FINALLY

We took down some walls!

Albeit I probably lost most of our audience due to our lapse in blogging time, however, the re-mo-del has finally begun.

First day: See walls.

Second day: See inside of walls being torn down.

Third day: See no walls.

(I uploaded the photos backward, so please start at the bottom photo and work your way up-- otherwise it looks like we put a wall up).








All in time for Christmas.

Our place feels like a loft. Instead of walls separating our entire kitchen from our living and dining room, the new opening will become a bar top area. What it was destined to be in the first place.

I'm completely happy where we're at, it feels like a different home. But our contractor told me it might be a good idea to put in some countertops, cabinets...etc. So, after the 1st of January, that's our plan! (And by first of January I mean anytime between the first of January and December). Say goodbye to savings, say hello to recapturing the essence of a 1923 house in modern times.

Don't mind the yellow/green paint. The lovely gentleman who lived here before us either killed one of the Oregon Ducks or was obsessed with the sun and grass. (grass...??) Yes, we might think so.

Camping in Oregon!

Kyle and I flew up to go camping with the fam... unfortunately, Ronda couldn't make it, but we had a great time nonetheless. Kyle only brought flip flops, so his poor feet were freezing! We headed up to Timothy Lake near Mt. Hood. It was gorgeous! Now, Kyle wants to purchase a tent to put in our living room :) He's so cute... Hopefully there will be more camping trips in the future!!!

New Job, Olympics & Friends Lost

Hehe... I caught my hubby in the middle of our endless weekend work. He's so cute :)

Sorry for the delay in posts... I began a new job as marketing director for a rather large regional builder and started last Monday. Maybe I wasn't using my brain to it's fullest capacity, because when you step into a fast paced world after being "comfortable" your head tends to hurt-- if you know what I mean. Meetings, information overload, feeling helpless because you're not set up yet-- by this I mean I'm in a temporary office until they build my suite (yes, it's going to be pretty cool), my computer (a Mac of course) was ordered, but not shipped yet, and the network files are not accessible without my computer!

So, Monday my brain went out on me about noon, Tuesday 1pm (insert Advil consumption here), Wednesday 2pm (and here), Thursday 3pm (and here) and by Friday it didn't matter because it was Friday! It's funny because in a position like this you have plans to move into the company, preview internal and external variables, research some of it's past marketing history, what's working, what's not...etc. However, by the third day I had over 50 emails of information, marketing requests, suggestions...etc. In a perfect world, I would have time to wrap my hands around everything and smoothly begin working on my new plan for the company. But, God obviously did not make this a perfect world so I am happily knee deep already! Nonetheless, I am absolutely loving it.

Anyway, wasn't the Olympic Opening Ceremonies amazing? I might have been dead to the world Friday evening after "hurt head week" but I was blown away by the Olympic production and the hard work that went into such an incredible performance. I was sweating at the thought of putting something like that together-- being in marketing-- and Kyle was hoping he'd get the chance someday to take on that feat. Funny how two people differently view the same thing.

Lastly, I say "friends lost" in my blog title because I mean that in two different ways. I will list them chronologically: First, Kyle and I, in our side business, picked up a client who was also a good friend. Unfortunately, you can never predict these things will turn out badly. But, things did go south with our friend/client. I guess we learned our lesson that "you can make friends out of clients, but not clients out of friends." We will be taking that to heart moving forward and be a little smarter about choosing who we work with or take on as clients in the future.

Secondly, I heard last night that one of my good girlfriends from high school died on Saturday evening. An accident at a family gathering. It's tough living 2000 miles away from old friends. It makes attending funerals difficult and impossible during new employment.

Our church is doing a 4-week series titled "You're dead so now what?" Last week was pretty good because it talked about your body and soul separating. This week, however, our pastor discussed Hell.

Not knowing whether or not my friend had excepted Christ is something I'm struggling with right now. To know I could have done something long ago to prevent an eternal life of torment is hard to swallow. Since I can only move forward with those thoughts-- I'm hoping I can change my daily views more in the direction of an "eternal perspective," as our pastor stated. Because, as far as I'm concerned, everyone I come in contact with will know where my heart stands and where I pray theirs stands too.

As a side note, if you'd like to check out our church's message on "You're Dead So Now What?" The video message Kyle and I watch can be viewed at LifeChurch.tv. Happy watching!

Stumped (literally)

This is a hoot.

Kyle and I were gone this afternoon working on a project and upon our arrival home I noticed our neighbor shoving branches into his garbage bin. As we pulled closer to our driveway we noticed he had actually removed a bush from our yard! You can see a distinct property divide between ours and his, by our grass mowing.

Kyle and I looked at each other dumfounded... We've never been in a situation like this so we both were like "what are we supposed to do?"

We decided to go over and ask him why he decided to remove a piece of our property, but he beat us to the punch. He knocked on our door and said "I'm asking you after the fact if it's okay for me to remove your bush." Kyle then asked why he removed it without our permission.

"Well, its roots were soaking up all of my yard's nutrients and it's difficult to keep my lawn green."

So, we were responsible for this? A small bush near our property line? (Actually, it's about a foot West of his yard to be precise).

Anyway, after a petty discussion and him offering to "pay half" for the stump removal, we just kindly asked him to get our permission BEFORE removing anything else from our yard.

In the end, really no big deal... but, if anyone is reading this... please tell me your opinion on what your reaction would be or help us recover with a past similar story of yours.

