Our Revamped Kitchen

So, I've had this post in my queue for weeks now, and didn't realize that I (1) never finished it, and (2) never posted it. Enjoy!

It's done! It's finally freaking done... our kitchen nightmare is over. As you may remember, back in October we had a little "incident" with a bad dishwasher installation by Home Depot. They never tightened the water line running into the dishwasher, so it proceeded to leak into our cabinets for two weeks. They were the worst company I've ever had to deal with in terms of insurance claims (which is saying a lot since I work in insurance for a living), and then tried to wash their hands of the whole situation. Long story short, we won't spend a dime at Home Depot ever again.

This is what we were left with, shortly after the incident:

Since part of our cabinets were torn out, and our countertop was cut in half, pretty much everything below the upper cabinets had to go throughout the kitchen. It was a long process, not helped by the fact that it took us about 6 months to finally decide on backsplash tile, but I digress... It's done, and I'm thrilled.

Here's a quick rundown of what was changed from our original kitchen:

-New base cabinets, and some upper doors converted to glass front

-Painted base cabinets

-New granite countertop

-New sink and fixtures

-New dishwasher, stovetop, and microwave

-New tile backsplash

-New light fixture over table, since old no longer matched everything

All that, because someone didn't check a water line before finishing their install. The only original parts of our kitchen that remain are the wallpaper (which I actually like), the floor, and the upper cabinets. We still have our original white fridge and double ovens, but they're on the list of things to switch as soon as possible. Save the most expensive appliances for last, right?

So, here it is... time for the big reveal! This is what our kitchen looked like when we first moved in, back in 2011:

And here it is now, almost 3 years later, after our partial renovation:

I'm in love. Seriously. It made such a massive difference in our entire downstairs, that I question how I even lived with the all-white kitchen in the first place. Also, when was that in style?! Our house, back in the mid-90's, was the model home for our development. However, our kitchen had white linoleum countertops and a sea of white cabinets and appliances. Was that really the "in" thing back then? *shudders*

Anyway, it's much better now, and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Tea Giveaway

One of my dear friends has started a lovely blog about her stories, travels, and love of tea. Currently, she is hosting a giveaway for a DAVIDsTEA perfect tea set, put together especially by her.

 

Head on over by clicking here. While you're there, stay a while and have a look around. She has some really big plans for her newfound blogging journey, so make sure to bookmark and check back often!

Craft Studio Renovation

We did it! Finally, after months of debate and procrastination, we buckled down and completely renovated my studio. We repaired the walls and ceiling (from our adventure in homeowners claims), painted every surface that could possibly be painted, ripped out the carpet, and replaced the flooring and trim. AND we did it all in about two days, including the time it took me to move my stuff back into the room... and I have a lot of stuff.

 

It isn't 100% completed yet, but I am absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. It is such a drastic change from the way the room was previously that it's hard to believe that the pictures are even from the same house.

 

Here is how the room looked when we first moved in, and after my stuff was set up (click for larger images):

 

Pretty boring, right? The carpet and the walls were basically the same color, which made the room look completely blah. The fan is also totally dated, and we haven't replaced it as of yet, but it is on the list of little finishing touches for the room.

 

Regardless of lack of style, the initial pictures of the studio still look infinitely better than it did after our little leak issue:

 

That was a fantastic day. Mold, water, gross stuff... fun times. Really fun times. After having everything professionally dried up and torn out, the room sat in a state of disrepair while we worked on renovations to our downstairs. Since that is our main living space, the studio and it's adjoining bathroom we're put off until last. The bathroom is next weekend's project, but I digress...

 

Back to the current studio work:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd also like to take this opportunity to show off the craft table that J built for me. I need to refinish the top, but it is a beast in terms of storage capabilities. Plus, it only cost a fraction of what the similar tables from Pottery Barn sell for.

 

 

 

And there you have it! I still need a rug, a new light fixture, and some wall decor, but the major construction work is done. I'm going for a Cape May, NJ theme with the room, since my dollhouse reminds me of the brightly colored Victorian houses there. I want some large vintage postcard prints, and I'm going to try to encorporate some very subtle beachy items into the room (rope, stripes, sand dollars, etc). I'm going to carry the theme into the adjoining bathroom as well, but it will be painted gray, instead of the blue. So stay tuned for that project because if the studio is any indication of what we can do in a weekend, we should have that bathroom done even faster!

 

 

2014: [Hopefully] New Beginnings

Is it safe to come out now? Is 2013 over? What a year... I'm not one to dwell on the negatives, but sheesh. This one was rough.

