The Home Stretch!

Okay.. we have quite a lot of ground to cover here! Some of these pictures are a few weeks old, but haven't been posted yet (oops).

Here's where we stand now... they finish the house Wednesday (!!!!!!!), it's being inspected Thursday, we do our new home demo next Monday, and, if all goes as planned, close a week from Wednesday. That means we move in August 13. That's TWO WEEKS, people. OMG. I'm freaking out (in a good way).

Okay, these first pics are the oldest. The tile had just gone in. This is pre-light fixtures.

A pic of the tile in the common area (you're looking at the breakfast area).

Master bath

These pics were taken after the fixtures had gone in. Still pre-carpet.

Taken from the kitchen looking into the breakfast area and living room (they covered the tile up so the workers wouldn't rough it up).

Guest bath shower - no faucets yet.

Guest bath sink - no faucets yet.

Master bedroom

Master bath - our shower without the glass.

Our coach light :)

Front of the house - pre-front door and landscaping.

Okay... the last set of pictures were from a Tuesday, I think. These are from the following Friday, July 22.

Kitchen!!!

Guest bath.

My window with our pretty chandelier

Front of the house.

Okay - last set! These are from last Thursday. The first time I'd been to the house since the last house blog post.

Our kitchen sink, overlooking breakfast area and living room.

Our kitchen (that's me with our friend Christine in the background). I LOVE our kitchen. It's so pretty!!

Our front door.

My window! Dining room with carpet.

Guest shower.

Guest bath

View of kitchen from the breakfast room

Master bath (and Lan, master photographer)

Our little gem Magnolia - it already has a bloom!

Front of the house with landscaping!!

Okay.. these are all the pictures until after we move in and get settled. I hope they made you want to come visit us :)

Love from Houston,

L and J

Night at the Museum

A couple of weeks ago, we went to an event at The Museum of Natural Science with our friends Emily, Jonah and Anne Marie. It was really fun! They had a bunch of food trucks outside where you could eat, and a Beatles cover band. They were even dressed like The Beatles (complete with gold, glittery jacket). Awesome. The people watching was interesting (a highlight of the evening for me was the senior citizen dance party). And, to top it all off, you could look at all the permanent exhibits.

Where the band was set up - the dinosaur room!

The girls! Me with Emily and Anne Marie.

Me and Lan.

Emily got her fortune told by Zoltar!

I'm pretty sure my friends thought I was crazy for taking this picture, but this is for my Mississippi friends. Sarah, Erin, Angela... this one is for you. One of the traveling exhibits at the museum is a Texas history exhibit.

Caption - "And on the 8th day, God created this exhibition."

Oh, Texas...

Okay.. that's all for now! We are in MAJOR packing mode. We're going to the house Thursday and I'll take more pics and post them this weekend.

Coming soon.... MJM/DYW Recap, House Pics, Recipes.

Love from Houston!

L and J

Our First Anniversary :)

I can't believe it's already been a year, but we celebrated our anniversary on July 3. Having the long weekend was just as nice as we'd hoped!

Thanks to everyone who sent us anniversary wishes! We felt so loved (and surprised you all remembered!).

We also used that weekend to visit Lan's aunt and uncle in Beaumont (we hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving), which was really fun (Lan got to go fishing with his uncle and cousins and I got to go to some yard sales and antique malls with his aunt). I requested that we come home on Sunday so we could celebrate our anniversary on the actual day, so that's what we did!

For some time now, we've been planning to go to The Melting Pot (a fondue restaurant) for our anniversary. It came highly recommended from friends of ours who have eaten there, and it's easy to see why!! It's SOOO good. A little pricey, so it's definitely only for special occasions, but it's really yummy. I already want to go back :)

Best. Husband. Ever.

Our first course - spinach and artichoke fondue. Traditional cheese fondue has white wine in it, and most have some sort of alcohol in them (for consistency and flavor), but we knew we didn't want alcohol in ours, so our waiter recommended this one. SOOO good. We practically licked the pot clean.

He made it by putting some vegetable stock in the pot, then he added some garlic, artichokes, spinach and spices, then he mixed in the cheese. We got bread, chips, veggies, and apples (sounds weird, but it was actually really yummy!) for dippers.

