Lauren's Hair and more Home Improvement

So first things first, Lauren got her hair cut and colored. I knew shew as getting something done, but I didn't think she'd change it this much. Fortunately, it looks GREAT!

On to home repair. I finally was able to repair our master bathroom shower, with the help of Lauren's dad. We had to go to a shop in the middle of a bad part of town, in the back of a building, underneath a "performance" auto shop. It was an interesting store, and they seemed to have everything. The shower doesn't leak now, though there are other things that need repair later on.

As for the painting, we finally finished the painting of the hall bathroom. It is the same color as the half-bath downstairs, but its bigger, so the color looks better, I think. We still need to replace the tile on the floor, but the bathroom looks so much better than it used to.

We also painted both the front hallway and the hall/stairway that goes up to the top floor. We went with a beige color called "Toasted Cashew" which looked a little pink to me at first, but after painting the stairs, it looks more beige.

I think our next project is going to be our bedroom. To this point we've been painting common areas so we could have friends over if we wanted, and now we're ready to do something painting-wise for ourselves.

Home Repair, Part I

Lauren and I have been some painting fools the last week, and we've painted the half bath downstairs, the den downstairs, the dining area, and the kitchen. The half bath was the first room painted, and it is a greenish brown color that looks really good in the right light, as pictured below: We painted the den a color called "Gold Coin" which is a tan/gold color, and we painted the bricks at the fireplace white and the mantle black to match the railing upstairs (which we also had to paint).

The dining area is a brighter yellow, called "Lemon Ice." As I mentioned, the railing was painted black, and the trim is white. We had to get our friend, Kerry, who is 6'8" to come and paint the corner above the stairs, but other than that we were able to handle it ourselves.

The kitchen is also yellow, and we gave the cabinets a fresh coat of white paint and installed a toe kick on the cabinets. We still have to figure out what to do with the gap in the cabinets, but other than that, the kitchen if fully functional.

I'll post more pictures after more work gets done. We also have the hall bathroom upstairs done, but I'll post pictures of that when I have pictures of the rest of the upstairs to post.

Moved in and Cabinets Installed

Lauren and I finally moved in to the house a couple of weeks ago. Our friends Richard and Kerry helped us move in, and we couldn't have done it without them. Well, we could have, but it would have involved a large outlay of money to a moving company, because we had a ton of stuff. Connor's still adjusting to his new surroundings, but he's starting to get used to it. He loves that he has his own yard to play in, too, even though we don't have a fence yet, so he's still on a leash.

On top of that, the next weekend my friend Chris Osborn came in to town to visit Lauren and me, and we put him to work priming our kitchen and installing our cabinets. He enjoyed helping us out, even though we still feel bad about getting him to help. Fortunately, he knew what he was doing, so the cabinets look great. And then this past weekend, Lauren and I installed the countertop. After we get back, we'll install the sink. We didn't want to install it before coming home for Thanksgiving (we're in Jackson right now), because if it leaked, we might have a giant moldy mess when we got back.

Below are pictures of the drywall I had to install after ripping out the mold-infested part, and then the new cabinets. The purple-ness of the wall was unintentional, as that is the color of the mold and moisture resistant drywall at Home Depot.

The cabinets are not painted at this point, but they will be painted white to match the rest of the cabinets. We also have to get hardware, but we're going to get it for the entire kitchen, so it may be a while before we get it.

We both feel very blessed to have such great friends who are willing to help us out.

Lauren is still loving her job, and it looks like the company's going to do pretty well, even in the current economy. We'd appreciate prayers on that as well, because my project ended this past Tuesday, and I'm waiting for something to open up on another project or at a law firm. I'm not anticipating much opening up on either front until after the first of the year, though. Still, that will give me an opportunity to work around the house, paint, and clean up the yard before the Bullards come to visit us for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from Lauren and Clayton!

Tree Removal

We had some trees cut in the front yard and a couple in the back. They were mostly pines, particularly a very large one one that was right next to the master bedroom. BEFORE

AFTER

Having the trees removed should make the house look a lot better, i.e. less like a haunted house and more like someone's home. Also, the added sunlight should allow grass to grow once we get all the pinestraw cleaned up and probably plant some grass seed down the line. We've gotten the house cleaned up on the inside and have started to do some work to the outside. There won't really be any marked difference on the outside for a while, but we're going to start painting this weekend, we hope, and then we'll move in some time later this month.

Mom and Dad's Trip to Charlotte

We're about the close on the house, but before posting about that, I wanted to go ahead and post about my parents' trip to Charlotte. We had a great time while they were here, and we're hoping they can make it back up here sooner rather than later.

