home renovation

I love this. I love even more that UNC beat Duke last night.

A colleague of mine recently expressed that the reason she doesn't want to have children is because she's lost all faith in the human race.

Here are a few things that have happened to me lately that have helped me keep my faith in the human race:

--A pair of strangers at Lowe's rescuing us when Mr. 4-Runner decided not to start, despite the fact that we have recently invested a crap load (pardon my French) of money into giving him a new transmission. Sure, they probably mostly did this because we looked like we'd literally wandered off the street of some third world country (Note to self: try not to meet new people when dressed in painting garb), but still, they didn't HAVE to be so nice about it. They were.

--Cute lady in the Big Lots' parking lot taking my cart back in for me. It may seem like a small thing, but when the store has no cart return, it's a pain to take it all the way back to the store.

--The ridiculous amount of help we've been getting on our house. While some of it may be because my in-laws are probably wondering when exactly they will get their guest room back, I know it isn't all because of that. They have done so much to help us, as have many others. I am so thankful.

--A good start to a new semester. My classes are wonderful! I have smaller class sizes, kind students, and a promising semester. I think I will be able to plan on teaching again next year, instead of searching for a new profession.

Progress. It's being made, and despite feeling like we're never going to be finished with this project that has convinced me we are not "do it-yourself-ers," these photos suggest that we are getting there.

Before: The kitchen had some NICE wall paper. Enough said.

Now: Yes, I realize that the kitchen looks like more of a mess than before, and it is, but the wall paper is gone. A lot of dish soap, water, fabric softener, and putty-knife scraping made that feat possible. Also, you'll notice there's a new wall where there used to be cabinetry. That made a laundry closet possible in the hallway. A loss of some counter space, but completely worth it.


Before: The master bedroom had a "lovely" wall-paper border, and the walls were a cool shade of BLAH.Now: Wall paper border gone. Walls? A warm amber.


Before: The living room matched the dining room in a bright fuchsia. A fireplace attachment made a nice addition to the space, and our floors glistened like a gymnasium.

After: Walls a warm neutral. Fireplace attachment non-existent. Mantel being prepped for paint. Floors refinished, but covered until all the painting's done (but don't worry . . . the shiny finish is gone, and they're a beautiful shade).


Before: The breakfast room had, yet again, a fantastic border, which concealed a nice patch of water damage. Carpet that looked like it had seen some better days.


After: Border gone. Water damage fixed. Carpet out, and floors awaiting tile. Walls? A shade of green that was meant to be sage. It's not. It's a beautiful color, but it looks nothing like the sample I put on the wall. It might be changing. We shall see.


Before: The guest bedroom had a vine growing through the window, and was an unidentifiable shade of dirty white.

Now: Plant and air conditioning unit have been removed, and the wall color is a deep taupe.


Oh, and P.S., the bedspread that will be accompanying this room looks like this:
Despite finding a shower curtain that looks like this:

I decided against going with that wild horses theme we discussed in a previous post.

Before:

The previous owner had planted spruce trees right next to the house. They were obviously much too large to be so close to the house, to the point that one was about to block the front door. Chad's dad was kind enough to rip them out for us one Saturday while we were working inside.

Here's the result:I think it's a huge improvement! Plus, you will notice that all of those ugly papers announcing to the world that our house was a foreclosure are now also gone. The yard is obviously far from done, but at least you can see our front door now.

Before:

An obnoxious flower border wrapped around the entire dining room, in between cheap molding to create a make-shift chair rail.


Now:

The wall paper border has been removed, along with the cheap, imitation chair rail.


And, the outrageous fuchsia has been replaced with a classy, deep red.


Before: The laundry area was an accordion-doored closet with exposed piping that could only house a stack-able washer and dryer.



Now: Not at all a photo that really shows the progress that has been made, but do you see those little folding doors jetting out in the hallway? Those one up to a full-size laundry closet.

More improvements not yet pictured coming soon. All the ceilings are painted. All the hardwood is refinished. Bathrooms are prepped for the final renovations. Crown molding being installed this week. We're getting there!

I've discovered another difference between Utah and North Carolina. It deals with something white that falls from the sky. You guessed it, snow. On Tuesday, we woke up to this:

In Utah, if I woke up to that on a Tuesday it would mean one thing: Leave for work extra early, try to avoid imperative death on the freeway, and pray it didn't get any worse before my commute home. Last year, when I taught in Lehi, there was a day they closed the freeway at the point of the mountain, none of the buses were running, and we STILL had school. Real safe.

In North Carolina, waking up to snow meant a phone call from the superintendent telling me to stay home, even though it was a teacher work day. That meant we could do this:





We had a blast playing in the snow, enjoying hot apple cider, and curling up in front of the fireplace.

Oh, and don't worry. Work was canceled on Wednesday too. It felt like extended Christmas Vacation. I could get used to this. Here's our house in the winter wonderland:

It feels strange to blog about Christmas when it was a whole month ago. If you want details, you can visit my sister-in-law's blog here for a play by play. In a word it was wonderful. What's not to love about fudge for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Add a few handfuls of peanut-butter balls, and some other fabulous goodies, and you've got one great Christmas vacation. We did eat, but that's not all we did of course. There was sleeping in, movie watching, reading curled up in front of the fireplace, gazing at the Christmas tree, and baby holding.

This is all of us on Christmas morning, waiting to come downstairs and see what Santa brought.

This is our favorite present from Santa, our painting from Rome framed. Now if we can just finish our house so we have a place to hang it!



And this is us with our beautiful niece, Mackenzie Joy on her blessing day. Is she not the MOST ADORABLE THING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE? I know. I miss her little coos, giggles, and smiles.


We had a great Christmas, filled with family, peace, and rest. We have so much to be thankful for.

