Our Living Room: Before & After
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 Edit This 1 Comment »
Before....
(this is the previous owners set-up)
After.....
I think I'll go to Boston
Saturday, February 20, 2010 Edit This 1 Comment »
Yipee I'm so excited! We booked our 1 year anniversary trip to Boston. Less than 2 months away now! We originally were going to do Ireland - I would LOVE to show Scottie where I studied abroad. But the exchange rate is not too hot rate now, making travel to Europe verrrry expensive for us Americans.We are particularly excited to go to Boston because
1) We have a BOSTON terrier and hope to see tons of those little guys running around there, and
2) BOSE headquarters is located right near Boston so we are excited that Scottie can make his homage there.
Wow, I can't believe we've almost been married for one year. This year fllleeewwww by!
Massachusetts
Monday, January 25, 2010 Edit This 0 Comments »
As we all know the great state of Massachusetts had a pretty big election last week - that was highly unfavorable for the dems.
I generally find myself right in the middle of conservative and liberal, leaning more towards the liberal side on social issues.
Now that there is a lot of uncertainty with this healthcare reform, I must say this.... This past month I had a few visits to the hospital. I am 100% healthy and won't be sharing WHY I went on the internet...
However.
The bills that I received, being insured through my husband's bank, (banks have great benefits) were terrible!! Thanks be to God that Scottie and I can afford these bills. But I can't even imagine having to pay for that out of pocket without the help of an insurance company.
I'm a prime example of why SOMETHING needs to happen. I am a college graduate. I have been working for three solid years after graduation. Yet my employer does not carry health insurance because it's too expensive. They'd go out of business. If it weren't for my husband, I'd be one of the millions that does not have access to health insurnace. Let me refrase... GOOD health insurance. Yes I am a hard worker --never have asked for a dime from the government -- and yes I have a degree yet I still would not have access to insurance if I wasn't married.
There's something wrong with that.
The costs HAVE GOT to go down. And trust me, I don't necessarily believe that the government running a hospital is a good idea. I also believe that a doctor SHOULD be paid a lot for his or her services. If it means it will save a person's life, than I believe that six figures certainly is worth somebody's life.
But there has got to be a solution. I personally believe it all boils down to COMPETITION. Let's not rely on these silly insurance companies to choose WHERE I get MY healthcare. Let me shop around, like I would for anything else, and make my own decision. If patients choose how much they will spend, the hospitals would be forced to re-evaluate what they charge for their services. And not charge my insurance company thousands of dollars for a stupid visit.
That's all.
Cheers.
I generally find myself right in the middle of conservative and liberal, leaning more towards the liberal side on social issues.
Now that there is a lot of uncertainty with this healthcare reform, I must say this.... This past month I had a few visits to the hospital. I am 100% healthy and won't be sharing WHY I went on the internet...
However.
The bills that I received, being insured through my husband's bank, (banks have great benefits) were terrible!! Thanks be to God that Scottie and I can afford these bills. But I can't even imagine having to pay for that out of pocket without the help of an insurance company.
I'm a prime example of why SOMETHING needs to happen. I am a college graduate. I have been working for three solid years after graduation. Yet my employer does not carry health insurance because it's too expensive. They'd go out of business. If it weren't for my husband, I'd be one of the millions that does not have access to health insurnace. Let me refrase... GOOD health insurance. Yes I am a hard worker --never have asked for a dime from the government -- and yes I have a degree yet I still would not have access to insurance if I wasn't married.
There's something wrong with that.
The costs HAVE GOT to go down. And trust me, I don't necessarily believe that the government running a hospital is a good idea. I also believe that a doctor SHOULD be paid a lot for his or her services. If it means it will save a person's life, than I believe that six figures certainly is worth somebody's life.
But there has got to be a solution. I personally believe it all boils down to COMPETITION. Let's not rely on these silly insurance companies to choose WHERE I get MY healthcare. Let me shop around, like I would for anything else, and make my own decision. If patients choose how much they will spend, the hospitals would be forced to re-evaluate what they charge for their services. And not charge my insurance company thousands of dollars for a stupid visit.
