Friday, August 24, 2012

Summer Bucket List Update

Like I said in my summer bucket list post, I figure since summer is so late in arriving in the Pacific Northwest, then summer shouldn't really end until my birthday--Mid September. So while everyone else is buying school supplies, baking pumpkin goodies, and pulling out the sweaters, I refuse to accept that summer is near over and plan on plowing my way through these next three weeks as if summer is still here. Besides, I have some more summer bucket list stuff to check off. That seems like plenty of time.


1. Make sushi at home. (nope, not yet. But I have the seaweed wraps. I just need to do it.)

2. Hike minimum 4 times, two of which are Backpacking overnight. (So far, hiked two times, both was backpacking overnight.



3. Make a new header for my blog. (nope! Does anyone want me to hire them to do that?)

4. Learn to love my waist. (still working on it.)

5. Achieve "healthy" according to my doctors. (yes! Or at least answers to get there!)

6. Plant a garden, perhaps herb. (I did. I planted a basil plant. that counts, right?)

7. Have a picnic. (yes, with some of my bible study girls.)

8. Donate old stuff to thrift store. (Oh boy, did we ever. Moving does that.)

9. Try 5 new West Seattle restaurants. (I tried a Greek restaurant, won't go back. And Elliot Bay Pub in Burien. It was pretty good. Also, another pub in Georgetown. Again, so so. Need two more!)

10. Go to a festival. (Yep! Photosynthesis! T'was crazy! But cool.)
 beach art!
dance party!

11. Make Popsicles. (I did, actually. Coconut Mango. They tasted like sorbet. Messy buggers.)

12. Pick fresh blueberries. (Absolutely! Found a blueberry farm 30 minutes away in Bellevue. $1.25 a pound! I also picked blackberries and made my heart haaaaappy.)


13. Make a complete meal over fire (perhaps during #2 above) (Yes, twice. Spaghetti and Meatballs at Photosynthesis, and Adelle's Sausages and Smores for our 2nd Anniversary.)
 handy dandy Jet Boil.
Anniversaries are for unbalanced meals. Adelle's and Smores.

14. Attend an outdoor concert. (I think Photosynthesis counted for that too, considering it was a giant party on the beach.)

15. Volunteer. (Yes! I volunteered with my community group to clean up this parking lot that was a community center. We did weeding and stuff.)

16. Sunbathe. (Not yet. It only recently got warm, and while I have gotten a bit of sun, I have not purposely laid out.)

18. Walk around a small town outside of Seattle. (not yet. Maybe this next weekend with Mark's mom and dad?)

19. Visit local brewery for fresh summer ale. (not yet. Still hoping.)

20. Buy our house :-)  (that we did, as you probably know! Biggest accomplishment yet!)


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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Welcome to our Home Part 2

I know a lot of new readers visited this little blog thing yesterday. Thanks for stopping by and welcome back! (If you missed it, you can find the first half of the tour here.) Feel free to poke around a bit. I don't promise anything amazing on this site but every once in a while I have a few moments of brilliance flow through my finger tips. Enjoy!

Now on with our tour. I'm not even sure it's worth posting, to be honest. But I made a promise yesterday, so here's the photos I forgot.


This room probably doesn't need much explanation other than I'm super stoked to have the extra storage, since my master bath is rather limited. If I would have been smart enough to photograph the inside the cabinet, you might be quite amazed, especially if you've ever gone digging for stuff in my previous closets or bathrooms. Somehow I manage great organization at work but fall apart at home. Well, for now, I'm organized in both places, and I achieved that by organizing straight out of the cardboard boxes into crates, tubs, and storage containers.

I promise I don't always write about boring things like organization.

 

Lets head up those stairs, shall we?


Upstairs we have a 3/4 story but the sides of the roof are taller than most 3/4 stories I've seen. I'm so thankful for that. But either way, future kiddos will love this space regardless of the roof height. We put our old futon up here and then left everything else in the spots where our moving team friends left it.


This is where the mess is.


Room # 2. It has a closet. Therefore we can store small children up here.


Or los gatos gordos as the case may be.
(translation: the fat cats. But don't tell her.)

Um..I don't actually speak Spanish.

So ya! Lots of space! And what I haven't taken photos of yet is our yard. Because it's ugly right now. Downright pitiful.
We'll get to that next summer.

But imagine just over half an acre, the front half mostly open, full of rocks and weeds that have been weed wacked, surrounded by a beautiful new cedar fence and lined by big fir trees on either side.
The back half is a wild jungle of blackberry bushes, weeds, and a few trees. It has a slight hill and would be a 9 year old boy's dream yard for building forts, motorbike tracks and hunting small creatures.

We saw a family of possums last weekend.

