2011 January | Permission to Peruse

Daily Floorplan

January 31st, 2011 at 4:03 pm / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

Did you really think that that would be the last floor plan? I mean really. I’ve posted 52 different versions and we haven’t even selected a builder yet. COME ON.

OK, yeah, I sort of thought we were set. But then Mom came to visit and pointed out a few issues. And then New Old Homes sent over SEVEN new floor plans to consider last night. So, this might be a new feature for a while… Daily Floorplan. So here’s today’s:

This one changed up the bathroom entrance and the linen closet which I LOVE . Makes that entrance much less awkward and it’s a better use of space I think (thanks, Mom). Also, this one we added a fireplace in the bedroom (!). This is wishful thinking and only if it’s in budget. But we have the room and if you know me, you know how cold I get in the winter and would LOVE a fireplace surrounded in stone. I think it would tie in the stone from the exterior really well. I checked out a few Architectural Digests at the library this weekend and it looked so yummy. Here are a few ideas I took snapshots of.

The fireplace/TV idea with the chairs. We’re thinking stone around it but I like the wood too.

Another fireplace idea

I love the idea of having curtains around the bed.

And I love this lighting thing going on in the living room. It has absolutely nothing to do with the addition

I’m so anxious to get the floor plan settled and get goin’!

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Baked Potato Soup Recipe

January 31st, 2011 at 12:00 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

I totally missed the Soup Swap over at Southern Fairytale. I thought it was Saturday yet I was a week late! But no fear, it’s never too late to share a good recipe. When we went a few weeks ago to talk to a couple from our church about adoption, she served baked potato soup and it was SO GOOD. If you ever had Rafferty’s soup, the taste of this is so close, albeit a little thicker. I made a bowl of this last week and it’s so easy and everyone, including the girls, loved it. I have to thank our host for providing the recipe to me and hopefully she wouldn’t mind that I share it (she mentioned she got it from a magazine so I’m not sharing a personal recipe!).

This is not the pic, but this is the closest thing I could find in a quick Google search. Credit goes to this blog.

4 large baked potatoes, baked, skinned and smashed – leaving chunks
2/3c butter
2/3 c flour
6c milk
3/4tsalt
1/2t pepper
4 green onions (I left these out so the girls wouldn’t complain)
12 slices bacon, fried and crumbled (I use "real bacon pieces")
2c shredded cheddar
1c sour cream
1/2 lb Velveeta

Melt butter in stock pot, add flour and mix well, gradually add mil stir continuously until thickened and bubbly
stir in potato pulp, Velveeta, salt, pepper and 3/4 of the onions cheese and bacon. Cook until heated and add sour cream.
can put in crock-pot to keep warm and serve, top with remaining onions, cheese and bacon.

This gave us about 6 adult and 2 kid servings.

Heat up a loaf of French bread, slice on the diagonal and enjoy!

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Addition: The Floor Plan and Tile

January 29th, 2011 at 9:09 pm / Amy Bennett / 8 Comments »

The Floor Plan

Alrighty, folks, I think we have a winner! Ding, ding, ding! We have a floor plan! I’d like to give a big thanks to New Old Homes & Design for helping with the plans. We worked with their designer and she was a pleasure to work with and provided several floor plans that far exceeded our expectations. If you’re in the area, definitely check them out. I’m not really sure whether I can blog their plans or not but we ended up tweaking one of theirs just a tad so I’ll share that (even though it’s not nearly as pretty)! Once again, major thanks to Mary at New Old Homes!

In case you’re interested, here is the post that had our first swags at it.

So what I love about this one is that the opening for the bathroom is on the end of the wall so we have almost that whole interior wall to use in the bedroom. I also love that the shower and vanity are opposite one another. I love that we have HUGE, SEPARATE closets. I love the window placement. I love that we have plenty of storage. There’s not too much I don’t love about this plan. Can you see any possible gotchas or things to consider we’re missing? I should also mention that she suggested putting the door to the bedroom 3’ into the hallway so the bedroom door is not an issue there at the opening of the bedroom.

The Tile

Today we went to The Tile Collection in Pineville. I have to tell you, this week I really thought we might have a meltdown about the tile. Scott and I were wanting completely opposite things and we were really at a standstill. Actually, there was nothing still about it, it was turning into a raging war about the color of the tile. I’m not lying when I say we had to pray over our bathroom. But today, our meeting at the tile place was so peaceful and enjoyable. We actually agreed on almost everything and Theresa was so good at helping us negotiate a compromise and finding alternates.