That's all.
Cheers.
A truely Beautiful Bride
Thursday, January 07, 2010 Edit This 0 Comments »
I promise, I do have a life outside of my house.
Strike a pose! *disclaimer* this is NOT the dress she chose!
They always say you know when you've found the one when you make people cry. Well the mother of the bride cried very hard when she saw her daughter in the one. How sweet!
I'm so excited for E's big day. October 2010 will come very fast ~ I'm totally stoked to be apart of this.
No, Really!
Last weekend I had the honor of bridal gown shopping with my BFF E. I also have the wonderful of honor of standing up as the Matron of Honor at her wedding. (that term makes me sound so old!)
E TOTALLY lucked out and found "THE DRESS" at the first store -- Christy's Bridal in Burlington! I won't be sharing pictures of that dress here in the unlikely case that her fiancee finds this, however here are some fun pictures of the day.
The bride-to-be walking into the store!
The netting look was not a hit in E's opinion. Hehe!
Strike a pose! *disclaimer* this is NOT the dress she chose!They always say you know when you've found the one when you make people cry. Well the mother of the bride cried very hard when she saw her daughter in the one. How sweet!I'm so excited for E's big day. October 2010 will come very fast ~ I'm totally stoked to be apart of this.
We're Home!
Tuesday, January 05, 2010 Posted In House Edit This 0 Comments »
It's official! We are IN our house! Wow I never thought the day would come. And while we are still working away at getting everything organized every night, I must say it's great to just hop into bed and go to sleep after a long days work. We still need to...
1) Sand down kitchen cabinet bases.
2) Install cabinet faces.
3) Install new countertops.
4) Install new kitchen sink.
5) Install baseboards.
6) Finish up with some electric work (installing a chandalier in the dining, installing new hanging lights in kitchen, and installing some cans in the kitchen).
So obviously at this point the kitchen really isn't all that functional. But luckily we are young and can live off of dry foods for awhile.
There are three rooms which Scottie and I are VERY proud of. The Living Room, the Master Bedroom and the Bathroom. I'll get pictures up soon. But in the meantime here is my inspiration picture of how we're trying to get our living room to look like. 
What to do, What to do
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 Posted In House Edit This 0 Comments »
Since we purchased our home, I have been the one who has lead the painting project. For the most part, it's been easy. I had an inspiration picture of our living room and consequently matched the paint color to that. We got our master bed spread as a wedding gift so that dictated what color the master would be. Our bathroom tiles are brown so we went bold in the bathroom and painted it Trusty Tan by Sherwin Williams. And I was veeery forward thinking with the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms by painting them kid friendly colors. Note I said *very forward thinking, no bun in the oven yet.
Even part of the kitchen was a done deal. Scottie ordered too much paint for the living room so we decided to paint bits of the kitchen in the same color.
Enter the dilemma.
I have two walls in the kitchen that I want to paint and have them be a bit bolder since the Ionic Ivory by Sherwin Williams that is currently on the walls is very nuetral. I've narrowed it down to two very similar colors but just can't make my mind up!!
The living room and parts of the kitchen are painted Ionic Ivory, which is in the middle of the colors below. A very subtle color. Again I want to paint two walls a more bold color to add some drama to the room. I'll also paint the hallway to the bathroom/bedrooms this bolder color. The top one is called Burlap. The bottom one is called Quiver Tan. I think I may be leaning towards Burlap but boy this is a tough choice. I will get samples of both but I still don't think I'll be able to make my mind up.
Oh, the pressure!
Oh, the pressure!
Progress
Monday, December 21, 2009 Posted In House Edit This 0 Comments »
Well, we are making progress. Unfortunately we are STILL not in the house. All we need is 1) Grouted tile in the bathtub, and 2) An installed toilet. Both of which are supposed to be complete tonight. The rest of the stuff can be completed while we are living in the house. I am praying that the above projects will actually be done tonight. All I want for Christmas is to sleep in our house on Christmas Eve!! 
Enjoy some "transition" pictures.
