life
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The coolest thing!
Last night as Matt and I were getting ready to go to sleep, I heard my email alert on my phone. It was almost a quarter till 11 (yes, I know we are old 😉 ) and I normally wouldn’t bother looking at my phone but with all the showings we’ve had in the past few days I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a showing alert. I grabbed my phone and saw I had a blog comment. I figured it was spam until I read it. Umm holy cow!
Not only was this NOT spam, ya’ll, it was someone famous! Author L.N. Cronk managed to find my blog! But not only did she find my blog, she commented on my 2013 Book Review post that featured her Chop, Chop series. A series of 8, or 9 as she graciously pointed out ;), books that span across the life of a boy and girl from highschool to death. The series will tug at your heartstrings as you follow their journey through life. I will say again, the series is rooted in religion though I didn’t find that it distracted from the overall storyline.
When I first started my blog like 5 years ago, I had dreams of being a “famous” blogger. As time has passed, I’ve realized 1) I’m not a really good writer, not that I ever claimed to be and 2) this blog is for me. Should people see it and find it interesting, YAY and welcome! That would make me extremely happy but the days of me being a “real” blogger have gone to the wayside.
Can I just say, I’m still kind of freaking out that L.N. (we are besties now :D) commented on my blog. I’ve had a huge smile since last night. I really just think it is the coolest thing!
~k
P.S. I am going to try to do a house tour this week. I finally have good pics and the house is basically done. I also should have some updates on our current house.
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Finishing Touches – House Update
Matt and I ran over to the house on Sunday morning but I think we went too early. No one was working so we were unable to get in. The biggest thing I noticed as soon as we drove up was the mailbox!!!! YAY!!! Needless to say I was pretty darn excited about that. We had grass in the front yard and the door had been painted. Unfortunately the door was black. I emailed the builder’s agent and was told there was a “paperwork” issue. She said my paint color had been approved and the door would be repainted to the correct color.
As we walked around we noticed there were a lot of spots that had been filled/repaired on the front porch. It makes me happy to see they are noticing some of the same small details and correcting them before we even notice. I did notice one of the railings on the screen porch is lower on one side than the other. I’m sure the builder will see and correct this before I mention it but at this point it looks like we are in the home stretch.
I was also told the new vanity is in! The builder’s agent said she walked over on Saturday and it looked really good. I’m really excited to see it. I plan to go over at lunch one day this week. I’m currently working from home due to icy roads so I don’t think it will happen today.
Speaking of the ensuite bathroom, aside from finding a mirror, which I can’t do until I see the vanity, I have everything ready for that bathroom. I found a shower curtain on clearance at Kirklands for $8.00. They also had a picture that coordinated and after some debate I went back and bought it. I basically got the bathroom done for under $35.00. I liked the shower curtain so much I decided to put it up now while we show this house. I think it really looks great! My vision for that room is coming together nicely. 🙂
In other news, we are planning to list our current house either tomorrow or Friday but we already have a showing for tomorrow. We decided to do a “coming soon” listing and were able to schedule an early viewing. 🙂
~k
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2014 – A Year End Book Review
I did this post last year too and I like the idea of keeping a list of books I read throughout the year. The current tally is 50 books! WOO HOOO! That was my unofficial goal for the year. It was also a rather pricey year for books at Casa de E. hehe. Thanks to mint.com Matt was able to pull up how much I’d spent on books. Whoops. It was a little more than I expected. I feel like this was the year of the series though. I got sucked into
severalnumerous series this year. Most of the books weren’t more than a few dollars but it adds up for sure.A Demon’s Wrath: Part 2 (Peachville High Demons Book 8), Sarra Cannon
Demons Forever (Peachville High Demons Book 6), Sarra Cannon
Rival Demons (Peachville High Demons Book 5), Sarra Cannon
Shadow Demons (Peachville High Demons Book 4), Sarra Cannon
