My Favorite Holiday

Now that the weather is getting chillier, the lights are going up around town, there's a bit of spirit and cheer in the air, it's time to talk about my favorite holiday--Halloween!  Yep, I'm a little behind on the blogging.

I said in an earlier post I'd explain why we were so busy until three weeks before I wrote that entry.  When we moved into the house at the beginning of August, we were totally daunted by all of the unpacking, painting, and decorating that had to be done.  So we decided to give ourselves a deadline so that we'd buckle down and get things accomplished.  What better way to make sure we followed through than to invite all of our friends over for a haunted Halloween hootenanny?  If we didn't scramble and make the work happen, we would be embarrassed to let our friends walk through the door.  Well, it worked!  By All Hallows' Eve, the place was sparkling.  We even decorated the front yard!  What do you think?

We also got the chance to go to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom.  We wore some costumes that have been in our family for a number of years, but they're classics.

 We rode the Haunted Mansion...

 ...watched the fireworks...

 ...met the Seven Dwarfs...

...and ate lots and lots and lots of candy!  What fun!

The Pot o' Gold is online!

Guess what, everybody?  Since our last post, we closed on the house, packed, moved in, and already took a vacation!  Whew!  (The vacation wasn't planned to fall right in the midst of everything else going on, but that's for another post.)  The Bright House guy just left, which means the Brown family, and the Meet the Browns blog, is back online!  While I take a little break to catch on my virtual life and catch up our blog readers on our new home, Eric is hustling to do his handiwork around the house.  Already in the past few days since we got back from our trip to Chicago, we've already put a big dent in the unpacking chore, degreenified the pool, painted the laundry room, hung cabinets and cabinet hardware in the laundry room, repaired the wheels on the glass patio door, installed the master bedroom fan, and organized almost all the kitchen cabinets!  And before we even left on our trip, Eric had unpacked and arranged all of our new bedroom furniture which looks amazing.  And now, we're going to veg a bit and watch a movie.  I'll add updates--and a post about the Chicago trip--as we go along on our new adventure!! Yay!  We're finally here!

In the Meantime

Well, things are still chugging along on the house.  We were supposed to close on the 21st of this month, and then we were supposed to close at the beginning of this week (it's now Wednesday), but we really just wanted to leave a little cushion of time so we could close by the deadline on the 30th.  It looks like that's not going to happen now, but even though our realty team says it's no big deal, we're a little freaked out by it.  I hope it's realistic to think we'll be able to close by August 16 when our lease expires, but we're leaving on vacation on the 15th because we thought we'd be done with all this nonsense by then! 

Meanwhile, we've got all sorts of other foolishness going on.  There's stuff related to the house, like shopping for furniture and appliances.  And we've got company--Eric's mom and his friend Pete--because we thought we'd need their help working on packing (and unpacking) and organizing and home improvement and repairs, respectively, by this time.  Eric's shift times at work have been a little kooky lately, but he since has taken on a new responsibility that will give his schedule a bit more stability.  Then there's Encore opening in one week, which involves memorizing music, shopping for costumes, and, oh yeah, lots and lots of rehearsals.  With the house, company, and the crazy work schedule, Eric decided he didn't need one more commitment to juggle, so for the first time ever, he'll get to watch Encore from the audience!  And, of course, there's my work which is always unpredictable, and just trying to find some time to spend together!  So with all of this going on at once, we're pooped!  Needless to say, we're anxious to reach the denoument of this neverending Pot o' Gold saga.  Thoughts and prayers, please!

Exciting News!

First of all, we are one step closer to the Pot o' Gold being officially ours!  The bank has now accepted our offer and we are on to the next step in the process, getting the loan.  We have been pre-approved by several different institutions, and Eric has taken charge of finding a balance between the best lender, interest rate, monthly payment, etc., which is not an easy job.  We contacted Lending Tree so we're getting bombarded with calls, and he's juggling all of the numbers quite well.  Annie is here visitng and I'm sure she thinks we're this boring all the time!

