The Final (Interior) Frontier

It’s official! The last box has been unpacked and we are all moved in! This weekend was a BLAST (more to come on that later) and it ended with me tackling the last messy spot in our house: the garage. I probably would not have even attempted cleaning it out until David got home from work but my cousins are moving and needed our boxes. I figured that I might as well as gather the left over moving boxes we had and unload the remaining boxes so they could take them all in one swoop.

Here are a few during and after pictures. I am SO glad it’s done. We just have a few things to put up in the attic and a few things to give to Goodwill and our house will be DONE. Then comes the yard work. Oh goodie. Hopefully I’ll have a better attitude about it now that it’s my own house, because let me tell you. Yard work growing up was pretty much the worst thing in the entire world. You can ask my parents, when it came to yard work when we were growing up, my sisters and I were basically useless. Here’s hoping that’s changed since David and I have a lot of yard work to be done, haha! 

Happy Monday friends!

The table on the left will disappear and the few items on the left will too! Hurray! We have a real garage! :)

A Weekend Summary

Wow, what a fun week and weekend we had!

If you live in Oregon, you've likely experienced the crazy heat wave we've been going through. David and I taped foil to our windows in an attempt to keep the heat out, except it was loud with our fans blowing and we ended up needing some foil for cooking so this came down after one night.

David and I have TWO BBQ places right by our house. This was us waiting for our food at Bert's Chuckwagon. Delicious. Brisket and pulled pork are a love language of ours, I'm pretty sure.

So Hank really loves having his own backyard. EVERY morning, we open the garage and back doors and he runs out there and plops down in the bark dust or in the yard. He LOVES it and would spend all his time out there if it wasn't so hot out. I can't wait to see what he does when the weather is a little bit cooler. He'll probably never come inside. (Disregard our dead grass, it's a work in progress.)

 But really, could he be any sweeter? Such a happy sun dog 

Last week, I was gifted a fancy new pair of sunglasses through work. They're Shwood brand and made out of wood (see what they did there?). I usually get the $15 sunglasses from Target or the $4 from Forever 21 so these are really fancy. So fun! Lord, help me not break/drop/lose them. That would be terrible. 

On Friday night, David and I made homemade ice cream using the below recipe. You should try it. It's delicious. Ours wasn't normal ice cream consistency, more like a slushy, but it was SO good and super easy. 

Saturday, we got to spend the day at my Aunt and Uncle's house in the sunshine. It was so fun swimming, eating great food, and catching up with my Aunt/Uncle and cousins. Hank seemed to enjoy it too. He got to see their dog, Ziggy, again and the two of them were running, playing and resting together together in the shade. So darling.

We had Hank go swimming too! He has only gone swimming one other time at our lake house but that was over a year ago. David and I got in the water with him and let him swim back and forth between us. Hank wasn't sure about it and kept trying to crawl up me like a tree. I was COVERED in scratches but he was so sweet and his little legs were doggy paddling around. It was seriously the cutest thing I've ever seen. I'm such a proud mama hen. I love that little creature.

Well. This was after our day of fun in the sun and swimming. He was so tuckered out, he slept the whole way home and fell asleep on the floor like this. 20 pounds of cute right there people. 

The Washer and Dryer Fiasco

Saturday and Sunday were no different. On Saturday my parents came back out while David was at work to deliver the washer and dryer (They had gone with David to pick it up since Kat and I were working on unpacking the kitchen. David didn't have his hitch with him since it was a spur of the moment thing, so my parents housed our washer/dryer set for a few days). We found a great deal on a matching set on Craigslist for only $175! We were prepared to pay wayyyyy more but this set was clean and works great! How exciting!

I was anxious to get the washer and dryer hooked up and running since we had a growing pile of dirty laundry invading our bedroom. My dad and I went to hook them up, and of course, it went smoothly as expected. Not only did the cord not work with our outlet, the washing machine drain was blocked on the wall. Dad and I hammered a little hole in what we thought was right, but then decided we should probably ask the experts before committing fully.

