Housaversary

Can you believe it's been a year this week since we moved into our house? What a year it's been! Our guest room has seen a variety of friends and family members, we celebrated Chris' 30th birthday and my graduation. We saw our first trick-or-treaters and hosted our first Christmas. We've put personal touches on the house (although there's still a ways to go). We found out our family is expanding. Most recently ...

We've added patio furniture to our backyard, and look forward to enjoying summer evenings sitting around the fire pit.

We've seen the tree that we planted in the backyard last fall begin to bloom.

And we've been moving things out of what was the craft room to transform it into the baby's room. (Last weekend, Chris installed the fan/light for the baby).

We already have made some wonderful memories in this house that over the last year has become our home, and we look forward to the many more memories we will make as our family grows.

Dear Santa: We're ready for you

Scoop and I got the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. (After I went out to cover the Black Friday story at 4 a.m. and we took a long nap.) But what's more exciting is that, this year, for the first time, Chris put up Christmas lights! Since he was in junior high he's been in charge of hanging the lights at his parents' house. But we haven't been able to hang lights since we moved to Reno because our apartment didn't have any outlets out on the balcony. We had to wait a couple weeks to hang lights this year until we could borrow a ladder high enough to reach the top of our house.
Finally, we got it on Sunday, and I supervised while Chris climbed the ladder.
Here's the front of the house. I think next year we'll add more above the garage, too.

And here are the lights over the back patio.

And a late addition to the decorations last night, Scoop helped with the garland for the banister.

We're having fun decorating the new house and we're excited for our Christmas visitors to arrive next week!

Evolution of the Yard

In the beginning, there was dirt:

And then, dirt + retaining wall

Later, dirt + retaining wall + extended patio

(Apologies for the horrible phone picture)

And finally ... Grass!

(We'll wait until Spring to plant behind the retaining wall)

Come over for a game of Baggo, won't you?

Welcome to my ...

The craft room is really a work in progress, but today I was able to put some furniture in it, play with the chalkboard wall and do some homework (theoretically). I still want to get a folding table for sewing and other projects, and need to figure out what's going on the walls. But it's good for now! It will especially be nice to do homework in here instead of having my laptop, books and papers all over our dining room table.

If you have a chalkboard wall, you have to have chalk!

Desk and bookshelf, obviously.

Scoop came in and got right in the bookshelf. Silly puppy.

Adventures in Moving

Saturday was the big move. We hired some movers to take all the big stuff, and we took care of the little stuff. It is awesome having movers. (There was one little hiccup when they knocked the banister with a big desk and left a little boo-boo, but they sent someone over right away to fix it.)
Here is Chris, realizing that his entertainment center doesn't fit into the allotted space ... by a fraction of an inch. Of course, he figured out a temporary solution so that he could watch TV. So for now we don't have a coffee table in the living room.

After setting up the TV in the living room, Chris got straight to work setting up his "man cave." His pictures aren't hung up yet, but the TV and recliner are in place and that's the most important thing (obviously).
Scoop had a very exhausting day playing with her friends while we were moving, and sniffing everything in sight when we brought her home. Luckily, she slept through the night. We're glad she likes it here.
I've spent most of the time setting up the kitchen. It was pretty exciting to realize I could put the cookbooks on a shelf that I can see at eye level. Putting food in the pantry was pretty awesome, too. Of course, setting the bar up was also a priority.

Now I'm getting to work on the guest room ... it should be ready by the end of the day. I expect you'll all be planning your visits soon!

Painting, and a pop quiz

Even though the new house didn't need any paint, I wanted to add some color to a couple rooms before we move in to give it a personal touch. So, Chris got the downstairs half-bath and my soon-to-be craft room prepped on Friday and on Sunday I got to painting, with a lot of help from Erin.

Chris is hard at work

Scoop, of course, is supervising

Erin was such a big help!

Making progress!

So, this is the color of three out of four walls in the craft room ... and now for the Pop Quiz: Why didn't we paint the fourth wall the same color? (If you already know, please don't guess ... it will ruin all the fun!) Guess away folks! And stay tuned for more adventures in moving and painting later this week ...

Casa de Gabel

In case any of you haven't heard, we bought a house!!! We got the keys on Friday right after work, picked up Scoop and headed straight there. (The above photos were taken a couple weeks ago, the rest were taken yesterday.) We are so excited to have our first house. It is two stories and four bedrooms and has a pantry (which if you've ever been on the phone with me while I'm cooking you know is a big effing deal, as Joe Biden would say ... )

Keys!!!

Entering the house for the first time as homeowners

It was Scoop's first time there so she was checking everything out (we may have also made her pose for a couple shots) and I think she's really going to like having a yard.

Chris and Scoop, checking out the new view

Our first dinner in our first house! (No, we don't plan on making this a habit, but it might be bad for us to live close to Sonic ... especially since our commute will more than double ;-)

We can't wait for all of our friends and family to come visit us in our new place (yes, I am subtle)!

Now, what shade of yellow will Tammy choose for the half-bath? Will Chris and Tammy ever agree on the appropriate location for the coat rack? What will they find to fill the large, formal dining area ... or will they fill it at all? Stay tuned for more adventures in moving to find out the answers to these burning questions and more!