We Closed on the House!

Hurray! Today has been a fun day. We closed on the house this morning and even got some money back! Now we are on to major projects. You can see the before pics on our Shutterfly photo site. Just go one column over to the right where my blogroll is and click on the Nevil Photos link. Then scroll down to the album called, “The Nevil’s New House”. I promise to take pics of the after as we go. 😀

We are super excited about all this-and we will be busy! If you want to help, call me and let me know when you are available. The movers will bring our household goods on Monday, so we really just need help painting. 😀

Gotta run!

What Takes All My Spare Time These Days

My BF in WA has a couple of sisters who are way fun. Her older sister, Selina, is very fashionable and hip. Her house is crazy adorable and she is one of those women who always has perfect hair, skin and clothes. Don’t hate her though. Like I said, she’s way fun. Anyway, she recently turned me on to this blog called Young House Love. It now takes every moment of my free time! I know I’ve mentioned this blog recently, but seriously people, I can’t stay away from it.

You may be saying, “Freetime? What freetime? You get freetime?!” to which I would say, uh, yeah. I mean I am living with my parents. When my munchkins have quiet rest time, I can clean and do laundry and then what? I mean, I’ve gotta do something else…

But I digress. The point is that this blog is FLIPPIN’ AWESOME!

Say you are a young family on a budget. You don’t have a bunch of extra cash lying around and if you did, you most likely would spend it on something “responsible”. So that new bed you’ve always dreamed of still hasn’t happened even though  you’ve been married for 10 years already. No problem. DIY headboard, in one hour. Done! (And for maybe as little as $45 bucks!)

‘Been barking at the love of your life to organize the garage so you can actually get a car in there? No problem. This post will focus your efforts and help you get ‘er done in just one weekend. Do you hear angels singing?

Maybe you are a clutter-bug. You just can’t seem to organize your home and you need a little help, but you don’t really want to pay someone to do it for you. That’s ok, YHL to the rescue!  There is an ENTIRE page of ways to organize your space; from your kitchen cabinets all the way back out to the garage and even to your refrigerator! Here’s a post on how to systematically organize and declutter any space. Did you hear that? ANY space?

Not the best decorator? Having trouble putting a room together? Go to inspiration station! That entire page of ways to organize your space also has a ton of decorating lessons. It’ll move you from JCPenny Catalog to say, CB2. My personal favorite post is on How to Avoid the dreaded Matchy-Matchy. I haven’t even moved in to my new house yet and I’m already trying to avoid matchy-matchington in my dining room. You know…in my head…while I lay in bed at night dreaming of it.

Do you see why this is the bestest-blog ever? And, this couple even tries to do stuff on the cheap, which is all I speak these days. In fact, even some of their recent purchases have been too expensive for me, even though they ARE good deals. For them. I mean I did a dance last week when I paid $15.00 for a rug at Hobby Lobby. A DANCE!

Anyway, this blog takes all my time and makes my head swim. At night, I lay in bed thinking of all the things I cannot WAIT to do in our new house. I cannot wait to move in and get started! Is it Tuesday yet? (Additionally, this couple isn’t limited to just the indoors. They do great stuff outside too. I love that about them!)

Now, it’s your turn. Though this is my absolute favorite blog ever right now, I trust you might have a good one up your sleeve too. So do share. What blog (ok, besides Pioneer Woman or Real Simple or Martha Stewart) takes all your time?

 

 

Hope, Deferred

Proverbs 13:12
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.”

Boy, was Solemn ever right. On Wednesday, I had probably the best birthday ever! It was a beautiful and fun day. Jeremy took me shopping and out to lunch, my sweet Cooper was totally precious all day and made sure he bought me a gift that was just from him. We even got awesome news from our lender! Our mortgage went down several thousand dollars and a very large processing fee was waived due to some disability paperwork that went through at the VA for Jeremy. That means our monthly payment went down and our closing costs went down. WAHOO!

Until, yesterday.

Our lender called us to congratulate us on all that good stuff and then break the bad news to us: we can’t close on Friday. We have to wait until Tuesday. Whenever a change like this occurs and your loan is through the VA, you have to wait 3 more days before you can close. BOOOO to red tape!

In the grand scheme of things this is absolutely nothing. What’s a couple more days for an event as big as buying a house? It’s nill. It is a drop in the bucket. But we were SO. EXCITED.

It’s still ok. We are fine and life goes on. It could be way worse. We could’ve been denied! We could have been here and still not found a house. The house we found could’ve been blah instead of wonderful. I’m grateful, but bummed to wait. 

In an effort to perk myself up, I’m trying to think of a fun little project for myself. Make my own headboard? Create some fun things for the boys’ rooms? Hmmm!

