Chaos

I can't even begin to tell you how crazy my lift has been - CRAZY... CHAOTIC... BEYOND..

1.  I cried at work today, which has never, I mean NEVER happened here-but I finally reached my breaking point.

2.  Maybe it's because I didn't get enough sleep last night because the wind literally blew out the windows in our bedroom, as in BIG GAPING HOLE in the wall with nothing there, but the cold midnight sky. 

3.  Don't worry after yelling at Josh for not being home for the third MAJOR catastrophe in the past four months I took care of it...in my own special way.

4.  Duck tape is my friend.

5.  Duck tape and a tarp are my best friends.

6.  Duck tape, a Tarp and Vodka are my best friends forever-and really create an amazing trifecta.

7.  Just checked into my flight and upgraded my seat so I could spend time with my best friend Vodka on the way to Jacksonville tonight.

8.  Sent Josh to buy every flavor of Vodka he could find so they would be prepared for my arrival tonight.

9.  He complied and went to Wackos his favorite liquor store/strip club in Jacksonville. 

10.  He took my pregnant best friend there two years ago on accident, and now makes a point/finds an excuse to go every year.

11.  He also makes it a priority to wear buba teeth all weekend ala James Bates during Tennessee Week.

12.  And throws mike bones at unsuspecting Georgia Fans, particularly the girls dressed to the nines.

13.  Which reminds me, he only packet T-shirts (and probably jorts) - so I better find him a polo and bright blue or orange shorts, and burn whatever else I find in his suitcase so what I picked is his only option.

14.  Well, that's the run-down.  I guess with that all I have to say is:

15.  Oh and if you're in Jax hit up my cell and come to our tailgate!

Is It Friday Already?

Oh my how this week has flown-by.  I have to excuse myself because I have been knee-deep in boxes all week. 

I'm talking 6-midnight every night of unpacking, organizing and cleaning.  I am so proud of the progress I've made.  To tell the truth, I wouldn't have been as motivated and maybe would have been able to spend some quality time with my DVR and big screen TV for premier week, but my in-laws arrive this afternoon.  I wanted everything to be in tip-top shape for their visit. 

I'm looking forward to a wonderful weekend with family as we celebrate the union of Josh's cousin Robyn!  Looking forward to the lavish affair and the Viennese dessert table at the reception-yay!

We're hoping to be able to sneak in the second half of the Kentucky game after the rehearsal dinner, as always:

Finally Friday!

What a week!

The movers are moving our furniture back in today-it's going to be so great to be home tonight!!

This week, responsibility trumped my social calendar.  I'm still not 100% sure how that makes me feel, but I'm pretty sure it means I'm growing up. 

So, I didn't make it to a happy hour on Georgetown's Waterfront or at The University Club.  But I was a good homeowner, good wife and a good friend.  And the latter two are probably the most important things I could possibly be. 

Not only did I give up happy hours, but I'm also giving up a Gator Game road trip - which is an extreme rarity.  No Neyland Stadium or tailgating on the Tennessee River this weekend in Knoxville. For the very first time since I was a freshman at UF, I will not be sitting in the stands as the Gators take on the Vols.  I will be unpacking boxes, while watching the game on TV.  Sigh.  With that, there's only one thing to say:

Thank Goodness for Sunshine

Today couldn't be a more gorgeous 65 degree sunshiny day!  Thank you mother nature. 

Via

After barely surviving the sauna that is the state of Florida this past weekend, I am loving these early September days in Virginia.  This was actually my facebook post after getting home from the airport on Monday night (much to the dismay of my fb friends), "I have to say after a wonderful trip to Florida, I am happy to be back in the much cooler state of Virginia-never thought I would say those words..."

Sadly though, I am not enjoying these days on the back porch of my house.  Even though yesterday was "move-in day" we are still going to be out for at least another week and up to a month.  I am so frustrated with the horrendous contractors that our homeowners association selected to "manage" our renovation.  When checking in on the progress on Tuesday evening (because to know if anything happened I have to go physically see it-God forbid someone give me a schedule, plan, or communicate what is happening) I noticed that the flooring under the carpet in the living room is uneven and actually trip worthy. 

