Quarter of a Century

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last  weekend we headed to Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia for some quality time with the Angle fam….and to celebrate the fact that Zach was turning 25! That’s right, my husband is a quarter of a century old. The drive alone was beautiful- country roads and everything starting to feel like fall. Of course, the lake was gorgeous. It was so nice to be able to spend a few low-key days just hanging out and catching up with family.

There was one small snag: in all of the stuff we were carrying out the door- birthday presents, random stuff that had been left at our house, toiletries…we totally forgot to grab the bag that had our clothes in it! Thankfully, Zach’s sister was sweet enough to let me wear some of her stuff, and Zach got a few things for his birthday.

There was jetski riding, board game playing, football watching, and some great quality time around the outdoor fireplace. We are thankful for such a great family and can’t wait to see them again soon!

Crafternoon

Things are starting to come together around here, so I thought I would share a few pictures of the craft room. Obviously, there are a few things that need to be done like getting a desk (I’ve sort of designed one in my mind that I want to buy the supplies for and ask my dad to build for my Christmas present), adding to the chalkboard wall (but isn’t that what guests are for?), and putting a light fixture in that hole in the ceiling. I washed the quilt this past weekend to give it that great old-timey crinkly effect, and I was SO thankful that it didn’t ruin it. The close-ups didn’t turn out so great, but I’ll post some more pictures of the quilt soon.

The jars were used for the candy bar at our wedding, the chair is from Craigslist, the green cabinet was $5, and the lamp is from the Pottery Barn outlet

Great shelving system in the closet

 

Old gym locker basket and a chair that we won at an estate auction- we got two for $5!

Nature vs. Nurture

Last Thursday, Zach, my dad, and I ventured to Charlotte to watch the Steelers take on the Panthers (our birthday present to my dad). My dad was born and raised outside of Pittsburgh, so he loves Big Ben and Heinz and proudly waves his Terrible Towel. To say that Zach is a Panthers fan is an understatement. This brings me to a dilemma. When they are playing other teams, it’s easy to simultaneously be a Steelers fan and a Panthers fan. When they play each other, I’m at a loss. In reality, this dilemma is just the suface of a much bigger conundrum in my life.

Seeing as how I have spent the last 16 years of my life in good old Cary, I would say that I’m from North Carolina. My husband, on the other hand, would say that because I was born in Pennsylvania and both of my parents were raised there, that I am from PA. If it’s “root, root, root for the home team”, shouldn’t I know who my home team is? This is often cause for debate in the Angle household.

Needless to say, even though I couldn’t decide who to cheer for, we had a great time. We loved bringing my dad to his first NFL game, and are excited for football season!

Go Panthers!

 

This mask was a hit. Random people kept asking to take pictures with him!

 

One More Moore

Weddings are always exciting, but they’re even more exciting when they’re celebrating the marriage of two people that you absoultely love. Such was the case for July 25th. Ashley and I have been friends since high school, and we have loved getting to know her now husband Chuck. We think they are great! Chuck and Zach have a few things in common: they both love the Lord, they are Panthers fans, and, as we learned at the wedding, they both really like to dance. In fact, Chuck and his groomsmen may be some of the only people whose dancing skills rival that of my husband. All that to say, we had such a great time! Ashley and Chuck are perfect for each other, and we can’t wait to hang out with them as a married couple!

 

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

 

Basking on the beaches of Fiji? Nope. Reading poolside? Try again. Scraping popcorn, tearing down wallpaper, and asking what we had gotten ourselves into? Check. But having fun? Check. We don’t have many pictures of the remodel because our cameras were buried in storage, but here’s just a peek into what our summer looked like:

Have I mentioned that we were incredibly thankful for all of the help we had with the move?

First meal at the new house

Chick Fila: we're high rollers

We finally closed!

Who needs Ms. America floats when you've got baker's scaffolding?

Our first project: scraping popcorn

He's pretty much the master of this

Hour. After hour. After hour. So. Much. Wallpaper.

You know you can't start unpacking when people have to wear things like this around your house.

Movin’ On Up

We’re in! Thanks to the help of some wonderful couples from our Sunday School class, we are officially moved into our new house. There are still walls that haven’t been painted, doors that need to be hung, toilets that need to be installed (we do have one!), and bunches of other things to be done, but it feels so good to finally start making the house a home. We’re trying to get things unpacked so we can start inviting people over, but for now, here’s a peek at the before pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life in the Peak of Good Livin’….or was that Good Lookin’?

So I realize that we have been a little MIA on the blog scene lately, and that’s pretty much due to the fact that the last month has been filled with the following:

- scraping the popcorn ceilings off of the whole house

- scraping wallpaper (INCREDIBLY STUBBORN wallpaper, that is) off of three of the biggest rooms in the house and three bathrooms

- ripping out carpet, padding, linoleum, and plywood

- changing out hardware

- taping, sanding, priming, and painting…and painting, and painting, and….we’re still not done

- going on approximately 50 Lowes runs (with our 10% off coupons in hand, of course)

- the list goes on!

