Merry Christmas!

We've been so busy with work and getting ready for Christmas (and Roy's Birthday on the 26th) that I haven't had much time to blog. So, for now enjoy some pictures of our first Christmas in the new house.

The front door wreath was the first decoration to go up.



Our outside lights.



A closer look at our new friend. He was too cute to not put outside!



I spent the day covered in flour, rolling dough, and baking my heart out. The end result? Peanut butter blossoms, chocolate peppermint cookies, gingerbread men, and my first attempt at fudge!



Kirby enjoying Christmas Eve to the fullest: lounging in front of the fire in her Santa outfit, staring at the presents under the tree.



Wishing all my wonderful friends and their families a very Merry Christmas!

Backyard Invader.

Well, it officially happened. Despite my hard work arming the back fence against predators... one managed to slither in. And it was none other than the courageous Lizzie that found and wrangled him! (Avery kept a safe distance away)



Ok, ok - so it was a tiny garden snake. I can deal with that. Here's hoping that they don't get any bigger...

So Thankful.

Thanksgiving came and went in a flash. I had to work on the actual day, so we celebrated at Bromley on Saturday with our families. It was such a fun day and only went to further remind me how great our house is for entertaining and cooking. I woke up at 8am on Saturday to start cooking and my mom came around 11am to give me a quick turkey tutorial before we popped the bird into the oven.

the after:


On the menu: turkey, gravy, masked potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry stuffing, fruit salad, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Everything turned out perfect and the company made it even better.



I have so many things to be thankful for this year: my wonderful family and friends, a job that I love, the best coworkers I could ever ask for, and most importantly - my amazing husband.

Settling in.

The day after we closed on the house, we brought all the necessities down to Bromley...


...and spent the day waiting for the security guy, comcast guy, and pest guy.




Moving day came and went. We had quite the team of movers (Roy, my brother, brother in law, and my bro's friend) that worked their butts off to move everything in one day. We kept the boys well fed and they hauled the biggest boxes and heaviest furniture. At the end of the night after all our helpers left, Roy collapsed in exhaustion.. and I started with my end of the move: the unpacking.



Roy and I tackled the boxes like maniacs and I'm very surprised to announce that we had 99% of the boxes unpacked by the weekend!



Kirby is not a helpful packer, so I had to find a suitable place to keep her out of the way.

We're homeowners!!

6 months of impatiently waiting, all culminating in this day... we closed on the house!



After an hour or so of signing our lives away, we funded and soon after had our keys in hand. Our builder even surprised us with a fun gift basket!!




Bromley is officially ours!! How did we celebrate? champagne toast and romantic picnic in front of the fire? nah, we spent several hours today on our hands and knees.... sealing all our tile grout!!



Moving day is planned for Saturday, we're keeping our fingers crossed that the rain stays away.

Everyone gas up your cars and get your maps out, we can't wait for company!!!!

Final walkthrough.

We finished our final walkthrough last week with our general contractor. The final walkthrough is any OCD person's fantasy (*cough* Roy).... because all you do is walk through the house and nitpick all the tiny paint smudges and grout mistakes, mark them with some tape, and then wait for all the mistakes to be fixed by the next visit.



Today was that day. The final walkthrough, the final sign off. After tonight... any and all problems I find with the aesthetics of the house will have to be fixed by yours truly... or more likely Roy.

We were so excited that our appliances have been installed. Hello gorgeous stainless steel! Now all I need is to stock up on some serious cleaning supplies. I posed our festive Starbucks cups on the counter in front of the appliances so I could remember the chilly day that we did the walkthrough (carmel apple cider for me, drip coffee for him).



Its very hard to believe but we're actually closing TOMORROW! It feels like just yesterday we made the decision to buy, and now we're so close to being homeowners!

While I've been waiting for the big day, I've been busy packing.



