Happy Birthday Stephen!

The big 28!! I hope it is a great year for you!

Just me

How we met our house

I don't think anyone really reads my blog, but if you do this is going to be a long, boring post. I didn't blog when we were in the process of finding our house and I have recently seen a couple of bloggers writing about how they found their house, so I wanted to do the same. This is our first house and the way we came to find it was quite a journey.

When we got married we were renting an apartment in Clear Lake. Clear Lake is an area we both liked and thought we may want to buy a house in. After living there for about a year, we decided we didn't necessarily just love the area. It was ok, we liked that we were close to Stephen's parents and the area was ok. But we didn't like the drive and traffic so we decided to move into town and despite paying more in rent, we saved a ton on gas.

Upon moving in town, we knew our next move would be to a house. So on the weekends we would drive around town to different neighborhoods trying to decide where we wanted to live. Stephen had always brought up Sugar Land and this neighborhood called Sienna Plantation. I immediately vetoed it due to it's location. It wasn't close to any of our parents or friends. We looked at so many areas of town and factored in traffic, the area, etc. We found a lot of places that would work, but nothing that just spoke to us.

One night, Stephen said why don't we just drive down to Sienna Plantation? So I agreed. We took 59 down to Hwy 6 and drove through Sugar Land. I was surprised at how nice it was. All of the buildings are required to be brick, so even fast food places look nice. Sugar Land is a very well establiblished area, but it didn't look "old". We finally got to Sienna Plantation and as we drove down Sienna Plantation Parkway into the entrance of the neighborhood, I knew this was it. We were home.

I loved everything about the neighborhood. It was perfect. There are 3 pools, a waterpark, tennis courts, ampitheater, golf course, great schools, and a great mix of high end homes with middle of the road homes. This was it, we found the neighborhood.

Now we just needed a house. They were having a model home tour one weekend, so we went down on Sunday to look at new construction, mainly to get ideas. We didn't really think we would be able to afford a new consutruction home. We started at the Home Finder Center and found out about the neighborhood and got a map to the model home tour. The first place we went was Taylor Morrison. They had two model homes, a two story and a one story. We walked into the two story and the sales rep was with someone so we said we would just walk around and wait for him. I started to walk around the two story and Stephen stopped me. He said we couldn't afford it so don't even look and get our hopes up. I told him that we had to kill time while we waited for the sales rep, so let's just look.

As we walked through the Ellington, it was gorgeous and a great layout. We walked upstairs and there was a wonderful gameroom, loft, three bedrooms. It just kept getting better. I loved this house. But we knew it would be out of our price range, so we walked next door to the one story. It was a nice house and would have also worked for us, but wow, that first house was awesome!

The sales rep was still meeting with people so he quickly came and talked to us and gave us some information. He gave us a floor plan list and price list. He then told us that the Ellington was actually in our price range. We were excited, but cautiously so.

We continued on the model home tour and saw a ton of houses that were way out of our price range. We found some other builders who were in our price range, but they didn't have anything similar to the Taylor Morrison. I called my mom and told her all about it. She suggested that she and Dad come out and see the house and that she talk to the sales rep and act as our real estate agent. She also wanted us to look at some pre owned homes in the area so we could compare.

We started by looking at the preowned homes in the same price range as the Taylor Morrison we loved. They were all one story and while they would have worked fine for us, they were smaller and more outdated than the new home we could get with Taylor Morrison.

We went and spoke to Taylor Morrison and got lots of good news. We could in fact afford this house and they were running a special that included lots of upgrades. My parents loved the house and the neighborhood.

After much dicussion, we decided to buy the house. We picked out a great lot on a cul-d-sac with no neighbor behind it and out down our ernest money. A few weeks passed and we went to the design center to pick out everything for the house. It was such a fun and exciting day for us!

A few days later my mom called and had horrible news. The lot we chose had an ariel easment due to a power line and the second story of our home was in that easement. So we either had to pick a different lot or a different house. Well, that presented two problems. The first being that I was in LOVE with this house. I mean in LOVE. I was not giving us this house. The second problem was that there is a railroad close to our section and most of the lots in the section are extremely close to the railroad. Not so much that it is dangerous (there is a main road and a huge brick wall between the houses and the railroad), but it was the sound. The trains could be kind of loud and we didn't want to be that close to them. So there were no options for a different lot that Taylor Morrison currently owned.

