Happy One Month To Us*

(*OK, it's one month and 3ish days now... I started this last Friday and never got around to finishing it... oops!)

It seems like only yesterday that at this time, I was doing something very similar (wasting time) as I waited for 12:00 to roll around to head out for our closing.  At the same time, I can't believe we've only been in our house for a month.  It feels like Bedtelyons and Grafton have been BFFs forever.  :'(

I'd say just one month in, everything has been going great for us.  We've been finding all sorts of sweet deals, undertaking several new projects, and learning something almost every day.  Maybe (most likely) we're still in the "honeymoon" phase of home ownership, but I feel like we're just as excited as Day 1 for our quest to make our house a home.  John has been extremely impressive in his handling of a variety of DIY repairs and projects around the house, but that's no surprise since he seems naturally skilled at everything.  Every Padawan needs a Master, though, and we'd like to give a special shout-out to Papa Harold for his guidance in saving our kitchen from flooding (and thanks for all the future late-night calls I'm sure we'll be making for advice).  It's a little rough being out in NoVA all by ourselves, but it's nice to know we can still count on our family to be there when we need them.

Note: While he does bear a resemblance (and regardless of what my Grandma Doty used to tell me) my dad is not the Pringles man (I think...), but I didn't have any handy pictures of him.  :)

We have been extremely lucky so far to really not be faced with any major challenges/set-backs and nothing we couldn't handle.  I guess all that Buddha belly rubbing has finally paid off.  The biggest issues we've had thus far are our wars on poison ivy and basement bugs.  John has been dousing the vines with herbicide, so I guess only time will tell if the mighty weeds will fall.  While the Home Defense did its trick on most insects, we're still dealing with a few small centipedes and beetles that are seemingly immune or just really determined to come hang out with us.  I mean, if they can see our awesome sectional and adorable pets through the windows, who can blame them for wriggling their way under the door to join the party?  The sprickets are another story.  What could possibly be worse than something that is practically half spider and half cricket??  Who came up with that??  Seriously.  Hopefully some weather stripping under the door and another round of Home Defense will end their evil reign.  I really appreciate Elliot's valiant efforts to stalk and consume the errant pests, but I've seen one too many half-eaten sprickets hanging out of his sweet mouth.  Nobody appreciates spricket breath.  *shudder*

Elli the Exterminator!

So, what's ahead for the upcoming month?  We're expecting our Overlook rent deposit check any day now, so there's a debate as to whether we'll put it towards debt, a fence, or a shed.  Right now, shed seems to be a strong front-runner.  More storage is exciting, but then I think it would only encourage John's landscaping tool habit... More unpacking/organizing/getting settled is definitely on the agenda, but that's not exciting to think about.  I have a few sewing projects I'd like to tackle, mainly figuring out a curtain solution for our angled guest bathroom shower and some entry way bench cushion recovering, but the latter will have to wait until my mom can help me out with more advanced techniques (read: anything that involved anything other than sewing in a straight line... until the thread runs out).  I'm sure plenty of other things will pop up along the way, but that keeps things exciting, right?


The Fence To Nowhere... To be continued??