Yesterday was Day 2

Ok, so I'm going to blog about this whole house thing because, of course, it'll be neat to look back at someday.

Yesterday I went between 1st part of work and 2nd part of work to try and ShopVac some of the (million-and-one) paint chips from the lawn, by the garage, by the deck .... and everywhere in between. I had about 45 min of good vacuuming when the thing lost suction. So, I was done doing that. I'm a girl and I'm not cleaning out a dusty dirty grassy nasty clogged ShopVac. ;-)

Went back after work and Chris and Josh were there. Josh was now on vac duty. Chris was beginning to prime the garage. (I will never go back on my word when I say Chris got the easy job of priming .... thanks to our new paint sprayer contraption ... although he'll tell you he had the hard job. No way, buddy). I got the fun job of scraping again .... the deck and some window frames.

Then it was finally time to begin priming the deck. Literally, it was awesome. I could prime any day over scraping!

(BTW .... that sweatshirt is a men's XXL ... which is why I look like a giant marshmallow).

My mom came over and my friend Katelyn was there too and we all worked on priming the deck some more. I'd say we got half done. Today I need to get a shrub scissors thing and trim the shrubs so we can actually finish scraping the deck and priming it. (I hate deck spindles, btw!)

Today, between work, I went over there again and primed a little more of the deck ... and I also got about 1/4 of the front porch primed as well.

Hopefully after we got done tonight, I'll have a lot more progress to share!

We better get this {beep}ing loan .... or all this work and money out of our pockets (which we pay regardless of what happens) will have been a waste....stay tuned.

615

So, we are in the middle of buying a house.

615 is the house number.

For the type of loan we are getting, there is work required before we can even buy it. All work that come out of our own pockets and time. Everything has to be up to code before we can get the loan.

These are the items we must do before it can pass:

• Scrape/Paint exterior of detached garage
• Scrape/Paint exterior basement windows & front windows – wood trim
• Scrape/Paint Front/Rear porches/decks where chipping/peeling paint is present
• make sure all paint chips are not left laying on the ground

Today, after spending $60 on just scraping supplies, we scraped the entire garage. Chris was there for 7 hours straight, I came after work for about 3 hours til it was done. We had a slew of people helping off and on: my mom, our friend Josh, and even our Realtor.

I'm really pleased the garage is done. Now to paint it. That's the easy part. The scraping really sucks, but what sucks even worse, is getting EVERY paint piece off the ground. We just left it for tonight, in the daylight tomorrow I'm going to try to shop vac most of it up. We'll see how that goes.

Here are some pictures from today. Yes, we do plan to get a new door:

Dinner. Hopefully our dinner tomorrow night will be, um, a little more home cooked.

Don't let his smile fool you. This is all for the camera:

These smiles, also fake. And GOOD LORD, is that really what I looked like today?!

More tomorrow!

New Hair

It's not really that much different, but hey, this photo is kind of cute. :-)

*High Five*

5 family members you can't live without?
Chris, Mom, Dad, Patrick, Grandma

5 girlfriends you can't live without?
Katelyn, Ashley, Michele, Shannon, and ?

5 foods you can’t live without?
Burritos, pecans, Velveeta Shells and Cheese, Yogurt, Noodles

5 favorite movies?
Knocked Up, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, District 9, The Ugly Truth, P.S. I Love You

5 favorite TV shows?
Property Virgins, The Bachelor, and ... ???

5 biggest pet peeves?
-Student Loans with high interest rates

-Apartment living

-That a job requiring a bachelor's degree doesn't offer insurance

-People taking government handouts who don't need them (or who need them bc they waste their money on other stuff)

-Wind

5 places you have visited and loved?
Salt Lake City/Provo area, Punta Cana, Playa Del Carmen, LA, and Puerto Vallarta

5 places you want to visit?
New York City, Italy, Virgin Islands, Seattle, Grand Canyon

5 memories that you will never forget:
-Finally getting a teaching job (although it was only for 3.5 months...still awesome!)

-Kenny Chesney concert in the rain ... first row, with only 10 or so of us left standing in the storm ... awesome and I've said it before, it changed my life (for personal reasons only I could ever understand ... and it actually had nothing to do with Kenny Chesney. LOL.)

-My wedding day, esp our last dance

-?

-? (these last two are yet to come, apparently :)

5 things you love about your house/location?
We live in an apartment ... so there is not much I love ... but here goes:

-Newer construction

-Big bathroom

-Walk in closet

-Private entrance

-Free heat (it's always 75 degrees in here)

5 things you wish you could change about your house/location?
Again, we live in an apartment, so this list could go on forever...

-Not being able to change anything I dislike about it (ugly floors, plain walls, etc, etc)

-Crappy dishwasher + washer/dyer

-Windows on only one side

-Not enough space

-No garage for me ... I HATE scraping my car at 6:30 am in the cold!

5 projects you are working on or want to accomplish this year?
-Buying a house

-Better albums for my photography business (this has been ... not so much fun to search around for)

-Get a full time job with insurance + benefits

-Take at least one vacation (even if it's somewhere close)

- ...?

5 material possessions you can’t live without? .
Computer, Cell Phone, Planner, Car, Camera (notice which one came last? That makes me sad that having a business makes me not really want to take my own photos anymore.)

5 reasons you blog?
To be able to look back on all the simple moments.

In other news....

We are looking at our very first house today!

This is a very exciting day for us!