No Title-- The Blog Of Everything.

Yes, I know. I'm way behind. This has been the most hectic quarter, ever. We moved, been on a week long vacation back home, been to Corpus and stayed at the beach, watched my sister get engaged, paint and update a bathroom, lead an XBRL project at work, file a 10-Q and see a Tim McGraw & Kenny Chesney concert. Am I missing anything? Probably. But I'm here now. I took a day off work to run errands and get caught up on my personal life. So my mission. Update my blog. (FINALLY, I know).

Sorry for being so lazy when it comes to keeping you update. I can promise you I have some amazing stories.

For one... WE MOVED! We bought our first house. But, let me take you the day before closing day. Rob and I are doing our final walkthrough of the house. We knew we needed to buy a fridge and a washer/dryer, of which we had. But, Rob was the only one present at the home inspection where he wrote down what the brand names were of their kitchen appliances (Whirlpool) and we went from there when choosing our refrigerator. So, on the final walkthrough.. I'm looking at the kitchen and I notice suddenly... the appliances are GE Profile.. NOT Whirlpool. So yeah, we don't have matching appliances. Luckily, they are all stainless steel, so you can't really tell. But... that was moment number 1. Lesson learned: Do not trust a man with the sole job of remembering appliance names.

Moving Day. Our apartment was on the 5th floor about as far away from the freight elevator as you could get. To be exact (my dad measured) it was a quarter mile trip ONE WAY to the moving truck. Lots of walking. I will say this... my movers were AWESOME!! It was amazing how hard they worked... who cares if they wanted cash only? I tipped them mega. It only took from 9:30 to 2:30 and they wouldn't break for lunch. So they walked the miles (for the record it took them 3 hours to load us all up and then only 2 hours unload all of it) and lifted stuff up at least one flight of stairs and then some things all the way up 2 flights of stairs. Boys, you earned it.

No major bumps or bruises came moving day. My family was down and everyone helped unpack boxes and set up the kitchen, mount the tv and install a ceiling fan on the balcony. Robert's family was even able to stop by and we got to have dinner with them. So, it was a great weekend. Now, everyone just needs to come back to see it put mostly together!! Okay, well... we still need a kitchen table, living room accent chair, and loads of patio furniture. Our rooftop terrace feels lonely because we don't have anything up there! And our balcony needs furniture too (our camping chairs don't count).

We've even updated the powder room that is on the 2nd floor. We have painted it blue and installed a chandelier. It only took me 9 paint samples to find the paint color. Don't judge. This powder room is about 6x6x10. So, it was a tight squeeze with a ladder because the ceiling had to be painted. The previous owner had previously painted it "Barely Peach" which translates to "Light Pink" and it just had to go. So, it was me & Rob and a ladder in this small space. Somehow we managed to keep all of the paint on the walls and none anywhere else in the house. It took us a full three days. Friday night we primed, Saturday we painted one coat, and Sunday we painted the second coat. And to really jazz up the bathroom, decided to test Rob's electrical engineering skills and convert a can light into a light for a chandelier. It took us two days to actually get the chandelier hanging. (You never want to be the person who's job it is to hold the chandelier up.. that was mine. It was hard) And then two weeks to get it hanging at the right height and location. It hung in the sink for two weeks because we were super busy and gone over the weekend. But, no worries. It's up! I still want to replace the sink and frame the mirror... but it's getting close! PS. No electrical fires were started and Rob did not electrocute himself. And the chandelier is still hanging to date. I consider this all success.

What else? Oh yeah... the 4th of July week was my family vacation. We went out on the lake where my dad broke a rib attempting to wakeboard, of which he had never done in his life. He forgets he's on the lower side of 55. (He is okay and now recovered). Kate stunned us all because she was the wakeboarding pro.. and she's never the pro at anything athletic. I was kind like, "who are you?" But, it's no joke. She was the pro and taught the rest of us. Well, Rob already knew how but it took him a bit to get it going. We also rented a pontoon boat for one day on the lake where we the boys went cliff jumping (me too!) and just drove around the lake while the ladies sunbathed. ;-) That is what a pontoon boat is for, right??

Mom's still got it.

Kate being the wakeboard pro.

Kirstie not being the wakeboard pro.

I'll not post my wakeboard pics. It's best if you think of me as a skier. ;-)

 

We also got to visit with Robert's family and see Stacy & Ryan. Rob also got to go to Boingo Bounce with Lori and her kids! :-) It was a great week filled with tons of fun and sun.

What else? Oh, we have been to Corpus Christi and stayed with my Aunt & Uncle and their family at a house on the bay that had spot for a boat. My mom and dad happened to be there, too for a high school reunion so we all got to hang out with good cooking and fresh fish. The boys all got to do fishing out on the ocean and us ladies just picked our own things to do. (Mom and I visited with the grandparents).

So another major highlight was getting to watch my sister get engaged in Dallas at the Denton Country Club. It was a total surprise for her and her ring is GORGEOUS! She is one lucky lady and Kyle is one lucky man. They are going to be very happy together. They will get marred in about a year and then head out to Chicago where Kyle is going to work once he graduates Harvard Law. I've got a video and some pictures.

Priceless.

Young love.

 

There's so much that has happened this summer that I can't even put it all on paper. It went incredibly fast. I can't believe Labor Day is around the corner. I've officially been at my "new" job a year. How time flies when you're having fun. Just a reminder to leave every day to its fullest because when looking back, you wonder where it has all gone.

Coming up, Rob and I are going on a cruise that will be just the two of us (first ever vacation since we got married where it is just us two!). We have more major home improvement projects, too. Once the cruise is over, I think we'll pretty much be around here every weekend, so hopefully we can get some stuff accomplished.

 

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DIY Project #2

First, let me preface this story by saying.. I still have my pinky toe.

So, now... on Saturday we began our Antique-ing journey. We were on the hunt for either an old mantle for the house or old window panes for some cool ideas I found on Pinterest. We probably went to about 7 different antique/flea-market places Saturday morning and ta da... we found old window panes.... well, they aren't window panes they are old cabinet doors. Here is what they looked like when we bought them:

Yes, I know. Not in wonderful condition. Paint was peeling off in a big time way. But they are just the right size for a future project. So, I bought them for $40 bucks. $20 bucks a door. The guy originally quoted us $45 for the pair... but our great (not really) negotiating skills saved us $5 bucks. I hope that we paid a fair price. So... that was my first cost... $40.

