Coming Soon
I am getting there with this house. Things are starting to find a place, and I'm gradually working on window treatments throughout the house. Our garage door openers will be installed next week. I can not wait for that! Once I have things together, I plan to do an online "open house" so you can see how it all looks.
So far, my favorite thing about the house is my jacuzzi. I've been in a few in hotels and beach houses, but I've never had my own. This jacuzzi, in particular, is pretty awesome. It has these perfectly placed two little jets right at your feet. I think I'd live in there if I could.
I've found that having big windows means big bills when buying window treatments. It's amazing how fast a couple hundred can go down the tubes when trying to cover up your windows!
Thanks to the nice weather we've been having, our grass is really starting to grow. Our yards looks like it has a nice haze of green over it right now and we're just praying that it gives us a good head start in the spring. Having this great yard, but not being able to go play in it right now is torture.
I've been lousy at posting lately, mostly because I've been falling asleep on the sofa around 9 p.m. each night. I'm exhausted from the move, and exhausted from planning and grading during the last month of the semester at the University where I teach. Exhaustion makes for minimal posting and lackluster content, I know.
Hopefully this will be a very productive weekend, full of picture hanging and getting these girls to sleep past 7 a.m for a change.
I also wanted to send out a belated "thank you" to Avitable, who sent me a really nice housewarming gift. Your wine bottle was the first to go in my wine rack, but it won't be there for long. 😉
A Weekend to Remember
On Friday afternoon, we were "Boo-ed." Someone left a Halloween treat on our doorstep along with a sign for our door and a little poem. We had to anonymously leave a treat for someone else in the neighborhood. I knew this was a fun community but I had no idea just how much fun it would be.
On Friday night, for the very first time in their lives, my girls were able to trick-or-treat in a neighborhood crawling with Halloween spirit and kids. Parents set up lawn chairs and campfires with coolers of drinks nearby in their driveways as kids went door to door, always with a parent in view. Big I Sleeping Beauty and Lil C Belle, had a great time. So did the adults. It was a nice introduction to our neighborhood, but it was only the warm-up.
Flash back to January of 2008. After we had been working with our realtor for a little while, he asked us if we would be o.k. with telling people that we were working exclusively with him: the "will you go with me?" of real estate. I told him that we had no problem telling people we were working with him. However, I had a question for him first.
I told him about how our realtor many years ago, when we bought our first house, bought us a garage door opener as a house warming gift. I then told him how our second realtor bought us an orange coaster as a house warming gift. I asked him which realtor he more closely associated with, given that information.
He thought for a few seconds and then told us that he wasn't going to buy us a gift. He said that instead, he would rent a moon bounce for our open house party that would bring all the kids in the neighborhood out, so that we would get to know everyone. I told him I would hold him to that. I had no idea how incredibly he would deliver.
Yesterday, my realtor hosted a hot air balloon "welcome to the neighborhood" event in the park behind my house. The Remax hot air balloon was there, offering tethered rides to anyone who wanted one, for hours. There was also a moon bounce for the kids. My mortgage guy paid for popcorn and cotton candy machines so the entire neighborhood could have some free snacks. We estimate that there were a couple hundred people that came and went throughout the afternoon.
I met many people from our neighborhood, and Big I was thrilled to discover that one of her friends from school lives just four houses down from us while another lives directly across the park
By far though, the coolest part of the day was helping to set up and take down the hot air balloon. I have never taken a ride in one before and I was able to do that too. It was truly a day to remember.
My realtor and I helped the balloon people blow up the balloon, first with a fan that blew cold air into it, then with the propane heaters that blasted flames into the balloon and made my realtor and I happy that we had gloves on.
At one point during the day, the pilot said he needed people to hang on the side of the balloon to keep it down so I jumped onto the side of the balloon, which got me some brave reviews from some of my new neighbors.
During the day, some local 6th graders set up and sold bottles of water to help raise money to build water pumps in less fortunate countries. All around, it was an amazing introduction to our new community, a day that will not soon be forgotten.
