Ta-Da!!

After countless hours, late, late nights, and long days we are DONE. And not a minute too soon. Our friends will be arriving within the hour, and Ed is currently hanging the shades. I can't believe we actually finished and I am soooo glad it is over. Thank you to all who prayed, and a special thank you to our parents and my friend Anna, who helped with painting, plumbing, cleaning and child care this past week so that we could finish on time. And of course, thank you to Chris and Angel who gave us a reason to finally finish this project! We can't wait to see you!

Here are the results

Progress, Progress

An update on the list:
** Items highlighted in red are updated 5/18 at 9:20 pm

1. Sanding the woodwork,
2. Priming the walls
3. Painting the ceiling (2-3 coats) (5/18)
4. Painting the walls (2 coats) (5/18)
5. Painting the woodwork (3 coats)
6. Spackling the bathroom walls (contractor)
7. Sanding the woodwork in the bathroom
8. Priming the bathroom walls (5/13)
9. Painting the bathroom wood work, ceiling and walls (5/18)
10. Laying the floor (contractor)
11. Installing the vanity, mirror, light & towel racks
12. Installing the toilet (still to be purchased) (5/18)
13. Installing the shower door (contractor)
14. Put ceiling fan back on, change out old outlets and switches, hang shades, put doors back on

There's nothing like having houseguests...

to get your house in order. I am feeling the heat! Our friends, Chris, Angel, and their 4 kids will be coming to visit for a couple of days in about a week and a half. These are their accomodations at the present (Angel don't look!!)


We have 3 bedrooms and one full bathroom right now. We have wanted to finish our renovations of the master bed and bath since we moved in, but we were restricted financially. We finally saved enough to hire a contractor- 3 weeks ago. Yeah. We have known that our friends were coming, oh, since February, and we just started getting down to business 3 weeks ago. So we are working frantically to get the bedroom done. This means

1. Sanding the woodwork
2. Priming the walls
3. Painting the ceiling (2-3 coats)
4. Painting the walls (2 coats)
5. Painting the woodwork (3 coats)
6. Spackling the bathroom walls (contractor)
7. Sanding the woodwork in the bathroom
8. Priming the bathroom walls
9. Painting the bathroom wood work, ceiling and walls
10. Laying the floor (contractor)
11. Installing the vanity, mirror, & towel rack
12. Installing the toilet (still to be purchased)
13. Installing the shower door (contractor)

Yeah, just typing that list stresses me out. So, hopefully we will get it done. It will take a miracle.

The Nursery

The nursery is finally done, with just a week or so to spare. Here are the before and after photos.
Before:




After:




I can't tell you what a relief this is!!

Settling In

Just a quick note. The move went really well. Paying movers to move all of our furniture was one of the best decisions we made!! It was well worth the money in the time, stress and "volunteer" man power it saved us. I highly recommend it to anyone moving from anything bigger than a 2brm apartment!

The kids settled in fine, and were able to find space to play in between boxes and misplaced furniture. They have even gone to bed without a fuss, which I was a little worried about since they are now sharing a room.

I even went for a walk with Holly around the reservoir, and it was beautiful, even though the wind was freezing cold. I am looking forward to the summer, to see how it looks with leaves on the trees. The kids are going to love playing in there, as well as the stream that feeds it. (I know, I promise to teach them water safety, and will be with them at all times until they know how to swim).

The next stage of our moving in process is to paint the living room so that we can move our furniture up there. Then we will work our way through the house, painting each bedroom, shifting furniture and beds room to room as we go.

I think we will be hosting a house-warming barbecue this summer (probably the last week in June) so that all of our friends can come to see it.

We're on our way

Ok everyone, this is it. My last entry before we move. Ed is breaking down the computer tonight and taking it over to the new place tomorrow. He is also taking off tomorrow to help me pack. Then tomorrow night I will go over to the house with some friends to set up the kitchen. Friday the movers come at 9 am. I will be taking the kids to my mother-in-law's house where they will stay until the next day. After the movers finish on Friday Ed and I will unpack, clean, and try to set up the house as best as we can. Saturday morning we will move the rest of the boxes over. And we will be in!! So until then, I will be in "computer silence".

house news

Ok, now that things have calmed down around here, I may be able to get back to regular posting.

