Five years in our home sweet home.

Five years ago today, Brett and I met up with a friend at Hexter-Fair Title Company so we could buy our house. The closing process involved a lot of ink and paper, but it was a breeze compared to the months it took to get us there. After about an hour of signatures and handshakes, we had those precious keys.

Later that night, we tiptoed barefoot onto the freshly shampooed carpet just to BE in our new house.

I was still taller than Ryan and Katie back in 2009!

Our house! It was a long time coming, but it was so good to be HOME.

Finally getting into our place was especially sweet because of what we went through along the way. When we first decided to sell our Watauga home, we had a buyer relatively quickly. Contract in place, we started shopping for our own new place in September 2008. We found one we really liked and made an offer.

Tim, our dear friend and real estate agent, in new house #1.

We thought it was perfect for us: three bedrooms and an office upstairs, a spare bedroom (for my office) and formal living, dining and family rooms downstairs. It was farther away than we’d hoped, but we’d be near friends and have access to a community pool.

Then our buyer had issues. We were able to extend our contract on the house we wanted, and since we were certain(!) the delay was temporary, started moving our mounds of stuff into storage. Then our buyer’s financing fell through, and the deal was off. Sadly, we gave up our contract on the five-bedroom home we wanted so badly. We also had to stay in our old house, just without most of our stuff!

Fast forward a few months. We had a new buyer! Or not. She backed out.

The third time was the charm. Finally we had a buyer with solid financing, so we again began our house-hunting in earnest. We looked at dozens of houses in a variety of neighborhoods, but when we saw our house, we just knew it was the one. The only hitch? It was a short sale. It could be months before we would get into that house. Were we willing to ride out the wait? It took about 5 minutes to say yes, this house was worth it. It was closer to our schools, which meant the kids could stay with their friends (thanks to open enrollment), and my commute wouldn’t be as long. Plus, the office was just right for Brett, and the game room—the massive game room!—was made for his many game consoles. We thought the first house we wanted was perfect for us, but this one was even better! Even without knowing how long our wait would be, we knew we loved this house.

So on Aug. 14, 2009, we moved out of the only home our kids had ever known. For the next six weeks, we lived with Brett’s parents, in a Holiday Inn Express, at a friend’s house, and then back at Brett’s parents’ home. Because of our nomadic lifestyle (which came just as the school year was starting, naturally), we were ecstatic when Sept. 22 arrived and we finally got those precious keys.

Now that we’re five years past that date, I’m again reminded how generous our friends and family were throughout that process.

• Brett’s mom and dad didn’t just open their home to us; they treated us like royalty! Of course, you’d expect nothing less from these generous people, but I can’t even count all the ways they helped us through that tough time. And hey, it’s hard to feel too out of sorts when Nana’s cooking for you!
• The North Richland Hills Fire Department, Farmers Insurance, and Holiday Inn Express really came through, too. Don’t know that story? Oh, it’s a good one!
• Our friends Jim Bob and Dana provided a nice respite between hotel and home. They were in the process of moving to a nearby community, so they let us house-sit for them. After a week of the four of us sharing a hotel room, it was wonderful to have our own rooms and an actual kitchen while we waited for our closing date.
• By listening to me vent, my friends at school kept me sane! When our closing date fell on picture day, one of my responsibilities, they quickly stepped up to cover my duties.
• Did you read the fire department story? No lie, it’s worth the click.
• And then there’s Tim. As our friend and real estate agent, Tim helped us throughout the long, arduous process, giving up many nights to deal with contracts and showings and questions and phone calls. When our closing date finally came, he may have been happier than we were, just so he could finally be rid of our hassles! We’re so thankful for his wife, Amy, too, for her willingness to share Tim with us throughout our misadventures in real estate. Oh, was Tim thrilled for us! Every time I saw him after that date, he’d ask the same thing: “Y’all still likin’ your house?” We lost Tim just three months after we moved in, but he has to know: YES! We still love our house! 

In five years this house has seen its share of crises, but there have been more smiles than tears, more laughter than anger, more love than tumult. Today we celebrate the friendships and faith that helped us get here.

(For more tales of our transition time, check out these Project GOOD posts.)

Hall in the family.

Summer = time to paint! For this summer's project, I took on the upstairs hallway. It was a ton of work (SO MUCH TRIM!), but we're pleased with the new look. (In real life the new paint color looks a little darker.)

