Happy New Year!

From the both of us we wish all of you a very happy new year!

Also I have posted pictures of our house. The link is on the left hand side of the page labeled "Our House". Enjoy and check back often I will be posting more when progress has been made!

Eight Months to go!

I hope everyone had a great holiday, we certainly did. We received a lot of awesome things for our house for Christmas; I am so excited to use them!

The girls and I went dress shopping on Friday and I found my dress! Oh I love it so much I can’t wait to wear it. The place we went did not have a big selection of bridesmaid’s dresses so we are planning to go to a different place before everyone leaves again.

Erik and I (with the help of our families) have been working on our house. Things are slowly progressing; I say slowly because we always have to wait for something to dry. So far we have changed the locks, taken down that hideous white front screen door, taken down the bars in the front entrance, taken down the awful curtains and spackled almost everywhere. Yesterday we took out the upper kitchen cabinets! And I think we are ready to start painting some of the ceilings upstairs. Oh yea and the new roof was installed on the house on Friday. As soon as we order the kitchen cabinets and get them in we are going to start installing those as well.

I promise I will put pictures up of the house when I leave work today.

Homeowners!!

It is official, Erik and I are homeowners! We had our settlement yesterday. Everything went very well. We went to home depot yesterday and bought new locks for all the doors. I can’t wait to start working on fixing up the house! This weekend we will clean the upstairs and finalize paint colors and hopefully start painting. Our roofing guy is going to be at the house all day today, putting on our new roof.

We also met with Hyojon to go over some more designs for our kitchen, and went to the granite place and picked out our granite. We are hoping to start work on the kitchen early to mid January.
I am also hoping to meet with the caterer in early January and get that taken care of. I should also have a block of hotel rooms reserved for people who know they will be coming and are ready to book their hotel rooms now. I will give you more information about that when I know more but for now enjoy the holidays!

Photographer!

Yay I have a photographer! We are very excited to work with Liz and her husband. We will probably be taking our engagement pictures sometime when the weather starts getting nice and warm in the spring.
Things are starting to come together! We will meet with the caterer sometime in January to get that squared away, then the only major things that are left are the DJ and flowers. And I have plans for those as well.
The girls and I are going dress shopping the Friday after Christmas; hopefully we can find the dresses they are looking for. It will take a little while longer for me to pick out my dress, although I really loved one of the ones I tried on a few weeks ago, my mom tells me to keep looking around and I agree with her. But we bought my jewelry and I know how I want to style my hair for the wedding day!

Home Inspection

On Saturday we had our home inspection. It went really well, there are a few things that they are required to fix and a few things that we are asking them to take care of.  They have three days to respond and let us know what they are going to fix. 

Our settlement date is still December 22 YAY.  

STDs are in the mail!

Yes it is true, our save the dates are complete. They are stamped, addressed and ready to be sent out. In fact, they are in the mail! I am still in the process of looking for a good photographer. We have met with a few photographers but I don’t want to commit to one just yet. I am giving myself until the end of the month to make a decision. It should give me plenty of time to look at a bunch of photographers.

Also I am going to start looking into hotels around the area to book a block of rooms, so look for more information and the link to the hotels around January; I think most of you should know by then if you will be able to attend. I really hope everyone can come!

The girls and I should be going to look for dresses after Christmas when Diana and Lauren are back home. I cannot wait! oh and we will go shopping for stuff for the house!

Oh yes and our seven year anniversary is this coming Wednesday, December 10!

Third time is a charm!!!!!!

They accepted our offer for the house!!!!! We are going to go to the house this weekend to have an inspector check it out and we will close on December 22; I think.

House Update

Today we went out house hunting again; both of us have been quite discouraged and let down recently with the houses on the market but we went out anyway. Until today; we put an offer down on another house! This one is even more perfect than the last one. Really I think this is the best one we have seen. It has a little man-made pond in the most wonderful and large backyard.