I'm going to go ahead and give myself the "worst packer award" for the year. I'm obviously a terrible packer. Why? I decided to pack my closet first and pack all the clothes and shoes I don't wear often. Now, 2 weeks ago... I threw 90% of my clothes and shoes into boxes, and now they are snuggled at the bottom of that heavy box pile. Can anyone guess what is in those boxes?

...All my warm clothes and shoes, excluding the 2 pairs of flip flops I left out to wear until closing.

I guess 2 weeks ago, I had no thought process around the idea that the weather may eventually get colder in November.

I guess I'll be going to closing in my flip flops!

Medieval?

The cherry on top of our "house sundae" has arrived - the front door!



I think it looks great, the wood looks distressed just like a Pottery Barn dining table I've had my eye on for the past month. Plus the door has a secret.... but you have to come see it in person! (bribery at its finest)

While I thought the door reminded me of Pottery Barn.... it gave our construction manager a different vibe.

Roy got an email from him today.

Roy,
This is the first time I've seen this door selection and I just had to comment how cool it is! Very medieval....

I'm glad he likes the door, but I'm going to ignore the Medieval reference for now... unless we decide not to use our security system and instead leave swords near the entry.

Feeling studious?

I'll admit it. I have a passion, a passion for hardwood floors.

Unfortunately, I also have a passion for furniture, paintings, chandeliers, and oh yeah... eating. So, in our plan for the house we decided we could afford to have one room with hardwood floors, and then save up for the rest.

So... which room is the lucky winner?



The study!

The hardwood floors were put in this weekend. We peeled back the protective cardboard to check out the beautiful dark floors.



Ahhh.... satisfaction!

Barefoot and cozy.

What else would get my Texan hubby taking off his boots in the house?



Installed carpet!



The carpet feels so soft and fluffy, hopefully we can keep it this way!

Almost done!

So many changes have been happening in the past few weeks, each time we go... it's transforming more and more. My bad for not updating the blog with more pictures, so I'll just have to put tons on this post.



Backsplash installed...my vision is complete! I went into the design center trying to explain my idea of a mish mosh of different sized and colored stones and ....geez, it looks pretty!

We came down on Tuesday.. and found that we had sidewalks, a driveway, and trees. The fence had also been put in, we officially had a backyard! Kirby loved being able to run around off her leash!



sidewalks in!



backyard.



family portrait.

We didn't think the week could get much more exciting after seeing our backyard fenced in. But then we went down this evening and....


there is grass and landscaping!!!



backyard is complete! Now I can start measuring for my garden....

Grand unveiling of..... granite!

Granite is here and it is beautiful! I love the color and how great it looks with the cabinets. Stay tuned for the backsplash post!

My biggest fear.

Ok, so everyone who knows me, knows that I'm a big worrier ...and I had one big worry about moving into this amazing house, on this amazing street.

You may be asking yourself: "Paying the bills? Mowing the lawn? Not having enough money to go out to eat? Having to clean that whole place?"

No, no. My biggest fear...is the wildlife.

Please reference my new backyard:



To a city slicker like me, my backyard is basically the untamed wilderness. At the beginning of this process, I thought only of snakes. What if a snake comes into my backyard? How will I kill it? Could it possibly bite me, rendering me useless, left to writhe in pain and die in the backyard, alone and unable to call for help? So then I scoured the internet, trying to find ways of preventing snakes from entering my backyard.

Most feasible= snake repelling powder or planting chrysanthemums.
Oddest find= chopping garlic and brewing it into a tea and then pouring that around the yard.

I slowly started getting over my snake paranoia until one day when visiting the house.... guess what I see? A snake in the front yard! Luckily it had been killed thanks to the brave efforts of the construction crew. But nonetheless, it continued to breed fear in me and I thought it could never get any worse than a snake....

Until I read an article online about someone finding a 7 foot alligator in their backyard pool. In my city. In my neighborhood.

Fears renewed!

Roy: "Don't worry about alligators, its a fluke thing. They got rid of it, there are NOT alligators in our neighborhood."

Fastforward a few months... we decided to go for a walk (well, attempt to run/walk) in our neighborhood along this gorgeous trail.