Well, we thought we can just peel slash sand this paint right off. And yes, a good majority was just falling off with every step we took or minor touch. We set up shop with me in a little stadium seat and Rob in a lawn chair out in our empty parking garage and began peeling and sanding away with me in Rob's work gloves and Rob in his mountain biking gloves. Yeah I know.. we aren't pros. Bad news: the paint that was really on there was not going to just come off. We only had 100 grit sandpaper on us and we were getting nowhere fast on the paint that was really on there still. Rob was just really sanding away... but I'm like, I think we need some paint thinner/stripper. At first, he wasn't for it... but I'm all about efficiency and not having to work harder than I have to. And I could see that even if we sanded for the next 4 days we wouldn't be done.

So, we headed off to Home Depot. Which meant that we bought Paint Stripper and then we had to buy two paint scrapers. So that was another $20 bucks. Why do my DIY projects that aren't supposed to cost very much end up costing me at least $50 dollars? So unfair.

So we get back. Again, we set up shop in the parking garage. Between a BMW & Mercedes. HAHAHAHA. Thank goodness the owners didn't see us spraying that paint stripper near their cars, they would have freaked. And no.. this story does not end up with us spraying this stuff their cars. They are intack. Just how we left them. So, we sprayed my doors in our usual clothes and sandals. And then we started scraping. It tooks us about 2 to 3 hours hours to get all of the paint off of these suckers.

It was also way harder thanI thought it would be. Not to mention that we used this little table that I have and the paint stripper also burned a hole through my table and got black paint on my doors that I then had to also scrape off. This also makes a big gooey mess. I had never worked with the stuff before.. how was I supposed to know??? At one point... I realized that my pinky toe was on fire. Apparently, a piece of stripped paint landed on my bare toe. I had to keep checking that it didn't burn off. So yes... the professionals that we are stripped paint in a parking garage in sandals and in between two $70,000 cars. No big deal.  With a burning toe.

Towards the end, I realized that we were probably going to need to sweep up this mess because it was a big mess. Well, do we have a broom? No. So.. this sparks a trip to Walgreens. So, I pick up the keys and drive across the street to pick up a broom and dust pan. One would think the dust pan would come with the broom.. but no. This required two purchases... plus a bottle of water because I knew Rob was thirsty.... tho why we didn't just get some from the apartment I don't know..but I thought it seemed like a nice wifely thing to do when I got to go to the store while Rob was paint stripping away. That was another $20 purchase. Note to self: Walgreens is not the place to buy ANY cleaning supplies.

Buy the time I got back, Rob had finished up a couple of trouble spots that had needed to be sprayed with the paint stripper a second time. So, I began sweeping up my big mess with this stupid broom whose head kept coming loose, but cost me $10 and I didn't even get a dust pan!!

Then, we finished sanding them down. You can really smell their real wood smell... if I was my dad I would be able to tell you what wood they are made from, but I am not and I have no idea. But they smell good. So, all we accomplished was stripping and sanding them down. Next, I'm either going to stain them or paint them.... but I won't decide that until we move and I know exactly where I'm going to put them.

So, I'm another $80 down and one more DIY project experienced. Luckily, I still have all 10 toes, too. So does Rob for that matter. Here's the cabinet doors after we finished stripping them back to their natural state.

Happy Coasters!

So, this weekend, I decided to become a DIY'er. Wait, don't get too excited. It's just coasters. But, don't they look fabulous?! Rob and I are on a tight budget until we close on our house, so I can't do my usual thing which is shopping. AND, I have like two weddings that are coming up plus Mother's Day. So... that makes sticking to a budget pretty hard because I really, really love buying gifts.

But first, let me tell you how I found the idea. I've joined Pinterest. Finally. I've seen it, I've heard about it... but I never made the jump. That thing is AMAZING. It has given me so many ideas on things I want to try. It is there that I found this fabulous idea. Here is the link to the blog that I found. I won't regurgitate all the steps or anything as this lovely lady did a great job of explaining how it goes down... and she didn't miss a beat. I followed her instructions to the T.

Click Here for How-To Make Fabulous Coasters

Let me just say, my plan was to spend about $20 on this project. That kind of didn't work. Nothing is ever as cheap as I think its going to be. It was mainly because I didn't have ANY of the right equipment. Here's what I had to buy:

I needed Mod Podge, Waterproof Acrylic Spray, Waterproof Glue, a Foam Brush, Tiles, Cork and last but not least... paper to decorate those pretty little tiles with. I started off at Lowe's to get the tile and the waterproof acrylic spray. I decided I was going to make 3 sets of coasters with 6 in a set. For three different weddings that are occurring beginning in June. I bought 20 for two messups (because lets face it... I rarely do anything right the first time... especially when it comes to glue). I also bought some acrlyic spray under the Rustoleum brand. And then, we went to Michaels to get the rest of the supplies.

The cork and the acrylic spray is what kind of crushed my $20 budget. Each of those were about $7.99. So, I think hit about $30-$35 after I had bought everything plus an X-acto knife (how else was I going to cut all those squares for the tile plus the cork that goes on the bottom??)

And on Saturday night the festivities began. It was me and a side table on the floor. But, Rob definitely helped too. The hardest part was the letter that I decided to put on the coaster of the couple's last name. I had to get it sized correctly and then make it a stencil. Let's be real here.... I cannot free-hand 18 letters and them all come out looking the same. So, I traced them. And then colored them in. I'm a huge fan of tracing. Best thing ever. It's like pretending you can draw and the end result makes it look like you can draw. I cannot draw, however.

At first, I was going to cut out the black ones that I had printed out on the computer, but I didn't like how that created a "raised" surface on the coaster. Didn't figure that'd be a stable surface for a cup holding liquid in it to rest on. So, I traced the letters and then used a permanent marker to make it bold. That took forever.

Actually, by Saturday night I had only made it through one letter! Eeek! It was 1 AM before Rob was helping me spray the waterproof acrylic spray. That's where things went wrong. The spray turned all my work yellow. BOO!!!

So, come Sunday, I returned the Rustoleum and bought another brand, Miniwax. And I had to start all over. Well, my two extra weren't enough so I only made 12 because my previous 6 had to be trashed plus the one tester I made. And that took me ALL of Sunday. It was quite the long project for coasters. Seems a little insane when you really think about. It was all due to that stupid letter. It was so time consuming to cut the letter, trace it, and then color it in. Plus you got to add in the dry time for the mod podge and acrylic spray But, never fear... I sprayed my THIRD coat of the waterproof spray at 9 PM on Sunday with absolute NO yellowness.

P.S. I was a virgin mod-podger, but this stuff is pretty darn cool. Gives stuff a nice little texture.

So, here they are. If you're reading this and your last name starts with an F or a W and are getting married, you might be getting some coasters in the mail. Just know.. I made them out of love. I can't guarantee their life span. And, I took them to work to get my co-workers approval... so I think they are legit.

So, here's to my first DIY experience. Happy Coasters Everyone!

 

 

We Found a Home!