The best part about this house is that not only is it a regular transaction (meaning we don’t have to wait for the bank to approve the offer) but the agent selling the house is also a Long and Foster agent, which we are told makes everything run more smoothly. The other agent was very excited and happy as well; we should know within 24 hours of we get the house. So everyone please pray; this is it this is the one we really want.
We are hoping that the third time is the charm!

Oh ya and we retracted our offer on the other house.

A little update

We have not heard back officially from the bank yet however, we do know that there was a cash offer put down on the house. This leads us to believe that we will not be getting the house, so refer to the pictures of the post I put up on the 14th.

Back to the drawing board.

Disregard last post (but the babies are really cute so I didnt want to take it down)

Ok so I didn’t want to take the pictures of the babies down because they are so freaking cute. But I have an update. I just received a call from one of our realtors Dorit and she said that they just got a call from the agent who said that she submitted all three offers (ours included) to the bank. She said that it would take up to 10 days for them to look at it and make a decision. The agent said all three offers are around the same, give or take, some of the offers asked for closing cost help, yada yada. All I know is that we offered asking price without any contingencies other than we are going to get an inspector to look at it before we sign papers.

Ok so we wait... up to 10 days.

Strike Two

This is me right now.

If you couldn’t guess why- they accepted another offer on the house. Absolutely not fair at all but that’s life right? I guess its back to the drawing board.

Still waiting...

Mandy called me a little while ago. She said the lawyers are going to hold off until Friday to make a decision. Apparently they have received three offers on the house and they want to wait to see if they receive any more by Friday.

Waiting Game

We did it again! Yesterday Erik and I put an offer down on another house! The house is in Red Fox, for those that don’t know Red Fox area is a really cute neighborhood. Now it is just a waiting game. It is a short sale so we have to wait for the offer to be approved by the bank. Hopefully no one else will put an offer down on the house because, well we both love this house, and we are very tired of spending one entire day of our weekends looking at houses. The house needs a little work but it will be so much fun fixing it up. Oh yea there is a pool in the backyard. I don't want to give too many details so let’s just all pray that it works out and we get this house and if we do then I will post pictures and tell you more about it!

On another note, the STDs are arriving at my house this Wednesday, a week earlier than they had originally told me they would be in. I am very excited to see how they turned out.

Oh and I am going dress shopping this coming Saturday! YAY

STD’s are in production

It has been almost a month since the last update. We had been super busy with Diana’s wedding, and boy was it all worth it, it was amazing; I know I learned a lot from her and I am once again in wedding mode.
It was great seeing everyone at her wedding and I can’t wait to see you guys again when you come back to DC in August.

I ordered our save-the-dates last week and I can’t wait until they come in. It takes them about 2 weeks to make them, then however long after that to get to my house. I want to send them out the first week of December so make sure you look for them in the mail. I was going to wait to send them out but Erik suggested I send them out in December because that is when people will most likely be making their summer plans. He’s a thinkerJ. I have been learning, or well attempting to learn calligraphy. It is very difficult, and I am terrible at it. Hopefully by the time I have to write the addresses on the envelopes I will be halfway decent. I apologize in advance for my infant-like handwriting.

Can someone please tell me why finding a house is so hard? House hunting has been a little frustrating. On Sunday Erik and I went and looked at about 20 houses and didn’t like one enough to put an offer down. It seems either everything is way overpriced or the ones that are in our price range are mice infested. Why does this area have to be so expensive? Only thing we can do is keep looking, hopefully something will come along.

Legwarmers Concert!!!

I suppose this post is a bit delayed but better late than never right?  Anya said I need to post more often and put more pictures up so I am . 

On September 19, Erik and I went to a Legwarmers Concert with our friends Richie and Alaina. What is a Legwarmers concert you ask? Well they are an amazing 80s cover band.  Erik and I absolutely love 80s music.  The best part about this concert was that you got to dress up in 80s attire.  We looked awesom

e, but you guys can judge for yourselves.  Here are a few pictures Anya took before we went out. My favorite one is the first one, I do believe it sums up how we both feel about the 80s.

