our first home

So this year after many years of living in an apartment and renting we finally bought a house.  The road to buying a house has been a festive road.  Several years ago we tried to buy a house and I am very glad that it fell through because then we wouldn’t be in the current house we are in. 

In our search for a house we narrowed it down to two houses , our “full service” real estate agent sat us down and discussed which house he felt we should buy.  He is one of our really good friends from the ward.  We found out later that he knew which house we were going to buy before we did.   The house is one floor (1800 sqft). The biggest selling point is the yard and quarter acre of potential.  The deck is huge (25 x 13 ft) and could host a really large party after I buy a grill.

The house had good bones but needed some serious updating to bring it into this century.  The appliances were chocolate brown and the sink matched.  The carpet was old and although in decent condition the seventies kept calling and wanted it back.  We still aren’t sure what color the walls and ceiling were.  I think it was some shade of tan Tiffany thinks it was peach and reminded her of her room growing up, either way it wasn’t a good color and had to be replaced.

You can see the wall that was removed on the left.

Don' t you love the cabinets and the awesome appliances!!!

Here is the living room. Check out the wonderful carpet.

Dining Room 

We decided as part of updating the house we wanted to open the cave that was known as the kitchen. However our biggest fear would be realized when we removed the sheet rock and found that the wall was indeed a load bearing wall, and I wanted to span a distance of 12 ft.   Removing a load bearing wall was very nerve racking and we kept going back and forth on whether to remove it, but wow what a dramatic change it was.  I should add that Tiffany put the first hole in the wall.

Wall between the kitchen and dining room 

 The biggest project in the house was the kitchen.  We were looking into replacing the cabinets, but our budget wouldn't allow it.  The other reason we hesitated to replace the cabinets is that they are solid wood, something you can't find these days without spending a large chunk of cash.  So we decided to dress up the current cabinets by adding some decorative molding, beadboard, new hardware and some white semi-gloss paint.  We have been told on several occasions that they look professionally done. the change was very dramatic and the kitchen looks so different now.

There was a soffit above the cabinets, it had to came down. We added a couple of new lights and replaced all four major kitchen appliances. Although we still need to fix the electrical line to the microwave.

Tiffany called me one day and said the lights went out when she tried to run the microwave. Apparently there are three lights the TV outlet and the microwave on the same electrical circuit. I need to run a line directly to the microwave from the electrical box.

We put engineered hardwood down in the living room into the kitchen and down the hall.  The floor went down much easier than I expected, but still provided some challenge around the door frames into the bedrooms. We are so excited how the floor turned out, and how it covered up the really ugly tile underneath the really ugly carpet.

The bedrooms were painted new colors and the carpet was replaced and they turned out awesome also. Tiffany's favorite color should be very evident and three rooms are painted some shade of green.  It was very interesting as I was painting the craft room green I could have sworn the paint smelled like green apples. Now that was probably a directly proportional to mount of paint fumes that I had sniffed over the previous few days. Did I mention I love the smell of new paint, it reminds me of something clean, fresh and new.

Zackary's Room

Master Bedroom

Craft Room.  This is the room I thought smelled like Green Apples

Extra/Guest Room

 For all the projects we were able to finish prior to moving in there are several left to do. If you were to look at the bathrooms you would be transported back to 1950. We intend to change the vanities in both the bathrooms. Paint is a must, but the wall paper needs to come done first. 

I guess there is a lot still left to do, but then it gives me the excuse to go the big boy toy stores. (Lowes and Home Depot).

During the renovation Zackary loved coming over to play was always trying to help dad.

run Jeff run......

To begin, I was told that I would be docked a letter grade if I failed to update this blog.  The good news I am no longer in school and even if I were I could survive on getting a B instead of A as B is still getting a degree.  

So where to begin with the updates? This year has been quite the year for myself and our family.  I started running again, Tiffany and I bought a house and Zackary is just getting bigger, faster and funnier to listen to.

I have been trying for years to take up running again with the intent of losing weight.  This apparently is not enough motivation to begin running again.  A friend of decided that I needed to run a 5k with him, but of course it wasn’t just any 5k it was the Mud Dog run.  Now I must preface this a little, I haven’t run a 5k in over 16 yrs so I was thinking this was going to be a daunting task.  I know what some of you are saying “Its only 3.1 miles”, but at that moment to me I might as well be running a marathon.  

Now the Mud Dog run is not an ordinary 5k, it has 12-13 obstacles that each runner must navigate in order to complete the race.  The obstacles range from fording streams and rivers to climbing over the organizers Toyota Trecel (It reminded me of the red Toyota Corolla).   

I think the most interesting obstacle was the bed of flour that you had to crawling on my hands and knees.  This wouldn’t have been so bad except that it was raining and what does water and flour make.  

Needless to say as I jumped over the fire to cross the finish line I was very happy to be finished and felt a great sense of accomplishment.  This race was early in the spring season and I have not stopped running since.   

I have been running 10-12 miles through the week and then Saturday I usually run 8-10 miles.

The long mileage on the weekends was preparation for the Baltimore half marathon I just finished running. Here are some of the pictures of the race 

http://www.marathonfoto.com/index.cfm?action=site.login&RaceOID=17472011F1&LastName=HOELLEIN&BibNumber=41644&spMAILINGID=36549661&spUserID=MTA4NjE5MjA5OTQS1&spJOBID=116342407&spREPORTID=MTE2MzQyNDA3S0

It was very grueling but very exciting when I finished the 13.1 miles.  Before the race began I was thinking that I would try running the full Baltimore marathon next year and I was feeling totally confident that I could, however while I was running and somewhere around mile 9 I was thinking the full marathon was the stupidest idea I have ever had.  I still might think about it as the year goes on, but right now I am even close to being ready. 

first birthday fun!

I cannot believe it's been a year since Zackary was born.  It has been full of fun and new adventures that I wouldn't trade for the world.  We love him so much and he is such a sweet, fun little boy!

For his birthday we had a monster party.  I made monster cupcakes and they turned out so cute!  He loved the cupcake and ice cream he ate and smeared it all over his face!  He got spoiled by everyone and now needs a toy box for all the fun toys he got.  It was a great day!

After the party was over he found the bag of garbage and started playing with the boxes and plastic coverings for the toys.  Who knew they'd be more fun than the toys that came in the boxes!

halloween

Zackary was the cutest little dog for Halloween!  We went to our ward Trunk or Treat on the wednesday before Halloween and then went trick or treating with our good friends on halloween night.  Zackary seemed oblivious to what was going on but also seemed to have fun.  By the end he was so tired he kept laying his head down on Jeff's head.