Rewind: Hayley's 8th Birthday

This was as big a year for us as it was for Hayley. Our first actual birthday celebration with Hay as a family. Big hugs to the Elite Eight Hay. CanNOT believe the little rosy cheeked bundle is actually eight years old.



Hayley's Princess Cookies

Hayley's Princess Cake

Hayley's Party Room

The birthday girl awakens.

Obligatory candle lick.

Cake and Cheese.

Bday cards from the fam. Thank you Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grand Parents, Great Grandparentns and Aunt Boots!!!

Big money, no wammies!

Still wildly excited about the bday explosion / Valentines Package from Grandma!

Valentine's treats from Grandma.

Assessing the potential candy situation. So far, looks good.

Rewind: Hayley's School Christmas Choir Concert

Just getting these off the camera now. Hayley was an excellent singer and very excited about the songs and hand motions. Such a performer.

Easter

We had Hayley Friday evening and Saturday afternoon to celebrate Easter. Egg painting. 36-Egg hunt and a basket secretly hidden by one E. Bunny in the appliance pantry. Oh, and air hockey just because.

Holy Renovation, Homeowner!

Our home updates have been going slowly due to recent schedules, but we're getting there (and by "there" I mean, "post-1995"). Some of my new best friends are at Home Depot. The associates are actually in tune with our projects. "Hey, how's that re-paint going?" or "Here for another can of knockdown?" or "See you Saturday for that plumbing job." I imagine by summer time we'll grow closer ("My wife loves your pot roast.").

For any of you updating your homes, don't hesitate to ask questions. Our methods are "Learn As You Go" and "Sh*t. I should've learned more before going."

Our updates to the
Master Bathroom include:
Completing wallpaper teardown
Plastering the wall with "Knockdown texture" underneath the wallpaper to match the rest of the wall (8 cans of texture.)
Priming and painting the master bathroom and water closet
In the pictures, the new gray wall coloring appears blue, but when viewed in person it appears a sort of stone-colored gray.

Still left to do is painting the ceiling, paint the cabinets (next to the gray paint they are now brighter than ever), new hardware, new shower door, new fixtures and probably repaint the trim. This will probably be finished by Halloween.

The National Home Center closed their Bentonville store so we snatched up a bunch of light fixtures at 75% off. Here's Troy putting up his first light fixture.

And then there was light.

This one is also a National Home Center steal.

This gem of a gas range is a Best Buy steal we had to take advantage of.

A woman had returned this stove to the store after using it. We considered buying it because they were selling it with a deep "open box discount" of nearly half the price. But we just couldn't get over the fact that it had been used. So Best Buy offered to sell us their floor model (never used) at the same very low price. We scooped it up and invited our plumber out to reroute the gas line to our kitchen, replacing our electric stove with our new gas one. Gas ranges are excellent selling features for home buyers. Not only do they look great, but "Foodies" love them. This upgrade helps us compete with other upgraded homes in our neighborhood and makes our home more attractive to buyers. Mmm... looks like someone's cooked up a delicious batch of French Toast.

With high ceilings, it's tough to fill the space. We got these at Hobby Lobby during their sale on wall decor. We may relocate them somewhere else when we reach the point of having more money for decorations. But for now, the iron goes with our coffee and side tables.

We also have an excellent store here called Arty Crafty. The long dried stems were purchased during their exceptional moving sale. The vase was chosen by my mama when she decorated my apartment in Birmingham.

Thanks to Dionne Haglund of The Shooting Gallery, we have an incredible wedding photo on canvas. And thanks to Uncle Bob, we have an insanely beautiful gold leaf frame. This is currently the only furniture in our gathering room, but it sets the tone for a lovely formal, traditional space.

Things Hayley Says

Family Shopping Trip to Target:

M: "Hayley, why don't you choose a lunchbox that doesn't have characters on it so you won't grow out of it so quickly?"

H: "WHAT?! How could I ever grow out of flowers and Monkeys?!"

Random Living Room Conversation:

H: "Talk to the booty 'cause the hand ain't listenin.'"

T: "Hayley, we don't talk to the booty in this house."


A Discussion on Girl Scouts:

H: "I get a patch for selling the most Girl Scout cookies."

T: "I sold them to my coworkers. What do I get?"

Hayley puts her hand on Troy's back and gives it three emphatic pats.

H: "You get THAT."

Dear Previous Homeowner

Dear Previous Homeowner,

Thanks for the secret treasures you stashed beneath the oven. That headless paper doll, Capri Sun straw and circa 2004 "Son of the Mask" digital watch are awesome! Can you believe the battery still works?! Looks like your last timed activity took you a speedy :27 seconds. It's a long shot, but I'm gonna guess that's how long you spent cleaning the kitchen before selling the house.

Sincerely,

Homeowner

Meanwhile, back at the bar...

The National Home Center was hosting a massive closeout of their Bentonville location. 70% off most things. And, as luck would have it, our house needs a lot of things.

Here's my favorite purchase.



Getting these home in a sedan was a challenge (Hayley told me that the ride wouldn't be so bad; there was a 'hole' left in the back seat for me to sit in.)

