Archive for July, 2010

Here are some awesome projects from last week!

Just Another Hang Up created the most adorable picture frame wall for her children’s masterpieces.

Paisley Passions took a cabinet door and created the cutest chalk board.

Mom.Undecided made peanut butter cups and they look delish! Yummy!!

Make the Best of Things hand-made this amazing skeleton key pillow.

Tatertots and Jello redid her bathroom. I’m LOVING this board and batton.

I’m loving these chair covers In My Own Style made, and not just because they are monogrammed with an “H”.

The Autocrat made these oh-so-adorable shabby chic tote bags. Did I mention they are adorable?!

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Post about anything you’ve done this week.

* Put a link to my site somewhere on your blog so others can come party with us! For those that link to me, THANK YOU!

* Link directly to your post, not your blog.

* If you post spam junk I will be forced to delete it. Don’t waste my time!

Ready. Set. Post!

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Thanks!

I stole these images off a real estate website…

So basically they are totally crappy quality photos.

I’ve taken at least a hundred photos of the house, but to post them tonight would require me to get up, go to my car (In 100 degree heat), get my camera, unload the pics, sort through them, upload them, and then post them. No Thanks.

Whew. That wore me out just typing it. So for today, you get the crappy quality pics instead.

Don’t worry my little Padawans, you will be seeing plenty of pictures of my new house in due time. You’ll probably see my new house so much that you’ll eventually get sick of my new house and will send me hate mail asking me to please stop posting pics of my new house.

One great thing about buying a home in TEXAS is that real estate is not expensive. Well, it’s expensive to us Texans that grew up in Texas and don’t know any different, but to everyone else, Texas real estate is ch-eeap.

My new house (I say “my” like I actually own it, but technically we still haven’t even closed, so I’m still living at my mom’s house) isn’t cheap but it’s BIG. A whopping 3600 square feet actually. Yippie!

If I were buying in Los Angeles or New Jersey (both are places I’ve actually lived) then I’d be getting a cracker-jack sized 1 bedroom house in scary-ville that wasn’t suitable for humans to actually live in.

But in Texas? In Texas I get a 3600 square foot house. (I love Texas!)

It does help that the house is a foreclosure house. One family’s loss is my gain. I feel bad for them, but Thank You anyway because it made this home just barely eek into our price range.

Okay, so now for the 29 photo tour…

(Can I preface by saying that I plan on painting 100% of the interior of the house…?)

Entry way. As inspiring as the “Bless All Who Enter” is, it will be removed within about 30 seconds of closing on the house (which better happen soon or I’m going to poke someone in the eye!)

I’m pretty sure this is my favorite room in the entire house (can you sense my sarcasm?): The Dining Room. The previous owner decided to paint the entire room (not just the walls but the ceiling also) in purple and gold faux. This room will receive a head to toe makeover as soon as I can find a can of paint and a roller. Yikes.

“Formal Living Room” aka “We don’t know what to use this room for so I guess we’ll put our piano in here” room.

Family Room. Like we even need a fire place in Austin, Texas (it’s 100 degrees right now!) but boy am I excited to decorate this one!!!

Another view of the Family Room.

Kitchen. Sile stone counter tops. Niiiiiiiice.

Second view of kitchen. That arch over the sink overlooks the family room.

Breakfast Area. You can’t really tell in this picture, but this area could hold a table for 15… at least. (Okay, maybe not that many, but it’s a big area!).

Master Bedroom. Does the term “Master Bedroom” kinda grate on you? Like I’m the Master and my kids are the servants? I don’t know, it just sounds so Type A Control Freak-ish to me.

Angle two of the “Master” Bedroom. Through the archway on the left is the closet and the right is the bathroom.

About 1/3 of our “Master” closet aka: our 6th bedroom.

Master bathroom. Love. Pure love.

