Happy two years!

Yep, today marks our second anniversary, which is frankly really hard for me to believe. We've been through a lot since our wedding, had our share of ups and downs in two short years but we are better for it. We are so happy, it's crazy, I just can't imagine it getting better but it does and it always surprises me. Andy is my best friend, he is just so amazing, I could go on for days but I won't. He knows how much I love him and how much he means to me. Happy anniversary love! To many, many more!

A merry, merry un-birthday (and birthday)!

On Sunday we celebrated Andy's birthday, it's a week early but my parents will be coming in to town on his actual birthday and I work the day before his birthday. I wanted him to be able to celebrate his way. He decided we would get up early and go to the zoo, then the driving range, and then to Schmidt's Sausage Haus in German Village for lunch. Everything went as planned and it was a wonderful day. The weather was gorgeous for a trip to the zoo and many of the animals were active in the cooler weather. The driving range was interesting, I remembered a little too late that I suck at sports but it was fun. Lunch was delicious and an experience. Afterwards, we ended up going home and napping which was glorious. All in all, I think he had a pretty good birthday.

Yesterday was my sister Arielle's actual birthday. She turned 21. Yeah. Seriously. When did that happen? It seems like just last week she was starting kindergarten. We didn't get to go up (boo) but hopefully we will be able to see her soon and buy her a drink. I'm fairly certain that she won't have a drink unless we buy her one because she's just too cool for that stuff (honestly, very proud).

We are a hot mess

I mean in our decorating style. See I am a fan of IKEA furniture, I love the clean lines, the little touch of funk, the pop of color (and it's usually affordable). However, I am also a fan of old stuff, I love vintage, the shabby/rustic chic movement look makes me drool. It seems that my personality is battling itself.  Not only that but I also have Andy to consider. I really don't think he cares how anything looks as long is it is functional/comfortable. You would think that wouldn't be a big deal but it kind of is when he is insistent that it be comfortable (I'm all for comfort but sometimes style wins out, hello 3 inch heels anyone?) So we have a giant hodge podge of ideas and opinions that we are trying to ball up into one smooth, flowing style that will look beautiful and make us feel great when we are in it. Turns out that's pretty hard.

It has actually been stressing me out a little how different not only my own tastes are but also Andy and myself. We are at entirely different ends of the spectrum, where I believe style and beauty reign supreme, he believes that comfort and function are the most important aspect when choosing items for the home. We are going to have to compromise and I know it, but I know that we can handle it. Luckily we are in agreement on one thing involving decorating and furnishing the new house and that is a budget. We have already decided that we will not break the bank to make our house a home, we will DIY, thrift and shop sales so that we aren't taking on any debt to create a space we love. If we are in agreement on the money aspect I am sure we will figure out the decor issues, right?

The Blahs

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting a lot lately, I have had a case of the blahs. Ever since we got back from our trip up north I have been feeling a little off/down. Andy has been a champ for putting up with me. In fact I'm pretty sure he deserves a cake like this one:

Image from Pinterest

I feel like I should be all rainbows and sunshine because our house construction has actually begun and things have been going swimmingly for me on a personal level. I'm pretty sure I know what the culprit is and there isn't a lot I can do about it. Lately, I have been feeling a little unfulfilled in my professional life. I love my job and the company I work for but I want to do more. I only work part-time right now but I want to move up, by either going full-time in the position I am in or advancing to next rung on the ladder. Unfortunately, due to the grant we are using to aid us in purchasing our house I can't try for a full-time position until after we close on the house or we will make too much to qualify for the grant. We also can't take any more loans out so that I can start my master's degree, which I didn't think I was upset about until I dropped out of the classes last week that I had enrolled in before we decided to build. So I feel sort of stuck. Andy tells me to think about the grant as a bonus for not working more but it's really hard. I see him settled into a career and a job he loves and I just wish that I could have that. I hardly ever notice the six year age difference between us but on the professional level it's hard to ignore.

Things were different when Andy graduated, he got a job right away and while it wasn't a great job it helped him get to where he is today (working at home in his pajamas, yeah even I am jealous of him). When I graduated I almost think it would have been better for me to hibernate in school for a couple more years, maybe even obtain my Master's degree because the 9 months it took me to find a job may have been better spent in the classroom. The economy when I graduated was a horrible place for me and my classmates to go into. Out of the 8 or so friends and classmates I kept touch with after graduation it took an average of 4 months post-graduation to find some kind of job in their field. That isn't including the time spent job hunting in the months leading up to graduation, so I would say more like 6 months of actual job hunting. Many of those friends had to leave Toledo (including me) to find a job. I'm really grateful to have the job I have, I have many wonderful benefits and it is truly a place I want to work for a long time I just wish that I could do more, and make more money to actually begin saving instead of spending practically every dollar I make on bills. I know that it will happen one day and when that happens I will be thrilled, I just wish that it would happen sooner rather than later.

Building: The Interiors

Yay interiors! The interior selections is the most exciting part of building. It's really the one way to make our house our own. About a week and a half after we signed our contracts and made our structural selections, we had our meeting with our designer to make all of our interior selections. Yes you read right ALL. Our appointment was scheduled for 3 and a half hours to give you an indication. Andy and I headed to the design center around 11 AM sat down with our designer, H to discuss all our selections.

