The Biggest House Update Yet - and close to the last!

The last few days have been absolutely crazy! They have done so much at the house!

Yes, I was talking about the house when I said things have been crazy. Never mind the three straight days of testing (Math TAKS, Reading TAKS, Informal Reading Inventory and DIBELS). And the fact that my students have actually only been learning for 7 weeks out of the year - the seven weeks that I have been there. Consequently, it has been a very stressful week. Not to mention the fact that in the midst of the stress of the last two weeks I have received two formal (documented)"walk-throughs" and an hour long formal teaching appraisal - at a new school, new principal, new students. My appraisal was last Tuesday, a week before TAKS! Luckily, it went well and I got a perfect score! I'm afraid I am not so much anticipating my students to accomplish the same :(

Anyway, I wrote this entry to discuss the house!!!

Kevin was working late, but when I went on Tuesday, we had carpet! Bella loves to rub her entire body all over it!


Then when we went on Wednesday, it was AMAZING! They were busy little bees over there that day, for sure!

We had kitchen appliances and a faucet:





We had framed mirrors in the powder room and master bath:




And MY TUB CAME! I have been waiting for this:




We also got our stair ballesters (sp?). Bella loves them!


They also hung our dining room chair rail:


And gave us a nice front door:


They also painted the first coat of our game room:


Also that day, we got window screens, completed light fixtures, ceiling fans, electric outlet and light switch covers, and locks on interior and exterior doors. They also painted our garage door and finished the last coat of our exterior paint.

Today was also a very fun day! They finished our custom paint!

Here is our powder room, a deep purple called True Love - and it is true love!!!


Our dining room and living room have brick red accents, called Cedar Chest:






We also have a brown accent wall in our bedroom:


And here is the completed game room. It's called Cress Green, and again, I love it:


The heat and air inspectors were there when we were this evening beginning what will be a long line of inspections on the house. There are very few things left to be done other than that. It is really starting to look like home! We'll close three weeks from tomorrow.

Thanks so much for being excited with us, and for bearing with my excessive amounts of pictures and updates about the house. It is just pretty much the most fun and exciting thing we have ever done!

Hi, family and friends!

I haven't updated lately about our house because, well, not much has been happening! We are at that stage near the end where everything slows down due to inspections, ordering of products, and scheduling of speciality workers. However, due to requests from both dads and other family members, we decided it was time for an update :)

Since I last updated almost 2 weeks ago, just a few things have changed, but they have been exciting!

We got our granite kitchen countertops and I love love LOVE them:




The same day, we also got our silestone countertops in the master bath:




Also, they put in the standard marble ones upstairs, but I didn't actually take pictures of those.

The next day we had our backsplash! This was a very exciting day, since it was the first time we were able to see our kitchen selections come together:




I am so happy to see that the colors in the countertops perfectly blend the colors of our tile, our backsplash, and our cabinets (pats self on back)!

Then came the lighting and plumbing, which is still not entirely finished:

Powder Bath Lights:


One of the upstairs bathrooms (they look the same to me):


The shower the in the master:


Master sinks and lights:


Looking toward the front door from the living room:


Light in breakfast area (there is a larger version of the same light in the formal dining, but for some reason I didn't take a picture):


I'm still waiting on my excellent tub!!!

Also, they finished working on the air conditioner. They put in all of the vents and installed the upstairs and downstairs thermostat.

They also installed our alarm keypad and finished our base paint and trim.

Okay, maybe they've done more than I thought.

Still on the list:
-Formal dining chair rail
-Custom paint (powder room, fireplace wall, formal dining, master, game room)
-Exterior paint - last coat
-Last light fixtures and ceiling fans
-Built-in Appliances
-Carpet
-MY TUB
-Staircase railing
-Top-to-Bottom cleaning

And then we'll be done!

Mostly an update on the house

The house has been progressing very quickly this last week!

They brought all of our cabinets in on Monday. They look great!

Kitchen


Master bath


Headknockers in each bathroom


Then on Tuesday they did the floor tile.







And the fireplace:


Then on Wednesday a lot happened!

They finished the wall tile in the bathrooms and all of the grout. I'm very happy with my choice to go with dark grout:








They also put in our sprinkler system and dropped off our sod:


The most exciting part of Wednesday was that they finished the brick and stone on the house and I LOVE IT. We even have cute little shutters, which were a surprise to me.


And then today was another very exciting day. They put in all of our landscape!




Not much happened on the inside today, other than the last little bits of trim went in and we got a hand rail on our stairs. I also picked out our paint colors today. They're painting later this week I believe. We're painting under the chair rail in our dining room a brick red color, and also the fireplace wall in the living room. The game room will be a light olive green color, we'll have a brown accent wall in our bedroom, and the powder room downstairs is going to be a deep purple. Our base paint for the rest of the house is a dark khaki color, and the trim is linen - kind of a creamy off-white. We're starting to get really excited now!

On another note, work is going a little better. On TAKS Baseball this week, students in both of my classes got almost every single question correct! While it's a huge relief, I refuse to "count my chickens before they hatch," and instead am going to continue doing everything I can until TAKS on the 27th and 28th.

Have a great weekend!

My first funny story in my new job

I have this boy in my morning class who is very...intense. If he forgets his homework he cries and yells "I'M SO SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME!" over and over. If he accidentally bumps into someone he throws his body down in front of them and begs for forgiveness. If I go too fast and leave him behind when I'm teaching he gets really angry and frustrated.

Intense.

Anyway, he likes his things to be in order. The problem is, my afternoon class comes in and sits in the same desks where my morning class keeps their belongings. Last Thursday, "B," as I'll call the intense boy, noticed that a sticker had been partially peeled off of the top of his pencil box. Let's just say you would think his little world was ending. I finally got him all calmed down and (I thought) he realized that it was not that big of a deal.

I was wrong.

Today he asked his afternoon class teacher if he could use the restroom. Only he didn't go to the restroom. He came to my classroom to find out who sits in his desk.

He stood at the door while I was in the middle of a lesson, pointed dramatically, and yelled "AHA!"

"THERE"S THE LITTLE THIEF WHO HAS BEEN VANDALIZING MY PROPERTY!!!"

"What? No I haven't!"

"DON"T EVEN TRY TO LIE TO ME, YOU LITTLE CROOK. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!"

This went on until I could get B to go back to class, which was impossible until I removed his pencil box from the vicinity of the culprit.

It's never boring.

A Weekend With My Family!

This weekend Kevin and I traveled our (now extremely short) drive to Bryan to stay with my grandparents at their house outside of town. My mom, dad, sister, and her boyfriend met us there for a fun weekend.

We spent most of the day Saturday down at my grandparents' land, riding 4 wheelers and getting muddy, and then ate hamburgers for lunch. Here are some 4-wheeling pics:

Kevin and me




My mom and dad


Lindsay and Nick


It was so muddy!


Grandaddy and Granny drive the Ranger, usually with a lot of us in the back!


Then we took some silly pictures in the bluebonnets :) Not a WORD about my pink boots. I wear them while I ride 4-wheelers to protect me from the mud. Plus, they occasionally aid me in catching a delicious bass.






It seems as though we always find an adventure down there. Last time we rescued some buzzards trapped in an old deer stand. This time we found a log to move off of the road.







Later that evening we got cleaned up and went into town to eat at Mr. Gatti's. Then this morning Grandaddy cooked us a great breakfast and we headed home. We are REALLY loving that short drive since we now live in Houston!

I love my family :)