homeowners.

well as of today, we're officially homeowners.  despite what i can only imagine was the most unorganized closing ever to happen, we read and signed all the documents, wrote a big, fat check and walked away with some keys and a lot of debt.  and i'm actually getting a little excited.  i still have no idea how or when the physical move will actually happen and i'm partially excited because we'll never have to deal with our real estate agent or lender again.  (side note, if you're looking for a loan avoid wells fargo.  they're the definition of terrible)

we're trying to get the radon mitigation system in and the floors replaced before moving but i'm hoping we can move in two weeks.  although that's probably pushing it for the floors. oh, and i'm hoping that we can paint two rooms next weekend while we're in the middle of packing and getting estimates for everything.    i still have zero pictures of the house but i'm hoping to get a few next weekend when we start the painting process.  it's probably a little optimistic considering the fact that we have a 4 month old baby, but i told charlie if he would do all the cutting in i'd do all the rolling.  and i'm hoping we can just do it in shifts since i'd rather not have her around while we're painting.  

our first month in this place.  when alex was visiting!

i'm honestly a little sad to leave this place.  i thought it was just me, but even charlie's mentioned it a few times.  i think it's because this is the first place we've lived in that's really felt like a home not just an apartment that we were renting for a few years.  i think a part of that is that it's a nice place and we did more things to make it feel like home, like painting the wall and hanging curtains.  but i think the main reason is that we've been here for 3 years which is the longest either of us have lived somewhere before leaving for college.  it's crazy to me how many memories we'll have of this place:  cooking thanksgiving dinners, all the late nights i spent writing term papers, spending hours on the balcony in the summer listening to zac brown band, baking apple pie on the fourth of july, drinking tea and reading in bed, christmases with my family, cooking out with friends (before they moved), bringing avery home, our first night here drinking beers and eating pizza among the boxes, introducing avery to our herd of animals, all of the pot roasts, pork roasts, pumpkin cakes, chocolate chip cookies, bison lasagna that were made, having family come and visit, watching the dogs run around out front, my last snow day as a teacher, and everything else that's happened in this place.  it's been a good home.  a great home.  and although i'm so excited for a new home and new memories, i'm definitely going to miss it.  

avery's room.

i figure now that she's a month old it's about time to take pictures of her room.

we finished this a while ago, and since we're renting there was no painting or construction involved.

that being said, i probably spent more time on this room than any other in our home and since we'll probably be moving somewhere this year, although we have no idea where yet, i figured i should take some pictures of her first room before it was too late.  

i'm not really a fan of matching furniture which worked out well since the we had so much random furniture that we needed to find a place for.

the room is a funky shape and pretty much only has one wall where there's enough room for furniture.  we managed to fit the crib and dresser on the wall with just enough room left over for a hamper and trash can.

the moose found a home over the crib.  i had other plans for something there but i couldn't figure out where else to put the moose. she hasn't slept in the crib at night yet, but she's taken quite a few naps there when she decides that she'll actually sleep somewhere other than my arms or the swing.

we decided against a bedding set since i knew we would never use most of it and instead just bought a few sheets.  don't look too close at the bed skirt, it's a mess but it's hard making a skirt for those cribs!

the chair is a rocking chair and as much as i insisted we didn't need one i'm glad we got one.  i spend a lot of time in that chair and she really does love being rocked.  obviously ollie is a fan of the chair, too.  he usually tries to jump into my lap when i'm rocking her.  i think he misses all the time he used to sleep in my lap before she came around.

the dresser is huge and holds pretty much everything she needs.  the changing pad on top is one of her favorite places.  she loves to lay there and look at all the pictures on the wall.  we threw a 'travel changing pad' on top of the fabric cover because whoever decided that fabric covers were a good idea was obviously trying to sell a lot of them.  the lamp on the table is from when i was a kid and has seashells from the outer banks.  and the green container holds everything we need to change her. 

i love the burts bees stuff.  the body wash and lotion smell great and aren't too greasy.

the mishmash of frames is my favorite.  i'm sure i'll be switching pictures out as she grows older, but for now i quite like them.  avery likes them too and spends a lot of time staring at them.  

i mod podged scrapbook paper onto the "L" and the "k is for kite" was a free download.

