New House Pics

Since we took these, we've already changed and rearranged a few things in the house. I am also currently redoing both bathrooms so those will change too, but these are some of the pics we took right after we got settled in.

So glad that the previous owners did such a good job on the landscaping that we didn't have to do anything!

 The little garden on the right that the previous owners put in
They had strawberries planted when we moved in. We'll see if I try to branch out and plant anything else.

The floors look great when they are completely clean… but they are a pain to keep clean with a rug that is still shedding like crazy and two dogs!

I eventually want a new ottoman or coffee table when I find what I want. This one matched our old furniture and clashes with the new couch a little bit. 

Now that I work from home, the dogs think they are never ever supposed to be outside! 

 My home office

One of the other residents came over and thought I was a serious gamer with my computer screens. Haha.

Love the built in bookshelves with lots of storage space

 Proof that Colt's a doctor :)

 Since this pic, we've changed out the bedroom curtains and got some lamps and a little wall decor.

 Here's a pic with the updated curtains and decor. We got everything from HomeGoods in Rockwall when we there visiting family. Ignore Colt's shoes in the pic.

 And Lucky.

I have still yet to fill the picture frame on the right. Colt reminded me again this week actually!

 Master bathroom
I am about to brighten it up a little hopefully so I will post some after pics when I get it updated.

Our closet isn't near as big as our old closet, but I'm happy we still have a closet that is plenty big! None of the other houses that we looked at that we're built around the same time had this big of a closet.

 Spare bedroom
We left all the paint colors like the previous owners had them and just went with it. This spare bedroom is green, and the other spare is a baby blue because they had two little boys.
We used all the decorations from my old office at work to decorate the spare. Colt thought it was all to girly too put in our main office. Luckily it all matches perfectly with the green walls.

I'm not even posting pics of the other spare! Right now it is a storage room with all our extra furniture.

 Spare bathroom
This bathroom is getting updated too. I also need to find a shelf to go over the toilet to replace the leaf shelf. The only one I've found so far that I liked was online at Pottery Barn, and I'm definitely not paying that much for a little shelf!

Laundry room

This is also pretty good size, and I'm glad. I don't really like walking right into the laundry room though. 

Colt's garage

I love our new house…with the exception of the floors I think! It's comfortable, homey, and the perfect size for us. 

Home Projects

Besides just the porch swing, Colt did several other little home projects those first couple of weeks. 

He built me a hanging rack for the laundry room. I don't know what people do without these!

He put an extension on the outdoor fan so it circulated a little more air while on the backporch. I did actually help a little with this one!

One of the reasons we loved the house was because of the trees...but one of the two in the backyard was dead when we moved in.

Colt cut it down by himself one day. Probably wasn't the safest thing to do because I know he got in a bind at least once that he told me about. 

At least we have one tree left in the backyard but it's not looking that healthy either. I really wish our big live oak in the front was in the back. 

Since the dead tree had to come down, Colt decided to just build a burn pit around the stump. He got some extra stone from Josh's neighborhood and one day while I was working, the two of them built this. 

For some reason, he decided to use leftover flooring to upgrade his workspace in the garage.

He installaed misters on the porch. It feels just like you're at Six Flags!

He built corn hole boards.

When we went to Lowe's he asked for Dallas Cowboy blue paint. It turned out a little brighter and looked more like electical tape than expected. As soon as he slows down enough, he's going to redo them. 

And he mounted our spare TV on the porch. 

Can you tell he doesn't really like to sit still… and I'm sure he actually did a lot more than just these little projects!

The Move and Our First Week in Temple

Just four months after the fact... but better late than never! Now that fall busy season is over and especially with Colt being on surgery this month, I plan on having a lot more free time now and hope to get caught up on here (for real).

Colt graduated on Friday May 30th. We had the weekend to finish packing up, and moving day was on the following Monday, June 2nd. Since my mom was going to be coming to stay with us for a few days, that Sunday evening before the move, I met my parents in Greenville for dinner and to pick up my mom. Due to the distance and amount of stuff we were moving, we hired movers to do it for us.  We closed early on Monday morning so while we were heading to Temple to close, Colt's mom was at our house in Forney with the movers making sure everything got packed up.

After grabbing breakfast at McDonald's, it was time to get the keys to our new home! My mom stayed at the new house while we headed to go finish up paperwork and officially close. She had planned on having to start cleaning before the movers got there, but the previous owners luckily had it cleaned so we didn't have to do a thing before the movers arrived! The previous owners also let us a cute little care package and some notes about the house… very thoughtful. 