Ahh yes. We did it. We found a place, successfully navigated and multiple bid offer and came out on top. Can you believe it? Sometimes I can't either. I will say, the whole process was not quite what I thought it would be. It's pretty crazy. Let me tell ya how it went down...

First off, we went to Dave Ramsey's website to use his ELP's that he has listed on his site. He recommended three of them that were in our general area and then they all contacted us. Literally, almost as soon as I clicked "submit" I had 5 different phone calls. It was a tad bit overwhelming and I didn't answer any of them. Then, when I got home I listened to my 5 voicemails and read my e-mails and figured out who was who.

Then, Rob and I downloaded a Real Estate Agent Interview Questionnaire form from this book that I bought called "Buying Your First Home." We conducted our phone interviews with this questionnaire... I did two and Robert did one. Then, we compared notes. Can I just say that Robert was a WAY better note taker than me?? I kind of just write like "keywords" and write all over the page.... not necessarily by the question I'm asking. The one thing about these "keywords" are... I can't actually remember what they are supposed to mean. They all sounded very friendly though and we kind of went with our "gut feeling" based on their answers and our conversations.

We slept on it for three nights before ultimately deciding, but we decided on Creston from IndyQuest. We set up a personal meeting with him at a coffee shop we really discussed our needs and wants. He gave us tips on some of the developments and areas we were looking at and what a "reasonable" price range was for what we were looking for. Basically, he verified everything we already knew based on just driving around every weekend. Additionally, the Houston Heights has been the number one selling area in Houston since like 2007. With the market crash. So, we knew buying there would be a relatively smart choice.

He set up a list for us to choose our houses from and then we selected 14 for our first round through. But let me stop here for a sec... here's is my one and only beef about this realtor thing. And I think its like this when working with realtors in our budget.. but I could be wrong. But, my realtor didn't really suggest any particular houses for me. I guess from watching HGTV, I expected him to call me up and say, "hey... this house just came on the market" or "I think this house fits your needs, let's schedule a meeting." But, I did all of the real searching for a house. Ironically, the house we ended up putting an offer on wasn't even on his list for me even thought it was in the criteria. So, that's my only beef. But, from talking to other people this seems to be rather normal. What do you think?

So.. our very first house we went to see was 783 Waverly. I pretty much fell in love right away with the area and the fact that it was close to the bike trail. Really, from all the driving Rob and I had done, I felt like this area was AMAZING. No industrial in the direct vicinity and the surrounding area had, for the most part, been completely developed. The house we were looking at was still under construction.

I knew after seeing it that this would likely be "the house," but we made it through all of the others with our agent and then went to see my grandparents and such for Easter. On the following Tuesday we met up with our realtor to look at a few more and then ultimately decide to go with Waverly. Well, on Tuesday... Waverly went off the market. It had been on the market for 7 days. Also, on Tuesday.. we went to see another one (been on the market for three days) and decided we really liked it and wanted to sleep on it. That night it went off the market. So, we missed out on two that we really liked.

Then came 708 8th Street. It was like a sign. It was in the same neighborhood as 783 Waverly, just on the other side. Pretty much the same floor plan, too. Oh yeah.. I forgot to mention... these have rooftop decks!!! AMAZING!! We knew getting one with a rooftop deck would be lucky b/c those are usually outside of our price range. We kept waiting on it though until my parents could come down on that Friday to take a peek.

So, we peeked at 708 8th Street with parents and also took them to another house with the agent. Before we met up with the agent, I took my parents to the areas we were looking in to get them "accustomed" to what a house costs in the city and where we can afford to buy. They were a little taken aback at first. You really got to see it to believe it. It's just not the same as back home, and that's not an over exaggeration either.

That very Friday my parents came down Rob and I decided to put in an offer. By Friday night around 5 our offer had been submitted... and so had one other offer. Rob and I didn't have high hopes. In fact, on Saturday we spent the entire day with parents in the car driving around and looking at houses. We drove all over the place and went into an open houses. Late Saturday afternoon we found out they hadn't accepted anyone's offer and countered back to both of us asking for a full-price offer. We gave it to them but left in our condition that they contribute $5,500 to closing costs..... but there was still doubt in my mind. We were competing against an all-cash offer. Nothing I could do that. Our realtor had also told us that the seller wanted a late closing date and they liked that about us. Well, that we can help with it! We don't have to be out of our apartment until July and we made sure our sellers knew that.

Amazingly, come Monday morning.. the seller had accepted our offer!! Pretty amazing. There were definitely a lot of people out there praying for us, because I just really didn't think it was going to happen. So, yeah!!! That was quite the feeling!!!!

And then, we scheduled our home inspection. I didn't get to go to the inspection because the inspection was on a filing day for me, so no way out of that one. But, Rob took care of things. No major issues other than there had been some leaking on the rooftop deck that had been repaired but the roof still had some sloping issues, but the seller had just replaced the roof and it was under warranty... so that isn't going to cost anyone any money. The rest of things were rather minor... but we asked for the seller to either fix these things or contribute an additional $2,000. They are going to give us an additional $2,000.

And so now... we're mostly set. Our closing date is set for Wednesday, June 13. And my family is coming down that weekend to help us move. Plus, the Meier's are going to be driving in to town to go on a cruise so they will get to see our new digs, too. Including Rob's grandma!! I wouldn't allow a closing date any later than that because I figure it's pretty priceless that Rob's grandma gets a chance to see where we live.

I do want to say one thing though. My husband has been AMAZING. I have been working until 9-10 o'clock at night for the past two weeks. He has stood strong and done all of the phone calls to the realtor and to the mortgage lenders. While we were pre-approved, we wanted to still shop around for the best rate and lowest fees once we had an address. Rob took care of all of that for me. It well paid off. We ended up with the best interest rate we knew were capable of getting and fees that would keep us around our $5,500 that we want the sellers to pay. He took care of everything. I love him. He didn't complain either. He just got things done and kept me well-informed. Everyone needs a Rob. I'm just sayin'.

So, now we're just out finalizing some of the things we need to still get (homeowners insurance) and working with the bank for anything they need. We also have to get a washer/dryer for the house and a fridge. The seller doesn't want to part for those and I'm not willing to pay very much for their used appliances. I also want to get new carpet...but after talking to some carpet people this weekend, I don't think I can afford to pay cash for all my appliances and carpet (and you know me and debt... that's a no-no!) so the carpet is likely going to have to wait until later. Such is life. We have been to three different scratch & dent appliance places as well as all of your major big box stores. Haven't decided where to buy our appliances yet.. but on the look out for a good deal.