the love frame still needs more pictures of her in it, but the middle picture is the card that charlie got me for christmas.  the picture next to that is supposed to be a dog pulling a kid on a sled.  appropriate for a winter baby with 2 dogs.

charlie insisted on buying the avery brewery sign after we stopped in there on his birthday.  i don't know how i never noticed their beer before but now i see it everywhere.  the frame below is one of my favorite dog quotes with a picture of henry.  he's gotten over his initial jealousy and is now more interested in her than anyone else.  i think he's hoping she'll grow up fast and become another playmate.



this is probably my favorite.  i had plans to paint the lyrics on a big canvas and hang that over the crib, but the moose stole that space.  maybe someday, but until then i knew they had to go somewhere.  bob dylan really knew what he was talking about.

the weird corner ended up with the chair which has been pretty useful.  the container underneath holds board books and a stuffed animal that henry has finally realized is not a toy for him.



the bookshelf holds lots of books (obviously) and i love having a bunch to choose from when we read to her every night.  the baskets hold blankets and larger clothes and someday i'll figure out a way to hang the mobile that's sitting on top.

it's the most wonderful time ...

it's officially christmas time.  

which in our house starts the day after thanksgiving and usually lasts until we get enough motivation to take down our decorations sometime after new years.  i think last year we had our christmas tree up until the 10th or so.  why is it that taking decorations down is never as fun as putting them up?  

anyway, in our usual tradition we decorated on friday while listening to christmas music.  

charlie has officially started listening (he always waits until after thanksgiving unlike me) and has even banned my iPod from our dock because 'his christmas list is much better than mine'.  

our tree is set up in the corner as always and it's been a challenge to keep the cats out of it.  they like to climb halfway up and then sleep in the branches, destroying ornaments as they climb.  ollie's eyeing the tree in this picture.  he especially likes to break as many of the glass balls as he can.

the santa hat made an appearance before it became our tree topper.  neither dog is that fond of it.  henry tries to destroy it like it's one of his toys.  

the tumbling santas were a gift from my mom and are my favorite christmas decoration of all. 

along with climbing and breaking ornaments the tree is ollie's favorite place to sleep.
he's officially given up the blanket on the couch now that he has his tree to sleep under.
and it doesn't matter if we put presents underneath, he'll just knock them out of the way.

in other news we've officially checked everything off of our 'to do before baby' list.  the clothes are washed, we have a doctor (finally), the room's all set up, our bags are packed, we're pre-registered at the hospital, the carseat's installed, we even have a stocking for him/her.  all we need now is a baby.  any day now.  whenever you're ready.  sometime in the next 2 weeks would be nice ...

the best blanket in the world.

charlie got me this blanket for my birthday a few weeks ago and it is the coziest thing ever.

ollie can't leave it alone.

progress.

things are far from being close to finished but i've been working hard on cleaning things out and getting things together so here's what we have so far.

a new dresser for our bedroom:

ps. how cute is ollie in this picture?

we moved our older dresser into the baby's room for a few reasons: 

1.  it's the perfect height for a dresser/changing table

2.  i wanted room in our bedroom for a pack n play/cosleeper if we decide to share our room with the baby for a bit.  (i'm still not 100% sure about this one, but we'll figure it out once we bring the baby home and can find what works for us)

here's what the old dresser looked like.  so happy to have those windows back!

we have a crib and it's all set up.

that skirt is not yet really a skirt but eventually it will be.  

we have a baby money tree.

charlie and i got one of these when we first moved in together.  it's now huge.  i'm hoping we can figure out how to keep this tree from falling over like the last one.

and i made some 'art'.

i found this on pinterest and could not find the source anywhere despite a lot of googling.  

i'm not sure exactly where we're going to put it, but i like it.

lately...

i cannot believe that it's august.  i love august, because it's hot and sticky.  but it makes me sad that it's now completely dark by 8:30 pm.  although considering the fact that i've been going to bed earlier and earlier each night i should appreciate this.  i know august is going to be just as busy as july.  between plans we already have, being gone for a weekend, and trying to get our house back in order things it's going to go by fast.

