Christmas in January

Christmas has come and gone. And when it was actually acceptable to post Christmas decor pictures we were MIA from the blogworld. But it's never too late right? Here is a tinsy little look at our 2009 Christmas decor.

Here is Allan on the roof, patiently waiting for me to bring the ladder to him



This is the scratch I made on Allan's car after his genius idea to get on the roof, push the ladder away and have me lift the 4,753 pound ladder back up to him. Don't worry, I eventually got the ladder up to him, I didn't even have to call for help!


Allan and the ginormous 4,753 lb ladder.



Finished product.


A Christmas in January post would not be complete without a Christmas tree shot.

What's All the Commotion About?

The past two mornings Riley has been driving me crazy, like really crazy. She barks like a maniac, howls out the sun room window (in true beagle style) and scratches and whines at the back door. At first I thought she just had issues.... then I saw what she saw.

Do you see it?? Not our lovely swimming pool or our lovely pool leaf scooper-outer. That tiny little black thing on the neighbor's roof. Need a closer look?

Yep, there has been a C-A-T (don't say it out loud or else Riley will get upset again) hanging out on the roof that overlooks our back yard. Riley does not approve. And as hard as she may try, her little toothpick legs just can't propel her sausage-sized body on top of that roof. Poor thing. And that mean cat likes to taunt her by glaring down and flapping its tail. I honestly think it is saying "nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in doo-doo"... come to think of it, I don't think Riley would mind that too much, dogs do like poop ya know. Anyway, later in the day that mean kitty continues the torture my poor dog by walking along the top of the fence. Riley-no-likey.

So, what should I do about our C-A-T (ssshhhhh) problem? Be the crazy lady and bang some pots and pans in the backyard? Let Riley keep thinking she can make it on the roof? Borrow a bb gun from the little boy across the street? (ok, that one is a joke, I am a lover of all animals. Unless bugs and snakes and creeply-crawly things count as animals. I don't love them).

xo
Wendy

Spreadsheets, O' Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets, O' Spreadsheets 

How much do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Spreadsheets, O' Spreadsheets
My one true love
Spreadsheets, O' Spreadsheets
Heaven's gift from above

Your columns and rows, worksheets and graphs
Functions and formats, its all just a blast
The beauty you hold
Its deep in your cells
Your function, your grace
It cannot be replaced
Even if using Ctrl + H

You Excel in assisting and making decisions
Your calculations are of the upmost precision
With each new keystroke
The outcome becomes clearer

Spreadsheets, O' Spreadsheets
You are my true love
Spreadsheets, O' Spreadsheets
Heaven's gift from above

-Allan Brown

Before Pictures, Part 2

Part two is here!! Yay! Again, all pictures were taken long before we owned the home and moved in. So without further ado, before pictures!

Hall that leads to the bedrooms

Master Bedroom.

Master Bathroom

Hall from the Master to the Master Bath and Wendy's Dressing Room

Dressing Room/4th Bedroom




Guest Bath




Guest Bedroom




Office/3rd Bedroom




Patio




Swimming Pool (it started out green but by the time we moved in it was a black frog pond)

That's all for the before pictures. Now the fun part starts. We get to show you all the work we've done! Stay tuned.

xo
W&A

Guest Bloggle

Riley is my name, guest bloggin' is my game. That and eating. And chasing squirrels. Sleeping too. I am a three and a half year old puggle. That's half pug, half beagle. I have a short, black snout, big floppy ears and a curly tail. Yep, I'm as cute as I sound... I know it too and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I often use my extreme cuteness to get me out of trouble. I'd like to think that doesn't happen often but I gotta be honest... I may or may not get into the trash, bite holes in my mom and dad's undies and socks, and steal the food from their plates sometimes. But they still love me. My mom and dad tell me I need to go on a diet. I don't know what that means but it doesn't sound like very much fun. Mom and dad also like to make up songs about me, they think they are sssooooo funny but they aren't. They also like to humiliate me from time to time.


See. There is the evidence. But mom and dad aren't all bad. They let me sleep in the bed with them, snuggled right in the middle where I like it. Sometimes my mommy even lets me share her pillow while I snore in her ear. They give me a ton of lovin' too. If I roll over they'll rub my belly as much as I want. It works like magic! I also have a big, huge back yard that is all mine, perfect for squirrel hunting. I also like to bark at my neighbor dog, who is also a puggle, through the fence.

Well that is all for now. I'm late for my third two-hour nap of the day. I'll leave you with this super adorable picture from back when I was just a little puppy.



Yes. I'm cute. You don't need to remind me.


Lot of love and sloppy kisses,

Riley

The Story of an Indecisive Painter

Hi, my name is Wendy and I'm indecisive. Like really indecisive. There, I said it. But when it comes to painting I make normal indecisive me look good. So far my paint sample total has topped off at 18. This does not count the swatches I've brought home from our local Home hardware stores. Want proof of the paint sample madness?

