ALIENS!!!!!!

Is this not THE ugliest fan you have ever seen?

Charlie and I have go back and forth about what this fan is...if you can even call it that:

We think it might be an alien portal that abducts us in the night.  It opens it's magical glass doors to suck you up.  We also though it might be a poisonous plant on steroids.  Or some type of weird alien bird.

Whatever way you slice it, it's really, really scary.  And huge.  And overpowers the room.

This was one of the first things on our list that we wanted to get rid of.  *Shudder*  And thank gosh, fans really aren't that expensive.  We paid about $100 for this baby at Lowe's:

 

Much better.  (Pics to come later of the whole room when it's not a disaster!)  It's simple, does it's job, and fits our room and furniture.  It was a bit tricky to install, as was discovered by Charlie's swearing when the bottom part wouldn't click into place. Hehe.  I love my husband.

We've sent the aliens back to their home planet (aka the Goodwill).  May they never come back.  Ever.

Leaves galore.

Everyone paints the rosy dream of home ownership, and there are lots of pros...including having your own land.  Your very own piece of property to call your own to do whatever you want with!!

And then you realize, when you buy .36 acres like we did that haven't been raked, mowed, or maintained all fall, it's beautiful, but it can be a real pain in the _____.

Seriously.

I wish I took a before picture for you.  The previous owners moved to Delaware 6 months ago and totally let the yard go.  Thankfully, there had been landscaping done, and mulch put down last spring, and they had quite the green thumbs when they lived here, but there were leaves everywhere.  I mean everywhere.  The main yard had been semi raked, maybe once or twice, but all of the landscaping was totally neglected.  There were at least 4-5 inches of compacted leaves on it...the snow and rain didn't make them easier to get up. 

So, between Charlie, my mom, my mother and law and I...we spent hours outside raking.  Hours of catch-up you could say.  And here is what we raked.  (There are two separate pictures because there were two separate piles of leaf bags).

Take a wild guess at how many bags that is...
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57.  No exaggeration.  That's a heck of a lots of leaves!  Luckily this is work for the entire fall season, that in the future will not be done one day.  It was exhausting.  As our neighbor said, "Rome wasn't built in a day."  And he's right.  This will be a process.

Here are the afters.  This is the front yard, at a side view. 

Here is the side yard:

And the back yard that Charlie and my mom did!!!  (See the separate fenced off garden area up front?  Yeah, we didn't touch that, yet).

Our neighbor also told us that the woman who owned the home before loved to garden.  She planted tons of perennials all over the lot, so there will be beautiful surprises this spring/summer.  I can't wait.

My favorite part, though?  Other than the fact that perennials are easier to maintain (mostly weeding involved), she planted peonies, only my favorite flower ever.  White peonies will bloom off the deck.  Yay.  Now that's worth raking for!

The garage

When we bought our home, the garage didn't have a ceiling.  Just exposed insulation.  Honestly, this isn't much of a problem because it's the garage, but considering the bonus room is right above it, which is fully insulated and needs to be protected from moisture, we decided to fix that.

Charlie and his dad went to our second home Lowe's and bought plywood and decided to install it...themselves.  There was quite the learning curve and it took them 2 days of working...but they finally finished.

 There is still some patchwork that needs to be done on some boo-boos, but it looks much better!

I'll be honest, I had nothing to do with this install...but Charlie has some advice:
1)  It helps to have 3 sets of hands
2)  Get a scaffold ladder
3)  Make sure the screws are long enough
4)  Use a stud finder.
5)  Orient the wood in the direction it is going up before cutting.

And number 6...

Get lots of rest!  Here were are after a hard day's work.  Too bad we don't have any furniture to snuggle up on in the den!

So there's this other house...

I feel like we are cheating on our new home...with another!

There has been talk of my in-laws moving down to where we live for part of the year, on the lake.  They currently live 11 hours away in Michigan, but now that we are planting our roots in the south, they have decided that having a home near us (and the future grandkids!) would be worth it.  Besides, they are ready from a break in the cold weather of up north.  They would still keep their home up in Michigan, but 5 months of winter gets real old real fast.

They have been narrowing their search down to Lake Wylie, which is about 30 minutes from where we live.  The prices are better than Lake Norman, a lake about 1 hour away, and we just like it better all around. 

To top it off, they have fallen in love with a property...specifically this property with this view:

I saw it for the first time, and I instantly fell in love just like they did.  This view is prime spot in Wylie-world, as most lakefront property is just part of the channel.  Not this one, though!  The best part is that all of the undeveloped land you see would stay that way.  And all that beach and sand...would be totally theirs.  Talk about amazing sunning/bonfires/summertime fun.

So, this amazing property in their price range right on the lake... what's the catch?  The house isn't 100% perfect.  No house is, but they would have to redo part of it to make it livable for their ideas of entertaining and family time in a "great room."  Here is the home:

It's small and cottage-y...it isn't a dive, in fact it's pretty okay inside, but it doesn't maximize the views of the lake like it could.  The ceilings are very, very low, and their aren't that many windows.

