A Busy, Yet Productive Weekend

Well this past weekend was a true introduction to a Georgia summer - SUNNY, HOT, and HUMID!! Man it was hot!! Sunday was one of those days when you really couldn't do much to stay cool... and we decided it'd be a great day to go shopping for furniture. But to keep things chronological, allow me to begin on Saturday.

Saturday morning we awoke bright and early to participate in a 5K run/walk to support the Atlanta Mission. It was a beautiful day for the race. It was sunny, but fortunately not too hot at 8:30am. It was great to get to run with Ashley! She is such a trooper! She rocked the course and finished in 30:35 - pretty dang good for someone running for two!! :) It was a ton of fun to run throughout downtown Atlanta and see some really neat areas of the city! It was so neat to see many of the men and women who have found hope and new opportunity in the Atlanta Mission, participate in the day's events! God is good!

Following the race we took a quick little snooze - I said it was a busy weekend, but ya gotta take some time to recover :) The rest of the day Saturday was spent perusing garage sales and looking through some of the furniture that came from my grandmother's house. Unfortunately, we didn't find too many pieces of furniture among those options - we found a kitchen table we like that used to be my parents = free is good! We found a couple of bar stools that we may refinish and put in our kitchen = once again, free is good! And we also found two cute little antique rocking chairs that will be perfect for our nursery! We wrapped up Saturday sharing dinner with my folks - pork tenderloin on the grill, roasted potatoes, salad, and an ice cold brewski! (Just to clarify - Ashley did NOT have a beer - just me). Great way to wrap up a busy Saturday!

Sunday we decided would be our FURNITURE SHOPPING EXTRAVAGANZA day!! On our list of places to check out: The Dump, Ashley Furniture, a storage unit w/ more of my grandmother's things, and IKEA!! It promised to be a very long and tiring day - and that it was. But we also found some great pieces of furniture and began to envision some of the rooms in our new home start to really come together! Below are some of our favorites:

We love this look for the family room - pretty much all of it :)

We especially loved this media center - and were delightfully surprised w/ the price tag!

Ashley immediately fell in love with this piece for the kiddo's playroom.

These lamps are so cool and unique - love them!

This chair really brings it all together in the family room - it's gonna bring that "POP"!

So there ya go - we've still got a lot of thinking and planning to do. Not to mention budgeting :) But these are really some of our favorite pieces from the weekend furniture hunt.

What do you think? Have you ever been inspired by a single piece of furniture? Do you have any favorite places for furniture shopping?

We're excited to see how things come together! Until next time...

Time Flies When You're...

Whoa, so it's been quite a while since we last posted. Unfortunately it seems like the blog is the first to be forgotten as things get hectic. And things have certainly been HECTIC for us in the last few weeks. I think the best way to get back up to speed is with a brief overview of some of the major things going on in the Jones' home (well, if you can call your in-laws basement "home"...)


My (Oliver) New Job:

So I started a new job in Roswell, GA about 4 weeks ago. I am loving it! I work for a great company called Leader Enterprises. As a fully integrated marketing agency, Leader has the capability to take a marketing campaign from start to finish and everywhere in between. I work with a specific team that manages retail promotions. It's been a blast and I am learning so much every day! I love that I get to manage my own projects and see them from start to finish - everything from the creating the promotional elements to seeing it through to execution. It's crazy when you can walk into a retailer and see the marketing elements you designed. But what I love most about the job is the company culture - supportive, challenging, dynamic, and fun! I look forward to what's in store!

Baby Jones (name and gender = TBD):

So the baby is growing and developing great! At least I think so... it's hard to tell when you can't really see the child. But based on all the kicking/moving the baby does and Ashley's cute little baby bump (growing every day), we think it's safe to say our little bundle of joy is making great progress! It's hard to believe that he/she will be here in 3 months! We did have a little scare recently though... Ashley had some cramping/discomfort that led us to worry about possible problems. She tested positive for potential pre-term labor - this got us quite worried! We quickly scheduled an appointment with a specialist who performed a couple more tests that took a much closer look at the possibility for our baby coming out before he/she is ready. We were greatly relieved to hear from the specialist that there is a VERY slim chance at Ashley delivering pre-term. He informed us that we likely received a "false-positive" on the first test, and that Ashley and the baby appear to be doing GREAT! This was such a relief!! So now we continue to anxiously await the day we get to meet this little tinker, but are glad to know they likely won't be making any early appearances.

