Getting the Living Room Going...

It's been a long while since I've updated you on our house, and it's not that we haven't been doing stuff on the house, but we haven't been doing anything big, and we've both been crazy with school schedules, so I have not been inspired enough to write lately. But, now that my life at least is a little less crazy than it has been, I'll try to catch you all up.

So, if you remember the living room in our house, it is the main/middle floor that's attached to the kitchen and dining room. It has been in many different arrangements since we moved in a little more than a year ago. One of our friends that visits somewhat frequently remarked that every time she's here, it looks different, and this could be true.

When we were redoing the kitchen, the living room became our kitchen, dining room, and living room, and was quite packed. Then we finished the kitchen and got the family room ready to go and all the furniture left so that it was quite open and empty. Around March, we found this fun sectional to take up part of the room.

But because we didn't have any other furniture in there yet, we decided to separate the sectional into 2 couches across from each other. And then, one summer day, my sister and her roommate decided to come and claim the coffee table (almost from out under my nose!), so we are left mostly table-less for now.

Sometime in the summer, we found this chair for the corner of the room, which Robbie promptly declared as "the chair of proclamation". So basically that just means he gets to sit there when he's teaching (bible study, home groups, etc.). Otherwise, he is perfectly in  love with stretching out on one of the long open sofas. :-)

Then, after months and months, and eventually a year without having curtains in our living room (much to the dismay of my husband lol), we (read I) finally decided on some curtains and rods to match our furniture.

So, now that fall is here, and we have organized this room as much as it will be for now, here's how it turned out!

Happy Fall to everyone - hope you're staying warm and toasty!

Vacation - St. Simon's Island Edition

Every other year the Howell Clan goes on a family vacation to Hilton Head Island (HHI) with another family that they are close with. This year however it was decided to go elsewhere. A certain son-in-law and a daughter wanted to try someplace new. (Now for certain Howell folks this would have been trip number ten to HHI, so we decided to spice it up.) After a short Sunday meeting, led by my wife, we picked out the things that would make our ideal place: someplace new, watersports, beach, tennis and golf, all within a 13 hour drive of Pittsburgh.

So.. after some web searching and research the following places were suggested: OBX (the Outer Banks), Tybee Island, and St. Simon's Island. After a lot of back and forth between the kids and the parents, the decision was made to try St. Simon's Island in Georgia. Although it was at least an hour farther south than our typical venture (much to my wife's dismay), it looked like a nice place that wasn't too crowded, yet had most everything we were looking for.

Tradition dictates that this family getaway occurs over the week of the fourth to allow as many possible days off (i.e. holiday). We arrived on the island on the Friday before the 4th. Little did we know that because of the holiday, basically the entire surrounding population of Georgia was also planning to enjoy the island! Since the island is only about a 15 minute drive from one end to the other, you can imagine the wall of people we encountered - on the beach, in the streets, on the pier, and so forth. As with any typical Independence Day celebration we had fireworks, which was quite fun viewed from the rocks next to the pier where they were shooting them. :-)

Once the fourth of July crowd finally went back to work on Tuesday, the beaches became much less crowded, and the winds became much more violent, which lent itself for some excellent boogie boarding opportunities with my wife. (Some opportunities were more successful than others lol.)

We even were able to go out on the water in a catamaran with a bonafide sailor, which was my number one goal for the week! And (sadly) since the island didn't end up having waverunners, we ended up doing this twice!

But of course, what would vacation be (for the Howell's at least) without some rousing games of tennis? ;-) Although there weren't any courts in the complex we stayed at, there were a few public courts within biking distance away, which we frequented a couple times during the week.

So, all in all, it was a very relaxing week, with some sun, sand, surf, food, exercise...

...boating, and fun with the Howells!

At the end of the week, we spent our last evening walking on the beach and having some last thrills with sparklers while the sun went down. Thanks for the fun, St. Simon!

- Robbie

Bright and Beautiful!

I was able to capture a few of our roses at their peak of beauty this summer - they are so fun!

How do you like to relax?

This is how I do it. You see... I have this thing for hammocks, or as my beloved puts it, I like to lay down. But the thing about a hammock is that you get to lay down outside. Being outdoors is very relaxing. When you get outside you disconnect and unplug from it all. It is you and whatever is around you. But enough about me... how do you like to relax?

Finally in Bloom!

We weren't really sure what we would find in our yard this year, since we didn't see the house at all during the month of May when everything was flowering, but much to our surprise we did manage to find a few things that blossomed around the yard!

 As I showed you a couple weeks ago, the first things to blossom were the azalea bushes. I love the bright fushia flowers that came everywhere! In the next few weeks the rhododendron bush started to open, slowly at first, right beneath our bedroom window.

We also discovered that we had lilac bushes on one side of our house, next to the garage. 

 For the week (maybe two) they were in bloom, we had some lovely smells floating around - and inside - the house, which are some of Robbie's favorite flower smells.

 Finally, this past week, the rhododendrons came into full bloom, as the azaleas died off.

 These are some of my favorites too - unfortunately with all the rain/storms we had, they are now not looking so great - but they were pretty while they lasted!

Who knows what we'll see next!

Man Work!

So this past weekend was pretty nice weather wise...there was a threat of rain, but we only got a couple sprinkles. So finally we were able to do some yardwork (demolition) before we put anything new in.

 Remember that awkward looking bush out back?

Well it finally met its demise :) Now it is waiting to be hauled away...

 And remember that funny looking bush with the shovel holding it up?

 Well, this is all that's left of it! One day Robbie decided to take his massive pair of tree clippers to it, and three trashcans later we had its thorny branches contained. Then this weekend we finally were able to dig up the root!

