Moving Tomorrow!

Two weekends ago, we painted.

This weekend, we will move everything else in!  My dad, sister, and I loaded the moving truck today after driving to Plainville to pick it up.  I just don't understand why U-Haul won't move trucks to the location that the reservation was made...what's the point of making a reservation?  Compared to when I moved from Wichita to my storage unit here, we packed the truck much more efficiently.  We expected to need to borrow my grandparents' van, but everything is in and ready to go! 

We should arrive in Lincoln tomorrow around noon!

Paint...check!

Last weekend, my parents and I painted my duplex!  It looks like a completely different place!  When I looked at the duplex before renting it, the people that lived there then were in the process of packing to move, so there was a lot of stuff all over, so it was difficult to gauge the size of the rooms.  The living room was the biggest surprise - it was a lot larger than I remembered.  We painted everything except for the laundry room, which stayed purple, and the garage.  As usual with a rental, we found that several things were not in great repair.  The vents were ridiculously dirty with dog hair...ick!  We tried cleaning them with the vacuum and soap and water.  Neither worked very well, but we eventually got them reasonable clean and spray painted them a tan that better blends in with the carpet and tile.  The contact paper that is on the kitchen and bathroom shelves is gross, so we plan to take that out in a few weeks when we move the rest of my furniture and boxes.  I bought new pretty green and white for the kitchen and blue and brown polka dots for the bathroom from Target!  Possibly the worst part is the garage floor, which is filthy with oil and dirt that gets tracked into the house; hopefully I will get permission from my landlord to paint it with that sealing paint stuff.  The positives though are that there is quite a bit more storage than I remembered, and the carpet is a lot nicer than I remembered!  The paint looks awesome and I'm so glad that my landlords okayed it!  We cleaned and painted for 5 hours on Friday and 10 hours on Saturday; we were definitely exhausted after that!  Now I'm looking for a used trundle bed for my spare room because the bedrooms are a lot smaller than my last place!  Here are a few before and after photos!

Living Room (before)

  

 

Living Room (after)

 

Bathroom (before & after)

Kitchen (after)

Bedroom (after)

Living room with my new furniture!

Painting has begun...

Today was our first day of painting at my new house!  We were on the road from KS by 8:30 AM and finally arrived to unload and get started.  After eating a yummy lunch at Scholtsky's, we got paint at Walmart for the living room - Trenchcoat Khaki, living room accent wall - Tibetan Orange, and bathroom - Afternoon Shade.  Painting began around three in the afternoon and we finished up a little after eight.  We completed the living room and bathroom (which started out maroon) and edged the kitchen.  The kitchen is going to be a sort of tuscan yellow that my parents used in their kitchen too! 

It's getting to really feel like a real house, and I'm getting excited to get everything moved it and arranged.  Just a few weeks until the big move in!

Well, it's late and we have an early day tomorrow!  We are planning to get started around eight in the morning and there is a Safelight person coming to fix a chip in my windshield that happened on the way!

Teaching...oh my!

Just about a month until I will be in Lincoln full time, so I decided to crack open my books today!  No, not my books for the classes I'm taking, but the books for the class that I'm teaching discussion sections for.  The teaching manual is much less exciting than the student's textbook...no pictures, charts, or anything.  I took this class at OSU my freshman years, I guess it's time to start studying! 

Furniture comes tomorrow, so I will at last be able to finalize paint colors!  This morning I had to search through my storage unit for my living room curtains because I'm thinking about an accent wall in the living room and I want to make sure the paint doesn't clash with the drapes.  The only other thing to consider is the carpet color, but I will hopefully narrow the choices down before we get there to see the carpet.  I'm still leaning towards "Trenchcoat Khaki", which I used my senior year in Stillwater.  It's not a current color, but I confirmed with Walmart today that they can still make it!

Almost time to start dinner!  I'm using a recipe from my friend Sarah's blog for enchiladas!  I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Friendly Flowers

I have three pots of flowers for my new home, and I can't wait until they start growing and blooming!  They are going to look beautiful on my front porch! 

I also just ordered new living room furniture!  I found a super comfortable set in Claflin that are discontinued, so I got an incredible deal on a matching mocha chaise and loveseat. 

Things are coming along quite nicely for my little duplex.  Now on to picking paint colors...I've gone to Ace, but today I'm going to Walmart, Heartland, and Home Depot!  Suggestions are welcome!

New Chapter of Life

I'm officially starting a new chapter of my life.  For the past two years, I've lived and worked in Wichita at an amazing company - Koch Industries.  Now, I've resigned and will begin graduate school at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in August.  I will first be studying to earn my Masters in Marketing and then my PhD in Marketing!  Yes, I know I'm going into the family business.  :-)  Throughout the next 4-5 years, I will be in school and teaching basically year round.  But I will get more than 2 days off for Christmas! 

The break between working and going to school has been relaxing, and I've loved spending time with family.  I've been sleeping in, reading, golfing, vacationing, and just hanging out. 

A couple of weeks ago, my dad and I went apartment hunting in Lincoln.  I ended up with a 2 bedroom duplex that includes the washer/dryer and a garage!  I'm definitely looking forward to that garage when the snow comes this winter.  The bus stop is less than a block away, so I plan on taking advantage of public transportation too.

Here are some pictures of the neighborhood...my duplex is one of only two rentals in the entire neighborhood!

There are a lot of limestone houses in Lincoln...they are so cute!

I have a few inside photos of the duplex, but they are from the Craigs list ad and are on a different computer right now.  I will try to add them soon, but here are a couple of my new place!

And finally one picture of the business building where I will be spending much of my time soon!