Office Plans

Remember way back when I found an awesome desk for a steal and made it over? Well, that's pretty much the last thing I did in the office and since then it's been sitting there getting buried deeper and deeper beneath piles of paper. This room also still had boxes from moving day..never unpacked. I've decided it's time to put some focus on it and get it functional and pretty! Here is what we're starting with.

Mess. Mess. Mess.  See that cabinet to the left with the door open? I got two filing cabinets for free and I like them because they don't look like filing cabinets but that door doesn't stay closed. Definitely need to find a solution for that.

This is everything that is waiting for the dining room hutch. It's going to be a big project to get the hutch up here which is why we've been procrastinating. We need to just do it.

That whole right wall was just lined with pictures and boxes that had been sitting there since September.

Here are my goals for the office:

-New paint color. I'm leaning towards something fun like a bright green. It's too dark and masculine in here.
-Fix that darn filing cabinet door
-New furniture layout....the big desk, in-swinging doors, and bulky filing cabinets make the room feel small. I think I'm going to try shifting everything to the far wall.
-New light fixture...be gone boob light!
-Curtains-may relocate the living room curtains to here
- Client white board and bulletin board
-Working printer...all that will take is finding the power cord! Lost in the move...

I took some time today to clear out the office in preparation. By doing so I'm fully committed because check out the state of our dining room now. Such a lovely sight the second you walk through the front door. Hopefully this will kick my butt into gear though!

It was kind of funny clearing out the office. Derrick was the clear "phone a friend choice" to anybody judging us on our book tastes. I'll give you .5 seconds to decide which books belong to which person.

And it was only magnified when I found our diplomas and opened them up:

Yep....no idea where mine is :) Hoping my mom can track it down because I'd like to get both framed and up on the wall!

For now though, we have time because I haven't even settled on a paint color yet...that needs to happen ASAP! Anyone have a favorite green? I have a photo of what I want but I'm having trouble matching it!

Wilmington Heading to Nationals Again

Derrick and I traveled up to Axton, VA on Sunday to watch Jack's team compete in Regionals. Wilmington was top seed going in and this was the tournament that would determine if they would make it to Nationals for the third time in a row. I was telling Jack that most teams never make it to regionals. I never went in college and Derrick only made it once. It's pretty neat to be a part of a team where Nationals is the expectation, not the goal.

The weather was not great....cold and wet, although the rain did hold off most of the time and it did start to warm up in the afternoon. We watched Wilmington win their first two games against William and Mary and Virginia. Those wins locked them into a nationals spot and they finished the day in finals against UNC.

Matt and Jack have been best friends since elementary school. It's been fun to watch them grow up together and now they both play on the team.

Jack borrowed some layers from a teammate so he humored me with an action shot.

Dad met us there to watch too.

The game against UNC did not go has desired. Wilmington had just beaten UNC two weeks early at sectionals but did not come out playing their strongest game on Sunday. UNC was playing very well and ended up beating Wilmington pretty handily. It was a frustrating game to watch and an even more frustrating game to play, I'm sure. I've never seen Jack look that mad after any game before...and I've watched him in a lot of sports.

Despite the loss I still think Jack played great. You could tell that he was not happy with the score but he didn't let that keep him from playing his game and fighting.  Ultiworld is a ultimate website that does recaps, previews, and discussions of big tournaments. They had a preview article about this tournament and a recap afterwards. Jack's been mentioned on Ultiworld a lot in his short ultimate career but I think this article had my favorite quote about him so far:  "Williams was still brilliant, fighting through to the last point and emerging perhaps as the Seamen's most fearsome competitor."

That's so true! He's a team player and he plays every single point without focusing on the score. He wants to earn every point. We're all super proud of him and of Wilmington! Unfortunately Derrick and I won't be able to go to Nationals but I'm already crossing my fingers for another quarters/semi-final/finals appearance so we can watch him on ESPN again this year!

