Thursday, November 5, 2015

Is It Just Me?

Birthdays. Is it just me or does anyone else have a baby sister celebrating a birthday today? Happy birthday to my little sister. The girl I shared a room, clothes, chores, secrets, and life with. We have our own rooms now, but we still share life.

c. 196_ something

I'm on the right and she's front and center because that's where she always liked to be. Really. She was photo bombing before photo bombing was cool. Case in point-


This was going to be a picture of me and my mom, and look who managed to get in every shot we ever took the shot. You know what they say though?

They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree-

c. 2013
Like mother, like son.

For the record, we're just a year apart only my babies are in their mid-20's and hers is nine. Let that sink in for a minute. Ha! He keeps her young or at least that's what I tell her.

I'm so thankful for my sisters, thankful too my girls know the joy of both having and being a sister. Happy birthday little sis!

A hornet's nest. Also known as politics in America. Is it just me or does anyone else feel like we've been at this election thing for-evah? And it's still over a year way. More than one whole complete entire YEAR.

I have an idea...let's call a two-month time out on all things presidential election, take some deep breaths, and not hear another word about it until 2016. The year we actually vote.

Football. Is it just me or is the NFL not as much fun this year? I feel like play stops every other minute and the penalties are excessive. In my opinion (not that the Commissioner asked) they play too many games. The players aren't rested and the commentators have waaaay too much air time to fill and the refs are struggling and what's up with the game clocks going wonky every week? I love watching football but if I were commissioner I'd eliminate those Thursday night games.

I feel like money might be a factor snort so not betting on him taking my suggestion to heart. But he should.

The Write31 Challenge. Is it just me or did anyone else drop the ball on the Write 31 challenge? In my defense I did write 25 posts in October which isn't 31 but it's something. I only wrote 13 in September, so winning!

The Home Build. Is it just me or does anyone else feel like we should be further along in the home build process than we are? Pesky rain. Pesky pesky rain. On the bright side we've been busy making selections on the very long list of things we need to select. We started with the plumbing and have our sinks, faucets, tubs, toilets (more options than one might think) and showers chosen. We neglected to choose a sink for the garage, and we've already made a change in color to a lower level sink, and also to the kitchen sink after we selected our granite. This is how it goes, or so I'm told.

We've also almost settled on all of our appliances and we may have gotten a little carried away by ALL THE THINGS on offer and gone just a smidge overboard. We've since gone back to the appliance shop and made a course correction. Ahem. We may need another, but we're holding out to see if we save money in some other category. Our decorator looked at hubs like he had two heads when he suggested it, but we're nothing if not ridiculously optimistic.

The whole house build budget thing is a little bit like wedding planning. You have all these categories and an allowance for each one. And just like with the wedding, if we're under budget in one area we can shift the savings to another.

Yeah, so far not a lot to shift, but I'll keep you posted.

Last week we trekked to the granite warehouse and today we're off to pick tile. I predict this will be one of the more stressful categories because I'm flashing back to picking tile for the shower we renovated in our previous home. Have mercy there are so many choices and combinations and that was just a shower. Today we're selecting tile for more than one shower, floors for a hallway-laundry-bathrooms, back splashes for the kitchen, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Is it just me or is building a home from the ground up just a teensy bit nuts?

13 comments:

  1. not just a lil bit nuts......a whole lotta nuts!! We built ours 29 yrs ago when I was 4-9 months pregnant. Talk about nuts!!!
    And I said the exact same thing about the election last nite......can they just all agree to go away for a couple, or a lotta, months and take the news peeps with them? Like to another country???

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  2. Not a sister, but a daughter celebrating today. She is 30! Seems like so long ago and just yesterday all at the same time. It won't be long until you can stop thinking about all the things, and just find a place to sit. somewhere near. water. Ahhhh!

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  3. Yes, building a house and picking things is just nuts! We built ours 18 years ago and I love it but not sure I'd want to do it again at this point in life.

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  4. I have to say that I did not really enjoy building our home from the ground up. I might have done better had we built in a subdivision where we had several choices and the option to upgrade where we wanted to, but anything in the whole Anything Kingdom was WAY overwhelming! I might do better at this stage of our lives because I have a better sense of what we like and a pretty good decorator to help!
    I know you will not have these problems, you are more sure footed! Have fun picking tile!

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  5. No offense, but yes building a house is nuts. We debated it briefly when we decided to downsize when we retired and quickly came to our senses. I remembered how difficult it was back when we redid our kitchen and bathroom ... I wasn't prepared to multiply that by 9-10. :-o But I know it'll worth it at the end.

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  6. Nope, not just you. The 'hornets nest,' and football - Arrgh.
    Good luck with the choosing. I went with my mom when she built her little house...too many options. I was grateful for the store designer for keeping her options to a minimum. In her case, 'out of budget range' worked wonders. Ha.

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  7. I don't envy you all the decisions you have to make for the new house, but I'm sure it is also lots of fun (at least on some levels). Exciting and fun. Happy birthday to your sister!! Yes, I am sick of the politics already. Enough! I agree that a two (or three) month moratorium would be wonderful.

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  8. :-) Fun post.
    Happy Birthday to your sister.
    And nope - it is not just you. LOL

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  9. Happy Birthday to your sister. Sounds like an awesome relationship between the two of you which is wonderful. I loved picking out things for our house. Enjoy the process and I hope they can get moving a little faster and that the rain stays away!

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  10. A Birthday Hug to your sister... Take care ~Natalie

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  11. No, it is not just you, building a house is definitely nuts and not for the faint of heart for sure. As to the tile, our decorator suggested we use the same tile in all the areas we used tile and all the showers. She picked one out and we went with it and absolutely love that we went with the same one. She felt like the continuity would give a nice flow and we agree. But, it's all a matter of preference. Hoping the weather straightens up and you will begin to see big progress.

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  12. what a great post - love the pics - and I am so glad that in Canada our election run-up was only 78 days. Yours is over a year, and even I am tired of it.....(Although Trump is entertaining in that looking at a train wreck kind of entertaining).

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  13. We are building a house too and I feel your pain about making all of those necessary decisions! I hate making those decisions!! And, no it's not just you...EVERYONE thinks we should be farther along in our building process too...and we really should be! haha

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