Yeah, I know we’re going to wait two years, but this house came up into the market in Beeville, and we love it. And by love it, we mean we cannot stop thinking and talking about it. We first went to see her on Wednesday (it’s a her, don’t ask why), and then we went again today with Jodie (sister-in-law) and my father-in-law.

I took lots of pics, and I want your opinions/thoughts/suggestions/compliments/etc.

Here’s my FIL presenting the house to you all. I know it’s not a gorgeous mansion, but it’s within our humble means. We’d likely paint the posts/balusters a white color as well as all the trim around the house. Shutters would be GONE and we’d love to replace the old/original windows with these. There’s no garage (see off there to the right) because they converted it into a 4th bedroom. This bothered the hell out of me at first, but it makes more sense since the garage would have been teeny tiny. The Texas heat has killed the hedges/bushes/grass. Won’t you come inside…

No huge foyer, I know. It’s a starter home people, work with me here. The blue door has got to go. Like yesterday. Anyway, here’s the living room- it’s super spacious, and as Sandra Rinomato would say it’s open concept. It has tile in all the hallways/bathrooms/common area.

Here’s a look at the kitchen/dining while sitting in the living room. I love the ceiling fans/light fixtures- they’re new and modern enough for now. You see my SIL’s sheer excitement. Doesn’t she look FAB for just having a baby via c-section 2 weeks ago? She does. My FIL is stepping into the once garage but now it’s the master bedroom.

Love the carpet baseboards. NOT. The carpet would be out and hardwood floors would be in. This room is small- 12x15ish, but it is larger than our current 10x11 bedroom in the apartment.

There is a heinous bathroom in the master bedroom:

And next to the bathroom is a walk-in closet of sorts:

Let’s exit from the master bedroom and across the hallway into the other 3 bedrooms & 1 bath of the house.

Here’s the second heinous bathroom of the house:

 

Now onto what USED to be the master bedroom:

And here’s bedroom 3 & 4:

And the most important part of the house (to us anyway)- the kitchen! It’s just been redone (new cabinets) but the appliances are the same ones used by Fred & Wilma. Get my drift?

Yes, we notice the water spot in the above picture.

Ok, so now onto another super important part- the backyard!! I’ve never ever had a backyard since I’ve always lived in an apartment, even when I was young. Come outside with me, won’t ya? French doors lead outside and into…

A very nice pergola/gazebo thingy:

And the MAIN attraction *drum roll please*…

A hot tub/spa!! You all can all come over and have margaritas with me, k?

Finally, here’s the linen closet & utility/washroom- the door leads to the backyard.

And the yucky textured ceilings- I don’t think it’s a popcorn ceiling, it’s like painted like that on the ceilings and walls. Would that be an insane amount of work? Please say it’s manageable!

So, what do you all think? Want to take a guess at the price for a LCOL area? (Low cost of living) It’s South Texas!

We LOVE it, we see potential, but we FEEL fear. What to do?

Seriously.

You do light up my life.

You light up my brain to be able to think creatively when I have little energy, time, money, and motivation. I puffy heart you all.

Tonight, I literally got lit up. And not in the illegal way you’re thinking, sorry.

My husband was at a football game tonight, so I had 3 glorious hours to myself. I tweeted a bit, but then I decided to work on some stuff in the living room. I decided to tackle a portion of a wall.

Here’s the before so you can get an idea:

Yeah, you can tell how much thought I put into decorating 2 years ago when we moved in. I promise there was a picture on the little shelf on the left. Promise! It’s actually a picture of me and someone FAMOUS. Yes, famous. A post on that pic later.

I bought this magazine rack at IKEA for $9.99 last month:

I liked that it was simple, modern, and efficient. I got to taking down the 3 shelves. Sad to see them go? Neither am I. They were from the $1 store. Then, I put up my magazine rack.

Looks great, it’s straight…but, there’s just something kind of doctor-waiting-room like about it. Plus, there’s those gaping screw holes on each side. I know you noticed them, don’t act like you didn’t.

I could easily have spackled up those holes, but I didn’t have any spackle. And I was already in my PJs so there was a snowball’s chance in hell that I was going to go buy some. No, I couldn’t just do this part tomorrow, I wanted it done NOW. I needed something to cover up those holes. Enter $3 vinyl clings from Goodwill. Remember I mentioned them in this post? Yup, those.