A huge thanks goes out to my awesome realtor and mortgage guy! Let's do it again. . . next week perhaps?
Exhausted but Loving Life
We slept in the new house for the first time last night. I didn’t sleep well at all. Getting used to a new house and its sounds and the sounds of the neighborhood takes some getting used to. Plus, I was just too excited to sleep. It was an all around great day.
The walk-through took two hours. We put sticky notes anywhere there was a problem and as we were leaving for settlement, a couple guys came in to take care of the issues. By the time we got back from settlement, the painter was finishing up his last touch-ups. The electrician comes tomorrow morning to take care of some minor issues, like the fact that they forgot to put all the light bulbs in the chandelier that’s about 20 feet above our heads.
The girls feel like it’s Christmas as they rediscover each new toy. Lil C is currently passed out on the family room floor which has yet to get any furniture; and Big I is on her third or fourth play date since we’ve moved. Our neighbor is over hanging out with her. This is exactly why we moved here. The kids are ecstatic.
Mr. BBM and I both feel like we have broken backs. We spent the entire day moving boxes, unpacking and trying to figure out how we could get a sofa in here before the weekend. Mr. BBM and my dad are working on that issue right now.
I had to teach this morning at 8 a.m. and was dragging. But returning home. . . home fills me with more energy. I am enjoying every second of unpacking and setting up in our new place.
Thanks for all of your well wishes. I promise pictures once we’re set up here.
Tomorrow It Is
The truck is loaded with most of our boxes. Because of the way I packed, I’ll probably have to wear pajamas to go teach on Tuesday morning. It won’t even matter though, because tomorrow we move into our dream home.
Since it’s the middle of the week, we don’t have much in the way of help until the following weekend, so we’re going to move what we can, enough so that we can start sleeping there tomorrow night. Words can’t even describe how excited we are right now.
On Friday, Mr. BBM and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We went to a wonderful french restaurant where I had lobster cakes and a dark chocolate souffle for the first time in my life. I think I was even more excited about the chocolate than I am about my new non-pink countertops. After dinner, Mr. BBM and I drove by the house, the one we’ve been building in our minds for a good 10 years now, the one that tomorrow becomes a reality.
At 9:30 p.m., the painter was still inside doing the touch-up work and the cleaning crew was there as well. We walked into the first floor and took a brief look around before sneaking out before we startled them. Everything has come together so nicely.
Today, the painters were busy finishing up the exterior painting and assuring us they would be finished on time. We do our final walk-through at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning and we settle at noon.
Do They Not Sense the Urgency???
I just got back from stopping by the house. There are four days to go until settlement. No one is working at the house. The carpet is finished in the two downstairs rooms, but it’s not done on either of the staircases or in any of the bedrooms. They also need to seal up where the water line comes into the basement and do all the exterior painting (front door, side lights, side door, bilco door, window keystones, etc.), plus all the touch-up on the interior.
Also, remember the pee in the basement fiasco. Well, we roughed in for a bathroom in the basement and we have a rough-in for a kicker pump along with the toilet and bathtub rough-in. We feel fairly certain that someone decided to use the kicker pump hole as a pee pot. When I walked down in the basement today, there is definitely an "off" smell. We already made the builder rep aware of the situation and we told him we want it cleaned up (bleached and shop-vacuumed out). We could completely understand if they went in the sump pump hole. At least that drains into the ground. With no plans to put the actual kicker pump in anytime soon, well, let’s just say that pee is going to percolate. No thanks.
The appraiser is supposed to be able to walk through a completed house tomorrow afternoon, and with all of that stuff left to do and operation pee smell elimination, no one is there. No one.
I need to do some deep breathing.
Here are the latest pictures:
The kitchen sink and faucet. . .
The kitchen, completely finished (minus the refrigerator that comes after settlement).
The first room of finished carpet. Also, the girls. Big I with her "I can’t wait to move in" face and Lil C with her "getting my picture taken is painful" face.
The dining room. . .
And the exterior, minus the painted blue door and sidelights, etc.
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