March in a Nutshell (Part 1)

When I thought it had all melted for good......2hotty and I woke up to just a few more inches of snow to moan and grown about enjoy the first week of March.  Instead of staying at home sipping on some hot chai tea (which would have made more sense if you ask me) 2hotty dragged me out of the house to enjoy the freshly fallen snow (hopefully one last time but you just never know around my neck of the woods)!!

(Our friend Chris and his dog, Madison, came on our little adventure too!)

Scott loves animals (and they love him).  I call him Mr. Dolittle because it seems like all animals flock to him.....like they have this unique connection with him.  He has a sixth sense or something.  They all think he's one of them.....I'm just sure of it.  Just weird.......but kinda cute!!  Oh and little kids/babies they love him too!! It's really cute to watch sometimes.  He'll make a great daddy one day (to both the fur and human kind!).

We have a huge brush pile in our back yard.  Its from a dead pine tree that we chopped down (and yelled 'timber") the second day after moving into our house. Now that the snow has melted we've been trying to widdle down the pile and eventually have plans to DIY an outdoor fire pit something like this (I'm hoping we get it done before our end of summer party!)  I'm sure our neighbors would really REALLY love it if this happened much sooner than later (the brush pile is kind of an eye sore to say the least!).

Madison doesn't seem to have a problem with the pile.  Look at all them sticks she has to play with!!

One of the main reasons I went out for this walk  (because who doesn't love chai tea and relaxing on the couch) was to try out the new lens my brother-in-law got both 2hotty and me for Christmas.  It's a EFS 55-250 mm lens and I must say it really takes some getting use to.   I find that its perfect for taking landscape pictures (if you really want to zoom in close) rather than day to day pictures.  I had fun taking pictures of trees in our back yard.  I love all the colors and textures.  (Now I can't wait to take some photos of all of our blooming flowers! Hooray for Spring!):

(this is one of my faves.....It deserves a title or something! HA!)

Two men and a baby puppy?!?!

I caught 2hotty observing the trees a little too closely if you ask me.  What a weirdo :-)

Planning on moving to the North Pole hunny?!?!  (PETA don't worry.....the dead looking fur thing on his head that looks like its going to eat him alive...is all faux fur!!)

Perhaps future botanist?!?!

When we made it back home I had this "grand" idea to make a snowman (and cross it off my bucket list).  I say "grand" because I was hoping to make a life sized like snowman.  Everyone laughed at me.  There was barely enough snow to make a proper snowball.  HA!!  I attempted anyway (Have I mentioned I'm very stubborn.....because I am!!  "My way or the highway" is my mantra most days!)

What a bad idea.  I ended up making "Frostys" evil step-brother.  We used some twigs for the demon eyes and some leaves (??) for the arms (it looked more like bat wings). HA! (warning: scariest mini snowman you have ever seen pictured below!)

I have mentioned in my last post that 2hotty and I have been hanging low for awhile (pretty much just channeling our inner "hermity" selves and staying in the comforts of our own "hermity" home/town).  I'd say partly due to the fact that the company 2hotty works for has changed the way they were going to pay him.  He is now getting paid once a month (rather than weekly).  And part of the stipulation was for him (and me. hehe.) to wait six full weeks before he (we!) received a paycheck.  I know how weird, huh?!?!  Don't worry it's nothing bad (he didn't lose his job or anything) it's just the way they decided to do it. Which now meant we both would have to be on a spending freeze for that amount of time (the freeze was mostly geared towards me however, and perhaps the new pair of shoes I wanted. shucks.)!  We both decided this transition period would also be a good time to take a break from any home painting/updating/decorating (all of the above. haha.) just until the dust settled a bit (we did end up buying a bathroom vanity that was on sale but more on that later!)  Sometimes it's nice to take a break, step back and rethink things every so often, you know?!?!  But who says you can't have fun without money?!?!  Isn't there a saying: "the best things in life are free".  So cliche but true.  I have a wonderful husband/friends/family/home and what better time than the "no extra money to spare" time, to really embrace it all (not that I don't already....its just it was more relevant during this time).   But don't fret too long my pets....... we made it to the finish line (thank goodness). Yay!  We were able to live off of what we had in checking and a little from savings for the full six weeks!  Can I get a big round of applause (Or you can just picture me clapping my hands in a circle.....with a big grin on my face. haha!)  It's shoe time baby (just kiddin hunny)!!  I now feel like such a responsible grown up. HA!  See why it is SO important to have a little nest egg built up in a savings account just in case of any financial emergencies like these?!?!  If you don't have one already......START ONE  (six months worth of your expenses is a rule of thumb)!

With all that to say (about our little spending freeze).......now let me introduce to you our first official breakdown in the new house and the first official "this sucks you know what" grin from my Mr.  What's life without a little bump in the road (not my life that's for sure!)?!?!.:

Our washer machine decided to dump us.  Yes it was kinda hurtful at first. So much for a "spending freeze" huh?!  The above picture is 2hottys reaction to the whole situation.  It kinda makes me laugh now that I think about it.  Both his reaction that that the washer decided to wimp out on us.  I laugh because when we were buying our house the washer and dryer were not included in the previous owners asking price.  We had them added into our offer.  We were so excited when they had accepted (we thought maybe they overlooked it).  When we first walked through the house we didn't (at least I didn't) notice how old they were........I just thought "wow" hey they have a front loader washer and they aint cheap. In reality both the washer and dryer were already about ten years old (I'd say that's about the average time they are suppose to last anyway).  So bottom line is A. they are on their last stretch and 2. We ended up paying for a new washer (and eventually new dryer) anyway. We did have a good five months of use so it wasn't totally a loss. :-)

Here I am booing and sharing my sadness with Scott (but in reality I don't mind so much.  Anything to spend a little moolah......even if it was on a new washer machine.)  Please look past my outfit/and lack of makeup......I call this my weekend grungy chic look!

