Apartment Photos

As promised here are the apartment photos. I took before and after photos so that you could see there actually was improvement. :)

Living Room:

Before




After




Kitchen/Dining:

Before




After





Gas stove! Yipee!



Bedroom 1:

Before




After





Bedroom 2: This room I think showed the most improvement

Before








After
Our computer was only on the dresser temporarily to try and get better wireless....that's not its permanent home







I know it looks like a mismash of things in this second bedroom and well it is. However, my original thought was that this room was going to be totally full of all of our "long term" boxes (since we plan on moving again in the near future we thought it best to pack things that we could do without for awhile in separate boxes so as to not have to unpack and then repack them. I might have already explained this...but I couldn't remember) and furniture that wouldn't fit else where and expecting that furniture to be pretty much inaccessible. The fact that we were able to fit all of our long term boxes and other random things fit into the closet and be able to have the second bedroom be slightly useable was a huge bonus. We even were able to purchase a small desk to fit back there as well. So now we have a back sitting room/reading area/office.

So there you have it. :)

I have somehow misplaced my camera cord that connects to the computer and allows me to charge my battery--so the next post might be a long time coming or it just might be pictureless. :) We'll see.

Our bedroom dilema

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures and they are coming to you in 2 parts...just to keep you on the edge of your seat ;). This picture series is documenting our attempts at having the bed in the "bedroom" AND being able to close the door...a simple request right?

So we first try putting it against what I would call the "back" wall opposite the door (although the "back" wall also has a door leading to the second "bedroom"). Having it nice and centered so we could have the nightstand next to the other wall clearly isn't going to work.

Let's try putting the bed all the way next to the window wall to see if the door can squeeze by then.
So close.....but no cigar. Besides..then one person would have to crawl over the other to get out of bed. No thank you.

What if we turned the bed so that the headboard was against the window wall?
yeaaaaaaahhh that ain't happenin'. And I clearly have zero spatial reasoning. I'm pretty sure Graham told me this way wasn't going to work but I insisted that we try. I was off by about 2 feet.

We did discover that if we put the bed all the way against the back wall with the headboard still at the window wall the door could just squeak by (not pictured). But then we agreed that it wasn't worth crawling over one another just so that we could have the capability to shut the door. We only have one A/C unit and it's in the living room...so this door was going to remain open practically all the time anyways.

(the other wall, not the door, window, or back wall, has the entrance to the closet and bathroom in case you were wondering why we didn't try that one.)

Oh and speaking of the bathroom...check out this shower!

Look closely.... Are you seeing it? Yeah..it's about 3 feet wide and 6 inches deep. I don't know about you but in a normal size bathtub I can't get all my body parts underwater at the same time...but I can get the majority of them under. This thing would be like me sitting in a puddle...it's not going to happen.
They did use the missing 2 feet of the bathtub to create some shelving in the bathroom to act as a linen closet...so at least that is useful!

Finally I will leave you with a picture of us eating our first home cooked meal in our new home!
Using a box..full of clothes...as our dining table. Keepin' it classy Newells :)

Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I get the other pictures up!

First time home buying tips?

I need your help. I know a few of you have purchased homes relatively recently and I want to know if you have any tips for me. Questions to ask the realtor, things to look for in a home, and things to be wary of. Please leave me a comment with all of your expertise!

Trip East: Baton Rouge

Sorry for the long delay! We didn't have free internet at our last hotel in Tallahassee and then we were in the throes of unloading the truck and unpacking our stuff (more on that later!)

Baton Rouge was a bit of a disappointment for both of us after coming from San Antonio. San Antonio was so lively and happening and Baton Rouge just wasn't. We did however take some time to walk around the LSU campus before getting a bite to eat. After all this driving we love having the chance to stretch our legs and walk!



Graham's grandparents on his Dad's side met while they were both attending LSU so it was fun for us to imagine what the town looked like when they were there and imagine them walking the same places we were walking.

After our little stroll we went out for dinner at Chime's restaurant right next to campus. Although we didn't see many people roaming the streets this place was PACKED. We had some delicious hushpuppies but I think our entrees were just mediocre.

There will be more to come about our move into Tallahassee!

