Summer Time & The Livin Is Easy

So I am sure by now that you all know I am super good at blogging and I am obsessed with it. Haha. Well since my last blog much has happened (obvi) because it's been like 3 months since then. We haven't had any other major issues/excitements with the house since we moved in. I'm not much of a decorator since I have the creativity of a sloth (? I couldn't think of another animal off the top of my head that would do justice to represent my lack of creative-ness) but needless to say, I have been slowly getting cute things here and there for our home. 

One of the many great things I have come to realize about living out here in beautiful Saratoga Springs is how it brings one closer to nature. And not in a good way. I have found about 234556 dead mice in the window wells of the house, lots of interesting bugs like beetles, wasps, there have been deer running through our backyard, yesterday I found a toad in my backyard. I have quickly realized since living here and being married to Trevor that I am more of a city girl than I ever realized. But I really do love living here---although if I could drop a bomb on all the millions of mice I would be a lot happier :)

Anyway moving on to updating you all because I know you all have been dying to know what has been going on in our lives..ha..since my last post the most important highlights was my adorable nephew Trent's first birthday!! Father's day of course. And probably the biggest event was our first anniversary!! Yayyyy we made it past the first year. Trevor and I decided to road trip to California and spend a few days there before heading out on a cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico. Now of course there had to be something that went wrong on this trip because life always seems to have a way of surprising us Paces. We decided to take his little sister's car (thanks kate) because it got better gas mileage than our Kia and plus we didn't want to put tons of miles on the Kia since we are leasing it. Well right as we pull out from meeting Katelyn to exchange cars the check engine light went on. Red flag right? Duhhhh!! I don't know what we were thinking driving away and deciding we would be fine. Here is what the car kinda looked like for those of you who need a mental image while telling this story...

Okay it wasn't this small but really it felt this small. Anyway so we get to California with no problems. Well the plan was we drove straight to the LA Dodgers game (boooo Dodgers, go Giants) anyway so the game is over and we head back to the car. Well I was the one to drive since I am obviously the experienced California driver in the family. Well as I turn the car on and pedal to the metal so that I can flip a bihhhhhh the car JUST RANDOMLY WON'T GO RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. So I had to quickly put it in park, turn the engine off, and turn it back on. Well it starts to go but barely. We finally make it to the freeway and it's like the car has no guts and doesn't want to drive. And all this is happening on the freeway in LA and I really don't know where I am going, and it's dark outside which makes me want to pee me pants. By this time my anxiety shot through the roof and I feel like a mad woman driving on the freeway. So we make it to our hotel and we park the car and hope that it decides to work the next day-which the next day we went to Knott's Berry Farm. Luckily it was within walking distance because the car decided to turn against us. The next day before our cruise we ended up having to leave the car at a dealership to get worked on while we were on our cruise. Yeahhh buddy. 

Well the cruise was a lot of fun. Although it was overcast and cold the whole time except for the last day of the cruise. Luckily being the smart people that we are Trevor and I both only packed 1 pair of pants and 1 sweater each. And I got pretty sea sick the last day of the cruise and I felt like I wanted to chop my head off. But we had a lot of fun on Catalina Island riding bikes around the city, shopping, andddd that's about it because the town is about half the size of the Gateway Mall. In Ensenada we went to the blowhole and did some shopping. I think our favorite part of being on the cruise ship was the ice cream and definitely the karaoke...yup definitely the karaoke. I don't know that we will be doing a cruise anytime in the future because we decided we love all inclusive resorts much better, but it was a blast-especially since I got to be with Trevor the whole time :) (awww) Anyway we get back into port and get to the dealership to pick up our amazing car and right when Trevor goes to turn it on (after it was supposedly fixed) the car shook like a 10 foot yeti was shaking it---but then it eventually was fine and we got back on the road crossing our fingers that it would make the trip back. And it did.

 Other events since my last post are Trevor's 25th birthday...I got him a new set of Nike golf clubs that he is obsessed with and goes golfing everday...

 Hiking the Y with my family...

 

 The Chris Cagle Concert with our friends Ben and Ash....

Martin's Cove with my family. It's trekkkin tiiime

 Trevor finishing the floor in the garage....

 Running into Jef from the bachelorette (she should have picked Sean)

The huge fire in Saratoga Springs/Eagle Mountain 

The 101.5 Eagle Fest with Chris Young...

Running into a llama while going to the Lehi Rodeo...

 And of course the 4th of July...

