hardware and the ones we already had? Little notches at the head so they don't go falling into the wall - brilliant!

(all the men reading can appreciate this)

If you've made it to this point of the post without falling asleep, I applaud you. You must be drinking coffee or are one of our moms. To finish up, here's an update in the war on insects. We've brought in some reinforcements and hired someone to spray quarterly. Since the house was vacant for 9 months before we moved in, the bugs had free reign and could come and go as they pleased. We've had ants in the kitchen, wolf spiders just about everywhere, and some other creepy-crawlies that I don't recognize. Here's a picture of some of the casualties. Why do they come out onto the kitchen counter to die?

By the way, the Obama money (i.e., first-time homebuyer credit) has arrived!!! This will hopefully go to upgrading the windows and repairing dry-rot in the siding. Thanks for paying your taxes!

Shelves are up!

2009-08-10T23:05:00.000-05:00

I was recently checking out our blog and noticed something - the title. Yes, it's about our adventures in homeownership, and so far, only Chelsey has written the blog entries. Therefore, I decided it was time I started writing in this blog. Yes, this is Lee, and I plan on writing a few entries while Chelsey enjoys her last week of freedom before going back to class.

Chelsey posted a while ago about some nice shelves we decided to buy, some shelves that took the place of a trash can on our list of "needs." Well, we finally got the office painted (as you can see), so this past weekend was devoted to setting them up! Here is the finished product.

As you can see, we can barely fit the shelves into a picture! There is a space of about 5 or 6 inches on each side, so we are designating pretty much the whole 13 feet of wall to shelving. Think we can fill it? Stay tuned - I'm sure our parents would love for us to move some books out of their houses.

So how did these shelves get up there???

It took about 6 hours of work, but the finished product was well worth it. And really, it wasn't that difficult, just time consuming. The first step was installing the track from which everything hangs. After making sure everything was level, I drilled a hole every 8 inches along the wall for screws. Thankfully, the studs are 16 inches apart, so every other screw securing the shelves is in a stud. If the shelves fall down, the whole wall is going to have to fall down with them!

By the way, the holes and screws were drilled with my new Ridgid 12V Li-Ion cordless drill, for which one battery has yet to die. And this isn't even the first project for which it's been used! Sitting at a desk all day in an office, sometimes I really just need to use some power tools. You know, be Tim the Toolman and all...
Next, we hung the standards from the track. There are slots in these standards for brackets that finally hold the shelves.

The shelves are held on the brackets by little connectors and pins. For something so big hanging from that one track, it's quite a sturdy unit. It's a very customizable system as well, so we can change shelves around if we like, but for now we have it the way it was drawn up at the Container Store. So far we're loving it!

I'll hopefully have some more posts up in the next day or two about all the fun things I'm doing as a new homeowner, for example, removing unnecessary hand-held shower heads, using drywall anchors (and why some are just junk), replacing electrical outlets and light switches, and killing ants!

Office Progress

2009-08-03T15:39:00.005-05:00

We had a productive weekend getting the office painted. We still have a lot of painting to do as every square inch of this place will be painted when we're done, but we still feel a lot of accomplishment when we "finish" a room.

Our camera really doesn't do this paint color justice; it's got more green to it than it appears in the picture which kind of makes it look like a nursery (no, we don't have an announcement to make!). This color by itself could be a little overwhelming, but when we get the shelves up on the wall and the other furniture in the room, everything will work together nicely. Hopefully, we'll get the shelves up next week after the paint has had a chance to cure, so check back again for more changes.

Black Thumb?

2009-07-27T22:32:00.005-05:00

I think we've found out whether I'm able to nurture flowers. As you can see by the picture, my first attempt at gardening has not been very successful. In my defense, yes, I watered them, so I'm not real sure what the deal is. So far, two of the four perennials we planted are still thriving, so I guess I'm not a total failure in the gardening department. As you can also see, the weeds have managed to grow. Go figure! I think I may give up and try again next year.

On a much happier note, Lee's parents were here this past weekend, and Lee and his dad fixed our kitchen faucet. It has been dripping constantly since we moved into the house, so they diagnosed the problem and repaired it. It's a good thing we have Dads!

The kitchen is painted, and there's just a little touching up left to do, but I'm really happy with the "finished" result. What made me most happy was that I could move everything back into the kitchen from my dining room table! There's nothing better than a cleared off table!

Lots of Paint

2009-07-23T12:40:00.008-05:00

We have been doing a lot of painting since the last post. We're still not completely done with the kitchen, but I wanted to give you a little sneak peek of what it's going to look like.