Sounds oasis-like right? That's because it is.. and that's why we love it. We have nearly total privacy and enough space to put multiple chickens in the blackberry jungle, a gargantuan garden, a small green house, and maybe a goat or other animal that suites the city farmer's life.

So there you have it. Our new home!
Mark and I feel overwhelmingly blessed by all the goodness God has showered down on us. Everything about this home has His fingerprints all over it, from the moment we found it, to the buying and inspection process, to the closing costs, projects, eagerness of the seller, and helping hands to get our stuff here. He also made my wildest dream come true by gifting me a farmette! That dream was nearly forgotten when we started the house hunting process and realized how little money buys you in Seattle. But this property popped up in our price range and seemed too good to be true. Generally, that's how God blesses his children. In that "too good to be true" sorta fashion.

Thanks again for stopping by, and if you live in the area (and we're friends, of course! Strangers stopping by might be weird.) please stop by in the evening sometime! We'd love to have coffee with you on the porch and share with you all the good things God is doing.

Until then,
XOXO!




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Monday, August 20, 2012

Welcome to our Home. Part 1

Welcome!
As promised and much anticipated by many, here is a virtual tour of our new home.

 Lets not wait outside any longer. Please come in!
(All these photos were taken with a wide angle lens, so the pictures make the rooms feel a little bigger/longer than they actually are. That said, the house feels large to us, coming in around 1900 square feet. Quite an improvement over our 700 square foot apartment we moved from.)

The front door is a rust red color and the siding is a dusty blue. As all new homeowners, we are consumed with never ending projects and honey-do lists, and that means I did not get a free moment with my camera until about 9 p.m. on Sunday night.
Hence, dark skies and artificial light, distorted colors and yellowish photos.
Sigh.
The front door opens right into the living room and dining space. Off to the right is a little nook where we intend to hang custom hooks for coats, purses, and keys.

You can see the little bench we just picked up from Cost Plus World Market which has lots of additional storage underneath the seat (LOVE!). And I picked up these baskets from Target to put inside my old IKEA bookcase with the hope that we'll be organized enough to store hats, mittens, and scarves in them when the weather gets cold.


We'll get around to painting the walls a lighter off-white or cream color. I'm hoping to accomplish this before Halloween but as we're finding, all homeowner projects take twice as long as you think they will. 

I like to call the color that is currently on the walls poop-brown because I don't like how dark and brown it is. I like brown. Just not ALL brown. Plus we have a lot of trees outside, keeping the interior of the house shaded and cool (nice for those 90 degree days we just had--nobody in Seattle has air conditioning.) But the shaded part means we always have the lights on when we are home regardless if the sun is blaring. Natural light just doesn't illuminate the inside. I need lighter walls to brighten up the space.


Imagine curtains on the window and a giant piece of pretty art on the left wall.
Someday.


The view from the kitchen doorway. And the hubby hard at work finding bookshelves on Craigslist for the library room. I'll show you that in a minute.
But first, the kitchen!


My pride and joy. My consumer of time. My shiny toys. And I dont' even have a stove hooked up yet!

Why, you ask? And how do I not break down and throw a tantrum every night before dinner? Well, the stove is just around that dark corner at the back of the kitchen. In a box. We sold the electric stove on Craigslist because it was brand new in plastic and everything. Maximum dollars for brandnewness. I thought the gas line we were going to run to the house would be done within a week of moving in. That was until we found out that Puget Sound Energy will run the gas line to your house for FREE!.... if you are just willing to wait 4-6 weeks.

It was a really hard discussion to have with the hubby. There may or may not have been tears and a little bit of fist throwing. But he gently convinced me and absorbed my punches before I gave in and agreed to wait for a gas line (and a gas dryer along with a washing machine) in order to save the two grand or so it would cost to hire a private company to do the work.

Until then I'm grilling, crockpotting, and toaster ovening. Only one of those is a real word.

That's my story.
On with the tour.


Now we're in the little hallway that leads to two of our four bedrooms and the stairs.
This is our guest room. Its about 10 x 12 feet, so standard size. Remember, don't be fooled by my wide angle lens. I will probably paint this room light grey.

I promise that if you agree to come be my guest, I'll move all of Mark's tools out of there, and fluff your pillows and turn down your comforter. Warm milk upon request.

Please remember this dresser. You will see it again. It's light yellow. And it was free. I'm going to paint it a pretty color and give it new matching handles. It will be my first  of many DIY projects.
Into the next room you'll find our master suite. This room is functioning as storage for now, but remember when I told you about the library? This will be it. Two giant book shelves and some curtains,  maybe a small desk or a love seat.  Oh the possibilities!

Our bedroom is about 12 X 12, same as the library. Our brand new king size bed fits nicely and we will be able to fit two small dressers on each side of the bed. The big black one will probably be donated to my brother because we won't need it....