In the meantime, we were present for the home inspection today.  Apart from the usual short sale/foreclosure home issues (missing showerheads, etc.) and a few minor quick fixes (dent in the garage door, etc.), everything seems to be in pretty excellent shape!  I was able to take a few photos while we were there.  (Don't be jarred by the paint job--we don't call it the Pot o' Gold for nothing.  We've already started stockpiling buckets of the new color, Citrus Spice.  I couldn't locate a swatch online, but in paint color terms, I'd say Citrus Spice is a blend between Mountain Honey and Prairie Wheat.)

Our second bit of news isn't really ours to share, but we're still excited about it!  Eric's sister Laura is expecting--by November, we're gonna have a niece or nephew!!

P.S. I know it seems hypocritical after I warned you against it, but I am totally distracted by the walls in these photos.  Thankfully we've (barely) seen this house's true potential past the swirly madness!

Is No News Good News?

We're still waiting to hear if the next step, a BPO, has been completed in the madness surrounding this house.  In the meantime, I've been keeping myself busy with one of my favorite pastimes: entering sweepstakes and contests online.  It's become a hobby of mine and sometimes I end up with some really cool prizes from websites and other bloggers.  (Breaking news: I just checked my email to find I'd won a custom ChocBite candy bar from The Mom Reviews.  Delish!) 

I only hope I'm not jinxing it by entering contests related to potentially getting this house.  Call me silly for bring up the dreaded jinx, but first consider this case.  The first house we had under contract had this atrocious brass chandelier hanging directly in the entryway, but then I won this amazing Carolina Rustica chandelier from My Design Secrets on April 20.  Problem solved, right?  Well, it would've been if the house hadn't gone into foreclosure two weeks later.  Jinx!

Or maybe it was just a coincidence.  Since I'm a rational twenty-something and not a third-grader in dire need of a Coke (or maybe that's a different Jinx), I'm banking on the serendipity of the timing.  So that brings us to now because the Pot o' Gold house is missing a few key appliances--namely the washer and dryer and the entire kitchen suite--and one other major fixture: the kitchen faucet.  Imagine my delight when I found that Delta was starting to host giveaways on some of the blogs that I follow!  I could win my choice of Delta faucet--up to a $300 value--for the kitchen which could potentially be ours. 

So I picked my favorite, the Pilar Single handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with Touch2O (but my pick could change since I haven't measured the little opening thingie where the faucet would stick out) and put in my entry at Mommy Blessings in Small Bundles, Thrifty Wifey, and Sugar Pop Ribbons.  But my measly entry was just one in hundreds of entries from contest junkies from all over the country!  The winner will be chosen at random, so even having entered at three different sites, I calculated my chances of winning at a meager 0.2%.  I had to help my chances somehow.  Thankfully, all three contests were offering extra entries for bloggers who wrote a post about the giveaway including links back to the sponsor and the blog hosting the contest.  Hey, I'm a blogger!  And this is a post about the giveaway! 

Now, ordinarily, I don't take advantage of those extra entries.  I'm a highly addicted contest hound and a very busy lady.  As much as I truly appreciate and want to promote my fellow bloggers, I just don't have time to blog about every giveaway I enter.  However, this was an opportunity I couldn't afford to pass up.  There is a hole where a faucet should be at our (potential) house.  Someone--even three someones!--decided to give a faucet away and (potentially) save me up to $300.  It's a holiday weekend.  It's my day off.  So I figured I had a few extra moments to wh*re out my blog if it increased my chances (even to 1%!) of winning something that I don't just want but (potentially) need.  So here goes nothing! 

• Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House: Dee's adorable kiddos, Evan and Isabella, are "exactly 2 years apart."  (I wonder if they have the same birthday?)  Isabella will be so lucky to have a big brother to chase all the boys away when she's in high school.  Well, Dee will be lucky.  Isabella would probably rather not have the star quarterback shooed away from her locker.  
• Thrifty Wifey: Laura, aka Thrifty Wifey, and I are both young Christian bargain-hunting wives just orbiting the blogosphere.  She's got the One Lovely Blog Award resting on the web equivalent of her mantel, which is nice because if it were on her real mantel, one of her animals would inevitably find away to knock it over in playful, mischievous fashion because she and her husband are outnumbered by house pets!
• Mommy Blessings in Small Bundles: This site is maintained by Jeanie Huston, a photographer like me.  Jeanie's fellow Hustons are Joe, Joshua, and Jatherine, I mean Catherine, and she and her husband are both college students.  I'll have to remember to stop back by the site on November 17 to wish the college kids a happy blogoversary!  (Who came up with that spelling?  Where did the "o" come from?)
• Sugar Pop Ribbons: I don't know much about Sugar Pop Ribbons since there's no About Me widget on the home page.  Because SPR is sporting the same blog layout I used before I discovered The Cutest Blog on the Block, and since that layout is pink, I'm assuming she's a throwback sister keepin' it real.  If you don't appreciate the classic look, each of her 887 Facebook friends will box your ears. 
• Mommy's Memorandum: Mrs. Morrison of Mommy's Memo has a regular brood of six little ones.  (How cute would it be if their names all began with M?)  Not quite enough for a baseball team, but they could definitely dominate a volleyball tournament.  Or they could play two simultaneous games of Chinese doubles in tennis.  Or golf, but two would have to caddy.
• And, last but not least, Delta Faucets.  Thanks very much to Delta for collaborating with these lovely bloggers to host these giveaways.  I know I might not be able to choose the Pilar Single handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with Touch2O if I win, partly because it's $547, but also because I don't know the measurements of the faucet opening place where it would (potentially) go.  But there's a tool on the website that lets me narrow down my choices by width and number of holes.  Among the 102 kitchen faucets they make, I'm sure I'll manage to find another model that tickles my fancy.  If I win.  And now there's a 1% chance that I will!

More Househunting Hysteria

So after the Model Home was foreclosed upon, it was back to the drawing board located at square one in the salt mines.  We jumped right back into househunting and it didn't take us long to find another specimen.  The Pot 'o Gold (so named by Eric because the current owner chose to paint every wall in the house a bold shade of goldenrod) is a 1900-square-foot, 10-year-old 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom house a few miles away from our current neighborhood.  The place is in incredible condition with lots of upgrades, and it's just over the county line where property taxes are a bit lower.  The sellers accepted our offer--$1000 more than we would have paid for the smaller, older model home--so now we're just waiting to see if the bank will take $165,000 less than the home's most recent purchase price.  Fingers crossed!

Back to Square One

Well, the sellers foreclosed on the house we wanted.  Not sure why they would want to do that when they had an interested buyer already in the process.  We're bummed, but we're moving on quickly to find a suitable replacement.  To lighten the mood, here's a reminder of where we are in the form of a blast from my past as a PBS-devoted child.

Everyday Adventures

Even if we don't have anything big and exciting coming up, we still have little adventures around here every day.  Take last Friday, for instance, when I ran out of gas on the highway coming home from rehearsal.  Of course I had forgotten my phone that day, so I scaled Overpass Mountain, trekked hundreds of feet, and stirred the natives of Longhorn Steakhouse to procure a phone.  Eric is wrestling the demonic curse of the root canal, writhing in pain at every possible chance.  His ailment left me to explore and observe the culture of Xanadu at the Bob Carr flying solo.

Coming up in a few weeks, just after Joseph closes, we'll be blazing a trail to Miami for a mini-vacation to celebrate our anniversary.  Also, the newest development in our acquisition of the Indian Oaks Trail Territory has unfolded.  Over two months after putting in our offer in mid-February, the villainous bank to whom the owners' balance is owed decided the purchase was worth $9,000 more than the original asking price.  After some prospecting, we've agreed to accept their counteroffer with the stipulation that we will close in time to qualify for the first-time home buyers' tax bounty before it expires at the end of June.  If all works according to plan, we'll be starting a new adventure at a new address before summer's end!

What's New with You?

The Time and Music Cabaret, a fund-raiser for Encore, was a major success last weekend.  I got to sing "To Keep My Love Alive," a darkly humorous Rodgers and Hart tune which was an audience favorite.  You may also remember from a previous post that I was cast in a production of Joseph... at the Garden Theatre.  Yesterday at our first rehearsal, I was promoted to the role of Potiphar's Wife!  I will still be singing with the ensemble, but I'll also be featured in the Potiphar scene in addition to my chorus duties. 

As for the house hunt, we decided to put in an offer on the Model Home.  We really liked it and feel it fits our needs best.  The offer has been approved by the seller, but since it's a short sale, we're still waiting on approval from the sellers' bank, which could take up to 90 days.  If we're approved, then we would have 45 days to get our loan and then hopefully we would close! 