There are a lot of things we want to do to the house too to make it our own. For example, it really needs a fireplace mantle. Badly. So, I'm pretty sure I've found a way to build one on our own on pinterest. That's likely going to be Rob and I's first project. Not to mention the house will need drapes, etc ... and I've found some cool things on pinterest for those, too. Ever heard of painted drapes? Me either... but now I have and I'm pretty sure I'm going to try it out. Never been much of a DIYer, but I'm determined to become one! There's also this painted rug thing I want to try, too.

So, anyways, we did it. We're on our way to buying our first home. I'm sure you'll keep hearing about. :-)

The Amazing Houston Home Race

I know, I know... that was one heck of a load of laundry that it took me a whole week to talk about the Amazing Home Race. I got a little bit sidetracked......So, two weekends ago now, Robert and I entered into the Houston Amazing Home Race. We found out about this from interviewing a real estate agent who just so happened to be one of the main sponsors of the event. The game is similar to the Amazing Race TV show. Only it's done in Houston and the destinations are open houses or houses to be built. Once you arrive at the house, you have to go on a scavenger hunt to find the answer to your clue.

So, let me fill you in on our day. We arrived at the Barry Center which is in Northwest Houston off of Highway 290 and Barker Cypress at about 9 AM to get all of our registration done. We woke up at about 7 AM that Satruday morning after not getting home until midnight on Friday night because of the Winter Jam concert. We made sure to where comfortable clothes, running shoes and eat a well-balanced breakfast. Okay, I don't know about well-balanced, I had a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Rob had some Chocolate Fudge Poptarts. And people tease me about Breakfast of Champions.... little do they know!

Anyways, we drove the 30 miles or so it took to get to the Barry Center and waited in line with the rest of the competitors. Clearly, they didn't know that Rob and I are ALWAYS in the top 1% of everything we do. I just hated to break it to them... haha! You had until 10:00 to get registered and ready. We got some lovely red t-shirts and set out to wait the hour and scope out our competition. The people who brought small children we eliminated as any threat. Seriously, people! You cannot win a race if you everytime you get in the car you have to strap your child in a car seat and vice versa when you get out of the car. Why waste your precious $3.80/gallon gas?! So, that eliminated quite a few. Same for people who brought a dog. Seriously, people!

There were a couple of guy teams that seemed rather threatening...or well, their matching sweat headbands intimated me. And then you had people that stood behind us in line who hadn't even bothered to fill up their gas tank before coming to the race (which they specifically told you to do when you signed up online) and whose phone batteries weren't even full. Losers. Okay... tad bit harsh, but as mom says... "Nice people finish last."

We just waited around until it was race time. At that point they huddled us up all together to do like a team chant and explain the rules. Let me fill you in some more on the race. It was all done via text messaging. The people who hosted the race would send you a system-generated text message with an address and a clue and then you would drive to that address and text back your answer. You had three tries to get it right. The further you had to drive, the more points you got for that answer. The system also knew how many people were at a house and was supposed to direct you to an "unpopulated" house to avoid bottlenecks and such.

So, while they are doing the team huddle Rob and I are making sure to stand towards the back so we can make a clean get away. We had already made sure to park close to the exit and facing forwards so we wouldn't have to put it in reverse. However, during the team huddle, we noticed several people had already pulled up their cars to pick up their other team player (required to play in teams of two). I got slightly worried there and thought we had for sure missed the boat.

Never fear, you had to text "Houston" to the number and that took a little bit to get going so even if you had your car already to pull out, you wouldn't have known which way to turn (left or right) at the exit because it took a solid 3 minutes after the team huddle to receive your first address. Even with the small delay of getting to our car, we were probably the 10th car out and we still had to wait to receive our address.

Oh, I should also say that you had the option of passing a house and getting another address. You might have thought that the distance was too far and would be better to stay somewhere closer to waste less time. Our first clue was in Spring, TX which took us a solid 35 minutes to drive to. Robert really wanted to skip it, but I'm super glad that we didn't. It was a solid 5 point clue. We spent most of the time driving anywhere from 2-10 miles around in Spring and then about the last 30 minutes we had to go to Tomball.

Let me talk about Rob now. He was on his A-game. He was the driver and I was the GPS. Tho, I was on my A-game too because I had to get us there while watching the traffic map and quickly deciding the best route. Luckily, all of our navigating through Houston looking at neighborhoods for our own house hunt paid off because I'm not afraid to veer off the main road if traffic is too bad and head down some neighborhoods. Watch out children!

Rob was a crazy driver. Looking back, I think we only hit one small child. Okay, just kidding!!! But we were flying around Houston. And looking for the clues... my Rob was calm and never got flustered whereas my brain kind of stops working when I'm under pressure. This is why I was always a horrible test taker in school. It's like when I'm under a tense deadline, my brain just goes blank.

We honestly couldn't have done anything any better... other than Rob having to go the bathroom! I could have killed him. I told him to go before we left. We had a whole hour of just waiting around, but about 15 minutes into the drive to the first house, Rob's like I gotta go. He held it until the house, but I told him you can just go by a tree. I don't care what you do... I'm not making an extra stop. He went in an open house bathroom. Is that even allowed?? But, it probably only required an extra 1 minute of time. So, I'll let him off the hook.

We battled traffic and some challenging clues that's for sure. Rob's out on a patio laying his hands across it to determine how many hand widths the patio is. He didn't think twice when he doesn't normally like to get dirty. He counted 39 wine bottles in a house and didn't miss one! Helped me spell the word SMOKING when Z=A, Y=B, etc. He never let me down.

It was an awesome bonding experience, that's for sure. We can work pretty well as a team. He never second guessed my directions (like he could.. he had no idea where we were!) and kept calm as we were running around like crazy people. We had a little pen and notepad to help us (which came in super duper handy!!!).

We were a little sore the next day from getting in and out of the car and running up and down stairs in homes. We were on our way back to Spring from Tomball when the race ended and we had to head back to the Barry Center. We had 55 points. Of course, you have no idea if that's good or bad because you aren't anywhere near a competitor in your own car. So, we just had to wait and see.

We got back and waited a little bit as they said they would give you plenty of time to get back because you had to be present to win the awards. 1st place was $10,000 and 2nd place was a Washer/Dryer combo from Lowe's. I'd say there were about 300 people who were there in the morning but only about 150 that finished the day. Oh.. you weren't supposed to tell your score when you got back so that it could remain a surprise. Of course, Rob felt the need to share when asked and we burst a few people's bubbles. But I told him I didn't want mine burst, so he needed to keep those lips sealed.

Well, they announced 2nd place first obviously.... and I started waving my arms and let out a couple of screams. Rob didn't do much of anything because he apparently was thinking "well darn, we didn't win." But, I mean... 2nd place! Out of 300! My view....In the words of a Bring It On movie "2nd place, Hell Yeah!" We drover over 150 miles to get second place. Pretty awesome to me. The guy was giving my certificate and telling me who to contact, etc and people were taking our pictures. They shook our hands and as we walked back people were telling us congrats. I'll take it.