 So there you have it. Those are the main events from the last time I blogged and I promised Trevor I will do better at staying up to date with this blog. (maybe.....)   :)

I Suck At Blogging

Coooooool. 2 months later and I'm finally writing another blog post. I officially suck at blogging. Buttt now that we are in our house and getting settled and life isn't as hectic anymore, I will should be able to keep up with my posts. So a lot has happened since my last post. We've have lots of birthdays in my family (Shay-Trevor's sister, my birthday, my sister Jamie's birthday, Jaden my nephew's birthday anddd if there is anyone else I forgot of then I am sorry there are just too many birthdays to remember but I still love you.) Trevor also switched to a different floor at his work (he is still with PMI) but he now sells Real Estate instead of stuff to do with the internet. It was a pretty smooth transition which we are thankful for and he is loving it over there. We bought a truck but will probably be selling that soon-some of you might ask why, but for those of you who know my husband then you will know why we would buy a car and then 2 months later sell it. And of course the biggest event since my last blog...we MOVED!!!! 

But the post isn't over yet and you still have to wait to look at the pictures..unless you scrolled down and looked at the pictures first and don't intent to read this post-but if you do that you will miss out on the many wonderful adventures we have had with our house that I absolutely love. PAUSE-I forgot to update you all that they fixed our driveway...it's still as steep as Mount Everest but at least I can get my car up my driveway---yay. SO upon arrival to our house we realized that the appliances weren't working-but being the smart people we are, we soon realized we just had to flip the breaker. Easy fix right? Right. Next we decided to run a rinse cycle on the dishwasher before I loaded it with a load of dishes. We soon found out that in fact the dishwasher was NOT hooked up yet, but nothing bad or horrible happened-there was just a funky smell because the motor was running without any water. So I had to wait a day till the plumber came out to hook it up. No big, right? Next I threw a load of clothes into the washer---found out that my new washer sings me a song when it is done. Cute. Then naturally, I go to put the clothes in the dryer. Ummm the dryer is NOT working people. Come to find out the numnuts who delivered our appliances brought the wrong dryer vent so we had to go get our own. Sweeet. Oh no, but it's not over yet my friends. (By the way this all happened on Saturday-the day we moved in. Can you say stressful?)

So the next day the plumber comes to hook up the dishwasher. He soon leaves and then I decide to put some dishwasher SOAP (THE KIND THAT IS MEANT FOR THE DISHWASHER-NOT LIKE DAWN OR ANYTHING) and I decide to run a rinse load before I put the dishes in. 5 minutes later Trevor walks out into the kitchen-and I can't repeat what he said-but I come running out to find soap bubbles ALL OVER MY NEW HARDWOOD FLOOR. How there were bubbles everywhere from the soap that is meant to go into the dishwasher? I have no idea. SO then I had to wait 3 more days till the Maytag guy could come out to our house to fix whatever was going on with the dishwasher only to have him tell me that we needed a new part because there was a broken part on our brand new dishwasher. Then he was trying to tell me I was going to have to wait 2 more weeks for them to get the part and have it fixed. Ya, NO WAY was I gonna wait for that. Hellllooooo the point of having a brand new house and brand new things is so that they WORK. So I quickly called Home Depot and told them that this was their problem because they sent me a BROKEN dishwasher and to send me a new one-which they did. And my awesome brother-in-law Eric just came out today and installed it for me-so I am finally doing a load of dishes :)

 

(The date on my pictures is messed up-I just noticed it's a month behind. Oops)

Ya we had to spoon the bubbles out of this evil thing.

So you might be thinking that I am done and about to end this post with the pictures of our house-well not yet. So for a few nights I had been enjoying my new fireplace because it's so pretty and we didn't have one in the condo. Well on Sunday all of the sudden the fireplace (yes it was turned on and I was using it because this house is freezing cause it's so open) the fire just shut off and the pilot light went out. So Trevor had to unplug it so that there wasn't any gas leaking. We are still waiting for our builder to make it out here and check that out. And finally and hopefully the last of our worries-at 3:30am Tuesday morning (technically Monday night to me) I woke from my sleep by a very interesting lemon-like chemical smell. The WHOLE house smelled like it really bad. Naturally because of what happened with the fireplace I freaked out and thought we were being intoxicated in our sleep. So being the grown up I am, what did I do? I called my mom and woke her up :) I then followed her advice and called poison control-who then informed me to call Questar Gas-who then informed me to call the Fire Department. Well no one was answering at the Fire Department(really?) so finally I called 911 (don't worry the first thing I said to the lady was this isn't an emergency-well I don't think it is) Shortly thereafter a cop and a few fireman showed up at our house with their little monitors only to tell me there were no harmful chemicals in the air and for the next 45 minutes tried to find out what the smell was. Well apparently fireman don't know everything and they were stumped. We did find out however that the smell is coming from the laundry room and I am convinced the smell is coming from the water valves that hook up to the washer. And of course we are just waiting for our builder to come out and tell us what is going on. Luckily we aired out the smell that night and it's only in the laundry room now and not in the entire house. Which makes me happy because I don't want my guests getting high while they are at my house.

So there you have it-the many exciting adventures of our lives since I last blogged. But I can say I really hope we don't have anymore adventures like the ones I just told you-I'm done with those for a loooong time. And here you all go-the long awaited pictures of our house finished. Enjoy!

 

 

Looking at the entry way from the Living Room.

