First Time Homeowners!!!

TTTTAAAA-DAAAHHH!!!! There she is, Mrs. America!!!! Believe it or not, we closed on the house, OUR HOUSE! We now have little pad of our very own. Technically, it's bank's house, but we'll just call it our house. So, did we move in to the house over Thanksgiving break? Not quite.

We thought we'd be spending our Thanksgiving day in some restaurant, since we weren't able to go back home and see family. The thought was kinda depressing, but we knew we needed these days to work on the house, so that we could move before heading to Georgia for Christmas break. Did we end up eating turkey and stuffing afterall ? Oh, you bet we did! After we closed on Wednesday, I got a call from Clayton telling us to go pick up our Thanksgiving dinner at the Honey Baked Ham store!! Talk about a Hallmark moment...my sweet brother called in a Thanksgiving Dinner for the two of us. We were absolutely in shock. What a surprise! What kindness! What thoughtfulness! What generosity!! Oh, I could go on and on. We were SO THANKFUL. After working on the house a bit on Wednesday and Thursday, we took a break and ate our Thanksgiving lunch, that was given to us. Nothing can replace being at home eating your mama's cooking with the whole family, but considering the fact that we were up here all by our lonesomes....we had a good Thanksgiving. So, why all the work on the house? What needed to have been done on it? Well Hugh, why don't you elaborate?

We closed on the house Wednesday morning, and we started buying some tools and supplies necessary for painting, cleaning, and getting the house ready to be lived in. Basically, we don't have a dime left - Lowe's and Home Depot have it all. So, that night we ripped out some nasty-butt carpet that was in the house. The people before us had cats, and each of the three carpeted rooms served as huge litter boxes for them. The house started smelling better as soon as we got that junk out of there. We just ordered some new carpet that should be here in 2 wks (thanks for taking my left arm as payment, Lowe's.) I gotta jet and go study now. Back to Hollie....

Thanks Hugh. Well...since then, we've been working around 9-midnight every night. Talk about tired...shew! We have been taking down wall paper, and while I'm talking about wallpaper, allow me to step up the the soap-box for just a second. The Carson household will be banning all wallpaper for the rest of our lives. Mercy alive, I can't remember the last time anything got me that frustrated. But, most of it is off now, except the aztec style-mauve-and-teal green-border around the master bathroom ceiling, but that won't take long at all. We've been fixing some nail pops (just a few), painting the ceilings, getting our water and heat going,....hmm...what else? Oh, we finally were able to pick up our washer, dryer, and fridge from the church(if you have no idea as to what I'm talking about, scroll down a few posts. you can't miss it.) We do not have hot water yet, so Hugh will have to replace the hot water elements, but that's not a big deal. We don't really know EXACTLY how to do that, but we'll figure it out. We've already learned a great deal about fixing up a home and will continue to learn so much, I'm sure. We also are stripping ......our mantel (scared you, didn't I?)because there was a terrible mave and cream faux finish on there. We're in the middle of that, but it's just going to have to wait. All that is left to do now, is paint the kitchen ceiling, paint the walls, fix our hot water heater, give the house a thorough cleaning(cabinets and such), and pack up the stuff at the apartment. I've been anticipating painting the walls since day one, and now we're almost there!! Unfortunately, things are going to slow down a lot now, since we both have jobs and studies starting back up on Monday. But we'll do our best to get the job done. We'll be doing these last minute touches and then start the moving process. I don't think we'll be able to get a tree up in time to enjoy it this year. How sad is that? We'll be leaving for Georgia around December 23rd or so. We'll see. That's it for now folks. So, to sum things up, she's not quite Mrs. America yet, but give it some time. Let us give her some charm, and maybe she'll be sport'n the title in a little while. More pics on the way soon!!!