Kitchen and Bathrooms

Well I didn't have to do too much to these rooms so there are no before pics. I just had to scrub them down pretty good and buy stuff to match the interesting wall colors but that's about it.
Jason's Bathroom
Master Bathroom-I promise the curtain isn't that shiny in person
Main part of the kitchen. Yes, I even have freshly baked brownies on the stove. :)

Somewhat Lazy Weekend!

Well Josh and I had the weekend to ourselves...Jason went home for the game. I didn't feel too well on Friday night (24 hour bug) so we just laid around and watched a lot of movies....Maid of Honorwas one...it was so cute! Then Saturday I had to run some errands and Josh decided to build Dozer a gate. We had been looking and the few baby gates we found that were long enough were like $100 so we decided to make one for $30. It has hinges on it so we can fold it up and scoot it to the side but this way Dozer can sit out on the porch with us and we don't have to worry about him wandering off. Although this picture below clearly shows he's not much of a wanderer (pre-gate). Of course we watched football the rest of the day on Saturday, which ended up not being that fun. Sunday we ran some more errands, got Josh some shoes, and we ate lunch at Chili's. Living in the city makes me miss places like Chili's, Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesday's and Applebees. They just aren't prominent like back home. We would have to drive to the suburbs to eat at one but they do have a new Chili's pretty close by so we went and I really enjoyed it!

I'm hosting Erin's Bachelorette Party this weekend so I'm going to have a busy week and weekend. It's going to be so much fun though and I'm really looking forward to it.

Have a great week!
Dozer laying on the stairs pre-gate
After gate, I don;t think he looks very happy.
Dozer and I decided to put on our GA jersey's after that terrible TN game. I know I'm a traitor...but c'mon!!

Bye Braves

This weekend was the last set of home Braves games so on Thursday me, Josh and Jason decided to go see one last game for the season.

Jason's 1st Braves games as an Atlantan.

Getting better

It's hard to believe this is healing...when it looks worse.

The Weekend

We didn't do that much this weekend and we were totally ok with that. I worked around the house ALOT again. I painted the front door from the inside and the frame...it was pretty bad. I forgot to take a before and after picture...sorry! We watched some football, Meredith surprised us with a visit on Saturday, and Josh played flag football on Sunday. Unfortunately he came back home limping. He went to the Dr yesterday because it was pretty swollen and luckily it was just a severe sprain and not a fracture. Hope you have a great week. Josh and I are looking forward to a Josh and Ashley weekend. We haven't had one of those in awhile!!
Poor Josh. Jason got new shoes and Josh got a new bandage.

Before and After-Outside

You might not be able to tell in the pictures as much but it does look 10x's better outside than it did. Neighbor's have stopped and told us how much better the place looks even.

Before

After-gardening, painting, decorations.
Before
After-thanks to Josh's moms hard work this is what the flower bed looks like now, an actual flower bed.

As you can see we still need some work on the yard. We are going to check pricing on sod or something and if it's not too costly we may take that route. It's a work in progress!

Before & After-Room off of living room

So this room has been my pet project. I was panicked when I realized that all of my closet stuff had to fit in this room below. See what I mean?
So then Josh comes up with the idea that we turn this room into a closet. It was very unselfish of him considering we were going to make it his computer/video game room. It's kind of a blurry picture but as you can see just a small plain room. Drum roll please............
Tada!!!! The new walk in master closet!!!! The door in the corner that has the shoe organizer on it leads into the master bedroom. That way we don't have to walk through the living room to get to it. I LOVE it, and I have no idea what I would have done without this room. Thank you for the brilliant idea Josh, and thank you Josh, Jason and Meredith for all your hard work in hanging the shelving.
Another view

Before & After-Dining Room

This is a pretty big room and I don't have a formal dining set so it's become multifunctional. Thanks to Dad and Robin I actually have furniture to put in here. Obviously we are using it as a dining room but it's also where Jason and Josh play their Playstation. You can't see the TV but it's at the foot of the chase lounge so they sit on it when they play, they have it rough huh. Dozer has also come to love the chase lounge. He likes to jump up there with his toy while mommy gives him a look.

It's not totally done, as you can see in the far left corner I have some different sized picture frames that I had. I want to get another set and line along the wall behind the dining set. That is a little ledge so it's perfect for decorations.


Before
After-added some blinds to the 3 windows along this wall. The windows are old with layers and layers of paint so the blinds really make the room look better.
After-closed off this door for more space and so the table wouldn't be in the walkway to the kitchen. Thank you for the beautiful dining set Dad and Robin!!

Stay tuned for more before and after's....