They announced the winners via a phone call so whoever got the phone call started screaming. Lovel to know that they beat us by only 2 points. We were SOO close to winning. We were one house away from taking it away from them. Of course, I kept hoping that no one would answer and that 1st place didn't show up to claim their prize because you know what that means... 2nd place would become first place. No such luck.

We're pretty sad that we were SO CLOSE to winning $10 grand in cold, hard cash but our washer and dryer were worth $1,200 at Lowe's. That's a heck of a prize. Unfortunately, we had no where to put said washer and dryer except as end tables to our sofa that we never managed to purchase.. so we sold them! We sold them for cash to a co-worker and Rob's work and are putting it towards our down payment. Ca-ching!

So, yes... that was our Amazing Race Adventure. Pretty awesome, right?! It was a heck of a lot of fun and a good "team building" event for me and Rob. Great way to spend a Saturday. If only we had the $10 grand... but I think I still have bragging rights.

 

March Madness

No, not the basketball March Madness. I'm talking the Meier March Madness. We have been super busy (in a totally fun way) and we haven't even made it through the last weekend of March yet. So let me get you up to date.

Two weekends ago we went to the Houston Livestock show to see my cousins and their heifers. I know, I know... not our usual style, but we always like to step out of comfort zone every once in a while. Plus, always good to see family. We had a great time catching up with them. This will be the last time my cousins Ann and Julia will be showing since they are graduating high school this May. Can't believe it. Only one young cousin left. Boy how time flies.

I can remember always looking forward to visit the Atzenhoffer's when we would visit Nana & Pop. Lots of swimming dates and playing around in the yard. Nana & Pop used to have this zip line that went from tree to tree and we would spend forever playing outside zipping from tree to tree and swinging on the wooden swings Pop hung on the trees. Lots of Easters together for sure. Anyways, I'm just reminiscing here on old times. We've almost all grown up and are finding our ways in our lives. Amazing how life has a way of doing that.

The next weekend, we actually went to the Houston rodeo! It was Rob and I's first big rodeo. Rob claims he's been to one in Springdale, but thats just not the same thing! I know I went to a rather big one as a kid in Texas but it would have been Abilene or somewhere thereabouts. So anyways, kind of a big deal for us as its one of the largest events in Houston. This event lasts a solid three weeks and there are about 5 concerts a week. And big names come to town. Rob and I bought the tix's to see Brad Paisley. But, before I share about Brad Paisley... lets talk about the rodeo.

The rodeo was great fun! Sorry Rob... but ladies, there's nothing much better than watching a man in a cowboy hat ride a bull. It'll just keep you up on your seat. It was all extremely entertaining.. I didn't feel bored whatsoever watching all the bull riding, horse riding, rope 'em contests and calf wrestling. I certainly couldn't do those events. You couldn't pay me to wrestle a calf, don't care how small. And these men take out of the gate on their horse, lasso 'em (is that the right word??), get off of their horse and then wrestle the calf to the ground and tie three of its legs together. I feel a tad bit bad for the calf, really. It looks so poor and hopeless with its feet tied up on the ground. But, it sure was entertaining. Makes me wonder what PETA thinks of a rodeo??

We then got to watch Brad Paisley. Slightly disappointing that he only played for an hour... but then again, our tickets were only $20 bucks a pop. So probably really can't complain. He put on a good stage and was all over the arena. Check out the pics below.

Really cool stage that spins around too so that everyone can see him. I think I'll definitely be going again to the rodeo. We had a really good time.

So, now for THIS weekend. We have been super busy. On Friday night we went to Winter Jam which was a concert made up of 10 Christian bands. The big artists were NewSong, Building 429 and Skillet. There were loads of other bands clearly (7 to be exact, haha) but we went mainly for those three. Okay well, Rob went mainly for Skillet. It was first come, first serve and the tickets were $10 dollars. We left work at about 4:30 to meet up at the apartment and then head downtown to get some dinner and then go to the concert which started at 7 at the Toyota Center (where the Houston Rockets play).

You know, I just really love Christian concerts. It never ceases to amaze me to watch everyone worship the same God. It's different than going to church. Generally, people who pay to go to a Christian concert genuinely want to be there (not always, of course... but generally). I love to watch the crowd and see how God speaks to everyone through a band's music. Really takes my breath way. Here's a great video of Building 429 for ya. Scratch that... can't figure out how to upload it on my ipad to Blogsy. So.. maybe I'll figure it out on Facebook or something. Instead, here are some pictures!

This one above and below is of Skillet. They like to "scream" just a little too much for me, but they definitely are quite the entertainers.

So, that's what we did Friday night until midnight. Then we got up on Saturday morning at 7 to compete in the Houston Amazing Home Race. I'm going to write a whole separate blog about this later, so I won't go into detail here. Because, it was quite the day. In short, we got 2nd place!!! We were two points behind the first place winner who won $10,000. But, we did win a free washer and dryer... retail of over $1,000. So, we are pretty stoked. It was a great Saturday. We had TONS of fun. Like I said, more details here in a bit.

We went to a celebratory dinner because well.. we just beat about 300 people in a competition!! And then we went to see the Hunger Games. I wasn't too impressed with the Hunger Games as a movie. The book is SO MUCH better. The movie really misses the whole point of the book which is what happens when you left the government or someone have too much power. People are supposed to be starving and barely making it, but you wouldn't really guess that by the movie. I think it probably needed to be R rated to really get the point across... or well, that might not needed to happen. It was just such a detailed book without the movie being very detailed.

Today we have been lounging out by the pool. High of 93 today, but it felt good to just sit outside and relax. We haven't been house hunting this entire weekend! (okay, minus the Home Race... but that doesn't really count).

Speaking of houses, here is where we are on that process, too. We had selected three real estate agents based on recommendations from Dave Ramsey's ELP program and have interviewed all three. We have finally made our decision, we just need to let that person know. We have also begun the process of applying for our pre approval of our home loan. Hopefully all of that will be ironed out this week and then we can begin the true, bona fide process finding our first home! I'm so excited. We even have a new washer and dryer to go in our new home. ;-)

Okay.. more coming in the Amazing Home Race blog, next! First... I must fold some laundry.

 

Update on the Home Front...

Ahh, yes. You may be wondering how the house hunt is going. Well, I guess I can say its... going...

Our car would say its going stupendously given the fact that it gets ridden in every weekend for lots of miles. Okay, probably not even lots of miles necessarily, but we literally spend hours in the car. We bring snacks, drinks and even stop for potty breaks. We are hard core. We just drive, drive around.