Chad and I have been married for more than three years now. In those three years of marriage, we have only spent one Thanksgiving together. Our first Thanksgiving I spent in North Carolina, while Chad sat aboard a plane bound for Utah, so he'd be back to work at Best Buy on Black Friday. This year, was reversed. Chad stayed in North Carolina, because he hasn't been working long enough to have accumulated any time off, and I few out to Utah to spend a few days with my family. It's beginning to feel like Thanksgiving isn't a real holiday, since we never spend it together. Anyway, my trip to Utah left me with a series of questions:

Question One - Why is it that around the Holidays I begin to eat just for the sake of eating?

Not hungry? No problem. Consume massive amounts of calories anyway. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing, but that wasn't the only calorie fest I indulged in on the trip. There were episodes involving spinach and artichoke dip, my mom and dad's amazing chicken salad that no one else can make just right, about a dozen Costco poppy seed muffins, Stephen's peppermint hot chocolate smothered in whipped cream, Cafe Rio (oh how my heart had missed thee!), and at least an entire jar full of chocolate/macadamia nut/caramel clusters (I want to personally meet the person who created these and not only shake her hand, but give her a hug), and much more.

This is our pretty Thanksgiving table, although I never got a picture with all the food on it . . . sad day, but it was yummy:

Here's my dad carving the turkey:

Question Two - Does every family have those relatives who are just crazies?

These are two of mine. I love them dearly, but I affectionately refer to them as the crazies:

During dinner I had a laughing fit that I had to try to conceal when crazy on the left decided to begin impersonating her dog. Yes, she was barking at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Luckily, I wasn't sitting across from Jared this year. The last time this happened, I wasn't able to control myself because every time I'd look at him it would set off the laughter again. She also had some interesting comments to make about the school where I teach . . . but that's a story for another time.

Question Three - Why doesn't my family live closer?

Spending time with my Mom, Dad, Bryan, and Jared was wonderful. I love them all so much, and it is very hard being so far away. We had a great time, though.

Jared can always make me laugh. This kid has the best sense of humor, and he always has cool, new music to share.

Even though this picture is terrible of me, I have to post it, because this so sums up the fact that brothers will always torment sisters, no matter how old they get. Constantly trying to pester, but out of love. I am going to miss Bryan so much when he leaves for Iraq after the new year.

It was so much fun to have time to spend with my mom. She didn't have to work the entire time I was there, so we had a lot of time to be together. Best of all, we got to exercise our traditional, yearly, eight hours of insanity: shopping on Black Friday. I think the lady who scowled at all us suckers, waiting in line at Kohl's, put it best: "Nothing in this store is worth waiting in THAT line for." You were right lady. But wait we did. Why? Because it's just wrong not to.

Question Four - Isn't it amazing how some friendships are made to last a lifetime?

I've known Callie since the sixth grade, when she forced me to jump off the rope swing at Lybbert's Pond. I've known Crystal since the seventh, when Callie introduced us. We've made a lot of fun memories together over the years. From school dances, to dancing the night away in Mexico, I always smile when I think of these two. It's always fun to get together to catch up. It's even more fun now that she has two adorable daughters. It was great to play with Aubrey and Olivia. I feel so blessed to have such good friends!

Question Five - Why is it, when I WANT it to snow in Utah, it doesn't?

Because North Carolina is my home now, I've adjusted to the fact that my days of white Christmases are pretty much over. There might be one fluke Christmas where I luck out and see a dusting of white, but chances are slim. As much as I complained about the snow in Utah, I do like a white Christmas. Since I won't have one of those, I was hoping for some Thanksgiving flurries. I got nothing. Nada. It wasn't even COLD while I was there. What's with that?

Question Six - How awesome is my husband to let me leave for a week to see my family?

Question Seven - How much more awesome is it that he missed me while I was gone?

As much as I loved spending time with family and friends in Utah, I really missed my husband. It was pretty hard to fall asleep without him beside me, not to mention the fact that I just enjoy having him around. I was so happy to see him again when he picked me up from the airport. I figured he would probably have enjoyed bachelorhood a little too much while I was away, but by some miracle he missed me too! I am so thankful for him and all he does for me.

It feels like my Thanksgiving trip just ended, and already we are getting geared up for Christmas. Time sure does fly! I know I've slacked as a blogger lately, but with Christmas approaching, that means there's a new year just around the corner. One of my resolutions? More blogging!

I should have known when I left for work this morning that things were just not going to go my way. The sky looked gray and solemn, so I figured we were due for some rain. It proceeded to begin snowing. Which made me want to vomit, because it forced me to recall some horrific driving experiences in Utah. (Luckily, it didn't stick . . . much to my students' dismay, and my extreme pleasure.)

After work today, I went to the DMV to get my driver's license.

That was the plan.

Chad took the test yesterday. He passed it with flying colors. 100%. Not a single question missed. His exact words were, "That test was a joke!"

I failed the test.

Yes, that's right. Failed it.

I am completely mortified.

You could only miss five questions, and I missed six. It felt like an out of body experience. I am not the kind of girl who fails tests. I'm not the kind of girl who doesn't do well on tests. I thought I was going to cry.

It reminded me of my freshman year at BYU, when I took my first Physical Science test. I remember waiting at the bottom of the stairs in the testing center, watching for my student number to pop up on the screen with my test score. When I found my number, and saw my corresponding score, I thought, "Oh, I must not have the right number." Yea. A quick look at my ID card confirmed that, yes, I did have the right number, and, yes, I was a loser who had bombed her first test.

As I drove away from the DMV, I wondered if it was criminal for me to be driving at all. I mean, clearly if I can't pass a simple driving test I have no business being on the road.

Oh, well. Life will go on. The only problem is, I still have to get a North Carolina driver's license. What happens if I fail the test a second time? I don't know if I can live that down!