Yeah, it has gotten a little out of control. By far, the most difficult space to pick a color for was the family room/dining room/sun room/hallway. It is all one open space, and the first color you see coming in the house, so picking the perfect color was of the utmost importance. Here is a picture I took a few months ago when I couldn't decide on a color.

When all the samples I brought home were either too light, too dark, too yellow, too brown or too gray, I turned to the handy paint lady at my local Home Depot. And guess what y'all? She whipped up the perfect hue for me. Here is how she worked her magic: I showed her the color I liked most but thought was a tad too dark and she adjusted the tint till it was just right. Easy peasy painty squeezy! When I brought home my newest sample and slapped in on the wall, 'cuz I couldn't quite commit to the whole gallon yet, it was love at first sight.

Here is the final color... swoon! I love telling our guests that the color was custom made just for me.


xoxo
Wendy

The Call

WE GOT THE CALL!! After 10 weeks of anxiously waiting, the bank had given us a response to our offer!

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was at work, pounding away on another countless appraisal and Wendy calls. "Allan, I just talked to Friendly Shark Realtor and she said the bank gave us a counteroffer and we have to accept it by 5 o'clock or the house is gonna be foreclosed on tomorrow morning. the bank's attorneys have already filed all the paperwork..."

The time was 3 o'clock. After 10 weeks of waiting, we have TWO hours to decide if their counteroffer (which happened to be about $50k more than our original offer!) was do-able. Yikes! Wendy quickly drove to my office as Friendly Shark Realtor haggled with the bank and drew up a new contract for us. She talked 'em down another $20K, which was "the banks absolute bottom line" and after a lot of soul-searching, it was gut-check time. Either we accept the offer or lose all chance of getting our dream house.

We did it. The house was going to be ours! Woo-hoo!!

Then the next day, we called Friendly Shark Realtor and told her we didn't like the new price and she needed to get us a better deal. "What?" was her response. Yep, we wanted her to do basically the impossible. But, thankfully, she did it! It took a lot of work and it took an extra few weeks, but she did it! How she did it may or may not have been ethical, but when you save $7,000 it's hard to care about things like that. And now, finally, the house was going to be ours. (We got the official final call the day before Wendy's birthday. What a great present)! All that was left was getting our mortgage and insurance finalized, getting the appraisal and inspection taken care of and countless, countless trips with Wendy to Home Depot to look at paint swatches and pick out the perfect colors to paint each room. Yes, she is quite indecisive but I don't think I'd take her any other way.

Allan

Thank You Economy

So. We found the house! We know it will be perfect for us! And on top of that, it is a steal by every sense of the word. Thank goodness for the recession or else this charmer of a home wouldn't even be in sight for us. We are taking advantage of the timing and are (hopefully!) purchasing our very first home. Which just so happens to be a short sale on the verge of foreclosure from a couple who is divorcing and can't keep up with their payments. As sad as their situation may be, it makes me happy! It means that our first home is within reach.

After hours and hours of spreadsheeting, Wendy and I put together in our minds what we considered was a fair offer. So what if no house in the neighborhood had sold for this cheap in the past 3 or 4 years, and our offer just so happened to be $100k+ lower than what it sold for in 2005, 4 years ago. The price sounds good to us...

And so, we submit our offer and begin waiting in suspense for a response, when we find out that it will be 4 to 6 weeks until we will get approval from the seller's mortgage holder. Boo! We later found out that 4-6 weeks would have been a dream come true.

And then 10 weeks or so later... WE GOT THE CALL!!

The Before, Part 1

The wait is over! We are super excited to share pictures of our lovely home... before it became our lovely home! You don't get to see the finished product quite yet. These pictures were taken the very first time we saw our house. Please keep in mind these are before pictures, we haven't made our mark yet.

View from the street.

Looking out the front door.

View from the front door. The previous owners used the entryway as a sitting area and the larger space as a dining room. Bet you can't wait to see what we turned it into...