Then.... I caught a glimpse of this sign.



me: "See Roy! There's a warning sign... there ARE alligators in the neighborhood! I was RIGHT!"

We took a brief stop to pose Kirby on a rock.



We then continued on our walk, with poor Roy listening to my chirping in his ear about how worried I was over alligators.

Roy: "Heidi, there are no alligators! They have to put that sign up just to cover themselves in case of liability.. blah, blah" (insert more important sounding lawyer terms)

Continue to walk and see a cute little bridge to cross. Start having a romantic moment, holding hands, talking about how amazing our neighborhood is.... until....

me: "look! down there! look! LOOK! I WAS RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"



Yes ladies and gentlemen.... there was an alligator!



Roy estimated the alligator to be about 4-5 feet long.

Me: "that's big enough to take a leg off... or eat Kirby!"

So. my fears have officially been renewed and my previous fear of snakes has now grown into a much bigger fear. After googling "How to escape an alligator attack", I found my plan...

Run away as fast as I can.

My favorite thing... part 2.

If you remember my previous post about my favorite thing about Bromley, you'll remember that its the fireplace. The fireplace is now complete, the mantle has been installed! Its going to make a great focal point of the room and seeing it finished makes me crave the cold weather.



Also, the floors are cleaned and covered for the first time. Which is extra special for Kirby, this is the first time she can be put on the ground and allowed to explore without the fear of nails all over the floors. She loved sniffing around and checking out the new place.



We try to take her to visit the house each time we go. For a blind little dog, she's very independent and curious. We're trying to get a head start for her to memorize the layout and not be so worried if we see her near the stairs (or any walls and corners for that matter). This trip was full of "watch out!" and "careful Kirby!" and only a few random bumps.

Floored.

Tile is in! When we went to scope out the progress, all the floors were covered in protective cardboard. We couldn't help but to peel back the cardboard in one corner to check it out. I think the tile looks great and we were very relieved. So many months ago when we were picking tile based on tiny squares, we had no clue how it would look when multiplied by the hundreds. We still can't get the full picture, but based on the corner... I think we'll be happy with our choices.



Even though we would have loved to have hard wood floors throughout the house, tile is much cheaper and much easier to maintain. I'm relieved that the occasional spills (ok, daily spills for me) will be easy to wipe up and when we eventually have kids.. I won't be panicking and following behind them waiting to pick up every drop of apple juice on the floor.

The date is set!

The outside brick and stone work is officially done and it looks beautiful! I love the little slope of the roof and our front porch. I'm on the lookout for adorable front porch furniture now...we could be rocking chair people! (are we too young for that?) Either way, the front porch makes me want to make homemade iced tea.

Now that the house is further along, we finally got a closing date nailed down. (like the pun?) We will officially have the keys in our excited little hands on November 10.

Let the countdown begin!

4 days. Big changes.

Sunday night we stopped by the house to check out the progress, last night we dropped by again. Only expecting to see a bit of brick work, we were so excited with everything else we saw inside.

Sunday night. Garage door on. Brick lined up beside the house, teasing us. We left with our fingers crossed that the week would be rain free.



Thursday night. Tons of brickwork AND stonework completed to the outside! We snuck a small broken piece of brick and keep it sitting on our bedroom dresser as a fun reminder of Bromley each morning.





Working hard on the front porch.



View looking out the front door! I'm glad I don't have to clean up that mess!



Sunday night. The Kitchen. The sheetrock had been completed and walls textured.



Thursday. The kitchen. Big surprise... our cabinets are in!! The cabinets were the one thing that i was a bit apprehensive about, but seeing them in person - I'm in love, they are beautiful! Granted they were covered because the ceilings were being painted, but we found a small slit in the covering and took turns peeking in and checking out the cabinets.



Sunday night. The bathroom. The bathtub is in, I'll start collecting bath bubbles and salts now!



Thursday night. The bathroom. The bathroom cabinets are in!



Family picture time! Kirby, look at the camera!