So first thing, you might remember the vanity from this post that I really liked. That was our inspiration for the whole bathroom. If you notice in the floor plan, that vanity niche is perfect for it. So first thing, we picked out the glass tile and Scott and I right away picked out the same thing which was a small miracle. After that, most of the time was spent on picking out a shower tile. Scott really wanted dark and I didn’t want it to feel so dark nothing popped and it was like a cave. We compromised on that and then went with light floors and countertops to go with our dark espresso cabinets. OK, so here are the choices:

Going clockwise:

The dark brown is the shower. We’re doing 12 x 24 on the walls. They’ll be vertical and in alternating rows. Like this but not stacked in rows straight across. They’ll be laid more like hardwood floors:

The shower floor will be 2×1 squares of the same brown tile. NOT this river rock.

The smaller, multi-color glass will be what is on each side of the vanity and the ceiling.

The light color actually has a linen stripe in it that is nice and light. We’ll be doing this in 24×24 squares on the floor, laid in a hatched design. I think that’s the name anyway. It’s where the stripes go vertical and horizontal in alternating pattern.

The dark wood is the cabinets.

The countertop is not pictured but is going to be some type of hard surface similar to the color of the floor. We’re hoping to find a remnant of something at their warehouse.

It is SO pretty in person. Can’t you just imagine being the shower and looking across the room to that pretty glass tile or standing at the vanity and seeing that pretty shower? I am SO excited about it.

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Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus – Charlotte Review

January 28th, 2011 at 9:01 am / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

We made it out to the circus last night. The kids were pumped and they pretty much stayed that way. They were the perfect age for the circus and Lexi especially enjoyed it. She was pulling us down the corridor during the break trying to get back before they started again. It was the classic circus with tightrope, flying trapeze, motorcycles, the strongest man, and yes, elephants and tigers. Walking away though it was the talent of the people that blew us away. People bending this way and that way and swinging high and low. It is truly awe-inspiring to see what the body is capable of.

The circus will be in Charlotte at Time Warner Arena Wednesday through Sunday January 30. I have a coupon code for you to use to either have a fun date with your significant other or take your kiddos.

Check out this page for more information, a show schedule, and how to purchase tickets.

I received this opportunity including tickets to the show because of my participation in the NC Blog Buzz network. I have pledged to give my honest opinion of the product/event. All opinions are my own.

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Dragging and Flagging

January 24th, 2011 at 4:00 pm / Amy Bennett / 7 Comments »

Today was the first physical change to the house for the addition. Scott pulled out the bushes we had on that side of the house. I really thought his truck might split in two dragging the second one out. In fact, it only took out half of it the first time. Here is a video of the second half coming out. You can tell Scott is in his element, I even got a thumbs up and a few Tim the Tool Time Taylor grunts right before the video went on.

In other good news we found a survey in our closing packet so A – we did not have to pay to get a new one and B – we didn’t have to go to the courthouse and get it. We found out we have exactly 20 feet to build on, right what we needed.

Knowing that, he put some stakes and string out to show where the room is going to be. The fence is basically our back wall and the string in the middle is the divider between the bedroom and bathroom/closets. 20×28 sounds big but really I think this whole thing is going to close in on us pretty fast. Not that I’m complaining, it will definitely be bigger than what we have. And our comfort is not really what this is about. But yeah, smaller than it looks on paper.

We also started the process of moving all those pipes and wires from the side of the house. And PS, not really cheap to do all that.

One more update..the designer is still working on the floor plan. Hopefully we’ll have it by the end of the week. We spent some time this weekend looking at materials for the bathroom and trying to figure out what the exterior of this thing is going to look like.

Exciting stuff!

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Barbies for Sale – Again

January 23rd, 2011 at 6:36 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

I thought this was a pretty ingenious idea from Lexi. She packaged a doll and dress in cut up tissue and shoe boxes and wrapped it in plastic wrap to make it look like it was for sale. They lined them up on my bookcase and priced them, pretty close to actual price, nonetheless. Possibilities are endless. Well, as endless as your supply of boxes. Have fun!

Posted via email from Amy’s posterous

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Bathroom Ideas

January 22nd, 2011 at 12:55 pm / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

If I could walk into my new bathroom right now, this is pretty much what I’d want to see

From HGTV; Designer Lina Khatib

From HGTV; Designer Cindy Aplanalp

Let’s make it happen!

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Laying the Groundwork

January 21st, 2011 at 5:46 pm / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

Today we met with the designer and our friend that’s a builder. Both were really good meetings but boy, do we have a lot of decisions ahead of us.

The designer looked at a few of the designs we had come up with and liked one that I actually didn’t post. The biggest thing she recommended which really surprised me was to not do the tub if we don’t use it. She suggested instead to do a huge tile shower which would still satisfy the spa type feeling for the master. The plan also takes into account the split closets we wanted. She’s supposed to be putting a plan together this weekend so I’ll share when we get it.

