Our House is BEAUTIFUL!

Today I stopped by the house as always, hoping to see the carpet all in, and it was! Not only was the carpet all in, but floors were all uncovered and the house was clean. It is so incredibly pretty. I really had no idea that it would look this good when we started this process in October.

Before all the pretty flooring pictures, here are the other updates. First, my bathroom mirror has been installed with the inset plug and second, a guy came out to fix the outlet above the mantle so that it will be recessed, and finally, the powder room now has its toilet & sink! The updates are pretty much finished, though, so there's not going to be much more to share.





Here's the carpet, which looks much more socially acceptable than the carpet pad did yesterday with its logo printed over and over and over, haha.



It's so nice and squishy and comfortable!! I love it!



I think the wood floors go really well with the cabinets in the kitchen! And it contrasts nicely with the tile.



Since the hardwood floors are uncovered and no one was working on them, I went ahead and took lots of pictures today! (The carpet on the stairs are in these as well. Looks good!)





Yay!!

So as far as timing goes, here's the plan:
Thursday, March 17 @ 10am - Orientation & Walk Through
Thursday, March 24 @ 10am - Final Walk Through
Friday, March 25 @ 10am - CLOSING! (aka lots of paperwork & money transfers)

Bryan & I will start moving our belongings on Friday. And then our big "move day" will be Saturday!! We have some family who are going to help us move, which we are very thankful for. We also hope to have most of our furniture that we ordered delivered on Saturday. Sunday will be more moving the little things over, and then on Monday and Tuesday Mom & I will start doing some of the painting and decorating. Wow. It sounds intense and busy and fun :)

More Comfy than Concrete

Just like we were told, the carpet started today! Carpet pads were everywhere they were supposed to be, and they were working on the stairs when I was there. The carpet is all cut out and rolled up and ready to go in each room. I couldn't resist stepping on the pad to see how cushioned it is :)







Outside on the driveway where they were cutting out the carpet for each room:



More pictures tomorrow when hopefully the carpet is completely ready to go!

Also, how many times do you think I'll need to vacuum each room before it stops shedding ridiculous amounts?

Weekend Uno

Remember when I said March is awesome? Well, it still is!

Weekend #1 is almost over, and it was a beautiful way to kick off one of the best months of the year!

First, I got to see one of my favorite people as I hung out with Janie and her Mom, Beth, on Friday afternoon. And then, once the menfolk were off of work, Bryan and I joined Beth, Dean and Janie for dinner at their house. They sure do know how to make fajitas! I love it when Janie visits Texas!

And then, Saturday, Bryan and I were able to sleep in (whoop!) and then get our homeowners insurance taken care of. Turns out we really WERE able to save quite a bit of money by switching from StateFarm to Geico! Same coverage, much less expensive - both auto and homeowners. It's a shame their commercials are so irritating :) Still, I can put up with cavemen and reptiles if we can save $700 a year! (Even bigger WHOOP!)

Saturday night Mom, MeMaw & Paw, Bryan & I met Dean, Beth & Janie at Minute Maid Park to watch the Aggies play Rice. Too bad we never really got our bats going, but it was still a fun game! Made me crave Olsen Field like crazy - Aggie Baseball is too much fun to miss out on. Dad was planning on going to the game with us, but had to miss because of a last-minute trip to South Korea for work. We're ready to have him back in Texas safe and sound!







Because the drive from downtown to Conroe is quite long and it was quite late by the time the game was over, Mom stayed the night with us. I'm so glad in the future we'll always have a guest room for overnight guests! It was wonderful to have her. Then this morning we were able to attend church together and get some serious vacation planning done!! Turns out our Costa Rica vacation is going to be a San Francisco/Napa Valley vacation instead. I'm super excited about it and I think it will be much easier to do with 9 people! Plus Bryan got all of the remaining financial items in order for closing later this month. We are READY!

And now I'm relaxing and watching my favorite musical on PBS - Les Miserables. A wonderful way to end the weekend!!

Final Touches

The last few days have been big for the house. Ready for lots of pictures? Here goes!

Front door (minus the glass), looking lovely:



The stain on the door will go very nicely with the wood floors! Of course, the floors are mostly covered up with the tape and paper, so we won't really know how it all flows until they're uncovered.

The guest room is painted! This is the only room that will have a color other than beige until we move in:



I apologize for the terrible angle of the photo. It's sometimes awkward to take pictures when the guys are working on something. I don't know that they'd be thrilled to end up on my blog, haha. But the blue is really pretty!

And, very important to ME in particular, was that they would change the direction of the powder room door. My best guess is that a man designed the way the door is "supposed" to go, because surely no woman would have the door swing in so that it would bang against the toilet every time the door opened and the person needing to use the restroom would have to hump the sink to get around the door to shut it ... But now it (happily!) swings OUT - yay! :) And notice that all the doors now have knobs, too. Perfect.



