Operation inspiration...

Happy week o' love. Do you see the names of those two paints in focus? Hehe.

Did you know that I married one fabulous guy? It would take some time to list all of his great qualities, but I will give you this one: he's a fellow list maker. We're both making all sorts of lists for this home-buying process.

Last week I made a list of every room in our apartment, listed the major things that need to be packed and cleaned in each room, and also divided up the apartment into zones. Different zones will be the focus each week until we move, and I've duly noted the things in each zone that can only be done upon move-out. And before you say that I'm going overboard, if I don't have this kind of direction and time line the packing won't get done. We'll be reliving the craziness of our last move - when we had THREE MONTHS and left the majority of stuff until the very last week. Not happening again.

There are basically six weeks until operation move-out when we have to be completely out of our apartment. YIKES. Even though Sheri says (from wise experience) that we'll want to stay at the new house as soon as we get possession, and I'm not one to argue with experience on big, exciting things like this, there is at least ONE thing we need to do before we can spend the night in our rockin' new house: de-winterizing. I don't think the neighbors would be too keen on accepting a new way of fertilizing our yard until we get the plumbing in order. So that's one thing on the list of to-dos once our closing happens.

While they aren't in list form, I've also been creating some inspiration boards for the rooms. I am in love with this paint line, but not with the price, so I need to see if I can find similar colors or order a fan deck to have the colors matched. Here are some inspiring things I've found online lately.

1. I'm really digging the photos over a window sill or door frame.
2. That's a whole lot of frames and stuff on shelves, but I sure do like it.
3. More staggered stuff on shelves. Can you tell I like shelves?
4. I think I want an inspiration wire in the new office. Not sure where I found that photo.
5. While this bathroom would be amazing, I manly want the wall color for our bedroom/bathroom. It would go great with the dark brown furniture we have.
6. We have an entertainment center similar to this, but in black with glass cabinet doors. Dan assures me that ours can look as good as the one above once the speakers and crap aren't sitting on top, and the video games are removed from the shelves. Here's hoping.
7. The most I've ever put on top of our toilet is a candle. I really like the look of more things. Can't remember where I got this photo either.

Wednesday - Sheri was rolling through town and Dan and I had planned to go take measurements and more pictures of the house (somehow we didn't have enough), so she stopped by and we gave her the royal tour. It was weird to show her with nothing in it, but quite fun...made me even more excited to get in there already. We had Cheddar's for dinner and came back to the apartment to watch American Idol. I'm going to miss the little guy that lived in his car - I really liked his piano performance and unique voice. Then, Sheri made us watch Ghost Hunters International... crazy Sheri and her ghost shows. ;)

Loveday - After work Dan and I had a list of things to do together that included shopping for a refrigerator, getting paint chips, stopping at Hobby Lobby, and having dinner. It was nice just to spend time together - doing things that we were excited for. We didn't find a fridge yet, but got to take in all the different options and prices.

Today - is completely open for the taking. Let's see what all I can get done.

Since a bunch of people have been asking us for more house photos, hopefully this will satisfy the curious - check out a sneak peek of THE INSIDE. And a friendly warning - the previous owners liked blue and other bright colors.

Time to fix some brunch with the hubs and make this Saturday good!

I'm pleased to introduce...

...the outside of OUR NEW HOUSE!


Say hello to Dan's car while you're at it. Boy are we SUPER STOKED to close on our SUPER DUPER house. Let me say SUPER just a few more times for good measure. We went over yesterday to get shots with the last available sunlight, and ended up losing the light while talking to a neighbor in our cul-de-sac. She absolutely loves the neighborhood, and I think we will too. Her house is actually the reverse of ours inside (totally different outside), so it was cool to see how she laid out her furniture. That's when I became really excited - because our house was a foreclosure and didn't have ANYTHING in it to give an idea of the true space.


After our offer was accepted on Monday, we locked in our loan interest rate by Wednesday and were almost instantly approved. We received our loan paperwork yesterday, and had it signed and sent on its way today after pictures and lunch. So many things bouncing around during one week's time. Dan's looking to close by the 29th of this month - so we'll have a whole month to paint + do what we need to do + move stuff in gradually before we have to move out of our apartment on March 29th. We'll see if that plays out. Wow. Wow. Wow. I simply cannot wait. I've been looking at rooms and paint colors online, and bought a few magazines last night for room and storage ideas.


Random fact: when we move into the house, it'll be the first time I've ever had my own garage spot. I'm especially stoked for that. My little car is especially stoked for that. I'm also looking forward to my monster walk-in pantry, laundry room, jacuzzi tub, and so many other things in this house. Dan, of course, is looking forward to finally having a garage and a place for tools and building things. He can build and fix ALL he wants.


Okay...LOOK what we saw when we pulled up to take pictures today. Yesterday = FOR SALE. Today = SOLD. That's awesome.

For the rest of the night - laundry, a little cleaning, and a little packing with Dan. His little brothers are here with their faces glued to video games for the night, so it may end up to be a game in itself to clean and pack a few little things around them.

We don't have any plans tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. And I'm off!

Wow...

Last weekend - chalk it up to another one out and about. Saturday we had a list of to-dos to take care of, which included Dan setting up computers for a client and me looking for new glasses (unsuccessful), along with finding food and seeing the Super Bowl service at church (very funny). Sunday we continued with our new little habit of alternating Sundays between parents. We used to only see mine every other Sunday for a few hours and then fit in visits with Dan's whenever we could because they normally take longer (with double/triple the family members and little brothers that want video game time with big brother). Now we are trying to make it more fair and I'm missing what used to be some fairly free Sundays.

So while we've been balancing up the last month with more friend and family time, more getting out of the apartment, and just more - which was my goal to get out of my computer chair more - Dan's happy with all the extra socializing but I've been very uncreative, unproductive, and working up an unexpected meltdown that erupted Sunday morning. What can I say...I'm an introvert. I like my "me" time and being at home. Maybe I'll get used to these full weekends and varying activities eventually, and be able to take advantage of my weeknights again instead of aimlessly perusing the internet, uploading my photos, doing the dishes, and plopping on the couch...or I'll just go postal. We'll see.

I was optimistic on Monday. I felt good - until 4:00 when I was tired from a long day and ready to bulldoze whatever was in my way. I had just finished talking to someone at work about an issue when Dan came up to me and said "They accepted our offer." With my head in a fog he had to repeat himself a couple of times while I protested in disbelief, "No they didn't."

THEY.
ACCEPTED.
OUR.
OFFER.

By the time I actually believed what he was saying, I wasn't going to scream at work, although that may have been a funny scene. I was in shock almost as much as I was at our engagement, when I had my jaw on the ground for about five minutes before realizing I was supposed to give an answer to, "Will you marry me?"

Holy cow. They really accepted our offer. Dan called our realtor when we got home from work, and found out there was actually only ONE other offer placed (the second one must not have been placed). The other offer was higher than ours, BUT they tried to make changes to the contract and that was a no-no. THE HOUSE IS OURS! I still can't believe it. I keep looking at the listing online and drooling. Not sure yet when we close on the house, but it will be within 45 days - before the end of March. Time to start packing...and looking for a fridge to match the other appliances.

Thank you so much for your thoughts.

Today - I'm still in shock that within 45 days we'll be painting and making the house our own. Dan has some work to do tonight, so I'll be seeing what I can get done as well. I have our website invitation samples on my mind, and I want to get them done. I have about a week's worth of daily photos to download from the camera and post on flickr. And I have a newly formed habit of creative block that I need to kick to the curb.

Let's roll Tuesday evening.