We spoke with the builder and all seemed well. There were no hiccups or gotchas that came up and in fact, we think we might have a few extra feet on the end of the house to use. He gave us a few steps we can start with, mainly getting our survey from the courthouse to see if we need a new one or not. And then there are A LOT of decisions to make on what materials to use so he can do a proper bid. A few of the bigger things we’re having to consider right now:

Side the whole house or just the addition with an accent siding on the front? In which case he recommended bumping out the front of the house about a foot.
Where to put windows and what size.
Flooring.
Type of cabinets and countertop and overall look and feel of the bathroom.
How to run the water lines and what to do about the hot water heater. Considering putting one of those instantaneous things in.
Putting in a well while we’re at it to get better water pressure and reduce monthly water costs. Our pressure is AWFUL and we’re concerned it won’t support our nice big shower. This was just mentioned, not sure if we could if we wanted.

I won’t overwhelm you with more, that is quite enough to think about. I’m horrible at decisions so you can imagine that this blows my brain a bit. But, at the same time, it’s fun picking new stuff out!

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Pit of Fire

January 20th, 2011 at 9:47 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

I have to say most projects around the house are conceived in my brain and are birthed out of Scott’s hands. But this one, is all him. And if the s’mores we had tonight were any indication, I call it good.

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Addition Update

January 20th, 2011 at 11:45 am / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

Can we think of more fun titles for this process? I’m thinking that’s going to get old quick after a few months. We’ve had enough go on in the last four hours that it’s worth a post though!

This morning started off a little early and disappointing. I had our appointment with our designer down for the wrong day. But I didn’t realize it until we all got up early, got ready and got the house in showroom condition and the designer was “late”. I checked my emails and sure enough, I had today down when it is really tomorrow. You know how excited I am about her coming but yeah, only one more day I have to wait.

Also, I was supposed to talk to the bank yesterday but she never called so we chatted this morning. The thing I was worried about (why do I do that?) is that last year we tried to refi because we have a 7 year arm and it’s “up” this spring but we couldn’t even though we’ve always had excellent credit. One credit card Scott got to hide a birthday present from me in 2009 was late and it tripped up our credit score enough we couldn’t get a conventional loan. We were planning to refi this spring anyway assuming our credit was back up. But I was nervous! Knowing they’d be checking our score in this process, I haven’t wanted to check it on my own lately so I’ve been in a big waiting pattern for the past year to see if it had gone back up. I told her our plans and she said she’d go ahead and check our scores while we were on the phone and we are BOTH back in the excellent range!

The thing I want to mention specifically for this post is I really can see God moving because you know how God has been saying do this in a hurry? I think I saw why today. Because we are doing a fairly small project and it should be done in a few months versus 8 months or more, she wants to do an equity loan for the addition and then refi it all together at the end. So no construction loan and no multiple closings. The thing about it is we won’t be locked into a rate right now. Rates are supposed to go up so she said the best thing to do is…HURRY. Can you believe that? First conversation with the bank and she unknowingly confirms what God has been telling me. The addition is a green light and hurry up and do it!

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Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus – Charlotte

January 20th, 2011 at 9:10 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

I can not believe the circus is going to be in Charlotte NEXT WEEK. I haven’t reminded the girls about going since we first found out in December and I can not wait to get them psyched up for it. I’m planning to use some coloring sheets that Time Warner has provided and am happy to share the link so you can do the same if you’re going. Or not. Free coloring pages are always a plus in my book.

Also, I may as well talk about the elephant in the room. Almost literally. Not my room but you know, they will be in the room. So I know circuses get a lot of pressure because of the treatment of their elephants. If that is a concern for you, here is some information about the care and concern for the elephants in the show. I feel confident that the show will be safe and that the elephants are taken care of sufficiently.

The circus will be in Charlotte at Time Warner Arena Wednesday through Sunday January 26-30. And don’t forget I have a coupon code for you to use to either have a fun date with your significant other or take your kiddos.

Check out this page for more information, a show schedule, and how to purchase tickets.

And be sure to let me know when you’re going. The four of us will be headed out for the January 27th 7pm show!

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Wordy Wednesday

January 19th, 2011 at 12:36 pm / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

I feel like the last week and a half has been a month. After a long snow week, we basically slept through the weekend. Sunday night Lexi got sick so we’ve been home, trying to nurse her through that. Looks like she’s coming out of the woods today. Although it feels a bit like everything has been on hold, there are a few highlights.

