Writing about all the big & little things

Category: Moving (Page 1 of 5)

Sunshine makes me happy

I remember the first morning that I walked into this house–it was the day after we signed all the papers.  We signed the papers on a weeknight and I couldn’t go back over to see the house as officially ours until I finished teaching that night (after 9:00).   I did drive over there and take a small load of stuff that evening, but it was dark by then and really wasn’t until the next morning when I really go the full effect.

I remember when I opened the garage door and walked into the kitchen:  it was FULL of sunlight.  The sunshiney beams were streaming right in and I stopped and smiled.  Then I said to myself, “THIS is my kind of house!”

In our old Holmes street house the windows were small and the walls thick so even though there was light there wasn’t a lot of light.  I love sunshine and brightness and cheerful colors.  It makes my heart happy.

You know what else makes my heart happy?  This little girl.  She is also my ray of sunshine.  (Like my segway there?)

Chloe R

1 YEAR TODAY!

That’s right–one year ago, today–we closed on our house and officially walked out with the keys.  One year.  That’s crazy!  I just perused the old photos from moving day and when we first moved in and the house is so strangely empty!  Haha!  It’s amazing how quickly we’ve filled it up with our stuff!  🙂

Here a link to the post I had with the pictures of moving day in case you want to chuckle at it too:  Moving in!

I drove past a few houses today (on a scenic trip home from the store) that we had looked at, and even made offers on.  It’s crazy how wrong those houses look to me now.  God’s plan is so much better than ours.

It’s days like today that get me excited for Spring!

Still brutally cold here.

Not quite as cold as yesterday, but still cold enough to call off school.  I read an interesting article yesterday, announcing that the amusement park inside Mall of America was offering free rides all last night in order to give people a chance to get out and do something since it was so cold.  I thought that was neat–here’s the link to the story:

http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_24854788/mall-america-free-amusement-park-rides-cold-weather

 

I’m so excited to get to explore our new neighborhood when it warms up this Spring.  We live so close to a ton of trails and parks and sidewalks.  Plus we have a nice big backyard now.  Oh, and we have a deck that wonderfully overlooks the whole back yard.  What’s not to be excited about?!?  If only we had been able to enjoy it before it got too cold… in the first days we moved in, it would have been nice enough to spend some time outside, but I was too busy unpacking and organizing.  I’ve also decided that I want to try and run one or two 5k’s this summer and I I’m pretty sure one of them will actually go directly past the back of our house!  I’m excited to get out and get some exercise with the kids in the fresh air!  So, how many days until it is spring again?  🙂

Thinking back about our rental house I can honestly say that the back yard is the thing I truly miss the most.  It had the BIGGEST tree right smack dab in the middle of the back yard that provided cover for over half the back area.  If it was raining the kids could still play out there, because it seriously acted like a giant umbrella!  It had two giant gardens (which I’m sure were awesome back in their day) and even a bird bath area… I could see how with a little more TLC it would have been charming.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t willing to put that much energy into it since it was a pretty dumpy rental… but I do miss that backyard.  Plus it was fenced.  And now that we DON’T have a fence here, I really, really, really, want a fence again.  🙂

Here are a few pictures of the rental backyard.  It probably doesn’t do it justice–nature pictures never really do capture it quite right, but you’ll get the idea.

This was the view stepping right out of the dining room patio door.  I did like that it had a deck--the kids really loved playing on that.

This was the view stepping right out of the dining room patio door. I did like that it had a deck–the kids really loved playing on that.

Under the giant tree!

Under the giant tree!

 

There was another patio area (we had our grill by this one)...

There was another patio area (we had our grill by this one)…

 

the two gardens--like I said, they were in need of some more TLC

the two gardens–like I said, they were in need of some more TLC.  I liked the little bench.  🙂

And there was a giant sand area that would have been for a pool (or so I was told) and then a quaint shed in the back with a loft area and window up top.

And there was a giant sand area that would have been for a pool (or so I was told) and then a quaint shed in the back with a loft area and window up top.

 

Garage, funny faces and hair styling!

Here’s the long awaited picture of the garage! Ok, I’m sure it’s not long awaited, but some of you were probably mildly curious.  As a reference I’ve reposted the pictures of what it looked like before…

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This was mid move… this was only the beginning of filling it to the max!

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This shows the assembly of the rolling shelving units that they guys built. This is getting closer to showing how full it really was!

And, drum roll please, the (mostly) finished space!

garage done

I know it doesn’t look all that impressive, but IT WAS A LOT OF WORK!

 

Yesterday Chloe woke up and got herself dressed and even DID HER OWN HAIR!  She came down and spun around for me, and I have to say I was impressed.  She’s definitely developing more and more of what she thinks looks good and is starting to buck what I want her to wear (unless I’m able to talk up the outfit as being SO AMAZING!)  😉

Here’s her outfit and hair…

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Then there’s Josiah sitting across the table from her munching away on his cereal… being as goofy as can be!

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Pictures of our new house!

Sorry for keeping you all on pins and needles… but we didn’t have internet until last night.  So, here are some pictures of our awesome new home!

Our new home!

Our new home!

 

The morning of moving stuff--we were pretty energetic at this time still...

