Personal | JJ Horton Photography

October 13, 2015

Personal | Nassau

We stayed at the British Colonial Hilton in downtown Nassau, and ventured to Sandals Royal Bahamian for a day. You can get day passes at Sandals and enjoy all the perks of the resort…. we arrived early enough to eat breakfast, have lots of cocktails and order lunch and dinner. At $110 per person, it was a bargain. The only drawback is you have nowhere to freshen up/nap out of the sun! Lots of people have complimented my dress… it’s this one from Anthropologie 🙂 Be sure to come back next Tuesday for the session we did with Melanie & Kyle 🙂 Need more Caribbean goodness to tie you over until next week? Check these out….

August 13, 2015

Personal | Bald Head Island

My sister and I are pretty good at taking hints… so when Dad had mentioned for the 38th time he’d like to go see Bald Head sometime… well, we made it a point to take him for his birthday since throwing a surprise party was old news. We boarded the ferry and spent the afternoon exploring. All images shot on my Bronica ETRS on Kodak Portra 400 film.

June 9, 2015

Personal | A House Update

Well… in Thursday’s post I mentioned we were looking at two homes that night. We really had no expectations for them, we’d seen no photos of either since one wasn’t actually for sale yet (being flipped by an investor) and the other was for sale by owner (with just a sign in the yard, no online listing anywhere). We arrived at the FSBO house first and met the owner with our agent. He mentioned the house had been built by his wife’s parents who were deceased and it had served as a rental since 2003. The renters had torn the place up and he had done a lot of repairs. We were nervous to walk in and see what his version of “repair” meant. We walked on the back patio and through the door into the kitchen… to find brand new stainless steel appliances and granite counters! We were pretty shocked, his version of “repair” was actually good! The finishes aren’t necessarily what we would pick, but they are perfectly fine. (we plan to paint the cabinets) Also in the kitchen is a sitting area with a fireplace, which is back-to-back with the fireplace in the living room. He said we can make it a see-thru fireplace since they connect. He showed us the lovely pink & blue tile baths (1.5), the bedrooms (just 2) and then back around to the living room, dining and garage. We then walked out to the outbuilding that had served as the renters office and man cave…. Jeremy’s eyes sparkled. He envisioned a giant flat screen, sofas and a bar. After the tour with the owner, we did our own quick walk thru with our agent and were 99% sold… but felt obligated to see the house being flipped since we had made the appointment. We shook the owners hand, thanked him and rode just up the street to the other house. Instantly we were not too impressed. We expected to be told what the finishes would be, and the owner didn’t really seem to have a plan. Some of the rooms could have been thought through more, and the living area on the main floor was tiny. We hopped back in the car and went home to discuss an offer on the FSBO house, came to a number and called our agent. The next day after a lot of patience, sweat, and pacing it was submitted….. and countered. We accepted their counter offer on Friday night and could not be happier!!! Here are the few photos I quickly took before we left our tour on Thursday night. I hope to take better ones when we go back for the inspection….. which cross your fingers that goes well… you never know what will come up with a 55 year old home! Garage that will be the master… Jeremy is standing in the entry to what will be the master closet. Our plan…..

June 4, 2015

Personal | A Life Update

Things seem to be going full steam these days… and crawling all at the same time. House: Three days after listing our home for sale, we were under contract. We’ve been holding our breath waiting for the appraisal and inspection… both were completed earlier this week, and while we don’t have the final report, we have been told everything looks good and there are only minor things to fix! Now… the breath holding continues until we actually close on June 29. So, now the question we keep getting asked… Where are you going?! We don’t know. Before we actually listed our home (just days before) we looked at a house we LOVED. We were planing to make an offer once reviewing recent sales in the neighborhood. The next morning we learned the house was under contract, and actually had been when we looked at it… but of course that agent didn’t bother to tell anyone with an appointment to see it. So, while we’ve secretly waited for that house to fall out of contract… we’ve also been scouring any resource possible to find something else. MLS is nearly dry in the specific areas we want, so I’ve combed foreclosures lists, craigslist, FSBO.com and ForSaleByOwner.com for other listings…. very little has turned up. We are seeing 2 homes tonight… one isn’t even on the market yet (it’s being flipped by an investor) and the other is a for sale by owner, that’s not advertised more than just a sign in the yard…. but both are in the neighborhood we love. We did see a house we liked on Monday, but I’m just not sure it’s the right fit for us. If you’re interested…. we want an older home, that likely needs a little work (or even an addition) in the older part of Huntersville (in the area between Gilead, 115, 21 & Mt. Holly Huntersville) OR Cornelius between Catawba Ave & downtown Davidson. There is a house I love in this area, but it’s way overpriced… we may submit an offer anyway… but we need to meet a contractor out there to decide how much an addition and renovation would cost. In the mean time, I play imaginary home renovation. Baby: Nope, not pregnant. We’ve taken a break on treatments because our schedule conflicted with when we would have to go in for our last IUI. This coming cycle is going to be filled with moving, and hopefully all the things that go with buying a new home (inspections, loans, appraisals, etc.) so I’m just not sure we want to juggle 170000 medications and Dr. appointments on top of that…. so it might be August before we attempt our last IUI (if the stars don’t align on their own!) Then if things don’t work out by the end of the year, we may go for IVF next spring. We finally had the opportunity to visit bestie, Karen, her hubby, Paul and their new squishy 8 week old, Porter in Waco last weekend! Last time I saw Karen in January, she was about 30 weeks pregnant…. and fun fact… the photo below is in the same spot we shot some of their engagement photos! It was a welcome distraction from all the chaos back here….. just a note about friends having babies… I’ve definitely had moments of serious jealousy but thankfully I’ve passed that point for the most part. I am genuinely thrilled for those of you pregnant or with new babies. I know you probably wanted it just as much as we do, and the fact your dream is realized makes me so happy. If you’re interested in supporting couples trying to expand their families, I encourage you to check out the Give Grace campaign with the Scarlet & Gold Shop. You can read all about it here! I’ll be doing very little photography this summer… personal life is taking over in the shape of packing, vacation and day-job work. If you intend to have photos done with me between now and August, get on my calendar asap!

@JJHORTON