Engagement Pics, Deck, and PEANUTS

I am such a blog slacker lately!! A WHOLE MONTH! OOPS!

So, as I expected, the AMAZING, Morgan Trinker, did an FANTASTIC job with our engagement pictures! I could not be happier!!! We had so much fun taking pictures! Thankfully Sean came with the doggies for the first part of the shoot and then whisked them away! Then AC came and helped me change my clothes and climb the dang dam. (hahahaha dang dam) It was a fun day and I just love that she was able to capture US!

This is my absolute favorite but- check out her BLOG for more!

I do have to say I am so GRATEFUL that Steph came in town that weekend!! We had a lot of fun- just hanging out and curling hair :) She is truly a best friend that I am so lucky to have.

Bestest Friend EVER

Well that weekend was Halloween!! And we had BIG plans. The Annual McLaurin Halloween Party!! This party is infamous for being crazy. And It lived up to its name this year, that's for sure!! My Aunt Donna and Uncle Steve throw this party ever year. This year they themed it "Carnival of Minds" So anyone afraid of clowns, this was not for you. The theme was awesome!! And the decor even better! The beer was served out of a real coffin.... Here are some pictures that don't even do it justice.

Clowns galore to welcome you!
The front of the house- that is in a white picket fence neighboorhood

The Swings filled with "dead babies" In the front yard

Aunt Donna and Uncle Steve (The Ringmasters)

Jd (An illegal Alien), Me (Indian), A.C. (Rager party raver)
Stevie was a Lion

We have so many more pictures on the real camera, there were gypsys, trolls, and even Jesus at the party.




The next weekend I headed to DOTHAN to see Steph! For the peanut festival!!!
We ended up antiquing more than "peanutting", but it was a lot of fun!!

BOILED PEANUTS and a best friend, what more could a girl ask for!

We stayed at her step-dad, Bill's house the first night with Margie and Bear. I am 100% convinced that the place is haunted. I will definitely admit to being jumpy- especially when Steph's cell phone fell off the bed, and when I saw myself in a mirror, AND when Bear started HOWLING! But I truly had a feeling I was going to see a ghost the entire time. Steph definitely got some giggles out of it. We stayed at her mom's house the 2nd night.....

We really did have a fun weekend antiquing, trying Indian food for the first time, and rummaging through the old giant house!

Trying on "shoes" at one antique mall

The view from the top of the Ferris wheel!
We hadn't planned on riding many rides on Sunday- but we got there and changed our minds. We rode EVERYTHING we wanted too. The super high, super spinning, super fast rides. It was a ton of fun! We were definitely exhausted when it came time to end the weekend and drive back to Birmingham and Pensacola. But it was SO much fun. Always a great time.



Weekend of the 11th was JDs annual Louisville Cyclecross Trip

We woke up BRIGHT and early on Friday morning for the drive (ride) to Louisville.
It was a fun trip as always- I was so happy that Megan, Gavin's wife came this year, so I had a football buddy to watch the games with. Surprisingly, the boys NEVER care about football when we are in Louisville. I still don't get it. We stayed with JD's Grandparents and had a great time catching up about our engagement and future wedding stuff. But of course, JDs favorite part was the 2 days of bike races.

Everyone did well and ended up injury free. So it was a lot of fun, here are some pictures of JD racing.


More of these to come.


This weekend we played it low and worked on the house. Saturday night I went out to celebrate My cousin Meredith and friend Heather's Birthday at Rogue Tavern.
We had a great time, and need to do that more often.


Caroline and Me
The girls



One of the Bday Girls!

Sunday- JD and BC went for a mountain bike ride, while Sissy and I hung out at our house and decorated and shopped at Kohl's. We had a small taste of parent life, with the 4 dog extravaganza going on. It was fun! Sissy was a GREAT help and we got a ton finished!! I wish she could stay for a week :)

And Sunday night we headed over to the Mr and Mrs V's house to celebrate the birthday of the cutest 6 year old on the planet! She seemed to love the Horse purse Uncle JD and Future Aunt Ash-a-lay got her!

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Some house updates!


The old deck is gone! And Replaced

Margie didn't understand why she couldn't go play!

Goodbye rotting upper deck!

Finished product- JD and BC enjoying coffee on the deck (old men)
Brand new- much bigger and more sturdy deck!

We are starting the work on the siding! As the siding goes up we will have a multi-color house.... great. But, I'm lovin the color choice we made!

Yellow is the current color- we are replacing it and painting everything the "bluish gray"

We can't wait for Thanksgiving on Thursday. Iron bowl, chex mix, family, our my favs.Well that's it for now- this feels like it was the longest blog post ever. But I need to update more. :/ At least this is proof that we have been busy!!

Slowly but surely it's becoming a HOME!!

-Ashley Austin (soon-to-be Vibert)

Copper and Marge

The dogs LOVE the house.

I was talking to Copper last night, and I've decided he's the happiest he's ever been! Its all he and Margie have ever wanted is to have a backyard and lots of room in the house!

