Happy homeowners and a pair of jeans that fit just right...(for now)

So, my super-best-friend-in-the-entire-world, Shannon just realized that I had a blog. Yeah, maybe she's not such a super-best-friend-in-the-entire-world... ;-) Just kidding!

So, she was catching up on the last year of my life and I started reading back through old posts as well and came across the one where we picked our options for the house. The following is what we picked with my now-commentary in parentheses and brackets:

Gas log fireplace in the Great Room (very excellent decision; Gatsby also agrees)
Separate garden tub and shower in the Master Bath (I take at least 3 baths each week; so this was a must)
Kitchen island (I truly can't imagine not having it)
Faux-wood floors (laminate) in the dining room and front foyer (they look awesome, but they're a huge PITA to keep clean)
Garage door opener (isn't it lame that you have to pay for the opener and motor?!) What's the point of having a garage! [A definite good choice; it was nice to have it ready to go on day 1!]

Fluorescent light in the kitchen (Works very well and keeps the kitchen bright!)
Two exterior lights on each side of the garage door (Very nice for walking Lil G at night)
An elongated toilet seat in the Master Bath (Brian INSISTED!) [I notice no difference.]
Super quiet Whirlpool dishwasher (black) [If ours is quiet, then I can't imagine the "standard." Thank God for the 4 hour delay]
Whirlpool microwave hood over the stove (black) [Very nice to not have it taking up counter space.]
Smoothtop Whirlpool Stove (black) [Way hotter than old school-lame stoves.]
Side-by-side Whirlpool fridge (black) [We probably could have gotten a better deal from Best Buy with no-interest financing, but it was totally worth it not to have to worry about it when we were moving.]

We also had them put ceiling fan wiring in all four bedrooms, the great room, and the loft (We've put up fans in the master, 2 guest bedrooms, and great room and we're planning to do the loft ASAP.) and overhead lighting wires in the hall bathroom and living room (The light in the bathroom is phenomenal). We also put cable hookups in all four bedrooms, the loft, great room, and living room (which we're going to make an office) (Also a good purchase; I do wish we had added an electircal receptacle in our closet (for ironing and for our Christmas candles) and put a light hookup in over the sink].

So, in hindsight, I think we did pretty darn well. When I'm motivated, I'm going to pull out all the available options to see what we passed up and if we have any regrets on that front.

Last Monday, we went to Lowe's and bought a storm door and signed up to have them install it. So, on Thursday, Brian came home for an extended lunch and the guy installed the door. It is so fantastic. We are very excited about it. The way our house is laid out with the garage, there are only downstairs front windows in the study. So with the storm door we can have a lot more light at the front of the house. Gatsby wasn't sure about it at first, but now he likes being able to look out. It was a pretty good deal too. The door was like $189 and the installation was 15 percent off at $84; I think it looks more expensive than it cost.

While we were at Lowe's we also bought a nice pretty little plant that I put in a hanging basket on the front porch. It's very cute. I don't remember the flower names, but I'm sure they're something generic and they're purple and yellow. I'm going to try really hard not to kill them. We also made an impulse buy of a little doggie welcome statue. Serious cuteness. But Gatsby was a little freaked out by it at first.

Today, we were super homeowners and did our HOA duty and Brian mowed the lawn. While he did that, I pulled weeds out of all our plant beds. As I did that, I realized that our neighbors probably hated us because the pinestraw in our beds looked disastrous.

OK, I didn't really notice this today--I'm a copy editor, I can tell if a comma is set italic or roman; I notice things; I've actually been thinking about the pinestraw for like 4 months. So I decided that today was the day that we were going to add more pinestraw.

Eventually we want to relandscape some areas, but I don't think that's going to happen soon, so the pinestraw was an easy fix. We also wanted to get the blower attachment for the weed-eater and I wanted to find a weed spray that I could use in the plant beds.

So back to Lowe's we went. And, as a 1st time homeowner, I haven't had a lot of experience buying pinestraw, so I had no idea about the cost. So we ask this guy in lawn and garden and he says "three ninety seven" for a bale. So, I'm like "three hundred ninety seven dollars?" And the guy says "yeah"...and then laughs. But doesn't say anything else, so Brian and I walked off. As we were walking through the store, I was annoyed because I really wasn't sure if he meant $3.97 or $397. So as we were checking out, I asked the friendly cashier, who clarified $3.97 and we bought 3 bales. And when we got home, I spread out the pine straw (Brian had to go to hockey game). And then realized that I needed another bale for the area around our A/C compressors, so back to Lowe's I went (3rd time this week!) and bought my 4th bale.

The yard looks so lovely now. The grass is a nice lovely cut and the pine straw really spruced things up (pun intended)!

Oh, and we also hired a lawn service that will fertilize and do all that stuff that Brian and I know jack about. So our yard will probably look fair through this summer and then in the fall they will overseed everything, so hopefully by next spring, we'll be the best looking yard on the street.

OH! And, Brian and I are going to put in a patio. And, yes, we're going to do it ourselves. We're not sure yet when, but hopefully very soon while the weather is still lovely; basically, as soon as we find an awesome weather weekend where we'll both be free all weekend. It will be 12'x10'8" and will be behind our "great room." We are very excited about it.

I'm also reworking the design of my genealogy page on my Web site, so as soon as I get it looking decent, I'll post the link. I'm basically taking my ENG 575 research and taking out all the literature references and adding more info about any other ancestors I can find...

And, finally, I have another new pair of jeans. Vive la Walmart! My most recent pair of Walmart jeans looked really bad because the hips kept sagging down and looked silly, so I am down another size. YAY!