Saturday, August 31, 2013

For Good Reason

I was always so frustrated when bloggers quit blogging after they moved and here I am on my first post in almost three months! I do think I have a pretty good excuse though. . . I am pregnant! I guess moving into the new house we just needed to fill it up right away and first month in is all it took. Ha! We were planning on trying for baby #3 in July so it's just a bit earlier than planned, but I am getting excited. Being sick and tired and pregnant with a toddler to care for is tough stuff. My first clue that I might be pregnant was when I was no longer motivated to do house projects. I am so thankful now for all we did in the first two months.

 Now that I'm beginning to feel better I will post pics of where we are at and what we have planned. I know that time is ticking on getting certain things done before this nugget arrives in early March. I also have my sister and her hubby and three kids coming from England for a whole month over Christmas. It is going to be an awesome holiday season in our new home. Thanks for some patience and such while I find time to get back into the swing of things!

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Week 1 Pictures

Just wanted to share some pics of where we are at with settling in. . .

The playroom is almost done. I have a oil drip pan from walmart to hang as a magnet board and need some fabric bins for small toys in the bookshelf. The table set was sitting in someones trash so my friend brought it to me and I refinished it.



The family room is done except for curtains, paint and some stuff on the walls.




The foyer with some of my favorite pics from when Clara was just a babe.




The living room and dining room are still a hot mess. They've become my drop spot for all the knick knacks till I decide to put some effort into it.





Mudroom and pictures up in half bath.



Laundry room in coral spice.


Master Bedroom in its current crazy state.


Nursery. Still have to hang some stuff, but it's the closest to complete. Love her chandelier!




Kitchen and morning room. Still have two stools to finish. If you see painted furniture throughout the pics I probably painted it. Most of our stuff is craigslist or thrifted. My biggest accomplishment is the blue chairs in the morning room that I also reupholstered.

The wall in the morning room is going to be a gallery wall.

Not everyone will love my young heifer cowhead as much as me. His name is Ferdinand and he will be decorated for all holidays. Smile.

So that's all for now. Lot's more to do, but I am having a blast!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Moving

Of course the earth decides to turn hell hot for the few days we are moving. Nothing like sweating it out in the back of a moving truck. Thankfully we had help even though we moved during the week. I can't say thank you enough to all the guys who helped and the wives that stayed home alone with kiddos so they could come.

Wednesday morning we headed to close after dropping Clara off with Jason's parents. She stayed overnight until late afternoon Thursday so we could get as much done as possible. Closing was easy peasy and we headed back for the truck. My hubs headed to lowes to get our fridge since we had been waiting for a friend that works there to find out if we could get an lg that had a slight dent for cheap. We got an awesome deal! By the end of day one we had two truck loads and numerous car loads done and kitchen/linen/pantry boxes unpacked. Day two we got almost everything out of our house, my moms storage unit and one of our units moved. Day three was the last of the moving except for a few things we still need from our house and some furniture that Jason's parents are giving us. By today we have maybe five boxes left of randoms to unpack. I got the nursery and laundry room painted Thursday and am starting the playroom after my break to do this post. Then I am taking a painting break till I decide on colors and we pass the 30 day fixes.

So far we are super happy. I'm waiting till we are fully settled before I go around wearing frog tape like a bracelet to mark the spots of paint, flooring, ect touch ups that they will need to do. They are going to move the light above my kitchen sink to get it more centered at the 30 day. They fixed the molding in the kitchen so I will make sure to post a pic of that. I was going to post pics today, but it's just been too crazy so my goal is to take some this week. We have rugs down, some pictures hung, ceiling fan in the family room up, nursery chandelier up, playroom light up, new 60in Sharp Aquos led flat screen up (thanks Mom! Woohoo!). Everything is really coming along and by now I'm sure you see my OCD shining through by what we've done. Haha. I said I was crazy.

This morning I watched a deer roam our backyard and right now I'm sitting on our front porch listening to the rain.
This. Is. Unbelievable.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Grace Abundant

Today has been a crazy day! We had our walk through at 12pm. It went really well. We only have a few things for them to fix and it's nothing major. The cleaners were there for their last run through so my pics aren't that great. I am totally blown away by our beautiful home. 6 months ago this was all just a crazy idea and now God has brought it through. We got the truck and it's full and ready for us to take the first load over after we close at 10am. Clara will be with her Gammy and Papa for the night so we can just focus on the move. We are so blessed with a wonderful family. I was full  blown sick for the past three days and my Mom picked up the slack helping us clean so our first home will be ready for our good friends to move in. We are 100% ready and I am so excited. Hopefully I won't be MIA for long. We are hoping to have our house and three storage units empty by Thursday night. We shall see. So much to do, but I will be having random dance breaks while we do it! Major thanks to all our friends for taking time during the week to help. We are truly blessed!!