We have even stopped into a couple of open houses on the weekend. This tends to be a bad idea for me, because I get to excited to easily and need to take a step back. We can't afford to buy a house just this instant, so no need getting uber excited about what's out there right now because there's not a darn thing I can do about it at the current moment.

So, update on the downpayment. Things are mostly bright there. I'll go into more detail down below, but we will have 20% down in the bank by end of March. So that means, we'll get a realtor at the end of March! Yay! I'm very proud of this feat, because we've been tossing money at this thing hard core. I haven't been able to do my usual shopping in what feels like FOREVER. The budget has been pushed to the limit and we've had to be really mindful of we spend our money one, so I'm really proud of ourselves.

On the downside, we have to increase our budget if we want to live in the city. By in the city I'm referring to inside the loop (610) in the Heights area or even a couple of exits out of 610 on the west side. To live in a townhome type place, we're going to have to increase our budget. Meaning, I think the 15-year mortgage is going to be near impossible. This makes me sad. So, I'm kind of at a loss right now. It's either going to be increase your budget or move to the suburbs. And with gas prices outrageously high right now, that doesn't really seem to make sense. It's just hard to make yourself spend 2 hours in the car every day for no real reason... it's not like your benefiting kids to live in a great neighborhood because well, we don't have any of those. (Though, if you were to read my facebook, you will notice that almost, what fees like, every girl I know is having a baby or just had a baby.. so there's clearly something in the water).

So, that's pretty much where Robert and I stand. In general, I think Rob and I agree that it doesn't make sense to live far away from where we work and the places we like to hang out at, especially if we are going to be buying $4-$5 gallon of gas. Plus, they say houses inside the loop are more of a investment because people are always looking to live in the city so their value will increase.

The only thing that worries me living in the city, is that like I said before, Houston has no zoning laws. Most of the townhomes are in industrial parts of the city. Granted, thats definitely better than having the homeless rome around because we went down to "Midtown" to look at slightly more affordable places that is between downtown and the Medical Center and that really scared me. The industrial land is looking far more better. But, its definitely something to get used to. When you drive by's of these places its like a REALLY great townhouses, then pipe supply, welding shop, great townhouses, manufacturers, shack, great townhomes. There might even be a really nice house next to what I would consider a shack and then a really nice townhome neighborhood. It's exhausting. But, I'm not joking.

 

The first picture is of the townhome and the second picture is what's next to it.

 

I'm trying to convince my family to come down and visit and help me drive around because you just cannot believe it until you see it. For example, see this pictures. Nothing like this exists back in Arkansas. It makes it overwhelming. If we are going to live in the city, we'd also like to live close to the Heights Hike & Bike trail. That way we won't have to drive anywhere to go biking. That would be nice.

We've also discovered that some of these places have rooftop terraces. Those are really cool. Can you imagine living somewhere with a rooftop terrace that you can call your own?? I imagine that we probably won't get one with a rooftop terrace unless one just falls into our lap, but you never know. We'll put it on the "would love to have, but can definitely let go" list.

So anyways, that's where we are. We'll probably take some of March off and not look at houses as much because I think we've almost exhausted driving by the inventory that we can afford. So, we'll need some new listings to pop up. But I think people looking to move in the summer will probably start listing their houses for sale in March or so.

Oh, I should also say that I've got a slight addiction to HAR (Houston Area Real Estate) app on my iPad. I literally just look at the same houses over and over every night. It's quite sad. I sometimes even look at houses on my lunch break at work depending on how busy I am. It's crazy! I've got to lay off. We also calculate our potential mortgage payment over and over. Even while we are at dinner. The waiters probably think we are crazy because we have our phones out discussing possible scenarios and payment options. (No worries, in NO event will our house payment exceed our current rental payment... that would be insane and completely indicate we have fallen off the Dave Ramsey bandwagon. So, if you EVER hear me say that my mortgage payment will be greater than my rent, please shoot me because all is lost.)

Okay, that's about it! Until next time!

 

1, 2, Home.

 This weekend we got to set the house hunting aside and get on a plane to Arkansas.  We left Friday night and came back Monday afternoon.  So, it was an uber quick trip home, but... I got the flights for $59 so it was hard to pass up.

We went to celebrate my sister, Kirstie's birthday, my dad's birthday, and see Kirstie and Travis do their thing out on the track.  Ironically enough, we didn't get to see Kirstie's birthday.  She jumped Friday at 4 PM and our flight didn't even leave on Friday until 7 PM.  So, we missed her.  But she did place 6th which is pretty good.

We did get to see Travis run his races on Saturday though.  He did very well, too.  I know not his personal best, but nothing to be ashamed about that's for sure.  We spent all day Saturday at the track.  Kirstie down loaded this app on Kate's iPad (she got one for Christmas, too) so that we could record videos and then watch them back in slow motion.  So, picture us holding up the iPad and then replaying it back in slow motion. I'm sure we were a hoot to our surrounding spectators.  

Here is a picture of us spectators.  (The lady on the far left is Travis' mom, Gretchen).

 

We also went to PF Changs at night to celebrate Kirstie's birthday. Way too good of food, I tell ya.  Sunday, I had breakfast with my Michelle where we got to catch up after not seeing each other for probably like 6 months or something like that.  We also got to see Kathleen, Robert's grandparents' the Maguires, and Grandma Joan and Jordan.  We also went bowling where Travis bowled a 200.  It was definitely a great game.

Kate even managed to set the pace for the Ladies on the second game where she got her own PR (personal record)! I think she bowled like a 150 or something like that.  Trust me when I say, she freaking rocked.  The rest of us bowled so-so.  Dad and Rob also did a good job with each of them coming close to the 200 mark.  I can't remember who it was that got 4 strikes in a row!  Mega-stars, I tell ya.

Me, Trav, Kirk and Rob also played a few games of ping pong in my parent's garage (nice weather).  It was an intense game.. kirstie even almost busted it on the garage floor.  We played two people where you would pop in and pop out.  It was intense (at least for me)!  It turns out Rob, I think, was the weakest link because he liked to do the "fancy" stuff and the ball usually never hit the table.  (P.S. Should also never play on teams with your significant other... it never turns out well).

Our Sunday night ended with a fajita dinner, watching Shaun White win the X-games, and playing a game of Logo.  If you're really into brand names, you need to check this game out.  It won't disappoint you and keep you entertained for hours.  

Rob and I came home Monday with no real exciting news to report.  My only comment is, I guess my apartment is dirty because one of the first things Rob did was grab the swiffer and begin dusting.  He's so anal retentive!  So, I guess I'll be cleaning the apartment this weekend as you know its bad when Rob gets the swiffer... not to mention he got the swiffer when he was tired from traveling. See what I have to deal with?

