My addiction to HGTV and the subsequent DIY overload

As if getting married and working on preparing my classroom wasn't keeping us busy enough, Caden and I dove head first into home remodel projects as soon as we got back from our honeymoon.

Clarification: I dove head first into home remodel projects and Caden had no choice in the matter. Looking back I may have been a bit ambitious, but guys...I'd been wanting to get my hands on these rooms since he bought the house and after years of watching HGTV I really thought I had a good handle on things. "Thought" being the opportune word.

I went into all of this with the best of intentions but projects have a way of snowballing, and well, I'm pretty sure I started an avalanche! Project #1 was going to be my porch. Now my porch had three types of wood paneling going on, painted/chipped dark brown wood work, gaps between the wall and ceiling, and no caulking around any of the windows, which rattled and let in every type of nasty creepy crawly bug and spider imaginable.

What I thought would take maybe a week turned into about a month, and I take total responsibility for that miscalculation. After removing all outlets and lights, we did our best to even out the walls the best we could (did I mention the previous owners thought it'd be a good idea to just overlap the paneling?) From there I jumped in with priming and painting the walls. Thankfully, my wonderful mother, mother-in-law and sisters came to help me one day! And so we ended up with this! 

Unfortunately, it was only after all the walls had been painted that I realized how much I despised the painted brown woodwork with the yellow...It honestly kept me up at night I disliked it so much :( 

So what's a girl to do? Well paint the woodwork white of course. And that is the difference between a week vs. a month long project folks. It would have been exponentially easier to have primed and painted the woodwork first but you live and learn... and develop a fair amount of patience in the process.

 

Now, before any work could be done on the porch I had to convince my lovely hubby how important it was (to me) that we take the carpet from our bedroom and put it in one of the downstairs bedrooms. There was nothing really wrong with our carpet except that it was hiding BEAUTIFUL wood floors! And I'm such a sucker for wood floors. I promised Caden if he helped me I'd buy him nice slippers to keep his feet warm this winter (cold wood floors were his main opposition to this whole idea).

Already planning next summers projects!
Get rid of the awful blue wall color

While all of that was going on I was also very excited to finally be finishing our office! I began that project last summer, but sort of hit a brick wall when it came to the rotten window and the floor with holes. Basically, after trying to rehab the old window Caden finally just replaced it for me. Let me tell you how amazing it is to have a window that isn't painted shut!!! (hint hint SO AMAZING!)

 

We discovered the walls were actually painted wallpaper on top of plaster, but that was only after patching the cracks and starting to prime so we just went with it. Nothing in this house really surprises us anymore. Since I'm pretty much only good at demo, mudding, and painting Caden did the hard stuff. He custom made a bookshelf to take the place of the window that faced the garage, fixed the ceiling and electrical and put in the new floor! And Voilà! We have a gorgeous new office/pantry!

Even though I got in a bit over my head with all of these projects I couldn't be happier to have them done in time for school to start! The endless days and nights of taping, painting, and priming were so worth it! And I'm so appreciative of the people who came to help me with my crazy ideas!

P.S. I feel that I should mention the day I finally finished with all of this Caden tore out the wood paneling downstairs and started framing up walls. ...And the remodeling continues! Check back for updates on that project!

Family Fun on the 4th

For the first time since we met Caden didn't have to work and we were actually able to spend the 4th of July with family! 

Caden's family is all about traditions (which I love!) It seems they have a tradition for just about everything and it's always fun for me to be included and have them become my traditions too.  Just a few of the many include:

     *Special Birthday Cake- Everyone gets a "special birthday cake" as its called on their big day. Lets
       just say this cake is usually known by a much different name!
     *Engagement skit- every time someone gets engaged family members act out funny things about the
       couple. Its quite a hoot!
     *Cousin movie- Every year at Christmas time all of the Ritz cousins get together and go to a movie
       together. We've been hitting up the Hobbit movies the past two years with #3 coming out just in
       time this year! Yay!
     *Mugs- Everyone (all cousins, their spouses, and children) have their own glass mug to drink out of
       when we spend Christmas together in Arkansas. And each mug has our corresponding number on
       it. Now that I'm an official family member my mug will say 4 - 4 +! (I married Caden, hence the
       plus sign, and he is the 4th child of Linda, who is the 4th child in her family). When not in use
       allllll the mugs sit in multiple rows on shelves in Grandma Ritz's kitchen.

It's so fun being a part of so many traditions and the 4th of July is no different. Every year his family travels up to Comstock, where his moms family is originally from, and enjoys the parade, foot races, baseball games, pulled pork sandwiches, and lots of family time! 

Favorite little nephew

Foot Races

I too participated in the many races but thankfully there is no photographic proof! (That I know of anyways) I'm pretty sure I held my own in the foot and three-legged races ending up somewhere in the middle of the group, but the sack race was an utter disaster. I knew going into it that I was probably going to make a fool of myself and yet I let Chelsea talk me into that one. Ugh. The only good thing about that race was that Chelsea and I tied for last...maybe I should start practicing for next year? If you see me on the side of HWY 14 hopping around in a potato sack...just keep driving! 