We finished work on our house around midnight Jan 2nd. The day had been spent cleaning, clearing out, and setting up. It was an 18 hour marathon. The next day, the realtors came through to ckeck out the house, and the photographer took pictures for the website. Then on Thursday it listed, and we had our first showing Friday. We had 3 more on Saturday, 2 more on Sunday (including a repeat), one on Monday, and two yesterday. We got a full price bid on Monday night, that we accepted and signed the papers for last night!! Thank the Lord that it was quick!! Do you know how hard it is to keep the house clean with little children around, plus getting them out the door wilthout pulling out all the pieces to all the puzzles and games the last 5 minutes? Let me tell you, the TV was such a help-- "No, you can not play with your toys. Get back up on the couch and watch the tv!" Seriously, I found myself saying those words.

But now I don't have to keep the house as neat as a pin any longer (although I have to admit it was nice living without all the clutter and mess). Settlement on the new house is Jan 31, settlement on this house is Feb 28, which gives us one month to rip out carpets, clean duct work, clean, paint, pack and move. So I will take this calm spot the next few weeks and savor it, before we are caught up once again in activity and craziness.

See our house at its sparkliest!

home inspection

Friday, 30 December 2005

I know that it has been awhile since my last post. We have been feverishly working on our house in every spare moment, and I have hardly had time to eat and sleep. But that is winding down. Our house has to be ready for the market by Tuesday, and it will officially be listed on Thursday the 5th.

Today was our home inspection of the new place. It was neat to go over there again, and really get a good look at the place. We even met the next door neighbors who were very friendly, and even invited us inside for a tour of their house. It was essentially the same house, and gave me much hope for how our house could look with some work and paint. Anyway, here are some pictures of the new place.

front

BackPatio

Backyard

Pond

LivingRoom

Dining Room

Kitchen

Family Room

big decisions

Well, I know this will seem a little surprising after my last post, but Ed thought alot over the weekend, made a major amortization spreadsheet that covered every possiblity of interest rates, taxes, prices, fees, monthly payments, etc., etc. And decided that we should go for it. He explained to me that if the interest rates went up .25 percent, it would be the same as spending another 10,000 anyway, so we might as well accept the offer now (seeing that interest rates are going up, and there is no guarantee the house will be there later at the lower price we wanted). So we now have a January 31st settlement date, unless something horrible shows up in the home inspection (after which I will post pictures)!!

So seriously, if anyone knows anyone who wants to buy in Glenside, we are putting the house on the market the first weekend in January for $235. Four bedrooms, one bath, lots of new paint, and a beautiful backyard to name a few features. Let me know...

offers

What a day! We waited until about 12 to hear from the sellers about our offer. Our realtor said that they actually received 2 offers, but wanted to work with us, so they countered at 15,000 above our offer. We said that our offer was firm, but we would negotiated an earlier settlement if they wanted. Around 5:30 we heard from our realtor again, and they had dropped another 5,000, with a settlement date of Jan. 15th (Yikes!!), but we were still firm on our initial offer. Our realtor then told us that they have decided to keep the house on the market through January, and see if they can get more money. If not, they may come back to us.

So, no new house, but I feel a real sense of peace about it. We have been praying through this whole process for the Lord to make it very clear to us if we should have this house or not. And since we were not financially able to meet their price, it is very clear that for today, at least, the house is not ours. I am a little sad that the house that seemed so perfect to us probably won't be ours, but I am so thankful that God answered our prayers and made the decision very easy for us.

Well, at least we don't have to work like crazy people over the holidays trying to get our house in selling shape by New Years. We will have the time to work at a reasonable pace, and maybe even sell our house in the spring when our garden will be at its best!

Nothing lights a fire under your butt more than the prospect of selling your house. The past two weekends have been spent in painting (me) and installing a new kitchen floor (Ed). It still remains to be seen if we can even afford to move, but at least we are getting much needed projects done.

musings on moving

When we first moved into our house we had the plan to stay here for 5-10 years. It has now been 7 and we are making noises about moving. It is a bittersweet experience. I love our house, all the memories it holds of our young family, the hours Ed has put into it, and the backyard that I wish we could move with us. It is a nice little house, but we are outgrowing it. If our kitchen was bigger, and we had a garage, and maybe a family room, it would be perfect, and we'd stay forever.

So we have given our list of "requirements" to a realtor, and have been getting lists of possibilities. Houses are so expensive-- it's hard to find a nice 4 bedroom home in this area within our price range. If only I had 900,000 to spend on a house. Well, reality is that we might not find anything, and will be staying here until I can work full time.