It’s time to pick out a new wall calendar, something I truly love to do. Last year I settled for a weird magnet-poem thing that was on sale for half off, then spent the whole year picking magnet words off the floor. Very disappointing. Since I’m completely Victorian-obsessed right now, this year I opted for […]

We got some great gifts for Christmas this year, including some perfect picks for our house. I’m dying to take a trip out to Historic House Supply to use our gift certificates from Teague’s parents. I’ve been stalking this store for months, and now we actually get to buy something there. Yeehaw! My new pride […]

You can always tell when we’ve been working on the house, despite our best efforts to clean ourselves up. (click for larger) Dressing the dogs up in funny hats and laughing uncontrollably while they wince in embarrasment is one of our Christmas traditions. That’s Bruiser in the Santa hat – here’s Nero in his penguin […]

After calls to the bank and the lawyer that handled our closing, it appears that the bank made a major miscalculation and we DON’T owe an extra $200 every month. They haven’t officially retracted the higher payment notice, but supposedly the issue is fixed. Hurrah! In other news, we got plenty done this weekend. Teague […]

Yesterday, we got a letter in the mail stating that our mortgage payments were going to be over $200.00 higher than originally stated. This is a large increase considering what our monthly payments are and what the house looks like. My mother calmly talked me through a small nervous breakdown (Thanks, Mom!) After that, I […]

For the first month, we had momentum. We were an unstoppable force. We ran from room to room ,taking care of the mini-crisises and cleaning emergencies that kept popping up. But now, amidst the already stressful (not to mention dark, gloomy, and rainy) Christmas season, I can feel myself losing steam. Last night, I painted […]

Yesterday I took a vacation day to run errands – most importantly, to get snow tires on my car before a blizzard hits. I ran to JoAnn Fabrics to look for cheap fabric for the kitchen curtains, and got lost in the endless stock of 1/2 off ribbon and fake pine. The holiday spirit hit […]

Bad Discovery: Last night, Teague’s father came over to help us assess the foundation problems. (We’re planning to jack up the beams in the basement and try to level the place before doing any interior work.) While poking around, he discovered a cracked pipe coming into the basement. We now know why the downstairs bathroom […]

We’ve been working non-stop since Friday to get the closing and the big move over with, and I’m happy to say that it’s DONE. The unpacking is just beginning, but we’re living there in relative comfort so that’s saying alot. Our friends and family were incredible – everyone pitched in and we got more done […]

… and I’m feeling VERY anxious. Our entire house is boxed and ready to go, my to-do list is done, and our friends and family are ready to swoop in and help us celebrate. We even bought the bottle of champagne to toast with! The months of preparation that went into finding and purchasing our […]