We've painted the half bath and the kitchen is primed. We're also painting all the ceilings, which is proving to be a frustrating process. We have those lovely "popcorn" texture ceilings, so painting them is very messy.

We started with the half bath. I had decided on Sherwin Williams "Sea Salt" quite a while ago, but at the last minute, I changed my mind and switched to "Liveable Green." I should have stuck with my gut. Fortunately, the half bath is small, so it was easy to repaint it the color I had originally chosen. Below is a picture of the bathroom. I'm still planning to paint all the trim in the kitchen and half bath white so it matches the rest of the house, but it's nice to have a room painted (even if it is the smallest room in the house). We're also switching out all the electrical outlets, switches, and cover plates throughout the house. It's all ivory now, so we're switching to white and changing from toggle to rocker switches. You can see an example of what we're doing in the picture below as well.

I finished priming the kitchen yesterday, and today the plan is to get it painted. The primer was tinted to match our paint, and I really love the color ("Universal Khaki" from Sherwin Williams). It looks kind of green in the picture below, but it's really a nice warm, silvery beige. The plan is that it will coordinate with the living/dining room once that's painted. Future plans for the kitchen include painting the trim and cabinetry, putting in a new backsplash and countertop, and adding more lighting and an island. These things will be done as funds become available!

In the next week or so, we'll be starting work on the office. The goal is to have it finished by the time I go back to school on August 17th so we have a dedicated workspace. We'll be painting it and putting up the shelves, so check back for an update on the office progress.

All We Wanted Was A Trash Can!

2009-07-13T14:11:00.009-05:00

This past weekend, we went to St. Louis to visit Tammy, Kelly, and their boys. Not only did we get to go to the top of the Gateway Arch, but we got to visit a store I've been wanting to see for a long time - The Container Store. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the store, they pretty much sell anything a person would ever need to organize their home. They have stuff you didn't even know you needed! For those of you who know me and my aversion to clutter well, you know that this store is pretty close to heaven on earth for me!

I have been wanting a stainless steel trash can for quite a while, but they're expensive compared to their plastic counterparts, so I've never made the leap. Well, I had a 25% off coupon for The Container Store, so we decided now would be the time to make the purchase. To make a long story short, we didn't even make it to the trash can section of the store - we got sidetracked at the Elfa storage systems. Elfa makes awesome, customized closet organizers, but these systems can also be customized for office spaces. It just so happens that we now have an office space that has the perfect wall for wall to wall shelving! Do you know where this story is going?!

We were just going to get some ideas. We just wanted to see how much it would cost. The sales associate was just really friendly and helpful. We had that 25% off coupon. If you haven't figured it out yet, we are now the owners of an Elfa storage system! Has this ever happened to you? Did you go into a store just to look and walked away with a trunk full of things? Please share your story so we know we're not alone in this crazy homeownership thing!

It has come to my attention that there have been some issues with people being unable to comment on the blog, and this really bums me out. If you try to comment and it doesn't work, let me know so we can try to figure out what's going on. You can e-mail me at leeandchelsey@gmail.com.

By the way, we didn't get the trash can.

Backyard Changes

2009-07-09T17:42:00.009-05:00

My mom was here all last week, and while we didn't get many projects done, we did have a lot of good girl-time! My dad came on Wednesday, and that's when the work began! We haven't been able to spend a whole lot of time with my parents since we moved here last year, so it was really nice to have them here. I have a feeling that we might see more of them now that we have the house! We really appreciate them coming, because my dad is really good about getting all those annoying little things like running toilets and doors that won't latch fixed. He even hung our fireplace mantle for us! Thanks, Dad!

The biggest project that we tackled last weekend was getting the backyard into better shape. The backyard was really the reason we stuck it out through the irritating process of buying

this house, but it was very neglected. The flower bed along the fence was really grown over with volunteer trees and weeds, so Friday afternoon, we started the task of pulling all that stuff out. It's amazing what a huge difference it made! The yard feels so much bigger without all the overgrowth; our backyard neighbor even commented on how much better it looked! My dad also fixed our fence which has started to fall down since we moved into the house. It looks a lot better, too!

On Sunday, I decided we needed to put something into the newly

empty flower bed. I haven't been real sure about my gardening capabilities, but I was hoping that maybe they were just dormant from lack of use. My mom has always had beautiful gardens, and while I have inherited her love of the beauty of flowers, I wasn't sure if I had inherited her ability to nurture them. I figured if nothing else, my mom could help me pick something that I couldn't kill easily, so we headed to a local garden supply store. All I can say about that is that I could have spent a lot more than I did! They had a really beautiful selection, and we came away with four perennials and a birdbath. The backyard is really starting to look nice, and we look forward to continuing to improve it next summer.