Our House Hunt:

Well, as I stated earlier, the past couple weeks have been CRAZY!! And the house hunting process has been a major player. But - we may be coming to the end of this exciting, overwhelming, and fun process! WE ARE OFFICIALLY UNDER CONTRACT!! That's right, we have a contract on our first home! Check out the details here. We are beyond excited! It's been a roller coaster journey. We're purchasing a foreclosure, and while you'd think the bank would be thrilled to get the property off their hands, they have been anything but quick... But, we've had the home inspection and the house passed! The bank has accepted our offer! So now we are waiting to hear about our loan - and assuming we get approved - we will hopefully be closing in the next couple weeks!! So below are a few pics of the new (hopefully) casa:

 

 

There are days we look at each other in disbelief... They say 4 of the most traumatic events in one's life are having a baby, buying a home, moving to a "new" state, and starting a new job. We thought it'd be fun to go ahead and do all of them at once!! Why not? :)

Until next time....

House Hunting: Harmony House

Well the day has finally come... we've put an offer on a house!!! I can hardly believe it myself! This whole process has gone much quicker and smoother than I anticipated! I think a lot of that has to do with our AMAZING Realtor - Bobby Lyerly! (Shameless plug for Bobby :) ) But seriously - he's been so helpful and has really only shown us houses that fit what we're looking for! I didn't know we were that easy to read...

But without any further delay -- here's a look our potential first home!!!

The Specs:

- Age: 2009
- House size: 2,295
- Lot: 1/4 acre
- Bedrooms: 4
- Bathrooms: 2 1/2

The Pros:

- Great kitchen that opens up to family room
- All new carpets and paint
- Backyard that has definite potential
- Incredible neighborhood amenities: pool, playground, tennis, walking/hiking trails, lakes
- Too many others to list here (hence the offer we put on it...)

The Cons:

- The exterior needs a new coat of paint
- Not much yard (but as mentioned above - has great potential w/ what yard does exist)
- Nothing else major or that can't be changed down the road

So there you have it... our fingers are crossed as we wait to hear back from the bank. They seem to be in no rush, but we have a great feeling about this home and the neighborhood! Ultimately we know that it will work out if it's where God wants us. Having been in a similar situation only a couple weeks ago, and to have the offer fall through -- we are trying not to get too excited/attached just yet.

So until next time...

House Hunting: Update

Here's a quick look at the past week or so of our house hunting adventures:

Last week, with Ashley out of town, Bobby and I looked at several houses. One of which I posted on here. I absolutely loved the house! It was pretty much the perfect house for us -- great yard, plenty of room, wonderful neighborhood, etc. Prior to walking in the home, Bobby informed me that there was actually an offer already on the table so if we liked it, we'd need to act fast. Well, I loved it. I knew Ash would love it!

Soooooooo... we put an offer on the house!! CRAZY, I know! Needless to say I was nervous/stressed beyond belief. Knowing that there was another offer on the table, we had to go in with our best and highest offer right off the bat - not my ideal situation... I'd like the ability to negotiate a little bit more. Surprisingly, the bank (foreclosure) responded very quickly to our offer -- they countered at full asking price w/ only a small amount of closing costs to be paid by the seller. Needless to say, we were bummed. And a little bit annoyed... But, hearing that the bank wasn't willing to budge, we pulled our offer off the table and got back on the hunt!!

Following our Epic Move, we went out with Bobby again this past Saturday. Once again we saw some GREAT homes!! We've pretty much fallen in love with a certain neighborhood in Canton, GA - Harmony on the Lakes. Fortunately there are some great homes currently on the market out there - one of which we saw on Saturday! And we love it! So we put an offer in on Monday. Much to our dismay, there was already another offer on the table again, so ours was basically a "back up" offer. We were not excited to hear this again, but knew that if the house is right for us, it'd work out. The latest update from today -- the other offer fell through, so ours is on the table!! Woohoo!! But now we WAIT... the tough part about foreclosures is that they can take time. So we get to work on our patience... But we are very excited to see how this plays out! Our fingers are crossed and our hopes are high! I'll get the specs on the house up in the next post -- and hopefully an update on our offer!!

Here's some pics from Harmony on the Lakes - you can probably see why we love it soooooo much!!

