Bad roof...who told you that?

SO...after the roofer man came to our second 'first' house-yeah the one I wrote about here & here-and told us that basically the roof was shot to hell, the seller got her insurance people out there immediately.  Well, as the saying goes, the saga continues.  The insurance adjuster met our realtor over there this morning, shimmied on the roof, and proceeded to tell him that this "looked like a 30 year roof"-as in it has 30 years still left in it aka new.  This news comes as slightly confusing considering the other man was ready to start ripping off shingles while he was there (maybe he needed the $$?), but I guess we have to trust Mr. Insurance Man-which seems like something people warn you about). 

Since the husband doesn't want us taking any chances with having to replace a roof while we live in this house, he has somehow managed to get the roofing company to give us the 10 year warranty that comes when you put on a new roof. (No wonder he does so well in his job...he is great at talking people into doing what he says-hello salesman of the year!) I thought that we would've gotten this anyway-like just transferred over into our names-but he quickly pointed out that normally it is only for the owner of the house when the roof was actually replaced.  Add that to the list of times when Brad is right...good thing he NEVER reads this thing because he thinks it is L.A.M.E.  Ha!

Now that the roof issue is taken care of, I think we will be able to close on this house early next week!  Keep your fingers crossed and prayers acomin' because by damn, I think we might actually get this house!

Sewing with Grammy 101

Last Friday I took a much needed "mental health day" from school and tagged along with the hubby on his drive to Georgia to go hunting.  After he had a sales meeting in Chattanooga, we were off on the trek down 75 to God's country-as Brad calls it.  I took the opportunity of him passing through Atlanta to get dropped off at Grammy's house (my mom's mom) for a weekend of sewing curtains, pillows, and anything else I could think of.

**The fabric I took and used to make curtain for this house is actually the fabric that I bought for the other 'first' house.  Luckily it will all still work in the house now and besides having extra fabric, we aren't out anything.  Talk about lucky!**

My Grammy is the bomb.com period, but she is definitely the queen of sewing.  While I was growing up Grammy made ALL my Halloween costumes.  I was every Disney Princess under the sun, and Grammy made every single one of them from scratch.  And apparently the sewing of my clothes started much earlier than just my yearly Halloween costumes.  Grammy let me in on a secret-she even made my mom's maternity clothes when she was pregnant with me...And wait for it-made us matching outfits when I was just a newborn!  That's right-get over it.  My mom and I were styling together long before I had a say in it!

Anywho, I have never sewed anything in my life, not a button, not a hem, nada.  So, the idea of sewing curtains, adding trim, and making pillows was S.C.A.R.Y to me.  I would like to take more of the credit, but aside from making a LOT of pillows, making and messing up the kitchen window valance, Grammy did most of the harder stuff especially if it required that it needed to be sewn in a straight line.  That is one thing I didn't seem to master over the weekend..all in good time young grasshopper.

So, here are some pictures.  Once we actually get a house and get moved in, I am going to share pictures of all the finished products!  Woohoo!

The 84 inch panel for the master bedroom window...preeetttyyy:

Same panel after measuring and ironing the hem (so it is easier to sew):

Me (with my new hair color, might I add)-concentrating VERY hard-I'm trying not to jack this thing up-we had NO extra fabric:

Finished product-beautiful panel for the master bedroom window...too bad this window was only halfway done at this point:

This is a coordinating pillow that I made for the master bedroom...same colors, circular pattern, but not too matchy matchy-this fabric was originally purchased for a window treatment for the master bathroom in the 'first' first house:

This is the fabric that will be in the living room and the kitchen-this is the valance for the kitchen window:

After a long weekend of sewing & playing in Grammy's yard-this was exactly how we were feeling:

So, this was just a snap shot of the sewing that took place this past weekend.  The master bedroom is completely finished from window treatments to pillows.  The kitchen valance is finished, but the living room and "man-room" curtains had to stay with Grammy to get finished up (we aka she is putting trim on these because we mixed two fabrics-crazy, I know).  

I bought all this fabric-over 30 yards-for $150 at this fabric warehouse close to mom and dad in North Carolina.  Their fabric is beautiful, heavy, and inexpensive aka my favorite aspect of it all.  Nothing I bought was more than $4 a yard...can you believe that?  They said to get the price you would've paid at an actual fabric store you should multiply what you paid by 10!  Sheesh...I would say I got one heck of a deal!

You know the famous quote from Field of Dreams-if you build it they will come?  Well, I'm hoping the same is true for my house and curtains...If you sew the curtains your house will come soon?  Wishful thinking?...possibly.

Second verse same as the first...

Well, it seems that the first time home buyers blues keep following us around like a stage five clinger.  After having all the drama with the our first, first house-we thought this house we be much easier.  The hail damage from the storm in April had been 'fixed'-or so they said, and our contractor had already given us the go ahead on the house.  We were supposed to close yesterday, September 19, but yesterday came and went and we are still living in a house full of boxes. 

