Thanks KCJayhawk!

Yay, I like answering questions :-)

1--did you decorate for the holidays or do you still have boxes everywhere?
Uh, well, we have a wreath on our front door. Which is a start. We also have displayed the Christmas cards from people around our fireplace. Other than that, no other holiday decorations. The tree is still in its "body bag" in the basement, with the boxes of ornaments and lights around it. There are 5 other houses on the street, and 4 of them are all lit up. We look like Scrooges or something--these people put Clark Griswold to shame!

And yes, boxes are still everywhere. We don't have enough furniture to put our things inside! All of the wedding gifts that have been residing at my parents' house for 2 years came to live with us now, and...they are piled in the dining room. All we have in there is a tiny hutch that we got at IKEA--it was previously used for kitchen storage (pots, pans, bowls) at our old place since we hardly had any cabinets. I need to figure out what can fit in there, and start putting SOMETHING away. (I'm a procrastinator....)

Our desk/office stuff has not been put away yet--when we moved, we consolidated and went down from 2 desks to 1, so we need to figure out how to fit everything into one desk. Plus, we might be on the lookout for some filing cabinet type of thing.

We're currently painting our TV room, so everything that should go in there is in the library/office. The kitchen is probably the most put-together room in the house right now! Our bedroom is pretty good, too, we just need a stand for our TV. I also haven't unpacked our little 4th "bedroom" which will be my crafty stuff room, because, again, I have no furniture in there. The other 2 bedrooms are completely empty.

We did buy a bunch of shelving at Home Depot but we need to put it together so we can start organzing the basement. DH got some for his tools and his fishing & hunting stuff, I got a smaller one for pantry items.

2--did you find any "surprises" (good or bad) after you moved in?
Hmmm, I'll start with the good.
--Great neighbors! SO happy about this.
--That the house was decently cleaned before we moved in. I still have some odd things to clean--baseboards, light fixtures, but nothing was disgusting.
--It already feels like home, and doesn't seem like we've been there 6 weeks :-)

Not too much bad stuff, more like weird, maybe.
--Toilets that don't shut off--my FIL came to look at them, and he thinks we need to just replace the guts inside. That's cheap/easy.
--Lower water pressure than we're used to. Growing up and in our other homes, we had city water, now we have a well. It's not bad, just takes longer to fill up buckets or the tub.
--Some weird things on the walls when I started prepping the TV room for painting--in a few spots the paint started to peel randomly so that had to be fixed, and I didn't know how to do that, but I soon learned.
--The pantry closet in our kitchen was almost an afterthought, which makes it VERY tiny. Slim. An adult arm almost doesn't fit through the doorway to get to the shelves. Grr. We're managing by only keeping what's open or what can't be stored in a basement (pasta, rice, etc) in there. Everything else--canned good, things in bottles, paper products--goes in the basement on a little shelf until I get the shelving units up. I even have onions and potatoes down there!

MOVED!

We are in, we survived...we are swimming in boxes.

A longer update to come soon...things are going really well. We met all of the neighbors except for one house and everyone is super nice. SO HAPPY to have nice people around!!!!

house and something else

We got the commitment letter from the bank, got a REALLY good interest rate (below 5%) and no points...

There's something else that's been going on and I haven't mentioned it. I think it's because I've been so tied up with the house. I have talked about it before, just not in a long time.

I finally did it. I lost weight and kept it off. I stayed ON the wagon. I lost about 20 lbs in 3 months! I'm down one size (pants & shirts). I have much more to go (probably like 80 more lbs--yes, I'm a bigger lady), but this was a huge start for me.

How did I do it? You're probably wondering, and so have a lot of people.

Nothing magic. No pills, no drinks, no surgeries.

I counted calories and did a little exercise (which has since tapered off to nothing). I started by writing down what I was eating, and figuring out how many calories was in each food item. Lots of measuring, looking things up online or in this little calorie booklet I had. I also had the assistance of a food scale that also contained caloric information. I still ate almost whatever I wanted, I just measured out my portions and recorded it. I tried to keep my caloric intake to between 1500 and 1800 calories.

