Our Yard

Our yard remains an issue of frustration for me and Brian. The size of it is great. And our yard would be fine if we could get it under control..so really I guess the frustration truly boils down to our landscapers.

We did go ahead and get the sod done and re-did the irrigation system. We are still glad we did both things but right now the results are not what we were expecting.

We have had to get the irrigation people out twice already to fix issues which they did and those are fine but now I found another head that is permanently in the up position so we have to get them out to fix that and do a walk around and make sure all the other heads come up as they are supposed to and go back down as they are supposed to. They also had to create trenches to bury the wire/pipes/etc. It really feels that they did not even bother to fill in those trenches. I have been going out and filling them in but they never get full. At this point we are going to have to go to our landscapers and ask them to fill them for us as we cannot rake or get anymore dirt into them. Theoretically we could get soil and do it ourselves but with me being 9 months pregnant and soon with a newborn and Brian who hates the outside....it is not something we can do. We spent over an hour yesterday and barely made a dent with what we can do. You can see the lines from where they dug up everything and the landscaper says the grass will grow over that with time especially since they are fertilizing the lawn and that there might be some unlevel-ness which is fine but I am worried about trenches. As it is it's a liability. The trenches we have are 4 inches deep...an adult's foot could get stuck and cause injury...lets not think what would happen to Thor! Once the irrigation heads get fixed and the trenches get properly filled in I will be much happier with that aspect of the backyard.

An example of the 4 inch deep trench

I am not happy with our landscapers. Really not happy. We have tried to find others but they are all  A LOT more expensive and don't offer the same services. You get what you pay for but our current people have AWFUL communication. Last year our yard looked great. Our biggest issue is that the landscapers would not respond to us. I would have to email and send multiple notes with bills back to them letting them know that we want to change something and threaten not to pay them if they continue to do it. This year...I don't know what happened. The communication hasn't gotten better which I expected but I really feel our yard is going back to its natural state. The new sod is the worst. Either they didn't clear the easement like they were supposed to and just mowed it and placed the sod over it or they bought awful sod. Even the front and the side yards are falling apart and going back to how it was before we even built the house. The culprit? Weeds. Weeds are everywhere...and not weeds that I can pull out. A) it would take days and B) it would literally pull the sod up with it...even in the front/sides of the house where the sod has been there for a year and a half or so. The landscapers are supposed to take care of the weeds too and I just don't feel like they are. I refuse to let our yard go back to natural but I am concerned with what the landscapers are doing. We are still early in the process but I am really concerned about it. We did not spend all this money on the house and the new sod to have it ruined by weeds. We have thought about going out and getting our own weed killer and spray that around but we don't want to kill the grass and we don't want to put too much chemicals in the yard. Brian is going to call them and talk to them, they do not want to talk to me at this point, and hopefully we can get this under control. All I want to do is pay someone to come mow the lawn, throw pesticides down in the grass and make sure there are no weeds. Right now we have someone who cuts the grass really well, we haven't had any pest issues in the lawn so that's great but they are really falling short regarding the weeds. Ugh.

The one good news about the yard....the bunnies are back!

Easement

Easement

Easement

Front yard

The front yard is not as bad as the easement but it did not look like this last year. It is also harder to take pictures of. Hopefully this will be fixed soon

House Project Update

I am having trouble uploading my eight month pictures so I decided to post what we found that will solve some big issues we have been having with the house. We were at a standstill with these projects until we went to Costco yesterday. As we left with our usual purchases a nice woman handed us their May Specials booklet. Usually there isn't anything we are interested in but Brian found three things.

1) Kitchen:

As with most people we have very little counter space and storage. We also have this wonderful Kitchen Aid mixer that we have not been able to use because we have no where to keep it once it is out of the box. If we could empty one of the cabinets we can keep the mixer in there on a rolling drawer which will allow for easy access and easy storage. The rolling draw will hold the mixer and when we want to use it we will pull it out and the mixer will end up at the same level as the counter. Easy access, easy storage. The issue? Clearing out the cabinet.  We have played with several options to remedy this problem. The first idea was pot racks so we can take the frying pans out of one of the cabinets and then move everything over. Given our budget and available space for a pot rack, this unfortunately worked. We thought of finding a table that could be on wheels. The top would be butchers block and the bottom of the table would have shelves so it would as a portable island as needed. That idea is not fitting our budget either.