Third Bed Room. Paint is Sky High by Sherwin Williams. In this room we still need new light fixtures and the baseboard to be installed.
This picture is showing the reducer between the wood floors and tile. We originally were going to do the plain old metal ones - I'm really happy Scottie decided to do a wood reducer, I think it adds a lot.
Our new tiles! The kitchen/bathroom/hallway have the same tiling. This is a view from the bathroom into the kitchen.
This is our sink nook.
The newly tiled tub! It still needs grout as I mentioned above. The bathroom still requires trim around the window and door, grout, a toilet and a sink.
I just had to share.. The first snow at our house!
Scottie working very hard at refinishing our cabinets. This has been quite the project.
Left side is the old cabinet. Right side is the new cabinet (not stained yet).
Baxter in his work suit!
Second Bedroom. Paint is Full Moon by Sherwin Williams. We still need to install light fixtures and baseboards in this room.
And to give you some perspective of the outside of the house. This picture is before we put shutters on, before we landscaped the right side of the house (no time to do the left side this season!), and before we painted the light post.
Shrubs being installed...
And the (almost) final product! I was hesitant to go with the Cranberry colored shutters. Mainly because the windows are trimmed with a dark brown color (that I hate). We do, however, intend to replace the windows next Spring and the trim will hopefully be a cream color so the Cranberry hopefully will not stand out quite as much as it does now.
Experienced Home Owner Here
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 Edit This 0 Comments »
So now that we've been home-owners for almost a month, I can pass on my wisdom to those less wise than I.
- Second, if you think you're the type for rennovations, maybe volunteer to help a friend or test it out before you buy a complete fixer upper. I've more or less enjoyed this process. Scottie on the other hand has not. He does not have rennovating in his blood. Which we had a sneaking suspision he wouldn't. We didn't realize however they he would hate it... Loathe it... Despise it.
Dining Room Area. The top cabinets facing the dining room has been removed to open the space up more.
Master.
- First, don't believe anything on HGTV. When they show their rennovations, they choose to show you the easy stuff. They don't show you all the work you have to do to get to the easy stuff. For example, they show people painting their walls. Well first, you have to wash the nicotine off the walls. Twice. Then you have to fill all the holes in the walls. Then you have to sand down all the bumps on the walls. Then you prime. In some cases twice (nicotine). Then you paint. A total of about two week's of work.
- Second, if you think you're the type for rennovations, maybe volunteer to help a friend or test it out before you buy a complete fixer upper. I've more or less enjoyed this process. Scottie on the other hand has not. He does not have rennovating in his blood. Which we had a sneaking suspision he wouldn't. We didn't realize however they he would hate it... Loathe it... Despise it.
- If you think something will take a week, it will probably take two.
- If you think something will cost $1,000, it will probably cost $2,000.
I love owning a home, really! I can't wait to actually live in it, though. I hope to live in it in two weeks. At least partially. I was so nieve at closing when I said I thought we'd be in the house in two weeks. Ohhhh the humor.
Anyhow at least now we are at the stage where we are done ripping stuff out. Now we're bringing the new stuff in.
Here are some pictures of day 1 for you to enjoy. I do apologize if smoke/nicotine starts fuming out of your computer screen.
Living Room. Great picture window. All the 70's fixtures have been taken out.
Dining Room Area. The top cabinets facing the dining room has been removed to open the space up more.Master.Closet in Master.
Second Bedroom.
Bathroom.
Tub. *Gags*
Vanity.
Third Bedroom. Shelves are removed.
Third bedroom. Built in desk and shelves are removed.
Kitchen. Built in desk is removed.
Kitchen.
Let the work begin! Taking the cabinets out.
The nicotine drenched carpet being ripped out. It smelled pretty bad.
Second Bedroom.Bathroom.Tub. *Gags*Vanity.Third Bedroom. Shelves are removed.Third bedroom. Built in desk and shelves are removed.Kitchen. Built in desk is removed.Kitchen.Let the work begin! Taking the cabinets out.The nicotine drenched carpet being ripped out. It smelled pretty bad.