Trip East: San Antonio

Well...like I expected we had a long day of driving and then lots of sight seeing. So there was no time to blog. We didn't arrive to San Antonio until about 8:30pm (thanks to losing an hour changing time zones) and had to drive around trying to find a parking place. We knew in advance that parking was likely going to be a problem. We were staying at a hotel on the riverwalk right downtown where parking is limited. I called the hotel when we were on the way and asked about the parking situation. They said there lot couldn't accommodate us but to check out another lot around the corner might be able to. Otherwise, we were told to contact the city and get a permit to park our truck. It was 6pm so I think getting a permit would not have been possible. So when we arrived in San Antonio we drove to the other lot saw that it wouldn't work and continued driving around. Have you ever driven a 16' long truck that is almost 11' high with a 20' car trailer attached to the back around a city? Well neither have I but it didn't look fun at all. I was the navigator and nearly sent Graham down a one-way street! Whoops! Luckily we caught the sign just in time. Needless to say there just really wasn't a place to park this truck in the city so our solution? Get back on the interstate drive a few more miles on I-10 East getting out of the city and finding a hotel and parking it there. We found the perfect spot. Just outside a hotel there was an empty gravel lot that already had a big rig parked in it. So we parked our truck pulled the car off the trailer and drove the car into the city. We tried not to worry about the truck too much but we did check on it twice the next day.
Anyways, after the parking saga we got to the hotel and needed to find dinner! It was already 9:40pm!! We headed to the Riverwalk and walked around looking at all the restaurants. We finally decided on The County Line. They are known for the bbq and it smelled delicious! We were sat at a table right on the river!
The next day we woke to do some sight seeing. After checking on the truck we walked down to the Alamo. I must say this was a bit of a disappointment for me. I was expecting it to be bigger and more remote not IN downtown San Antonio. But we walked around, read some signs, and listened to a little history lesson.
Remember the Alamo!


Afterwards, we walked around on the riverwalk again looking for lunch. We eventually settled on a place called Boudro's recommended to us by the hotel. Once again we got a table right on the river. We ordered some drinks and some guacamole that they made right at your table. Then we split a lobster empanada which was also delicious!




Later we took a nap and then headed to the Natural Bridge Caverns. I had never been to any cave before so this was quite an experience!

The Natural Bridge

Going down!

I wish these pictures could capture how big and vast this cave really was!





For dinner we met up with one of my mom's work friends who had moved out to San Antonio. I've probably known him since I was about 7 years old. He brought us to La Fogata and it was packed so we knew it was going to be good. We had yummy (and beautiful) margaritas, good food, and great company.




That about wraps up our San Antonio adventure and it was by far our favorite place to visit!

More I-10 adventures coming soon!

Trip East: Las Cruces

Today we headed to Las Cruces, NM to visit the White Sands National Monument. Of course on the way we saw some interesting sights. Like this sign


and this sign



and cool rock formations


and a random bird statue


We couldn't go to the Missile Range Museum at the White Sands because they closed too early but I took this picture as a replacement


The White Sand National Monument was GORGEOUS and Graham took some awesome pictures! We did the Sunset guided tour and learned a lot about the dunes and the plant and animal life around it.






can you see the rainbow in the background?

I am so amazed at these pictures that Graham took with our point and shoot! Aren't you? If this economics thing doesn't work out.....

Anyways, after the White Sands we rushed back to Las Cruces to make it to dinner before the restaurant closed their kitchen at 9pm. We made it at 8:50pm. We chose to go to the St. Clair Bistro and Winery. St. Clair has about 80 different wines with most of them coming from New Mexico. The food was exceptional and the wine was wonderful as well.


It made me miss all the wine and wine tastings we enjoyed with Uncle Bobby :(

Tomorrow is going to be a full day of driving so I am not sure if there will be a post or not. Either way it won't be but a couple of days until our next I-10 adventure :)

Trip East: Phoenix

It's only about 4.5 hours from Palm Springs to Phoenix so we had a leisurely morning getting some much needed rest and even a little workout.

We stopped for lunch just outside of Palm Springs for a last chance IN N OUT experience. I'm really going to miss IN N OUT. It isn't somewhere we went all the time, about once every few months, but knowing that I won't be able to get it for a long time makes me want it ALL THE TIME!

Leaving IN N OUT it was my turn to drive...and maybe this is the appropriate time to request a little prayer because ever since leaving the bay area the check engine light has been on. Nothing seems to be wrong with the truck but it definitely makes me worry. Anyways, driving from lunch to phoenix you have to cross some desert mountains. We passed a sign that said turn off your air conditioner to prevent over heating for the next 10 miles. Ya'll it was about 110 degrees outside and they were asking us to turn off the A/C. We ignored it for about 10 seconds until the engine temperature kept going up. So we turned off the A/C and put down the windows. And the engine temperature kept going up and up and up. It was almost to the max (and I was going about 35mph on the interstate at this point) when we reached the peak and as I coasted down the hill the temperature went pack down. Phew!! I was sweating bullets and not just because it was 110 degrees outside. (You all will be glad to know that when we filled up for gas in Palm Springs I purchased 4 liters of water, plus we already had a liter, plus we had a cooler full of ice....so we were sort of prepared in case we had to pull off the side of the road for a little while).

I would like to add that we have had some great entertainment on the road. My co-workers and also my Uncle made us mixed CD's. I think we received 14 mixed CD's and they are all AWESOME!

The drive was beautiful. I don't know if pictures can really capture it.



A desert oasis

We finally arrived at our hotel in Phoenix around 6pm which didn't allow us to do much sight-seeing but did allow us to meet up with Graham's cousin Malcolm and his girlfriend Ashley for dinner!


More I-10 adventures coming soon!