 

Let's recap the more trying parts of last year:

• My father passed away suddenly in February
• I was in a car accident after getting hit by a woman too busy texting to pay attention
• Our A/C drain pipe overflowed in the attic damaging four rooms
• Our new dishwasher was improperly installed by Home Depot and ruined our kitchen
• Scout, our corgi, passed away shortly after his 14th birthday

Written out in a list, I'm sure it doesn't seem like that much, but it's been hard... Incredibly hard. Of course, we also had positive and fun experiences last year as well. To name a few:

• Our trip to San Antonio
• Getting our new patio and majorly renovating our yard
• Going on the field before the only game the Texans won this year (thanks BMW!), and then watching the game from awesome club level seats
• J got to go to the BMW Performance Driving School in SC
• We watched a Rockets game from court side seats, and got spoiled by club level amenities again

Granted, (to me) the negatives overshadowed a lot of the positives this year, so I've definitely been looking forward to 2014. I'm praying, and hoping, and wishing that we shake off 2013 and have a great year. Of course I know that nothing can be perfect, but a little less emotional trauma and a little more good luck would really be fantastic.

 

The Great Flood, Part II

Hey, remember that time I wrote a post about how we had a pipe leak that damaged 4 rooms and we were starting to renovate them? Yeah? Well guess what...

 

We had a 20 year old GE dishwasher in our kitchen that I hated. It was loud, ugly, and ready to break at any time. Since we were doing other renovations to the house, I figured that now would be the perfect time to replace that old dishwasher. I figured it would save us any future headaches from more leaks (since we just learned what a pain in the ass those can be).

 

So I ordered a nice, new Whirlpool dishwasher: stainless steel, top controls, quiet, everything I wanted. Home Depot was set to do the install on the following Saturday. Installation day arrives, and the dishwasher gets put in. The guys set it up, put the kick plate on, and get ready to run a test cycle. I'm nervous, since I don't want anything to be wrong. They turn the water back on, turn on the dishwasher and... no leaks!

 

We go about our business for a couple of weeks, when I start noticing cracking in our cabinetry. It was next to the dogs' water bowl, and I knew it looked like water damage, so I assumed that somehow the dog started splashing water on the cabinets. I moved the bowl. A few days later we notice water along a corner of our foundation. We assumed the hose was leaking, so we moved that too. Then, the next morning arrived.

 

The water was still there. Something clicked in J's head and he goes, "The dishwasher is on the other side of the wall." But how is that possible, you ask. They checked for leaks! You watched them! No, no they didn't. Long story short... They assembled and installed the whole dishwasher, including the kickplate, prior to turning the water on. Had they tested without the kickplate they'd have seen that they didn't tighten the water line where it connects to the dishwasher. This little "oversight" created a constant stream of water flowing under our cabinets for two weeks.

 

I won't get into the weeklong ordeal of dealing with Home Depot and the subcontractor playing a game of "Whose insurance company pays for this," but I will say that it has been hell. After 5 days, Servpro was finally sent out by one of their insurance carriers to remove all the water damage and clean up the disgusting amount of mold that was infesting half of our kitchen. FIVE DAYS. My sinuses are still killing me from inhaling that crap.

 

I still have yet to hear from an actual claims adjuster, but we were told to get contractor estimates. So, that's what we're doing. As of now we'll need at least 3 entirely new base cabinet units, refacing for all existing cabinets since we haven't been able to find matching doors, our wallpaper removed and the kitchen repainted, new countertops, and a new backsplash... for starters. And you know what? Home Depot has been so terrible throughout this whole situation that unless they somehow make things right, we won't spend one dime at their store ever again.

 

The subcontractor they hired that caused all of this damage was rated F with the BBB. They refused to give us their insurance info, and even when I told Home Depot that, Home Depot told me that I still needed to handle the issue with the subcontractor. I was made to do all the work to remediate an issue that they ultimately caused. It's been terrible.

 

As of today, here is what I'm left with in our kitchen. Notice our dishwasher and sink are gone. We have been left with an unusable kitchen. All I wanted was a new dishwasher to prevent a disaster like this from happening. Preventative maintenance. I don't even know the term for what I've been left with, but "shit" fits the bill pretty well.

 

 

The Great Flood

Oh, where to begin... Over the summer I had high hopes for doing crafts and DIY projects, and then blogging about them. I managed to do a lot of crafts and DIY projects, but I kept missing that blogging step.

I was just finishing up some curtains that I was going to use to segue myself back into the blogosphere...