Addition of the house variety

Tomorrow morning we have a designer coming to look at the house and help us brainstorm about how to set up the addition. I am ITCHING to see what she comes up with.

We are having a friend come over after that and give us a ballpark estimate. Hoping that will happen this week as well.

I’m supposed to be talking to a bank about the loan today.

So yeah, we ARE moving forward!

Addition of the family variety

Friday we met with a couple from our church that is adopting. She filled us in on her story and what they are doing, gave us some contact info, answered our questions and gave us some books to read. I read Adopted for Life this week and can’t recommend it enough. For EVERYONE. It gives you a Biblical representation of adoption, helps families of those thinking about adoption and lots of tips for adopting parents and even adoptees.

So we haven’t physically done anything about the adoption. Initially we thought we’d be adopting from Haiti but so far that doesn’t seem to be the direction we’re receiving right now. We know we want to adopt 3-5 years old and feel like our local DSS is where we’re headed. I have to admit, it’s scary. These kids have baggage, no doubt. And this isn’t the pound, you can’t take the child back if it doesn’t work out. I hate to sound so callous but it’s actually quite the opposite. This child will be ours forever, I truly believe God had picked this child for us since the beginning and they will be a Bennett. Emma and Lexi’s brother. Our son. And to type that is overwhelming. And thinking about my son with baggage is hard. So to make that first call is like signing up for life, not just getting some info. So yeah, I guess I’m scared to do anything. But we will. We will. I feel like the rush is on the house right now so that’s what we’re concentrating on.

Feeling crafty

Monday I was feeling inspired by this post, so I got out by myself for a bit and went to Michael’s. I had a 40% coupon and I was gonna use it! I ended up stumbling on their 80% Christmas sale where I got lots of little red stuff for only .20 each that I could use for crafts. They also had paper on sale and I used my coupon for a little heart wreath. I spent a few hours after getting home making a few crafty layouts with the paper for Valentine’s Day and just fun ones for my office. I may not keep it around or I might. Each one only costs about a quarter since I already had the frames lying around.

Is that owl not so cute? That is an owl from one piece of paper I painstakingly cut out and taped on that awesome, colorful paper behind it. The bird on the top left one says “tweet”. It of course reminds me of Twitter. I had to literally, yes, literally, cut and paste some of the birds around that piece of paper to make it look right in an 8×10 frame. I love the heart on the picture of the Eiffel Tower, which yes, was part of a piece of craft paper for 19 cents! The flag one was hard. I don’t have a Silhouette so I had to break out the razor blade to make the flags. The last one on the bottom right is simply a sticker with a bunch of romantic words and definitions (which I already had in my craft supplies) stuck on a red piece of paper. So simple and only 25 cents!

Feeling clean

With all the time in the house, I’ve spent some time cleaning out my closet and kitchen drawers the past week. Can’t tell you good that feels. I’ve debated consigning some of my clothes but I’ve never done that. Is anyone familiar with the process? Wondering how much you actually get. Our local ones either do 60/40 or 50/50 split but I wonder how they price them and if the split really makes it worth it.

Blood:Water Belt

We’ve picked up a little steam on the Blood:Water Belt this week. Several ladies have sent in their pictures and have done some more posts about it. We’ve gone over the 50 mark, with over $1500 raised. So amazing. When I see the pictures of everyone in it, I’m just amazed.

Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights is coming to a close. After tonight, only 3 weeks left. Kaitlin and I have continued to do our fan site and podcast. We had the pleasure of interviewing Connie Britton “Tami Taylor” last night. My favorite interview to date. She’s so well-spoken and really knows her FNL. She’s not doing any TV or movie projects right now and is doing some charity work. You can tell she lights up when she talks about their projects. It was a little sad afterwards to be making plans with Kaitlin for when to shut everything down but it’s been fun. I have made a life-long friend with Kaitlin through this, had a blast doing the podcast and even going to Austin to meet some of the cast. It sounds a little trivial at times but I’m glad to have spent the time on it that we did. At the same time, I think it’s good timing with the above-mentioned stuff going on that I move on from this. A time for everything right?

Bible in 90 Days

Today is the half-way mark with reading the Bible through in 90 days. I’ve managed to stay on time every day and oddly, God has been stopping me from reading ahead even when I’ve had time. He’s showing me it’s my DAILY bread, not a sprint to completion. And still, I can’t recommend doing this for no other reason than it forces you to stay in His word.

So that’s a lot! I think that catches you up and I keep saying it, but I really want to get back to daily postings here!

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Snow Day. I Mean, ICE WEEK.

