my week in pictures 23

tuesday 9/17 - sunday 9/22
(We were still in California on Monday)

The past few weeks have looked a little like this: work, new house, clean, home, sleep, repeat. Over the past weekend we finally got a chance to stay over at the house (on our air mattress) with the goal of getting the bulk of painting and "remodeling" projects completed. With a little help from Pats dad and step mom, I would say that we were fairly successful. We cleaned, painted, removed screws and nails left behind, spackled, painted some more, and re-did two closets. Not too shabby, although we have quite a bit of work to go along the lines of finishing touches and new projects. Don't worry, I will post real Before & Afters later on.

[[ work award. pat ripping all of the awkward built-ins out of our closet. getting ready to paint away the ugly green. khaki found in the garage. my painting face. our ugly pastel yellow bedroom (before). relaxed khaki bedroom (after). redistributing the built-ins from our master closet to the guest room closet and painting everything a neutral color. tools. rickie wanted to help. dinner break saturday night. breakfast break sunday night. the most epic bloody mary of all time at the vic. an early dinner at 5 fusion. ]]

san jose :: sneak peak

In lieu of a "My Week" post I am just going to do a picture preview from my most recent trip to Cali since before heading out on Thursday all we did was work and work on our house.

Per usual, here are the pictures that I posted on Instagram while I was away. I will do a full post of our trip within the next couple weeks. After that I will tackle Vegas and Seattle.

[[ instagram photos: pdx. me and my little at the rehersal dinner. my wedding date. the beautiful bride. santa cruz. photobooth pics from the wedding. ]]

year three.

Johni,
I can't believe it has already been three years since you have been gone...

Its crazy to think back to where we all were as people then. So much has changed, yet, I still think of you often as little things remind me of happy memories we shared. Sometimes the correlation is pretty silly, like when me and Pat were at Velvet and a ridiculous Flight of The Concords song came on. I am sorry that I don't write to you/about you as much, thats time I guess. But it doesn't mean that you are any less important in my life. In fact, your influence was crucial to me becoming the person I am today, and for that I am thankful.

[[ i know this picture is super ridiculous, but she looks so pretty in it and its silly so i like it, circa 2007ish. my first attempts at a johni tree painting tonight. ]]

Last year I debated finishing our book but decided against it for the time being, even when another was added to the series. I just feel like I need to do something to commemorate you before I can cut that tie. I also started a painting for you a year ago today, but didn't get further than the background at the time. I guess I was afraid to start and mess it up (I never was as skilled as you were), but tonight I picked up the canvas again and went for it. I am not positive where I am going with it yet, but hopefully it turns out.

I am not really sure what I am trying to say to you today. I guess I just wanted you to know that me and Pat are doing great and that we both miss you and thank you for being the person that you were. I wish I could have known you longer. I think that we could have had some grand conversations in the future about wedding planning and the importance of hanging paper lanterns and pretty lights in a backyard.

((( more johni posts. )))

♥

going going, back back, to cali cali

(Ridiculous title, but I couldn't help myself...)

Tomorrow me and Pat are off to California again, this time for my favoritest cousin Ashley's wedding!! I am really excited to see everyone, go to the wedding I have been looking forward to all summer, and spend some quality time in San Jose, my original home town! My goal is to even take Pat to Santa Cruz for a day. Fingers crossed that we have time.

[[ me and ashley circa 1990ish. i can't believe this girl is getting married!!

The only issue with yet another out of state adventure is that I still have pictures from Seattle, Las Vegas, and various hikes around Central Oregon to finish editing, write up, and post!! Man, I am a real slacker this year... I know I don't have a ton of time yet, but I am thinking getting all caught up is going to need to be an end of the year goal. So, there you have it, by 12/31/2013 I WILL have all of my Photo Adventures up on the blog.

my week in pictures 22

monday 9/2 - sunday 9/8

Last week we got keys to our new place and started cleaning and exploring. Most of our after work hours were spent there in fact, so I don't have too many great weekly photos to post. However, on the weekend we headed for Corvallis to watch the OSU vs. Hawaii game which was a TON of fun! We even got to play a round of beer pong in our old place with our old roomate Adam and some of his friends. It was great meeting up with everyone and I am looking forward to the next home game we will be attending (Stanford or USC, not sure which one is first). As usual we had to hit up Block15 before we skipped town, and I even talked everyone to heading over to my favorite gelato place for dessert. Oh yea, and Go Beavs!