I was devastated. I remember crying in our apartment study while on the phone with my mom. I felt like my house had been ripped out of my hands. They let us get excited, put money down, go to the design center, and then to find this out it. It was awful! ( I realize now in the big picture of life, how insignificant this was an my reaction was way over the top).

We spent a few weeks trying to work out another deal. Stephen really loved that lot and there was another floor plan that would be ok. We went and looked at that house and he tried to convince me to get it. But I had my heart set on the Ellington. There were some other lots that would work, but Taylor Morrison didn't own them and didn't know when they could buy them as corporate put a spending freeze on them. So in the meantime, we started looking at other neighborhoods that had the Ellington.

We found a nice neighborhood in Pearland where Taylor Morrison was building and we could build the Ellington there. It was a nice neighborhood and while similar to Sienna Plantation, it just wasn't the same. I wasn't sold on the neighborhood or Pearland. I like Sugar Land so much better.

We had been keeping in touch with the Sienna Taylor Morrison sales reps closely to see if there was anything new happening. One day we found out that there was a Ellington that was built and right before closing, it fell through, so it was now available. It was on a great lot in a cul-d-sac, so it was not on the main street close to the railroads. We thought this may work.

We went and looked at the house and it was a great house. It had a lot of upgrades we had not chosen and some minor things that we wanted that it didn't have. We presented a price and a few things we wanted them to add and they accepted! We were going to get this house!!! We were so excited, but cautious that until closing something would fall through.

We had about a month before we were closing and a few nights a week we would drive out to Sienna and sit on the back porch of our house. We couldn't wait to have a house and a yard and live in a neighborhood.

We closed on our house on August 15, 2008. It was a wonderful day! We had the house of our dreams! We moved in that day.

I love the hardwood floors (an upgrade we were not going to add) and the staircase spindles (I had to really talk Stephen into these at the design center- they are expensive)



The dining room.

Even though it makes the living room smaller and took out a window, I love the fireplace!

The breakfast room and kitchen are great because they are so open to the living room.

This kitchen is wonderful! There is so much room, you are never cramped even with lots of people in it and there is plenty of counter space and cabinets. The pantry is wonderful too!

The gameroom. We love the gameroom.

The loft built in desk is not something we were going to upgrade, but we are soooooo happy this house has it! It is open just enough to the gameroom that you can be on the computer in here, but still talk to people in the gameroom. It is wonderful!

Our backyard was so pretty! Last summer all of our grass died. We tried everything to save it and eventually found out there was a drainage problem that caused a fungus to kill our grass. Taylor Morrison came in and took all the grass out, added french drains and re planted the grass. Unfortunately they did this right before winter, so even though our grass is doing ok right now, it would be doing better if we had never had to deal with this issue.

We have now lived here a year a a half and I love our house more than the day we moved in. It is such a perfect house for us. The sun rises to the back of the house and sets to the front, so the backyard is shaded in the afternoon which is great. The upgrades that we were not going to add are hardwood floors in the entry and dining room, 12 inch tile, upgraded carpet, loft desk, and fireplace. I am so glad we got these things in this house. They all make such an impact on the house.

We truly love this house! I love the cul-d-sac that we are on and Taylor Morrison never did get those lots we were waiting on, so we would have never been able to build this house in this section. Everything worked out wonderfully!

This is a picture of our house at the beginning of last summer. Our grass was still doing good at this point.

Towards the end of summer, we painted out living room, breakfast room and kitchen. I love how much it makes the fireplace pop!





We got a wonderful snow this year. It started snowing early one Friday afternoon and when I got home from work, our house and neighborhood was covered in snow. The next morning it was still there and was so gorgeous with the morning sun.





I took these pictures just a few weeks ago after I had worked in the yard. Our grass is recovering and looking much better now than it did in these pictures.





We are looking forward to many more wonderful years in this home. We feel so blessed that this is our first home!

28, 29, 30

Stephen turns 28 on April 28th, Russell turns 29 on April 29th and Aaron turns 30 on April 30th, crazy! The guys figured this out a few years ago and have been thinking about this party since then.

They had a poker tournament Saturday night at Clarissa and David's. Daniel won! Then Sunday morning they all played golf. This is the perfect way for these guys to celebrate their birthdays, doing the two things they love- poker and golf!



While the guys (and Elena) played poker, the girls played bean bags.