Makes me so happy!

Ashley Austin (soon to be Vibert)

MOVE IN! and BDAY!

Oh dear! I'm way behind!

We have carpet.

We have MOVED IN!!!!! - well WE have, not all of our stuff!!



2 weekends ago JD got 3rd place in his last mountain bike race of the season, making him Series State Champion for his category! That's my man!

After the bike race- JD and I rushed to Sherwin Williams to pick out an exterior paint color!! I'm kind of in love with it's bluish gray look. It's Sherwin Williams- Steely Gray.

steely gray

Mrs. V and I were up pretty late painting the staircase spindles. I hate those things. HATE them. I was literally covered in paint by the end of them, I went into Wendy's and a man asked me if I left any paint on the wall? But they look so much nicer all white- Before they were white spindles wooden railing.


That Tuesday- WE GOT CARPET!
My good friend Morgan came over and helped me supervise. And unpack some boxes. Mr V and Dad headed to my apt to get ALMOST all of my stuff and put it on the trailer and bring it to our house! This is what our living room looks like currently.

I have to say it's the softest, fluffiest carpet, and its OUR carpet :)

Craft Room

Close up


Upstairs Bedroom- using to sleep in now!

That night we put my bed, and 2 dressers upstairs, and crashed.

It was sooooo nice to wake up in our house that morning. We woke up and had coffee and let the doggies play in the backyard! It was a HUGE step! We are so happy to have "moved in!"

Copper didn't wanna wake up that morning!

That morning was interesting- I had my toothbrush, pants, and jacket at my house, but my toothpaste, makeup, and shirt at my apartment. I was very proud to have been fully dressed at work, and on time. Luckily now I have brought a lot of stuff over to the house now, and hopefully next week all my clothes!!!

Last weekend, JD and I went over to my cousin Meredith and Heather's house to watch the Bama vs. Ole Miss game and the AU vs FL game! It was a lot of fun and happy both teams won!! Their house is absolutely adorable!! I am so jealous of their furnishings and findings so far!!

Mixed Crowd :)

That Sunday we headed back to brookside for another cyclecross race! And I got to hang out with Sissy and Megan some more! 2 times in one month!! We need to start taking pictures of our spectating, and water giving. ( All my pics are on my real camera, will load later!)

Wednesday was JDs 27th birthday!! He celebrated by tiling the half bath, and riding his bicycle of course! :) We also had his whole family over for spagetti and meatballs. I still don't have my dishes at our house, so let's just say that was interesting. The patio furniture was in the dining room sitting on the paint drop cloth, but we were happy.

I am so grateful to have such an amazing man in my life, and so proud to call him my fiance. He makes me laugh, makes me smile, and truly makes me happy.

Happy Birthday J.D.! I love you!

Happy Birthday future-hubby!

Other things have happened in the house- and I am without pictures!

1. The Upstairs bath is FINISHED!! and BEAUTIFUL! Mirror molding, stained cabinets, new hardware, lighting and potty!
This was Mr. and Mrs. V's baby! That room looks AMAZING! It has made a world of a difference!

2. Half bath is finished downstairs!! GORGEOUS! New tile, new vanity, new potty! On the 19th Jd and Mr V tiled the whole floor- they did an amazing job! On the 20th Mrs. V did the ground molding of tile! Looks great! I get to see the finished product today!

3. The hot tub is GONE! Yay! We gave it to one of my co-workers because her husband came and changed/installed all of our locks! It was a win-win for both of us!

In other news- MY BFF is coming in town again today! For the weekend! I'm so happy that she is coming, It's only appropriate that she is our first house guest!! I miss her as a roommate, much less in the same city! Yay for a Steph weekend.


I'm so excite for Sunday! JD and I are taking our engagement pictures!! We are going to Oak Mountain State park with the amazing, Morgan Trinker. I haven't gotten to work with her yet, but her work is AMAZING! I am excitedly nervous!!

I promise I won't wait to long to post next time!



The house is coming together!

Ashley Austin (soon to be Vibert)

Lights, Paint, and Action

A very sad day for the Vibert's last week. Their sweet dog Nickel passed away. She was 16 years old and full of love! Anyone who knew her will miss her. I know I will.



So, I know I haven't blogged in a while.... We have been so busy working on the house I forget to blog about it! Last week we finished up most of the upstairs painting. It looks so nice and fresh! And no more gold, yellow paint!!

Here's Guest Bedroom #1:
BEFORE
It's current state:
New Fan- new wall color, new ceiling color, fresh trim. Doors still not put back in, Still gets new carpet.the famous CAMO room: Before:
Let's just marvel at this site for a minute............................. What in the HECK were they thinking?! I wish you could see the texture on this wall. I cannot tell you how happy we are for this to be gone. We are framing a piece of the paper that came off and putting in the basement. To show our kids where we came from, haha! And for others to see this monstrosity in person!