A Demon’s Wrath: Part 1 (Peachville High Demons Book 7), Sarra Cannon
Beautiful Demons Box Set, Books 1-3, Sarra Cannon
Hard to Come By: A Hard Ink Novel, Laura Kaye
Thirty-Three and a Half Shenanigans (Rose Gardner Mystery), Grover Swank
Conquer Me (Royals Saga, Book 2), Geneva Lee
STRIPPED, Part 3, Kellie Perkins
STRIPPED, Part 2, Kellie Perkins
Billionaire Unmasked ~ Jason (The Billionaire’s Obsession), J. S. Scott
Being Neighborly: a novella, Carey Heywood
One Night with a Billionaire, J. S. Scott
BROKEN SYMMETRY: A Young Adult Science Fiction Thriller, Dan Rix
Command Me (Royals Saga, Book 1), Geneva Lee
STRIPPED, Kellie Perkins
Crash (Billionaire New Adult Romance), Vanessa Waltz
Going Down (Wish Upon A Stud – Book 1), Elise Sax
Hard to Hold On To: A Hard Ink Novella, Laura Kaye
Shattered Hearts (Shattered #1), Octavia Wildwood
The Job Offer, Eleanor Webb
PSYCHOPHILIA: A Disturbing Psychological Thriller, Michelle Muckley
Thirty-Two and a Half Complications (Rose Gardner Mystery), Denise Grover Swank
Thirty-One and a Half Regrets (Rose Gardner Mystery, Book 4), Denise Grover Swank
Thirty and a Half Excuses (Rose Gardner Mystery, Book 3), Denise Grover Swank
Twenty-Nine and a Half Reasons (Rose Gardner Mystery), Denise Grover Swank
Business as Usual (Off the Subject Book 3), Denise Grover Swank
Redesigned (Off the Subject Book 2), Denise Grover Swank
A Separate Peace, John Knowles
After Math (Off the Subject Book 1), Denise Grover Swank
Top Secret Twenty-One: A Stephanie Plum Novel, Janet Evanovich
Hard As You Can: A Hard Ink Novel, Laura Kaye
Hard As It Gets: A Hard Ink Novel, Laura Kaye
Presumed Dead (A Dylan Scott Mystery), Shirley Wells
The Back Road, Rachel Abbott
Only The Innocent, Rachel Abbott
Worn Me Down (Playing With Fire, #3), T.E. Sivec
Because of You (Playing with Fire, #2), T.E. Sivec
Sleep Tight , Rachel Abbott
A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire, #1), Tara Sivec
Here (YA Romance), Ella James
Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes (Rose Gardner Mystery), Denise Grover Swank
The Last Year Boxed Set, Books 1-4, Trisha Leigh
Last year I kind of got on a paranormal kick. I’m not normally one to read about things like witches, demons, or aliens, but this year found me reading about all of these things. Mostly the books are well written and suck you in. Here are a few highlights from the past year.
The Rose Gardner Mystery series by Denise Grover Swank
These books are similar in style to the Janet Evanovich series I’ve read for the past few years. The difference being Rose has a gift for seeing things that will happen in the future. It could be something as mundane as a dog running away or something big like a murder. Her “visions” find her in a series of comical adventures which lead to a relationship with a local State Trooper. Over the course of the series (which isn’t complete) Rose finds herself in numerous bad situations caused by her visions. The books are funny and well written. By the time I finished the last one, I’d say I was a tad bored with the series as a whole but I also read most of them back to back. I will more than likely keep my eye out for the next book and read it when it comes out.
If you hadn’t noticed I’ve developed a little bit of a thing for Denise. Something about her books draw me in. If you are looking for a new author check her out!
The Playing with Fire series by T.E. Sivec
I stumbled across these books when I was looking for something a little more “adult” oriented. I was pleasantly surprised that the storyline was actually good. The sex scenes were steamy but played well into the storyline. This series is about 2 friends who set out to find the truth behind what happened when one of their friends is tragically killed. Book 4, the last of the series, came out in Sept but somehow I missed that one so I will be downloading it later today. 🙂 You can now buy the series as a boxset if you’re interested. I would definitely check out this series if you like a little spice and a fast moving story. (ETA: I read book 4 in a day and it deals with pregnancy loss. It was quite the tear jerker. I think you could read the first 3 books and not miss if you don’t read the 4th book)
The Hard Ink series by Laura Kaye
Not a bad overall plot but the individual storylines pretty much the same: troubled guy meets girl in some extraordinary circumstance and falls in love. All of the books take place over the course of a week or two. A group of dishonorably discharged Army buddies come together to find out what really happened on a mission gone wrong involving their commander when the commander’s son goes missing. His daughter contacts one of the guys and the group is reunited in order to save the son and clear their names.