Our home inspection showed us that while the roof had been replaced from the storm, there was still damage on it-WHAT?!?!?!  Yeah, that is exactly what we were thinking...how do you have a new roof with hail damage?  It just did not make sense to us or the seller.  After a roofing company climbed up on the roof, they deemed that indeed there was enough damage to say that the integrity of the roof had been compromised, and that the seller should take out an ADDITIONAL claim to get ANOTHER roof put on the house-all in the span of 5 months.  WOW! 

So for now, we are just waiting-not so patiently anymore-to finally get into a house, any house.  We are hoping that this gets taken care of by the end of the month so we don't have to continue to shell out MORE IN OUR RENT than we will in our MORTGAGE!  Plus, we really like the house-I've(Grammy) already made curtains-more to come about that later-and we are really looking forward to living in our new hood. 

So, right now we are crossing our fingers, legs, arms, and any other parts that are capable of crossing in hopes that we get moved in and semi-settled before we have visitors the weekend of October 7th...Eeeeeek!  Talk about cutting it close.  Dang. We. Have. A. Lot. To. Do.

Remembering 9/11

It is such a beautiful day here in Knoxville, it is hard to believe that 10 years ago this day was so far from beautiful.  By this time 10 years ago, both towers had fallen and the country was trying to wrap its head around the amount of damage that had occurred.  I do not think that anybody quite understood the magnitude of the attack, the death toll, or the impact it would have in shaping this country forever. 

Let this day remind us all to come together, respect one another, and honor those that are still fighting to ensure that this country is a safe place to live.  The amount of patriotism that was displayed after 9/11 should not just be something that we dust off once a year, but rather a constant state of mind that we adopt daily.  

My heart goes out to those that lost loved ones 10 years ago, not only today but always.

God Bless The United States of America!

Give a dawg a bone...

Every Friday I wear red and black to school to represent for Georgia-keep in mind, I live in KNOXVILLE the heart of UT and all the ugliness that is neon orange.  I wear my Georgia G earrings with pride and revel in the fact that I do not look like I am going to do my community service or that I'm going to a garbage truck convention after work.  For the last year I have been able to hold my head high while bragging, shaming, and giving hell to all those UT graduates at my school-which is about 99% of them...BUT if last weekend was any indication of how the season is going to turn out, I better thicken my skin and prepare for a LONG year of heckling.

I'm going to hope and assume that the Boise State game was just a joke, and the REAL team is going to actually show up to play on Saturday.  I want Mark Richt to dig deep and find his emotion(and man parts)-like Florida celebration penalty emotion-and get that team and the fans fired up!  And if he can't do that, then I say "out with the old and in with the new."  I know he is a good Christian man, BUT I do not go/watch football games to feel closer to God-I go/watch them to watch my team WIN!

So, I really really really need the dawgs to get it together so that I can continue to wear my red and black with pride each and every Friday during the fall.  I want to be able to run up and down the hallways the Monday after the UGA vs. UT game playing "Glory Glory to Ole Georgia" as loud as I can-this most definitely happened  last year-I'm a sore loser but an ever worse winner.  I would like to get the team back that took no prisoners and whooped some you know what. 

GO DAWGS!

Why not try it again?

Well, here we go again.  After the big, nasty house fall out and legal battle from the first time we tried to buy a house...we are at it again.  Once we were legally free from the other house and seller, we started looking at houses with massive pep in our step.  Sick and tired of living in this same house full of boxes, throwing away more in rent than we will pay in a mortgage, and ready for new paint colors and wonderful fabric...I made a spreadsheet that even Amelia would be proud of.  There are only a few areas in Knoxville that we were willing to look in, so this made organizing a spreadsheet easy.  I knew more about the houses than our Realtor did...I was a woman on a mission. 

After looking for about a week, we decided that we found "the one"- which is funny because we thought we found "the one" last time around...oh well.  It is smaller than the previous house, but considering we DO NOT plan on adding any members to our family for YEARS-I'm talking at least 4-5, we realized we didn't need a massive house that we could raise 3 kids in.  I mean cleaning the house is not high on my/our priority list, so I liked the idea of less space to dust, vacuum, and mop.  Hooray!

We are hell bent on getting in this house before the end of September and are so lucky to have a wonderful bank working with us.  Suntrust is amazing-most definitely not getting paid by them to say that, but damn I sure wish I was.  Our mortgage specialist has treated us like her own children and is pushing to get us in this house ASAP.  Even when the last deal went to hell, they didn't even charge us a fee, which they normally would do.  We have been blessed with how awesome they are!

So....here is a picture.  We have our home and termite inspection Thursday, so I will be sure to take more pictures to share!