progress

The cable is about to be evicted. We're having the AT&T guy come out Tuesday to hook up our new phone and Internet, and we'll be using antennas and laptops from then on. Because of that, our bill will be around $42 a month! Not too bad...

open house photos!

The house looked great, the food was great, and everyone came. Well, almost everyone. It was an awesome time, and I'm so glad we did it!

Mmm...I'm getting hungry.

post-party relaxation

The housewarming party was a success! Everyone came, everyone ate, and everyone had a good time. I'm crazy sore from cleaning, cooking and mingling all day, but it's worth it. I have a ton of photos, and they'll all be here soon. For now...I need to clean up and start writing out my thank-you notes, and start planting my new flowers. And OH SHITE! I'm off tomorrow! This is amazing.

entertaining

We got a grill! Chris' mom generously offered to give us something for our open house this Saturday, and let Chris pick out a kickass grill. It's silver and pretty, and propane, so it's super fast and easy. This is great: something to knock off our list, that we don't have to worry about anymore. I love it! Chris said he's not too familiar with grilling, so we're going to grill every night to practice. I totally support this.

As for the rest of the "to-do before the party" list...it's coming along. Kind of. We bottled beer tonight, so I'm going to have to clean the kitchen again, but it's okay -- I'd planned on doing it one more time before Saturday anyway. I just need to get a new dress, get all the ingredients for the food I plan on cooking, and then...cook it. Man, for "fast" and "easy" appetizers, these seem like they're going to be a pain in the ass.

My flowers are looking a little haggard right now, unfortunately. I think I bought/planted them too soon, you know? Since the weather has been insanely hot right now, they seem to be getting sunburned. I don't really know what to do -- I've been putting them in the garage during the day so they don't dry (or fry) but then they don't get ANY sun, and they only get watered when I come home. Oh, well.

I also joined two Yahoo! groups, called Ferndale Freecycle and Metro Detroit Plant Exchange. Hopefully I can end up with some cool stuff from those. I'm a little intimidated by the knowledge those people already have, where I'm barely a beginner. But hopefully they'll be cool.

ouch.

Oh man...running a 5k after NOT running for three months, then garden shopping, mall shopping and weeding/planting makes for one sore lady. My chiropractor would be so pissed. At least I have this cozy, pretty house to relax in. :-)

planting

I'm a mommy! Look:

I don't remember what I planted, but it's growing. So exciting! I've done a lot more, too -- mostly in pots, but a lot in the beds in the front of the house.

bought from Craigslist.org for $10. I love it!

the decorated pots are from a series sold at TJ Maxx and Home Goods. I love the colors and details.

got the fleur de lis spike at Pier 1. I could live in that store.

the huge dahlia will live for a while, I hope -- at least through our party next weekend.

A lady who apparently lives on our street (never seen her before) gave us some hostas last night, and I might be getting more of those and some daisies from other people. What I really want are trees, so I joined a Yahoo! group called the Metro Detroit Plant Exchange, and another called Ferndale Freecycle. Hopefully the members in those can help me out -- and hook me up!

arty!

Pretty excited for the arts and crafts show next weekend.

http://www.seoartfair.com/

Local stuff! A great city! Check it out!

milestones!

We've been in our amazing, adorable, cozy house for a month. A whole month! I never want to leave. I love it here! Congratulations to us!

one month down...

Tomorrow we'll have been in our house for a whole month. A month! This house has come so far, and so have we. We moved in to a tiny, bland house with boring, white walls and no character, and we colored the crap out of it and spread our heart all over the place. I love it!

We still haven't really met the neighbors, but their cats have sure been coming around quite a bit. We love having them around in the front yard, but they keep trying to get inside. It sucks -- they're so sweet and loving, and their owner, who lives across the street, never seems to let them in. I found little Emma Frost (yes, we named them all after X-Men) sitting under my car a couple mornings ago. Heartbreaking.

Emma Frost and Nightcrawler. Beast wasn't around yesterday when I was shooting them.

those eyes!

so adorable. :-)

Comcast! Come on!

Wtf, Comcast? They charged us like $151 for a month of service that sucked basically the entire time. A note to others: our internet continually went out for two weeks and our "HD" channels continually became pixelated and difficult to watch. Totally lame. We are about to cancel cable altogether and just survive on downloaded series and Netflix. It's all we need, anyway, and saving money is more important than having four hours of "Clean House" on Saturday mornings (though we do love kicking back to that with some coffee). Anyway, watch out kiddies. Watch out!

greenery

Mild success in gardening in the front yard this week. My chiropractor scolded me for doing it, but with only three weeks until our open house, I need to get the outside...habitable. I realize not everything will get done in three weeks, but I can do as much as possible.

Oh! And then there's the menu! I'm thinking fruit salad, bean salad, several appetizers I've got the recipes for (thanks, Rachael Ray) and hopefully Chris' homemade wheat beer. Mmm. Guess I need to get cookin...

flowers

So, I need some planting advice: my house faces north and south, and I want to make the front (north) look super pretty. I love the wildflower look -- daisies, meadow grass, that sort of thing. Can I plant that sort of stuff on the north face of my house and have it thrive? I'm new to all this, so I'm looking for help wherever I can get it.

three weeks!

The first mortgage check is in! It still seems unreal to me.