Friday Off

Stephen was off Friday and I took the day off. We had planned on working in the backyard adding flowerbeds and such, but decided that was a much bigger job than we could handle, so we decided to just have a relaxing day instead.

We started our morning by buying two trees for the backyard. Even though we spent a pretty penny, we got a really good deal. They are going to be installed early next week. Then we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. We came home and cleaned for a while and then waited for a plumber who was coming to fix our disposal. He got there and fixed it about 2 minutes. I was glad it was an easy fix, but they really could have just told us over the phone how to do it.

Stephen then wanted to go to the driving range to practice some for the big game on Sunday. I went with him and took some pictures, even though it was the worst time of day to take pictures, 1:00!! I was happy to get some practice though and am really happy with how they turned out.







Once we got back from the driving range we cleaned up and left to go shopping and to the movies. We went to Rochester's and got Stephen a pair of khaki shorts and a shirt. We then went and saw Date Night at Edwards Theater. It was a cute movie. Very funny. We went back home and took a bike ride on a trail in our neighborhood, which was really nice, but much harder than riding on the street. We came home and relaxed in the backyard some until we were both starving. We decided to go up to Russo's for some pizza and I wanted a glass of wine. We had a great dinner!

Once we got home, Stephen played some XBOX and I played around on the computer. We got a new computer this week and it is AWESOME!! I am loving it so much!! We were both really tired by then so we took Sadie on a quick bike ride around our section and came home and crashed!

It was such a wonderful day together. We rarely have time to do "normal", everyday things together, so this was very nice.

Half day off

Thursday, Stephen had a half day off. I came home to find him asleep in the hammock and Sadie asleep on the grass under him. Stephen woke up as he heard me walk through the grass towards him and I greeted him with a kiss! I sat in a lawn chair and we talked for a few minutes and then decided to take a drive around the neighborhood for landscape inspiration in the backyard.

When we got back, I watered the front yard while Stephen fixed the tire on his bike. Once that was done, we took a long bike ride as the sun was setting. The weather was perfect and we are really enjoying our bikes!

Once home, we went to the backyard and I took a turn on the hammock and Stephen played with Sadie. We talked about where to put the hammock and moved it around a bit. Then we decided to take Sadie on a bike ride. All you have to say is "want to go on a ride?" and she is ready! So we took Sadie on a ride through our section and she was exhausted!

We came home and I surfed the net while Stephen played XBOX. I was exhausted so I went to bed and Stephen finished our taxes. He was putting it off because he thought we owed $200, but we ended up getting back $1100 because he hadn't received the interest statement for our house when he first did them.

We are absolutely loving the weather right now, we just want to be outside all day! It makes us enjoy our house and neighborhhood so much!

Hammock

Stephen got off early Monday night so we put the hammock together. I didn't want to be the first the get on, so Stephen tried it first. He fell a little but his foot caught the ground, so it wasn't to bad.

I, on the other hand, completely fell over. I tried getting on carefully, but it wasn't working. So I tried to get on stomach first and thought if I jumped a little I would land right in the middle. Well, I soon found myself laying on the ground. I didn't even know what happened. My arm hit the bottom rails and hurt so bad! I have an awful bruise!

I finally got on and LOVE the hammock! It is so relaxing!

Family Crawfish Boil

Sunday we went to Steve and Nancy's for a family crawfish boil. Unfortunantely, Steve was in Dallas for a meeting and wasn't there. We were also celebrating Michael's birthday so he had some friends and his cousin Chad over.

Gary is the wonderful crawfish cook!

After crawfish (and shrimp for Stephen and I), we had banana splits.

Michael decided to brave the cold water and take a dip.

We were sitting in the backyard eating our banana splits when the boys opened the skimmer and saw a possum. It was a baby and still alive. Mike helped him out of the water and dried him off.

He put him in the flower bed and after and while he got up and walked off! Yay!

Then, everyone had some more crawfish!

Sadie loved licking the floor for any remnants of crawfish.

I love this picture of Mary! She was telling us some story and we were all cracking up!

Nicole almost beat Stephen in ping pong. She won the first game, but then he won two after that! Stephen is always the ping pong champ!

Mary brought a bunch of pictures for us all to look at.

Then we went in and had cake and ice cream for Michael's birthday! I can't believe we have a nephew who is 23!

We had such a fun day! The weather was gorgeous and the food and company even better!