These curtains, to be exact:

And then this happened:

"What caused it?" you ask... This. This stupid pipe right here:

That pipe connects to our A/C drain pans and routes the water into a drain line. In Houston, as we now know, it is illegal to have your A/C drain line run directly to the exterior of your house. It has to drain internally. Why? Well an A/C unit apparently produces over one gallon of water per day. We have two units, so that's over two gallons per day. If every house had two gallons of water consistently pooling outside, it would cause a large mosquito problem.

So this was the solution. An interior drain. However, our home was built in 1994 and they no longer use this kind of design anymore. Why? Because they can get algae built up inside and overflow. Surprise, surprise.

Anyway, my first clue that something was wrong was when I noticed water all over the dryer in the laundry room. There is a bathroom directly above, which we don't use, so I thought that maybe a seal dried out and broke and it dumped water onto the floor. Upon further investigation upstairs, we realized the leak was coming from the attic, and there was far more damage than just the laundry room.

Here is what we're dealing with... We had minor damage to our dining room, that was the good news. It meant that our wood floor, which runs through the entire downstairs, was unharmed. We had major damage to our laundry room, my studio, and a bathroom. Those three rooms need extensive drywall repair, the laundry room needs a new ceiling, and the bathroom and studio need new floors as well.

We've had Servpro in to dry everything (did I mention that our A/C broke the same day as the leak? Yeah, that was awesome), dealt with our homeowner's insurance, and now we've started renovations. We're doing it all ourselves, so it's going to be a long-ish process. The good news, is that I don't have to deal with a contractor, and I know everything will be done right and exactly how we want it.

So that's where we stand. It's been a real treat...

Hope y'all like house-related posts

I have so many things to update about, but no time to sit down and write.

 

I did some awesome crafty things over the summer, and definitely need to post about them, buuuuttttt... We also had a big leak in our house and have been unwillingly thrown head first into home renovations!

 

Lucky us!

 

Thanks to a plumbing issue, and the subsequent homeowners claim, we are now renovating our dining room, our laundry room, my craft studio, and one of the upstairs bathrooms.

 

Yup! Good times.

 

I really, really, REALLY want to start blogging more so I suppose this is as good of a reason as any, right?

 

We're Crazy

Before you say, "Nahhh, you guys are fine!" let's take a look at this, shall we?

 

 

What is this, you ask? This is what I posted on Facebook and Twitter on April 11, 2011. Thanks to an iPhone app called Timehop, I can see my past social media history each day. The bigger question may be though, "Why does this post mean that y'all are crazy?" I'll explain...

 

I was at work that day, and J sent me a link. We had been looking at houses in NJ, and were having no luck at all. Everything we liked was way out of our price range, and everything else needed too many renovations. So, that day, J sent me a link to a house for sale in Texas and told me to just "look at it to humor him." Well, I looked at it for about a minute, picked my jaw up from the floor, and texted him back with something along the lines of, "When can we move?"

 

And that was it. April 11, 2011 was the day we decided to move to Texas. 3 months later we flew to Houston and bought a house. 1.5 months after that, we closed on the house and moved in. So, in just under 5 months we randomly decided to move across the country. We left our jobs, left everything and everyone we ever knew, and moved to a place that we had never even been to before. Yes, that's right, the first time we ever went to Houston was when we went to buy our house.

 

So, we're kinda crazy right? Okay, maybe "risky" is a better word. Regardless, I'm damn proud of us. So many people talk about moving here and there, but just stay where they are forever. We got an idea into our heads, seized the opportunity, and ran with it. Sure, we could've crashed and burned in a most epic manner, but we didn't. Maybe we got lucky, or maybe it was just fate. Regardless, it took us 5 months to completely change almost everything about our lives... and it was the best thing to ever happen to us.

 

If you take anything from this little lesson, its this: "Trust your gut and follow your dreams." Our entire relationship has been based on gut instinct. Everything from J deciding to date me (I'm still not sure what I did to make him stick around), to our cross-country move, its all just been a gut feeling as the driving force. If you're happy, you're not hurting anybody, and things feel right, you just go on ahead and follow your dreams. I know, it sounds like something you'd tell a child, but it holds true for all ages. You are never too old to change your life and follow a dream.

 

As a side note, here is what was going on one year ago today, on April 13, 2012:

 

 

It should be noted that we eloped 3 months later, and only told people via a photo on Facebook. Okay, so maybe "crazy" is an accurate word for us...

 

My absence

I'll have a much longer post about this at some point, but I just wanted to apologize for my lack of updates.

The day after my last post I found out that my father had a massive stroke. We immediately flew to NJ to be with him and my family. He passed away a few days later, and we remained up in NJ until after the services. We were there for nearly 2 weeks and, as you can imagine, I wasn't really in the mood for blogging.

