The Coffey Grounds

Let me just first apologize for the site being down for so long.  We decided to take it down when we put our house for sale because we didn’t want any snoopy potential buyers knowing we already had a new place.  Little did we know our house would sale in 4 days and we’d close three weeks later.  What ensued what a whirlwind to finish renovations at the new place and get moved in.  So, we didn’t have time to get the site back up for a while.

We are still in a state of renovations at the new place.  Nothing major – just ALOT of detail finish work like putting in shoe molding where the wood floors were installed, paint touch ups, installing lights, etc.  But, even with all the projects that surround us, we are LOVING the new house.  It really feels like home, even though it’s not done.  We thought we might have regrets giving up a house we loved so much, but this was definitely the right move.  We will create many happy memories here and hopefully raise our children in a great home and neighborhood with LOTS of room to play.

Between school (this semester is BRUTAL), work (squeezing in shifts when possible), and working on the house, we have been hermits lately just working to keep above water.  But, things are slowly getting better and I think this summer we will really make progress with unpacking (yep – its going to take us that long – I’ve just come to accept that.)  There are alot of projects on the books – mainly to increase storage.  While this house has fabulous closets, I lost alot of cabinet storage so Mike will be adding some in the kitchen and the theatre room so I can have room to unpack alot of items in boxes with no where to go.

But in the meantime, I am taking photos of the progress and will upload them as soon as I find the thing to upload them with.  But here’s a cool pic Mike took when we had a few inches of snow a few weeks go.

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Sorry for the short notice, but our site will be taken down for little bit while our house is on the market. Will be back shortly…hopefully!!!

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I know I promised photos, but since we are decluttering and staging our current house for sale…we are in a bit of upheaval around here. I took tons of photos of the new place so we can post before and after pics, but they are still on the camera…and I have no clue where the gadget is to upload them on my computer is. Not to mention my computer that stores the photos and uploads them on the website is not setup anymore. Argh!

The past 2 weeks have just flown by. With the holidays, me working as much as I can during the break, and spending every waking moment doing home renovations, things have been crazy! We have a TON of painting done at the new place and the psychedelic entry chandelier is a thing of the past. So far, it’s looking great and feeling more like home. We still haven’t chosen flooring and the new siding will go in soon (hopefully this week.)

Anyway…other than that, not much else is going on. Oh wait…in other exciting news, our dear friends Fabi and Jose welcomed Joseph into the world on December 23rd. He’s absolutely precious! So many wonderful blessing this year.

The start of 2010 is so exciting for us. We have so many things planned for this year that will be both positive and life changing. I can’t wait to experience the year…

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I’m SO SORRY for not posting updates lately.  Between finals, then buying the new house (on the same day I might add), then working on the new house (so much to do), starting a new job (yea!) and the holidays, it has been CRAZY around the Coffey Grounds!!!  I took alot of “before” photos of the new digs and will post them this week.  We’ve made a good bit of progress, but have so much more to do.  Plus, we need to get some stuff done around our current house to get it on the market in 3 weeks.  Yikes!

I’m working for a nurse staffing firm in Austin.  I just finished a week at Christopher House, a local hospice facility and LOVED IT!!!  It was just amazing and definitely planted a few seeds of options I’d like to pursue for my Master’s coursework.  I never thought I’d love hospice like that, but Palliative Care is just so rewarding.  I actually felt like I was making a difference….which is so fulfilling!

Mike was off this week and will be off again next week.  But, he has spent most of his spare time at the new home working.  I finally convinced him to take the day off tomorrow to rest a little. I’m exhausted too…if I’m not working 12 hour shifts, I’m at the new house painting.  Ugh…but it will be great to get most of it done BEFORE we move in!

Anyway…sorry for the delay.  Photos coming soon!!

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We are counting down the days until this Friday.  Why Friday?  That’s the day the semester is over for me (FINALLY) and we close on the new house!  Woohoo!  I think we are still in shock all this is happening, but also very excited.  In other news, it looks like I have a job!  It’s not 100% yet, but I think it will go through this week.  It’s with a local staffing company so I’ll work in a variety of settings including hopsice, psych, and long term care facilites.  It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but it’s great experience.