Living Room

I love my fireplace!-and no the candles and lamp are not staying there-I'm not that bad at decorating

Front Den/Formal Room

Kitchen

Our bedroom-yes it needs some work but I will get around to that.

Bathroom and then the closet

Trevor's walk-in shower...and yes i know mismatching towels I will get prettier ones.

Backyard looking at the golf course

Backyard again

The view from our porch

Looking into the upstairs (3 bedrooms 1 bonus/play room and the bathroom)

Down to the basement (here are some pics of it even though it's unfinished if you wanna see)

Cold storage and lots of boxes

Behind the boards will eventually be a Jack and Jill bedroom with the bathroom in the middle.

Looking into Trevor's movie room.

The movie room

Driveway Disaster

I'd like to take this time and opportunity to thank all of my followers and for their support. I could not have made this blog successful without all 4 of you---you know who you are.

Now on a more serious note.

So one of the main reasons I started a blog was to blog about the house Trevor and I are building, step-by-step. Mainly to have as a memory for Trevor and I to look back on, but also for anyone else interested :) 

But before I get into this post about the house, I figured I should give an update on what has happened in our lives the past 8 months since we have been married, seeings how my last post was all about how we met.

For our honeymoon we went to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico---it's just 30 minutes south of Cancun. We stayed at an all inclusive resort there called the Grand Sunset Princess and we would recommend it to everyone! We absolutely loved it. While there Trevor fulfilled a life-long dream of mine to swim with dolphins! Trevor also got to experience the rush of snorkeling for the first time in his life---yes he was a deprived child in my eyes haha. We also went on a cave tour/swim, swam in a cenote-or sinkhole, and my favorite, we got to do an LDS tour of the Mayan ruins of Tulum, and Chitzen Itza! (One of the Seven Wonders of the World) It was an amazing time and we hope to go back someday.

After that it was just getting used to the normal, everyday ways of married life. Trevor works at PMI-Professional Marking International, and has been there for the past 3 years. He is amazing on the sales floor there and loves it...well, most days :) I got a job across the street from him at One on One Marketing, but in November of 2011 I was let go. I recently got a job at Doman Dental as a receptionist and I am loving it. And yes you may be thinking to yourself...'Doman...hmmmm' He is the brother of Brandon Doman-the offensive coordinator for BYU. I'm just that cool to be working for his brother...haha jk. In August of 2011 Trevor got to come with my family and I to my best friends wedding in California, and therefore got to experience San Francisco for the first time in his life. He didn't quite get why it was so cold in the middle of August. While there I got to show him around my hometown of Roseville, went to Alcatraz, Pier 39, Fisherman's Warf, and a SF Giants game (he's a Redsox fan...boo) but he still had a lot of fun and agreed that the Giants park is the prettiest park of them all-but he probably didn't word it quite like that.

Other than being married and just loving each other (awwww) we have been in the search of buying a home, because Trevor has lived in this townhouse in Lehi for 3 years and just felt like it was time for change. Plus he really was wanting his own yard. We looked for about 8 months and experienced the nightmare that short-sales are. Finally one day we found a listing for a house/floorplan available to build. We fell in love with the house after walking through it and from there found the lot of our dreams. It's in Saratoga Springs on Talons Golf Course (our backyard looks at the18th hole) and it's about 50 meters away from the lake with an amazing view of the Mountains. We adjusted a few things on the floor plan, like pushing a wall out a few feet here, adding a few lights there, oh and Trevor's walk-in shower and his theater room in the basement under the garage. Everything about the building of the house has been smooth sailing...until now. Dun dun dun!!!! So because of Trevor's amazing movie room underneath the garage, the foundation of the house had to be built up a bit more. Therefore raising the house a bit, and therefore causing a bit of a steep driveway. Steep driveway-no big deal you might be thinking right? Well the num-nut who laid the cement down for the driveway calculated the slope of it WRONG, causing it to be completely IMPOSSIBLE for my Kia Optima to even pull into the driveway. I mean, people, just think of it this way-the front bumper of my car basically would just run into the concrete slab of the driveway before the front tire even hit the curb!!!! 

So needless to say, that has been the first hiccup of our home, and has caused Trevor to age about 3 years from the stress alone. But we can't have it all perfect along the way, right? I will keep you updated on the driveway because it WILL get fixed. Somehow, someway, it will. Here are some pictures of the house from start till now. Enjoy!!

The foundation of the home/basement

Inside the Family Room looking at the fireplace.

Our pretty front door.

Where the sink/cabinets will be...only a portion of the kitchen.

Our added window nook in the master bedroom.

Tub/the walk-in shower in the master bath.

Portion of Kitchen already insulated and partly sheet rocked!

Family Room again.

Lake/view

Trevor and his Dad trying to figure out how to fix the driveway

Part of the backyard and the golf course

Before the front steps were put in.

Gettin ready to stucco and put the rock on.