I was very close to my dad, and it has been an incredibly difficult time. At some point I will dedicate a lengthy post to my feelings and memories, but I'm just not ready to write that right now. I'll be resuming posting as usual, but not because I'm callous or uncaring. I just need to get on with things, day by day. I will need to get a post out about all of this at some point, but not yet. Definitely not yet...

I will say this though: Always say "I love you." Cherish every day. And never go to bed angry. I try to live my life like this, and I am so thankful that I do. I miss my dad terribly, but I have no regrets. The last thing I said to him just the day before his stroke was, "I love you."

Big projects coming up

Hooray! We're getting a tax return this year! Of course, we can't just save it like normal people. No, we're going to sink some of it into home renovations. Three projects will, hopefully, be tackled and make a huge difference in our house.

 

First project: The stairs

I'm not even going to post a current picture of our staircase. Lets just say I saw one too many painted staircases on Pinterest and went balls-out tearing up carpeting while Jeremy was away one weekend... a while ago... okay, it was in September. So yes, we've had a horrible naked staircase for a few months. This is how they looked before I got my hands on them:

 

 

Why didn't I just finish the project? Well, I made a discovery underneath our carpet. Our treads are nice solid wood, but the risers are the shittiest particle board you could imagine. So that stalled me in my tracks and left us looking for options with regards to what to do with our risers. We've settled on just cutting wood and fitting it over the particle board, so we have a game plan. The risers will be white, and the treads and railings will be a dark espresso brown. This won't be an expensive project, but it's labor intensive. It also really needs to get done, so it's at the top of our list.

 

Second project: The patio

I'm not 100% sold on this project, but J really wants it so we're doing it. Our patio now consists of a walkway to the garage, a tiny slab off of the back door, and some large paving stones behind the chimney. It's a hodpodge of surfaces that are awkward in shape, and don't afford very much room for seating and grilling. Our grill is currently located on the section of miscellaneous paving stones, our picnic table is actually on the lawn, and we have a chair and side table on the actual patio. So okay, maybe we do need this project.

 

What we'll be doing is having a new slab poured next to what we currently have. It'll add on a good chunk of space and extend the patio out into the yard, instead of just hugging the house. I don't have a good current picture of the yard, so we'll use these for now. Also, 3 out of 4 trees are now gone... Guess which?

 

 

The grass area in the first pic (nearly up to that first tree on the left) will all be patio. It'll extend over and replace that part with separate stones, and it'll be next to that walkway in the second pic. We're going to angle the new corner as well (instead of laying down just a square), to avoid interfering with drainage and to give the whole patio a nice shape. I know, its hard to visualize. Once it's installed I want to get it stained. I hate how regular concrete looks... all boring and gray. So making the patio bigger isn't going to sit well with me aesthetically if its just a big, ugly, gray mass sitting in our yard.

 

Third project: The kitchen

I love our kitchen. It's big, it's open, everything works, and the cabinets and floors don't need to be changed. The things I dislike about our kitchen are the bathroom-esque tile backsplash, the horrible countertops, the cabinet hardware, and I'd kill for non-white appliances. Here she is from when we first moved in, in all of her bright white glory:

 

 

Sure, it's big and clean looking, but it's totally 90's style. The first part of our plan is new countertops. However, with the new countertops comes the need for a new cooktop and sink. We want to get the counters done in dark stained concrete, so a white sink is kind of not hot with that style. The cooktop, in addition to being white, is also coil burners and the bane of my existence in the kitchen. I hate coil burners with the white hot passion of a thousand burning suns. Eventually we'll have our gas line run to the kitchen so I can have a gas cooktop again, but that's a project for a full kitchen renovation... not just some simple updating. So the cooktop will be replaced with a sleek black glass-top.

 

Since we'll be getting the counters done, we'll obviously need a better backsplash. Preferably one that doesn't look like it belongs in a public bathroom. For this, we'll be taking out the tile and replacing it with Airstone in this color:

 

Check out the website for the lowdown on Airstone. I have a feeling we'll be covering the tile around our fireplace with it as well. It's lightweight, simple to install, able to be cut with a hacksaw, and only $50 for 8 square feet. The tile I originally wanted was $10-12 per square foot, so this is considerably cheaper and I love the look.

 

The final part of our kitchen renovation will be new hardware. I want the cup-style handles on all of the drawers, and all stainless will be changed to oil-rubbed bronze. We're slowly converting our house to the bronze, so anytime we replace metal hardware we upgrade. Sometimes an upgrade is buying new stuff, sometimes it's spray painting with Rustoleum's "Oil Rubbed Bronze" paint. Either way, it looks great. I hate the brass stuff that was left in the house, and I've never been a big fan of stainless steel.