If you can’t tell, we have officially embarked on our second remodel project. Even though this is our second home and both homes have been “fixer-uppers”, this particular remodel is exciting for us because we have taken on leadership of scheduling, budgeting, and coordinating. While we are incredibly thankful for the wisdom of people like my dad who have such wonderful experience in this field, it is also fun to take on this responsibility together. We have definitely made a few mistakes along the way, but we are thankful for the learning process that we have gotten to go through.

We are so thankful that we have been blessed with such an incredible home! It’s been a bit of a challenge to round up pictures, mostly because our cameras are in storage, but we’re excited to share them with you soon.

And When I Said Betsy Ross, I Meant Bob Vila

We mentioned the move in a previous post, but I wanted to give a little more background into the incredible series of events surrounding our new home:

First of all, we weren’t really looking to move. A few months ago, I got a phone call from my dad, who was out with a friend of ours who was in the market for a house. One of the homes that they visited seemed to have great potential, and my dad mentioned that Zach and I might want to consider it as a project. We went to see the house and liked it, but figured that if we were really going to consider moving, then we should maybe do something crazy like actually look at more than one house.

We looked around for a while, and saw enough money pits labeled “investment properties” to wear me out. I was ready to give up on the search when Zach sent me a link to a beautiful home in Apex on a .75 acre lot with a bug front porch. To say I was skeptical was an understatement. Looking at the price, I imagined one of two scenarios: 1) the front door was three feet from the highway or 2) the foundation was crumbling. Despite my husband’s skepticism, I decided that it would be fine to take a look.

We went to the house right after school and were absolutely amazed at what we saw. The house was beautiful- white picket fence kind of beautiful. But, since we weren’t able to go in (we didn’t have a realtor with us), I was imagining mold growing down the bathroom walls or some other catastrophe that awaited us inside.

After looking through the house with our realtor and my dad, and seeing that there wasn’t mold on the walls or any other major problem other than LOTS of cosmetic work, we decided to make an offer. We were disappointed to learn that the house was already under contract and, since we were going to the beach with our Sunday school class that weekend, we just had to wait anxiously before we knew anything definite.

We got a phone call from our realtor on Sunday telling us that the other contract had fallen through, but that there was already another offer on the house and if we wanted to submit anything it needed to be done that night. We went straight from the beach to write up an offer. The next day, Zach had to rush around getting approval from the banks (we weren’t prequalified because we hadn’t been looking) and trying to figure out how we could make an offer while still owning a house. We got the offer in, but let me highlight the previous statement: we still owned a house. Therefore, if our offer was accepted, we would soon become the proud owners of not one, but two houses. Not really something you like to do on teachers’ salaries.

Our offer was accepted! There was lots of jumping for joy, followed by….now we need to sell our house! We were so thankful that our realtors and long time friends and mentors made an offer on our house within the week. Not only did we get the blessing of having our financial uncertainties calmed, but we were able to sell our first home to people who will still let us come visit and reminisce.

Soon about two days before closing (on both houses), we learned that one reason the new house was such a good deal was that the previous owners had been in bankruptcy. Unfortunately, they had been given some bad information and did not go through the required paperwork to sell the home, putting the closing back a month and the sale in the hands of the bank.

Thankfully, the whole process was in the Lord’s hands and He perfectly orchestrated everything. We have successfully closed on our house, and have been able to live in my dad’s house while renovating. We are hoping to move in next weekend!

Just Call Me Betsy Ross

I am officially a quilter. Sort of. Now, you would think that I was already a quilter given the 16 quilts that I helped a bunch of middle schoolers put together earlier this year. You would be way wrong.

Given the fact that my husband and I are temporarily homeless (aka living with my dad and enjoying cable and a freezer full of ice cream) and I can’t go into my usual “work on stuff around the house” mode during my free time, I was in major need of a project.

So, my insanity, coupled with a great opportunity from a blog I stumbled upon (oldredbarnco.blogspot.com) to win a super awesome sewing machine, led me to the construction of a real, official quilt. The blog had great step by step instructions about how to do everything, and it was the perfect way to entertain myself for a week or so.

As you can see, the quilt I made is crazy colorful, but that was done strategically. 1) It gave me an excuse to buy whatever kind of fun fabric I wanted, and 2) This quilt will go on the guest bed in the craft room. Craft rooms are crazy, colorful places, so why try and fight it?

This quilt took much more time and planning than the quilts I had made with the kids earlier in the year, but I had so much fun putting it together. It was also nice to work on it at my dad’s house because he helped me with a lot of the math (not my strong point), and I showed him how to sew.

The quilt top and back are finished, and I sent them away to have them professionally quilted (I’m afraid my little Singer can’t handle that big of a job). Once that is done, I’ll attach the binding. I’m looking forward to seeing the final product!

 

Our First Home

I realized after I put up the last post that I never officially said on the blog that yes, we sold our first house, and we’re moving on to our next remodel. Even though it was somewhat of a bittersweet day (we really liked our first house and were a little sad to see it go), we were thrilled to be able to sell it to two amazing family friends who I have had the privilege of knowing for several years and traveling the world with on mission trips with our church. As we await the next adventure, I thought I’d leave you with a few pictures (some new, some old) of our first home.