Overloaded

Our entire house is beige. AKA blah. Now I admit we did pick beige as our paint "color" but it really is overwhelming to be in a house that is suppose to be yours and not have it really feel like yours. Our house feels more like a model than a home. It's not just all the beige, it's also all the rooms that are half empty because we just don't have furniture to put into them. This has turned my head into a scary place because every day I am making lists of things I want to do to make this house a home. And folks my lists are like scary long. So to help make us accountable and also get my thoughts organized I'm going to share the list of things I would like to get done. To help us out even more I'm going to highlight the ones I want to get done before our friend house warming (We are also planning on having a big family and friend house warming in the warmer months so our families can make the drive down if they want). This list is in no particular order:

• Paint living room (Completed 1/12)
• Paint the front room, media room, office, and our bedroom
• Put mirrors in the hall and half bath
• Hang toilet paper holders and towel bar/circle 
• Hang curtains and/or blinds in all bedrooms
• Re-cover black and white chair for living room
• Put legs on the record player stand to make it higher
• Make or buy a liquor cabinet
• Finish media stand for living room
• Unpack all boxes that aren't going into storage
• Hang mirrors, shelves, and decor in living room
• Buy an additional chaise for the couch and shelf for behind couch
• Buy a bigger TV for living room
• Figure out art work for front room
• Buy Star Wars posters for Andy's office
• Buy desks for Andy's office
• Make accent pillows for living room 
• Get big TV and the old couch up into the media room

I know that there are more things I need/want to do but I just can't think of them all. I think I may have to start carrying around a small notebook and pen to keep track of things when I think of them. 

Ch-ch-ch-choices

I left off telling you my dear readers that Andy and I have decided to move, but I didn't tell you where. Before, when the move was off in the distant future Mr. Tal and I had created a list of places we would like to move. Most of these choices on our list were based on very different factors, it was a really odd list. There were some cohesive elements we looked for in every place we considered, great selection of all around activities (parks, sports teams, museums etc.), easy access to day/weekend trips, cost of living similar to where we are currently living, and of course if we could both find work there. There are a million places that offer all those things so we looked for places that offered something different for us. Do you wanna see the list? Okay, here goes.

Here it is in no particular order (all images courtesy of google search):

Where: The Pacific Northwest

Reason it made the list: It's just absolutly beautiful, has everything nature-wise mountains, forests, oceans, all of which are really important to Andy.

Where: Columbus, OH

Reason it made the list: Family, family, family, is a huge reason for this one. We wouldn't be too far from my family and Andy's immediate family is in the area.

Where: Raleigh, NC

Reasons it made the list: UNC has an amazing graduate program in both History and Library Sciences, added bonus is that it isn't too far from the ocean or the mountains.

Where: Orlando, FL

Reasons it made the list: It's Mickey mouse land, what's not to love? Okay, in all seriousness, I love Orlando and a few of our good friends live in Florida now so we would know some people.

So those are our choices, anyone living in any of these places care to weigh in with some pros and cons? It won't change the immediate decision but it might help us out in our future endeavors. Oh, you thought you were going to get an answer today? What's the fun in that?