House Hunting Update

We're well into our house hunt by now and there have been a few updates.  First of all, we've had a hard time remembering which house is House A, House B, and House C, but we've had a few nicknames stick to them throughout the process.  Secondly, we went to see a few more houses today (which would have been Houses D and E) and we have two more to see soon.  So House A has become the Hospital House because of the stark white tile and walls.  House B is now the Red Door House for obvious reasons, and House C is the Toothpaste House because the exterior was recently painted white with mint green accents. 

The Hospital House is still in the running as a more-than-acceptable back-up.  Though the Red Door House is within our price range, for the price it's not as irresistable a value as many of the others in its size range.  House C had been the front runner, but sadly when we went back to take a second look, we discovered that a not-so-well repaired leak in the roof had resprung.  Factoring in the roof replacement, mold removal, and paint and drywall reconstruction--not to mention risking the possibility of the leak re-respringing in the future--at this point it doesn't seem smart to take on the property. 

House D--the Yellow House, that is--has a great big back yard with a pool and it's situated on a quiet cul-de-sac.  There's a nice big dining area and tile throughout.  However, it's a foreclosure property, and the former owners must've been a bit incensed when they left because...it's kind of a mess.  There's also no fridge.  Yep, they must've been pretty mad.  It's also backed right up against the main road, so there's quite a bit of noise. 

House E used to be a model home in our neighborhood, thus its nickname of the Model.  It probably fits our needs better than anything we've seen so far--a comfy price, proximity, size, and condition.  It has high ceilings and even a few furnishings, an open floor plan, and lots of curb appeal.  The back yard is about the same size as our current yard, but it seemed puny compared to the Yellow House's massive yard.  We'd have to provide a washer and dryer, and the wallpaper in the kitchen is seriously hideous.  All of these obstacles can be overcome though, so we'll see what happens next!

House Hunting

Eric and I have decided we'e had enough of the renting lifestyle and we are looking to join the ranks of the homeowners.  We've been saving long enough that we think we can safely make a solid down payment with a nest egg to spare.  We took the first steps by getting pre-approved for a loan at our bank and opening a savings account at Partners, the credit union for Disney cast members. Then today we went out with a realtor to look at a few homes in our area!  Here are the highlights of our favorites so far:

House A is in the neighborhood where we currently rent, so we'd save a lot of miles on the moving truck!  We really enjoy living in this community except that frisbee-ing is not allowed in our park (whose idea was it to make that rule?).  It has a big yard and the pool was recently redone and looks great.  Unfortunately, there's no fence and, though the exterior has just been painted, it's kind of a weird color.  It's pretty roomy with lots of closet space, and there is a neutral color palette so it'll be easy to customize it with our touch. 

House B has a cute red door but also sports an unappealing color combo outside--like rye bread with butter.  Inside, though, it's been recently painted a lovely gold color and you can tell it's been taken care of well.  There's no carpet, only tile, so we could toss out our vacuum and get a Swiffer!  This one also has a large yard and a pool, but it's a little further from where we work.  There also isn't much room for a formal dining area, just a little breakfast nook.

House C sits in the community adjacent to House B but is quite a bit bigger than its neighbor.  Although we were pretty excited at the prospect of 4 bedrooms and both a formal and casual living room, we can't decide if we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot by taking on more square footage to cool and heat.  It's definitely a home we could grow into as we build equity.  There's a pool, hot tub, and fountain, and vaulted ceilings in front.  The carpet needs some work though, and we might have to provide a new fridge, washer, and dryer.  The kitchen is spacious though, with lots of cabinet space, and a grand piano might fit through the double front doors someday! 

We're still trying to figure out the logistics--like the first-time homebuyers' tax credit (since Eric is technically not a first-timer by their definition until June 3)--but hopefully we've gotten the ball rolling enough that by the time our lease is up, we can move in to a house of our very own!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

We love our little neighborhood. It stays pretty quiet, which is one of the best things about it. it's been pretty breezy this weekend, which made it a perfect time for our anniversary gift from Eric's parents to come in the mail. Check out the video below to see the test drive!

Our House...