God says to love your neighbors. Well, that may be a difficult thing to do!

Till next time- here's our gorgeous stump.

Exterior Living Space

Kyle and I have a front patio, right? Kyle's not a big fan of hanging out on the porch, but I definitely am! It's fun to watch our neighborhood come alive. I've already seen a few things and witnessed a few people who live on the street and make me start to second guess why we paid money to live in such a strange, but entertaining area. Nonetheless, the people who make up our community seem to give Oklahoma City it's character :)

I'm thinking it's a good thing, though, that Kyle doesn't like hanging around on the front porch as much as I do. This is because I had a girlfriend come over last Wednesday night to have a couple Corona's and watch the sunset (and the neighborhood action). So, I stopped by Wally World on my way home from work and picked up a couple inexpensive patio chairs. (I hate saying cheap, but they really are cheap). I brought them home and managed to tear off the tags and meticulously place them on the patio before she got here. However, as I tore off the tags, I read one that warns its customers of it's maximum weight. I'm sorry, but even if Kyle was an Olympic decathlete, he would still weigh more than what those chairs allow! I feel bad, so I'm glad they didn't cost much so we can invest in some that hold his little behind without being afraid he'll break the dang thing...

Also, our flowers in front of the home were overgrown and wilting when we moved in. So, in my quest to fulfill my homeownership woman duties, I pulled them all out and planted fresh little flowers. Kyle got home and thought he would be the manly lawn waterer since I had been the gardener... however, we ended up acting like a couple kids with our big water fight and both ended up soaked. So much for being adults!

I did get up a little earlier this morning to water them, so I think Kyle's counting down the days those bad boys will stay alive after I forget my new morning ritual.

Furniture & A/C -less!

Well, we decided to check out another person who may be remodeling our home... so, we are still enduring the waiting game. To top things off, our A/C went out over the 4th of July weekend! It was a smoldering 100 degrees outside, making our home (with multiple windows on each side of the home) around 95 degrees around 5pm every day. Spaz & Sparkz got fed up and asked us if they could go somewhere cooler. So, Kyle and I took them over to Grandma & Grandpa Wiley's house to stay the night Saturday. The dogs were happy they weren't panting anymore! We've since had someone come in, and we're still working on repairing it.

As soon as we moved back into our home, we tried using our washer & dryer for the first time (they came with the home and are still pretty new). Of course, our washer proceeded to flood our kitchen! It was as easy as a plug-in, but if I hear "welcome to homeownership" from one of our friends one more time I think I'm going to puke! Just kidding. It's been interesting, but as long as it's Kyle and I going through it together, and God watching over us, we can laugh about it all.

Anyhoo, here are some pictures of our "furnitureless" home. I mainly stacked everything we own in the garage as we plan on having a big communal garage sale here with some friends at the end of the month. We figured the less "stuff" we have laying around, the less difficult it will be for us to adapt to living in one room while we undergo the remodel.

So, here's a view of our lovely, unpainted, furnitureless home! The best part of having little else but a couch & two desks in our living room is definitely watching Spaz & Sparkz battle it out as they slide around, sometimes spilling it, on the hardwood floors!!

Delay

Dangit! Kyle and I have to wait to start remodeling. Only about 20 days or so... complicated issue, of course. So, I'll have to let you all know when we begin and then you can start reading this blog during the work day for a good break!!

We're moving this weekend and I'm not sure when our internet will be up and running. So, if I don't post for a week or so please don't think we forgot about you (as if I have a highly trafficked blog).

In the meantime, here are a few photos of the Wiley fam for your viewing pleasure. The first was taken at one of Kyle's high school friend's wedding, and the second on the lake on Matt & Lauren Toppin's boat (yes, I'm jealous).

Taking pictures of Spaz & Sparkz seems to be a new hobby for us as well.

Stay tuned...!!!

Day Before Remodel

We had Kara, Kyle's sister from Dallas, come see our home for the first time today. It's the day before demo starts so we're really excited. Kyle and I move in next weekend (I know, a week after demo- probably not a great idea). But, we don't have a choice- our lease is up at our apartment at the end of this month.

So, we'll be living in a 12 x 12, second bedroom for the first month or so while the kitchen and master bath are ripped out and reconstructed. Please don't be surprised if you visit and I have a few more wine bottles in the fridge that will probably be placed either in the living room or garage during these few months.

The best part is that our first purchases (aside from cabinets, appliances, countertops and flooring), will probably be some patio furniture and grill so we can still cook semi-healthy meals. Although, we'll both need to pry each other away from the Taco Bell around the corner after our long, stressful days. The deck and front patio will be our only refuge aside from our small room combining a bed, computers, clothes and dogs.

We think Spaz and Sparkz are going to be blissful in their new home and yard. FINALLY, they can poop off-leash! They also have about four new furry neighbors to bark with.

It's funny, though, how many things you overlook while living in a maintenance-free property... I mean, with a home we have to worry about mowing the lawn, watering the lawn & garden, actually picking up doggy #2's, among many other maintenance issues. Okay, okay, we admit we didn't actually pick up our dog releases at the apartment complex, and we're paying someone to mow the lawn. But I WILL be gardening!

Here's some photos of the inside-- before we go in and tear it all down! (oh dear...) We will also, if you can't tell already, be repainting!!

Until after demo...