...with all that closet space!!! We call this one "Eryka's closet".  The library has an identical space we affectionately call "Mark's closet".  Please disregard the boxes and full trash can. I'll definitely have updates once the bed is off the floor, curtains are hung, dressers are purchased and headboard is made. (Second DIY project).

Welcome to our bathroom! How often do you get to say that, anyway?


I'm on cloud nine with this bathroom. Why? First. It's HUGE. Well, to me its huge. Huge enough to lay down on the floor in official snow angel position and still not touch anything, figuratively speaking of course. *Ahem.* Second, I never thought we'd end up with two bathrooms. Third, check out that glass shower. And yes, that's a jetted tub next to it. The only thing this bathroom is missing is heated floors and a double vanity. But we're not complaining. Oh no. We've very happy with our private master bath. :-)
I know you've all seen a glass shower before. But I've never owned one. So you have to look at it twice.
And this tour guide just got a little bossy. Woops. Lemme fix that.

 We'll conclude this tour with a view of the carpeted stairs that lead to bedrooms three and four. I forgot to load those photos (as well as the photo of our second bathroom, but you should know what a hallway bathroom looks like I hope) so our tour will pick up where I left off tomorrow.
Until then, please feel free to leave me comments on the home or suggestions on how to decorate or what you'd like to see in more detail! Thank you for putting up with the poor quality of light in these photos, as I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer than I already had. As we continue to decorate and make improvements to our home, I'll be sure to photograph the final results!

XOXO!


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Thursday, August 16, 2012

I'm sorry for saying 'I'm sorry'.

If there are any readers out there still reading this little space I like to call my blog:

1) I'm sorry I've been MIA this week. New house. I hope you understand. And that I have not forgotten you.

2) I'm sorry that I'm even writing a post to say "I'm sorry". I'm not a fan of reading posts like this from other people. And I try to be careful not to apologize for my blog. I'm proud of this space, and I enjoy blogging..when I have time. Which, right now, I don't. But I am sorry to keep all of you waiting for what I'm about to promise you will be posted this weekend.

Which is.... A photo tour of my new home!

That's for you Mandy and Moriah!

So stay tuned to this weekend. :-)
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Monday, August 6, 2012

Officially Homeowners

We did it! We closed on the house and we are  now officially homeowners.
I seriously thought this day would never come.  


I promise to give you a virtual tour soon, just as soon as we get all of our belongings collected from the four different locations we've scattered ourselves amongst.

This must be what Voltomort from the Harry Potter novels felt like with his soul scattered amongst the horcruxes. Don't ask me where the scissors or the soap are. I have no idea and I might bite your head off. I can't locate my work shoes and I think all my pants are in the laundry. Of which we have no washer or dryer to wash them in yet. I'm relating to Dark Lord on a level I never thought I would.



In all seriousness, I am ridiculously happy with our new home. I walk in and just smile for a solid ten minutes before I can accomplish anything. It has that new house smell..perhaps also known as fresh paint...but it just makes me giddy with anticipation of having a home and a future and perhaps one day...children.

We celebrated with a nice bottle of champagne. Pardon the blurry. It was a one shot deal, and as you can see, Mark panicked and winced and my dream of documenting this momentous occasion was forever blurred. But you get the idea.


We took posession of the keys on Friday afternoon. We worked all evening until I couldn't stand anymore and then we passed out to rest before Running For Our Lives. A full recap soon. But that took the majority of Saturday and involved 90+ degree temps, which I know is not very hot for most of my non-washingtonian readers, but it is swealtering for Seattle, and dangerous when you're running a race and not adapted to that kind of heat. Thankfully our whole team of runners did not die of dehydration and only died of zombie attacks.


Sunday was momentous for me. My fridge arrived and it may as well have been Christmas. I adore my new fridge and you can probably find me most evenings with the doors wide open and smiling like a love struck teenager gazing at a Justin Beiber poster.


Mark did pry me away from my fridge baby on Sunday evening for a Sounders Game. WOOT! It was a much needed break and a blessing in disguise, despite the 90 degree heat and the large sweaty man I had to sit next to. Not comfortable. His knee kept venturing into my leg space.  But the Sounders Won against David Beckham and his Galaxy team 4-0. So I guess that's good. And time with the hubby is always good.  

Lots of fireworks every time Seattle scored.

I think I need to take a sick day and just sleep. After that weekend I'm exhausted. But with our to-do list a mile long, I don't see sleep being a priority anytime soon. Call me if you want to come over and organize. Or if you want to help us move out of our storage unit on Saturday. Otherwise, come by anytime in the evenings to see the place and we'll be glad to give you a tour in person!

XOXO!
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