Across from the bar stools, Troy put up our beautifully framed (thanks, Uncle Bob!) Sopranos wedding photo.

The furniture that would go in between the bar stools and the opposite wall will have to wait.

The Big Bathroom Reno

So we had this raging nineties wallpaper border in our master bathroom. Last week, Troy was like, "Ugh, this wallpaper sucks," and he grabbed a corner and tore it just to "see how easy it would be to take off." Ehem -- as it turns out... easy. Thanks to Troy's, er, curiosity, we ended up beginning our bathroom renovation a little earlier than expected.

We've decided to document our renovation. The plan: Remove wallpaper. Sand the surface. Wash the wall. Prime the wall. Continue the stucko knockdown that exists on the bottom 80% on the wall. Prime again. Paint. Note: we have no idea what we're doing.






Stage One: I imagine the previous owners thought it looked like marble. Only stripier, like a circus.








Paper Tiger, check. Wallpaper CHOMP, check. Putty knife, check.







You know what's funny? That first piece came off a lot easier than, well, all the rest of it.








Less circus. Still ghetto. I see a handsome man anxious to prime.




More to come...

I will be at work tomorrow, I bet.

Last week, I was unable to help my team decorate for our company Christmas party due to the time of Hayley's choir concert. Given that I'd be missing a work function, Hayley immediately determined I would need a 'sick note' to pass onto my boss.

Let us set aside the probability that this is the first in a long line of forged parental notes to "ride the bus home with so-and-so," while we instead focus on her use of college-level argumentative writing techniques including concession, humility, repetition, and visual illustration.

Crack Pants

On the way back from our company's shareholders' meeting in Little Rock, we stopped off for gas at a small roadside station. But you know how that goes: small town, big standards. Thank goodness I wore my sans-crack elastic-waist pants.

To Suzy: "Aim high!" Love, Santa

Letter from the POA

We emailed the POA with some questions about our recycling program. The President's reply is below. However, I've included my own interpretation in red.


Meghan,

Welcome to the neighborhood. Kind of. I was actually outside the other day when your husband was picking through your recyclables. Awesome first impression. Really nice sweatpants.

The recycling is handled through the waste contract and the city of Rogers. Unless you guys want to do it... just based on what I've seen. The company they are using does not recycle glass for some reason. It is a concern for other residents including my family. Then again, so is having trash-picking neighbors. You should be able to find the information on the Internet. You've heard of it?

You'll need to contact the waste management company about getting a second recycling bin. ...that you can live in if this whole homeowner thing doesn't work out. You can contact them through Rogers Water and Utilities. This is who you pay for garbage pick-up. Money only; not cans.

I hope this is helpful. Help.

Let me know how we can help you find some new pants. I live at 4507 right across the street from you. We have ADT.

Scott
President
Highland Knolls Property Owners Association

Confessions of a First-Time Homebuyer

Why is this Extreme Goo Gone taking the finish off my cabinets?

(Reading the back of the can) "Not for use on wood surfaces."

Oh.

Confessions of a First-Time Homebuyer

:: Hmm. So when I turn the switch on the thermostat to 'heat,' this big machine in the garage gets a fire inside of it. I guess that means this is the furnace. ::

Cribs

Welcome to the Ozarks edition of Cribs.

We had our final walkthrough today (in Arkansas, you must complete your final walk-through of the home a minimum of 5 business days prior to closing on a vacant home) and I had the opportunity to take a few more pictures. The house was very warm and bright as we walked through today. It was very inviting. As you'll see, we will need to do some painting and wall paper removal. I didn't get a picture of the polka-dots on Hayley's walls, or the sea-green mermaid bathroom, but you can imagine. I shouldn't poke fun; my mom let me paint a mural of a sleeping moon on my bedroom wall with glitter paints when I was in High School. (In retrospect, mom, this was unthinkably kind of you and I thank you for sacrificing the potential sale of your home in exchange for the expression of my creative inclinations. That said, we're going to make Hayley express herself on paper.)

So, with that, here is the grand crib tour (cue the 'Big Pimpin' music):



The family room. Built-ins for the TV and sunlight for Polski to roll around in.




Dining area and the front door. The picture doesn't show it, but the paint on the bottom is pretty close to mauve which is... er, not cool in person.



The small gathering room off the kitchen. And our Realtor, Mary Jane Jennings.




The kitchen which opens to the gathering room.




More of that.




Another shot of the main family room.




Blah, blah, blah.




This is Hayley's room. Polka-dots are to the right. And they broke her closet doors and replaced them with curtains. We'll have to get her some new doors.




Bedroom 2. It's green. Really, really green.




Bedroom 3. Those are curtains with football players on them. Could this be the "dShrine to Michigan" room?




Master bedroom.








Troy inspecting the yard. Take a good long look at those leaves, honey. In a week they'll be allllll yours.








Apparently I like the kitchen. Big windows in all rooms which I hope will keep our energy bill low.




Little window in the kitchen that serves as a pass-through to the dining room. It's the Lazy Susan of serving up a formal dinner.

That's a wrap. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

More after move-in.