Whew!

I need to take and post some pictures, but here's a quick recap of the projects we've started and/or finished since closing escrow three weeks ago:

ripped out carpets downstairs and put in lovely new laminate wood flooring

painted Ruth's room

painted Alden's room

painted their bathroom and put up wall decals

started painting the downstairs baths

hung a shelf in the laundry room

weeded and planted flowers in the front yard (work in progress)

hung blinds and roller shades in four rooms

made curtains for  the playroom (out of an old shower curtain!)

hung up a valance in the kitchen (with thumbtacks, how classy)

unpacked a zillion boxes

arranged and rearranged furniture

I still have a mile long list of things to do, notably more painting and yard work.  This home ownership business is very exciting, every little project is enjoyable and makes me smile when i walk through the door.  I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune in a few months, but for now we are enjoying life!

We got the keys!

Finally, at 5:30 PM yesterday, we got the keys!!!!

I immediately started painting, the colors we've chosen are amazing and I'm very happy.  The kids' bathroom is a bright yellow, Alden's room is sapphire blue.  I haven't started the other rooms yet, painting with two three year olds is just as hard as it sounds.  I ended up going back over to the house after we put them to bed, I was there until 11:45 painting away.  Aldens' room is a little dark, so I think we might lighten it up with a lighter blue stripe at some point.  Or maybe three stripes of varying width....Roo's room will be a medium pink color with beadboard wainscoting on the bottom 36" and a nice chair rail/molding on top of that.  

The carpet cleaners are coming today at 11, the oven is being delivered tomorrow.  We hope to knock out a chunk of the flooring job today, at least the kitchen so we don't have to move the stove and fridge out later.  

An FYI prompted by HGTV

In anticipation for our move, I've been watching way too much HGTV.  I am being driven nutso by the buyers who enter a home and immediately say "oh I wanted granite countertops and stainless steel appliances".  The kitchen could be beautifully remodeled but people still want their granite and SS.  NEWSFLASH:  Granite and stainless steel will not make your food taste better and cook itself.  Stainless is going to be the Avocado Green and Harvest Gold of the millenium generation.  Now, my kitchen does have stainless steel appliances but that's only b/c the microwave and dishwasher were already there when we bought it and we want them to match.  I wouldn't rip out a perfectly good appliance just for the sake of having stainless.  Oy.   Time to step away from the HGTV On Demand channel.

The list is getting smaller

I have managed to cross quite a few items off of my to-do list!  We get the keys on Tuesday, the stove is being delivered Thursday, and I pick up the truck on Friday.  I'm hoping to knock out the flooring and some of the painting by the time we get the truck and start moving furniture.

Today I:

got more boxes

bought cleaning supplies and gloves for the new house

bought a shower curtain and hooks for the kids' bath

booked the moving truck

picked up a few assorted tools for painting and ripping up the carpet

When we got the Budget office,  Ruthie said "how we get the big truck outta da store?"  

I'm about to have a throwdown with Sears!!!!

We bought a range yesterday, I was pretty stoked to find out they were having a 20% off sale on Kenmore brand appliances.  I just went to their website so I could post a picture here, and I find that tonight from 6-9PM they are having AN ADDITIONAL 10% OFF THE EXACT SAME FREAKING STOVE WE JUST BOUGHT!  You bet your sweet Aunt Betsy I'm going to be there at 6:01PM to ask for an additional 10% off.  I'm so irritated, that's $100 that we could really use for the multitude of other things we need to buy.  When we were there yesterday I saw the signs advertising a VIP After Hours sale (open to the public) but didn't realize it was an additional 10% off the very appliance we purchased.  It would've been swell if the salesman had mentioned that little tidbit.  If they won't refund us the 10% I'm going to cancel the order and head over to Lowe's.  I'd be happy with a gift card for the difference, but cash would be great too.

The signing begins

This house stuff is getting scary, my to-do list is a mile long and growing by the minute!  Yesterday I got to sign a huge stack of paperwork and make arrangements to hand over Ruthie.  It was either my first born or an arm and a leg, I figure the bank will give her back once they realize her motor never stops running.  Right?  

Closing is still set for 3/31, we have to be out of our rental by 4/11.  Hopefully we'll be able to finish at least a few projects before moving.  Painting is a definite must, the walls are in bad shape, the bank patched and painted over dings and holes, but the paint is FARRRR from a color match!  Ick.  Flooring would be great too, we are going to install laminate wood in the kitchen/living room/dining room area.  