In all of the bathrooms, the towel racks, toilet paper holders, and mirrors are all mounted and ready to go! Plus, in the master bathroom the glass for the shower was installed:



And finally, blinds are now in every window!! Here are two examples: one at the kitchen's window seat, and the other in the front bedroom:



Lots of stuff! Plus I didn't even mention some of the even more minor details.

In other news I got to see my good friend Laura yesterday for the first time in a while, which was really nice. We ran some errands like Hobby Lobby and picking up my bridesmaid dress for her wedding next weekend (I had it hemmed up - can you guess why that would be necessary?). Then she saw the house for the first time, which she appeared to really like, and then we had lunch. Very nice outing. And, today I had a really nice lunch with my Dad at Lubys - yum! I do love their fried fish and good company :) The advantage to my parents having lived in our area before is that they still come to the Tomball/Spring area to take care of things and I get to see them!

Today, I also finally went to the doctor about the chronic head/neck/back pain I've been having for the last year or so, and much more severe the last few months. This last week I really couldn't even sleep it hurt so bad to move, so (as Bryan has been insisting I do), I made an appointment for the doctor. After seeing him, he wants me to get an MRI of my brain/spine, which has been scheduled for next Wednesday afternoon. I'm ready to get my answers - and hopefully find some solutions. In the meantime, he prescribed a stronger anti-inflammatory to help with the pain, especially at night.

Back to a happy note - we will probably have carpet next Monday! Stay tuned!

Walk the Plank

Big news for today? Can you guess by the title?

Hardwood floors!!

They are extremely dirty and dusty in these pictures, because they were still in the process of being installed; however, I think they will be beautiful when they're cleaned up!



There may be other updates from today, but I couldn't see too much of the house because to get anywhere but the kitchen/living room/master bedroom requires walking on the wood floors - which is frowned on when they're being worked on. However, in the living room I found one more update - the mantle has been stained:



Looking nice and rustic :)

Finally, I meant to show a picture of this earlier, but Bryan and I found a nice, small, pretty, and inexpensive kitchen table & chairs for our breakfast area. It's pretty much perfect!

Chubby & Grumpy at 4 Weeks Old

Oops, I was a couple of hours too early with the last post! A few more recent pictures were posted so we can see exactly what the pups look like at exactly 4 weeks instead of the older picture I had earlier. Enjoy!!







In case you were wondering which one will be our future roommate, we haven't picked one out yet. Although, when Bryan asked me which one I thought I liked best, I told him the "chubby, grumpy looking one appeals to me ..." (the second from the left) ... but Bryan wants to know what that says about me...? :)

At this point, there's no telling which one will eventually be OUR puppy, but here's a close up of one of them just in case you were squinting to see all that cuteness just a little better :)



Aw, shucks :) Can't wait until March 19 when we get to meet the little fellows!!

March is Amazing!

It's that time of the year again :) So many wonderful things happen in March every year, but this year is even better than usual!!

First, Janie is coming to Texas this Friday, March 4th through Tuesday March 8th, whoop! Not only will I get to see one of my favorite people ever, but a big group of us are going to see a Fightin' Texas Aggie baseball game on Saturday night at Minute Maid Park! I love Janie, I love all of our families that are joining us for the game (my parents, Janie's parents, and Bryan's grandparents) and I adore Aggie baseball. Should be a fabulous weekend - what a perfect way to kick March off :)

Then, the next weekend Laura & Collin will tie the knot. Bryan is kind of hosting Collin's bachelor party on Thursday, then their rehearsal dinner is on Friday, and then we all dress up and they exchange vows on Saturday. Sounds good!

Then that week on March 17th is St. Patrick's Day... aannndd my 24th birthday! Who doesn't enjoy celebrating their birthday? Historically, it's always been over Spring Break, however that doesn't really apply to Bryan & I this year. Still, I'm excited!

Then over the weekend (Saturday, March 19) we're going to pick out our puppy!! Remember my post about Puppy Pal in February? Yay! Since the whole litter consisted of male puppies, that makes the "which gender should we get?" question pretty darn easy. It'll be a boy and he'll be one of these little guys:



Right now they're 4 weeks old. We'll pick one out when they're slightly older than 6 weeks, and when they're 8 weeks old, he'll come live with us!

And THEN, that last week or weekend (estimated date is Friday, March 25) we CLOSE ON OUR HOUSE!! And mooooove!! WHOOP!



And don't forget the moderate weather and loads of college basketball we get to enjoy in March :)

Did I mention that I LOVE March!? It's a beautiful thing! :)