March is Almost Over!

Well I don't have much to report on the move besides our closing date has been moved back two weeks to May 9th due to some rainy Oregon weather (those of you who have been reminding us daily about the dreary Oregon weather are giggling, i'm sure). So our tentative moving plans are pushed back a couple weeks. The close is still a few weeks before I'm planning on moving out there over Memorial Day weekend, but Victor is disappointed since he wanted to hit the ground running in April. But we're making the best of it. A lot of behind the scenes work has been going on with picking out some exciting things like refrigerators, lawn mowers and grills, but to first-time homebuyers these things really are quite exciting! I've also been perusing some Martha Stewart Craft Room furniture from the homedecorators.com website and getting very excited!

Speaking of crafts, I thought I'd post some status updates on some projects since there isn't any exciting news on the home or social life front (it's tax season).

This week I finished a "baby" quilt that had been sitting in my closet for a while. Don't ask me why I made a baby quilt, there is no baby. I repeat, there is NO BABY. It's just some zoo fabric I found on clearance and thought I could do something simple with it. I had started quilting it an inch apart on my old machine, and then gotten so frustrated I put it in the closet. Well, with my shiny new Viking machine, I breezed through finishing it up.

As I was finishing up the binding tonight, Jelly went ahead and made herself comfortable. If there's no baby to make use of this blanket for the near future, at least I have a dog that will snuggle with it!

This is her face when she thinks she might have been caught doing something wrong.

Here's a somewhat dark picture of the log cabin crosses quilt I'm trying to get quilted at the moment. It's turning out to be more frustrating than I thought it would be, but this time of year I'm running low on patience for just about anything. I'm chipping away at it little by little.

And here's one more I'm still chipping away at. I started it out a little more ambitiously than I should have with the quilting pattern. It takes a lot of time and motivation, but I am determined to finish both of these before the move! Working on them after I come home from a long day at work for just an hour or so really helps me feel like I've accomplished something and I find it easier to sleep :)

I also made my own fusible tags this weekend from supplies I ALREADY HAD (simple wins!). I was super excited about these, and didn't even follow a tutorial! When it seems like everything I've done lately is from an idea I got off Pinterest, it's nice to know I can still do something myself :)

Last bit of exciting family news - Peanut Butter got her summer cut this week so she is looking ready for pool season! She's not too excited to be having her picture taken mid-nap.

That's all we've got for right now! Have a great week!

tasha

Pieces are coming together

All the pieces are coming together... both literally and figuratively.

First for the figurative - I received the job offer I had been waiting for this weekend! So that is a HUGE weight my shoulders and a big motivation boost for me. It looks like I'll be working at a firm in downtown Portland and looking forward to moving sometime in June. Now I can relax a bit and get back to business as usual here and finish out tax season without all the added stress of searching for a job.

On the home front, Victor was out in Portland the last part of last week. There wasn't too much visible progress on the house for him to report back on, but we do have windows and electrical outlets... yay! Here's an updated picture. Hopefully siding will be going up shortly and then all the noticeable things like floors and cabinets.


Now for the figurative - here are some projects I've been working on. The first I just got all pieced together this weekend. The second has been a work in progress for a while, but I'm hoping to get it finished by the time I have to move.

Beyond some sewing time and waiting on pins & needles for the job offer to come in, it was a pretty chill birthday weekend. Just the way I like it :)

Have a great week!

tasha

Recent non-house pictures

Here are a few recent pictures of us and the babies... and by babies I mean dogs.

Happy Friday everyone!

House Pictures March 2012

Here's further evidence of how the house is coming...

I'm not sure what this is called but the house is wrapped in something so it's not just exposed wood. Siding and other stuff will go on top.

Guest bathroom shower & tub.

 Plumbing in the laundry room.

 Tub in the master bathroom.


We put our names on it, it's ours!

Victor with Mt. Hood in the background on top of our mountain, Mt. Scott. It was a really clear spring day so we could see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens clearing from the city. Both are visible from the opposite side of Mt. Scott from where our house is.

That's all for now!

tasha

Update on the Oregon House

I know, I know... I promised to update and did not follow through. I think it goes without saying that the last month has been a complete whirlwind, but I thought I'd just say it one more time. Here is a quick run down on how the past month has gone....

We made our first trip out to Portland a few weeks ago and just completely fell in love. We are even more excited about this new adventure now that we have an idea of what we are getting ourselves into! We did a LOT of research before heading out there for our first house hunting trip and had the entire metro area narrowed down to one suburb and about 15 houses to look at. Long story short, we ended up buying one of the first houses we saw. We ended up in a beautiful neighborhood in Happy Valley, Oregon on top of Mt. Scott. I thought it was just a really big hill until Victor and I got back to Dallas and googled it. It's actually a MOUNTAIN! The elevation is just about 1,000 feet at the top and we are at about 800 feet, so not quite the top of the mountain. Our house backs up to the down-sloping mountain and faces the mall below, and off into the distance Lake Oswego and Downtown Portland. We heard a rumor that we might be able to see the fireworks from downtown on Fourth of July. We will definitely test that out this summer!

Okay, enough talk - here are some pictures!

Okay the first picture is the house... as you can see it still needs some work! It should be finished by the end of April and then Victor can move in! Last weekend we made one more trip out to PDX and got to pick out tile, floors, and landscaping. That was really fun but terrifying at the same time!

The second picture is the view from our living room. This is on a cloudy day and it doesn't look like much, but trust me its amazing!

The third is the door going out to our deck off of the kitchen. We are really excited about having some summers where we can enjoy being outside and hopefully have some dinners on the deck!

The biggest reason I waited to post about the house is I thought we'd have better pictures after going back up there last week. Obviously I have no idea how long construction actually takes as there was little visible progress since we had been out there the first time. Don't get me wrong, TONS was done on the house, but visually it still looks a lot the same.

So for the next month, Victor is traveling around the country covering his territory and working while I am in the dead heat of tax season. But April 25th will be here before we know it and soon we'll be living in the Pacific Northwest! 

Hopefully next week I'll have some pictures of the house with siding up and some news on job prospects for me. That is still in the works as of right now.

Have a great week! And now that we've secured living quarters, start planning your travel out to Portland! All are welcome!

tasha