last weekend pretty much consisted of furniture moving, shopping, assembling, and lots of cleaning.  we did actually make it to ikea.  i'm now convinced that one store employs half the state of colorado.  it was totally packed, which charlie wasn't happy about.  luckily, i had about 4 items that we were there for so we were able to move in and out of the crowds pretty easily.


we have curtains for the baby's room.  these weren't my first choice but they're definitely growing on me and they go pretty well with the rest of the stuff in the room.

in other news, the baby is doing well. we had our 20 week appointment, complete with ultrasound where we did not find out if the kid is a boy or girl, dude or dudette.  this wasn't even a little difficult for me, but i know it was hard for charlie.  and i had a lot of people telling me that i'd change my mind and find out.  sorry, suckers.  didn't happen.  charlie thinks it's a girl.  i think it's a boy.  we have no names for either gender.  although since abby's introduced me to nameberry i've been completely addicted.

weekend.

i love weekends.

although, who doesn't? this weekend was our first one at home in a while. between md visits and triathlons and work conferences and trips to the mountains, our weekends have been pretty packed.

we had planned on going to horsetooth on saturday but decided not to since it was only in the 70s.

the weekend before we left for md charlie had his tri and sunday i had to leave for breckenridge for a conference. after the tri we went and bought a 'real' grill. before this we've been using a camping grill. it worked fine except for the fact that the wind kept blowing out the pilot which meant it took about an hour to grill out a hot dog.

we debated about which grill to get because we're pretty limited by size. our current balcony is pretty small and already has a table and chairs outside. we sit outside all the time in summer so i wasn't willing to move the table for a big huge grill.

here's what we ended up with and we decided to break it in this weekend. we made quesadillas on friday night and had friends over for pork, burgers, vegetables, and potatoes on saturday. it's nice to have space to cook and still have room to eat outside.

i also made pumpkin cake on friday night.

i know a lot of people save pumpkin for the fall but it's so easy to make and it's the only thing i had all the ingredients for.

sunday was pretty lazy. lots of laundry and cleaning and watching the rockies.

the dogs slept all day. i think they were tired from having company over the night before.

there's something about being away that makes me so happy to be home.

slipcover help.

so last weekend charlie and i were walking through crate and barrel and i happened to see that they now make slipcovers for our couches.

words cannot express how happy that makes me. our couches are super comfortable but we have animals and they have fur and it would be nice to have something i can throw in the washing machine every now and then.

but here's the problem. it's sort of annoyed me that our couch and chair and a half match. and i'm debating getting different colored slip covers for them, just to mix it up. BUT it's pretty obvious that they're from the same line. so my question is, can i still get non-matching slipcovers?

here's the living room (from a while ago, but it's the best picture of the furniture):

and here are the slipcover options. i'm thinking of doing "bone" for the chair and a half:

credit

and sand for the couch.

credit

BUT if i go with only one color for the both i'll probably do the "sand". white couches still scare me.

so, what do you think? can i go with two different colors or should i just do one color for both?

furniture rearranging: part 2

back in november one of the things that we wanted to do was get a new desk for the office.

the one we currently had was huge, which made fitting things in that space sort of awkward and it also had some water damage from where we previously lived.

see our last apartment was built on a hill and we were the basement apartment. it was great because it didn't feel like a basement because the side where the windows were was not underground. it was bad because everyones garage was actually above our apartment. also, they were built (incorrectly) on clay, which meant that 10 years later when the foundations were shifting there was a lot of cracking and leaking going on. of course when we moved in we didn't know any of these things. our 'storage closet' was right below someone's garage. because of the shifting, instead of the garage sloping slightly away from the homes they sloped slightly towards the homes, which meant in the winter when people parked their cars in the garage and the snow melted it ran into the apartment.

so in the spring when i went to clean everything out there was a lot of water damage to a decent amount of our stuff. just one of a million reasons why we moved. luckily mold was not a problem, although i have no doubt that it was growing in the walls. anyway, one of the things that was damaged was the desk which was why we were planning on replacing it.

so, we ordered a new desk, which charlie decided was too small. and so the new desk moved to the guest bedroom.

here's the bedroom when we first moved in.

this picture doesn't do it justice but it was pretty cramped.

and a few months later with different curtains.