But the real "man work" came when my dad decided to bring over his chain saw. There are not many things I have seen him get excited about more so than using his chain saw to chop something down at whatever opportunity he gets :). (Note the safety glasses and gloves - OSHA approved!)

Before I managed to make it outside with my camera, they already had one strangled holly tree chopped down and filling trashcans.

 Then Robbie's turn came with helping make sure the tall one didn't go crashing somewhere it didn't belong!

 When all was said and done, we were two holly trees shorter, four trashcans fuller, and a few loads of firewood greater for the fall!

 Fun times in the yard! And more to come! (If you hadn't noticed, our yard is 70% overgrown shrubs, 20% weeds, and maybe 5-10% flowers - but not for long hopefully!)

And now, for the outside!

We have spent quite some time focusing on the interior of our house. At first, it was of necessity, then it was due to the weather! Now that it is finally starting to be nice enough to go outside without a jacket of some sort, and that we have finished most of our major projects inside the house, we turn our attention to the outside of the house.

And what do we find? Well, we weren't entirely sure what we might see come up during the spring, but one thing is sure - we have a lot of bushes!

At the back of our house...

At the front of our house...

On the side of our house...

Bushes, bushes, everywhere! (No these are not all the bushes surrounding our house - only a sampling!)

This is a funny bush on the side of our house...

...Notice the shovel holding it up!

And this pyramid-shaped one is my mom's particular favorite - just an odd little thing on the side of our porch.

So in all of this greenery, shrubbery, bushery, it was nice to finally find something that wasn't just a bush. Yes, it is still a bush for most of the year, but for a couple weeks out of the year, it becomes something much more beautiful!

We'll see what else might pop up, but personally I'm waiting for the neighboring rhododendrons to open!

The last room...

We have now officially moved into the last room in our house! It is now one of the places we are most - the family room.

Originally, we figured we were going to move into this room first. Robbie was quick to tear down the wood paneling wall and almost as quick to put up the drywall. But, one thing led to another, and the room ended up becoming a long term storage room! Finally in October, we were able to get the wall plastered so that we could think about painting it. Remember this?

But with all the other things going on in the kitchen, and then the holidays, this room got quite neglected for most of the winter months. Eventually, I got around to picking a paint color (actually two!), we had a friend install some trim (the old stuff was ripped out because it was extremely markered up and had some holes drilled through it), Robbie and I both picked out curtains and rods, and we went to work transferring most of our living room into our family room. The results are below!

We just moved our furniture downstairs (hopefully we'll get new stuff for upstairs) and the wall hanging was a wedding gift!

Note the flowers spread all over the window - this one gets the best sun!

Yes, we went bold with a bright blue wall! No it's not going to stay bare like this! :)

 We're hoping to find some type of entertainment stand to replace this one, which has come a long way with me through college and everything else! We haven't fully moved everything down yet either, simply because we don't have any tables to replace them with upstairs. But soon enough, it will all come together!

So after quite a long wait, we are finally (mostly) moved into the last room in our house! It feels good to be using all the rooms as we thought we would. Now just to organize everything!

Three Years Ago...

I said "I do" to a tall, handsome, Irishman. He was just (barely) out of college, I was getting situated with my job, and we moved into a small (almost closet-sized) apartment in Murrysville. Those of you that visited us there, know that we weren't exaggerating - in fact, the apartment was actually a storage closet prior to being converted into an apartment!

Thankfully, we were only in that apartment for 2 months before we moved into a 2-bedroom, fairly spacious apartment in another building of the same complex. We could actually fit a bed set into the bedroom (before only a mattress would fit), a couch into the living room (before we only had a few chairs), and enjoyed a separate dining area from the kitchen (before it was all in one 'room').

 

Two years ago, we were fully settled into our 2-bedroom apartment, and had bought our first car together. Robbie was finishing his first year of teaching, I was very settled in my job and tackling a Masters degree in the evenings. Around our first anniversary, we still had not received our wedding pictures and discovered much to our dismay that our photographer had conveniently gone bankrupt. 

Unsure if we would ever get our wedding pictures back, we had a friend come out and take some updated pictures of us together in the Oakland area. The pictures were great (see the left picture below), and thankfully after some legal involvement were able to retrieve our original wedding pictures as well (see the right picture below).

One year ago, we decided that the time was right to look for a house, and after I completed my Masters degree in March, we spent the entire month of April searching for just the right place in time to qualify for the homebuyer's tax credit. Robbie was now in seminary part-time taking evening classes, so I really wonder how we squeezed in seeing so many houses in such a short amount of time.

As Robbie will tell you, my first impression of our house was not a good one - everything was old, dirty and in some instances just plain gross, and I had a really hard time seeing beyond the filth and work it would take to make it feel like a home. Thankfully (and providentially), there really weren't any other houses that were really drawing me, and our time was running out. We took a second trip to the house with my parents this time and decided that there was a lot of good in the house under all of the "bad", and it would just be a work in progress for the next few months.

Well, as you may have seen from the series of blog posts, this project has lasted a lot longer than a few months :) . But on the whole it has been a good experience and made us appreciate what we have now more fully (it also makes me want to stay here a very long time --- so we don't have to go through that again!).

Now that we have been married three years and owned our house for almost one year, I am finally feeling quite settled. Although we have things we will continue to work on with the house, both inside and out, the vast majority of the house is furnished, unpacked, and settled into like it should be. Now I am looking forward to enjoying a summer here without having to be stuck inside painting and cleaning! I am looking forward to spending more time at our house with family and friends - so please, come over and join us sometime! If you're in the neighborhood, come see if we are there - we'd be glad to have you.  :)