The first object he found was this:

It is normally around $85 which was in our original budget but was on sale for around $65. It is the perfect height. Will hold all of our frying pans, lids and will help clear things off our counter and will create more space in the pantry. It will look great in the space and not take up too much room. The only real downside is that it will go where the trash can goes so I have to move a picture and find a new home for the trash can. We cannot wait for this to arrive!

2) The second issue we have been having is fitting everything we need in the garage. We have a two car garage and it fits two cars and not much more. Due to Brian's awesome packing abilities we have been able to fit several other things but it is a mess and we are definitely not using the space wisely. Thanks to all of our past projects we have paint cans on the floor, brooms and shop vacs, dirt, etc that could be stored easier. We have had the idea to get a shelving rack for awhile but they are just so expensive. A shelving rack will save room, provide more storage and provide easier access to the items we need to keep in the garage!. I may be able to take a few things out of the laundry room and store them in the garage as well! There are other things we want to do in the garage but shelving rack will get us a lot closer.

and guess what Costco had!

This was normally $220 which is still a good price for the size and weight capacity that we found but we got it for $180. It has 5 shelves that can each hold 600lbs (I don't know if we have enough to get 600 lbs total but we wont have to worry about things being too heavy) and is 60" W, 24" D and 77" H with the casters. It fits perfectly where we want to put it and I will have an easier time getting in and out of the garage.




We have already purchased the above two items. The sale paper said it started May 1st but when I went online to confirm measurements and things we noticed that the sale actually started early. Once we confirmed that those two items were what we hoped they would be we went ahead and ordered them. We didn't want Costco to sell out of them.




3) The third item we have been discussing getting is an attic fan. I know when we were up north our attic fan helped keep the house cool a lot and that was up north where we didn't have the heat we do down here. Our attic gets really hot and while the door to the attic has weather sealing/proofing I really think the upstairs A/C would have an easier time keeping the upstairs cool if we had the attic fan. A/C having an easy time hopefully means less in our electric bill. Brian is on board. We haven't done it yet because Brian wanted to do some research on how much electricity the attic fan would use to see if it would make a difference. If it costs $5 to run the attic fan in electricity and it is only going to save us $5...maybe it wouldn't be worth it. Plus how much the fan itself costs and how much it would be to install it. We liked the idea but we had a lot of research to do before we jumped in.











Well Brian found a solar paneled Attic Fan in the Costco flyer! It does have some electrical parts but it will only cost $2 a year for that aspect. There is a 30% tax credit for it as well!. Because it is solar paneled it is on the roof and we do not need to get anything approved by the HOA or anything like that and the description says that people can install it themselves! We obviously won't but that just proves how easy it is to set up, no electricians needed! It also has a remote which will allow it to still run on cloudy days or at night which is great. It is high wind resistant, it will even help in the cold, wet winter. (yes we are not supposed to get snow but it does rain and we have had snow and it will be fine with snow).

We haven't purchased it yet because we do have to have to find out how much it will cost to install as we aren't doing it ourselves. We have a call in to the manufacturer to see what their certified people will charge and we have asked another friend who may be able to do it to see what he would charge. If the installation quote is what we are expecting then we will go ahead and purchase it.! It is $350 before the sale and $300 after the sale. Well within what Brian and I were thinking. Brian was budgeting $500 for the fan and installation so as long as installation is $200 or less, which it should be, we will be golden.

Another great thing about the sale? Shipping is free! I will post before and after pictures of all the projects once we get there.

And they wonder why we hire people.....

All of our friends seem to question why we hire people to do simple Do-It-Yourself projects. Well this is why.

We painted the master ourselves. It did not really go as planned. We had a late starts both mornings, the fan took more time then we were thinking, and well we don't really know what we were doing and I really wasn't supposed to help much. I did end up doing more then expected to get the show on the road. But I took plenty of breaks and the boys had the room very well ventilated. I painted by the tape on the bottom (base boards, window sills, etc) and corners. Brian worked on the tray ceiling and when will woke up we were ready for him to start rolling. I also helped with the touch ups as I could see them easier.

