Shower Do-Over

So I told you my husband is getting antsy about why the house isn't selling.  He calls me Friday and says:

"It's going to cost $2500 to re-do the shower"...  Wait!  What! 
"Did we discuss having a new shower put in?"
"No but I called them today and they came out and gave me an estimate"
"Who came out and gave an estimate"
"The same people who layed the floors"

Ya'll!!  What?!?!  He is something else.  So he says sell or stay there are some things we need to do to the house.  It's going to cost $2500 just to tile the shower.  Just to TILE the shower!  Which would be fine but there are other things we'd like to do to the bathroom.  Not to mention the new tile we want in the shower doesn't match the tile on the floor and I don't like the tile on the floor enough to have it in the shower.  Oh the dilemmas!!  So he's thinking of moving the shower head from the wall it's on to the opposite wall.  And cutting the wall that the current shower head is on to half the size it is so that it's open to the garden tub.  Something like this:

Currently our shower head is on that glass wall.  He wants to move it to the other side and not have the glass wall up but more an open concept to the garden tub.  Guarantee you he'll have a new estimate for me this afternoon. 

We also have to put in a retainer wall in the backyard.  I see 10K or better on that project.  Holy help me!  I want early retirement and all this spending is not getting us there any faster!  Oh wait.  He's military.  He only has about 10 years til he can retire, it's me that has to work til I'm 8090!!  (Said "eighty-ninety" and not eight thousand ninety)

He was off yesterday and took my car to get an oil change, he also rented a storage unit.  Apparently he liked my idea of getting some of the furniture out of the house and thereby giving the house the appearance that it's bigger.  We're coming up on our 3 year anniversary and we both had fully furnished houses.  It has been a chore to decide what to keep and what to get rid of.  And during our short 3 years of marriage, he spent 1 of those years deployed to Iraq.  The year he was deployed I may or may not have gotten rid of things I thought HE no longer needed.  So far he hasn't missed anything, then again he's a minimalist so I didn't expect he would.

Laters. . .

Weekend Shenanigans

Well gooooooooood Monday morning all!!  I'm not a morning person, and Mondays aren't really my favorite, but I am a "glad to be alive" person so I make the most of it.  I hope you all had a great weekend, we certainly did! 

Friday night the hubs and I went to Sal and Mookies.  It's a New York pizza and ice cream joint.  We had hummus with brick oven flatbread for appetizers and shared the Brownstone panini (grilled chicken breast, creamed spinach & artichoke spread, roasted red bell peppers, prosciutto, and swiss cheese) with caesar salad for the entree.  We each had an Abita Strawberry. Yum-O!  This was a treat. 

Saturday morning we got up and headed to Hattiesburg.  John has been wanting some new motorcycle gear.  He's tried the online ordering a few times and is tired of having to send things back.  We visited 2 different shops and he couldn't find anything he liked so back to the drawing board he goes. 

I've wanted to get my nose pierced for about 10 years and wouldn't do it because I thought it was something I should have done 10 years prior to that (so 20 years ago, lol).  I mention it from time to time and Saturday morning was no exception.  Our 19 year old got a tattoo a few months back at a shop in Hattie and since we were going, I mentioned the nose ring again.  Well... after we left the 2 motorcycle shops, John went straight to Lady Luck Tattoo shop.  I freaked.  I couldn't believe it.  I'm old.  I was scared.  It's too late for me.  I was just kidding.  I'm scared.  These were all the things going thru my head.  But we went in and I did it!!  And I love it!!  It's teeny tiny, barely noticeable and exactly what I wanted! 

I got to work a little after 7 and it took my coworker until 10 to notice it.

When we left there, we went to Turtle Creek mall to do a little shopping.  Found some things for me.  A couple things for John and our youngest really lucked out!  Shockingly, she loved everything we got her!  So much so, that she had a hard time figuring out what to wear this morning!  No trip to the mall is ever complete without a stop by the Cookie Store.  Then it was time to head home.  On the way home some friends called to invite us over for homemade hamburgers so we went home and picked up the girls and headed to Brandon. 

Sunday was laid back.  I was able to sleep in a little before having to get up and get started on laundry.  John got a wild hair and decided he "needed" a small utility trailer so we went to Lowe's and bought one.  We also bought some new pots (no flowers or potting soil yet) and 2 ferns.  We got home and hung the ferns and liked them so much we went back and picked up a couple more.  Dropped by Walmart and picked up a couple items and headed home to make Banana Bread Brownies because John's brother and fiancee were stopping by for coffee.

