We Got a Real Door

I hear there are a few devoted blog followers interested in the minutia of the few little projects we still have going on at the house.  This is for you, Uncle Gary!

So, this is the craftsman syle door Erik put up sometime in October.  We had to wait until the temperature cooled down below 85 degrees to stain the door according to the directions that came with the fiberglass stain kit.  Erik did a great job minus a minor mishap involving a dent that now exists in the hood of my car.  Doesn't it look great?  Hey, Regan!

Here are our holiday decorations in the casa:

Here's our table in the breakfast nook.  Erik is currently building a built-in hutch to fit in the recessed area there.  It's going to be awesome.  He's already built the cabinets over the washer and dryer and they're hung and funcioning well.  I'll have to get pictures of those, too:

Here you can see part of the backsplash Erik did in the kitchen along with all of my Thanksgiving baking:

These are the smaller tiles on the island:

Here's the new dining room table from Craigslist:

The tv armoir I got at the thrift store here in Rockwall:

Here are the rocking chairs I got for the front porch:

And since this post is dedicated to Uncle Gary, a lake-faring man himself, here's a picture of Erik cruising us around in our fixer-upper pontoon barge this summer:

Water, Water, Everywhere...Again

This is the second house we've owned to which we have come home only to find water in the garage where it shouldn't be.  This time it wasn't anything like the Flood of 2006 when it was raining from the ceiling in the downstairs of our home in Round Rock.  But that's another story for another time.  This is the Minor Water Gushing of 2009.  May that is.  This is late in coming, but cannot be overlooked and deserves it's own post.

We came home to water in the garage floor, followed it to the source, and found water streaming out of the breaker box.  Electricity + water = can't be a good thing

Thankfully, there was a hole in the dry wall where the electrician did something so we could see that there was water actually POURING inside the dry wall from somewhere, but just a little bit was making it through the breaker box and down the wall.  You can tell that I immediately jumped into "take pictures for insurance" mode as we have been through this before.  Drama.

What I don't have pictures of are the scenes between the discovery moment and the final moments when we realize what is really going on, is when we go to the side of the house to see where the water is coming into the breaker box.  It was just too dark.  What we found is water gushing out of the pvc pipe in which the wires run into the house.  What made it into the house, made it into the garage.  That was when the lightbulb went off.  Gravity, right?  It had to come from a higher source for that to happen.  Our electrical box, seen below, is up on top of the retaining wall, yes, higher than the breaker box.  The lid to said box was found to be unsecured and filled with water.  Thanks, Oncor.  Thanks for not taking care of this issue. 

There was also some issue with the actual pipe connection which I really don't remember (maybe something about foam or sealing up the pipe), but I spent the next day on the phone with that silly company trying to get someone out. We were afraid to leave our electriciy on due to all the water, so slept without air conditioning and power that night. We finally got the problem solved and our box is nice and tight.  There had been so much rain and such a bad storm that they were dealing with power outages before getting to us.  As far as I was concerned, this was a power outage, since I couldn't use my computer : )

Erik installed a French drain along the retaining wall to help with the drainage and has one planned for the side of the house.  He runs outside to check if water is coming out the end of it by the greenbelt every time it rains : )

Springtime at 5903

The pansies we finally got into the ground are slowly starting to come up.

These guys are still going strong...

And everybody looks a little nicer with some pretty topsoil. (Mulch to come soon.)

These little beds got a border of stone.

And the grass has a nice hint of green to it. Erik will probably give it a first mow this weekend.

I'll have to get a picture of the lush green side-yard Erik planted with rye/fescue/wildflowers. We'll see how the wildflowers fare, and how Chandler's feels about that. : )

Inside the house:

Furniture = 2 beds, 1 couch, 1.5 desks, 2 ottomen (?), and a kitchen table.

Stuff = just about everything but no where to put it

TV etc...still at my parents' much to our dismay

Erik was chosen for a jury case which doesn't start until 1:00pm tomorrow, so he says he'll do some caulking in the master closet. Hal-le-ba-lu-jah! Maybe I'll come home and put away some things and do laundry. Once the nitrous wears off! (we are giving it to each other tomorrow ; ) )

We're Still Here

Well, we moved the cats....
It was quite the adventure with one kitty losing control of their bladder leading to baths for all, leading to freaked out cats in a new house hiding under our bed. For 2 days. Now they're fine, except for Reagan's incessant crying at night and climbing on our heads. It WILL stop soon.

Here we are camping out in the front kid room. We have moved our bed, and once we have covered windows and clean off the mattress a bit (a little dirty from storage) we can actually sleep in there. But then we'd have to walk across the house to the bathroom. Whatever. It works.

And no house is a home without laundry.

Mom gave us ligustrums for a house warming gift and we planted them over spring break. I'll show you soon. I've been accused of neglecting this site post move-in, but I'll post as we set up shop : ) Promise.

Big Steps

I would just like to say that I'm in our new house right now, in my comfy pjs with the cold wind howling outside, under my down comforter...on the internet.

It's starting to feel like I live here : )

Mid-Move

Erik and I made 3 big trips to the storage unit on Saturday. We got a ton of boxes, the big brown couch, the kitchen table, the desks, one of the full beds, and some random lamps and other decorations. We set up the bed in the front "kid" room and put up the table in the kitchen. Everything else went into the garage. We slept there that night (much better), went to our new trial Sunday breakfast spot, and then to church. This afternoon, Dad and Erik took our fridge from my parents' garage to our garage and then went back to storage and got the washer and dryer. I brought more clothes and school necessities to the house and started unpacking clothes into the closet in our temporary bedroom. The plan is to hang out there until Erik can totally perfect the master suite (and I can get curtains up!) so we can move in. Then we can perfect the kitchen and order the fridge. Then it's on to the rest of the house.

At this rate, we might have the storage unit emptied by next weekend. There's still a ton of stuff here at Mom and Dad's. I say here, because we're still spending evenings here so we can watch a little t.v. and use their internet. I think we're going to take the t.v. out tomorrow and get on Netflix again so we can just watch DVDs for a while. I, of course, will still be watching my shows on the internet as they air during the week. I certainly can't miss LOST!

Pictures of the First Night

As exciting as it could have been, I had an endodontics test to study for, so this is all you get from last night's camping adventure. We slept on a blowup mattress, listened to the howling wind and road noise (we forgot to bring the ever necessary noise-blocking fan) and tossed and turned all night long.

Tonight, we sleep at the folks'.