Yes I did say carpet, what happened to the hardwoods?  Well, these crazy subcontractors are only out to make a buck and wanted to charge us 3x more than what any other flooring company would to install (on top of what the insurance company was already paying them to put in a hardwood foyer and carpet on the rest of the first floor). 

So after the initial outrage, we decided these people are hacks anyway (ie put all the wrong tile in all the wrong bathrooms) and we would be better off just having them put carpet in and getting it replaced with hardwoods a year or two down the road with better contractors and a lower price.

Little did we know at the time that they wouldn't level the sub floor before laying carpet, don't know if they put any padding down first, but from the feel of it they may have decided to scatter rocks around before laying the carpet.  Oh yes and the TV cables that we wanted layed under the carpet piled in a corner, that was a nice sight to see.

This isn't event the reason that we are going to be delayed moving in.  We have these HUGE mounted mirrors in all of our bathrooms.  Well, the mirror hits the wall 29.5" from the floor.  The cabinets I selected hit at 31-35.5".  Not a problem I thought since the contractors are billing $100 in each bathroom to take down and rehang the mirrors.  Our project manager called to say on Tuesday morning that the cabinets I picked wouldn't work and that we were going to have to have custom cabinets made because the mirror hangs too low.  Hello-I told you what cabinets I wanted and the specs a few weeks ago-could you have done the math then and not the day before we have the movers scheduled to bring our furniture back in?  Plus you are supposed to take the mirrors down anyway.  He said he didn't want to do that because they are glued to the wall. 

Well, I came up with the brilliant plan that it would be much faster to knock down the wall with the mirror, rehang drywall, paint and put up a new mirror than to wait 3-4 weeks for custom cabinets to be made.  My project manager didn't agree, but my homeowners association rep did think that would work and is trying to figure that out with the insurance company today.

We will see who wins this battle-later today.

You Know What's Awesome?

When you walk in your house to see that the tile you selected for each of your three bathrooms has been installed into the wrong bathroom.  Not to mention the patterns that they were to be laid in completely ignored, but the tile for the guest bath in the powder room, guest bath tile in the master bath, master bath tile in the guest bath.

It usually results in a warm fuzzy feeling all over your body.

It's also awesome when after you fall asleep during the South Carolina, Southern Miss game, your husband decides to pack for himself for the weekend.

And packs his favorite Gator polo that is developing a nice size hole in the middle of the chest, that you were meaning to hide so he couldn't pack it/wear it.  When asked nicely to pack a different polo, he tells you he is a tailgator, and only cares how the burgers get to the grill, how long the fries are in the hot oil and if the grits get enough cheese.  Not what he wears to the game.

Words Cannot Express

How insane my life has been in the past few days!

Living in a hotel for the past month and a half has gotten to the best of me.  I am so excited, yet terrified of football season starting this weekend.  I love it, our lives revolve around it, BUT to survive football season (as an adult, living out of state) your life needs to be in 100% order come kick off.  Well, my life is in 100% disarray right now-ha!

We interrupt this life to bring you football season!

Miss Molly my beagle baby had an incident last week.  On Thursday evening as we were walking to our hotel room she had a stroke/seizure/cardiac event.  It was so hard for me to pick up her limp shaking body and rush her to the emergency vet.  I had no idea what happened and couldn't get her help fast enough.  The worst feeling was being all alone as Josh was sitting in the Boston airport when this all took place.  Luckily, Miss Molly is on the mend, but my new bedroom furniture will have to be put on hold for a few months as we spent a few unexpected G's on her the past few days.

I'm also ramping up my volunteer work with my two (hope this wasn't a mistake) placements with Junior League this year, an advisor to the Phi Mu Chapter at American University (YAY-LOVE IT), and continuing to work with my sororities alumnae group in the area.  Mix all this with three upcoming weddings and I don't have a free weekend until December 11th.