Niche before

Niche after

Outside Brett's office before

Outside Brett's office after

Hallway to gameroom before

Hallway to gameroom after

Lofty goal.

Long before we moved, Katie decided she wanted a loft bed. Back at our old house, her bedroom was exceptionally small, so I spent an inordinate amount of time pricing loft beds: beds from IKEA, from other furniture stores, even from mail-order companies that would send you a custom bed built to your specifications (some assembly required).

We never managed to get that bed before we put the house on the market, so with a move imminent, we decided we'd wait until after we moved to get Katie a new bed. And then we waited and waited and waited... and WAITED to sell our house and get in our new one.

So when spring break rolled around, I realized that we've been in our new house for 18 months, and Katie's still sleeping on her poor old bed. Since Kates was going on a week-long retreat for spring break, we figured that'd be the perfect time to surprise her with a new bed. (I originally just wanted to replace her old mattress. It was in awful shape, with a coil dangerously sticking out of one side. But since we had a little extra time and access to a pickup—and IKEA had one in stock—we went ahead and got the loft bed Katie really wanted.)

So after one leisurely trip to Frisco, we had Katie's new bed and mattress! Of course, that means my next few days were spent assembling the darn thing.

Just clearing out her bedroom took hours. Finally we had the old bed out and enough floor space empty to begin the assembly. Like most IKEA projects, the instructions were fairly easy to follow, but it still took me a while to get the whole shebang up.

On Thursday afternoon, we picked up Katie at church. I gotta admit: I was nervous she wouldn't like her bed. We so wanted to surprise her, but I was afraid we could be the ones surprised if she decided a loft bed wasn't for her after all.

I shouldn't have worried. Katie was THRILLED! Stunned, but overwhelmed!

Once she'd been home a few days, she and I went desk shopping. We found this little white desk at Target, and it fits quite nicely under her bed. We were also excited to see that its legs matched the ones on the white bookshelf she already had in her room.

It was fun surprising Katie with her new bed, and it's great to know she's getting good sleep on her new mattress. And the desk? It's getting plenty of use, too.

A library is born.

It's NaBloPoMo! Nothing like posting every day to make me get around to those old pix that were getting dusty just hangin' out on the ol' hard drive. Tonight's post takes us all the way back to March!

When we first found this house, I noticed that only two rooms had color on their walls: Ryan's room (which required de-arking) and the formal living room. Our friend and agent appreciated the nice paint job in the formal space and commented that this was one room we wouldn't have to repaint.

"Um, Tim?" I asked him. "Do you see what COLOR this room is?"
MAROON. Now some would call it burgundy, but in my sports-addled mind, it was MAROON. Considering this was destined to be my Longhorn Library (a.k.a. Tacky Texas Room), the rival's color just would not do. So a mere six months after moving in and a couple of gallons of Lowe's paint later, the maroon was gone.

Ahhhh... That's better! (I went with Lowe's instead of the Home Depot super-primo paint with primer stuff because I wanted that exact Texas orange.)

It took a good chunk of my spring break, but I got that room painted. Then it was a matter of waiting for IKEA to get my Billy bookcases in stock.

In time we were finally able to borrow Papa's truck and make the big trek to Scandinavia Frisco. Construction was underway—and the room smelled like a lumber mill for weeks!

I was really pleased with the corner unit, and with some aluminum foil, I was able to darken the useless window back there. (It overlooks our neighbor's air-conditioning unit. Not exactly a priceless view.) (Besides, if we're going for tacky, shouldn't aluminum foil be involved?) (And don't you hate seeing a bunch of parenthetical statements in a row like this?) A framed poster helped conceal the window, too.

As for the finished product:

This corner houses my pop culture collection: Brady Bunch, Twin Peaks, Friends, and some of the larger national championship items.

A Pottery Barn ad inspired me to try the layered frame look. To pull it off, I used extra long nails and those sticky foam squares used for scrapbooking. The larger frames, by the way, contain prints of old football programs from calendars. For these shorter bookcases, I bought IKEA's magazine display hardware. I like the way the tilted shelves let me show off some special UT books.

On this wall are some of my "regular" books (the rest are in our bedroom), scrapbooks, photo albums, my favorite Sports Illustrated covers (Thanks, Mike!), and special ticket stubs.

This window is topped with panoramic pictures of the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl and DKR (with a photo from the '09 Fiesta Bowl thrown in for good measure). That corner also houses my laptop desk and printer. Finally, my computer stuff has a home—a real one, and not just the floor of the living room! Below the window are drawer units for storage.

