Paint, Paint, and MORE Paint!

Which equals more trips to Home Depot, more color decisions and LOTS of friends and family helping!! We are deciding on the paint for the family room, the living room/dining room, and the downstairs bedroom, and the office. I can officially say that I hate picking colors! Thanks to Kim for helping me and also teaching me about the squinting of the eye trick : ) Thanks Bryanna and Colleen for letting me bounce ideas off of you! And thanks to Rod, Tommy, Eric and Genie, Kim, Tim, Elizabeth, Mom, Matt, Larry, Katie for helping us paint!! You guys are all incredible! Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Kitchen Construction!

Mom's here! The interior work begins! We are painting EVERYTHING! Demo-ing the downstairs bath and we are re-finishing the cabinets. Well, Steve Donato (our cabinet hero!) is doing an incredible job with the cabinets! His attention to detail is awesome and he is such a hard worker! They are coming along nicely! Eric and Genie helped remove all the cabinets and hinges to get the project started! Thanks guys!!

The construction begins...

These photos were taken before we lived here. Notice the dark stained cabinets, the large box florescent light on the ceiling, and the cabinet over the breakfast bar.....soon to be all changed!

Here are some before photos...

This willow tree could be the death of us!!

Greg glaring at the Willow Tree!!

Everyone knows that I love trees! I cry when trees are cut down, I hate change, and my last name (now middle) is Green...call me a hippie, call me a tree hugger, call me a part of the green movement, whatever you wish..I just love trees- alot! EXCEPT this one!  Two days before we closed escrow the pool was a beautiful sparkling blue, the yard was free from any leaves and it looked like it could just use some flowers....Well not today! Not the day we close escrow...

 

Surprise! The Willow Tree decides to shed ALL of its leaves, fill the yard with these little yellow leaves, turn the pool a nasty color, and shed some more leaves!  I tell you... this Willow Tree could be the death of us! 

First things first.. FLOWERS OF COURSE!

VERY 1ST TASK..PLANT FLOWERS!

Yes, that's right! The very first thing on my (yes, Bree's. Not Greg's : ) list is to plant some flowers!  So that I did. Early Saturday morning (the day after my dad and Sus have arrived) we went straight to Home Depot and bought some flowers!

Daffodils it is! I love the vibrant yellow they immediately provided for all to enjoy on the back deck! Tommy took these pictures! Great pics T-Tommy!

Surprise! The outdoor crew is here!

We had just received the good news on Friday, signed papers, etc. It was late in the evening and Greg and I were just sitting at the kitchen table in our condo discussing the huge purchase we had just made! We were also trying to guess at how many times we signed our name that day : ) My dad had called and I was on the phone with him when we got a knock at our door...guess who! My Dad and Sus! They drove all the way down to surprise us!! And let me tell you, they did not come empty handed! Since you know how much they love the outdoors and working in the yard, they came with a truckload of brand new outdoor tools! Rakes, shovels, clippers, wheelbarrow, shop vac, vaccuum, air compressor, sander, oh and so much more! We could not believe it! (Although we could believe that of course they would not let a day go by without getting into that new yard to spruce it up! (And we hadn't even closed escrow, but it didn't matter! To the new yard we go!!) 

That morning was filled with pure giddiness!  I was SO excited! It was also the morning of our first of MANY trips to Home Depot! They should have frequent flier miles at Home Depot! We would have so many free flights right now!

So where to start? Well in the yard of course! 

We bought a house!! 48 hour escrow!

After a whirlwind of an escrow (48 hours!!) we are finally homeowners! We put in an offer and waited (somewhat patiently) for a long time. We waited and waited over Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and then finally in the second week of January we heard the good news! We were homeowners! We found out Friday that our offer was accepted, we had (already scheduled) inspections on Friday, and we signed papers at the Title company on Friday! Monday the funding went through and Tuesday early AM we were homeowners!!

Here are some pictures of the house. We didn't take these picture, but got them off a realtor's listing. 

From the back corner of the yard, looking toward the back deck. 

The yard is on two levels. The lower level has the pool and lawn. The upper level is a large Willow tree, Redwoods, and some rosemary plants. So a lot of open space, not sure what to plant there.

Finally Updating Our Blog! (Sorry it's been awhile!)

So much has happened since September! I will try to fill in the blanks...but the biggest news is that we bought a house! Woohoo!!!