Hoping to move back into our house sometime next week-the movers are tentatively set to bring everything back in starting the 9th.  Ya know, moving in the middle of the week, while working full time and a totally booked weekend looming-it's what all the cool kids do really.

I'm doing my best to keep my sanity as I figure out how to see all my friends and family, host a baby shower and have one of the worlds greatest morning tailgates this weekend-oh yes and cheering my Gators onto Victory!

Decisions Decisions

So the facebook and blog verdict is in, and the email request has been sent to our contractor.  I present our new bathroom vanities.  I will be picking up the light fixtures and faucets this weekend, and putting Josh's finely honed electrician skills to use.  Plumbing, we aren't taking our chances on and will leave up to the professionals-ha!

Other than trips to both Home Depot and Lowes, we will also be visiting some furniture stores.  I conceded hardwood floors downstairs for new bedroom furniture upstairs.  I will also be making a trip to JoAnn's and Calico Corners as I plan out curtains and a bed skirt for our bedroom. 

Humm, I just realized that my sewing machine is in storage with the rest of our household belongings.  Never fear, I have my trusty friend iron hem tape.  It won't be the first time I made curtains with it either-ha!  It will however be my first attempt at a pelmet box, but I plan to follow Jenny's tutorial from the Little Green Notebook.

As I searched for a picture of our bedding, I saw that I could buy a king bed skirt (our pattern is discontinued).  Now I have to decide if I want to make something on my own or jimmy rig a king skirt to fit our queen bed-why does life have to be this hard?

And yes, we have a dozen pillows for our bed. 

That's two more than are even displayed in these pictures. 

Yes, I know this is ridiculous-thanks.

Vanities oh Vanities

So life has been a whirl wind, what else is new...

With so much going on, I am having a hard time focusing, and selecting my bathroom vanities. 

I have picked the master bath paint, tile and light fixtures. Now just which vanity and then faucets-oh me.

So let me know what you think...

In the master bath, I have narrowed it down to two vanities, both have excellent reviews.  Of course I would like to maximize on storage space, the one I was leaning towards is only 31" and the other that I really like is 36".  Have I mentioned before that I am the most indecisive person on the face of the planet?  I would hate to give up drawers and five extra inches of storage, oh I know I'm loosing it.

This is the paint color as well as the lighting I selected-now which vanity...

So onto bigger and better things or smaller and just as good things since I am referring to our half bath. Below is the paint color as well as the vanities I've narrowed it down to.  All are similar size and price range, which some how makes the decision more difficult.  As noted, I'm totally at a loss-what to do, what to do?

Let me know which ones you like the best!  I would love to hear...

Thanks!!

Running Around

I feel like I have been running around like crazy this week.  I'm trying to keep everything moving full speed ahead with the house renovation.  I've got to keep on these folks to make sure things are happening.  It's so funny, the contractor that our homeowners association selected to head up the rebuild is horrid.  They have the worst communication EVER-the best is when we finally got our project manager (after waiting more than a week).  He comes out to do a walk through with us last Friday, and as we are wrapping up, says "Oh by the way you won't be able to reach me next week, I'll be on vacation."  Seriously, what kind of company assigns someone to head up a project the day before he leaves on vacation-ha! 

Anyway, the sub-contractors, who actually do the work have been great so far.  Every room in the house had been painted except for the living/dining room.  I love all the colors I picked out!  I'm nervous to see how my "Greyish" turns out in the living/dining rooms-hopefully I will know soon! 

All our HVAC ducts were replaced yesterday, and I met with the subcontractor doing our flooring.  I wasn't too impressed with him or his samples, so I'm hoping that works out.  I really wanted the same tile put back in the kitchen that we just did, so he said I could let him know the info on it and he would get it.  I figured while I was at it I would pick out different tile for the bathrooms, too.  I asked how much insurance was giving us per square foot for the tile in the bathroom.  I was not thrilled with his answer of $2, but figured I would work with it.  If I found tile I like that was more, we could just cover the difference (like we have on everything else so far-ha).  Well, I went to my fav tile store this morning, Mosaic Tile, and my fav sales associate really helped me out.  I was hoping to do a 3x6 travertine for the bathrooms, but that was a little pricey.  I explained to her what was going on, and she let me know that they just put a bunch of tile on clearance-jack-pot!  I got to pick out totally awesome (but not travertine) tiles for rock bottom prices-take that $2 a square foot!