By Saturday night the original plan was to get most of the room painted if not all painted. That way on Sunday we could do any touch ups and then get the furniture back in. Well, we only managed to get the room cleared, taped and plastic put down. Sunday was spent painting and putting furniture back in. In the end I think it looks great but we are definitely hiring someone. Brian is still sore.

Here are some pictures from this adventure:

Before

Before

Brian is awesome at packing

See?

Yup, even got the king size bed in the walk in except for head and footboard

Headboard and footboard

All taped

All painted!

Tape needs to come off

And finished

The lighting and color makes it hard to take pictures of. We have been sleeping in the guest room for the past week due to the paint smells. We are so excited to sleep in it tonight. We also did lower the bed. We put the box springs in the walk-in (you can kind of see them leaned up against the wall in the last picture) as I did not want them in the attic uncovered. Getting in and out of the raised bed is fine now but Brian decided he didnt want to have to help me in and our when I am actually big with baby :) I love it, Brian likes it and I think it looks great with the furniture including the settee!

The Extra House Money Update

Well...we aren't going to use it for the house. We already pay a little extra on our mortgage every month and while that helps...it isn't going to help pay for the house that much quicker. But we do feel good that we are paying a little more on it each month.

Where is the money going to go?

This year it will be divided. It will help pay for the clearing and sodding of the easement we are going to do this winter and it will go towards student loans. I have a fair amount of money saved up for the easement so the majority of the money will go towards student loans and hopefully by the time it comes time to do the easement, I will have enough for all of it and the whole payment can go to student loans! :)

In future years, all of my overtime will just be divided into two (right now three because of the cruise we want to do for our honeymoon in March). Half for house projects and half for student loans. 

Also any extra money we come into will go towards student loans. It is expected that I am going to be getting a pretty good sized bonus because my production levels at work are so high so that is going to go to student loans. Half of Christmas/Bday money will go towards student loans.Whatever tax returns we get, is going to student loans. We are also expected to get raises....not much but every little bit helps. I know what 80 hours without overtime equaled when I first got hired so each week I minus that number from what I did get paid and the difference is considered overtime money. I got a raise last year but I am still using my 80 hr number from before the raise so my raise is being considered overtime money and going towards projects or student loans.

And by student loans...we mean the private one that we weren't  able to consolidate. We would LOVE to pay off the consolidated one very early but it is just like another mortgage payment. Once we pay off the private student loans, we will revamp our strategy.

Why Student Loans and not house? Because while we hope and will do everything in our power to not have this happen, god forbid anything were to happen. Bankruptcy/foreclosing on the house will disappear from your credit in 7 years or so. Student loans never ever leave you. That was really the deciding factor.

We both want to pay off the house early. When we pay off the private and revamp our strategy I am going to be shooting for paying more on the mortgage to help that occur.

All good things must come to an end....

Brian and I had a wonderful vacation with each other. We get everything we wanted to get done and more. Well, almost everything. While we were in Charleston we were supposed to go on a boat cruise but it started raining so we decided to skip that. I was starting not to feel so great and have typically not done well on boats when the weather is bad so I didn't want to ruin the experience by possibly getting sick. So we still have to do that when the weather is nicer. We went on a carriage ride which was really fun and our horse, Mr. Bill, was the best. He had the best personality! Our carpets, wood and tile are so clean. Almost everything is put back in its place and we are settling back in to normal life.

We have purchased tickets to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra in Greenville for this upcoming November. We are really excited about that. We got the section we wanted as well! The key to Trans Siberian is that you dont want to be on the floor because it will be hard to see the stage and the people as they walk above you. This show is just about the visual lights as it is the sound. You also dont want to be to high or to far on the other side of the arena. You also dont want to be right on one side next to the stage. The musicians spend a lot of time on the stage but they also walk out into the audience a bit and if your right by the stage you will miss what they do in the audience. We think the best area is the lower level one block in from the stage. so not 101 but 102 in our case. We were in section 103 which was great especially since we didnt know what we were about to experience so we are very close to where we were before but just a bit closer to the stage so we can see them on stage better but not so close to the stage where we cant see what they do in the audience. We are SO excited about this trip. We love Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Work is going well. Exciting really but I will post about that when everything is all said and done. Monday was a bit rough as a first day back. Nothing really bad happened but it was a LONG day. We had mandatory overtime so i ended up with a 12 hour day. This week is flying by and there is mandatory overtime this Saturday and next so yay extra money!!! Brian's student loans will be paid off that much sooner.