The old dining room

Kitchen

Pantry/Laundry Nook

Other side of the Pantry/Laundry Nook

The space the previous owners used as their family room

The other half of the family room

There you have it! Your first look at our first look. I bet you can just imagine all the decorating ideas and paint colors that danced through my head. Stay tuned for part 2 of the before pictures - the bedrooms and bathrooms. And course the wait for the after pictures won't be too long.
*All pictures in this post were taken before we owned the home. All items belonged to previous owners.

xoxo
W&A

Our Friendly Shark Realtor

Since we haven't blogged in ooohhhh, 2 months or so, I thought I pick up where we left off. But I'm going to be quick about it... I want to get to the good stuff! The house tour and pictures and more pictures!!! But I also don't want to torture you guys by not filling in the gaps. So here we go... Finding a good realtor is pretty darn important. You want to find someone who understands you and your needs, someone you "click" with. Allan and I agree that without our wonderful realtor, we wouldn't be where we are today. Our first experience with a realtor was a little over a year ago when my sister and her family decided to move back to Orlando from Chicago. My sister and brother-in-law were nice enough to let Allan and I tag along while they toured house after house. We got to see their realtor in action and she was great, very nice actually. And boy did she try to reel us in... she really did. Miss realtor knew we were thinking of buying our first home in the next year or so and she wanted to hook us early. Unfortunately for her, we didn't take the bait. Our house hunting affair with Miss Realtor Lady was not meant to be. It just didn't feel right and we couldn't make the commitment. We also encountered several other not so good realtors during our Open House adventures. One in particular sticks out in my mind. We were touring a house, well to be honest it was more like a dump. In order to be livable it would have to be gutted and possibly bull-dozed to the ground. You know how Allan said in this post that you could judge the a house by the number of good pictures? Well, the info sheet for this house had four pictures... all of the park across the street. Yes, it was that bad. It also had the worst floor plan known to man. You had to go through the third bedroom to get to the garage. Why would you do that? Why? Anyway, the listing agent of the dumpity-dump-dump house had absolutely no valuable information to pass along to us. She also tried to convince us that the house was worth twice as much as it was offered for. She also said there may or may not be some vagrants living on premise. I sure you can figure we did not choose that crazy lady. Fast-forward six months to a nice spring day. We had just toured and fallen in love with the little house that would eventually become ours. That lovely spring day, fate brought us our realtor. She was the listing agent and she came armed with boatloads of information on the neighborhood, short sales and all things residental. Most importantly we clicked. We knew she would fight for us, especially to get that double commission being the listing and buyers agent. She was definitely a shark, she wasn't gonna take no for an answer. But a friendly, very sweet shark. Without the guidance of our friendly shark of a realtor, we would not be where we are today. She fought to get us our little short-sale. And she didn't take no for an answer either. She was on the phone with the representative from the bank almost every day. When the bank countered with an unreasonable offer she said NO WAY JOSE! And when the sellers started dragging their feet she snapped them into shape. It took five months but we got our house. So I know I promised to be quick, but I just couldn't resist. And in case this not so quick post made you fall asleep or made you wish you could have 10 minutes of your life back, here is a quick summary. Find a realtor you love and who loves you back. xoxo Wendy

A New Year, A New Start.

Happy New Year!! Allan and I had an amazing holiday season. We had four Christmas dinners... One with Allan's parents, one with Allan's extended family, a Christmas brunch with my maternal grandmother and another dinner with my other grandmother. We also hosted a Christmas Eve Party at my dad's house with family and friends. It is a tradition started long by my parents, I think it has been going 25 years strong! We had so much fun!! And the food was a hit, we hardly had any leftovers. For New Years Eve we were total bums. We went to a nice dinner and then had a nice and quiet evening, just the two of us.

On another note, I must admit... W&A's House has become pretty pitiful. We haven't posted since Thanksgiving. The shame!!!! But I guess it doesn't hurt that much to admit, since we had lost all two of our readers and all..... But we have big plans for 2010.... We are actually going to keep up with the blog. But this brings me to the point of my rambling. Instead of making resolutions that we knew we couldn't keep, Allan and I decided to make a list of things we wanted to do or accomplish in the next 365 days. Kinda like a bucket list for the year. And to put the pressure on, we decided to share this list with y'all (aka nobody) to keep us motivated. We also plan to blog about each item we scratch off the list. So, without further ado, in no specific order, I present to you our list of 25 things to do in 2010.

1. Take a vacation to the Smoky mountains

2. Go to a wine tasting at the Lakeridge Winery

3. Ride the new roller coaster at Universal Studios

4. Take Riley for at least one walk a week

5. Go for a bike ride on the West Orange Trail

6. See the Gators play an away game

7. Clean all dirty dishes within 24 hours

8. Clean out our 3rd bedroom/office

9. Devote a day to volunteer

10. Host a party

11. Don't go out to eat as much

12. Keep up with the BLOG!

13. Get in the car and just drive without knowing where we are going and have an adventure

14. Spend a day at yard sales and thrifting

15. Have Mimi (my grandmother) and Nono (my other grandmother) over for dinner

16. Go on a picnic

17. Be healthier and try to lose some weight

18. Go fishing

19. Try a new recipe each month

20. Do at least one load of laundry a week

21. Plant in the front yard

22. Drink more water

23. Put money into savings each month

24. Do something completely spontaneous

25. Be good, happy people


So, there you go. The 25 things we want to accomplish in 2010!


xoxo,

Wendy