So here's my current list, just in case anyone wants to volunteer to do all of this for me (just kidding, I'm just trying to stay organized)!  This doesn't even begin to include all of the things we have as longer-term projects (landscaping, kitchen updating)

-schedule moving truck

-pack

-purge junk

-schedule steam cleaning for upstairs carpets and stairs at new house

-pick out range

-pick out fridge

-ceiling fans (these could wait but summer will here soon and the bedrooms will be toasty upstairs)

-garage door opener (buy and install)

-set up PGE/water/garbage at new house and cancel old service

-change address with half the world (at least it seems like it)

-buy a real phone (we'll have a landline again!)

-buy a new bed (the one we have now belongs w/our rental)

-figure out window coverings (I know nothing about curtains/blinds/etc)

-stop feeling sad that the kids aren't going to share a room anymore

-clean up our rental so we hopefully get all of our deposit back

-plan the twins' birthday party 

-prepare for our Disneyland trip 

I knew this process was going too smoothly

I think I'm going to puke.  Our tax refund was supposed to be deposited today, it hasn't shown up yet so Nick called the IRS.  So far all he's been told is that we should be getting a letter in the mail.  Where the hell is our money?  We have enough saved for closing costs but we are counting on our refund to buy our fridge and stove, and the new flooring and painting.  I hope this gets fixed quickly, but we have two weeks until closing and we all know how swiftly the government moves. Ha!

House Update

Inspection:  The inspection went well, there are a few small things that the bank will be fixing, but nothing surprising popped up.  The bank will steam clean the carpets, retexture and paint the wall dings, install a new master bedroom door, install splashguards and extended downspouts, and repair the water pressure problem in the master bath.  Yay!  Those are all pretty minor things but I'm glad we won't need to take care of them ourselves, we will be busy enough doing other work.

Appraisal:  The house appraised for $100 over our purchase price, woohoo instant equity!  Also, it measured 15 square feet larger than the specs our realtor provided.  

Closing date:  Our closing was set for 3/31, BUT the approval from the bank came back last week and we can close much sooner if we prefer.  I'm not sure what we'll do, on the one hand I'm itching to get in and start painting and installing new flooring, but we are paying rent on our current place until mid-April.   

Packing:  Much to Nick's chagrin, I've already started packing.  We are trying to help our landlords find new tenants, and I figure a decluttered house is more appealing than our usual bursting at the seams style.  We are looking into hiring movers since our new place is 2 stories, we like our friends and would like to keep them, so it probably would be prudent to not ask them to help us move.  

I feel like my to-do list is 10 miles long, but overall the process of buying a house hasn't been as nerve wracking as I thought it would be.  Actually FINDING a house was the hardest part, we started this journey 3 years ago when I was pregnant!  Back then, we could have purchased a 50 year old  3 bedroom with 1 bathroom at the top of our price range, we actually made an offer on such a house, which was rejected.  That turned out to be a good thing though, I'd be kicking myself now, as I'm sure many homeowners are.

Ruth's Room

This is Roo's room, on the left you can see the pocket door to the bathroom! Her Tiny Highness has requested pink walls and pink carpet (so not happening!). Our big idea for her room is to do white beadboard with a nice molding, and paint the walls pink on top. I want to get a little decorative chandelier and maybe some kind of canopy over her bed. I feel bad that I have so many girly ideas but I'm lacking in the ideas for Alden's room. Ruthie is just so strong in who she is and she makes her desires known, Alden is more of an enigma for me.

Alden's Room

Alden has requested we paint his room dark blue, he also yelled something about "Lightning The Queen" and Mater when he was sprinting away from me at Lowe's. I'm not a big fan of character stuff, but I don't want to deny him something he genuinely likes. Maybe we'll do some Cars pillowcases or something easy, I don't want to have to redecorate every three years as his tastes change. One of the first things we will do is install a ceiling fan, I wanted to get something cutesy but decided a plain fan will look great with some removable embellishments, and when he outgrows his beloved Cars, we'll just take off the stickers and have a plain fan.
We went to look at carpet and Alden grabbed a square of the most hideous blue carpet I've ever seen, he insists on blue carpet. He WON'T be winning that battle.