This weekend, we'll be in St. Louis visiting Lee's sister and her family. They're moving to Georgia at the end of the month, so we wanted to get in one last visit. When we get back, it will be time to get started on painting the half bath and kitchen.

Actuarial Exam = Passed!

2009-07-02T11:18:00.006-05:00

Lee is too modest to announce this, but I'm proud of him, so I wanted to let everyone know that he found out this morning that he passed the exam he took in May! Yay! He's now done with the four preliminary professional exams, so now he'll start working toward his associateship. If all goes as planned, he'll hopefully have his associateship by the end of the year.

This is a picture of Lee and his new niece (and Goddaughter), Morgan. Isn't she sweet?

We hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend!

Goodbye, Wallpaper!

2009-06-24T13:35:00.015-05:00

Last week, we started removing the wallpaper in the kitchen and half bathroom off the kitchen. While scraping away at the walls, I developed the theory that people who hang wallpaper have obviously never taken it down, or they wouldn't put it up! Wallpaper is actually making a comeback, but let's hope that it's not plastered all over homes like it was in the 80's.

With all that said, I must admit that we probably had an easier time removing wallpaper than some people. We began in the kitchen by tearing the top layer off and then rolled wallpaper remover onto the paper backing. Immediately after putting the remover on, we were able to scrape off the backing and glue. We were pretty excited because we figured it would take a lot more work to get it off.

The half bath was a different story. The previous owners not only painted over the wallpaper, but they textured over it as well. Tearing the top layer off didn't work as well here, as it would only peel off in little pieces, so we ended up scoring the walls so the wallpaper remover could penetrate. Even with this, it still took a lot of elbow grease to get it off. Fortunately, the half bath is pretty small!

So now the wallpaper is down (in these rooms, anyway), and it's time to paint! Paint colors have caused several discussions. I have become a bit of a beige lover (I think it's the design classes), while Lee wants more color, so we're trying to find a happy medium with which we can both live. We'll let you know how things work out, but I have a feeling I know what will happen! :)

We'll be spending this weekend in Nebraska with Lee's family, and next week my parents will be here to help us work on some projects, so I'll probably have quite a bit to talk about next time. We're also going to be having some landscaping done in a couple weeks to fix some drainage issues in the backyard.

We hope everyone is staying cool; it's been in the 90's and humid here for the past week, so our air conditioner is getting a workout. We can't wait for that first electric bill!

We bought a house!

2009-06-17T11:44:00.016-05:00

As many of you have probably already heard, we are new homeowners. It was a very long and frustrating process, but so far, we think it was worth it.

We started looking after the first of the year, but we decided we would wait another year or two so we could get into a house we could stay in for a long time. In March, we decided we were just really tired of renting and we wanted to take advantage of the buyers' market, so we started looking again.

We found this 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath duplex and instantly fell in love with the backyard.

The house was built in 1985, so it needed some updates, but we really liked the layout and thought it would be fun to make the house our own.

The only problem with this house - it was a Short Sale. A Short Sale is basically a step above foreclosure. The owner owed more on the house than she could sell it for and had quit making payments, so in an effort to salvage her credit and the bank's bottom line, her bank agreed to lose some money on the deal and she would walk away with nothing. The catch with this is that the bank has to approve any offer before the owner can sell the home.

We decided to go ahead and put in an offer only to find out that someone else was putting in an offer as well, so on March 23rd, we made an aggressive offer and hoped for the best. On March 24th, we found out our offer had been accepted! We were very excited, but we still had to wait for the seller's bank to approve our offer. We assumed it would be a few weeks before we would hear anything, but it took A LOT longer than that!

When we hadn't heard anything by the middle of April, we started to get impatient; we had to move out of our apartment by May 31st, so we had requested a closing date of May 28th, and we had been told that we should be able to close by then. Before we knew it, it was the week of our scheduled closing, and we still hadn't heard anything from the bank. Fortunately, the owner of the house allowed us to move in early, so we had somewhere to live. Finally on June 2nd, we got the news that the bank had accepted the offer. We were so relieved to finally be able to close on the house and call it our own. On June 10th, we celebrated our 3rd Anniversary, and on June 12th, we closed on the house! It was a very good week!

We've started this blog as a way to keep our family and friends up to date on what we're doing. We hope you enjoy seeing how we adjust to being homeowners and the changes we make to our home. Next time, we'll share our experience with wallpaper removal!