Site Redesign

Welcome to the newly redesigned Leather Bound Journal!  Mostly it is just us slapping some new paint on the walls and making it feel a bit more like "us" but we are happy with the changes.  That lovely banner you see at the top may change from time to time if we get tired of it but overall the site is cleaner and more fun.

We are so happy that so many people come and read our blog so thank you so much if you are a consistent reader.  In the coming weeks and months there will be an influx of house related posts because today we sign the papers and buy our new home!

Thank you again for reading and we hope you enjoy all of the things to come.

P.S. Si usted habla español, haga clic aquí.

First make it possible.  Then make it beautiful.  Then make it fast.

Eric

Building an Entertainment Center Part 2

We last left our heroes half way through building an entertainment center.  They had just put up the inner walls but had yet to build any drawers or even the top for that matter.  Let's join them now...

This last Saturday we were able to set aside a good amount of time to continue work on the entertainment center that has been sitting in my parent's house for weeks.  Our goals were to get the drawers completely built and installed and to get the top done.  If there was time for more then so be it but it probably wasn't going to happen.  I don't know if you know this, I didn't, but building drawers takes a lot of work.  We needed to make them flush with the front of the entertainment center and to do that we MacGyver'd what you see below.

It actually worked out really well.  The drawers themselves were easy to build after a quick stop at Colonial Building Supply for another piece of wood (thanks a lot original shopping list).  After countless remeasurings and levelings the drawers were in and we were happy.  My dad also picked up a longer clamp.  We couldn't finish the top because we didn't have a clamp long enough to make sure the pieces of wood were flush with each other.  Having this new tool made that task easy and Carly did a great job of sanding it all down and making it nice and smooth.

We still have a long ways to go before it is ready to be stained and go in our new home but we made some great progress.  All that's left are cabinet doors, a shelf, a back, and sanding and finishing.  That's not too much is it?


First make it possible.  Then make it beautiful.  Then make it fast.

Eric

Progress...

The house has changed so much since our last post!  I can't wait for you to see the photos that we took today. Eric and I are stopping by the house almost every day now.  Only 16 days until our tentative close date so there are always new things to see.  This week they worked on the paint, trim, cabinets and started on flooring. As an FYI for those who don't already know we chose a gray paint for walls, white trim and ceilings, dark brown laminate flooring in the kitchen, white cabinets, and dark counter tops.  You can see a little bit of most of these things in the pictures that Eric took.  So without further ado...Pictures! Again, we apologize for the quality of the pictures.  This time we forgot a camera altogether so they were taken with Eric's iPhone.

Kitchen area:

Up close with the cabinets:

We are still trying to figure out which refrigerator to buy to fill up that big space in the corner!

Here is a good picture of the gray paint color and the contrast with the white trim.

Laundry room - we didn't go with laminate in here.  We only did the upgrade on the main floor

Second bathroom

Office Nook/Landing:

Master Bedroom: I love the vaulted ceilings in the master!  I need to find a cool light fixture to fancy up the room.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that they got all of the lights installed and the power is on!! That's kind of a big deal :)  I can't wait to see what gets done this week.  I want to see the floors and all of the counter tops finished.  Now we just have to start packing. So not looking forward to that part of it all!

xo,

Carly

Another Season of Ups and Downs

They finally came!  Let me back up.  The very first date I ever took Carly on was to a Real Salt Lake game.  I've grown up playing soccer throughout my life.  I never played competitively but I spent my time playing in recreation leagues, co-ed leagues, indoor leagues, and outdoor leagues.  After going to Spain I fell in love with the game even more.  Anyone who has lived outside of the United States for any period of time will know that the rest of the world just loves soccer and if you know anything about soccer you know that Spain is a fantastic place to find some of the highest quality soccer in the world.  When I got back I vowed to support my local team, and so I took Carly to Real Salt Lake's home opener of 2009.  I explained some of the more intricate rules of soccer to Carly as the game went on but overall it was an amazing experience.  Robbie Findley scored a hat trick!  We were so in love with the game and the team that we went to every single game of the 2009 season including the MLS All-Star game that just happened to be hosted in Salt Lake that year.  We learned all the player's names and little tid-bits about them and followed the team all the way to win their first MLS Cup.