My birthday

I had a fabulous birthday yesterday!!!! It started out great with the news about our deposit and just got better from there. I got phone calls from my favorite people, e-cards, cards in the mail, flowers, my hair done (my hairdresser even game me a discount on my hair :) and a home cooked meal. It was a great day and I felt very loved!! Thank you to everyone who made my day special!
The flowers my boss sent me and the owner gave me a $100 gift certificate to Lowes!!!
Josh made me one of my favorite meals (chicken in the garden)
Josh serving dinner, they are always making me laugh!
The flowers my sweet friend Samantha sent me. Only she would think about me the day after she gets back from her honeymoon :)

Happy Birthday Dozer

In case you didn't know this story I'll tell it really quick. When Josh and I went to meet Dozer to see if we would be a good fit they told us his birthday....Sept 9th. All 4 of us (the previous owners and me and Josh) were pretty much sold when we told them that was my birthday too. It was too much of a coincidence and we became his owners that day :). I'm sure the decision also had something to do with our charming and lovable personalities ;)

Anyways, Dozer is one person I do not mind to share my birthday with. He is the sweetest dog I have ever met and Josh and I are truly blessed to be his mommy and daddy. He brings so much joy to our lives and others. Happy Birthday sweet Dozer!!
Josh and I took him to the toy story...he wanted everything
hmm, these look good...
It must be so frustrating to not be able to use your paws
Yummy, a big bone that mommy will only let me chew on outside on the porch :)
Thank you for my favortie soccer ball Granny!!
* He really does love this ball and we are working with him on kicking it instead of ripping it to shreds. He's starting to get it and it's so cute. I'll have to video him once he's getting good. A couple walked by one night and saw him kicking it around...they were impressed.

A Great Birthday Gift

So all of that hard work I mentioned in the previous post has paid off. I recieved an email this morning that the landlord would agree to knock $650 off of the deposit because she appreciates the work we've done and said the house hasn't looked this good in years!!! Can you believe that?? I'm so excited and that is a HUGE help right now!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Before and After

I'm going to start a little "before" and "after" series. We are really doing a lot of work on this house. I know it's just a rental but some things I just can't handle and would just rather do it on my own. Here are 2 of the big projects. We painted the front porch and cleaned the kitchen floors. I was really contemplating re-tiling the whole thing but Josh talked some sense into me. Mom suggested steel wool and sure enough...like new floors. Coming up, front view of the house and the office, converted into a walk in closet :)

Before-and this was still after pressure washing it. Gross
After-Josh's mom and I stayed up all night one night painting this porch...it looks so much better!

Me scrubbing the floors. Josh and I cleaned every square inch of the kitchen. Scrubbed it, swept it, mopped it.
Before-I know it might be hard to see but there were paint drippings, grease stains, etc all over the floors
Another before-again, I know it's hard to see but I promise it was pretty bad
After-now I know you can't see anything here ;)

Funny Video

So with all of the hardwoods now it is very hard to sleep in with Dozer around. He has always been a paw dragger. When he walks he doesn't pick up his paws all the way so you can always hear him walking around. It was a tolerable noise on carpet but when you are trying to sleep and he is flipping around on the hardwood it can be hard to sleep. He was up early on Saturday morning and everyone was sleeping so I put these boots on him (that we got in the past to protect his hurt foot) so he wouldn't wake everyone up. Well let's just say I spent the rest of my morning laughing at him because he would walk around kicking his paws up so high. He looked so goofy. Sorry I filmed it this way, you have to tilt your head.

Birthday Weekend with the 4 M's

I had so much fun this weekend celebrating my birthday (a little early) with Mom, Meredith, Mikey and Max...and Josh, Dozer and Jason too of course. Everyone arrived by Friday and we went out to eat at Noche, a tapas place in VA Highlands. It was very good, we had at least 10 different plates that we all shared. I love the tapas concept with a large group because you get to try such a variety of foods. It was all good and we had lots of fun. We really just hung out the rest of the weekend at the house, watched some football, worked on the house, Mom and I ran errands for the house, and we ate lots of cake and chili. I couldn't have asked for a better low key birthday with very special people. Here are some pics. I promise I will have some house pics soon. Maybe by the end of the this coming weekend.

Josh and Dozer playing in the front yard
My Buldogs
I'm not sure why we buy him toys, he LOVES sticks!

The crew minus Mom who is taking the picture
Josh and I
Mom and I
My yummy cake, it was strawberry and it was HUGE!
My new UGG slippers from Mom and Jason, I LOVE them!!! I really wanted a good pair of slippers since I have so much hardwood now and I will wear them everywhere. They have hard soles for outdoors too. I am SO excited!!!