They brought in a contractor this time to tell them their ideas and get an estimate.  The sellers currently have the home available for rent, so they have it booked for a week in March so they can have a chance to "live" in it for a while to see if the shoe fits.  Right now the home is overpriced, so we are crossing our fingers that that can be negotiated!

Here is an idea of what they plan to do to the front of the home to maximize views of the beautiful water.  How could you cover it up?

Stainless steel

Gotta love it.  We ordered everything from Lowe's, and we we are so happy with our kitchen that feels brand new.  I am that new stainless steel owner that is obsessed with cleaning it.  No finger prints on these babies!

Here was the kitchen before:

Here's the other side before with our dishwasher from the 80s:

Here is the kitchen now.  Here is our amazing stove and our new range hood.  Yay!  The stove has 5 burners and heats up so fast. 

Here is the dishwasher and our chopping block we got from my Uncle when we got married... but never had a place to put!

And, my favorite...our FRIDGE!!!  It's huge and has a nice and tall water/ice dispenser that fits all cup sizes (and a knob that turns out of the fridge for water bottles).  The best part?  Tell it how many ounces of water you want and it will pour that exact amount.  I think I'm going to try to teach it to make me a sandwich. ;)

Yay, kitchen!  And it was nice not to install anything or take away the old appliances...that's a great feature.

A new name!

You may have wondered if you came to the right place, especially because everything looks so different and you didn't recognize the name of our blog!  But it's the same old me, except now we are blogging about us, or marriage, our life, and our new house.

My father-in-law, who is a writer, thought of the new title:  Spouse Plus House.

It's got a ring to it, and it stuck.  While it is less personal than our former name, we like it that way, because let's face it...the Internet can be a creepy place.  Besides, as we start a new chapter in our lives it seemed fitting to give our blog a face-lift.

For fun you should check out this website.  It comes up with random names that make good blog titles.  My personal favorite is:  "Smelly Butt"  Yes, that name was truly generated.  Gross.  What does it suggest to you?

Finding balance

I heard it once said that to optimize our energy, we should sleep for 8 hours, work for 8 hours, and rest/play for 8 hours....adding up to exactly 24 :)  Perfect by design!!!  But how many of you can actually say you do this?  I know I, for one, can't :(

My average weekday breakdown looks more like this:

Sleep: 7
Work: 13 (my job, chores, errands, duties, etc.)
Rest: 4

Balance is very hard to achieve these days, wouldn't you agree?  Wouldn't it be great to add some more time to that "rest" category, give yourself an extra hour of sleep, and then everything would seem more balanced?  Unfortunately, time doesn't work that way.  I've thought this a lot, wishing I could bend the rules of time.  But then I finally realized that if I want more me time, more time to rest, relax, enjoy my family and friends, pray...I need to make it.  It isn't the lack of time that is the problem.  It's me.

I am sleep crazy (meaning I really need it to function, as those of you who know me know), so since it can't come from there, I guess I must find time to take from the "work" category...

Don't get me wrong.  I am not devaluing hard work.  Working hard is good: it makes you dedicated, teaches you patience, and challenges your mind and makes it grow.  It is very important, and I work hard all time.  There are also people who are burning the candle to get through school, achieve a dream, take care of their children, or make financial ends meet.  We need to set goals for ourselves, and there are realistic deadlines that must be met!  I firmly believe that when we want something special, we need to earn it and work hard for it.  Nothing good comes easy.  You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow (Luke 19:22).  You gotta earn it!

But when work is your life, your every waking, breathing moment, and perfection is the name of the game for and end that you cannot name other than "earning more money," then it just isn't right.  Life is too short.

I feel like we as Americans do a lot of things well, but finding time for ourselves, just ourselves, that last little category, is the first thing we let go.

I should work more, play later.  There is so much to do.  I need to impress.  I need to do this.

This is something I really value about Spain and Europe in general... life is for living.  Outdoor cafes are a testament to this way of thinking.  They are everywhere.  You will NEVER see a Spaniard walking with a cup of coffee.  EVER.  Look for it sometime.  You will never see it.  For them, life is never to busy to sit down, chat, and enjoy a coffee.

Plaza Mayor, Madrid

I have always known (but am finally actualizing) that my family, friends, and prayer life matter more than the money, more than the stuff, more than the time I spend at work.  I am grateful for a good job, and I will continue to work hard, but balance is key.  I should never be too busy to "wake up and smell the coffee."

In fact, resting more will actually make my work time more productive. I feel like the more I rest, the better of a teacher I am.  I am less burned out, I enjoy my students more.  I laugh more.  I'm sharper.  I remember more.  I scaffold, I individualize.  I'm usually on fire, actually.  It's all about finding the balance.  Right?

"Mrs. S, did your grade our projects?"

"No.  I had a great weekend and got to enjoy it!  How was yours?"

"It was good."

"I'll get them to you on Wednesday, okay?"

"Okay."

The world didn't end.  The projects were passed back.  And they got graded, in a timely manner, in the designated "work time."

In Spain, when you finish your coffee at the cafe no one will bring you your check unless you ask for it.  Sometimes people will sit for hours and no one says a word.  It's your designated "play time."