My doctor is thrilled and so am I! Especially with the smaller pair of jeans I recently treated myself with!

another great thing

We got the request for repairs signed by both sellers! This made my day!

The chimney will be fixed! The fridge will not leak! The furnace will be cleaned and serviced!

And all of our radon tests came back in the normal range.

Just a quick update.

testing, 1, 2, 3...

Got the water tests back--we have drinkable water! Whoo hoo! The house has a well (we're going to be living in the country, people) so we had to make sure we wouldn't get sick or have anything strange happen.

Waiting for the radon tests from the basement--important because DH is making it into his "man cave." Don't want him to have any lung issues.

The things that I mentioned, here, are being resolved! The sellers are having the furnace cleaned and serviced, the water leak is being repaired, and we're pretty sure that they will fix the chimney/roof issues. The garage door is being replaced, so the only things we'll have to do are the general maintenance/painting stuff. Oh, and the dryer, ha.

Meeting with the bank on Saturday morning to do all the mortgage stuff. So much to pull out of files and prepare. Talk about your entire financial life being opened up!

Oh and the best part...the reason I put this picture in my post. The Realtor called last night, she happened to be driving by the house and the selling agent had the sign changed to "Sale Pending."

We're almost there! A little over a month til our closing date.

This weekend's activity: purging and maybe some packing.

Inspection today

It went very well. The inspector didn't have too many bad things to say about the house. There were a few "pressing" matters that will need to be addressed, and there are also some "future maintenance" things that will need to be looked at later on.

Pressing matters:

• the fridge is leaking! It wasn't doing that on the other times we came to look at the house and the selling agent had no idea. The leak was pretty small, so maybe it just started.
  
• there are cracks in the chimney's masonry and there is some flashing missing between the chimney and the house, which caused a little leak in the attic. Not a HUGE deal but should be fixed.
  

Future maintenance:

• the railings around the deck. They are OK, but will probably need to be bolted in so that they don't just fall off if someone (or a few someones) were to lean up against it.
• I sadly cannot remember anything else besides normal settling cracks that need to be patched and painted.

Other things:

• garage door--sellers will be taking care of this because their kid or a friend of the kid crashed into it and it's very dented. But, when they went to the door company, they not longer make this same door. So, now we have to decide if we want the door replaced or get $750 (cost) towards a new door.
  
• furnace--never been cleaned and there aren't any service records, so we are going to ask them to have that cleaned and serviced.
• dryer--isn't working, hasn't for awhile, and we had to sign that this was "as-is" on the contract, but S (our Realtor) is going to send someone out to look at it and see if it's a huge matter to take care of.

Other than that, all we will have to do is clean the house and sloooowwwwly paint (1 room at a time). The house is in great shape, everything else works. Eventually we will need to have some of the hardwood floors re-done (esp. in the kitchen) but the other ones look almost brand new. We'll also have to stain/paint the front porch and back deck.

As for pictures--I didn't get any today, I was so busy following the inspector around, and taking copious notes, I didn't have much time. I do have pics of the busted garage door! haha

So here's a quick overview of the house. A colonial. Front porch (covered) and back deck (uncovered). Two car attached garage.

Downstairs--living room, dining room, family room, eat in kitchen, half bath, laundry "closet"--all rooms are hardwood floors except the family room (carpet) and the hallway to the garage (stone). Stairs are UNCARPETED! (We have cats, people, you don't know how much I hate carpet with cats!).

Upstairs--every thing is carpeted (boo) except the bathrooms. Master bedroom w/ bath and walk in closet. Two very nice sized bedrooms. Another full bath. Then this crappy tiny little "bedroom" without a closet, but does have the door to the walk up attic.

Tomorrow: contact the bank and the lawyers. SO EXCITING!!!! I can't wait to "go home!"