After that season we were hooked.  We have been Season Ticket holders ever since and this year is no exception.  Today was a fantastic day because our tickets arrived along with some of the season ticket holder goodies!  We got all of our season tickets which include 20 home games(17 regular season games, 2 CONCACAF games, and 1 Playoff game), stuff for our key chains, patches for our season ticket holder scarves(which we will get at the home opener on the 17th of March), and a fantastic letter from the organization.

They are a great team and they play beautiful soccer.  I've included a few videos and pictures of us at games and the team in general.  If you are ever in Utah on a Saturday we would be thrilled to bring you to a game!  The atmosphere is unlike any other sporting event and you really will have a lot of fun even if they only score one goal and that happens to win the game.  So here's to Real Salt Lake!  I hope the season is a great one with as few injuries as possible!



First make it possible. Then make it beautiful. Then make it fast.

Eric

Our House...

In the middle of our street. :)  Did that song pop into anyone else's head when they read that heading or just Eric's?  He started singing it as he watched me start this post.  Anyway, so we thought it was about time for us to do a formal house update. We got a call from our realtor this week to set up our final walk-through dates and our tentative closing date.  March 26th, baby!  Can you believe it's so close?!  Eric and I started the house hunting process back in July.  It seems almost surreal that we are in our final month of waiting.  So excited!

We ran over to our place today to see what progress had been made this past week.  They've got all the dry wall up, taped, and the plaster/texture done.  The trim is up along with the doors.  I think painting should be their next step.  In the spirit of full disclosure I'm actually really nervous to see the paint color.  I'm worried that the shade of gray I choose is going to end up darker than I expected.  Here's to hoping it's going to be okay. In the meantime Eric took some pictures of our home to share.

This first picture is of our combined living and dining room.  The dining table will go back by those 3 windows to create sort of a little dining nook.

From the living room looking back towards the entry and the staircase taking you up to the bedrooms.

This is our walk-in pantry!  I'm honestly more excited about this little closet than almost anything else in the house.

The staircase

This is a view from the loft/landing looking into two bedrooms straight ahead and the second bathroom on the right.

This corner is going to be Eric's domain.  He is planning on putting a built in desk and is already having dreams of a dual-monitor system for his computer.

The master bedroom.  The little slice of glass you can see on the left is a sliding door that goes out to a balcony.

This is our closet in the master bedroom.  So much space!!

Back on the main floor...This is a view looking into the kitchen area from the living room.

I can't wait for our house to be done but I'm also getting really nervous.  It seems like so much space for me to decorate and organize.  I don't really have any idea where to start.  I guess I just need to pick one room and take it one step at a time.  I think I can do that.  Anyone who knows me at all knows that I'm always very level-headed and cool under pressure, right?  HA!  So, if anyone has any brilliant ideas for decorating an entire home or at least staying sane in the process please share!

xo,
Carly

Hey Eric...Have You Seen My Phone?

Oh how many times have I heard this?  It is a daily occurrence for Carly to misplace her phone and the question gets asked, "Have you seen my phone?"  The last time this happened we had been working on some furniture at my parents house, surprise I know, and we had just arrived home to our house when Carly asked the question.  We searched a bit and were unsure whether she had left it at my parents house or if it was somewhere in our home.  Luckily, I had turned on a little known feature on the iPhone known as Find My iPhone.

For those of you with iPhones the option to turn this on is under Settings->iCloud, turn it on.  Once that has been turned on you need another iPhone to find yours, obviously since you don't have yours on hand.  We used my iPhone to log in with her credentials and quickly found out that Carly's phone was still at my parents house.  A quick phone call and a short drive later Carly had her phone back.  The great thing about this app is that if you find that your iPhone is in a location and you aren't sure how it got there, i.e. someone stole your phone, it gives you the option to lock or even erase all the data on your phone.  The GPS map is great and can help you in tracking down the lost iPhone.  The only issue that we have now is when it is in the house the GPS doesn't seem to be accurate enough to tell us the phone is under a blanket.

I hope this helps someone else like it has helped us.  I am unaware of any Android type apps that do the same thing, too lazy to Google right now and I would love to hear stories from people who have used these apps so if you have please comment below.  There truly is an app for everything.


First make it possible.  Then make it beautiful.  Then make it fast.

Eric