 

I will put the rest of the pictures online for your viewing pleasure and you can access them through the link on the left-hand side of the page.  We did not have the best outfits though; there were people there with outfits that were actually their own outfits that they used to wear in the 80s.  A few ladies even came in their prom dresses with BIG bows on the back. Oh it was glorious. Next time I will take my own camera and take pictures of the other people.

Updates on the house hunt

This past Sunday Erik and I went house hunting again, this time it was with Dorit, Mandy’s partner at work. Before went met with Dorit I checked my email and found a wonderful house on Terrell Street a few streets down from Erik’s family’s house in Annandale. Erik and I decided to drive past it and we loved it, so I asked Dorit if we could go see the inside of it when we were done looking at the homes we had planned on seeing.

We looked at seven houses on Sunday before coming back to the one on Terrell Street. Out of the seven we liked one of the townhomes we saw. But then we went to the house on Terrell Street, and wow let me tell you we all fell in love with it. We showed the family and they loved it too so we decided to put an offer down on the house!

We waited all day Monday and around 7:30pm I get a call from Mandy saying they sold the house for more than $22,000 more than we had offered. The house had been on the market for less than 24 hours and the realtor said she had gotten about 30 calls saying they were interested in it.

I was obviously upset but in the end the house was not meant to be ours, and we will keep looking until we find something. We will keep you posted!

Bridal Showcase and House Hunting

On Sunday the 7th my mom, Ava, Neila (my cousin) and my grandma went to the Washington Bridal Showcase. Boy oh boy was it overwhelming. There were people EVERYWHERE. Obviously I understand the point of a showcase, but man these people were vultures. As soon as you walked by if you even thought about making eye contact they sucked you into a conversation about their products or services. It was fun though. I found a few perspective photographers and will most likely start contacting them around November. We tasted a few cakes, and to be honest most of them were so dry I cannot believe they charge $600 for them. Insanity.

So you walk in the expo center and you sign these forms, pay your money and get a bag with a magazine and 3 sheets of paper with little squares of your unique number on it. You rip the little squares off and put it in the vendors’ boxes to win prizes. I didn’t know you had to stay until 4 (the end of the showcase) to see if you had won. We all left because Erik and I had an appointment with Mandy (our old neighbor) to look at some houses. Neila went back to the showcase to see if we had won anything, obviously we hadn’t. But in the last few days I have been getting phone calls saying that I have won a few things, nothing really just 2 make-up things and a bridal package vacation (which is like a seminar you sit through and get something in the end), we didn’t want to deal with that. But I did win an at home make-over for me and 10 of my friends. Going through I realized most of my girl friends are all out of the state or just too far to have them come over on a Wed night, so I invited the few that I have here along with moms and sisters. It should be a lot of fun.

As I mentioned before Erik and I went with our wonderful neighbor Mandy to see a few houses in the area. Out of the 4 or 5 (I can’t remember) we went to we liked one of them. I know 2 of the places we didn’t even get to go into because they gave incorrect information about the status of the house. One did even have a lock box on the door and the other had the wrong lock box. The others we didn’t like as soon as we walked in we could smell the mold so we immediately turned around and walked out. The last one we went to was wonderful. It was a townhouse, it had a deck, a HUGE kitchen with granite countertops and new cabinets. Three bedrooms 3 bathrooms, hardwood floors everywhere, really cute fireplace. We really liked it. But we are going to keep looking, perhaps the prices will go down even more while we are looking.

Clambake

I know two entries in one day, crazy. On July 17, Erik and I went to the National Harbor in MD for an AGC event. It was called a Clambake, we had (and by we I mean Erik did because I don’t like seafood) mussels, clam chowder and Lobster. We didn’t think they were going to give each person a whole lobster but they did! I did try the lobster and I have to admit it was not too bad. I could eat a little bit of it but I do not think I could eat a whole one. Erik on the other hand is absolutely in love with lobster now. They gave me a chicken meal from Boston market instead, it was good.

Here is a picture from the National Harbor itself.