Our weekend was pretty jam packed but I loved it!  This weekend we head to Texas to visit with some friends who moved away about a year ago, it's a long drive but I can't wait!  Everybody's working for the weekend!

Have a great week :)

Why? Just why?

The hubs and I decided to list our house a few months ago.  We've been married for almost 3 years.  I moved in to his house about a month before we got married because the lease was up on my apartment.  He has a nice house.  4 bedrooms, 3 baths.  The problem?  We have 3 girls and 1 boy between us.  My son slept on the couch for the longest because all the girls were old enough to have their own room and not be forced to share.  This bothered us both. 

We decided we would build.  We picked out the plans, made our changes and found our lot.  We listed our house and the realtor tells us that houses in our neighborhood are usually on the market for an average of 71 days.  Just over 2 months.  Great!  We can get started breaking ground and hopefully everything flows smoothly, we'll sell this one and move in to the new one.  Wrong.  We've now had it listed for 6 months and it's a pain in the arse!  It shows 1-2 times per week on average but we've only received one pitiful excuse for a contract. 

I like HGTV.  I watch it on Saturdays.  My husband has started watching it with me.  Big mistake.  BIG!  He now thinks he knows why our house hasn't sold.  It isn't "move in" ready.  Nothing really needs to be done.  Allowances are made for paint and if they don't like the colors I've chosen, that's really all that needs to be done to ours.  We have new hardwood floors, freshly cleaned carpet, we've painted (when we married everything was tan and I like color so that blah blah bland had to go!) our yard is manicured, etc.  My only suggestion was to rent a storage building and remove some of our furniture so it "looks" bigger.  Less furniture, more room.  We haven't had any feedback, positive or negative.  We keep asking and get told "nothing is wrong, they just chose another house"... okay.  Why?  Why did they choose the other house?  How can we fix what we don't know is wrong?

My husband and I both work and it never fails the realtor calls while we're at work and someone wants to show the house.  The same day.  I get it.  It's hard to plan ahead and call the night before.  But the mornings are hectic.  Half the time I don't have time to make the bed.  So yesterday, late morning, my husband calls and says the realtor wants to show the house.  Hubs is in the military, career military.  He just got back from a weekend away in weapons qualification.  I haven't had a chance to catch up on laundry.  The beds weren't made.  I'm thinking "I don't think I picked up my pj's off the floor".  I didn't put the hair dryer away.  Did I leave my tennis shoes on the bedroom floor?  I say "I don't think today is good, ask him if they can wait until tomorrow".  He says "I've already called Kerry (his oldest) and she's going to make up beds and sweep when she gets home from school".  He apparently didn't pay attention before leaving for work.  It needs more than that. 

So around 1:00 he calls and he's at the house trying to finish up some cleaning.  He's frustrated.  Really frustrated.  He says there's no way he can get it all done and he's going to call the realtor and tell him to wait.... Hmmm, sounds familiar, oh wait, that was my idea earlier!  I may have mentioned he's military.  As in, he never leaves anything out.  Always puts his things away.  He's a minimalist and I'm anything but.  I understand a house needs to be in tip top shape when you have it listed but isn't there some kind of understanding for people who "live" in their house?  I mean, we do live there.  It's hard to keep it spotless.  Straightened?  Yes.  Spotless?  No.  It may not be impossible but after being up since 5:30, working 8+ hours, spending an hour plus at the gym, coming home to figure out what's for supper, check homework, etc etc, who wants to spend another couple hours cleaning every night?  I like to shower.  I like to spend time with the kids and hubs.  I like to sleep, yeah I like that one a lot. 

So, we cancelled the showing.  I have no idea if they're coming today or not.  I didn't ask.  I almost don't care.  Would I like a new house?  Yes.  Would I be totally bummed if ours doesn't see?  Not totally.  Our house is almost paid off.  I'd love to make some changes to it but if we end up staying, I'm all for paying it off and being debt free!  Debt free and that much closer to early retirement!!

One more thing, yes ground was broken at the new house.  They are building on the lot we picked out, the house that we chose and so far there's not a contract on it.  It's kind of sad to see "our" house going up and not knowing if it will really be ours or not.  It's only about 3 miles from our house and we ride our bikes over every few days to see how much further along it's come.  It's kind of sad that it's so close I can touch it but then again, so very far out of reach.  Everything happens for a reason... I have to keep repeating that to myself.

Happy Friday.. enjoy the weekend :)