and here's it is now with a different desk & a lot more room.

i actually really like desks as end tables, which is good for the future and i'm also getting a lot of use out of it now since this is where i study. until i graduate. in 3 months. i'm not counting the days or anything...

furniture rearranging.

back in november i posted about how charlie and i decided we might be staying in our apartment a bit longer than originally planned.

the whole 'get debt free' plan is really a bummer sometimes. stupid student loans.

anyway, i mentioned there were a few things i wanted to do to the apartment since we were staying here longer than just a few months. honestly, i don't know why i waited so long to do them because they were either super cheap or free and make me so much happier with our i-don't-own-you-and-therefore-i-don't-have-to-pay-to-fix-you place.

one of the things i've really liked about this apartment is it's the first place that i feel like i've done things to make it feel like home, but since it's not ours i've probably been a lot less careful than i would have if we owned it. for instance when i hung curtains i used a variety of methods that were definitely not sturdy and put a few more holes in the wall than absolutely necessary. however, i've learned my lesson and now measure the crap out of everything before putting a hole in the wall. frankly, it's also a lot easier for me to have charlie do things but he's beyond not interested in doing anything around the house and generally gets annoyed when he has to hammer a nail into a wall, which is why i've done most of the stuff myself.

one of the things i hated about the way we initially set up the living area was that the tv was on the mantle. it was a. too high and b. the wires hanging down the side of the wall were driving me crazy. we had set the living room up that way because we didn't want to have furniture in the middle of the dining/living area. it probably wouldn't have been so bad but we have huge furniture (something we didn't really think about when we bought it).

here was the living area a few months after moving in:

one of the things that bothered me about this was all the unused space near the windows. and yes, that is a tv tray that is being used as an end table.

and the tv ...

back in november when we moved things around in the office we ended up with a bookshelf that was no longer being used. so we brought that up here and used it as a tv stand. it's still a little high, but i could not find a tv stand narrow enough to fit in the nook, therefore it's perfect for now, which means it's staying until we move.

living room now:

i also ended up moving some other furniture around. it's not perfect but it was all free.

and the mantle sans tv.

it's funny how moving stuff around can make me so much happier.

home sweet home.

i finally made it back to denver.

although i sort of lost the car at the airport, convinced a shuttle driver to drive me all around the parking lot (both parking lots) to look for it, and then finally gave up and called the emergency number and told them i lost my car, which i should have just done in the first place because after giving them the license plate number they told me exactly where it was. (how do you like that run-on sentence?)

anyway, good to know for the future i suppose.

the dogs were so happy to be home.

and the cats, well, that's another story. let's just say, i do not love them and if anyone wants a cat or two they're welcome to mine.

this morning i was studying at the table and looked over to see this:

um, yes. the dogs are not allowed on the furniture. except for the fact that henry sleeps in the bed with us. and (after taking this picture) i called his name he just looked over at me, no guilt whatsoever. i guess this is why people buy slip-covered furniture.

snowflakes and heavy lifting

dear colorado, i see you've brought winter. thanks for the warning.

one day i'm walking the dogs in a t-shirt and the next day i'm shivering and watching snow fall outside.

in the future a gradual cooling would be nice. but whatever.

since it's november i've decided not to hate you too much.

last week also brought christmas cups at starbucks. and while i refuse to decorate for christmas until after thanksgiving i definitely appreciate their festive spirit.

today the dogs went completely apeshit when they saw the snow. in fact they went so crazy that henry is now laying by the fire attempting to stop the bleeding from his leg.

our house is currently in a state of small disaster.

you see, we're in the middle of rearranging things throughout the house, and since i'm a visual person i have to actually see it rearranged before i can make my mind up.

charlie was not exactly pleased yesterday with all the assembling, cleaning, and heavy lifting. however, the office is definitely coming along (not exactly in the way that i had planned for it, but in a way slightly better). it's amazing how much crap that boy had down there.

pictures later, when i actually motivate myself or when we clear away the last of the boxes.

hopefully we'll have everything cleaned up by thanksgiving so we can roast a turkey and spend the next day eating leftovers and decorating for christmas.

can.not.wait.

i thought this picture was funny because the animals usually fight over who gets to lay in the sun ... clearly neither is happy that they had to share.