It was really beautiful. The drive out there was a bit painful but it was worth it. Erik had mentioned wanting to take out of town guests there and I agree with him. Depending on how long people are in town for we will make a trip out to the National Harbor with whoever wants to go, hopefully by then they will have finished up the whole area.

We are both very excited!

Ceremony Site

I know it’s about a week late but better late then never. On the 15th of July Erik, Cherie (Luke’s aunt), Luke and I went to a place called Jefferson Court. It is a courtyard in the middle of a few office buildings. It is located right off of K Street in Georgetown. The location could not be more perfect. I have yet to take my mom there to see it, but I really like it and the location is so close to Top of the Town it is perfect.

I was thinking of having the arch here so that we would be looking out to the other part of the courtyard. We would set up the chairs to go around the fountain in the middle in a V formation. The courtyard is already decorated with trees and pots with flowers in them but we will do more to make it look prettier.

After the ceremony we were thinking of taking pictures here and down by the water in front of this area and along the boardwalk. While we take our pictures we thought it would work out that the out of town guest that have not seen this part of Georgetown would go off and take their own pictures, until we all go over to Top of the Town for the reception.

We still have to work out a few details and take my mom there to make sure it is ok with her, but I really like the idea of having it there. Let me know what you think, please be honest!

NEW CAR!!!

I did it I purchased my first car yesterday!!  It is a 2006 BMW 325i! It is so beautiful, haha. I am actually at a loss for words. I want to thank Erik for coming with me and being such a wonderful backbone while I was choosing the car and negotiating.  I also want to thank my mommy, thanks to her we got an extra $500 off the price of the car.  Because the two of them I felt confident and very supported when I was talking to the dealer.  

The funniest part is that if you look at the previous post the picture of the car in that and the one I actually got are identical.  The weirdest part is that we got my car from the BMW dealer 

and the one in the picture before was from a search I did online. Weirrd.

A bit about the car: It has a premium package which includes the leather seats and automatic seats, memory seats and all that good stuff, it also has a cold weather package which includes the heated seats and a built in ski bag (I know I don't ski but I figure Kelly would find this super sweet), and it has a sports package which includes nicer rim, sport suspension, bucket seats.  It comes bluetooth ready so I can press a button when I get a call and it will answer the call and broadcast it over my car's speakers. What else..hm...OH YA and it has AC AND A MOONROOF, hehe.

I love it! I will put some more pictures of my car up on our online photo album for your viewing pleasure.

YAY 

New Car for Dorsa

Ok here's the thing..(Erik says I say that every time I'm about to have a serious conversation)

...I've had my car since 2001 and lately I have had a few problems with it.  The AC has been completely replaced and still will not work.  Then just the other day I was driving it and it started to smell like sulfur (aka the battery was leaking) I had to get a new battery.  I know what you are thinking "that's nothing", well ask Erik and ask me when we are driving home in rush hour traffic in 92 degree weather with no AC. Not fun! 

So this weekend we went to carmax and test drove the G35 and BMW 325i.  I sat in the Mercedes Benz C-class and Acura TL and did not like the way they felt.  I liked the way both the G35 and the 325i drove but decided that I want to get a BMW.  Now I can't decide if I want to get it before we come to Chicago or wait until we get back.  I am leaning more towards the waiting until we get back because nobody likes to go back to work after a fun vacation and we will need something to keep our excitement up.

We have been looking on Autotrader.com and here is one of the ones we like tell me what you think!!

Long story short I'm getting a new car!! YIPPIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reception Venue Booked!

Yes it is true; we booked our reception site this week. I supposed the title made it seem like it was book by someone else. This means that we have a definitive date! Mark your calendars August 29, 2009 at Top of the Town. We will not be sending out our save the dates for a while but I wanted to mention the date so you guys could start getting as excited as we are, haha. I signed the contract and faxed it over to them on Monday and I mailed them the check (yuck) on Tuesday.