Doting Uncles
Seriously though this little boy gets loved on by everyone!
Such a cutie! 

At the Dam

We went on a tour around Comstock to see where Linda's family used to live and such and ended up at this cabin being built by a family member. Its really quite adorable on the inside!

Well it was cute until a black wasp decided to attack my forehead right as I walked in the door! Ouch

We visited this little sod house

And saw the stove that Linda's Grandma used to cook on!
History is so neat

Finished the day off with fireworks of course! 

All in all we had a wonderful day celebrating America! 

Over the Moon

Caden and I spent a wonderful and mostly relaxing (more on that later) week in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico for our honeymoon. I got to be a beach bum, read a book, and eat wayyyy too much yummy food just like I wanted and Caden was able to go on all of the adrenaline inducing adventures that he wanted.

                    Our resort was absolutely stunning! In the middle of all the rooms was a large jungle area with walking paths. There were flamingos, iguanas, monkeys, all types of birds like parrots and peacocks, some weird rodent type thing that we never figured out the name of, and coati (which are like super cute long nosed, long tailed, brown raccoons) all right outside our door! It was amazing! Did I mention there was a waterfall too? Really, it was paradise.

We had quite the shock when we got off the plane. I was expecting it to be hot and sunny (I even packed multiple bottles of sunscreen just to be safe) but what we weren't expecting was the HUMIDITY. The second we walked out of the airport I felt like I was swimming through air. What mascara I had been wearing literally melted off my face. Never in my life have I been that sweaty and gross for an entire week! Poor Caden because I really gave up looking cute at all and went for practicality and comfort! So excuse all of the pictures were I have sweat marks on my clothes and my hair is smeared back... there's really nothing I could do. Sigh...so much for being cute on my honeymoon.                          

Lets get back to those adventures I mentioned earlier. While we had a lovely honeymoon this whole trip really should be retitled as "The Week Ashli Conquered All Of Her Fears." Let me name them just so you have an idea.

Things I'm terrified of:
-Heights (especially ones where I could potentially fall to my death)
-Spiders, Snakes, and Sharks (also known as the 3 S's in my world)
-Drowning
-The Dark (or more what could be lurking in the dark that I can't see)
-Seafood (I'm not scared of it I guess, I just really don't like it)

I ENCOUNTERED ALL OF THESE! Talk about forming some major trust in our marriage!

We started the week of by going on an all day snorkeling adventure. The idea of snorkeling has always been somewhat appealing to me, but in a kind of distant, someday, maybe, but probably not ever, type of way. For one I can't really swim. I know what I'm supposed to do, but honestly I've never mastered it and I can't tell you how many times I failed level three growing up. I can doggy paddle to save my life but that's about it. Hence the fear of drowning... Next, I once saw a clip of Jaws when I was younger and that did me in there. When people get all hyped up about Shark Week I'm over here like nope, nuh-uh, never.

Regardless of all of this I love my husband very, very, very much and decided to give it a chance. The first five minutes I swallowed half the ocean and (I'm not proud of this) cried. It was awful. Water kept getting in my googles and up my nose and I seemed to be swallowing water by the gallon through my snorkel. I was so close to quitting. Thank goodness for Caden and a sweet older gentleman who came to my rescue. Caden switched me snorkels (apparently mine had a hole, hence all the water coming in) and the gentleman fixed my googles... and guys after that it was like I'd been a fish my whole life! Snorkeling was one of the most fun things I have ever done in my entire life! If we lived next to an ocean I'm pretty sure I'd never leave the water.  

For our next escapade we booked an all day trip which began with us going on a tour of Tulum, which was a Mayan port city that died out 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico. 

After exploring the ruins we took a Unimog 4x4 (huge oversized jeep) through the jungle to an area where we participated in a Mayan ritual, went swimming in and then rappelled down into a Cenote, then zip-lined over the trees and back down into the underground river system.  I pretty much had to be pushed off the ledge when repelling and for the first zip-line. I like to think its because I have a strong will to live. But all in all that was pretty fun and I'm glad I can say I did it! 

Our last adventure for that day included snorkeling again! However, this time we were supposed to snorkel in a cave...in the dark. Pretty creepy experience yet totally awesome at the same time. Thankfully they had an underwater flashlight so I could see if anything was swimming a little to closely. At one point I lifted my head out of the water to adjust my googles and not a foot above me was the cave ceiling covered in, what seemed to be, thousands of bats. 

To get to each of these different areas we had to hike through the forest. It was humid. It was hot. Oh, and they kept pointing out all the tarantula holes and snakes. I really could have gone without knowing any of that. My mental health would have been much happier! 

Our last days included another snorkeling trip (because we both loved it so much)! This time we got to see a sea turtle and a sting ray plus more fish than I could ever count! We also went parasailing per my request. I figured I had already done other scary height related activities and that I might as well do them all!  

Caden and I had the time of our lives enjoying our first week of marriage and  I was able to conquer pretty much all of my fear! We can't wait to go again someday! 

p.s. I never did actually see a shark but I swam in the same ocean as them and that's close enough for me.