We did come to the decision regarding extra money towards house vs student loans but that deserves a post in itself. I am pleased we came to a decision and can start working with that in mind.

I am starting to get ready for Christmas. I have all the Christmas cards ready I just need the letters and those will be ready to be sent out. I also have about half of the Christmas gifts that I just need to order. I still need to make the other portion and of course mail them out.

I started the photo book detailing the house being built but that book is going to be exhausting as the pictures have to go in a specific order and remembering the order and finding the appropriate pictures is draining. I have them organized by week but not by location within the week, hind sight is 20X20. I am going to work on that more after all Christmas gifts are ordered/sent.

Wedding album is back on hold as the two books my mom gave are not going to work. One is broken (I am hoping its a fluke and not to come of the books I have already made) and the other is partially full with more pictures of me! I am going to use the rest of that book to put random pictures I have been saving.

I think that is it....tomorrow I am hoping to post more about Mr. Bill and later this week about our house vs student loan decision.

Mom and Dad's House: The Outside After

Mom and Dad met a great gay named Trevis who is amazing! He willingly and maybe even happily cleared the jungle for my parents for a price that left us all speechless...happy but speechless! My parents will have to get used to things being cheaper in the South but we were all surprised by Trevis. Trevis is either going to love my parents or hate them at the end of this....my mom is very good at finding projects that need to be done :)

Trevis did an amazing job! See for yourselves!

Bailey!

We love the location of the house! They are in downtown Charleston, walking distance to everything but yet when you are at the house you are in your own little oasis. Could not have asked or better.

Parent's House Before:

My parent's house is amazing and wonderful but it was left in a state that is less then desirable to say the least. The seller, a real estate agent who should know and do better, did nothing, not even the minimum to get this house ready. There are multiple projects that have popped up that were really unexpected and it has taken two cleaning ladies 12 hours to clean most of the house not counting what my mom has done. While the house is much cleaner, there are areas that haven't been touched. It was quite disgusting....there was coca cola on the walls!!!

The outside we knew was going to be a project but a project that at least my mom would enjoy. My mom is a huge gardener so she was looking forward to starting fresh. But before she started fresh she had to clear the jungle:

I cant get this right side up: I *think* this is the entrance from the back yard to the front yard

The House: The Loft

The loft is half of "Brian's space". I say that in parenthesis because I have had more say in what goes in and how the space looks then I should. I try to let him do whatever he wants but he keeps asking me what I think! I try to say "No, it's your room" but he wont accept that as an answer so oh well!

Brian's office is a mess so I am not sure when you will see that but the loft is presentable and is about finished as it is going to get for the time being. The rug you see was supposed to go into the dining room but it didnt fit so in the loft it went! It is a bit to big but we got it to work. The chest in the middle of the room was supposed to go to my parent's house but the movers didn't take it off the truck and Brian found it and basically claimed it :).  Thankfully they didn't mind :)

Attic door to the left, bathroom door is shut and office door is open

The wall leading downstairs, I need something geeky to put up there

You can see where the rug is too big

We are just waiting to by chairs/futon/seating and it is finished. Our long term plan is to bring cable up there and put a tv in there as well.

Show Us Your Life: Living Rooms

I am late linking up with Kelly's Korner...I forgot this Friday was a "Show us Your Life" that I could do. I was going to show pictures of rooms after they are finished but as projects are taking longer I have decide to show the room as it is showcase within "Show Us Your Life"

If you are coming from Kelly's Korner...Welcome! My husband and I recently just bought a house and are in the process of making it our own. Suggestions are welcome!

The living room is basically finished. At some point we may paint it but that is FAR in the future if it happens.

Diagonal view from kitchen, the door is to the Master Bedroom

Head on to the living room from the Island in the kitchen

View from when you come in from the back door, those Shutterfly packages on the chair are all of our wedding pictures!

View from staircase wall

View from Master Bedroom entry way

Close up of the project we just finished, the trim on the blinds

The living room is a bit small but it definitely works for us. We recently held a wine tasting and had about 10 or so women sitting in it and worked out well! And yes it is messy! I may have grown up but not that much!