Nearing the finish line...

Yes, we are almost there - the way-too-soon arrival of March 29th when the apartment keys are no longer ours.

For the last month we've been taking van loads over to the house whenever we go to clean/paint, and on Friday we finally made the big move with our big stuff...along with the phat cats.  We put Urple into the kitty carrier because she's a clawer, and I picked up Merry because she just hides her head when she's scared.  Merry experienced a similar drive before when Dan took her to the vet, so she was mostly fine hiding her head in the armpit of my coat.  Urple was freaking out.  About halfway through the drive, I think Merry realized we had passed up the vet, thought HOLY CRAP, and started yelling like her sister.  I was as nervous for them as they were!

Dan set up their stuff in the laundry room, and as soon as we brought them in, they bee-lined it to hide in their litter box together.  We brought them out to explore a little later, and Merry was all about it.  She went from room to room, walked around, looked out the windows, and moved on.  Urple didn't want anything to do with the house.  In the meantime, Dan read that you should keep the cats shut in a small room for 24 hours until they get used to that small space, and then let them wander around while everyone's asleep, so back to the laundry room they went. 

We stayed the first night in our new house.  And because we were living out of boxes, and I still couldn't believe that we were staying in OUR house, it was a little weird and a lot SWEET at the same time.  Everyday I get a little giddy just walking around and noticing things - thinking about how lucky we are.  

Saturday the cable guy came for a visit and flipped the switch for our internet - first priority, baby.  We also had lunch plans with our small group.  It was the last meeting of our Consumed journey together and I'm going to miss the group each week.  Dan and I already had a good plan going with our finances, so the journey solidified that, but I'm also looking at other consuming things a little differently...media, time, relationships, etc.  Not sure if my new view of ads is really a good thing, though, because instead of letting them fly in one ear and out the other - now I just want to kick the advertisers (and even news writers). 

[Hey, when you get that shiny new tax refund, or that government stimulus check...why don't you buy a BIG SCREEN TV with it?  You could buy some other junk that you don't need, too!  YEAH!  Or you know that 401k that's just sitting there for your retirement WAY down the road, you could go spend that on a new house down-payment!  LOOK AT YOUR OPTIONS!  Oh here, have another credit card while you're at it - you deserve it!]  No, thanks.

Here's a good post I read today about financial (and personal) clutter and how it can affect your happiness.  It's something I've been thinking about even before our journey - just getting rid of stuff we're not in love with and continuing to make wise choices in the anti-clutter battle.  One goal in mind = even though we have this new house with TONS of storage space, I don't want to fill it all.  If we have STUFF that's unappreciated or just sitting around waiting to see the sunlight, I'd rather give it away to someone who will appreciate it. 

I'm happy to report that we painted our office Saturday night, so we can mark it off the looooong list of painting duties.  The color is somewhat dark, yet pretty much what we were looking for in that room and I really enjoy seeing it.

Sunday was Easter.  We went to church and had an awesome service.  Mandy talked about a skit that her church did, and I'm curious if our skit/dance was similar to theirs.  I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.  Afterwards, we spent most of the day with Dan's family.  It was mostly relaxing, but all I could think about was getting back to the house to unpack and clean a little more.  We did only come home with one bag of candy, compared to past years with his family, so it looks like we won't have to send his little brothers home with handfuls each time they visit. 

This week

• So far we've moved almost everything from the apartment.  Now there are just small things that can be thrown into boxes as we clean.  We also have to paint over our three bold accent walls, otherwise we'll get charged if the painters have to use more than one coat of their neutral.  The sooner we can get out of there, the sooner we can't avoid all of the #$%@#*! construction getting in and out of that place. 
  
• Even though living out of boxes isn't ideal, I think I've found all of my clothes.  Now how to arrange them... 
  
• Tuesday night we put together the couch and TV stuff in the living room - looking good!  Our setup isn't the best for including the corner fireplace, though, so we look forward to eventually finding a new living room set and moving our current stuff to the basement family/game room.
• Since the office was painted and the carpet was cleaned, we can start to figure out furniture placement.
  