January 13th, 2011 at 9:20 pm / Amy Bennett / 3 Comments »

What do you blog when you’ve been ~~snowed~~ iced in for 3 days? What do you blog when your husband has worked 7 evenings in a row? What do you blog when your day has been a monotony of wake, cook, work, cook, eat, cook, entertain kids, cook, sleep?

Well, if you’re me, I guess you don’t.

As I imagined, this week was tough. Not tough, tough. No crying spells or pulling out my hair or yelling (and I have PMS—it’s a miracle!). Just having to keep-on-top-of-everything- I-don’t-have-time-for-anything-else. You know, PARENTING. So I don’t have anything amazing, blog-worthy things that have happened this week. Just a lot of good home time. I have enjoyed the late mornings and not rushing to go anywhere and eating in and lack of drama. It’s actually been a nice week now that I think about it.

Wednesday afternoon we managed to get out to the bank and post office and stopped my parents’ for a few minutes. Their yard was still very iced over and the girls had a blast playing in it for a few minutes. Of course they thought it was like a skating rink. And in fact, some spots did hold Lexi up. So here you can hear my mad parenting skills and if you watch to the end, you can see Lexi take a couple falls. And yes, she IS wearing her Halloween costume and a lightweight jacket.

Hope you guys are having a great week!

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My Provider

January 10th, 2011 at 5:24 pm / Amy Bennett / 12 Comments »

I sold my mac two weeks ago after being prompted by God to use the money to buy World Vision and Compassion gifts. The total was $800 plus what ended up being $31 for shipping. I tell you not to brag on me. Oh no. Giving glory to God today. Because today, I received notification that one of my advertisers on onetreehillblog.com had an accounting error over a year ago over several months and OWES ME $1631. Exactly twice the cost of the mac plus shipping. Just a coincidence? Could be. However, I choose to believe He opened the windows of heaven. I mean, what’s the chances? The error was over a year ago. I JUST sold the mac 2 weeks ago. The numbers are astounding. He’s so good. I was worried about how we were going to pay our tax bill this year for that site and now He has provided!

"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it." Malachi 3:10

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and cometh down from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning." James 1:17

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Weekend Recap and Snow Day

January 10th, 2011 at 4:49 pm / Amy Bennett / 7 Comments »

Weekend

So I finally set down my ruler and pencil and have given the floor plans a break. No floor plan pictures today! I think we’ve done all we can and we’re just going to have to wait until the snow melts enough for someone to get over and look at the house.

We had a low key weekend this weekend. I had to work on and off through the weekend on a conversion we’ve been working on for six months. It went smoothly and it feels good to have it out of the way. Other than getting out to the mall, the grocery store, church and Sunday dinner, we were at home doing stuff like laundry, cleaning, cooking and exercising. Yes! Exercising! I bought a few new workout DVDs with my Swagbucks and Opinion Output rewards at Amazon. I’m not committing to any exercise goals but I have been trying to do some type of something in the evenings. How’s that for noncommittal?

Snow Day

As for today, I’m sure you’ve heard that we are getting 4-6” of snow dumped on us as we speak. It’s beautiful, but really, a pain. The kids are home basically going back and forth between 2 rooms. Scott is sleeping from working this weekend so they’re having to be quiet. I work from home so snow is not stopping me from having to work today. And to top it off, Scott has been called in for two additional 12 hour shifts this week, totaling 7 days straight working. So now he actually has to be out in this mess working all the wrecks out there. Yay us! So, besides the snow cream, I’m really not jumping for joy over this snow. If I didn’t have to work then it might be a different story. But no. I hate to be a buzzkill but keeping it real!

On a high note, I did make some very yummy French toast this morning. I’ve never been good at French toast but I think it’s because I never used French bread. I took a note from my mom’s friend that cooks it when we visit in Pennsylvania and bought a loaf at the store yesterday and then followed these instructions. Enjoy!

I’ll leave you with a sure-to-be-famous “Amy story”. I have many in my past.

Last night the girls and I were trying to switch from Wii Sports to the Wii Fit DVD. I put the Wii Fit DVD in the Wii but it wasn’t recognizing it so I tried to eject it so I could clean it. Nothing! I went online and then followed all the online recommendations for ejecting one. I put out a complaint/plea on Twitter about what to do. Best I could tell, I was going to have to get it sent back to Nintendo to get fixed. It was REALLY stuck though. I could even get another DVD in the Wii and get it to eject that but the Wii Fit was lodged somewhere that couldn’t get out. Well. This morning I told Scott about it hoping that he would have some magic fix. Turns out he did. He hit the eject on the PS3…right where I had put in the Wii Fit DVD. Fail, Amy, fail.

Oh wait, in other big news today, Lexi lost her front tooth. She now looks like a legit kindergartner.