 

So that's the plan. All written out like that, it looks like a ton of work. And I guess it kind of is, but it's going to be SO worth it. These are big updates we've been thinking about for a while, so to finally take the steps to get it done is huge. I'm incredibly thankful that we got a tax return this year that allows us to do these things, and still have some to set aside for savings. Definitely thankful for that.

 

Learned I could do this...

...with iMovie: Make movie trailers. I can't wait until we have kids. Our home movies are going to be so action-packed now!

 

 

Halloween Decor

It's an awkward time to give a blog a "rebirth." I openly admit that. Most people would make a resolution in January about blogging more, or something like that. I'm just sick of being ADD with my blog, so here I am. I'm laying it out there. This blog may be disorganized, but that's how I roll with my life. I've learned that I need an outlet, so here I am... starting fresh:

Christmas has always been the big holiday where I got the house all gussied up. Tree, lights, garland, the works. However, since we moved to Texas and found our real home, as opposed to just a house, I've developed a love for decorating for all holidays and seasons.

With Halloween decor being so close to generic autumn decor, I tried to find at least a few pieces that I can keep up throughout Thanksgiving. And by a few pieces, I really do mean a few. Somehow I don't think the skulls, spiders, and skeleton hands are really Turkey Day appropriate.

So I married the parts manager

Okay, so technically he wasn't the MINI parts manager anymore when we started dating, but still... The only reason we met is because that was his job and I was just another crazy MINI customer. Seriously, I eventually found out that I was referred to as "that crazy MINI chick." ...and I am, but I digress...

I first set foot in Prestige MINI back in the spring of 2007. I went on a test drive, designed the exact car that I wanted, and tracked it from its "birth" over in England until it arrived in NJ. I named her Moxie and she was what launched my obsession with everything MINI.

Here is my much thinner younger self, clearly elated with the new baby she just brought home.

I was 25 and psyched that I had this awesome car. Perhaps I should've taken it as a sign of things to come when her windshield got smashed just a couple of months after bringing her home. If you've never had a brick come flying off of a truck and smash into your windshield directly in front of your face while driving, I'll give you this little bit of insight: It is really effing scary. Luckily the windshield held, and only shards of glass and a tiny piece of brick came into the car. Saving my face from undoubtedly, painful destruction. In the end, Prestige rushed to get her fixed, I was ecstatic, and shortly after that, a new parts manager was hired...

I was always in and out of Prestige for various reasons that first year that I had Moxie. I needed some touch up paint for spot on her door, she was due for an oil change, or I just wanted a car wash. Then things started to get real: timing chains, fuel pumps, oil leaks, engine rebuild. I was there constantly, and I was pissed off a lot. It became almost a joke with how frequently something would go wrong with Moxie... like I was making up issues just to come in. I wasn't, but it still earned me the title of the crazy MINI chick.

I eventually got to know pretty much every person that worked there. My car would show up and I could practically hear everyone groan before I even walked into the building. "Oh God, what's wrong now?" The only person I never spoke to was the parts manager. My car was under warranty, so there was really no need, but he couldn't even be bothered to so much as say 'hey' to me?! He knew who I was. For God's sake, everyone knew who I was. I basically lived there. So I wound up writing him off as kind of a jerk. [He tells me now that I "ignored him for two years" and that it's my own fault.]

Time passes, Moxie gets custom pink stripes, I get a custom MINI tattoo, and my reputation as being an insane MINI chick is further solidified. I'm always there with more car troubles, but this guy still can't be bothered to say hi, even when I'm sitting there right in front of the parts counter in the damn waiting room. Fine, be a jerk. Granted, a good-looking jerk, but still a jerk.

Eventually we spoke once. I was there for yet another service appointment, and he came over to make fun of my service advisor. For the life of me I can't remember what joke he made, but it was funny. He seemed surprised that I laughed, but I can't say that I blame him. I was really good at getting really bitchy about Moxie's issues. And then, he was gone. He went over to Prestige's BMW store, and I kept going to MINI.

More time passes and I became friends with some people from MINI. Suddenly I am actually able to go to the dealership on good terms instead of only being there for car issues. One of those "good" times, I'm there with cupcakes... and who do I bump into while walking with my friend? It's the parts manager! We get scolded for not having any cupcakes left for him. I later come to find out that he is friends with my friend on Facebook. Comments pass between us here and there, and I realize that he's actually kind of a cool dude. So now we're Facebook friends... and you know nothing is real until it's on Facebook.