The first portion of our meeting we reviewed the selections we had made so far. We had made some general selections in our initial meetings, like to have tile in the master bath and kitchen but not any actual color selections. After reviewing those items we headed over to the exterior portion of the selections to choose our siding and shutter color. I have to say this was probably the most difficult decisions because it can't be changed easily, light fixtures and hardware easy peasy, siding=not so much.What made it a tad easier was the fact that quite a few houses in our future community is some shade of tan. While tan is lovely and I liked some of the selections in that shade range, Andy and I decided to be different and choose from the shades of grey and one shade of green/gray since not nearly as many houses are this color. We ended up with a platinum grey which looks almost white* and midnight blue shutters (which will also be the color of our front door). After that we went over to front and interior doors, from there we choose door fixtures, after that cupboards,  then counters, then flooring, then tile, then trim and paint.

The process was relatively simple, the designer just walked you through all the choices you had to make showing you the different options you had with each area. It made it really easy because M/I has different levels for everything, in our house level 1 was standard so if you wanted something greater than that you had to pay more. We got a deal with some things like level 2 cupboards and stainless steel appliances, which were an upgrade promotion they were running when we signed. The fact that each upgrade ups the total price of the house really made us think about what was important to us and what we didn't really care as much about. I found that having limited selections set up in levels really made the process easy and we were done pretty quickly (Only 2 and a half hours instead of 3). I would explain our final selections but I don't have pictures to do them justice so I'll just post the one I have.

Obviously it's hard to envision it when you have no clue what the house looks like but I promise you that I think we did a fabulous job and it will look fantastic once it is done. I promise at some point I will get some more detailed pictures up here and explain exactly what each thing is in boring minutiae detail (like when I run out of stories to tell you about building). Maybe I'll even let Andy post about that, because honestly I think he is more excited about the selections than I am.

Hope I didn't bore you too much folks. Until next time...

*We now are reconsidering this color because we have finally seen a house with this siding and it looks dirty white and it's kind of blinding. Instead we are leaning towards a Cape Cod Grey which is darker. The midnight blue shutters will remain. Thoughts/opinions anyone?

Drum roll please

It's not actually that dramatic, at least I don't think it is. If you have been keeping up I have been discussing the fact that things haven't been that great around the SalTal household as far as Andy's job is concerned. Well the past couple weeks have brought some changes for us and I think that it is a really fantastic change for both of us. Andy is taking his old job back. I know some people are thinking "But it's in Toledo, right?" and it is except that they wanted him back so badly that they agreed to let him work from home, which is fantastic news for us. I'm so happy for him because I know he loved his old job and the reasons he left were because I couldn't find work in that area. This is kind of the best of both worlds for now. This may mean that we eventually will move back to Toledo, which we are both more than okay with, we miss our friends up there and we enjoyed the dynamics of that city a little more than Columbus but for now we will remain in Columbus where we are both employed. This means Andy will be traveling again, which I wasn't okay with at first but the more I thought about it the more the idea grew on me. The reason I hated him traveling so much previously was because I wasn't working and didn't have a lot to do. I think that working for me is going to make his traveling much easier on me. I'm so excited that at the end of the day Andy is going to be happy, that means so much to me.

In the mean time we only have Andy's work computer working right now which is the reason for the limited posting. Have a great week everyone!

Feeling Different and Electrolove Fields

“So Andy, how different does it feel to be married?”

I’ve heard this question probably close to 40 times so far during the 2 months that we’ve been married, I really wish I was kidding. Is this seriously the go-to question for people dying to be in the know? Not “How was the wedding?” or “How was the honeymoon (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, eh gov'na)?” or “What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?”, but how different does it feel to be married??

This specific question bothers me; partly due to the frequency this question is asked, but also due to people apparently thinking that getting married was going to be an earth-shattering experience for me. Evidently the sky was supposed to split open, the clouds would part, and Reese cups were supposed to rain from the heavens (which would be ridiculously awesome). Or just by putting a ring on my our hands we were supposed to be so much more in love, like the rings created some sort of Faraday-esque induction field that drew blood into our hearts and made them go “pitterpat” that much quicker.

Fig 1.4 Electrolove Field XOXO

Here’s a little secret for you: simply the sight of my wife, my lover, my best friend causes my heart to beat faster than any other artificial means possible. I don’t need any ceremony to influence my feelings, I don’t need a tungsten carbide ring (tho it does make me look uber-manly!). All I need is Amanda smiling at me and it makes me feel all mushy inside. Don’t get me wrong; I love being married. I wouldn’t take back anything that’s happened this year, and I wouldn’t want to change anything. I love being able to call her my wife, and I equally love being a husband.

So how different does it feel to be married? Not really any different, and I think that’s the point. Sure, our living arrangements would have been drastically different had we not lived together before the wedding, but I can't see how my feelings toward her would've changed.  I loved my fiance with everything I had before we were married, and I love my wife with just as much devotion now. I wake up next to her every day and she is even lovelier, more beautiful, and I’m so thankful that I get one more day with her. I love her because she loves me, not because “she put a ring on it” (though it certainly doesn’t hurt).