Our laundry room isn't finished yet.  I dream of a fabulous laundry room someday.  It's a BIG room and has so much potential but "OUI" where do we even start!  I often joke that we are on the "five year plan" when it comes to this house.  It'll probably take us five years (or longer) to update/finish all of the things we would like......and that is A-OK with us.  I'd say this room fits somewhere on the three to four year timeline (we have a long ways to go. sad face.):

Yes this picture gives me much anxiety. I hate having clutter around the house and well this rooms middle name is CLUTTER!!

With all that to say, we ended up going out and buying a new one that same weekend. It actually happened at the most convenient time.  Both Scott and I had a three day weekend from work.  (Bonus!  I considered myself lucky, because usually I'm far from it.  Oh and I had major laundry to do that weekend too!  Double Bonus!)  2hotty went down to do some laundry when it had started to make a REALLY loud noise.  So we decided to call a local company (actually the same company the washer was purchased from) to come out and look at it.  The technician told us it needed to be replaced. The broken part (I think the barrel??) was under warranty but we would have to pay for shipping and labor.  We thought "Hey, that's great news!"  Then he dropped the bomb on us.  We would be looking at a six HUNDRED dollar figure after it was all said and done.  Oh no no no no NO!!  (back to being unlucky. womp womp.) We taught about it for a while and had ultimately decided that the ten year old washer was not worth the trouble and a brand new one was the way to go (fosho!)!!

Meet our new washer:

Oooh lala so shiny and pretty! Never taught I'd say that about a washer, but welcome to the world of homeownership (I never knew that trips to Menards and Home Depot were going to be a weekly thing either!).  When it came time to picking the right one for us and our budget we turned to Scott's dad.  Why?!?!  He is a consumer reports junkie!!  I kid you not. 

We turned to the front loading washer section of the book and saw that this one was rated number one:

But coming at a thousand dollars it was just not happening. Common one thousand dollars to wash 2hottys panties.....I don't think so......even if they are cute panties (so goin to die for this......dyeing...dead!! haha!).  For some reason I can justify spending that amount of money on a Louis Vuitton purse but some reason I wasn't going to for a lousy washer machine.  You now see where my priorities are (I'm not at all materialistic....not one bit....nuh uh.....not me! hehe).

 First we had looked into getting this one, rated number twenty in the book and coming in at about six hundred dollars (same amount it would've cost to replace the old one):

But after some research and reading online reviews (which were mostly bad BTW) we decided we'd keep on truckin.  We spent a couple hours going from store to store comparing prices and models.  Which is a great tip btw.  Do some research first and allow yourself some time to compare prices at a few different stores in your area.....oh and read other peoples reviews....they're the most helpful.  We were able to find our new washer in our hometown (keeping it local is a huge plus!!) and we also found that they had the best deal around town too (wam bam to that!) The new washer we purchased was rated number four in CR (a Kenmore....I forget the model but can hunt it down if anyone is interested!) and after some negotiating we ended up buying an eight hundred dollar machine for only about six hundred dollars.  Sweet!  Another tip, bring your negotiating husband along......its wonderful (he is a negotiating machine and my little King Penny Pincher!). 

We also saved some money on delivery and installation.  How?!?!  Well we just so happened to know a friend with a truck AND my brother just so happened to be up visiting from Chicago.......so we borrowed him (and his muscles) to help carry it to the laundry room in our basement.  2hotty also carefully went over the directions to install and align the washer properly.  The instructions will be your friend.  Easy Peasy.

After all of the "hard" labor intensive work (ya right!) 2hotty chugged down a liter of coke and was ready to relax with a few drinks. (He says its tradition to do so if he remotely comes close to working up a sweat.  Dream on hunny......dream on!).

So that pretty much concludes the first half of the month of March for us.  We endured some financial change when 2hottys company transitioned to monthly paychecks (I kinda like it!).  We took advantage of the last snowfall before welcoming Spring (more on that in Part 2) and I built a pretty wimpy (but scary lookin) snowman.  Oh and lastly, we experienced our first house breakdown (even if we were on a spending freeze) which lead us on a hunt to buy a new washer machine the same weekend.  So ya overall not anything overly exciting but we took advantage of it the best we could.  Next up,  I'll include our eighty degree weather we welcomed with open (white as a ghost) arms not to long after the last snowfall, our blurry St. Patty's day celebration with friends, and anything else I'm forgetting to share right now (because I'm focusing more on watching the Real Housewives of New Jersey right about now.  Anyone watch?!?!  I LOVE IT....SO JUICY....TOTALLY UP MY ALLEY.....DEVOUT FAN I AM.....I DON'T CARE FOR THERESA!!) 

xoxo Joanna D.