The Peachville High Demons by Sarra Cannon
I finished the year with this series about witches and demons. Harper is a teen that has been bounced around from foster home to foster home when she finds herself at a home for girls in Peachville GA. Once arriving, Harper starts to discover that Peachville isn’t your ordinary small town. The town has secrets and she is about to be thrown right into the middle of them. It turns out Harper comes from a long line of witches from Peachville. The story unfolds as she falls for Jackson, a demon from another dimension. Together they set out to right the wrongs being done the demon world by the Order of Shadows witches.
Happy New Year!
~k
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House update – It’s coming together
Last weekend I hosted a baby shower for a friend at my mom’s house. Her house is about 10 mins away from our new house. Once the shower was over, mom and I decided to go check on the house progress. I was peasantly surprised to see lights were up and fixtures were in. As part of our offer, Matt and I asked for upgraded bathroom fixtures in the Master bath. It really was such a small thing but something I am now super happy we asked for. I think it really looks nice and adds a little something to the room.
Master bath tub 
Master bath sinks Mom and I also ventured up into the attic. There was a good bit of room up there but the stairs are really steep so I’m not sure how we’d get anything of substance up there. But you can get up there if you need to. Coming down was an adventure because the stairs are so steep it was kind of scary. I told her I had been there done that, and I wasn’t going up there again! 😉
Attic looking towards the front of the house. Overall I’m pretty happy with the lighting package. I’ve known from the start I would replace the dining room light. I fell in love with a chandelier from World Market. I’m not that crazy about the foyer light so I have a feeling that will be replaced at some point too. The bathroom lights are fine but I might replace the globes eventually. They just seem a little plain. But really, I’m just so happy with got this house!
Dining room 
Foyer (kind of blah) 
Island Pendant – which we both LOVE The other builder we were considering finally has some of their houses for sale. The plan we were looking at is for sale with about 700 sqft less than we got and pretty close to the price we are paying. I feel like we got an EXTREMELY good deal from our builder, plus I think our house will be much nicer in the end. Not to mention it’s already appraised for more than we paid. 😉
Kitchen faucet and tile. Tile will have white grout (though I kind of like it dark, it’s too late to change now) 
Subway tile around the fireplace! Really glad we changed this. 
View into the kitchen. 
Mud bench. It will be painted the same as the doors but the bench will be left natural. 
The door color 
Laundry room cabinet and SINK!!!! I am so excited to have a sink in the laundry room! While we were there, we stopped by the office. The builder’s agent was on site and I wanted to check in with her. She told me that her and another agent agreed the vanity in the Ensuite bath was too small. She was going to work to see if we couldn’t get it changed out. I must say it doesn’t look as bad with the vanity sink and lights in but it’s still not ideal. I really just hope they change it out for something a little wider.
Ensuite vanity and light Matt and I will be running by the house this weekend so I should have more updates next week.
~k
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House Update – Cabinets, flooring, and moldings oh my
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.
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House Update – We have Tile
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.
Downstairs bathroom 
Upstairs Guest Bath (half Jack to bedroom #3) 
Ensuite bath (aka guest suite/bedroom #4) 
Laundry Room 
Master bath – looking at the vanity area 
Master bath – tub 
Master bath – shower 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!
~k
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Under Contract!
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. 🙂
Front of the house 
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 
Love the detail on the eves 
Floor plan -
And the lots are open!
It looks like the blog might officially be taken over by house stuff, and I am STOKED! I’ve mentioned a few times that we were looking. Well as of right now, the plan is to build a house in a Golf Course community in an area around Raleigh. I’ve been patiently waiting since August to find out where their lots would be. The only *slight* downer so far is my original email said the prices would start in the Low’s but now it looks like they will start in the Mid’s. :/ I hope we can still make it work.
