**NOTE** This post was written I think in April, so about halfway through a lot of this is written in retrospect.
So since I woke up coherently earlier than usual, bathed, and have a minute to not think about waffles, crepes and frites, I'm updating this bad boy.
Life as of about a week and a half ago has picked up significantly more than normal. We've been working on perfecting frites and authentic belgian sauces for about 6 months now (We shipped in our favorite sauces from Belgium, Lance translated the ingredients from French to English, had a chef tell us what he thought the proper amounts of each spice were, then we took off from there to measure and try and remix and change ingredients...it's been an adventure.) - and we finally were able to launch them last week. It's been a struggle, but the turn out has been incredible! The process is NOW an easy one, and customers love it. Things just keep getting better in that little shop of ours.
That's just the business side of life. Lance and I rent out our basement to a bunch of tenants. We knew that a crying baby wasn't going to go over well with a bunch of college guys, so we've been looking for another home to purchase somewhere in Provo, preferably close to both of our shops, hopefully with a view? We've been looking since around November. We found this one amazing home in Orem - it was a little far, but it was HUGE, had enormous vaulted ceilings, had like 6 fireplaces, a backyard and a huge porch, mature trees (including my favorite - a weeping willow!). It was built in the 70's but had been remodeled, so there was a lot of character without the headaches. We loved it so we started a contract to buy the house. I packed up my entire house, ready to move. The day we were supposed to pay the lady the down payment and start the moving process - actually LITERALLY the hour before Lance was supposed to meet her, he called me and told me that he had a negative feeling about it and that we shouldn't buy the house. One thing I've learned in life is to listen to those feelings, especially when they are loud and clear, so I looked at my living room, full of boxes and stacks of our belongings, and said, "okay!". That's how the entire conversation went. So over time I unpacked and we continued to look for homes. We found one more amazing home last month that I fell in love with, but we had a similar experience to the first home so we decided not to buy it.
However, we found another home that seemed perfect for our situation. It was less expensive than all the other homes AND newly remodeled. So...we bought it! WOOHOO! I really love it too. It's 3,000 square feet - 5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms with a finished basement that has a kitchen, so when guests come they can feel right at home down there.
The upstairs has huge vaulted ceilings and the kitchen is really open. There's a pretty big deck that overlooks Provo. Plus we have a YARD! It's got some work and leveling out to be done, but it's a SPACE that poor Zoe has been needing. I have a small walk-in closet and even my own sink in our bathroom.
Theres some wall color changing that HAS to happen, but other than that the house is pretty much perfect for now. My favorite thing is that I can talk as loud as I want (and y'all know Coslett's love being LOUD), we can play Dance Central until 2am without worrying about anything, I can even stomp around if I want and not feel guilty about our poor tenants downstairs. I'm so excited about this, seriously.
Another really great thing is that we're renting out the top of our old house. Those of you who know me well enough know change is hard for me. That home on Stadium is where Lance and I first met, had our first date, our first kiss, our first home as a married couple...so many memories tied there. I feel so grateful that we can always revisit that place and maybe even one day our kids can live in that house and maybe find their eternal companion like we did.
Anyway, one of the original reasons I began writing this was because of overwhelming gratitude I've felt over the last few days. My parents just happened to be here for conference weekend which turned into moving weekend (which meant listening to saturday conference intermittently and while packing) because we had tenants moving in that upcoming Monday. We signed our contract for our new house on Thursday. That gave us literally two days (Sunday is the day of rest!) to pack and move. I was pretty stressed because the house needed a serious paint job and I am a million months pregnant and paint fumes aren't the most ideal thing for me to be around, AND it's much easier to paint mass amounts of area with out furniture etc in the way... I decided I'd just get over it and have to look at the awful paint until one day when I wasn't pregnant to do the job.
Katherine and BJ and Kate were in town too which was SO much fun having the majority of my favorite people in one place at the same time.
Anyway. The next morning I walked into my new house for the first time and all the walls that I wanted to paint had been totally taped off in preparation for the inevitable paint job of the house! My dad had sneakily helped devise a plan - Nick and BJ picked up painters tape, painting kits, and drop cloths and Katherine, BJ, Heather, and Nick spent hours in the middle of the night taping up the walls for me to just make my life easier. I know that this was NOT ideal or fun for them. When I realized what my friends and siblings had done for me I was totally overwhelmed with so much love and appreciation for them. I hadn't felt so loved and thought about in so long - to think that they went totally out of their way to do this for ME, and for such a vain and superficial I wanted, meant the world to me. Not that I ever forget, but I was just yet again reminded of the incredibly wonderful, giving people that surround me. I will forever be thankful that I have such a thoughtful family and the best friends a girl could ever dream up.
However, we found another home that seemed perfect for our situation. It was less expensive than all the other homes AND newly remodeled. So...we bought it! WOOHOO! I really love it too. It's 3,000 square feet - 5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms with a finished basement that has a kitchen, so when guests come they can feel right at home down there.
The upstairs has huge vaulted ceilings and the kitchen is really open. There's a pretty big deck that overlooks Provo. Plus we have a YARD! It's got some work and leveling out to be done, but it's a SPACE that poor Zoe has been needing. I have a small walk-in closet and even my own sink in our bathroom.
Theres some wall color changing that HAS to happen, but other than that the house is pretty much perfect for now. My favorite thing is that I can talk as loud as I want (and y'all know Coslett's love being LOUD), we can play Dance Central until 2am without worrying about anything, I can even stomp around if I want and not feel guilty about our poor tenants downstairs. I'm so excited about this, seriously.
Another really great thing is that we're renting out the top of our old house. Those of you who know me well enough know change is hard for me. That home on Stadium is where Lance and I first met, had our first date, our first kiss, our first home as a married couple...so many memories tied there. I feel so grateful that we can always revisit that place and maybe even one day our kids can live in that house and maybe find their eternal companion like we did.
Anyway, one of the original reasons I began writing this was because of overwhelming gratitude I've felt over the last few days. My parents just happened to be here for conference weekend which turned into moving weekend (which meant listening to saturday conference intermittently and while packing) because we had tenants moving in that upcoming Monday. We signed our contract for our new house on Thursday. That gave us literally two days (Sunday is the day of rest!) to pack and move. I was pretty stressed because the house needed a serious paint job and I am a million months pregnant and paint fumes aren't the most ideal thing for me to be around, AND it's much easier to paint mass amounts of area with out furniture etc in the way... I decided I'd just get over it and have to look at the awful paint until one day when I wasn't pregnant to do the job.
Katherine and BJ and Kate were in town too which was SO much fun having the majority of my favorite people in one place at the same time.
Anyway. The next morning I walked into my new house for the first time and all the walls that I wanted to paint had been totally taped off in preparation for the inevitable paint job of the house! My dad had sneakily helped devise a plan - Nick and BJ picked up painters tape, painting kits, and drop cloths and Katherine, BJ, Heather, and Nick spent hours in the middle of the night taping up the walls for me to just make my life easier. I know that this was NOT ideal or fun for them. When I realized what my friends and siblings had done for me I was totally overwhelmed with so much love and appreciation for them. I hadn't felt so loved and thought about in so long - to think that they went totally out of their way to do this for ME, and for such a vain and superficial I wanted, meant the world to me. Not that I ever forget, but I was just yet again reminded of the incredibly wonderful, giving people that surround me. I will forever be thankful that I have such a thoughtful family and the best friends a girl could ever dream up.
1 comments:
Oh my gosh! That was so sweet of them! I got tears in my eyes! I can't wait to see pictures. Your taste is impeccable so I know no matter what you do, it will be beautiful. Love you Ash!
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