happy monday , ya'll.

ollie enjoying the first snow of the year.

bedroom "curtains"

so last winter we hung some curtains in our bedroom:

i wasn't crazy about the color.

i actually thought they were a bit depressing. honestly i think they look much better in this picture than they did in person.

anyway, i've been looking for an inexpensive alternative.

right now this is their replacement.

i'm not exactly crazy about these either.

the problem is that i think they match the walls too closely.

also, they are not blackout curtains, which probably isn't a problem for a normal person but i cannot sleep unless it's pitch black.

please feel free to judge me for the unmade bed. i honestly can't be bothered to care about making the bed anymore.

thoughts? suggestions? go for it.

if i end up taking these out of our bedroom i'll probably move them to the office, so it's not like they're a waste. also they were super cheap.

it's hard to find something that doesn't totally clash with our quilt.

ps. just made chocolate chip pumpkin bread tonight. very excited that it came out successfully.

life, papers, and a cozy little apartment

so i mentioned in my love letter to our jeep that we now had full ownership our little patriot.

this was no accident. charlie and i made a few executive decisions about money, houses, and our little car.

side note: charlie's always hated that jeep. you see he traded in his wrangler for it because of things like "practicality", "responsibility", and "maturity". charlie loved the wrangler. me, not so much. i'm not really a "let's put the top up and down several times a week for fun" kinda girl. but ever since we paid the patriot off he's been saying things like "jeep we love you. please last forever". so sweet.

anyway, charlie and i are renters. and previously we were thinking that sometime around next year-ish we'd start looking for a house. i really, really love our little apartment and if it had a 2 car garage, a yard, and i could paint the walls i'd stay forever. but it doesn't and i can't. (oh, wait i did.)

however, the thing about us buying a house is that it's sort of permanent.

charlie works from home, the lucky duck, but i don't. and since i graduate in may, we decided it probably would be best not to ground ourselves and limit our options before seeing what the next year or two are going to look like.

also, the other thing about buying a house is that it is a lot of debt. and since we already had debt from the jeep and student loans, we decided it probably would be best to get out of the debt we were in before adding to it.

such a boring decision. but it had to be done.

the deal was, that if we were going to stay in our little apartment. there was a few things i wanted to do to make our lives here a little more comfortable.

1. i wanted organize the garage.

exciting stuff. but between bikes, canoes, skis, storage, charlie's work stuff, and a car. it was getting tight.

2. i wanted to move the tv off the mantle.

i hate our tv where it is. a. it's too high and b. the wires hanging all over drive me insane.

3. charlie wanted the office rearranged.

he's all "it sucks in here". and he was kinda right.

4. curtains.

we hung curtains in our bedroom and office and i hate them. so i have to do something cheap about it.

all of these are works in progress. i'll let you know how they turn out. and if you have any suggestions feel free to throw them my way. the problem is i go from a "loving bright colors" phase to a "loving neutrals" phase.

for now i'm off to write 3 20 page papers, which i probably should have started back in september. but the good news is there's only 5 weeks of school left and then 1 more semester. crazy.

good thing i have lots of help.

it's the little things, right?

like successful high altitude baking.

before we moved to colorado i used to bake all the time.

i mean i was no martha, but i made things, from scratch, and they were good!

then i moved and denver taunted me.

but last weekend, for the first time since moving out to colorado, i baked something from scratch and instead of ending in tears (because, yes, it had gotten that bad), it was successful!

meet mr. pumpkin cake.

he was delicious.

and now we don't have to relocate back to sea level.

you know your house is dirty when ...

you can write love notes to your husband in the dust that's accumulated on the stove.

(probably also a sign you don't use the stove enough)

please use this as an opportunity to feel better about your house cleaning abilities.

clearly mine need work.

early birthday present.

my birthday's next week.

i've been staring at wrapped birthday presents for over a week.

both charlie and i are terrible at giving each other gifts. we always get too excited and force the other person to open their presents early.

last year at christmas we had nothing under the tree.

yesterday charlie brought me one of my presents.

he didn't have to convince me too hard.

he got me a new lens for the camera.

and then i stopped studying and starting taking pictures all around the house.