Our Texas Homestead!

Ye-haw! Greetings from Texas!! Welcome to our new home in The Woodlands :)

We came here for the wonderful public schools, the low cost of living and all of the benefits of a planned community. I can happily say that so far, everything has exceeded our expectations.

First, the schools- All of the schools in The Woodlands are very good, but we chose to buy in the elementary school zone that we understood to be the best. Test scores are through the roof and the standards are high! Grace's principal recently took a trip to Washington D.C. to accept an award for the most outstanding elementary school Principal in Texas. Grace was very nervous about starting at a new school, but her new teacher has been phenomenal and she already seems mostly adjusted and very happy. I have a happy girl, who's bringing home awesome work every day... I'm a happy mom! Another awesome thing about the school is that it's a mile down the street. I was spending 2 hours a day in the car in Mississippi driving Grace to and from the private school she was at. Now, she rides the bus! It's only a 5 minute ride for her and she likes it. I like the other Mama who sometimes wears pajamas at the bus stop with me- it's an easy morning :)

Next, the cost of living- Taxes here are hard to beat! There is no state income tax, that's right, zero! Property taxes in The Woodlands are high, but we actually found a home here comparable to our home in Hattiesburg for a good bit less than we sold our last house for. So, even with the high property taxes, our house note is about the same. Beyond that, things seem to be more affordable- even the car insurance and registration are substantially less! So, are we saving any money yet?? Well, not yet... you know our new house needed some new things right away. Oh, and the shopping here is amazing... so, no savings quite yet ;). Seriously, even the grocery shopping is fun. HEB is my new favorite place! I even brought my company there last week to enjoy it. Fabulous, yummy specialty foods with delicious samples and wine tastings while you shop. Wait, you haven't heard the best part... it's not expensive! It actually has pretty good prices. Coming from Mississippi, I had 2 choices: WalMart or an overpriced market that really didn't have anything better than what was in WalMart. Again, I'm loving the new shopping!

Now, even with all of the good The Woodlands has to offer, moving somewhere new is definitely scary- we didn't know a soul here. It's going well though. We have quite a few neighbors with kids the same ages as ours and a few women that have gone above and beyond to make us feel welcome. We are blessed!

Now, on to the tour!!

This is what is across the stress from our house. It is a fishing pond and a walking trail. The trail goes all the way to the elementary school in one direction and to a big neighborhood park in the other.

This is our foyer. Notice our Texas star front door. One thing is for sure- Texans love Texas! Grace has already learned some really cute songs about being a Texan at school. They say the Texas pledge to the Texas flag every morning. They even have a big Kindergarten Rodeo coming up soon. I ordered Grace some fabulous cow girl boots that I'm a little jealous of myself!

Another view of the foyer.

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Breakfast Nook

This is the den. It is off the foyer and has double doors. One day, I envision a piano in here (and wood floors!).

Master Bedroom

Next, we'll go upstairs...

This is the kids' hangout area. Lots of toy storage, a big comfy couch, and a big t.v.! I love that one wall of it is open banisters to the foyer, because I can hear everything going on upstairs even when I'm downstairs.

Grace's Room

Notice my crafty project, I'm totally putting this on Pinterest! I spray painted old frames and Jeremy cut some steel to size... voila, magnet boards! Grace loves them!

Grace's art desk in her room- another thing she loves!

Marion's Room- we painted it yellow, her favorite color!

Guest Room - I love company, pack your bags!!

The guest room and Grace's room both overlook the pond.

Ah, paradise! Our very own pool and hot tub!! We are so excited to have this! We have been using the hot tub lots, and can't wait to try out the pool! Maybe a Texas March will be warm enough ;) The pool already had a black child safety fence installed. It's not the prettiest pool accessory, but I sure do like having it.

That's it, our new home! At 20 years old, it is the oldest house we've ever lived in. It needs some renovation and updating here and there, and lots of landscaping love, but Jeremy and I enjoy that kind of work. We are loving the floor plan and the spaces, and also love the location. Life is good in Texas!

Thanks for visiting :)

home sweet home

It's been a long week! We are moved and almost settled into our new home. I absolutely love it! It has so many wonderful things that we've always wanted. I love the fixtures, the flooring, and most importantly, the floorplan. We have plenty of bedrooms and they're all big. There's a downstairs playroom for the kids for while they're little and and upstairs hangout apartment with 2 rooms and a bath for when they're older. I love the yard... a huge deck, beautiful landscaping and fabulous lighting! And then there's the part that sold my dear husband... 3 car garage and separate brick workshop. Really, I don't know how we were surviving without them... they're already packed full!

Another big reason for the move was to get closer into town to cut down on my time in the car. It's wonderful, I feel like I have moved out of the country and into the city! Most places I go take about 5 minutes; it took longer than that just to get out of our old subdivision.

I had been taking some heat from my dad the past couple weeks for the frequent house jumping. Today, when he visited the new house, he conceded that it was way better than our last home... it was obvious, the move was worth it!