A few weeks go by, I'm still doing MINI stuff, we converse via Facebook more, and eventually we decide to hang out. We tell no one. Technically, I'm a customer and he's an employee. This goes on for weeks. Is this seriously the guy that I wrote off as being an uptight jerk?! He's so much fun! It gets to the point where we're together everyday as soon as we're done with work... eventually we decide that we're actually dating, and change our relationship status go public. And guess what? Nothing bad happens. He still has his job, I still handle my own Moxie-issues, and all is right with the world. He even started to go to Prestige's MINI rallies with me, which was awesome because everyone loves him, so his old customers were happily surprised to see him there.

Life goes on. We move in together, Moxie loses her engine for a second time, and we retire her for Minja in January 2011. From that point, life kind of got a little crazy... not MINI chick crazy, just general crazy. We left our jobs, families, friends, and most of our furniture behind, and moved to Texas. We bought a house, another dog, a pickup truck, and firearms. Life is good.

We even bought a new MINI. This is Etzio...



The best part? I took delivery of him exactly 5 years to the day that I took delivery of Moxie. Nothing else could better illustrate how my life has come around full-circle in that time. I've had crazy highs and wicked lows, but there I was exactly 5 years later picking up a MINI again right at the start of a new cycle in my life.

The parts manager and I got married a couple of weeks later, on July 15, 2012. It was the 2-year anniversary of when we started dating, and another one of those things that we told no one. Apparently, that's just how we roll. If nothing else, our life together is never boring.

In a matter of years we went from strangers in a MINI dealership, to husband and wife. And in even less time, we went from New Jersey natives to Texans. It seems like our relationship revolves around change, and while that may be true in some aspects, the best part about us is our stability... kind of like a MINI: Our wheels are moving us forward, sometimes at very high speeds, but we're stuck to the road through any twists and turns that are ahead. And we're gonna have a damn good time enjoying the ride. Motor on, y'all.

Wedding photos by Gigi Arendt

Saving Thor (Updated: 07/01/12)

****Thor has been saved!!****

First, thank you all for the donations, Facebook shares, and efforts to find Thor's owners. No one ever claimed our sweet boy, but we think he was most likely stray for a while and his family gave up their search. Also, if he was taken and used for fighting, he could have come from anywhere. We all tried our best for a reunion, but it didn't happen.

With that being said, we are thrilled to announce that Thor has a new forever home. And the best part? We get to visit him! He is now in a warm, loving home with friends. He has two boys to play with, pet-parents to jog with, and fluffy beds to sleep in. He has been neutered, vaccinated, micro-chipped, and hugged... I'm sure he's been hugged a lot.

We visited him today and he looked like a new dog. He knows he's safe, and you can see the gratitude in his eyes. Some people say that dogs don't have emotions, but I don't believe that. Looking into Thor's eyes, it's like he is saying thank you. We can only guess at what he has been through in his short life, but we know what his life is like now... as does he. And he thanks everyone, from the bottom of his doggie heart, for helping him find his save haven, and new life.



Original Post Below:

Who let the dogs out? No, really... Who? Because we keep finding them, and it's becoming a problem.

One of the big differences between TX and NJ, is the amount of loose and stray dogs. We see them everywhere. Some are pets with collars and tags, and others have no visible identification whatsoever. We always see Lost/Found dog signs, and the shelters are overflowing. It makes me angry and breaks my heart at the same time.

As sick as I am of our neighbor's chihuahua crapping on our lawn everyday, I want to cry for every pup I see walking around looking lost. Did the dog get loose accidentally? Does the person just not care that their dog roams... like our neighbor with the chihuahua? Did someone dump the dog because they can't care for it anymore? Or is it something more sinister?

I have returned dogs home if they had tags. I have kept my distance from those who seemed vicious. I have caught dogs that ran away from their people because they thought it was a super-fun game. I have simply let a dog keep trotting in the direction it's going, for lack of any better solution.

This time though, we didn't find a stray... He found us.

Every weekend we have "Mutual Home Improvement Sunday" with our only friends. Although, to say friends isn't right... we've become family. For the past couple of months we've been working at their house on their yard and pool. Edit: J will get mad at me for saying we have been working... the men work, Tammy and I supervise. From the jacuzzi. With drinks. It's a good time.

Anyway, this past Sunday J went over early, while I stayed home to put together a big dish of baked ziti for everyone. Halfway through the ziti, I get a text from J. He said that they found a stray dog that was friendly, but injured from a fight. They didn't know what to do with him, so J asked if I'd run over to Petco and ask the people who run the adoptions there if they could let me know who to call. I washed the mozzarella off of my hands and headed over.