Laundry/Mud Room. I am so friggin’ excited about this room. I sound so lame-o, but it’s a real ROOM. It’s not a closet or a hole in the wall. It’s an actual room. And it’s big. And there’s extra room for a utility refrigerator/freezer and a place for me to install cute “mud room” type hooks and a bench.

Okay, this is a total waste of blog space, but I promised all 29 photos, and this one was included in the batch.

Guest Bedroom. As much as my mom and everyone else I’ve shown the house to likes the blue walls, enjoy them now because they are so gone.

Game Room. Or should I say “the room that’s so big I’m going to have to actually float my couch just so it’s close enough to the TV” Room. Nice big open space. Just don’t mention the utility bill to me right now to cool this 2nd floor. Because I’m not going to listen. I’m enjoying my fantasy too much at the moment.

Another view of the Game Room. Texas Aggie fans rejoice. Too bad I’m a Longhorn. This Maroon’s days are numbered.

Your boring average builder grade bathroom.

Son’s future bedroom.

Another bathroom (there are 4 total).

Daughter’s future bedroom. Yes, the football room is going to be my daughter’s room. Yes, I know how incredibly mean and cruel it is to give my daughter the football room when my son is hanging from my knees begging and crying for the football room. But she has to have this room. Why? See for yourself:

Window seat. Yup, I want her to have the window seat. I know, I know, I win the mean mommy of the year award. But seriously, it’s a window seat. It just screams GIRL! I tried to convince my hubbs that she needed that room because it was further from the game room and the noise (she’s a light sleeper) but he didn’t buy it. He knows me too well. He took one look at that window seat and accused me of wanting our GIRL to have it. And he was right.

BUT, I’m going to repaint in a New York minute so she won’t live with footballs for long (ever?). And my son wants a skater/snow boarder type room anyway, so the football field doesn’t even match his theme…

The 4th and final bathroom.

5th bedroom which will be our office. This room and the Master are downstairs while the other 3 rooms are upstairs.

So there you have it. 29 photos of the house that is so close to being ours. Now all we need to do is put the hot poker to the Loan Officer guy and make him hurry up and set a closing date.

Maybe we’ll actually get to move in (and paint!) before the end of this month. We are hoping for next week, but we aren’t holding our breath.

Once I actually get my camera out of my car I’ll show you some of the big decor plans I’ve got for this house. I can’t wait to get in and start decorating (if I can afford it which I probably can’t!)

Thanks for being patient with me while I slack off on my poor blog. Trust me, I miss my blog more than you do.

Oh, and if you haven’t decided to pack up and move to Texas yet, you should.

My son (and husband!) are tough on pants.

My rough-and-tumble almost-9-year-old son can put a hole in a pair of jeans in about oh, 5 minutes.

I have a quick no-sew solution for all these torn up pants.

Denim Iron-on patches.

I know what you are thinking… “Iron-on patches? Those are so ugly!

That is exactly why I iron them on the inside of the pants.

They are seriously so easy and only require an iron and about 2 minutes of my time.

Just inside-out the clothing item that needs repair, position the iron-on patch, and you guessed it, iron it on.

For smaller areas or weird shaped areas you can even cut the patch to the size you need before you iron it on.

Voila. When you are done, this is what it looks like:

Yes, you still see the frayed area (but isn’t that the “in” look right now anyway?) but now the hole won’t continue to grow and completely ruin your clothing item.

Believe it or not, these patches hold up quite well in the wash.

As you can see, my son has been quite busy in the ruining-his-pants department.

But after a few iron-on patches, those tears aren’t going anywhere.

Now he has the “cool” look of worn pants without his pants actually wearing out and needing to be tossed.

I’ve seen totally adorable ways to patch pants but they all involve sewing. Yes, I can sew, but honestly, I’d prefer to take the easier quicker way when it comes to mending clothes.

You can purchase these iron-on patches at any fabric store, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. I think I’ve even seen them at CVS.

Next time you get a little hole in your clothes, don’t toss them out. Patch them.