Main course. Lan had a "Pacific Rim" entree with teriyaki-marinated sirloin, white shrimp, citrus-marinated pork tenderloin, breast of duck, breast of chicken and potstickers. I had the filet. And we got a table of veggies to share. Our waiter also made us stuffed mushrooms - yummy!

The way it works is you cook your meat yourself in a hot liquid at your table. We chose to fry our food. It came with 2 types of batter to dip your food in before putting it in the pot, and 5 types of sauces to put on your food when it came out. I was worried about this course, but it was fun, and the food was great!

Isn't he cute?

Dessert. I don't want to say this was the best course, because it was all good, but this was AWESOME. I wish I had some right now. Lan is a sucker for anything turtle, so we got the turtle fondue (flambéed table side!). As you might guess, it had milk chocolate, caramel, and pecans (at the end, we ran out of dippers and Lan scooped the pecans out of the pot and ate them - "just like chocolate covered pecans!").

For dippers we had cheesecake, pound cake, rice krispies, banana, strawberries, brownies, graham cracker-covered marshmallows, and oreo-covered marshmallows. Like I said, it was good.

I didn't want to stop eating!

The infamous wedding cake. We'd heard mixed reviews about this, so we didn't really know what to think. Especially since this cake made a long journey to get here (we had to carry it in a cooler from MS over Memorial Day weekend) and it was suspiciously wrapped by our cake guy, but it was good!

Lan seems to notice more freezer burned taste than me, but we both think it's still good (apparently the cake guy knows what he's doing after all) and we're still eating it! We're only half way through!

So, that was our anniversary.

Especially in Houston, I get a lot of "you're so young to be married" type attitudes, but, let me just say, I would rather spend my young years married to Lan than be unattached any day. He is such a blessing in my life and I'm so proud to be his wife!

We'll that's enough mushy stuff, and that's all for now!

Up next - more recipes and house updates!

Love from Houston,

L and J

House Update - Brick and Cabinets!

So, we've visited the lot twice since my last update. Lan went alone last Wednesday, and we both went with some friends on Saturday. When Lan went on Wednesday, it had been a week and a half since we were there last - and lots changed!

New things Wednesday- mainly sheetrock, brick

New things Saturday - cabinets, doors (except our front door, which goes in a lot later), moulding/baseboards

What they're doing this week - pouring the driveway, measuring for granite, putting in tile (we're getting down to the little stuff!)

We're projected to close on the house sometime between August 8 and the 15th. We're hoping for the week of the 8th because we are going to a wedding the weekend after the 15th and wouldn't be able to move until later.

These were taken Wednesday - the first time Lan had seen the brick. It's starting to look like an actual house!

The brick goes down about 3/4 the way - the rest is hardy siding. I think our fence will begin about where the brick ends.

I love this window. You've seen it in lots of pictures! This is in the dining room.

This is a view from the kitchen looking into the breakfast area (before the arch) and living room (after the arch).

In the kitchen, looking at the pantry and into the dining room.

This is in our guest bedroom, looking into our guest bathroom. The closet is on the left.

In the master, looking into the master bath.

Standing in the living room, looking into the breakfast area and kitchen.

Okay, from this point forward, we're looking at Saturday pictures. Do you notice how the brick looks different from Wednesday? They washed it this day (see the guy on the left). Basically, the mortar gets messy, so you wash it with acid to clean it up!

Cabinets!! The fridge will go on the far left. The microwave will go in the space you see on the right, and the range will be underneath.

A bigger view of the kitchen. See our island!

I wanted to get a shot of the window above the door. Our actual front door will be put in later.

Standing in the entryway, looking into the dining room at my favorite window!

Back porch - still needs paint.

Master bedroom - notice that they've primed the walls, and the baseboards are in (still need to be painted).

The windows in our master bedroom, looking out onto the porch.

Cabinets in the master bathroom.

Looking from the living room into the kitchen and breakfast area. We brought lots of friends on Saturday - Jonah and Anne Marie, Dallas and Ashlee, and Chris.

One last pic! Only one more month!

Upcoming posts... anniversary recap, more house updates, recipes, flea market finds.

Love from Houston!

-L and J