Long Ferry Rd Foreclosure

Saturday (March 10) we had our appointment to meet with Monica for the first time.  We agreed to meet her at the Long Ferry Rd house first and continue our House Hunting adventure from there with the 4 houses on our list.

We arrived a few minutes ahead of her and had some time to walk around outside first.  The exterior was nice enough.  No issues.  There was a little bit of a funk kinda smell escaping from beneath the porch.   Odd…moving on.  

cute entry right?  That bird house is actually really charming.  But we really shouldn't base a house hunt on the bird house, huh?

The back yard was a good size and was already fenced in on the west side so we wouldn’t have to re-fence that.  We did notice a space where a pool used to belong.  

Kind of hate that it was no longer there, but pools can be a big responsibility and the lake is close and Grandpa has a pool at the ready that I don’t have to care for (much).

Someone in the family is a pretty big fan of a pool though!

When Monica arrived we formally introduced ourselves and went straight inside. 

Yuck!!  What the? Whoever lived here last was definitely a smoker that wasn’t kind to their guests by smoking only outside.  That place was ripe!  And the only way to fix it would be to rip up carpet possibly steam and repaint some walls and I have no idea how to get smoke out of a ceiling.  Major con!

what is that smell?

The house was also fairly small with only 1200 square feet.  It also only had 1 very outdated bathroom in the hallway.  Jason hated the bathroom!!  A cool shade of pink and a shell sink aren't exactly his style ifyouknowwhati’msayin’

What did I dislike the most about this house?  The kitchen!  And the kitchen is supposed to be the most inviting space in a home, at least that’s how I want my kitchen to feel.  This thing was stuck on the south side of the living room and a floor to ceiling mini-wall right in the middle of the entire room.  And what’s worse, that wall was wired/plumbed for the fridge and the range hood was on it too!  It would not be easy to update, that’s for sure.  And if you have ever been to my ‘rents house, then you know that the kitchen, dining room and living room are all one big great room with open space and where you can enjoy everyone’s company all the time.   

see how it separates the living room from the kitchen?

and where is my cabinet space?  ok, sellers, you updated the cabinets, but a lack of quantity isn't always improved with quality

that wall to the right there?  the end of this mini-wall.  See what I mean, it's MINI!

That’s what I love and I would feel so secluded being stuck in this awful design of a kitchen every time I was trying to prepare a meal for family or guests.  No thank you.  When I started to express my disdain and what all would need to be done to make this kitchen useable Jason saw dollar bills flying out of our bank account and quickly escorted me out of the house.

The really great part about the foreclosure?  You’re going to laugh.  It was the shed.  It was huge and already had shelving everywhere.  Very useable for putting away hunting gear if you ask me.

 You want to know where we really got to know Monica and share all of our thoughts and feelings thus far at?  Yea, on the porch to the shed!!  Not the porch for the house, the shed.  Nope, we can do without a nice shed and just like the bird house, we really shouldn't buy a home just for it's out building.

Moving on......

Love as always,

Meredith

Homemade Holidays: Cornhole Boards

Well Since January is over, I figured I could sneak in one last post about our Homemade Holiday.

This is actually a bit of a trio to be honest.  TSG and I love being outdoors when the weather is nice and when the boat isn't beckoning, we really enjoy playing corn hole.  Now, to be honest, I actually find the name of the game to be a bit on the dirty side.  It just reminds me of Beavis and Butthead when they talk about bung holes and cornholio. 

Image courtesy of:
http://www.musicskins.com/category/tv-movies/beavis-and-butt-head.html

Sorry to put that image in your head, but I just feel like I should share my distaste for the name of "corn hole"  I much more prefer BEAN BAG TOSS.  However, no one else seems to agree with me when we're playing.

Anywho...sorry I got off on a tangent.  TSG and I made our first set back in September.  These were a set that we could keep ourselves. 

Go Panthers and Pirates!!

Bags to match ECU

Bags to match Panthers

We built these boards using the method outlined on this website: How to Cornhole
The designs were placed on the board by handpainting.  I located the decals online and blew the images up to the size I needed.  You can do this by selecting poster print on the printer properties.  I taped the numerous pages together and then transferred the design to the board using transfer paper that I bought at A. C. Moore.  And then it was as easy as paint by numbers.  And by easy, I mean it took us 4 days.

A close up showing the paint strokes

What we learned from our first try:
1. Handpainting is tedious and takes a lot of energy and effort, but it gives the best results
2. A cornhole bag will not stay together if you only use a single cotton fabric layer and basic thread
3. If you keep the cornhole bags in the shop outside and in a plastic grocery bag, mice will eat through the bags and get to the corn

Fast forward to November and our second set:

Now, it literally pained me to make these, but they were for a very good friend and we enjoyed making a second set

We made two identical boards for this set

As a Carolina Tarheel fan, I had a difficult time not "accidentally" destroying the decal

For this set, we used vinyl decals that we purchased at the Murrell's Inlet Flea Market while on a mini-vacay.  They were a little expensive, but the ease of using them made it worth the money.  A few notes about using vinyl decals:

When you put the lacquer on, the vinyl bubbles up and makes you freak out.  But if you let it completely set up, the vinyl will lay back out.  We don't know why, it just does.  It will continue to do this for each layer of lacquer you put on.  We were putting on at least 3 and sometimes 4.  Make sure to LIGHTLY sand between each layer of lacquer.

