Monday, March 21, 2011

Life in the Country

Roosters crowing, birds chirping, and the wind blowing. That's what I woke up to yesterday morning. Amazing. Simply amazing. No traffic noises, no ambulances, no blaring stereos. Just the sounds of nature and a beautiful sunrise over the pond in the backyard. Now, if my house didn't look like a hurricane hit on the inside, it would be all the better.

We have officially moved into the new house. Small children and cats are still getting lost frequently but soon appear when an appropriate food container is shaken. I spent most of the day yesterday unpacking, barrel racing, and returning lost horses.

Yes, I really meant that last part. I had walked onto the front porch at about 10am for a break from unearthing the master bedroom from the piles of boxes and clothing. I was still in my pajamas with messy hair (and zero make up). I spotted a sorrel horse that I had seen the day before in a neighbor's pasture ambling down the road. She stopped by my house to try my grass and then moved on, but I figured that her owner would be missing her soon and since there was a halter in my car, that I could catch her. I threw on some flip flops (thank goodness I had unpacked the shoes at that point!), got the halter, and went after her. I caught up with her at the end of the street and managed to get the halter on her. Then I walked her back to the entire other end of the street (in pjs, flip flops, ratty hair, and no make up) and opened the gate to where I thought she lived. The owner of the house came out as he heard me rattling the chain on his front gate and was doubly suprised to see me leading his horse. He was very thankful that I had brought his horse home and welcomed me to the neighborhood. I headed back home, got immediately dressed and made up. You know, just in case I needed to track down any more lost horses and bring them home.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

We're Moving!

Yesterday at 11:25am Central Time, I had the keys to our new home in my hot little hands. Okay, not such little hands...but in my hands nonetheless! Within an hour of leaving the title company office, we were loading up vehicles with packed boxes (mostly because we have been tripping on them for weeks!) and moved them over to the new house in roughly the area that they will be in. I didn't realize how much stuff we had. We still need to pack many more boxes between now and Saturday morning when friends and family swarm the house to load the rest of our possessions into a combination of trucks, uhauls, and trailers.

In celebration of our new home, we did the first thing all new homeowners do. We headed to the Home Despot (mis-spelling intentional) and bought a new ceiling fan for the living room, a programmable thermostat, and a lightbulb for the fixture in the bathroom that had burned out. Wish we had been able to buy paint, but you know, priorities... That and we definately aren't ready for it yet. The end of the month is approaching fast and we still have to clear out of the Jessamine Gardens house.

In the meantime, I gotta figure out a name for the new place...and for 6 Rhode Island Red chicks that a friend was thoughtful enough to get for us!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Planning for the new house

Since we close in less than two weeks on the house, I have been trying to get ideas and figure stuff out.
Mom and I had the morning to ourselves, having pawned my son off so that we could go to a plant sale (where a very active 3 year old should not be, it was bedlam!), and decided that since neither of us had to report home immediately, we were going to go to Home Depot to get potting soil and while we were there, we might as well have a look around. So look we did. We picked up paint design books, looked at doors, flooring, lighting fixtures, and hardware, and picked up samples of countertops.

It was a good morning. And I fell in love with a few things for my new home.

The kitchen will transform from this:
To this (courtesy of Sherwin Williams Color Illustrator):

Because the house is on block and beam, traditional flooring materials won't work because the grout will crack. So instead, we found this incredible vinyl (hard to believe that it isn't wood!) that will stand up to the water, mud, etc. that is going to be coming through the kitchen.


And finally, we found this beautiful door (just imagine it in white):



I just can't wait to get started. I'm still trying to figure out how to decorate the bedrooms, living room, and baths, but I'll get there!