House of Bennetts

We interrupt your hangover cure processes to bring you this important message: I really couldn't give two feathers about New Years Eve. It's always overhyped, over-anticipated and a total disappointment. But New Years Day I LOVE. It's a free day off in the middle of the week where you get to do what I am doing right now: set goals and intentions for the coming year. I've broken my goals down into two categories: house projects and daily living. Let's dive in shall we?

House Projects in 2015:

We've already done so much to the house that it seems crazy to have enough projects going forward to make a proper list, but... have you met me? Read this blog? You know my love for a list and a project runs deep. JUDGMENT FREE ZONE PEOPLE!

Laundry Room

In 2015 I want to finish the laundry room. Luckily for us, the stenciling is almost done and the new units get delivered this weekend. I still need LB to build the bench top and the floating shelves, and I need to track down some gold hooks (that aren't $24 each). A trip to Goodwill is in order as is a date with my Rub 'n Buff me thinks.

I want to take out the wall between the kitchen and living room and get a bench top/island in there. Since this is a $2,000+ project, it might not happen this year. #gettingoutofdebt

CROWN MOLDING IN THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE HOUSE. NO PICTURE BECAUSE I AM SERIOUSLY SERIOUS ABOUT GETTING THIS DONE. SHOUTY CAPITALS AND ALL.

We are so close to totally finishing the master bedroom. We need a headboard and some art for the walls and then this puppy is D-U-N-E done. (Last night, Finley was spelling SANTA, S-A-N-T-O. Out of a solidarity, I am making some discreet vowel changes today).

Get a new couch in the upstairs living room. I want a sectional. I need a sectional. Our house is the gathering place for my peeps and I want to make sure that we all have enough room to sit comfortably. Which we don't, currently.

Build/stain/do SOMETHING with the orange dining room table. The dining room is another area were we are SO DARN CLOSE to being done.

And finally, paint the trim black around the outside of the house. I have the paint and need it to not be -3 so that I can do it. Truth be told, in totally lame and not at all DIY of myself, we might hire this out. Something about me or/and LB on a ladder painting makes me think, "No. Just NO."

Daily Living Changes

The biggest thing that I am incorporating this year is a recommitment to think, act, and speak with more LOVE. It's that simple really.

Love

For my Christmas present, Esther sent me a Kindle version of A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles." I started reading it on December 30, and as of today, I have 45 underlined or highlighted passages. I encourage you to read this with us as I have a feeling I am going to make a printable of all of these gorgeous love quotes. So dive in. Speak. Act. Think. Love with a heart that recognizes that it is all, through and through, made from, desires to be the thing that we all know and crave: LOVE.

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In alignment with my LOVE recommitment, I am going to try ever harder this year, to speak LB's love language. Mainly: Acts of Service. He is not joking when he says that he would rather I clean up after myself than tell him that I love him. Sometimes this is exhausting because I feel like I am already doing so much in other areas of our lives together that him telling me I am not doing enough seems... well... insulting. But Loving Well does mean dying to self so we will definitely be working on this area (6.5 years and counting. Isn't marriage funny that way? Every marriage has a sticking point. A place that ALWAYS needs extra love, grace, and patience. I choose VERY DIFFICULTILY to say that this is what makes love and life interesting).

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I also am going to continue to love on my people. My friends are just such incredible people and I always feel that I can do better for them. It's as simple as not allowing us to skip girl's night every week and making special plans to hang out with them every once in a while. I have to be careful here though because I *COUGH*COUGH* have a tendency to overbook myself. Balance folks. Balance.

I never in 8 million years thought that I would have an exercise goal as part of my New Years plan. But never say never. I MUST get to the gym three days a week this coming year. It is time to recommit after my shoulder surgery in September. I don't care if I just go and ride the bike. I just must go. Let me be clear: this is not about weight and it never is for me. It is about health. Get all huffy puffy while walking to work is just ridiculous now.

So share. What are you focusing on in this upcoming year?

We had to buy a new washer and dryer.

The food got scarfed, the Blazers game came on and I started researching like a Treana/crazy person. LB got the following email from me the next day:

"I vote that we do this to the back wall: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252764597810855613/ I already have the stencil and we can pick out a color.

Then we build these shelves above the front loaders, including the "bench" style shelf: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252764597811896212/

Remove the doors and leave it open like they have it. I love it. We can also trim out the doorway like they have. We can borrow Adam’s saw any time. I think we could get this done this weekend and then have delivery scheduled for when we get back from Portland or this weekend/Sunday if you are really anxious to get this done.

I have decided that the unit we want is the Whirlpool Duet Steam: the size does not matter to me (4.3 cubic feet v. 4.5; potato, patato). Here are the price breakdowns.

At Costco the units below are $1999 (appears to be before tax, so add another $100), but include the pedestals ($200-250 each). The warranty on those is only for two years as opposed to at Lowe’s where it is for 3 years for the price shown below. The Costco ones automatically include the hoses and things needed for installation.

We would use the Lowe’s card and take an additional 5% off for a total of $1723. We will pay it down with most of the ER fund of $800 and then the $500 I have going to home improvement with your last check of the month. We’d be able to make up the $400 and change by the end of January for sure and possibly sooner. I also already had plans to beef up the ER Fund for our budget in the next two months. I don’t necessarily care about the pedestals. As you can see in the second pin above with the shelves, having them on the ground really isn’t a huge deal. Your thoughts?" Lowes laundry 1

LB is the world's greatest hubby sometimes and this is one instance where he totally was. He called me and said that I should see if Home Depot had the same units and what the price was. They did and their price for everything and delivered and same warranty was $2,213.87 BEFORE TAX (compared to Lowe's price of $1,723 after the 5% discount).

Cue, husband brilliantness: THE HOME DEPOT PRICE MATCH. If you can't really read what it says below allow me to fill in the blanks: you find a lower price on an identical item, we will match it and beat it by 10%. It says that online purchases are subject to price match only so I called our local home depot to figure out what I needed to do to get the beat it by 10% due to Lowe's crazy low price.

The lovely man that I spoke with said that I should just bring in any documentation that details Lowe's prices. He said that as long as it didn't say "Online Only" and that it appeared that Lowe's had it in stock in Denver, that we could get the beat it by 10% deal. Thus, on a cold Thursday night in December, LB and I headed to Home Depot in search of a deal. (This post is turning into some sort of totally weird Christmas poem thing. Just go with it.)

When we arrived we walked straight to the appliance section and met with the manager. He put in a quick call to Lowe's and honored the price match + 10% off up to $100. We got the washer and dryer for $679 each!!! We also found out that if we got a 5 year warranty (normally $100 for each appliance) instead of a 3 year warranty (normally $80 for each appliance) we would save 10% on those.

For the extra $20 we just did the 5 year warranty. All in all, we came out at $1,700 for the washer, dryer, all the parts, install, delivery, take-away broken ones, and a 5 year warranty. I think that we are going to love them despite the circumstances under which we had to buy them. The only thing that was a bummer was that they can't deliver until January 3rd given our travel and such. Secretly, though, I am glad that it is going to take that long so that I can paint and spruce up the laundry room like I want! :)

Brace yourselves for paint colors, shelving, and stencils galore! Oh my!