Happy Things

Things that have made me happy in the last week. 

Everybody needs a break from screen time every once in a while. I'm on the floor and Cros is on the couch (per usual) and I turn to find her like this.

Crosby got her hairs cut and looks like a palm tree again. She's been described as emaciated, terrifying and looking like a lawn mower ran her over. Just an average summer for my girl :)

Closing tomorrow bright and early on this cutie pie. This house has gone through a transformation and it's been fun to be a part of.

These hilarious fat cats that met my clients and I at the door of a showing last week. They were quite the pair and probably had a combined weight of Crosby.

Cheers to enjoying another good week ahead!

Surprise Friend Visit

We got to see our dear friends Claire and Travis over the weekend. They were in NC for a family reunion and didn't have a flight out of Charlotte until Monday morning. Coincidentally Travis' birthday was on Monday so Derrick and I drove to Winston on Sunday to surprise him at dinner. Claire set it all up with some other friends, Dan and Hope, and we ended up sitting there for three hours not wanting to go home.

None of us knew what Travis was doing in this picture but this was his genuine pose when his birthday cake came out. It was hilarious.

So of course mocking was in order.

We were so happy to see them, we've missed them after their move up north. I'm excited to see them again in a month though and this time for more time!

House Quirks

I've seen a lot of unique decorating and design choices throughout my short career as a realtor and sometimes I just have to take a picture. Thought it would be fun to compile the photo-worthy features here!

For instance, last night my clients and I stepped into the Land Before Time! How amazing is this mural? Not sure if it's a selling feature but I think I'd actually have a hard time painting over it if I were the new owners!

Last week I showed this amazing 1890 historic home. Imagine my surprise when I open the lock box and find a true skeleton key! And it wasn't a joke, I actually had to use it to open the door!

A couple weeks ago I showed this fixer upper and was blown away by the wall paper in the bathroom. If it were me, I'd renovate everything but the bathroom. No way I could take that wallpaper down!

And last year I showed a very expensive and ornate home that had a doorknob the size of a dinner plate. I felt like I was driving a car when I opened the door. 

This was was more just in awe. This was a new construction home and check out the size of this bonus room. It seriously felt like the size of a basketball court. They had three different zones set up in the same room!

And this is my favorite though probably the least interesting photo. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I saw this chandelier in the eat in kitchen. The listing was very clear that this chandelier did not sell with the house. I was expecting something ornate and incredible since the sellers clearly wanted to keep it. To each their own I suppose!

Gotta love this job and all of the adventures that come with it!

Wilmington Wins North Carolina!

We did lots of frisbee things this weekend. Jack and his team were in town for their sectionals tournament so 4 dirty frisbee players showed up at our house on Saturday night after a long day of play.

Raleigh has just started a semi-pro team called the Raleigh Flyers. Jack is on the team but can't play until his college season is over. They had their opening game on Saturday though and we all went to cheer them on. It was super cool to see so much of the frisbee community out to support them and to see so many familiar faces out on the field. It was under the lights and perfect weather!

The Raleigh Flyers started the season with their first win! Can't wait for Jack to get out there, it'll be fun to watch!

On Sunday Derrick and I went out to watch Wilmington play in Sectionals. They beat App State and then beat UNC's Darkside in finals to become the sectional champions! This was a big win for them. UNC is a tough team and they  hadn't played them since the fall so it was good for them to play a tough game and come out on top. Here's to hoping they can have the same results at Regionals!

Pretty Pretty Mailbox

I have found the most amazing plant nursery in Raleigh! To be fair it's one of the only nursery's I've been to so maybe they are all this cool, but it's huge and awesome! My Dad helped draw up a plan for our yard and I implemented phase 1 last week. We started with this. 

The plan was to create a bed around the mailbox for a couple of reasons. One, it would be pretty. Two, mowing around the mailbox is a pain the butt and we didn't want to do that anymore. So,  I used the hose to lay out the size and shape of the bed. When I was at the nursery I picked up some manure, soil conditioner, and my plants!