One of the big things I'm looking forward to doing is a growth chart, I've seen some neat ideas online for actually painting a chart onto the bedroom wall. I kind of like the family idea though, and just using a doorframe to record everything. We moved a lot when I was a kid, so I never ever had anything like that.

Bathroom ideas

One of my *FAVORITE* things about the new house is the Jack and Jill bath that connects Ruth and Alden's rooms. I found some awesome Thing 1 and Thing 2 wall decals, isn't that such a great theme for twins? I'm totally excited. Damn I'm lame. I'm stuck on a paint color though, there aren't any windows in their bathroom, so I want a bright paint color to keep it feeling like a light space. I'm thinking a super bright aqua color so that the hair on the Things still stands out against the paint. This is going to be a super crafty creation, I have quite a few grand ideas.

The downstairs bath is probably going to be a fishy theme, just because that's what we have already and we won't need to buy anything.

I have no ideas yet for the master bath. I'm going to concentrate on the public areas first and save our bedroom and bath for last. So, it'll probably be decorated in about six years. Haha!

Kitchen Ideas

After almost 3 years of living with a galley style kitchen that has ONE drawer, I'm so excited to finally be able to fully unpack and spread out. I have boxes and boxes of cooking tools, wineglasses, baking pans, etc. that have been sitting in the garage because there was no room in the kitchen. I also have quite a few ideas for my new space. It's currently very plain, white ceramic tile counters, plain oak cabinets, linoleum, etc. Our first order of business is a new refrigerator and range. Fortunately there is a gas line, yay! Our dream fridge is a french door behemoth, and I'm debating the merits of a double oven. It would be nice for cooking large meals and for parties, but I don't know if it's really worth the added expense.

Here are some pictures of the new digs, so you can see what I'm talking about, I swear these are the worst pictures on earth. The listing agent must have been in a hurry:






My big ideas are (in no particular order):
1. Butcher block on the island, with an 8-10" overhang into the living room, so we can use it as a breakfast bar.

2. Paint the cabinets white and put a beadboard insert in the door faces for a cottage look.

3. New light fixture, something funky.

4. Glass brick tile backsplash, I love the brightness of glass tile!

5. Solid surface countertops, maybe Silestone or one of the new acrylics, with a seamless integrated sink for easy cleaning.

6. New flooring, we are going to do laminate in the kitchen, living room and front formal dining room area. Our dog will thrash the carpets in no time, laminate is so easy to clean and the newer handscraped styles look wonderful.

7. I want to paint the panels on the pantry doors with magnetic paint on two, and chalkboard paint on the other two. The kiddos can play while I cook, and I can write notes when I need to re-stock!

8. Slide out shelves in a few of the cabinets, great for pots and pans!

9. New window coverings, the dirty aluminum blinds will do for now, but eventually we'll put up something a little nicer looking.

As you can see, I've been spending way too much time daydreaming about the new house!

Home Sweet Home......in 2 months

Adventures in homebuying

I DO NOT recommend bring your twin toddlers along when you are looking for a home.

1. Your daughter will need to pee, in a model home that has locks on the toilets.
2. Your son will want to jump on the model home's cardboard bed.
3. Both kids will try to eat the rubber grapes so nicely displayed on the model dining room table.
4. You'll walk into a foreclosure that is so freaking nasty you won't leave the foyer AND you will hold your kids the whole time in fear of disease.
5. You'll walk into a smelly house and your daughter will say "why you say this house stinky mama?" So much for under the breath muttering.
6. The dead gopher in a pool looks like poop to a 2 year old.

On #4, we walked into a house that looked beautiful from the front. Unfortunately the previous owner decided to graffiti XXX rated drawings on the walls, burn the newel post, drip something nasty and black all over the floors, and knock holes in the wall with a hammer. This place was so disgusting we held the kids the whole time, and after seeing the downstairs from the foyer, we ran away as quickly as we could. Another house smelled like someone had peed all over the carpets and locked the house up for a year. There were dead cockroaches all over the kitchen counters too. Lovely. My favorite house is the one that had the marijuana smoking lounge in the converted garage, and the kitchen had been remodeled.....but apparently the owners didn't actually use the kitchen to cook, they had taken out the countertop range and put in shelves..... oy.