I was told at Petco that the Houston SPCA has a 24-hour ambulance service for injured strays. If you've ever seen the show Animal Cops, that's the Houston SPCA. They are amazing people. So is the woman who runs the adoptions at our local Petco. She cares for dozens of dogs on her own, and she is there every weekend helping the pups find homes. Good people do still exist.

I thanked her profusely for her help, went home and finished the ziti, and headed over to our friend's house to call the SPCA for a pick up. I got out of the car and asked J to show me the dog. He said the pup was in the garage sleeping, like he hadn't slept in weeks. Then I saw him...



This is Thor. As soon as I found out that he had been given a name, I knew I wouldn't be calling the SPCA. As I walked over to him in the garage, he got up, gave his tail a few wags, and came over for a pat on the head. He was clearly exhausted and injured, but he still just wanted some lovin'

He had a very large bite wound on his tummy from being in the losing end of a fight. Upon closer inspection, we found cuts all over him in various stages of healing. We could see his ribs, but he wasn't emaciated. He looked well-developed, and had a gorgeous set of teeth. We guessed he was somewhere around 1-3 years old, and that he was a pit bull lab mix. We thoroughly analyzed everything about him... but still didn't know what to do with him.

We couldn't bear the thought of sending him to a shelter and risk eventual euthanization. Being part pit bull doesn't put him ahead of the game in terms of adoptability, regardless of his demeanor. So there he stayed. In the garage, with a fan, a bed, food, water, and me. I just sat watching him sleep for a good hour or so. He would twitch his little toes and wag his tail when he was dreaming. At least the poor dog had happiness at some point in his life, even if it was just when he was asleep.

After a while, I brought him a treat. To my surprise, he sat on command. I thought it was a fluke, but he did it a second time. Later, we learned that he was trained. A bowl of food was given to him and he was told to sit and wait. As hungry as he was, he sat still until he was given the "okay." He was extremely non-food aggressive, and let the bowl be taken away and a hand put into his food while he was eating. Not even so much as a growl came from him. He would probably let you take food from him mouth, but we weren't going to tease the poor boy.

We eventually brought him into the backyard and he laid in the grass and played fetch like it was the happiest day of his life. He took lots of breaks to nap in the garage, but like I said, he was exhausted. He was more calm, and better behaved than our 2 dogs and our friend's 3 dogs combined. It was fitting that he was all white because he was like an angel. A lost soul, just looking for love. He stayed in our friend's garage that night, while we all tried to come up with a plan.

Unfortunately, it is now 4 days later and Thor's fate is still unknown. On Monday we brought him to our vet's office for a microchip scan. I figured there was only a slim chance that he'd be chipped, and unfortunately my hunch was correct. No chip. While there, the doctor gave him a quick checkup and prescribed some antibiotics for the wound on his tummy.

The saddest part about our visit was what we learned about his (most likely) past experiences. He is trained, so we believe that he was someone's pet. We were told that he probably got lost, and was then picked up by someone else because they thought he was a pit bull. We discovered that the sound of a chain terrifies him, so he was probably used as a bait dog for fights. I won't go into detail about the relation between chains and dog fighting, because no one needs to hear about that atrocity here. When he wouldn't fight back, he was dumped and left to either fend for himself or die.

Our vet guessed that Thor was, at the very most, 3 years old. Surprisingly, he is only about 10 pounds underweight. He agreed with our thoughts on his breed, and said that he is more lab than pit bull... he just has a pit bull shaped head. We didn't have any blood work done, and he is very obviously un-neutered, but the doctor said that it would be okay to let Thor interact with our own [vaccinated] dogs.

So, on Tuesday evening, we tried to do just that. It's been well into the 100's here in Houston, and our friends haven't been able to keep Thor outside. Their own pit bull isn't very dog-friendly, so its been a lot of work to keep all of the dogs separated and cool. We decided to see how Thor and Ranger would get along over at our house. We knew Scout wouldn't be an issue because... well... he's an old corgi that just wants to spend his days sleeping. But Ranger, now he posed a problem.

Ranger is our 1-year old German Shepherd. He isn't neutered yet, but that's getting taken care of next week. He is very much a puppy, but has been acting rather "manly" lately. We had no idea how he would handle another dog, but we quickly found out that the answer to that was, "Not well. Not well at all."

After lots of barking, and knocking each other around, we decided that we couldn't keep Thor at our house. Two un-neutered males, regardless if one was dominant and one submissive, were not going to get along. Perhaps we went about introducing them the wrong way. Maybe they should've met on neutral ground instead of in our backyard. Maybe Ranger is just a jerk. Who knows, but either way, they weren't going to be BFF's.

