November 2014 – Laughingly Ever After

House Update – Cabinets, flooring, and moldings oh my

November 25, 2014 mrs_ellyk Comments 1 comment

Friday we took Matt’s parents to the house. I heard the cabinets were in and I suspected the flooring was down but man were we surprised. All the hardwood had been laid, all the cabinets were in, and the moldings and shelving were in.

I am in LOVE with the kitchen cabinets!!!! They are everything I hoped and more. They are beautiful! I couldn’t be happier if I’d actually gotten to pick out our cabinets. The floors are equally amazing. You can see the variation in the wood and it’s going to look great once they’ve been sanded down and poly’ed.

Matt and I were totally surprised to see they had the moldings and shelving done. The bookcases beside the fireplace were also done and look great! We were both glad we decided to have them be cubby style. We had the option to have one component and one cubby or both cubby. Cubby was totally the way to go.

The only thing I wasn’t really happy with was the vanity in the Ensuite bathroom. It is comically small. I’ve emailed the builders agent to see if that is the correct vanity but I haven’t heard back. I’m sure she will say yes. I’ve told Matt it will have to be replaced because I think it’s going to look stupid and well, dinky. I’ll have to find out how much it will cost to upgrade, otherwise it will have to be changed once we move in. (Which won’t make Matt happy but oh well.) In my townhouse I was able to find a vanity on CL for about $50.00. Maybe I’ll luck out this time unless we can get the issue resolved.

House Update – We have Tile

November 18, 2014 mrs_ellyk Comments 0 Comment

Matt and I ran over to the house on Sunday to see what progress had happened over the week. As soon as we walked in the door we saw a huge pile of wood flooring in the dining room. There was another large pile in the living room. Somehow even with 2 piles it didn’t look like it should be enough! Then I noticed some tile items. I immediately went to the downstairs bathroom. WE HAVE TILE! I checked upstairs and all the bathrooms and laundry room were in progress as well. I have to say, I was a little bummed the hardwoods hadn’t been started yet but we are starting to see progress!

I will say the title isn’t exactly what I wanted but overall it’s not bad. I would have preferred white marble in the master (I’m all about some white rooms!) or at least the new 12×24 tiles but those weren’t an option and well the white marble was more than Matt was willing to spend. In any case, I think the tile looks good.

Upstairs Guest Bath (half Jack to bedroom #3)

Ensuite bath (aka guest suite/bedroom #4)

Master bath – looking at the vanity area

I’m hoping for more progress by the end of the week. Matt’s parents are coming to town on Friday and we will take them to the house to look around. This will be their first time!

Skin Care – again….

November 17, 2014 mrs_ellyk Comments 0 Comment

I know, I know. I seem to change skin care routines all the time. It’s nice now that my skin isn’t so super sensitive, I can change things up for time to time and not worry.

This new routine is a mix of several previous skin care routines. So here’s what I’m currently using:

Cold pressed, unrefined Coconut Oil (I get mine from Costco for around $15.00)
Cerave Foaming Facial Cleanser
Olay Pro-X Advanced Cleansing System
VoilaVe Rose Hip Oil

I start with Coconut Oil. I scoop out a little bit with my fingers and massage the oil into my skin. I find this is a good way to breakdown your makeup. Once I’ve massaged my skin I will use a cotton round with a little Coconut Oil to remove my eye make up. I would suggest lightly wetting the cotton round, otherwise you’ll get cotton fibers stuck in your eye lashes. Once I get the majority of my eye makeup off, I flip the cotton round over and wipe off the rest of my face. You will still have a decent amount of oil on your skin. And most times I will actually use whatever oil is left on my hands to massage my skin a bit more. I basically just use the cotton round to remove the makeup before massaging more oil in. You can do this as long as you want. Some nights I take my time and others I just do a quick once over before moving on to the next step. This is the facial massage I kind of follow, but not really. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h022_ZDnv0&app=desktop

Once I done massaging the Coconut Oil into my skin, I get about a quarter to half a pump of my Cereva Cleanser. I add a little water and rub it on my skin but just enough to get the product on my skin. Then I use my Olay Pro-X to cleanse the rest of my skin. This doesn’t actually remove all the oil but I feel like it does a good job of removing any remaining dirt.

After I rinse my face off, I pat it dry and apply 3 drops of the Rosehip Oil. True Rosehip Oil does NOT smell like roses. It has a very earthy smell. Matt says my face smells like grass after I apply it. The Rosehip Oil absorbs pretty quickly into the skin (like 5-10 mins). I then apply my Mary Kay eye cream and moisturizer.

As you can see, this is kind of a process but it seems to be working pretty well for me. My skin has gotten drier as I’ve gotten older and I really like using oils. I feel like my overall complexion has evened out some since I’ve started this routine. I also feel like my blackheads getting better. I haven’t had any crazy breakouts either. I would recommend this routine for all skin types. Dry skin needs the moisture and oils actually help oily skin not over produce oil.

You can also search the blog for OCM and that will pull up a post or two regarding the Oil Cleansing Method. You could do this with Coconut Oil instead of the process I am currently using.

Under Contract!

November 10, 2014 mrs_ellyk Comments 1 comment

Say what?!?!? So a funny little thing happened over the weekend, Matt and I went under contract on a house. But wait, I thought you guys were looking at lots? Well, we were. Here’s what happened in the past week and a half.

I was over in the neighborhood 3 out of 5 days last week. I met my mom to look at lots the Friday they were released. Matt and I went back on Sunday and then I went over with our realtor, J, on Tuesday. While J and I were there we also stopped by another builder. The plan had been to see how many lots they had left and basically we would compare the two builders and see what might be better. We quickly realized they had 2 houses that were in progress and both for sale. We walked through both and the more we saw the more I fell in love. After some not so subtle hints to Matt I was finally like, “I want this house!” J contacted the builder and started to see what we could work out with either house. Fortunately one house was a little further behind in the process and we decided that one would work better. Thursday afternoon Matt and I met J at the house for a quick walk through. Then we went to the office to start talking about the house. We found out the finishes that had already been chosen and discussed the options still available for change. Once we got all the prices we were set to make an offer.

Our offer was submitted Friday morning and by Friday afternoon we had a counter. We talked it over and submitted our counter. Unfortunately the builder didn’t respond and by 9:30pm we decided to accept their offer. We just had to wait for the contract. Saturday was kind of nerve wracking as we waited, and waited. By mid afternoon as we were leaving the State game we got the contract. Once we got home, we started reading through all 46 pages. Matt signed and then I signed and we were done. We were told we would have to pay our deposit before the builder would sign so yesterday Matt and I headed over to our new house to pay our money and look around!

It was nice to be able to take our time and wander round. We took a bunch of pics of our house and we also took pics of the house next door. It is further along and the finishes are similar so it’s nice to have a few pics of what ours will look like (but I will post those later – gotta pace myself 😉 ). With that said, I’ll post some pics. 🙂

Me in front of the sold sign. Matt didn’t tell me my eyes were closed.

Back of the house/porch which will be screened in later