Anyways, hope you have a great week.  I'll be cleaning this upcoming weekend (oh, what fun!) and maybe some house hunting and then watching the super bowl (of which I have no favorite).

 

The Capital Gains Tax Explained (In Simple Terms)

I've been seeing a lot on capital gains here in the news lately and wanted to educate myself.  I knew what they were in theory, but there seems to be a lot of arguments going around about them and their related taxes.  After doing my research I thought it might be beneficial to you as well.  So here goes...

Capital gains defined on Wikipedia:

The profit realized on the sale of a non-inventory asset that was purchased at a lower price. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals and property.

Real world example: On January 1, 2011 you buy Apple stock for $100.  On December 31, 2011 you sell your Apple stock for $200.  Profit of $100 ($200 sale price less $100 cost).  

Currently, USA has a 15% tax on capital gains.  Therefore, you would pay tax on your $100 profit.  You would pay $15 in tax and be able to bring home $75.

Generally, the 15% tax rate is lower than your ordinary income taxable rate.  Robert and I pay around 25% in income tax.  Why is this rate lower?

Well, to continue the example above:  I bought a $100 of Apple stock.  For me to buy that stock, I would have to pay 25% already on my income.  So, to have a $100 to buy Apple stock, I would have needed $125 in income.  So, I've already been taxed at my ordinary income rate on this money that I'm putting into the stock market.  Then, I get taxed again when I sell my $100 stock for a profit.  You are also only allowed a $3,000 deduction for your losses a year, too so while you can be taxed on your winnings... you don't get much of a benefit for your losses.

Generally speaking, the reason the 15% rate was assigned to capital gains was because its under the belief that people would invest less if those capital gains were taxed at their ordinary income rate.  The lower rate spurs more investing and the 15% rate would generate more income to the government than say a 30% tax rate would because there would be less money out in the market earning gains.

Final example: 

Annual Income: $1,000,000

Tax Rate: 30%

Taxes Paid: $300,000

Take home pay: $700,000

Assuming current 15% tax:

Invest $500,000 in the stock market.  Earn $30,000 on stocks (6% return).  Pay 15% on that profit: $4,500.  Total take home profit: $25,500

Assuming 30% tax:

Invest $500,000 in the stock market.  Earn $30,000 on stocks (6% return).  Pay 30% on that profit: $9,000.  Total take home profit $21,000.  

With the higher capital gains tax rate, its the belief that the investor would invest less to pay less in taxes since the investor is being taxed on that money once already.  Instead of paying more taxes here, the investor would likely move his money to other countries where capital gains taxes are lower or non-existent (USA has one of the highest capital gains tax rates in the World).

Anyways, that's pretty much the jist of it.  There's really a lot more to it in that these calculations don't take in the rate of inflation.  If you have a 2% rate of inflation, that 6% actual return you earned above is really more like a 4% realized return, but you're going to pay tax on the full 6% even though inflation just ate up 2% of your return.  Sad day.

Here's a great article explaining capital gains and taxes to further your knowledge.  Hope this has helped!

What's Shakin'?

 Been a bit delayed here lately, sorry about that.  You haven’t missed too much.  We’re still being frugal and still driving around looking at homes.  Over the past two weeks we have spent about 5 hours in the car on Saturday.  We just drive, drive around.  We’ll start on one side of town and end up in the other.

 

Two Saturdays ago, we forgot to bring a cooler with us (I know, I’m my father’s daughter and I forgot a cooler!) so we had to actually stop for a potty break and get something to drink and snack on.  I also might have convinced Rob to buy a scratch-off ticket, too.  I mean… you never know!  That $3,000 I could win would get me this much closer to my 20%!  Alas, it was not meant to be.  On our second Saturday out we brought a cooler and some goldfish for snacking.

 

So far, we are really liking Sienna Plantation:  http://www.siennaplantation.com/ Make sure you check it out.  This master planned community is in Missouri City, just down the road from Sugar Land.  We can get a pretty large house in this area and its well developed.  It’s more of an established neighborhood but all of the schools are located in that neighborhood as well as a Library, Community College and three daycares.  The only downside is it’s a 35 mile trip each way for Robert to get to work.  On the bright side, it shouldn’t be too laden with traffic.  That is a bright side, right?  It’s about a 20-25 mile trip for me as well.  Toll expense would be around $4,250/yr.  So, that’s technically cheaper than living in Katy.

 

Sienna also has a lot of pocket parks, equestrian center (too bad horses scare me, or this would be pretty cool), and full-blown water park, and a whole area devoted to baseball fields and soccer fields.  I know, I know.. it’s not in the city.  But I don’t seem to find anything I can really (comfortably) afford in the city.  Certainly don’t want to end up house poor.  But maybe we would be time poor???  I don’t know.

 

It’s just a thought right now, but definitely a cool place.  It’s 10 minutes from the Sugar Land mall and about 15 minutes from Highway 59.  There’s an HEB at the entrance of the community as well as a multitude of restaurants and home improvement stores (I mean, you never know when you need to fix something with a house, right?!).

 

Anyways… just wanted to keep you up to date with our house journey.  Not much to tell, we’re still just browsing as we’ll be for awhile.  Rob and I are headed to Arkansas this weekend for my dad & sister’s birthday as well as the track meet.  Ironically, I’m going to miss seeing Kirstie jump since she jumps at 4 PM on a Friday and I don’t get in until 8:30 PM or so on Friday.  I know, I know… crazy.  But, I bought my tickets on a special sale and I didn’t know what time she jumped with I bought them.  So, it looks like we’ll be watching her All-American boyfriend run his races on Saturday only… which is still pretty fun.

 

P.S.  I’m still Zumba-ing.  Don’t think I had forgotten about my last post on Zumba-ing.  I can generally get 5 starts now and my highest % achieved 96%.  I can do three dances, haha.  I still look hilarious, I’m sure…. But I can at least do the steps.  Tonight, I think I’m going to teach myself a new routine.  

Oh, Where to Live. Small Case of Anxiety

Yeesh.  I'm starting to get anxiety already.  That's probably a bad thing.  As published in my previous post, Robert and I will spend 2012 finding us a nice house to live in.  And as you know, we live in Houston.. filled with long commute times and thousands of places to live as well as thousands of school districts.

It's not like back home where you know the school districts are good, where all the roads take you, and how long it takes you to get from point A to point B.  

Houston doesn't have zoning laws, either.  Meaning, there can be something fantastic next to something not so fantastic.  You can find really cool townhomes next to the "ghetto."  Additionally, no one goes to school is Houston ISD.  If you live in the city you pay to go to private schools.  It's just a given.  Well, that's like $15K a year per child.  Uh... no thank you!

Now, I don't want all this school talk to sound like we're planning on having babies really soon or anything.. but it does help resale value to make sure that you are living in a sought after school district.  Plus, I guess, you never know what will happen.