Oh, and after I left the house, I clocked the mileage to work--almost identical for mileage AND time. Sweet! DH's commute will be much shorter which is even better!

CONTRACT!

We have a signed contract from the sellers.

The past week has been nuts--lots of counter-offering, then we finally agreed to accept one of their offers. We are paying $3K more than we wanted to, but we LOVE the house, it's a great location for both of us, nice yard, only 5 or 6 houses on the street, great town, etc. Then the sellers had a rough time getting the contract signed back for us. The owners are divorced--the wife lives MANY states away--and then she wanted her lawyer to look over everything. Probably to make sure she was getting what she was supposed to, per their divorce decree. While we signed our contract on Saturday, I didn't get it back until today (Tuesday). Geez!

Note to everyone: never buy from people who own but are divorced! LOL Just too much hassle.

Inspection will be day after tomorrow. VERY EXCITED for this!!! I am taking lots of pictures and I might post some here.

Counteroffer

The jerks counteroffered. They only went down 5K. Seriously people!? This is a buyer's market. Grrr.

We will be counteroffering back later today, but sheesh. (ETA: Realtor called while I was typing this and we put in a counteroffer for 5K more, take that suckers!)

I have a feeling that Mr. Home Owner needs to give money to ex-Mrs. Home Owner as part of their divorce settlement. Big Mouth Listing Agent spilled that out during our 2nd showing--about how he can't keep up with the house since his divorce. And all of the docs said his name only...but one doc said his and her names.

I really don't want to walk from this house. DH needs a shorter commute. It's stressing him out...he is threatening to quit if we don't move soon. (I really hope that is just talk.)

Put in an offer!!!!

On the house we really liked from the get-go. It's the perfect house for us. Of course, now we have to sit and wait for them to accept/reject (BUT HOPEFULLY ACCEPT) the offer. I think I shocked the Realtor when I told her how much we were putting down, but she doesn't know about DH's accident and lawsuit. This is not two young kids messing around with Monopoly money, here. As DH likes to say "this is blood money."

We can't do too much now...just have to wait. But I will keep everyone posted.

House hunting, part "I don't know"

Still house hunting. We've been out more than twice now, but I can't tell you how many times. I lost count. It's still fun, but we really want to find THE home.

We've realized that raised ranches don't really fit us or our lifestyles and we're much better off with a colonial. We saw one that we LOVED but there are some cosmetic issues that we are concerned with so S, our Realtor, is investigating and asking lots of questions of the listing agent.

When I say "cosmetic issues," please don't think that I'm being a Diva and saying things like "ewww, I hate that shade of pink on the walls, I can't live here!" but "is that spackle job hiding water damage?" and "why is there so much blown-in insulation in the attic?" We want to make sure we aren't buying a lemon. Nasty pink walls can be painted. Serious damage or a lack of good insulation...harder and more expensive to fix.

So, no real updates...not yet...

Otherwise, things are good, just BUSY. Going out once or twice a week to look at houses can mess with your schedule and routine just a bit. DH is settling in nicely with his job--they give new hires TONS of training. My work is busy too.

House hunting, part 2

To be continued, after tonight's house visits...

First--we have a letter from the bank and have been prequalified for what we wanted to spend, which is great!

Saw two houses last night. Both had nice lots but the houses themselves were ehh. Both raised ranches. The first one had great living space, but small bedrooms. The second had MANY bedrooms (I think 4 or 5!) and 3.5 baths (!!!!) and great living space, too. Besides being too big for us, it was overpriced. It's like Goldilocks--this one is too small, this one is too big.

We need one that is "just right."

House hunting, part 1

Yesterday, we went out with our Realtor, S. She'd sent us a list of 6 homes to look at (with pictures and all of that jazz) and we liked 3 of them. We had actually looked at the other 3, from the road before we'd even contacted S, and they were beautiful but had issues like right on a major route, too close to those big electrical lines (hello cancer) and the last one had a weird yard--too tilted and we do get our fair share of rain around here, and no one wants a flooded basement!

