Agility with Addie

This past weekend, Matt, Addie and I drove up to New Jersey for our friends' couples wedding shower. Coincidentally, it was hosted by the bride's parents who live just a couple streets over from Matt's parents house, so we were able to spend the weekend with them as well!

On Saturday, we decided to try a little agility with Addie. We've never taken her to agility classes, so we made up our own drills, but the point was to try to tire her out and work her "athletic" skills :)

Agility with Addie from Harper Kubicek on Vimeo.

After her morning of running around the yard, working on her agility skills, and hunting chipmunks, Addie was in much need of an afternoon nap!

 

2013 goals: Quarter 1 status

Early in 2013, I wrote a post outlining a few yearly goals. Believe it or not, three months have already passed since I wrote that blog post! Here's a status report of my goals (like I said, I want to be held accountable!):


Financial goals:

1)  Pay off my debts!  Pay more than the minimum each month for my student loans and car loan. 


I continue to pay more than the minimum each month for my student loans and car loans, and my payoff time keeps shrinking :)

2)  In addition to paying off loans, grow my savings.


Yes, my savings has grown since January 2013 :)

3)  Look into other money investment options. 


I'm in the process of re-financing my house.  My financial planner suggested it at our recent yearly meeting, and since Matt and I will likely stay in this home for another year or two, it made sense!  I'm converting my FHA loan to a conventional loan, so I will no longer have to pay a monthly mortgage insurance premium. I will also have a much lower interest rate, so in the end, my monthly mortgage payment will lower by ~$250!  Why did I not look into this sooner?!  

Another fun aspect of the process was that I had my home appraised for the first time since I bought it in 2009, and it appraised for higher than I thought it would!  I'm so fortunate that my neighborhood's home prices have steadily increased, even through the overall stagnant real estate market.  It's so rewarding seeing that the improvements I've made over the past years have paid off, and I feel incredibly lucky for the ability to be a homeowner.


Home improvement goals:

1)  Complete master bedroom makeover.


Done!  You can view the completed photos in this master bedroom makeover post.

2)  Install new kitchen appliances and countertops.


In the works... Matt and I have begun looking for good deals on kitchen appliances.  I anticipate this to be a summertime project.

3)  Replace side door and back door.  

The kitchen makeover is priority #1, so the door replacement might be a fall/winter project.


Personal goals:

1)  Cliche "stick to a workout plan" and "eat healthy meals." 

Yes!  I continue to go to strength training classes 2x a week at Fivex3 Training, and I recently began working with barbells doing lifts like barbell squats, bench presses, deadlifts, etc.  It feels so good to get stronger and see results!  I also started practicing yoga 1x a week in early February, as a supplement to the strength training I do, and I've already seen a difference in my flexibility as well.  My neck used to hurt from sitting at a computer all day and not sitting properly, but I haven't experienced any neck pain since I started getting into a regular workout routine.  Matt and I also joined a CSA through One Straw Farm that begins in June, and we continue to try new recipes with "whole foods."

Above:  barbell squats

 Above:  push-ups 

 Above:  Yoga pose with some of my new yoga gear.

 
2)  Spend quality time with my friends, family, and boyfriend. 

We were able to spend time with both my family and Matt's family over the holidays this year, and in late January, Matt's parents graciously invited me on their family ski trip to Colorado.  It was great to be able to spend time with them and Matt and get better at my skiing too.  In February, I was able to head up to Philly to connect with my best friends from college for a girls' weekend.  Overall, for these past 3 months I've felt like I've been able to find a good balance between work, exercise, quality time with family and friend, home improvements, etc., and I hope to continue it throughout the year.

Above:  Skiing with Matt's family at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

 Above:  Ukranian Easter egg decorating with my mom and sister

Above:  Our finished eggs

Above:  Matt, Addie and I enjoy an evening stroll in the park.  Daffodils are the first sign of spring!

We'll see how the rest of the year goes!  Look for more updates at the end of each quarter :)

Before and after: master bedroom

The master bedroom has been a constant "work-in-progress" since I moved into the house 3.5 years ago.  Since that time, my boyfriend Matt moved in with me, and the furniture arrangement has changed, as has the bedding/decor.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a great "before" photo of the bedroom before the latest makeover, but I did find a couple of photos while going through my archives!

Above: The room before move-in. (July 2009).

After I bought the house, the only thing I changed in the master bedroom was the carpet, but it was otherwise in pretty good condition!  I had so much other painting to do throughout the house, so the yellow walls stayed all these years.

Here's a "before" photo of the closet:

 Above:  The closet makeover begins!  Matt removes the clunky sliding doors, and Addie supervises.  ;-)

And now, for the "after" photos!

The whole bedroom makeover process began when I wanted to re-design my closet.  We're pretty lucky that there are two closets on the 2nd floor that are very close to the master bedroom.  One is in the bedroom, and the other is just outside the hallway.  In the photo below, you can see that it's just around the corner.  Matt keeps a lot of his clothes in the brown dresser, so it's easy for him to start getting dressed in the morning in our room, and then he just walks a few feet to finish his outfit.