I went off the grid a little bit. My dad had suggested a juniper plant to be a low lying ever green but when I saw them at the nursery I didn't love them. I found these little green rosette looking guys and totally fell in love with them. We'll see how they fill out and end up looking but for now, I think they are adorable. 

Digging up the grass was the worst part! It was so hard and took so long! At least I had a Crosby to keep me company. This was also all while Derrick was at work so don't think he sent me out to work while he was chilling inside. He would have helped out if I had waited for him.

Naive me thought I could just neatly lay the grass in this box to dispose of. Crosby thought it would work too. She packed it down for me nice and tight. 

This is about the time I decided this looked good enough and almost called it a day. Looks good right?

Finally, here's what it looked like after I cleared the rest of the grass and planted my new plants. See how well I kept that grass in the box top? 

Later that week I went back to the nursery for a mandavilla. It's this climbing plant with big pink flowers that is going to be gorgeous behind the mailbox! I had to wait to get it later in the week because someone had claimed all the pink ones earlier in the week. I bought this trelis at Lowes and cut it down to the height of the mailbox. 

Gigantic rain storms have washed some of my dirt away but I think it looks pretty good! Lowes is having a sale on mulch right now so we're going to swing by and pick some up this evening and then the mailbox should be done!

Phase 1 complete! Phase bajillion million to go. 

Easter Birthday Day

This year Derrick's birthday fell on the same day as Easter. He turned the big 28 and rang it in with style. I decided to fully embrace the holiday overlap and celebrate Derrick in full Easter fashion. His whole family came into town also so we got to enjoy Ellie's first Easter as well as a rowdy egg hunt with the older kids.

The night before I whipped up this super easy and cute egg banner out of paint chips. I can't take credit for the idea. You can get a full tutorial here. I really love how it turned out and it's still hanging up. I'll probably leave it for a while.

When Ellie arrived we let her open her Easter basket from us which included these super adorable Easter bunny ear hair clips. I got almost her entire basket from the Target dollar spot. Gotta love that place! The only splurge was on her bunny which we had monogrammed with her initials on the ear. It's adorable and super soft. I hope she keeps it for a long time.

How cute is this??!

The rest of the gang showed up shortly afterwards and we enjoyed a delicious Easter lunch and prepared for the egg hunt! In true Marcey fashion Derrick and I can't do anything simple so we prepared an egg hunt of 72 eggs. Each egg had a point value inside and those points had to be added up at the end and could be redeemed for candy prizes. 

Explaining the boundaries.

We split it up so that half the eggs were inside and half were outside. Ellie had her own pink eggs that the other kids weren't allowed to find.

I think the point system for prizes was a big hit. The kids were asking to do it again this way next year.

I secretly hid 9 Derrick eggs around the house and right before the hunt started I showed the kids an example and told them they weren't allowed to find these eggs if they saw them.

There were scrabble tiles in each egg that he had to solve a puzzle with the find his gifts.

He solved the clue and headed to the yellow room. This is where my vision got a little blurry. In my head he would find these magnificent paper mache eggs that had been gorgeously painted and hid the gifts seamlessly. In reality I only did one layer of paper mache so they were extremely droopy and I never got around to painting them so they were also ugly newspaper. What can you do :) He did have to crack them open for his gifts though!

After presents it was cake time! Our friend Meredith has a bunny cake pan that she let me borrow and I am really happy with out it turned out! Piping is hard though! I have a new respect for cake decorators. My hand started hurting and I had to take a break halfway through!

To top it all off, Derrick's mom got him a hammock for his birthday and it's awesome!

Cros didn't know what to think about us hanging 2 feet off the ground.

So we gave her a taste.

Unfortunately bad weather and busy schedules have kept us out the hammock since Sunday but we can't wait for the next chance to hang it up and relax for a while!