It was odd because I checked the builder website this morning and didn’t realize they had finally posted the house plans. This also meant the site map had been released! WHAT!?!? I’ve spent the last hour looking over the lots and taking a Google street tour. But here’s the thing, they are NOT the lots Matt and I thought they would be. We assumed they were going to be in another part of the neighborhood instead they are sprinkled into an existing section. While I guess it’s okay, I feel like the other lots were a little better. Anyway, it is what it is so we will make do. I plan to run over there this afternoon to scope out the lots and see which ones are better than others. The plus side, is Matt and I know where these lots are and we are familiar with the streets so just looking at the site plan we already have an idea of what might be good.
For the past few weeks I’ve started pinning items for our new house! I am having the best time looking for ideas and searching for new furniture. I never properly decorated our current house because Matt kept telling me to wait until we “move into a new house”. Well THAT time has come! Unfortunately we will need a decent amount of furniture for the new house and we won’t be able to purchase it all at once. But that will give us time to live there and decide what we will need and where.
Here is a map of the lots.
Let the house planning begin!
Happy Halloween!
~k
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How to: Plastic Coated Cabinets
I’m going to switch it up and not actually post anything beauty related today. I know you’re shocked! Ha! With #operationhousehunt under way, Matt and I slowly started to work on our “to do” list for the house. One project included sanding and repainting the bathroom vanities. The paint was peeling on both of them and the plastic coating on one of my doors had started to pop off.
First off, can I just say, who in the hell thought it was a good idea to cover cabinet doors with plastic? Anyway, here’s what you’ll need:
- Goo Gone
- Sand paper and/or power sander
- Paper towels (damp and dry)
- a plastic scraper
- screwdriver/exacto knife
- Kilz (or any primer paint)
Okay, so step 1 is to remove the plastic from the doors and panels. On all but one of the doors and panels, I was able to get a little edge pulled up and peeled from there. I had one panel that was really stuck so I used an exacto knife to get under the edge to get it started.
Next, use your Goo Gone to remove some of the adhesive. I tried sanding first and the adhesive just clogged up my sandpaper. The adhesive also gummed up into little balls from the sandpaper. The Goo Gone didn’t remove all of the adhesive but it did help.
Once I felt like the adhesive wasn’t as sticky, I wiped everything down with a damp paper towel. Then I used my sander. There were still a few spots that gummed up so I used my plastic scraper to scrape off the excess. You can kind of see it in this pic. I used about one piece of sandpaper per door. Even though the adhesive isn’t very sticky, it was still on the doors.
After all the doors and panels had been Goo Gone’d and sanded, I wiped them down one more time with a damp paper towel to remove any excess dust. I used a dry paper to clean them up and then we started painting. We used 2 coats of Kilz and about 2 coats of our cabinet paint. The doors weren’t quite as smooth as I had hoped they would be but overall it looks much better.
I should add, I didn’t bother to remove the plastic coating from the back of the doors. It’s white and I’m a little lazy. 😉 It just didn’t really make sense to add the extra step though you could. I also didn’t bother taking a pic of the final product. Since we still need to paint the bathroom and replace the flooring, I’ll do a before and after when everything is complete.
~k
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Superhero Subway Art
I found this pic on my phone over the weekend and realized I never actually posted the final product. Whomp whomp. Even worse, it was like a year ago. Oopsy.
Backstory, a friend was having a baby and decided to do a superhero themed nursery. In true Kelly fashion, I decided to make her something. I decided on subway art with superhero slogans. I was lucky we were pretty slow at work so I was able to work on my project in my free time. (I like to work on crafts at work, shh, don’t tell. 😉 ) First I had to figure out what slogans I could use. There were a few I knew but I had to research quite a lot to finally get enough to fill the space. In the end I used 16 slogans. I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy find that many that I thought were appropriate and short. I think my subway art turned out really well considering.
I also decided to customize the Superman logo and change it from an “S” to a “D”. Baby’s name started with a D. 🙂 It’s been so long I honestly can’t remember how I did this. I either found the image on a Google search or I used an online tool to change it. I can’t believe I can’t remember. Anyway, I made it work.I just ordered more fabric the other day to make another baby blanket for a coworker. This will be my 5th one? I’m pretty excited about the fabric I got. This will be my second girl one. I’ll post some pics when I get finished. I feel like my baby blankets are getting better, and I am getting much faster. The process now takes me about an hour from start to finish. That includes cutting, pinning and sewing.
~k