The bags for this set also caused a minor issue:  Apparently the licensed fabric for NCAA schools comes in only 1 style.  So, getting creative, each bag had one side that was Duke fabric and the other side was the differing fabric.

One side Duke fabric / One side solid blue on all 4 bags for team A

One side Duke fabric / One side white with black polka dots on all 4 bags for Team B

This set was being made for a couple, so I chalked up the polka dot fabric to being the slightly more "girly" fabric, but I don't think they cared either way.

The bags for this set were made to be a lot more sturdy.  I made them with 2 layers of fabric, one canvas and one cotton.  BE CAREFUL NOT TO SEW THE COTTON FABRIC INSIDE OUT.  Trust me, I had to restich the same bags sometimes 2 or 3 times.  Also, I used a heavier canvas grade thread.  Unlike the first set of bags, the hole for filling in the bags with the corn was placed in the center of one side and not at a corner.  It was easier to double stitch on the outer part of the bag instead of whipple stitching them closed.  They held together better.

After realizing that, I went back are re-made the bags for mine and TSG's set.

And last but definitely not least, the ultimate in custom corn-hole boards!

Deer with a fall theme

The second board matched this one, the leaves were just placed falling down the other side.  The deer was also a vinyl decal.  The "W" was placed on the board using the tracing paper method that we used for our personal set.  The leaves were placed on by finding various leaf images on the internet and creating stencils using cardstock paper and then painted on with a stenciling sponge.

I used the same stencile multiple times.  Just make sure each layer is dry before starting the next and place all the stencils for a single color down before you begin painting, a "dry fit" so to speak

This is what I mean by sponging the paint on.  The bubbles tend to disappear after a few minutes, but lightly blowing on them helps too.

Here I am putting on the "W"  Notice the backwards "W" on the board to the left..Yea, I had to fix that several times.

This is what the leaf pile looked like when we thought we were done.  We decided it didn't look authentic enough and went back and freehanded in the veins.

BTW: This is what TSG does while I work...sexy huh?

This is what the Shadey 1 does while I work...if you look hard, you'll see the squirrel that she's stalking

Lessons learned while working on this set:
1. spray paint looks like crap, so take it from me, and just use the latex crafting paint.
2. don't try to construct these when the person that will be getting them for their Christmas present is visiting.

The bags for Team A

The bags for Team B

My sewing machine and I were in the middle of a heart to heart when I ultimately forego the top stitching and just kind of winged it.  Here's what you get.  It worked better than expected, it's just not as pretty.  

Oh, and it turns out, I didn't know how to properly thread my machine.  Lesson learned.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, BEAN BAG TOSS in action!

We like to call this the drunk man's horseshoes...no one gets hurt with hard metal objects and you can still hold a beer.  PERFECT

Or hold a drink...with a lid

All my love,
Meredith

13.1 miles....because we're only half insane

I’m pretty sure my sister hates me.  See, she’s motivated and I’m not.  So she goes out and runs a half marathon, while I run a 5K.  I was okay with my time, but not totally.  But instead or letting me train to do better on a 5K or just up the ante to a 10K, my sister (we’ll call her Thing 2, since I’m obviously Thing 1, oh yea, btw, we're twins), asks me if I want to do a half marathon.  Well I’m way too proud to say no.  And I have this nagging feeling that I need to be healthy.  It could be Pinterest and its fitness category or every magazine that I own or the celebrities that self-esteem experts tell us not to compare ourselves too.

Whatever it is, I accepted the challenge.  I completed a triathlon this past summer and on Saturday, my fiancé (who from here on out will be known as “RSG” for Real Southern Guy) ran our first 5K.  I think this picture best describes the experience

image via Pinterest

I had a lot of fun at the 5K, but it was still harder than I thought it was going to be.  It was my first experience running with that many people around me.  And let me let you in on a little secret...kids will out run you.  Get over it, they have a lot of energy.  I don't.  They don't share their energy very well.  God Bless them.

So, RSG will be my coach for the half marathon.  He'll also be my running partner along with my sister.  I have no idea if they'll actually stay by my side in the race, and it really won't matter since I won't be able to breath well enough to talk to them.  Anywho, RSG was a runner in high school and still out runs me no matter how much more I exercise than he does.  I blame it on his long legs.  He beat me on the 5K by more than 6 minutes.  But he made sure to meet me at the last 1/10th of a mile and encouraged me to finish strong.  He's a keeper. 

RSG found this workout schedule for us to train by.

The circuit that I'm doing:

image via Pinterest

 

The plan is to do this for 2 weeks.  Week 1 is 2 sets and week 2 will be 3 sets.  I will probably find a different circuit to do for every 2 weeks.  Check back with me Sunday and I’ll let you know how that 7 mile run goes……YIKES

Love and health,

Meredith