...is getting there. I haven't done a post about it before now because I was going to wait until it was finally ready so I could say, "Our house...is ready!" But it's still a work in progress. We love it...but there is definitely still some work to do!

First of all, there are a few big time repairs to be made--the AC repairman is here as we speak--but thankfully the owner is taking care of that. We still have a little bit of unpacking and organizing to do, which will I hope get done this week. After that, painting a couple of walls, arranging few things, and THEN I'll get to say, "Our house...is ready!"

When everything is all put together, I will have some photos or a video so everyone can see inside. If you wanna see the outside, here's a picture I took of it with the Goodyear Blimp flying overhead! If you don't wanna see the outside, here's a picture anyway.

Our New House

I promised more information about the house we'll be renting for the next year. We signed the lease this morning, so now we have all the details!

The great thing about this house is that it was a bit of a hidden gem. A series of circumstances caused it to be a little under-marketed, which meant that, even though it would be considered very desirable, it went without a tenant for quite a few months. Because of that, we were able to make a much lower offer, which means we get ALL this for not much more than we're paying now:

• 1300+ square feet
• three bedrooms and two bathrooms
• HUGE master closet
• washer, dryer, stove, microwave, and dishwasher
• awesome yard (not too big, not too small)
• two-car garage
• very pretty neighborhood with a tennis court
• garbage pick-up
• free moving truck rental

...and--wait for it--

• our very own pool!

So, needless to say, we were very excited about our find, and the realtor we are dealing with is so nice. The house really is in great shape--it just needed a little TLC, such cleaning, lawncare, etc., which will be taken care of for us before we move in. It's located off of Old Lake Wilson Road in Indian Ridge near the Mystic Dunes Golf Club, and that's all I'll say for internet privacy and safety reasons. (Don't wanna tempt fate--or robbers.) If you are someone we know and love and you'd like to eventually send us some mail, contact us and we will give you our new address! If you are feeling especially strong and charitable on Monday, April 27, come on over and help us move if you want! Beer and pizza await you!

We're Moving!

Hey, everybody!

As we mentioned in our Pointless Update, we have outgrown our beloved 1-bedroom apartment. We were stressing out for a few weeks trying to find a new place to rent that would meet all of our needs, and we found a great place--a house! We haven't signed the lease yet, so stay tuned for more information at the beginning of next week. Yay!

Action-Packed Week

We, the Browns, have been pretty busy lately bounding all over central Florida. Eric's brother Jeff and his girlfriend came to Florida for their spring break, so we enjoyed spending time with them, including heading over to the Hoop-De-Doo Revue at Fort Wilderness. Jeff and Marissa even got to be part of the show!

Coincidentally, on the same day as our dinner at the Hoop, Eric was offered a free pair of tickets to see Cirque du Soleil - La Nouba at Downtown Disney, and who could pass that up? The show was amazing, and I consider myself to be the perfect audience member with my mouth hanging wide open the whole time with unintelligible expressions of surprise and pleasure dutifully escaping from it on cue with each "Ta-Da!"

Also, within the same week, we decided to buy a house, and then we undecided. I think we were bamboozled by talk of "it's a great time to invest" and "it's a buyers' market" and "there's a huge tax credit," when, truthfully, we weren't ready for such a big step. Well, we're emotionally ready--and SO weary of the condo lifestyle--but we definitely need to save more before we take the plunge. As much as we want the economy to improve, perhaps between now and this time in 2010 when our next lease will inevitably expire, home values and prices will not change too drastically and we can still get a great deal. In the meantime, it still might be time for an upgrade. The sounds of Eric's dutiful docility--the dishwasher, pots and pans pounding, the washer and dryer--awake me every morning (I know, what a grateful wife am I), so now we're hoping for a house with a garage so he can make his noises down there tinkering instead. He does love his tinkering so!

Additionally, I recently made a solo trip to Gatorland. A friend gave us free passes that expired too quickly for Eric to get a day off to go. We decided they shouldn't both go to waste, and the photo album linked below is the result of my wonderfully natural and educational day.

Click to go to my Gatorland Photo Album

Starring:

Evil Parrot
(much more effective when viewed at full-size)

Not-Quite-As-Evil-But-Still-Scary Emu

Tortoise with a Future in Modeling

and the Amazing Albino Alligators!