All this with a numb mouth since I stopped by after my dentist apt this morning.  With all this running around town, I may need some alternative transportation-maybe I should take some tips from my brother.

This is him with his girlfriend, Betsy, last week in Thailand.

And he just picked up his new car truck, yesterday.  A Ford F250.  Can't wait to go for a ride baby bro!

The Paint has been Picked

I spent waaaay too long laboring over paint choices for the house.  After all the design books and magazines I've read over the past few week you would have thought I would have been inspired and ready when it came time to pick the paint colors.  I was not, but I turned over my choices to our painter and his team this morning, and this is what we are going with.  As I walked out, I took a sigh and thought, It's just paint...

Living Room Dining Room will be Sherwin Williams Grayish

Kitchen will get a fresh coat of Celtic Gray by Bher

The downstairs bath's new color:  Open Seas by Sherwin Williams

Hallways, foyer and stairway will be Bungalow Beige by Sherwin Williams

They Laundry Room will get a fresh coat of white

The Master Bath will be transformed to Gorgeous White by Sherwin Williams

Master Bedroom will get a fresh coat of White Chocolate

Guest Bedroom/Office will stay Sage Green

Guest Bath will turn into Banana Cream

I thought I was doing a neutral color scheme, but this seems to have a little more splash once I have it all together-looking forward to seeing the progress!

For having movers-we sure moved a lot

Well, we are finally getting setteled into our hotel suite.  There have been a lot of changes over the past few weeks, but I think we are making the most of the situation the great pipe burst of 2010 has taken on us.

I do miss our big screen TV and the guide feature from Direct TV.  I like to know what's on all the channels, so I can make the best decision for optimal TV viewing.  Our hotel doesn't have a box or dvr-so I have to figure out when my shows are actually on.  Enter-www.tvguide.com.  I have selected my favorite channels and printed tonight's prime time schedule.  For my first night camping out in front of the TV in a long time it's going to be a good one.  I'll be flipping between Bravo and MTV.  It's a Real Housewives (NJ & DC) Bethenny Getting Married, Teen Mom and Jersey Shore kind of night-I am very excited. 

We will be in a two-bedroom suite at the Marriott for at least a month, and the movers (and us) finally got everything out of our house so the construction can begin.  For having movers, we sure moved a lot ourselves.  They don't store clothing in the warehouse, so there were countless trips up and down way too many stairs with all our closet and dresser contents.  Not to mention my husbands "brilliant" packing technique that involved industrial garbage bags.  (I was on my girls beach trip-or else this won't have been considered a packing option).  Needless to say, I'm glad he tired out on packing before he got to my side of the closet!  I'm also glad we have two bedrooms in our suite since one is currently serving as a temperature and climate controlled storage unit (you don't want to know how many HUGE black garbage bags are filling this room).

Hopefully we'll be back in our house before we are too far into football season.  In the mean time I will be browsing the TV Guide website or have my nose buried in a design magazine or book.  Decorating an entire house is slightly overwhelming!

Gutted

We just found out everything has to go, even the newly remodeled kitchen.  The rehab company just made the recommendations to our insurance companies-here's hoping everything gets approved.  I've got a feeling it's going to be a long journey...

Goodbye Master Bathroom
Goodbye Walls
Goodbye Ceiling
Goodbye Floors
Goodbye Crown Molding
Goodbye Guest Bathroom
Goodbye Carpet
Goodbye Kitchen
Goodbye Guest Bathroom
Goodbye Light Fixtures and Ceiling Fans

Goodbye my sanity....

Hello dust, destruction and many more nights in a hotel room.

Would you like to join us for a glass of lemonade?  Life just handed us a bushel of lemons...