[[ exploring out new place. heading over the pass. nostalgia. ooo sss uuu. sunday fun around town. ]]

this one time we bought a house...

Sorry to be so sneaky and weird lately. Most of you already know anyway, but I was waiting to do an official post about it until everything went through. So, here is a story for you about this one time that me and Pat bought a house... 

[[ signing papers on 8/29/2013. ]]

Me and Pat moved over to Central Oregon so that I could start a full time Design position with the resort company I had been freelancing for since 2011. Although we had been discussing the potential of this position for quite some time, it took a while to get the final go ahead, giving me and Pat barely a month get ourselves moved over here. This resulted in us settling in to Pat's parents house at Eagle Crest, which had been on the market (and still is) for quite some time. Thankfully we had such a housing opportunity available to us. Since we never intended for this to be a permanent solution, we began looking at rentals in Bend without much luck.

Flash forward to a few months ago when we realized that with a little help on a downpayment we could actually afford to buy a house instead of renting something. Although the possibility was scary at the time (and still is a little bit), we both knew that we wanted to move in to Bend and stick around, so in June we began looking at homes on the market. After a string of "definitely nots", "these are way over priced", and failed bidding attempts, we were shown a cute two story in an older neighborhood on the North East Side with an amazing backyard. I was immediately intrigued by the unique vibe of the remodeled interior and potential to make the place our own. But we had a few others to look at that day, so after our showings were concluded we grabbed some lunch, (and a beer), and discussed the possibilities. One thing lead to another and we decided that if we were seriously interested we would have to jump quickly since from experience things had been moving extremely fast around here. We called our agent, put in an offer a bit under asking, and to make a long story short, our offer was accepted the next morning.

This was July. Move forward again to the end of August, and after numerous visits, an inspector, some repairs by the owners, a higher than expected appraisal, a ton of insurance mumbo-jumbo, and what seemed like an endless slew of terms and paperwork, we were in the office signing our lives away on our very first home.

[[ picking up keys and enjoying a glass of wine for the first time in our new place. 9/6/2013. ]] 

Tonight we picked up our keys and its all official! Me and Pat own a home together in Bend!! This is the home that we will start our married lives together (once we get around to that of course) and we couldn't be happier!! In the future you can expect a lot of DIY projects and before and after posts... we have big plans for this place already. Since September is an extremely busy month we plan to move in slowly and will hopefully make the switch over by the first weekend in October.

Wish us luck!

my week in pictures 21 :: labor day weekend

monday 8/26 - monday 9/2

The week leading up to Labor Day weekend was full of storms, and the craziest lightening I have ever seen over Smith Rock. I got some pictures of the local aftermath in our neighborhood. Luckily it all cleared up in time for my family to come and visit for the long weekend! I loved having them here. I took them to a bunch of the restaurants that me and Pat really like, and to the awesome pool at one of the resorts I work for. You guys definitely need to come back and visit again soon. My brother Nic also brought me and Pat an awesome housewarming present (Cards Against Humanity), thanks Nic! And I even got to meet up with an old friend from high school who was in town for the weekend.

On Thursday me and Pat also signed some very important papers, but more on that tomorrow. Afterwards we went out to a celebratory dinner at Ariana's which is a fancy restaurant we have been wanting to try. It was amazing.

All in all I would say that Labor Day Weekend was a big success. Hooray for short work weeks.

[[ aftermath of the storm. trying out a new sushi place. enjoying my hammock. celebratory dinner. beautiful day at old mill. free mgmt concert while they warmed up. deschutes tasting room. meagan on her phone all weekend. lunch at crux. breakfast at one street down. being silly at the pool. sweet painting at dinner. being silly at noi. drinks and cards. meeting up with nina at velvet. ice cream in sisters. me and pops. family pics in the woods. a candid. ]]

Note the picture on the bottom that Meagan sent me. It is one of my new favorites of us and totally candid! We must love each other or something... :)