 Out backyard continues a ways into the woods.



Foyer from the front door. Hardwood. Dining Room.

Living Room taken from the dining room facing the front of the house.




Family room and kitchen from all angles.




Basement. Upstairs Guest Bath. Master Bedroom. Looking into loft from master bedroom. Stairwell.

One more sleep and then the craziness really begins.
Thank you Lord for Your abundant grace!

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Informal Walk Through

We went through the house today to see if we could spot any concerns they hadn't already marked with blue tape. The cleaners were coming today and all the floors were uncovered. Tons of guys were running around fixing the seemingly endless blue tape spots. They said they were a bit behind finishing touches, but had a county inspection tomorrow so they were working hard to be100%. Thankfully it seems they are on top of everything. Our stove was in and the correct garage door windows were being installed while we were there. Really besides the dirt and dust I thought it looked amazing. Just 4 days till our final walk through when we will get to see it all spiffed up. We did discuss our only concern which is the wonky molding on the kitchen cabinets under the hvac. They couldn't do the major overhaul we wanted to make it look like the model since the actual way they install the hvac is different. Instead they are going to try to jimmy rig the molding by trimming it down to fit. Hopefully it works, but I am so very thankful this very small concern is all we've had along the way.
I'm on a packing rampage. My hubs isn't too happy that I'm almost done packing the kitchen. He keeps saying "we still live here," but we have paper goods that have piled up over the past 9yrs we can use up. We also still have to pack some in the garage, do yard clean up, some paint touchups, and major cleaning. I think being this on top of packing will make it so Tuesday we can just enjoy our final walk through and our last day in our first home.
 It's the final countdown!!!!
5 Measly Little Days!

Monday, May 20, 2013

Single Digits

We are in the final countdown stage!
Today the sod went down and the front door was painted. Our PM said they are a little behind on the finishing touches, but it's moving along. The only thing we are missing is a stove and my Moms bedroom carpet which is going in tomorrow. Our stairs off the deck are in and are just what we wanted. One of the last furniture pieces I wanted was a glider loveseat for the front porch. At the Luckett's Market this past weekend I found one and also got a matching rocking chair for a great deal. So after a bit more packing we are ready to do this thing! They moved our closing time up to 10am on Wednesday the 29th.
Soooooo. . . 8 short tiny little fly by Days!!!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Ants in my Pants

Today we are two weeks from the week we move. 16 days to be exact. We talked to our SR Saturday about our scheduled time to close. It is currently 3pm on Wednesday the 29th. Our slight problem is we really need to move out that same day since our lovely friends are moving into our old house the very next day. It's a great problem to have our renters ready to move in right away, but if we can close earlier Wednesday or even after our final walk through Tuesday it will be a much more smooth transition. He is going to get back to us today hopefully on what we can do.

We had the chance to wander the model a bit, and I am so glad we did. I noticed that in the kitchen the beautiful molding carries all the way across the top of the kitchen cabinets since the bump out for the hvac raises up just before the cabinets. Ours does not. They cut the main molding off at the bump out so the small trim piece goes across, but it is at a wonky angle. Also the recessed light over the sink was centered where as in our house it is almost a foot off center. My hubs is going to call our PM today to see what they can do about those two things since they really irk me more than any of the other nitpicky things I've noticed.

On the other hand we now have carpet and some appliances and all the lights/electrical work is done inside and out. I couldn't resist an evening drive by on Friday and it was so fun to turn the corner to our street and see our house glowing bright. The carpet upstairs is a bit darker than I remembered, but I don't hate it. I'm used to cream, but after having our first puppy and baby with cream carpet I knew that we needed to go darker. The upstairs carpet is level 1 with no stain protection either so better to be safe and get used to darker carpet than try to fend off future inevitable stains.

The packing continues. I am trying to fill our dining room up with boxes and move everything from lamps to bookcases to boxes down from upstairs so on moving day we just take things straight outside. I've been doing some thrifting and seem to be creating more boxes. I just love wandering an antique shop more than anything. Friday I am heading up to northern VA with some friends to attend the Luckett's Antique Market on Saturday. We are designating this weekend for fun since after that our weekends will be spent on final packing, moving, unpacking, unpacking, decorating, I could go on and on.

I probably will wait for pics now until our final walk through. Maybe not, but we shall see. Then the fun will begin! I thrive in busy, crazy, too much to do and not enough time environments. I've already apologized in advance to my husband for not ever sitting down, eating, taking a break and expecting him to do the same. I secretly think he appreciates it. ;)

16 Days!!