Yes, it was worth it, but still really stressful... harder than I remembered... but maybe that's due to the 2 princesses. Jeremy and I have had different priorities this week. I wanted to get things unpacked and back to normal. He couldn't wait to get the high tech wiring and technology in this house fully functioning. After a lengthy stay at Best Buy, followed by an even lengthier receipt, he spent the next two days on the living room floor plugging, unplugging and rearranging wiring until he got it all just right. The need to play different audio on the deck speakers than on the indoor speakers when we were still up to our necks in boxes confused me to say the least. Luckily, we had a friend over to keep me company much of the week. Our attempts to not argue in front of her (although not 100% successful!) definitely saved us from a few extra fights this week. She may have even saved our marriage... it was a chaotic week! Thanks girl! ;)

It's been difficult to pack up our life and move 8 miles down the road, but so worth it! I picked out a very beautiful and very pricey chandelier for over my kitchen island today. I came home without it to think about whether I wanted to fork out that much money for a light when we still need lots of new furniture. Jeremy told me to get the light I really want... because I'll be looking at it for a very long time.

Friends, if you see me put a for sale sign out in my yard again, yank it up and RUN LIKE HELL! I'll thank you later.... moving sucks!

my head is spinning... and we're just getting started

It's been a week since I blogged. A long week, a short week, I don't know, depends on how you look at it.

I have a bad habit of house hunting, always searching for the bigger better roof to raise my family under. After all, we spend a lot of time in our house! Do you ever wonder why Realtors make such a ridiculously huge bankroll when they close a deal? I suspect it's because of women like myself, who want to tour and critique every house for sale in the greater Hattiesburg area, searching for the perfect one for their family. My perfect home would have 4+ bedrooms, 3+ baths, a big hangout room for the girls as they get older, and be MUCH closer to Sacred Heart than our current home, which clocks in at a whopping 35 minutes!

While Jeremy was in Singapore, I had been busy touring homes and sending him links to virtual tours of ones I liked. His response was always the same, "It's a nice house, but why don't you worry about selling our house first, before you get your heart set on something that we may be gone by the time our house sells. Truth is, the housing market is in bad shape, and the average property will sit on the market for 120 days.

..................................................

On Tuesday I fell in love with a house that met and surpassed my criteria for the perfect home for us. I could go on and gush about the details, but I'll spare you and wait until it's final. I immediately ran home and stuck my "for sale by owner" sign in the yard. With the down market, I decided to also invest $400 in a flat fee broker service that listed my home in the MLS and on www.realtor.com. In less than 24 hours I had a showing. 24 more hours and 4 counter offers later, we had a contract. Mandi, if you're reading this, I'm very sorry for rubbing it in, truly.

We now have a contract for the sale of our current home and a contract for the purchase of our soon to be new home. We are scheduled to close on both only 2 weeks from tomorrow and I am scared to death. I need 2 good inspections and a good interest rate. Full service movers would be nice, but I'll be doing the packing myself. My head is spinning and it's not from the Rock and Roux Fair we were at all weekend. I planned to take the girls to Baltimore next week and I cancelled the plane tickets this morning. Please pray for a smooth 2 weeks for us!

*** a quick edit in case my husband reads this... I plan to stay in the new house a very very long time... I really think that this time we might be getting it right! ;)

doctors, play equipment, party planning and redecorating...

These are some of my many excuses for not blogging over the last week.

doctors... Today I saw two. First, Dr.Drake. I am still at one centimeter and Marion is high. I am measuring right on for where I should be. I have an appointment next Wednesday with an ultrasound and really hope to have made some progress by then so that I'll be "ready" to be induced on the 18th as planned. Next, I visited the dentist. I swear, the angle on those chairs is not for those who are hugely preggo. I could barely breathe... but no cavities, so at least it's out of the way for a while.

play equipment... our backyard now looks like this:

so now we're up to a playhouse, a trampoline and a swingset. tacky? yes. fun? YES!

After keeping Grace out of the backyard for a month to hide the playhouse from her, and the recent addition of the trampoline, we're out there all the time... yes, even despite the massive rainfall we've had lately...

notice the fierce watchdog in the house!

party planning... Saturday is Grace's 3rd birthday party. I've planned an outdoor party and have been obsessively checking the weather. I'm just not sure how I'll entertain the kiddos if it's raining. The good news is, it's looking fairly good at this point. The weather channel is calling for a 40% chance of showers and accuweather says mostly sunny and breezy... chances could definitely be worse! I spent last night couped up in my sewing room working on Grace's dress for her party. I wanted to applique one princess, she wanted them ALL. I am compromising by doing 3 of them across the bottom. I will post pictures once I'm done... you know I'm proud (think 1 hour per princess applique)!


redecorating... So last week I tagged along with a friend who was doing some house shopping. I LOVE to look at houses (but no, we're not moving anytime soon!). A couple of the houses were really well done and made me feel like my house could use some freshening up. So now my house looks like this...

ahhh! it's a BIG mess!

the dining room is done but is now the catch all for all else :/

Jeremy has been working on repainting. Yes, we painted it all a year ago, but it needed it again! I'm looking forward to getting the house back in order soon! At least before my weekend company arrives on Friday!

here's Jeremy at about 1:00a.m., still hard at work!

so why was I still awake at 1:00am to take all of these dark, midnight shots of the house.... I don't know, but I'm so tired now!