Robert and I have been driving around Katy, TX which is west and found some really nice neighborhoods that we like.  However, Katy is AT LEAST 25 miles one way for each of us to get to to work.  Katy ISD also has a really great school district.  We started doing toll calculations and time calculations and kind of gone blown out of the water.  If we live in Katy and both take toll roads its going to cost about $6,250 a year in toll expense.  That's like an additional $500 a month.  That's a lot!  Not to mention that tolls don't guarantee a faster commute time.  Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't.

So, we realized that every time we were researching neighborhoods we were having to look at a map and run the amount of miles to/from work.  So, being the anal-retentive person I am, I created this map. (Don't judge me)

 

 Now, this map has where I work, where Robert works and various routes to work.  The routes are color coded down below.  In the boxes below lists out roundtrip mileage, roundtrip toll expense, and approximate amount of time it will take each way.  I'm not done with the map because I hope to incorporate school districts into it as well as ideal neighborhoods, but I'm getting there.  One only has so much time during the day, you know.

On the map, Katy is out west (left), Sugar Land is South West.  These areas are our ideal location areas.  The black lines are highways that I refuse to live off of because traffic is AWFUL.  It's not even worth it.  You won't convince me of it.

The yellow star is where we are currently renting our apartment.  Now you can see why we chose our apartment where we did.  Rather central location.  The first loop you see around downtown is known as 610 or the inner loop.  The second loop that you see is known as the Beltway or the Sam Houston Tollway.  This entire loop is a toll road.  No getting around not paying the toll, there.  You also see the Westpark Tollway which runs almost parallel to I-10 and also costs money every time you drive on it.  This is where all the great neighborhoods are in the purple bubble.

Sugar Land is also another great option that we didn't really count on.  I thought it would be too far away, but it is actually closer than living in Katy.  DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS.  I think what we are starting to realize is that while we thought our rent was high, living in a house isn't going to be any cheaper.  Robert has yet to grasp this concept and as of now refuses to drive on a toll road and pay money.  This means he'll be driving like 2 hours to/from work.  He can't accept it that paying money to drive on a road here is a way of life.  Having a house in Houston is not always cheaper than renting.  It's the price you pay to have a place to call home.

So, I'm still working on him.  You can probably tell we tend to get in a few arguments over this (all in good fun I assure you). Again, we're in no major rush... we won't have the money we need until  AT LEAST May, but we'd like to kind of focus on an area and monitor the houses that go up for sale there.

Alas, that's where we are now.  Today we're going to head to Sugar Land and drive around and see what we think.  I'll keep you posted. :-)  It always promises to be interesting.

New Year.. New Goals

I certainly can't believe that 2012 has rolled around.  Being an accountant, I seem to work a lot in the prior year (this case 2011) and, therefore, will never remember that I'm currently living in the current year (2012) and all my checks will be dated 2011.  Alas, it seems to be a recurring problem.  You know, not long ago, I actually wrote my birthday on a check as the date.  There, solves that problem... can't remember what year you're in? Just write what year you were born.  Done.

Okay, for real now... since its being a new year the Meier's have some new goals.  Of course, we have the usual goals such as working out more and eating more healthy.  So, far we seem to have been doing a pretty good job... I've been either riding my bike (mostly using the bike trainer so I can ride inside) and doing Zumba.  Rob has also been running.  I've also been cooking, too.  So, we're doing good there (so far).

Our really big goal for 2012 is... BUYING A HOUSE!!  That's going to be a really huge goal for us and is going to take some time.  I'm not usually just overly patient, but I'm going to have to be this for one.  As you've read in my previous blogs, Robert and I are going to put 20% down.  We're over halfway there... if we're lucky we will be there by May.  If we're not so lucky... it will be August.  Either way, we ARE BUYING HOUSE.  I'm not allowing any negative thoughts (no, "we're trying to buy a house" or "we think we're going to buy a house" allowed here).  We speak in only affirmative words when referring to buying a house.

Heck, the day after Christmas, Robert and I went Christmas light shopping for the house that we don't currently own yet!  Bought all LED lights for 50% off!!  Beat that, yo.  $3.24 cents a box for LED lights (pretty much the same price for mini and C9's).  I win!

Personally, I'm very excited about this whole buying a house thing.  Robert and I are definitely homebodies, so it will be nice to have a "home."  I look forward to having projects to work on around the house and planting some flowers.  Granted, I know there will be some things that I don't love (i.e. the commute for sure)... but overall, I know the move will be right for us.  

We've already been jolted by what we can afford and not afford in the city.  Bottom line, we can't afford to live in the city.  We're going to have to move out of the city.  We're leaning towards moving west, outside of the outer loop towards Katy.  This map below pretty much shows you the general area of where we're looking to buy.  (The red dots are elementary schools, but you don't need to worry about those).

So, anyways.. that's going to be our major goal for 2012.  Ideally, I guess we're looking for 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths and around 2,000 square feet.  We'll get a better feel for the size once we get an actual realtor.  Right now, all my research involves Robert and I getting in the car and driving around neighborhoods using the HAR (Houston Area Real Estate) app on my iPad or iPhone and seeing how much homes cost where.  This weekend, we even picked a neighborhood and went riding our bikes around it looking at houses.  It was pretty fun, not going to lie. 

To help make sure our financial plan is there I've been working on the Meier 2012 budget.  Got to start budgeting for "house" expenses now, even though we don't have one so that when moving day comes... we will have some wiggle room to buy some things that we don't currently need for the apartment (i.e. lawn mower, weed eater, and furniture) as well as moving expenses.  And remember, we're debt free people and won't go into debt again except for our mortgage, so it took me almost 4 hours to get our budget to equal zero at the end of each month for the next year.

Yeah, I know... who does an annual budget? I do.  And it gets updated monthly for actual results and then I re-project as necessary.  But, for example, I know Robert's car needs new brake pads and rotors.  That's going to cost me approximately $800.  Well, I don't have $800 in February just for Robert's car, but I do have $400 in January & February.  Same goes for a vacation and moving expenses.. I don't have $1,000 for a vacation and another $1,000 for moving this summer in just one month, but if I start budgeting for it now, I will by summer.  You know the saying, "A fail to plan, is a plan to fail."  Dave Ramsey has taught me well!  :-)  

Okay, probably definitely boring you by now, but this is what gets me excited!!  Total nerd, I'm not afraid to admit.  If we plan accordingly, buying a house should just fall into our lap and be less stressful (we hope!).  So, that's whats going to be on our agenda for 2012.  Get excited... we definitely are! Woo!

P.S. (How about them Hogs this weekend at the Cotton Bowl?!  Woo Pig Sooie!)