We've been in the house since April 12, and I feel like with everything we've done, I haven't updated at all. There's so much to do all the time, and we're constantly updating the decor, the paint and the furniture. We finally hung my lovely World Market curtains, and I think they really pop against our walls.

We also had a bit of a surprise: coming up to the bedroom to find our cats asleep on the same bed. !! It almost seemed as though they didn't realize the other was there, and when our "aww"s became too much for them, they finally jumped off. Still adorable, though.

Last weekend we went to the Ikea store, and even though we tried to get in to exactly what we needed, it was still crazy overwhelming. That place is its own city, man.

Like I said, this still seems unreal to me. Yeah, the bills have started coming and the yard needs to be mowed and flowers need to be planted and we're constantly putting holes in the walls to hang things each day, but I love this house more and more every minute. We haven't even been here a month, and already neither of us ever wants to leave. It's weird -- we moved to Ferndale so we could be closer to all the restaurants, bars and shops we love, but we dig being in our house so much it's the only place we want to be.

We've set a date for the open house (May 29!) so I guess it's time to get to work. The items on the to-do list on the refrigerator aren't going to cross themselves off...

our first weekend

So we've been in our house a week now, and this weekend we made our first real meals together. I mean, we've made some frozen burgers during the week, eaten cereal, that sort of thing, but they weren't real. Anyway, Chris made us breakfast yesterday morning -- totally delicious.

mmm!

We then trekked out to Rochester Hills to go to a specific Pier 1 store so I could buy a really awesome rug for under the dining table. When I changed my address at the postal service web site, they sent me coupons for all kinds of stuff, including Pier 1 -- $15 off a purchase of $75 or more. Pretty easy for the numbers to add up in that store, too, you know? We got some really great stuff and our house has some cool new decor.

it's called the scroll border jute rug, and it was originally $120, and on sale for $39. amazing!

So the rest of the day consisted of cupcakes -- my mom had come to visit on Friday and brought me all the ingredients I needed to make a recipe I saw on the Rachael Ray show, including cake mix and frosting, so hell yes I used that right away -- and my lady Sooz came over to check out the house.

mom! :-)

so many cupcakes...

we killed a bottle of wine between the three of us -- and two pizzas and some bread -- and had a lovely night.

Tonight, I used my newly gifted ingredients and made buccatini with tomatoes, red peppers, green peppers, bacon and garlic. Delicious. I baked a half of a French roll and whipped up some dipping sauce, too. Very tasty. The recipe should still be on her website (I think it has archives) and it's actually pretty easy.

so pretty, and so yummy.

the clean up! we're such a great team.

It's been a really great weekend. Relaxing, happy, comfortable and...well, fuzzy, thanks to the cats climbing all over us while we try to do anything around the house. This week...maybe finally painting the hallway (it's almost the last thing we have to paint around here) and just enjoying the place. I need to start working outside, but for that to happen I'm gonna need some more attractive weather. This 45 degree crap has to end soon. Right?

Ferndale deals

Hey Ferndalians! My boyfriend and I are trying to compile a list of local places that offer deals and specials on certain days. We've got the whole half-off all food at the WAB on Mondays (totally amazing) and the Post's $6 burgers and fries on Tuesdays...what else should we be aware of?

breathing, finally.

WELL.

It's been a while, hasn't it? Chris and I are officially moved in, and I blame that fact for why I haven't been able to get on here. Painting, cleaning, organizing, rearranging, building...it's so much, but we love it.

We brought our furniture here on Sunday via U-Haul (totally worth the $95) and brought the cats the next day. So far, Penny Lane (my cat) and Harley Quinn (Chris' cat) haven't gotten along at all, but we're pretty hopeful.

Harley Quinn, looking adorable.

Penny Lane...brooding.

There's so much to say, and so much advice to give, and I promise to be more regular about these updates, but right now I have a rare moment of peace before bed, where I can watch TV with Chris and enjoy my buzz from the two beers I've had and just...chill. So I'll be back this weekend, for sure. In the meantime, here are some photos I took today of our current setup.

our super cute dining area!

local art!

my favorite piece of local art.

the TV/living area.

lovely shelf/display.

the door into the dining area.

blue bird display, over the stove.

my makeup corner, upstairs.

our upstairs TV area.

our adorable bed. :-)

red

So, we’ve decided to bring some color into our lives. And our house. And our floors, and cabinets and ceilings. I mean, it’s not like we’re professionals, here. But it looks great so far: we’re going with the Behr Ultra, the kind with the paint and primer in one can. It makes for easy application and only one coat, in most spots.

Yesterday we started on the dining room feature wall and the kitchen. This is called “Antique Red,” and we picked it on a whim from Home Depot. Not bad for a random choice, you know?

oooh...antiquey!

This was no big deal. We need to touch it up and we’re done, pretty much. The kitchen, though…

What a pain. That bead board (is that what it’s called? The shiny, thin wainscoting-like stuff on the walls? It’s magnetic, which I didn’t previously know.) doesn’t take the paint terribly well until the second or third coat, and we discovered the counters and cabinets aren’t flush with the walls, so we have to decide whether or not to paint all the way down (or up) behind them. It’s sort of weird, and the layout makes for some sore muscles from all the reaching, but it’s going to look awesome when we’re done.