I designed my new closet online using Easy Closets.   I entered in the dimensions of the existing closet and was able to fully customize my space.  I definitely recommend them!  I was able to customize a closet in more detail that other closet systems (i.e. Elfa, Martha Stewart, etc.), and it was priced well with free shipping.  During installation, we realized that our closet space was slanted on one wall, so the last section was too wide to fit, so I had to re-order a couple panel.  No problem, I called, and they re-sent it to me free-of-charge!  Great customer service!  I will say though, that this closet took me and Matt a whole weekend to install.  When everything arrived in 10+ boxes, it was a little intimidating, but we slowly but surely got through it all!

The closet space is 2 feet deep, so it's deep enough to fit 4 pairs of shoes on each rack, which is great.  I really pared down my shoe collection and sent a lot off to Goodwill, and even have a few empty spaces back there.  I hung my dresses to the left, and there's space on the bottom for my 2 pairs of tall boots.  In the center section I hang my blouses/tops, and I have an accessories divider on the shelf where I keep most of my necklaces, bracelets, belts, etc.  The drawers are great for the following:  underthings, trouser socks, tights, skirts, turtlenecks/sweaters, and jeans/pants.  If you notice the teal trunk to the right of the closet, that houses all of my fitness gear:  athletic socks, shorts, tees and tanks, etc.

After the closet was complete, we finished the rest of the bedroom makeover.

We chose Behr Porpoise to pain the wall, which is actually a bit darker than the photos portray.  As for the rest, we bought new bed linens, bedside tables, and table lamps.

Here's the full source list:

Wall color:  Behr Porpoise
6-drawer chest:  IKEA HEMNES / knobs:  Anthropologie
Headboard:  Craigslist (see project here)
Duvet cover:  West Elm
Teal accent pillow:  Home Goods
Bedside tables:  Joss & Main
Bedside lamps:  Home Goods
Sheets:  Marshalls
Mirror wall art:  Pier 1 Imports
Window Panels:  Bed, Bath & Beyond
Velvet clothes hangers:  Home Goods

Now that the master bedroom is complete, our attention has turned to the kitchen.  Next up on the list of “to do” projects is replacing the old appliances and countertop.  If all goes well, this would happen in the late spring/early summer months, so stayed tuned for more house updates!

Valentine's Day

Addie wishes humans and dogs alike a very happy Valentine's Day!

2013 goals

Around this time last year, I wrote a post about my 2012 new year's resolution. This is what I wrote last year: "Neither Matt nor myself are really big on making New Year's resolutions, but this year we do have a major dream: to move to a larger home (or at least save a hefty chunk of money to do so in 2013)."

Status check:  we have not moved.  Matt and I looked at a few homes in our dream neighborhoods throughout the year, but we didn't love any of them.  The neighborhoods we looked in (while nice), were still not completely conducive to our lifestyle.  To move into a larger home with a nice grassy backyard, we must move further from downtown harbor area and more to the "suburbs", which means longer commute to our friend's homes, restaurants, shops, and other conveniences of living in the heart of downtown.  The more we looked at these homes, the more we loved the home we currently live in.  And so here we are, still in the same 1,000 sq. ft. rowhome with a concrete backyard.  We're just not quite ready to give up the social scene that our house enables!  So house hunting will resume sometime later in 2013 most likely :-)

As far as savings goes, we continue to save money the best we can -- and yes -- I still clip coupons!  Rite Aid has become my go-to store for most things :)

This year for 2013, I would like to make more concrete goals, and I'm going to write them out so that I can be held accountable for them, so here goes.

Financial goals:

1)  Pay off my debts!  Pay more than the minimum each month for my student loans and car loan.  My Sallie Mae loans are set to be fully paid off by September 2017 if I continue to pay the minimum each month, and my car loan is set to be fully paid off by December 2016.  My goal is to cut into those totals each month for faster pay off.

2)  In addition to paying off loans, grow my savings.

3)  Look into other money investment options.  Money sitting in a savings account with 0.01% interest rate seems stupid.  There must be better ways of growing savings right?!

Home improvement goals:

1)  Complete master bedroom makeover.  The room is currently in this process as I type, however, it still has a long way to go!  I'm thinking it needs new paint color, new window treatments, and new bedding.

2)  Install new kitchen appliances and countertops.

3)  Replace side door and back door.  We recently replaced the front entry door, but we wouldn't have saved any money by replacing all 3 at the same time, so we decided to stagger installations.

Personal goals:

1)  Cliche "stick to a workout plan" and "eat healthy meals."  About a year ago, I quit my Merritt Gym membership and joined another gym that has no workout equipment (i.e. treadmills, ellipticals, weight machines).  Instead, the instructor teaches us how to use free weights, kettlebells, bands, ropes, etc. to strength train and get a killer conditioning workout.  I really love it, and it complements my sport activities perfectly.  For those in the downtown Baltimore area, check out Fivex3 Training!

2)  Spend quality time with my friends, family, and boyfriend.  With my office job, photography job, and everything else that eats up my free time, it's hard to spend time with everyone important in my life!  I need to learn to say "no" to things and not spread myself too thin.

So there you have it.  Here's hoping 2013 will be just as motivating and successful as 2012 was!

And since no post is complete without photos, here are a peek into a current project in the master bedroom:

Before:

During:
(gold wall paint)

After:  Stay tuned.....