Good thing that Colt and I both had our vehicles packed down, and that Josh had stopped and got a truckload of our stuff, because if not, all our stuff definitely wouldn't have made it! Some of our stuff still didn't make it on the truck! 

With the help of my mom, we had everything unboxed and put up in no time. Mom and I went to Jason's Deli that night to grab dinner and relax a little. 

The next morning, we were up bright and early and at it again... or really my mom was at it again. I needed to at least have my coffee first! My mom can't sit still and is a work-a-holic so she was going non-stop. Tuesday we also did some grocery shopping and I showed her (and myself) around Temple and Belton. We got lost in Belton! While mom and I were in Belton we grabbed BBQ at Shoepf's for lunch. It definitely wasn't my favorite. The main thing that I would say this town is lacking in is restaurants. There isn't a lot to choose from, especially in the mexican food department! Since we had groceries we did cook our first meals at the new house that day for breakfast and dinner. 

The first few weeks after the move, they had these signs around Temple welcoming the new doctors.

 Wednesday my dad came around lunch time to pick up my mom.  Of course he didn't spend the night. He stayed long enough to see the house and for us to eat lunch in Belton at the Gin at Nolan Creek but that's about it. He definitely spent way more time driving that day than he did here! After they left on Wednesday, I talked Colt into hanging everything on the walls for me. We definitely got decorated and settled in fast. 

Alex settled in fast too! More pics of our house to come later.

For dinner that night we ended up meeting up with a group of people at Chili's that Colt had met while he was here on his away rotation. It was good to get out of the house and meet some new people. 

I am so glad that I was off the full week after the move and also that Colt didn't start up for a few weeks. It was good to have time to get everything done… even though of course it still wasn't enough time and it went too fast!

Our Thursday morning started with outside projects and trying to help Colt stain our patio furniture, After a trip to Lowes, I also did my best to help him hang the swing on our backporch and do a couple of other little projects. While we were in the backyard working, we had left our phones in the house. In the meantime, Colt's parents had gotten to our house and had been trying to call us. Evidently they were at our house for an hour and a half in the frontyard and driving around Temple looking for us! They brought us the rest of our stuff that didn't fit on the moving truck. After we finally got together, we ordered pizza and watched the playoff basketball game on TV. 

Friday night, after Josh and Brianna got settled in after their move, we went over to their house for margaritas and a little Catch Phrase.

Saturday we tried out CrossFit Centex in the morning to get a little free workout in, and later in the day Gerald and Allison stopped by the house on their way to a wedding. That night we went out to dinner with Whitney, Matt, Sterling, Tyler and Ben. We went to Dead Fish Grill on the lake, and from there we went to Nolan Creek Winery for a few drinks. 

The ex-residents that we went to dinner with all own a boat together so that Sunday we went out for a lake day. I hurried back home to go to the grocery store and start cooking because we had invited a few people over for dinner that night. I cooked quesadillas and taquitos for everyone and we watched the Spurs and Heat game. Really the guys watched the game and the girls just talked the whole time. It was a good first week in our new town, and I was definitely thankful to have my mom here at the beginning of the week to help with the house!

Patio Furniture

Since we were going to have a decent size porch in Temple, before the move, we started looking for new patio furniture. Due to the crazy prices, Colt decided he would build it instead... so during his time off when he wasn't packing before the move, he built this with a little help from Josh! 

We found some throw pillows at Stein Mart and Pottery Barn with the colors we wanted. Then for the big pillows, we just bought blue pillow shams and a blue quilt from Stein Mart for cheap that became the bolster pillow coverings. Colt's mom made bolster pillows out of stuffing and plastic to weather proof them a little, and she made them oversized to act as armrests or a big pillow if you're laying down. Oh ...and for the main cushions we found some dog beds from Costco that worked out great... can't forget that!

Once we got to Temple, we made a trip to Lowes to buy some paint and buy some chains to paint and hang our swing, and this is what we ended up with as our final product!! I LOVE it and couldn't be more happy with it. It's great to have a handy husband that knows how to do things! 

My mom also gave me the two old metal chairs, and Colt just spray painted them red for me. Love them too, although, since then Colt managed to break one of them. Since then he's used J.B. Weld to try to put it back together, and it's in need of repainting!  

Here were a few of our original pinterest inspiration pics....

And some pics of the bulding process... It would've been smarter to build it in Temple and not have to move it but he had the time in Forney, and we knew he wouldn't have a ton of spare time after the move before he started working!