So off Thor went, back to our friend's house. On their way home they did stop at friend's house who is involved with rescues and has a few pit bulls of her own. They introduced Thor to one of her pups, and even to a kitten... no problem at all! Clearly, the issue at our house was from our own dog, and not Thor. Which is great news in terms of finding him a home.

Now that brings us to our current situation. Thor needs a home, and he needs one ASAP. However, he also needs a thorough vet checkup, heartworm test, vaccinations, and neutering. We have 2 dogs, our friends have 3, and now we all have Thor. If we had the funds, we would gladly get all of Thor's issues taken care of right now and put him right up for adoption. The problem is, we can't afford his care.

Asking someone to take on Thor as their pet, or even a foster, is a large financial responsibility considering that he is ultimately a stray. None of us are the type of people who go begging for handouts, but we openly admit that we need help to keep Thor safe, healthy, and out of a shelter.

Our main problem right now is finding him a place to stay. So first and foremost we absolutely need a foster home for this sweet baby. He is trained, housebroken, calm, gentle, and gets along with adults, kids, dogs, and cats. He is an angel with some broken wings, and just needs a place to lay his head. If you, or someone you know can foster him, please email me right away.

In terms of his care, we can't in good conscience leave him with a foster family knowing the kinds of vet bills that his care will incur. If you have anything to spare to help us properly care for this boy, you can donate through the link at the bottom of this post.

None of this money will be used for any of ours other dogs, or for anything other than Thor's care: vet bills, food, and meds. If he gets fostered, we will continue to use these funds for Thor so as not to burden his foster family. If you are local and have doggy items that you can donate in lieu of money, please email me and let me know.

We want nothing but the best for Thor. He is a sweet dog, who was dealt a bad hand in life. Under no circumstances will we let this dog be euthanized, but we need help. A foster home and funding are needed to save our boy. He will gladly repay with as much love as he can give, and we will all be forever grateful.

We are not expecting much from anyone, we know that money is tight. However, if through some miracle we receive more funding than needed for Thor, all extra will be given to the Houston SPCA to help care for their sheltered animals. We are true animal lovers, and no penny will be wasted.



Donations are closed: Thank you all so much for your generosity!

Photo Home Tour

I consider us very fortunate with regards to our new home. As the "before" pictures will illustrate, there are very few changes that need to be made immediately. New kitchen appliances will be our first adventure, most likely followed by a new sink and countertops. Other than that, for right now the majority of other changes involve nothing more than switching light fixtures, faucets and knobs (too much brass, yuck!). Even painting can wait since we're kinda digging the neutrality of the current color scheme. It brings out our dark, hand-scraped wood floors. Of course we will be able to nit pick and find a long list of little changes that we'll make here and there, but overall we really lucked out. We can honestly live with the house as-is (white appliances and all) until we're settled and ready to tackle some projects.

So please enjoy this little photo tour of our new place before projects, before painting and even before furniture! I'll try to post pics in such a way that you can get a feel for the layout of the home, but it's a little difficult with a not so wide lens and a not so narrow floor plan. I'm hoping to get a short video tour up as well, but no promises with that just yet.

Anyway, here we go... A photo tour of our home:


Welcome to our new home!



Please come in, as you can see our living room is directly ahead.


If you turn around you will see our office to your left...


...and our dining room to your right.


Let's go down the hall, past the office, and check out our master bedroom...


...and our master bath (that door in the back is our walk in closet).


We're both thrilled to have a jacuzzi tub!


If we go back down the hall, past the dining room this time, you will see our guest bath...


...and our laundry room.


Let's slip through the doorway into the kitchen. (please excuse the mess!)


You'll notice our great walk-in pantry on your right.


If you walk towards the breakfast nook and turn around, you can really see just how much cabinet space we have...


...and the awesome double oven plus even more cabinets!!


If you go past the stairs, you'll be right back in our living room!


Now let's head upstairs.


At the top of the stairs, you can turn right and go into the first bedroom.


This room shares a full bath...


...with the second bedroom at the top of the stairs.


To the left of the stairs, you can see that we have a bright game room...


...and balcony overlooking our living room.


The game room shares this full bath...


...with the third bedroom upstairs.


Let's go back downstairs now...


...and take a quick peek at our backyard...


...and the detached garage with covered breezeway to the house.


If you walk down the driveway, you can really see how pretty our street is.

So that's it... Did you enjoy the tour? Please feel free to visit any time. We'll have plenty of room for guests once we're all settled. Thanks for stopping by! See y'all soon!