I know it's not typical for a formal living area to be Texas Tackified, but it fits our collector/pop culture crazy style. And when I need to get away to work on Sunday stuff or read, this room, covered with fantastic memories, makes me feel at home. Finally.

First day of school.

Here we go again! First day of school for Katie (7th grade) and Ryan (high school freshman).

Both Katie's middle and Ryan's high schools have later start times, so we were able to be a bit more leisurely taking our annual first-day photos. But even nicer than that was being able to take our front door shot outside our very own front door this year!

Last year the Great Closet Fire of 2009 had landed us in the Holiday Inn Express, so our traditional picture was taken just outside the hotel lobby:

Can't you just feel the "Mom, hurry up and TAKE THE PICTURE before someone SEES US" that both kids are trying to convey? By the way, we were back at the HI Express at the end of the school year, too.

So HOORAY for having a home! But can you believe how much both kids have grown since last fall? If I really wanted to get all maudlin, I'd look at the 2008 "front door pose retrospective" post, but that may just do me in, considering my current state of fatigue. Instead, I'll go back to this classic from Ryan's first day of kindergarten, previously un-blogged:

Is that not precious? Ryan was so proud of his Scooby backpack, and Katie had this distinct feeling that she was missing out on the fun.

Well, she's left out no more. Even though the first day means we're back to the grind, it's nice to know we have two veterans of this whole school thing who can strap on their backpacks and knock 'em dead!

(Actual post date: 11/12/10)

A very Brady bunco.

After two years of relying on others' generosity, I was finally able to host our bunco group in our new home back in July. It was fun to have these ladies over, and it was fantastic to not be imposing on my friends!
And how nice to have an extra sweet guest! Precious Baby B just melted everyone's hearts.

Although we missed several of our regulars, we had a full group of 12 thanks to some awesome subs:






The theme? A very Brady bunco, which is another way of saying Hawaiian.

Since this was in late July, I opted to leave the oven off.
Salads, anyone? We had spicy black bean salad, cherry fluff, potato salad, Snicker Bar salad,

and fresh summer fruit.





For prizes I gave Tervis tumblers with beach or '70s themes:



Of course, we have to thank our special babysitter:
ChaCha did such a nice job keeping sweet B company!

Thanks, girls, for helping us break in our new house, and thank you, Jeana, for taking most of these photos!

(Actual post date: 11/6/10)

Happy Third of July!

Because of conflicting plans, we knew we wouldn't really be out and about for July 4th this year. That made it extra nice to get to celebrate our nation's birthday a day early! We started with Nana's famous flag cheesecake and fresh fruit on Saturday afternoon. Delish!

Then Brett and Ryan headed to a gaming convention while Katie and I tried to get her stuff to fit back in her freshly painted room. We entertained thoughts of going to a local fireworks show, but we had too much going on and we were pooped.

So imagine my surprise when we heard fireworks and found out we could see them from our front yard! We quickly ran up to the gameroom window to see them above the neighboring rooftops.

Yes, the show was far away, but for a patriotic girl who hated to miss out on the Fourth fun, it was a treat!
Happy birthday, USA!

De-arking.

This is Ryan's bedroom with the decor we inherited from the previous owners. Since we moved into this house last September, we have not had time to make the room more teenager and less toddler.

Until now!

I've had this week on my calendar for months. With Ryan at camp, it's the perfect time to de-ark and repaint his room!

The plaid wallpaper came down like a dream. Step A: Peel off top layer. Step B: Soak paper backing with WP Chomp and wait a few minutes. Step C: Remove the backing. Easy!But Noah's Ark? Um, NO. Those cutesy bunnies, dolphins and elephants weren't going anywhere without a fight.

Well, that's not completely accurate. The border came right off two of the walls. Obviously, those two stretches of arks were put up correctly. The other parts of the border, however, had been attached to the wall using some kind of miracle adhesive. Why? Oh, how I'd like to know. WHY?!

After much scraping and the use of three different products, we ended up with this trail of tears. Since this part of the wall will be behind Ryan's bed and partially covered with posters (and since Ryan will be home Friday!), we decided to just paint over it.

And the result isn't as bad as I was afraid it might be! Of course, I'LL know the difference (and you will, too!), but from most angles, the Evil Mark of the Ark is hard to see.

So bye-bye, bunnies! After all that scraping, I'm pretty sure I won't be getting them out of my mind for at least 40 days and 40 nights.