I realize with all the painting and mowing going on you probably figure we already live in the house.
Not so.
Tonight is the first night.
Chris was so thrilled to use his share of the wedding gifts (level, fubar, other gadgets I know not what they do), that he just went around the house checking that things were level.
Thank God for parents who all stopped by to lend a hand and a leg and some brain power - we couldn't have done it without you.
We? Well, Chris.
I missed most of the madness because I got to help host a baby shower for Mama J. What a great turn-out!
I should preface this post by mentioning that when we bought the house it was all, all, painted the same color. (Except the master - it was a cotton candy green.)
While I think I understand why they did it (painting one color can make a house seem bigger, which equals better resale), it was not going to work for our family.
We stayed in the neutral tones but just added a little color in the kitchen and nursery, and muted down the color in the living room, hallway and master.
The kitchen appears aqua in these photos but it's just the light (it always is). It's really a greyish blue.
Kitchen
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Anyone that has been to the house before and after will tell you they can't tell a difference in the living room.
Everyone that is except for me.
I can tell.
If nothing else you can definitely tell where we painted the brick fireplace. The mantle (much to many people's dismay) is getting painted next. White.
Living Room
Before
After
The master suite had a de-greening. It looks and feels much, much bigger now.
Master:
Before
After
The nursery got painted the same greyish blue as the kitchen. We're geared up to make this work for either baby girls Wehkamp or baby boys Wehkamp.
Nursery
Before
After
So as you can see, the house is starting to become more and more our home as we put our personal touches on it.
Stay tuned as the updates continue to unfold.
Oh, and any home remedies for getting rid of the paint smell would be greatly appreciated.
We already tried charcoal and water mashed up in a bucket. (Got to love the www.)
I say "1" because this will be only the first of many, many, many domestic days Chris and I have in our future.
To say we are proud homeowners would be a gross understatement.
Upon driving up our driveway and opening the garage door for the first time we both just looked at each other and grinned from ear to ear with home owner satisfaction.
We both find it incredibly rewarding that we have our own garage to pull into.
Maybe it's oh so much sweeter after living next door to potheads for a year, undrinkable water and no a/c for a year, and 29 years of dorms, parents and friends houses and a myriad of other shelters not even worth mentioning here.
The first stop on Domestic Day 1 was Elliott's Hardware. Chris and I both question how this store is still in business. It's surrounded by big box stores on all sides.
My hypothesis is - when the big box store doesn't have what you need, Elliott's will.
Case in point - Benjamin Moore pain.
Chris thinks it's the colorful people and customer service.
Either way, we paid a bit more to support the little guy, and made our first major home purchase: a mower.
And not just any mower, a reel mower.
We don't consider ourselves a "green" family per say. We have the compact fluorescents and we recycle, but we don't buy exclusively organic or plan on cloth diapers.
We just liked the idea of low maintenance, no gas, quieter handling and yes, the greener angle.
Next stop, HD.
I've been waiting for about 9 years to have a place of my own to paint and I wasted no time.
Came home -Chris started assembling, I started putting paint samples on the walls.
The end result of Chris's work - more work!
The reel mower in all its glory:
The results of my work will have to wait for another blog.
While Chris may be able to mow the whole yard, I cannot paint the whole house.
We'll be in touch with Domestic Days 2-1,000.
Hope you enjoy watching the first time homeowners (and soon first time parents) bumble and stumble their way through this.
I can guarantee you, anyone, that our Mother's Day events were nothing like yours.
We had a rather wonderfully strange Mother's Day this year.
The wonderful part - everyone in the family was in attendance.
All 4 of my aunts and uncles. All 4 of my cousins and their spouses. All 6 of my cousin's children. Both my grandma's. My in-laws. And both my sisters. We recruited from North Carolina, Illinois, New York and Houston.
All of my cousins - we're 7 girls in total
The children of my cousin's. Each cousin has a boy and girl. We will soon be breaking that pattern.
I think you know this group.
And this one as well. (They were sponsered by the color grey this day.)
Not quite sure who's telling who what to do in this one.
And now for the strange part.
After the clouds cleared out and it warmed up a little, the kids decided to go play out back. Where out back?
In my parents empty pool.
Well, it's not completely empty. There is about 18 gallons of disguisting rancid water at the bottom of the deep end.
The adults watched on as if watching a golf tournament.
The kids took tours of the deep end. Walking around the filthy water with great trepidation at first, but then running fast-paced laps round and round. I swear they were running at a 30 degree angle.
It's like the old "give a kid a new playkitchen for Christmas and he'll like the box it came in more" situation.
My parents have a tree swing, a basketball court, a HUGE backyard, a dog to play with, but no...all the kids wanted to do was walk around inside an empty pool.
I wonder if when they come back they'll be sad to see it filled with water?
It seems the possibilities for what can amuse children (and adults as well) is endless.
I feel a whole new world of gifts for the twins opening up. A world beyond Toys R' Us and Amazon.com and Chuck E Cheese's.
Maybe just a trip out to the city dump? I think Chris and I learned you're allowed two free trips a year. Score.
(Note - there are videos in this post. If you aren't seeing them, try going directly to the blogsite www.thewehkamps.com)
The set-up:
The file that awaited us:
(Which actually contained a piece of paper that required our signature in order to verify our signature was our signature. I felt like I was in a cartoon.)
Probably the only piece of paper really necessary. We totally look like we know what we're doing right?
Sure we bought a house and that was exciting and all - but address labels already made up with our new address on them and our name spelled right? - total excitement.
As you all well know by now, Chris and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day.
It's not that we don't like the idea of being romantic and celebrating love for an entire day, it's just that February 14th doesn't work with our schedule.
Too many people, restaurants all booked, prices inflated...we prefer to wait until the first weekend in May when no one sees us coming and then BAM!, we take advantage of normal prices and reservation free restaurants.
Malentine's has (like all things in our life) definitely gone through a metamorphosis over the years.
2007 - Chris proposed and started it all
2008 - Ft. Worth Artfest & Dinner
2009 - Athens, Greece
This year we decided we have enough big things going on so instead of adding to the grandness, we concentrated on just spending time together and laughing.
Success.
Brunch at Le Peep.
Chris thought I was kidding when I ordered an appetizer for brunch. After I ordered my meal of sausage, eggs, hash browns and English muffin he was quick to tell me he would eat my leftovers. Leftovers are no longer in my vocabulary. He's slowly learning this.
We tried to take a walk in a park in Grapevine but the only trail we found ran alongside a major road. So we made fun of the exercise equipment and then left.
I think I managed to make it 3 hours before requiring another meal. Outback did not disappoint. (However our waiter did as a stand-in photographer)
After renting and watching Fantastic Mr. Fox we called it a night (okay, I called it a night), and went to bed.