Four prongs for a three prong outlet. Not a fan of that.

The hole we started creating before deciding we should ask Ace first. We were right though!

 

 

My folks and I piled into the car and headed up the road to Ace Hardware. Praise the Lord they’re close by. The guys at the store were able to help us easy peasy and my dad was so cute. He was like a kid in a candy store. David’s now the same way, it’s hilarious. 

We picked up a cord; some caulking for the tub/front door, some J hooks to hang David’s fishing poles and a variety of other things. We even stopped at Parr lumber and my dad taught me how to check the crowning on a board. If you ever need a lesson, I’m an expert now. :)

We headed back home and Dad and I went back to work on the washer and dryer while my mom reorganized the kitchen (she didn’t like the way Kat had done it, haha!). I was in charge of hooking up the new cord to the dryer while my dad focused on getting the washer squared away. After a little while, we got it to work! It was so exciting and such a good feeling to have that piece of the move-in process complete. 

We were all pretty out of energy at this point but my Dad powered through and caulked the shower head and the front door and then went on to help me hang the mailbox, curtains and some decorations. Everything is coming together and looks amazing. I am so happy and feel so blessed for all of the help we’ve received (thanks Mom, Dad and Kat!). David’s work schedule is so tricky and I am impatient when it comes to waiting to unpack, haha! I want to be settled ASAP!

Sunday we had the day off together and went and priced out some TV mounts, had lunch at Chipotle (my favorite!) and I went to a baby shower. While I was there, David was with the Comcast man installing our cable and internet and had a friend come over to help mount our TV. It was another productive day but man was it hot. Like 90+ degrees hot. I worked on the office for a while when I got home but I ended up lying on the floor next to the fan for the rest of the night because it was too hot to move.

Last Week

Last week was such a whirlwind. Between loading/cleaning/unloading/road tripping it felt like there was no time to rest!

I am grateful that my sister's and I were blessed with many gifts. Ali, for example, is a master at being creative. She can design a Photobook or a scrapbook like nobody's business. One of Kat's talents is kitchen organization. So, when I have an empty kitchen and boxes sitting all over the kitchen table and floor, can you guess what I did? Called sister dearest and had her come to help!

Kat came on Monday evening and the two of us she knocked out all the boxes in the kitchen. Like totally. It was the first room in our whole house to be 100% unpacked, cleaned and it. looked. beautiful. I literally spent the entire night sitting at the kitchen table just staring at it. Is that weird? Probably, but whatever. It's my first kitchen and it's my dream white kitchen.

Disregard the red tool thing. That obviously does not live there.

Also disregard the obscene "Big Gulp" bottle on the left. That was from a while ago and had water in it. Moving in 85 degree weather is not easy.

It was so fun having David come home from work to a completed kitchen. Kat and I were also able to move the boxes into the correct rooms so we could more easily unload them all, making the house and garage look cleaner. Loved that.

Tuesday came and I didn't do a single thing. It was glorious. I literally ate dinner and laid on the couch with Hank for the whole night until David got home from work. We have so much to do but sometimes, your energy is at 0 and you have to recharge. So I did.

David's folks were still in town and we planned for them to come over on Thursday to see our new house. That meant that Wednesday night was cleaning up and unpacking the bathroom and getting the rest of the house as complete as possible (not counting the office). 

On Thursday, we met his family at Abby's Pizza (delicious!) and then we all came back to our house to have a fire and make s'mores. I had purchased a tiny fire bowl several years ago on a Black Friday sale and now it was our first chance to use it! We had so much fun and it was so cute seeing the kiddos play with Hank and running all over the yard. 

Photo by Patti

Apparently I didn't take any photos of the evening but it was fun! We listened to country music and chatted the night away until 9:30 pm. Then everyone had to leave and go to bed, haha. 