Here it is Currently

It looks 10x better in person!! New light fixture. New celing and wall color, trim is primed to be white and not poopoo brown! And New carpet to come!


CRAFT ROOM
They used this as a TV room or so, I think I'm going to use it as a craft room/office. I always have so many random projects going and now I'll have a place for them!

BEFORE:
Craft room NOW:




We are obviously getting rid of the baseball mitt fan.... but we have new wall color- green! and a gray ceiling! Which is a little funky, but hey, it's a craft room! Why not be fun in one room!!

We are getting carpet on TUESDAY! YAY!!


HALF BATH
I don't have a half bath picture before, but this is it currently. We are doing a lot of work on this bathroom.

We have removed the dated white painted vanity, and are replacing it with this beauty!



You can't see much detail, but it is gorgeous! Espresso finish with stainless hardware. We are also going to replace the hexagon tile with travertine tile. I cannot wait to see this finished product!

These are all of the pictures I have right now but I am hoping to get a before/after of the kitchen! It looks like a totally different place! And continues to change.

Light fixtures have been picked out and we got to get the one I fell in love with for a special price! I just could not get this light out of my brain once I saw it!! All of our lighting is a little funky, and I'm hoping it all works together! This one will go over my grandmothers dining room table. To make it in a mixture of classic and rustic whatever this is. :)

I am getting so excited about all of the changes, they are becoming more and more visible! We slowly moving some items in everytime I go over. But this weekend are hoping to move a LOT! But save the big stuff for another day!!

In Wedding news: Looks like we have scheduled our engagement pictures for October 23rd! YAY! I'm anxiously excited!

It is all coming together, and it makes my heart happy!

Ashley Austin (soon to be Vibert)

A lot of work, not much show

A LOT has happened since I last blogged. It's killing me not to have good pictures! I will try and upload tonight!

During the week, I was taking light covers off and got to the CAMO room. I realized that the camo wall was kinda rubbery. So I called JD in. He gave took the chance and gave it a giant RIP!

The camo wall peed off in GIANT chunks! I just could not believe my eyes!! In about 30 minutes the WHOLE camo wall was gone!!! We were so excited that such an eyesore, and a barrier had been broken. We were so worried about how we would cover that wall!! WE ended up having to strip the whole room of wallpaper, which also had been painted.

Friday- JD was off so he and his dad did yard work, among other things. The front yard looks amazing!! They trimmed the trees and got rid of junk on the side near the creek/ditch thing. Our neighbors even commented on how much better it looks!
They started ripping carpet up too! GOODBYE NASTY CARPET, I WILL NOT MISS YOU!! There is no carpet left except for the foyer, but that'll be going soon too!

Saturday- Mrs V and I get ready early for errands. She and I headed to Hobby Lobby for knobs. I have had my mind set on having some funky knobs! And in true Hobby Lobby style, they were half off til the end of the day. God is forcing me to make fast decisions lately! :) Even though these were not an immediate necessity, I made them once since they were half off! So after about an hour I was sold, with 6 knobs, and a raincheck for 26 more! Photo to come.

Off we went to pick out paint colors. Oh my lord in heaven, this was overwhelming. I knew some colors I was sure of but got in there and switched some things up! I left much more knowledgeable and happy to have decided on something! I cannot wait for everyone to see the bedroom color, I'm in love!


SUNDAY: We took advantage of Sherwin William's super sale 40% off all paint and bought it ALL at once! We also found paint tape that was discontinued for....ready. $.01!!!!!!!! ONCE CENT!! We bought all they had!! It was regularly $5.95 a roll!!

Tall friend Timmy came over again to help!! 2 Tall boys can tackle a lot!

The whole upstairs is now primed for painting!

Sunday afternoon- Emmy and Artie came over to tape for painting! Emily is an amazing taper, she has more patience than I do with that. Artie was a good helper too- he even brought us the tape a few times! We had a major issue on Sunday, JDs mom fell off of the counter onto the ground! She merely missed hitting her head on the granite counter tops. She found out today she tore her MCL during the fall. :( She's not going to let it slow her down though. Please send some prayers her way.

My dad and Em came back over on Monday to help out! Dad primed the living room and dining room ceiling and also put the oil based primer on upstairs in our "problem" areas. What a great help it was! I need a break from primer! I need color!!!!!

The garage doors came in! Hallelujah! Not without an issue though, They orignally brought the wrong set and had to go back and get the right one, and now one door has a giant dent in it. It will be corrected though, soon I hope! I am so happy to be a proud owner of a garage door opener, that is ALL mine! :)

The house currently looks like a disaster


but it has been torn up to be put back together. We are so thankful and blessed to have all the help we have had and are having, we could not imagine it without everyone! Jd and I cannot wait to sit on OUR couch and watch OUR tv with OUR dogs after we cooked OUR dinner on OUR stove.... you get the point! :)

BETTER PICTURES ASAP!!

Ashley Austin(soon to be Vibert)