• We still want to paint the laundry room before we move in the washer and dryer.  Those will be welcomed into the house with smiles and three large baskets of dirty clothes. 
  
• I'm trying to stay motivated and move along, but I am about D.O.N.E. with all this packing and moving.  I'm ready to focus on the house and work some magic.  Oh, and I'm requesting a good decluttering as we unpack, since we didn't have enough time with the gazillion other packing/cleaning/painting tasks this month.
• I took pictures of our painted rooms Tuesday night and I just need our super fast desktop computer to help me out with the editing/uploading process.  Pictures = soon = sooner than the last time I said "soon."
  
• Last night after packing more at the apartment (we're so close!), we treated ourselves to steaks at Outback.  It was well worth it.  And when we came home, we couldn't find the cats.  They have so many places to hide in the big house.  We finally found Merry curled up in the guest bathroom sink, and Urpel was the hardest to find hiding in our entertainment center.  I hope losing the cats isn't an everyday occurrence - we're used to them greeting us when we come home.  
  
• I still have news to tell, but this post is long enough already.  I'll save it for another time.  ;)
  
• Let's roll Thursday the 27th - the weekend is right around the corner!  
  

H to the iz-ouse...

As I look through all of the kitchen pictures I've posted so far with our new fridge, paint chips, and whatever else, I can sense exactly what you're thinking...

What on earth are her kitchen and counter top colors anyway?!

Don't call me if Better Homes & Gardens or Martha wants magazine-worthy photos of your home, because every picture will inevitably turn out a different color. The closest I came was with this sneak peek photo with natural light. If you come visit our house don't be surprised if the wall colors look totally different than they do online. We could be using a bright magenta for all you know.

Speaking of paint colors - our versions of them at least - we are digging what we have so far. Our main focus has been the master bed/bath and living room, and those are almost done. The guest bedroom is almost done minus some touch-ups and maybe another ceiling trim job. Next we'll start priming and painting the office. I'll have pictures soon, and a reveal of where all those colors are going.

If you've ever wanted a way to test your patience, you should have come to our annual Homeowner's Association meeting last night. Holy pool passes. The meeting was only scheduled for two hours - two hours of hearing what homeowners in an association really care about... like how much the trees cost in the neighborhood. There's an elected board for a reason, and I trust that they'll use our money wisely. Why is there a need to spend a half-hour on the topic of fixing the brick monument at the front entrance? THEY'VE ALREADY DONE THE RESEARCH, PEOPLE. As you can see, my patience needs some work.

After the meeting last night we stopped at Lowe's to buy the rest of our paint colors. We need more of our darkest brown, but who knew it would be nearly impossible to match even with the formula from before, so we'll have to take our paint can/lid back another day and see if we can match. We had a 10% off coupon and Dan wanted to take full advantage of it, so while I was waiting on paint to be mixed he somehow picked out a grill, grill cover, and lawn mower. The boy doesn't waste any time when it comes to sales and coupons.


Dan and I got this gift from a couple at work today. The husband went to Belgium on business and brought us back some yummy chocolates. They're all filled with something different. They'll be gone in a week I'm sure... wonder if they're available online?

I have more news, but I'll wait to share until it's confirmed.

It looks like we'll be moving into the house by Saturday. Whether we're done painting or not, we have to move so we can clean the apartment next week and turn in our keys. We also have plans on Saturday and Easter Sunday to factor into the mix. Pray for my sanity.

Have a fabulous hump day, fo' shizzle.

On your marks...

Get set...

GO!

I feel like I'm in the middle of a marathon right now - a marathon that took off at closing February 29th (thanks to those who gave congrats), and the finish line is March 29th when we turn in our apartment keys. We are loving our new house. It sure has created one PACKED month, though (pun intended).