We decided to take a look at the three that were remaining. All of them fit our needs in regards to square footage, acreage, age of house, town, so we figured why not?

Two were duds, one was awesome. The first one was dirty and smelly, plus the owner's cat BIT ME, when I reached out to let him/her sniff me before I attempted to pet it. Can only imagine what would happen if I'd just pet the cat! The property was also set into a hill and we didn't want that. The house itself was pretty decent, but the driveway was all torn up and would have needed to be resurfaced. No thanks.

The second one was cleaner, but very unsafe. Rickety back stairs off of the deck, which was brand new, so hopefully they were going to be doing new stairs, next! The front stoop had holes in the concrete (WTF) and when S was showing us out, she instinctively put her hand down on the railing and it almost gave way. Lovely. The inside was nicer than the first one, but it shared similar driveway/yard issues.

Both of these homes said they were on over an acre of land. You could NOT see this, and S wasn't sure where the property lines were either. Very sad. I think S felt badly about taking us to see these. They weren't her properties and she had the codes for the lockboxes and knew nothing about them.

So we go on to the third house, which was very clean, both on the inside and out. New windows, updated kitchen, immaculate carpets (which were almost 20 yrs old, but you'd never know). FLAT YARD (yay!) but the selling agent is there and tells us that there was an offer on the property this morning. Boo. It wasn't a house we were totally in love with, but we would have liked to keep it in our options. S was happy that there were NICE things out there and weren't misrepresented!

Hopefully we'll be looking at some more, soon. I meet with the bank tomorrow to start the mortgage process.

Is this a preview of things to come?

Today is DH's first day of work and I am so nervous. I know everything will be OK, and it's more anticipation and excitement for him, but jeez, you'd think I had just sent my kid off to a new school! Is this how I'll be someday when I DO send my child off on the first day? LOL

It's a new adventure, and a positive one for us, so I need to just relax, and remember that I'll hear alllll about it when I get home tonight. (After I return his pants that we bought in the wrong size, of course, lol)

In other news, the Realtor has already sent us some prospective houses to look at. I got SO excited last night, and squealed. I am NOT a squealer.

Met with the Realtor

Went much smoother than I thought it would go, which was great. Now DH and I have to work on the bank stuff--finding out how much we prequalify for, and all of that jazz. This shouldn't take too long, and that's my/our goal for this week. DH also starts his new job on Monday, yayyyyy!!!! He's pumped and in SUCH a good mood. Hopefully we can start looking at houses soon.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow DH and I are taking a huge step in our lives together. We are choosing to do something that could ultimately change our lives forever. In a good way. In a very expensive way.

Wanna guess? I am sure people have two things on their minds. lol







We are meeting with a Realtor about starting the house hunt!!!! I'm kinda nervous about this, and a little scared, but mostly very excited. DH is like a kid at Christmas, but to be fair, he has been pretty trapped here for a year and a half, while I've gone out to work every day. If I were in his shoes, I'd feel similarly b/c when you rent a tiny condo, you can't do much but clean it.

Anyway, we haven't done anything re: mortgage and all of that stuff yet, we're just meeting with this woman (who has worked for my dad and grandfather, as well as a HS friend of mine) to see if we like her, what she suggests, etc. Our lease is up at the end of November, and while our landlord would probably do a month-to-month with us, we live in New England and trying to do a home inspection with snow on the ground is not going to fly. So we have to act fairly quickly.

I just hope all will work out for the best.

Busy as a little bee...

Yes, I am busy. School is over very shortly, and I have two mini-projects, a big group project (and one member is MIA, lovely!) and the regular weekly reading/responding assignment, all due within a day of each other. Yikes!