The Epic Move

Just a quick update from the Jones household. We've recently made the official move from Nashville to Atlanta! And it was EPIC!!  With the amazing help of Ashley's parents, we managed to load the Uhaul, clean the duplex, and drive back to Atlanta all in one day -- albeit a LONG day!! We originally planned to stick around Friday night, but the emotions of moving were a bit too overwhelming for Ash and we needed to just get on out of town.

It was definitely hard to leave the close friendships we'd made with the people in our small group, family, other college friends, and co-workers. But I am confident that many of those relationships run deep and that we made many lifelong friends that we can look forward to visiting in Nashville, and inviting down to Atlanta once we get settled in!

The past couple weeks have been crazy and the next few are shaping up to be pretty intense as well. But Ashley and I are both so excited to see what God has in store for us! And we're thrilled that you have chosen to join us in this Great Adventure!

House Hunting: Craftsman with a Fabulous Yard

Our house hunting is moving forward this week! With Ashley back in Nashville, Bobby and I took a trip out to see eight more homes out in the Canton area -- talk about pressure!! It is definitely VERY difficult to look at these homes knowing that our first place may be a home that Ashley doesn't even see until after a contract is in place!! We've pretty much settled on the Canton area of metro Atlanta. It offers all that we need to establish our own roots apart from our parents, but is close enough to my office that the commute is no more than 45 minutes on a bad day. There are also a lot of great opportunities to get in the great outdoors in Canton with mountain biking, fishing, and hiking. So here is the top choice from my time out with Bobby this week:

 

The Stats:

- Age: 2003
- House size: 2121sq. ft.
- Lot: 1/4 acre
- Bedrooms: 4
- Bathrooms: 3


The Pros:


- Craftsman style home (our favorite!)
- Amazing back yard - already fenced in w/ tons of space for throwing a ball or grilling out
- 2-story family room w/ stone fireplace
- Great neighborhood/community
- Bedroom on main floor that will make a great playroom for kiddo(s)


The Cons:


- Exterior needs a fresh coat of paint
- Kitchen needs some work, but is definitely move-in ready
- Whoa, I guess that's really all that I can think of....


I can't wait for Ashley to see this place and get her feedback!! I'm headed up to Nashville tomorrow after work to get things packed up and moved down here. That promises to be loads of fun! (read previous sentence w/ lots of sarcasm)


But until next time, we just the Joneses trying to keep up...

House Hunting: Large Development, Great Curb-Appeal

In the spirit of one of my FAVORITE blogs, Young House Love, I've decided to go ahead and start posting some updates on the homes we check out and the ones that make it to the top of our list. Here is where I am getting my inspiration (okay, so I may be copying their format - but who can blame me, they're pretty awesome). So without further ado...

I will provide a doctored photo of the home followed by our pros and cons for the house. This first home is located in a sprawling development out in Canton, GA called Harmony on the Lakes (yes, that is "lakes" plural -- lots of great fishing potential!!). It's just far enough from our parents so that we won't  run into them at the grocery store, but is close enough for us to drop off the (future) baby at their house as we head out for a date night :)

The Stats:

- Age: 2006
- House size: 2,092 square feet
- Lot size: ~1/2 acre
- Bedrooms: 3
- Bathrooms: 2 1/2

The Pros:

- Great curb appeal - distressed brick exterior w/ small front porch
- Kitchen with granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, and center island
- All 3 bedrooms upstairs
- Master suite w/ walk in closet
- Great potential for outdoor space in backyard once we install a privacy fence
- Neighborhood amenities including swim/tennis, multiple park areas w/ playgrounds, sidewalks throughout, and 3 lakes stocked w/ fish

The Cons:

- Small yard/lot (probably the biggest con for us)
- Awkward formal living/dining space
- Neighborhood is not fully developed - house backs up to a vacant lot
- Carpet needs to be replaced throughout (foreclosure)

Well, I had trouble coming up with an equal amount of cons... That's probably because overall we really like this house!! It's a fantastic neighborhood. Lot's of young families. Great opportunity to build community with neighbors. Overall the home is GREAT condition considering it's a foreclosure! Who knows...

So after our first weekend of looking at homes (16 total), we are exhausted and have so much to process and think about. In real estate, there is definitely a lot of give and take, and we are recognizing that "compromise" is going to be the key word. However, it is very exciting and tons of fun to look for a place we can call home! We feel incredibly blessed to be in a place where we can  buy our first home and put down some roots as we prepare to start our family!! We are so excited to see what God has in store for us and are excited that you are joining us along the way!