 

This Week’s “Happy”

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Top Ten Tuesday list. This week is bringing all sorts of fun things, so I thought I’d blog my top ten things that make me happy this week:

10. My birthday is tomorrow. Birthdays aren’t as cool as they once were, but it’s fun to feel super special for a day. Incidentally, I have 2 close friends who share my birthday. One of which shares not just my birthday, but my middle name (we were born the same year too). So Happy Birthday to Marybill Andrews and Kim McPherson Holland tomorrow too! Happy….

9. Spring has sprung in St. Louis! Everything is turning green, yellow, pink, purple and white. The birds are chirpy-cute, the sun is coming up earlier and staying up longer, the pollen is assaulting my sinuses…It’s gorgeous! My fingers are absolutely itching to do some yard work. Now, I don’t want to do your yardwork people. I want to do my own. My very own! BWA HA HA HA HA HA! (That’s my evil laugh.) My head is full of happy thoughts about my new yard. I went and took a closer look at what’s going on in the front yard. It looks like I have some azaleas, some hostas, and some sort of bushes. We’ll have to see if they get to stay. I’m thinking the bushes at least need to go. And the azaleas will probably need to be moved. Happy…

8. Due to #10, I get to go shopping tomorrow. I’m sure it is a little bit of a cop out in terms of birthday gifts. But, it’s still shopping. I can’t complain about that. My wardrobe has been Pacific Northwesternized and that doesn’t quite jive with a Midwest Summer that is fast approaching. I mean, I own 2 pairs of shorts. 2. So I believe Old Navy will be happy tomorrow too. But that still makes me happy. Happy…

7. It has been so fun to be back together with family. This may be the ramblings of a 30-something chick, but I appreciate having family around and close much more so then I did in years past. It is special to be apart of each other’s lives. Sharing in the joys and the sorrows of the people you love makes life rich and full of love. Celebrations are much less celebratory when there aren’t other people to share it with. But together, together we all make things more fun. Happy…

6. Hobby Lobby, Target and Homegoods…they are such happy places! I’ve been finding a bunch of fun and pretty things for the house. Just today I picked up a beautiful green and off-white paisley table cloth for my dining room (which is going to be green and white) at a consignment shop I’ve been meaning to check out here in St. Charles.  Just being able to dream about decorating and painting has been so much fun. I have blocked all that stuff out of my head for 4 years! Now I think about it so much that I’m telling myself I need to pull back and not to try to do everything all at once. Happy…

5. I haven’t put Cooper in any sports for various reasons up until now. He took swimming lessons for one session and he did a kiddie-gymnastics class when we first moved to WA. So I guess he has been to a few things. But I haven’t been consistent. I feel like a complete weirdo in comparison to all my friends because their children have been in some sort of sport for multiple years already. Now that we have an address (or will shortly) and we know a little more about where we will be, I decided to check out some area sports leagues for the big man. I found an introductory t-ball course through the St. Charles Parks and Rec website and I’m going to sign him up! The course isn’t a league, it’s really just teaching the kids the basic in’s and out’s of t-ball. It is required before the kids can move up to being on a team and playing games. Cooper would hate being thrown into something without knowing what to do, so I think this will be perfect for him. It doesn’t start until May, but I can’t wait! He’s going to look so stinkin’ cute…Happy.

4. This week, we go to Home Depot to purchase all our supplies for painting the house. I think I have my paint colors all nailed down. I’m wavering on just two rooms; the hall bath and the basement. I keep telling myself that if the colors don’t come out like I envision them in my head, I can always repaint. But, whew, who wants to repaint? I might have to get little samples so that I don’t paint the whole room and decide I hate it. I’m most excited about the color my bedroom will be…mmmmmmm happy…

3. We have a basketball hoop in our driveway at the new house. I love that. Maybe it’s the “Father of the Bride” movie scenes flashing through my head of a dad and child playing basketball. Of course, I change Steve Martin for Jeremy and Brad Paisley’s wife for Cooper and Chase. But, I just hope that thing gets used. All we need is a basketball…or three. Happy!

2. My kids are finally settling in. I hope that the move won’t mess things up too much. In fact, I’m praying that seeing all of our “stuff” in our new house will help the boys settle in even further. I hope it communicates to them that “this is it”. I’ve noticed the move has been hard on the boys. Cooper has been sad and Chase has been a bear. (Not that he isn’t a bear anyway.) I want them to feel safe and secure. I want them to be confident in God and in us as their parents. I want them to know everything is going to be ok. I believe it in my heart. I believe God has a plan and a purpose for us and I’m so excited to discover it together. Happy…

1. Friday, we close on the house. We take the plunge. We commit to 30 years of financial output. I’ve thought a lot about what this means for us. It means neighbors, relationships with people you could live next to for an undetermined number of years! It means endless projects. Happily for us, most of the things that need done are on the outside of the house. The inside just needs a little paint and some cleaning. But this house is going to be our kids’ boyhood home! It’s going to be the only place Chase will remember. I can’t wait to just fill that place with memories. I’m cherishing this opportunity so much. What a gift! It really is the best birthday present. Thanks honey!