Friday was another big work day! I got off work at 11 am and shortly after noon, my mom met me at my house to work on it further. Our goal for the day was getting the living room squared away. There were a few options but none seemed to open the room up and keep it that way like the last option did.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

David and I agreed that the last option looked the best, provided prime TV watching positions and kept the room nice and open. Mom and I kept the furniture the way it was and hopped in the car to run to Ross in search of a rug. Along the way, we stopped at a few garage sales and I bought a $3 shovel for David. Whoo hoo! We're slowly building up our yard tool collection, and believe me, they will get used a lot.

Ross was, as always, a successful trip and we found the CUTEST floor rug and curtains. We would have to wait until the following day to hang the curtains though when my dad could come and bring the power drill. Those things are magical. Really. 

I LOVE our living room too. Again, I found myself sitting at the kitchen table looking back and forth from the living room to the kitchen. David said it looked like I was watching a tennis match but I really can't decide which I like better.  

 

I love family. I love that they're willing to help so selflessly and are able to help make David and my first house a perfect home.

A Weekend Wedding

Our first night in our new home was fabulous! It was so nice sleeping in our real bed again. I really feel like we have the best bed in the world. Although everyone thinks that, right? Anyway, Friday morning I had to get up at 7 am and worked from home for a few hours. It was quite a challenge though because not only did my laptop die (cord was at work), I forgot we didn’t have any internet. So I worked from home on my phone for five hours. It was gross, but hey, it worked! 

At about 12:30pm on 8/2, David and I loaded up our car and drove over to Kat’s house to drop off Hank. He was going to have a sleepover for the weekend while David and I attended the wedding in Bend. Hank got to meet his cousin Wilson for the first time and it was SO cute. Hank is so small that Wilson being a puppy was perfect. Although I think Hank got over it real quick—apparently, Hank was glued to Kat and Alex’s side for the weekend because Wilson was tormenting him. 

David and I dropped Hank and away we drove! David and I love car rides. A while back we made an awesome playlist of road trip songs that is so fun. It includes classics like “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” “Born on the Bayou,” and some modern ones like “Turn Down for What.” Needless to say, I was probably entertaining fellow drivers as I was dancing around in the passenger seat for about 4 hours. 

David and I were staying with his parents and his sister and her family for the weekend in a vacation house. We arrived to the house first and weren’t super impressed unfortunately. The house had huge stains all over the carpet, balls of hair on the bathroom floor, dirty mirrors, bloody (YES BLOODY) cushions and old food all over the couch that stained David’s white shorts. It was not ideal, but we made the most of it though and had fun! 

I did a great TERRIBLE job packing though. I brought one dress for the rehearsal dinner we’d be attending on Friday night and a dress for the actual ceremony. That was all. Well, the zipper on the rehearsal dinner dress broke MINUTES before we were supposed to leave. It took a team effort as I frantically called David into the bathroom to help. Both David and his sister couldn’t get it to work so we ended up breaking the zipper to get me into the dress. It worked, but there was a giant hole in the back of my dress. We jumped in the car and ran to Safeway to get safety pins. We clipped me in and I hiked my purse way up my back like a backpack to cover the hole. It wasn’t pretty, but at least my back wasn’t exposed to the world.

We made it to the rehearsal dinner and couldn’t believe how stunning the venue was! Nestled at the base of Smith Rock, it was probably one of the most beautiful areas I’ve ever seen. We had a delicious Mexican-themed dinner and finished the evening with shaved ice from a local Bend vendor. Shaved ice though? If you haven’t had it you need to go immediately. Like right now. It was DELICIOUS! 

Saturday morning, we all went to Starbucks/McDonalds for breakfast before heading to the pool for the morning. David had to leave early to go to the ceremony (he was filming it) so after meeting him at the house to give him back his car keys, I jumped into the shower and got ready in my non-hole dress. We got to the ceremony and watched two great people get married. So fun and so hot (I think it was in the high 80s that day). We danced the night away with our friends, got lost on our way to find gas, and we wrapped up the night with some fun conversation before I fell asleep on the couch while eating peanut butter M&Ms.

My and my sweet niece Emersyn

Photo credit: David Green

Photo credit: David Green

Sunday, we drove home, got Hanky and began the unpacking process at our new house.