Lessons in de-winterizing:
After our closing last Friday, Dan had done enough research and felt confident that he could de-winterize the house himself. Everything he read said it was pretty easy, you just need some extra people around to watch. We got a couple of co-worker friends over to help, went around and closed all of the faucets and valves, and crossed our fingers. Dan started out slow and one of our friends noticed that the refrigerator valve was open - shooting water into the kitchen - so we stopped. Got that cleaned up... and went slow again.

Everything seemed to be good. I was watching the upstairs and one of those faucets was left on so I grabbed it quick. It's kind of scary to hear water slowly going through all the pipes and filling up the toilets. You wouldn't think so... but I was constantly thinking something was leaking. Once the water was on full-force, we went around and turned all the faucets on to let the air out and start water flowing. Pretty much a success - we had flowing water and working plumbing.

UNTIL... Dan was standing in the kitchen and still heard water flowing. Water going through the pipes? Water heater filling up? That thing is monster sized....who knows. He went downstairs to find our storage room (that holds the water heater - whose pressure valve wasn't closed - oops) FLOODED WITH WATER. Estimated about 25 gallons by the time Dan thought fast and borrowed a shop vac from a neighbor to clean up the flood. Whew.

Lesson #1 - make sure you have multiple people watching AT ALL TIMES.
Lesson #2 - make sure the pressure valve is closed on your water heater.
Lesson #3 - bring a honkin' shop vac with you - just in case.
You'll thank me later.


That night after working a half day, we put together all the supplies for an easy spaghetti dinner and hauled over to the house. We had our first meal there, and made sure everything was still hunky dory with the water situation.

Saturday:

We started cleaning with Dan's family... they loved the house and we got a little bit done. Dan completed his first home improvement project - installing little shelves in our kitchen false drawer fronts. They're way cool and he's way proud of them. ;) Since the picture was taken, we found handles to match our cabinets and installed those too.


Jen came over and helped me with paint colors. She was amazing. I gave her a tour and showed her the paint colors we were thinking about in the master bedroom - the only ones I had come up with after my near drowning in paint chips. She checked our bedroom fabrics with the colors, found similar colors that looked better, and came up with a whole scheme in about 10 minutes. We walked around the house carrying the scheme and it went with everything perfectly - bringing out every color in our kitchen counter top (the picture may not do it justice). Crazy how that worked out. The lightest green is essentially our current kitchen color that we're keeping. It's really not that light, as you can see from other kitchen photos.


Our new fridge was also delivered that afternoon. Perfect timing and we loooooove it.

Sunday:

We cleaned with my family and brought some things from their place including the exercise system... they loved the house, and we got a little bit done. There are still many more cleaning tasks on the list. I was also invaded Friday by some sort of sinus/sore throat issue that left me exhausted every 10 minutes I tried to clean.

All the cleaning tasks aside, the house really isn't dirty. The previous owners kept it pretty clean, but one big thing we're doing is washing all the walls to prep them for painting. Now that my energy is back for the most part, and I just have this stuffy nose to deal with, things are looking up.

The flowers above are a house-warming from my mom. Anyone know how to take care of African Violets?

Today:

This is the view of our apartment balcony, and it just keeps on coming. I think I've said before how much I love snow, so this is a winter happyland for me.

We primed the guest room the other day. We bought one gallon of paint with a primer to see how we like the paint brand and the color, and it looks great so far. We're going to try to get over to the house today and do a coat of the actual paint color. And if we can, get to Lowe's to buy the rest of our paint colors and primer. We'll see how the road officials like our determination. We'll see if Lowe's is even open.

Problem #1 - Dan and I have discovered that we are NOT house painters. Our ceiling trim-job shows it.
Problem #2 - WE DON'T OWN A SHOVEL. We've never had a need for a shovel, and now that we do they're stinkin' sold out like they're life-sustaining or something.

If you're so inclined, see if you can guess what rooms all of my paint colors will be used for. I would love to see what you think.

If you're in a winter happyland today, enjoy the day. Go out and play!