Mike is doing great.  He’s been busy packing and doing stuff around the house to prep for putting it on the market.  We had one last party in our last last night when we hosted a baby shower for our friends Fabi and Jose with our friends Terri and Richard.  It was a blast and we enjoyed some great time with friends (and watching the Horns win!!)

Well…I’m sorry to run, but I need to help Mike pack.  The next few days will be full of final exam studies, so I need to start packing now.  Enjoy this fabulous cold weather!

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Well the final negotions are done and we are set to go!  No closing date set yet, but it will be before Christmas (what a gift!).  We are hoping it will be the second week of December so Mike can spend his Christmas break on stuff there.  We locked in a great mortgage rate, so it looks like all the stars are aligning!  I’m stuck getting last stuff done for the semeseter  (2 weeks left!!!) so Mike is starting to get our house ready for the market.  We’re hoping to go on the market in mid-January.

Next week we are going on La Porte for Thanksgiving.  We are really looking forward to seeing everyone and eating a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner prepared by Mom and Ken.

Hope everyone is doing well!!!

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I’m sorry for the lack of posts lately!  Thea last month or so has just flown by!  Mainly we have had a trip to Dallas to celebrate the TX/OU game and throw a baby shower for our dear friend Summer and Paul.  I have posted photos in our Picasa album.

Last weekend we traveled to north Louisiana for the annual Hampton Family reunion.  It was an absolute blast as usual and we had so much fun.

School has been crazy lately and needless to say I am VERY ready for this semester to be over.  And to add to the craziness….we are in the process of buying a new home.  Yes…I know what your thinking…but you’ve done so much to the current home.  And you are correct.  While it kills us to sell this place as we love it dearly, we found a good deal on a home less than 5 minutes away.  It’s larger, a GREAT layout for the future kiddos, and is on one acre so we have tons of room to spread out and Mike can build his workshop.    Our offer was accepted yesterday and the inspection is scheduled for next week.  Baring no major issues on inspection, we are ready to go. (A HUGE thank you to Mom’s boyfriend Ken for helping make this all possible!)

We will hopefully close in December and put our home on the market in mid January.  We plan to make a few changes to the  new house BEFORE moving in this time (a lesson we learned from this place.)  Nothing major, just installing some new flooring, major painting (I can’t stand white walls), and changing a few fixtures.  There are plenty of projects to tackle in the future (refacing the kitchen cabinets!!!) but all of it can wait and be done over time without major disruption (woohoo).  And since we plan to be adding to our family relatively soon…that is a VERY good thing.  I’ve posted some photos below.  They aren’t the greatest, but you can get the idea.

This is a horrible shot of the front - it nearly stopped us from looking at it. But, it does look a bit better in person.

View from dining room into entry on left and living room in back.

The kitchen....so much potential!

From living room looking to entry. Yes...the chandalier is one of the first things to go

From the living room looking into kitchen.

Back of home. LOVE all the windows! There is SO MUCH light in the home.

The HUGE backyard

Needless to say, we are super excited, but sad and scared at the same time.  Sad to leave our first home that we truly love and have put so much of ourselves into.  And scared about temporarily having two mortgages.  Yikes!  But, we will price our home well and its one of the few completely updated homes in the neighborhood, so we are pretty confident it will be okay.  Also, we are VERY happy that the step-up tax credit was approved by congress.  Our current home isn’t really a “first time” home for most people, so we are happy to hopefully have some people that will be interested in purchasing a home by April (and hopefully sooner!).

I’ll keep you updated!

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Hey there!  Wow – this week has flow by as always.  We are LOVING this cooler weather and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s UT/Colorado game in cool weather – woohoo!

John and I chillin with our Kings of Leon neighboor - local news anchor Olga Campos! (She was hilarious!)

ACL was a blast last weekend (minus the rain and mud.)  Friday was gorgeous!  Saturday had great shows, but the rain was pretty frustating.  By the end of the Dave Matthew’s Band on Saturday night, we were knee deep in mud.  After that, John and I decided that if it rained that night, we were not going to go to mud pit awaiting us on Sunday.  And of course…it rained three inches that night.  I was sad to miss some good shows on Sunday, but Saturday had most of what I was looking for.  Flogging Molly, Zach Brown Band, and the Decemberists were especially good.  DMB was good, but I was hoping to hear more of their “classics” (they didn’t even play Crash.)  All in all, it was a great time.

Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Hangin' in the rain waiting on Dave Matthews Band

Waiting on Flogging Molly.

Me, Steven, and John before Zach Brown Band. (We all went to high school together.)

Our ACL group. Me, Nita, John, and Melissa (John's sister.)

The muddy aftermath...and this was a good area on Saturday night!

John, Melissa, and Nita's shoes after we tried to "clean" them off. (I had my mud boots on!)

Mom also sent me some pics from last Friday’s St. John’s tailgate before the big La Porte vs Deer Park game (LP won 7-3!).

Mom and Ken

This weekend we are going to try and take it easy a little, with fun, work, and school mixed in between.  Tonight we are just hanging out.  Tomorrow I have some things for school and if the weather holds out, Mike will work on his car.  Then Sunday I’ll catch up on school stuff while Mike works.  But, we are getting excited for next week’s trip to the big D for TX/OU weekend.  I’m not sure yet if we are going to try and get tickets at the game or just watch it at a friend’s house, or just go to the fair.  Any which way – it will be fun to spend Friday and Saturday night with some long distance friends!  I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this GORGEOUS Fall weather!

Hook em!

Jamie and Jay.

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Mike finally updated Word Press which seems to have fixed our little photo uploading issue! I’ll try to go back and insert some pics. Things are going well here! I’m staying super busy with school and Mike has done the same with work. But, we are managing to have a little fun on the weekends. Honestly…the past month has flown by, but I can’t seem to remember anything we did! How does that happen?

This weekend I’m headed to ACL (that’s the Austin City Limits Music Festival for all you non- Austinites   )with John and Melissa H. while Mike stays here and veges (sp?) a little and gets some stuff done on his list. I’m looking forward to a little fun. I’ve been trying to get everything on my to-do list done so I can take 2 days off. With a big exam on Monday, I’m afraid I won’t get a whole weekend off. But, I’m sure we’ll still manage to have fun!

Other than that, not too much is new. We have TX/OU weekend in the big D coming up in a few weeks and the Hampton Family reunion in early November. We are looking forward to both trips! Also, I think we have decided to possibly get away over Thanksgiving. We have been trying to fit a trip in before I start working (hopefully) in December, but nothing seems to be working out. So, we are going to see if Thanksgiving will work out. We are so burned out and need to GET AWAY! Not sure where yet, so feel free to make suggestions! I’m thinking something tropical…hmmmm…so many choices!

I’ll try to post some photos this weekend from my iPhone app. Lots of friends are going, so I’m hoping to catch up with some old faces. Have a great weekend!

Tags: Mike and Michelle

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Yep – that’s my new official title!  We found out last Thursday that I passed my boards and am officially a registered nurse.  Needless to say, that was a load off!  If I had not passed, it could have presented a serious issue coming up in the seemster.  In our advanced assessment class we are doing things like pelvic exams and other things where a license is required.  Also, it’s much easier now to concentrate on school.  I felt like I was just getting through day in class and not giving everything my full attention.  So, now I can just concentrate on schoolwork.  That feels great! I celebrated with a facial and haircut Friday afternoon, then Mike took me out to fabulous dinner at Perry’s Friday night.  It was wonderful to just relax a little and enjoy the success of a hard year’s work!

This weekend, we caught up more on our to-do list and put the finishing touches on the new shed,  got the yard back in shape, and even cleaned up Mike’s office!  It felt good to catch up on stuff around the house.  I want to decorate for the fall, but it seems a little premature given that it’s still 90+ degrees outside!  I’ll definitely do it next weekend.  I haven’t gotten too much studying done, but will be back to that full time tomorrow.

Mike is doing great.  He’s been enjoying a little more free time lately since work has settled down a little.  He’s been catching up on things around here and working on his car most weekends.  Other than that we are just living life and planning the upcoming activities for the Fall (which seems to be packed already…how’d that happen?)

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