The clings match the general color scheme…ok, not 100%, but close enough. Who needs to be matchy-matchy anyway? Flowers are flowers. I unpeeled them from the wax paper and played around with the placement until I ended up with this fabulousness:

See my bible up there at the top? Yes, the IKEA 2010 catalog= my personal bible. I lurve it. You can also see my newest magazines- Taste of Home & Better Homes & Gardens. I haven’t even flipped through them yet, hopefully I will this weekend.

But I digress. I left this project feeling good, but not great. Sure, I made it look fabulous for about $12 and change, but it was still just there. I still wanted something more. Go figure, Monica wants something more. I stepped away from the project for about an hour, and then I realized what would make it even better. Only problem was I needed to whip out the Christmas decor box to get the tinsel out.

I’m kidding, I didn’t really get the tinsel out. I don’t even have tinsel.

I did, however, have a string of battery operated LED lights that I picked up at Walgreens during the after Christmas specials for a whole 25-cents. Yeah, a quarter. I’m not afraid to spend the big bucks folks, for real.

Except mine only has like 14 lights, but this is generally what the package looks like. Also, mine are white LED lights and the string/box/cord is all dark green.

I’m guessing you know what I did- I made my IKEA vinyl thingy light up. Because I am ostentatious that way. I arranged the lights so that each row was lit on each side, plus the bottom. I hid the on/off switch box on the bottom of the rack behind the magazines, and I taped the lights in place using regular Scotch tape. You can’t see the cord connecting all the lights because it’s behind the rack. Genius!

Here it is lit- the light looks blueish in the pics, but it’s more like a soft white in person, I promise.

 

 

Here is the way it looks when I lit some candles nearby:

I really like it, and it took me about 30 minutes to put this idea all together. My fave part? It cost about $13!

I will probably look for stronger LED lights, but these will do for now. I love my magazine rack.

Do you ever find you think of a way to make a project 100 times better if you just leave it alone for awhile? I’d love to hear about it!

My sister-in-law is a rock star. Poor thing. She went over her due date (by a few days, which is an eternity in pregnancy time I’m sure). On Friday, August 7th, she was having contractions, so off we went to the hospital. At midnight. After staying there a few hours, they said she was at a 4, and to go home. Saturday and Sunday came and went. Then Monday came along, and I got THE phone call at work at about 9 am.

“Are you ready to be an Auntie today?” my mother-in-law said.

HELL YES!

So, all day long I worked away. I was so eager to see Andrew! If I was that excited, I can only imagine how Jodie & Stephen felt. All that waiting, pain, sonograms, excitement all comes down to one moment. That moment their child is born. It’s unreal isn’t it? I am always of the “don’t want ‘em, can’t pay me to have ‘em” mentality when it comes to children/babies, but after all this, I have baby rabies.

Which I am sure can only be cured by having Andrew piss in my face or vomit on an expensive shirt.

Hhmm.

Anyway, I left work at about 4 pm. Still no baby. I mean, come on, she’s been in pain like all. freakin’. weekend. Seriously. Nope. She had an awful reaction to the epidural- her blood pressure went low, baby’s heart rate went down, she couldn’t breathe- scary! Finally, the effects of the epidural wore off (after giving us all an anxiety attack). We keep waiting. And waiting some more. We watch America’s Got Talent. We wait. Get my drift?

At about 8:30 pm or so, more bad news. She’s at an 8, she won’t/can’t dilate any further, and her blood pressure is through the roof. It’s HIGH! Higher than rock stars after a concert kind of high. They decide to do a C-Section.

So, we wait.

Finally the anesthesiologist comes out and lets us know all is well, but that’d we’d have to wait another hour or so until we see Jodie and the baby. Sigh.

Then Stephen/daddy comes out!

Stephen and his dad (now he’s a grandpa! awww!)

Stephen and his mom

Stephen’s little brother- isn’t it weird that this little fella is an uncle? Weird!

 

My father-in-law and mother-in-law. I have no clue what was so funny, but I love this picture. Love!

And then Stephen tells us we can’t see Jodie or the baby yet, but he will text Geno (my step mother-in-law…it’s complicated, don’t ask) a picture of Andrew.

Here’s the reactions when we get the picture message:

And then we get in trouble with security for being in the hallway. Poo on you security guard!

Finally, we get to see Andrew!!

My hubby and his nephew. Our nephew. Wow.

Precious baby boy.

Jodie & Andrew over at our apartment

Andrew, I love you. :o)