I'm also helping DH get ready for his new job. Sunday we went clothes shopping and he got a bunch of new stuff. Today was shoe shopping, and it went very smoothly. He's not an apparel shopper at ALL, but all went well ;-)

I took yesterday and today off from work to spend time with DH. Ever since he got the new job, he's been really itchy about getting the heck out of this rental, and into our own place. I would love that too, but I'm not as itchy...then again, I haven't spent as much time here as he has. Yesterday we spent the majority of the day driving around our state, looking at the different towns that would be halfway (or thereabouts) between my job and his. Another benefit of moving would be that this general location would be an easy distance to other major cities, for future job prospects.

We are going to talk to a Realtor who has worked closely with my family and is family friends with one of my friends...and start the stuff with the bank, and then really get out there and hunt. Our lease is up at the end of November, so the timing is pretty good. I'm really glad I decided to take the fall off from school now! I'd much rather be unpacking and setting up a new home instead of doing homework and going to class! Although I do need to study for and take the GRE--bought a book today at Borders, so no excuses now.

Socially speaking, I've been busier than normal. It seems like everyone is getting married. I just got an invite for my 3rd shower this summer (had one in June, have one next weekend, and now one at the end of August). I have a wedding to go to in August, and probably one in September. I remember hearing people talk about the year of the wedding--when everyone you know is getting married, and I think this one is it! Two coworkers and a friend from college.

Just when you thought things were operating at a dull roar...now everything's waking up, almost like a reverse of the seasons...

Summer decor for the door...and for the house...

I need a new sign/greeting of some sort for our front door. I just realized it is now officially summer and I have a "happy spring" sign (given to me by Ms. M!) still hanging up.

Whoops.

Hmmm, what shall I put on my door? Can't do a wreath--the wreath hanger I have doesn't let you shut the door correctly and even bent the lock. Uh oh.

In other news, DH and I got a new couch. It's leather and beautiful (thank you tax refund!). We also got it on sale, so that helps. It didn't come with pillows thought, and we need them!

Here is the couch: http://www.raymourflanigan.com/catalog/details.asp?ID=13746

Our chair is sage green and all of our wood furniture is "medium" finish.

Here are some pillows that I like:
http://www.pier1.com/Catalog/RugsPillowsWindows/RugsPillowsWindows/tabid/514/CategoryID/144/List/0/catpageindex/2/Level/a/ProductID/4082/ProductName/Leaves-Woven-Pillow/Default.aspx And not badly priced!

http://www.pier1.com/Catalog/RugsPillowsWindows/RugsPillowsWindows/tabid/514/CategoryID/144/List/0/catpageindex/2/Level/a/ProductID/1734/ProductName/Crewel-Embroidered-Boxed-Pillow/Default.aspx Only if I can get it on sale...$35 no way!

http://www.pier1.com/Catalog/RugsPillowsWindows/RugsPillowsWindows/tabid/514/CategoryID/144/List/0/catpageindex/3/Level/a/ProductID/4069/ProductName/Floral-Dot-Embroidered-Pillow--Carafe-Brown/Default.aspx

My mom got some beautiful pillows at Target recently--she found them in the clearance area, and they would go SO well with our living room, buuuut they are hers. Of course I will not find others like that. Sigh.


Not much else is going on with us. Still poking along in my online class. Work is crazy/stressful busy. DH still keeps looking/interviewing for jobs.

Productivity WIN!

Taking a quick break while I let my water heat up for oatmeal, but I've been up for a little over an hour and have done the following:

• changed the shower curtain liner
• cleaned both bathrooms (just toilets and sinks/mirrors)
• cleaned both litter boxes
• emptied and reloaded the dishwasher
• hand washed two frying pans
• pulled out the empty soda/beer cans/bottles from our storage closet and put them into bigger bags. I was going to take them to the grocery store to get my 5 cents back, but oh yeah, DH does the shopping and HATES the cans. I'll bring them to a drop-off box that a local charity has later on today.
• swept the kitchen floor
• washed the kitchen and bathroom windows and wiped out the sills
• fed/watered the cats
  

OK, breakfast and coffee time! It is amazing what you can do when you just STICK to your projects and not screw off...