We have yet to go see Jefferson Court, the new place we are thinking of having our Ceremony. Luke’s Aunt Cherie knows a guy who owns the building where Jefferson Court is. Supposedly it is a courtyard, with nice flowers and ivy. I am hoping to go see it sometime either this weekend or next week. I will let you know when that happens, and put pictures up. If that does not work out I will have to wait until August 29,2008 to send out a site use request form to the national parks department in DC for the Netherlands Carillion.



Joke I heard last night at my softball game: (I don’t exactly know how the beginning goes but you can really make anything up for this one, here goes, make sure you say the answer out loud to yourself)

Q: What did the Brown Chicken say to the Brown Cow?

A: Brown-chica Brown-Cow

Ahhh so clever, I wish I could take credit for that one but I cannot. Well that is all for now, keep checking back for more updates!

Engagement Party

We had our Engagement party this past Sunday the 15th. Unfortunately we did not take many pictures. (It was Anya's job and we were all too involved in Mario Kart and Unbeatable Banzuke to remember).  However, it seemed like everyone had a great time. The food was amazing, my mom and grandma did an amazing job with everything and I want to thank them again. THANKS MOMMY! To everyone that came thank you so much for coming and to those that could not make it thank you for the calls, you were all in our thoughts. 

On another note Erik and I took our moms, Ava and Anya to Top of the Town and they loved it! I am going to finalize everything with them this week.  We are all super excited.  I still have to go and check out the potential ceremony site sometime either this week/weekend or next.  Once that is all taken care of I will be taking a break from our wedding planning for a little while and fulfill my MOH duties for Diana :). 

Once Top of the Town is booked, we will post the date and the time, so stay tuned. 

The search is on!

I have started looking for venues to have our wedding and reception. I know some of you might think, " wow already?", to that I answer yes, I want to book a venue as soon as I can not only so we can let our families know the date, but also so I can help Diana more with her wedding stuff.

Erik, Anya and I went to Foxchase manor and Chantilly National Golf and Country club the weekend of the 17th. Foxchase was a complete dead end, it was so huge and very unwelcoming. The country club was very nice other than the place the ceremony would be held. I don't really know how to describe it, just know that it would have been very awkward.

So then I had planned on going to leesburg to visit Raspberry Plain and Whitehall Manor on the 31st. But Erik and I went to a general contracting networking shin-dig at a place called Top of the Town in Arlington. The view from that place is absolutely amazing. As we were leaving Erik turns to me and says "how cool would it be to have our reception up here?" I admit at first I did not like the idea, because I had always dreamed of having a cute outdoor wedding. But I thought hey we can have the ceremony outside then come to Top of the Town and have the reception.

I went to work the next day and looked up pricing and fell in love with the idea. I called and emailed Joan (the lady in charge) and realized that this reception could be possible. So long story short: I think we found our reception venue!!!!!! I haven't signed a contract and am still planning on going to leesburg, but unless something unexpected happens I think this is it!

I am still looking at ceremony sites but Joan said most brides just have their ceremony at the Netherlands Carillon.

We still have to go with the moms and check it all out but we are both very excited!

Engagement-May 10, 2008

I suppose it started during the day. It was the day of my birthday, Anya and Lauren took me out to get my nails done and we went out to lunch. Little did I know Erik was out and about picking up my ring, talking to my mom and the manager at the restaurant. We had planned on going out to dinner for my birthday that night. We went to Arties, the place where we had our first date. Erik told me he had my present in the car and would get it for my after we ate dinner. We were drinking our wine and Erik went to go get my present out of his car. When he walked back in he handed me a box that was the size of a scrapbook. We had a little trouble opening the box, but when I opened it there was an amazing crystal frame with the words "Will you marry me?". I was absolutely shocked, and said of course I will marry you! Lauren had been standing right behind Erik taking pictures and I had not even noticed. I got up to give Erik a hug and the entire restaurant starting clapping and cheering. My sister and Anya then walked in and we all hugged and I cried (obviously). The family a couple tables down from us bought us a small bottle of Champagne. It could not have been a more perfect night!

Here is the web address for our pictures: http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/nn192/ErikandDorsa/Engagement/