Mom and Dad came in on Thursday afternoon, and we went to dinner at a restaurant called Gado Gado after seeing the new house. Friday, we rode the train in to uptown Charlotte (downtown).

We walked through the indoor/skyway mall that stretches through Charlotte and came out at the foot of the Bank of America Corporate Center, the tallest building in town.

There is a fountain out front that Mom took a picture of that I actually like a lot. On the right, you can see trees lining one of the main streets in uptown, which is the way all of the roads are down there. It is an interesting combination of a grown up southern downtown and a metropolitan area with skyscrapers.

We then went to Discovery Place, a museum that has a standing exhibit about general science and has some birds in a simulated jungle environment.

The main exhibit, however, was the Pompeii exhibit, which had actual relics from the destroyed city. I had been meaning to see it since it was opened, but hadn't had an opportunity until they came, so I took advantage of it.

Saturday, we went over to Asheville, another trip Lauren and I had not made, and visited the Biltmore. As you're riding away from the house in the shuttle to the parking lots, you get an idea of how massive the house actually is.
There also were some amazing gardens next to the house that we actually drove through on the way from the house to the winery for dinner. After that, we came back to Charlotte. Sunday we went to church and then drove Mom and Dad to the airport. It was a great weekend and everyone had a lot of fun!

House Update

I haven't posted in a while because the house situation was in a bit of flux for a little while because of the amount and type of repairs that were necessary. However, we've gotten everything resolved, and all the big repairs that really concerned us are going to be done before closing so that we can go ahead and get the little stuff done and move in sooner rather than later. That said, we're thinking about getting a pretty good bit of work done before we even move in, so it may be a month or so after closing before we start moving our stuff in.

Aside from that, the big news is that this week, Mom and Dad are coming to town. I'm going to be working some LONG hours early in the week so I can at least get full-time hours in before they get here, even if I can't get all 40. Hopefully I'll be able to get my rear in gear and actually get into the office early on those days. Either way, we're really looking forward to next weekend!

Work is going fine for both Lauren and I, though the job search continues to be a dry well for me. Hopefully someone will decide they're hiring new associates soon and I'll fit the bill. Problem is that the newest crop of law school grads just got their bar results, which means I have even more people to compete with for jobs. So, I'm starting to think I'm going to pick up some little work here and there just to get some experience, and maybe that will look good on a resume.

I will try to remember to take pictures of this weekend's activities and post them, but I'm horrible about remembering to use my camera, and Mom hates to be in photos, so we'll see how that goes.

New House

For those of you who didn't already know, Lauren and I have been looking for a house to buy so that when our lease runs out in a month or two we won't have to live in an apartment anymore. Well, after several months of searching and a failed attempt at buying another house, we finally found a split-level, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home in a neighborhood in south Charlotte, near the suburb of Matthews.

We currently have an offer in on the house which the seller has verbally agreed to, but has not yet signed the contract. If all goes as according to plan, we will close at the end of September, and we will only have a month or so of overlap in our apartment lease and our mortgage. The picture below is the front of the house (brick with aluminum siding in a very 70's beige/yellow), with me and our realtor in front of it:The neighborhood around us is nice, and everyone who lives there seems to really take pride in their homes and the way they look from the street.As you walk in the front door, to the left is a very big living room area. I think Lauren's favorite part of the house might be the large window in the front that has enough room to put a long cushion on to make a window bench-seat:The kitchen isn't really anything to write home about, but it is big enough for Lauren and I both to walk around in and have plenty of room to spare, and should we decide we want a nicer kitchen, there is plenty of room to expand it into the adjacent eating area:As I said, the house is a split-level house, so there is a railing at the edge of the eating area that overlooks the den on the lower level:Here's the view looking up from the den at the middle level. Also on the lower level are the laundry room, the half bath, and two other rooms that we'll probably end up using for storage for now, but we could make into a playroom or even another bedroom if we feel the urge eventually:Upstairs, there are three bedrooms, one of which is more of an office because it isn't very large, as well as a hall bathroom (pictured below) and a bathroom attached to the master bedroom.Next to the bathroom is the walk-in closet, which Lauren is excited about. Just to the left of the picture below is another closet, which is actually a decent size, and will end up being my closet:In the back yard, we have a deck, which is in very good condition. The yard behind it slopes down toward a creek, but it is fairly overgrown and we'll have to eventually clear it out. At some point we'll also end up putting a fence up, which may be one of our first projects.
The house is in condition enough to move in without doing much more than cleaning, but Lauren and I have a lot of ideas about things to do to make the house a much nicer house. We're both very excited about the house and we're hoping things continue to move along smoothly.