Going/getting green

Ooooh look, a GREEN post on St. Patrick's Day! Just a coincidence, I swear.

So many people are working on going green, living more simply, etc. That's great. There are some things that I'd love to do that aren't super practical right now, just due to where we're currently living. I thought I'd post about what I do and what I'd like to do in the future...

What I do now:

1. Most food scraps are sent through the garbage disposal.

Believe it or not, this IS a green thing. Better for the food waste to be sent to the sewage treatment plant than to just sit in a plastic trash bag.

2. Recycle newspapers/fliers, magazines, bottles, cans, and some plastics.

My town is weird about which plastics are OK, which sucks, but I do what I can. I even put the magazines in our complex's laundry room in case someone else would like to read them.

3. Reuse plastic bags from the grocery store.

I know you're probably thinking, "Get the reusable bags!!!!" And I would, except DH does the shopping...and he's a guy, so he'd probably forget the "green" bags at home, in the car, or leave them IN the grocery cart at the store...lol. The plastic bags are great for cleaning out the litter box or for wrapping meat/chicken up to freeze (over the store wrappings, people!). I also use them to line the little trash cans in our bedroom and bathroom.

4. Take my lunch/snacks to work and school in plastic containers.

Sure, they can be bulky and I often look like I'm bringing in enough food for a week, but I don't use any foil, plastic wrap, baggies, etc. I'm always on the look out for new containers that I can rescue from the garbage--deli containers, takeout containers, etc. DH thinks I'm nuts, but I don't care.

5. Make rags out of old clothes.

Old t-shirts are SUPER soft and make great rags for cleaning. Then you just toss 'em in the washing machine. It's harder to get DH to make this transition, but hey, if he cleans, great!

6. Hang up some clothes to dry (no dryer).

This wasn't really meant to be green, this was more or less me trying to save my clothing. I'm always the unfortunate victim of shrunken clothing, so to save money (for new clothes) and my sanity, I started hanging up my clothes to dry years ago. But it also helps cut back on power and laundry money!

I'm sure I have more things that I do, and I just can't think of them right now.


Here's what I'd LOVE to do:

1. Use a clothesline!!!!

I grew up with one, I used one at my last apartment, but this complex that DH and I live at now doesn't allow them. Boo. I miss that fresh-air-on-your-clothes-and-sheets smell.

2. Make my own laundry detergent!

I've seen many people (including Michelle Duggar, who I secretly envy) do it. It's not hard, but we do have to transport our laundry to a common laundry room--I'm envisioning the detergent going everywhere! Storage is also an issue in our place. Where to store those gallons of product?

3. Have a garden.

Last year, DH and I had tomatoes (I think I posted the issues we had with them on here) but I'd love to get more things in the ground. As I posted a few weeks ago, I'll probably be planting things at my parents' house this year.

4. Use less paper towels and napkins.

I'd love for us to use cloth napkins at dinner (not to be snooty fancy) but it's hard when you don't have a washer/dryer IN your place and have to really plan out when you're going to do your laundry. Using cloth napkins wouldn't be too bad if we could just do a load of laundry every few days, right after dinner or whatever.

5. Start a compost pile!!!

Kinda hard to do while living in an apartment, lol. I haaaaaaate throwing away food scraps. And it would go hand in hand with the garden.

So those are my green accomplishments and goals. What are yours?

Our microwave is possessed!

The other night, as we sat down for dinner, our microwave turned on. No joke. It looked like someone was pushing the "beverage reheat" button. I got up and pushed the "stop" button. It went back on, doing the same thing...DH and I looked at each other, thinking WTF???? So then I went back to the microwave and opened the door, thinking that maybe it would stop the madness. Nope, the same thing kept going on--the buttons were being pushed by "something." Finally, DH got up and ripped the plug out of the wall.

Now we need a new microwave. This upset me since our microwave is only 6 years old. My parents have had the same one since I was 10 or 12! I guess they don't make things like they used to, lol.

Tomorrow we have to go buy a new one. This should be interesting.