The morning of moving stuff–we were pretty energetic at this time still…

 

Abby showing off the KEY of colors for the duct tape

Abby showing off the KEY of colors for the duct tape.  This is right inside the front door.

 

Each room had a sign with the color duct tape shown.  I love organization.  :)

Each room had a sign with the color duct tape shown. I love organization. 🙂

 

We had fun moving. And can I say we have A. LOT. OF. STUFF.

We had fun moving. And can I say we have A. LOT. OF. STUFF.

 

Oh, and our mortgage guy gave us a fancy cake at our closing.  Yumm!

Oh, and our mortgage guy gave us a fancy cake at our closing. Yumm!

 

Front door.  Studio is to the right and waiting room to the left.

Front door. Studio is to the right and waiting room to the left.

 

Main floor living room and dining room

Main floor living room and dining room

 

Kitchen and other side of dining room.  Through the door is the laundry room and half bath and the door to the garage.

Kitchen and other side of dining room. Through the door is the laundry room and half bath and the door to the garage.

Waiting room

Waiting room

 

Studio door that Tim and Bumpa installed on Sunday.  We're just missing the trim...

Studio door that Tim and Bumpa installed on Sunday. We’re just missing the trim…

 

Studio!  It's even the same color as my old one!

Studio! It’s even the same color as my old one!

 

Basement Family Room... yes, already covered in toys...

Basement Family Room… yes, already covered in toys…

 

These are the french doors at the bottom of the stairs leading into the basement family room.

These are the french doors at the bottom of the stairs leading into the basement family room.

 

Basement bathroom.

Basement bathroom.

 

So pretty!

So pretty!

Don’t rain on my parade!

Well, I planned to pack up the house this weekend and live out of suitcases for this week, but that didn’t happen. Nope instead…

… we had a house showing
… I lost my voice completely
… I had a meeting at church
… we made a Menards run to pick up the studio door (yay!)

… and Chloe got sick

By Sunday night I was already exhausted (and annoyed since I couldn’t talk) and then Chloe came in just after I went to bed with a fever. I gave her medicine and then she got the “tickle” in her throat that made her cough continuously for 4 hours straight. She was coughing to much that she was starting to dry gag, so I stayed up with her until 3:30 at which point Tim switched with me and stayed up with her for the remainder of the night. I was so frustrated–there wasn’t a single remedy that I could think of to help her stop! She did finally fall asleep around 5:00 and then slept until noon.  So all my packing has been postponed…

Needless to say–this wasn’t how I was planning to spend this week!

(And on a side note, teaching with no voice is really hard!)

But, all things considered, I’m not too far behind. I’m still on the fence about whether or not to go to BSF tomorrow morning… it will depend on how Josiah is when he wakes up. He sounded like he was starting to get “the tickle” tonight… ah!

Happiness.

We got to go in and see our new house again yesterday.  It was so much fun to walk around the house (which is now completely cleared out and cleaned) and to really start believing that we would actually get to live there.  We needed to check more specific measurements so we could place the order for the studio door–which is a special order item and needs a couple weeks to arrive.  And it’s a good thing we ordered it yesterday, since it estimated arrival date is the weekend that we move in!  It will be a crazy busy weekend.  But it will be an EXCITING crazy busy weekend!  🙂

We decided that it would be nice to bring Chloe with us this time and let her see the new house as well.  And boy, did she LOVE IT!  She was positively giddy, running all around the house.  (I admit there might have been some giddy running on my part too… hehe!)  She adores her room and thinks it’s funny that Josiah’s room is painted pink (for the time being).  And she decided that the basement should forever be used for “dancing, spinning & playing.”

It’s officially October. And that makes me happy!

It feels good to officially be in the month that we’re moving.  We can now see our moving date without having to flip the page on the calendar.  I am finding such joy in knowing this chaos is soon coming to an end.   There are many things that have been driving me crazy:

  • Not knowing which box things are packed in
  • Or more importantly if they are in our FIRST set of boxes we packed (back in March) and in the storage unit or in our SECOND set of boxes we packed (this summer)
  • Only having out enough stuff to live a short while one… so we keep running out.  Like cups for example.  We wash cups a lot.
  • Not having clothes out for the kids for when the weather get cooler.  When we moved it was HOT, so I packed away all of their long sleeves and pants… so I’ve had to dig, dig, dig to find things.  (But I’m happy to report, I’ve now found enough to get us through October until I really unpack.)
  • And then let’s not even talk about things about the actual house that drive me crazy (aka: holes in the screens of all the windows, the lights in the house flicker (like a brown-out), broken stove, toilet that doesn’t flush right, not enough space in the kitchen so I have food stored by the bedrooms, mice problems, holes in the walls, huge amounts of wasps all along the roof line… you get the picture) that I would totally fix if we were staying here, but really aren’t worth our effort or money if we aren’t staying.

But none of that compares to the one most annoying thing that drives me INSANE about this whole moving process:

  • HOUSE SHOWINGS

This by far is the most frustrating part of selling a house and moving.  I was so excited to finally be done with the showings when we sold our house (We had 47 showings in 3 months!).  I never dreamed that we would end up living in a rental where we have to continue to have showings.  And this is doubly frustrating because there is a severe lack of communication between us and the realtor selling this house and the lady who owns this house and the realtors coming to see this house.  I won’t go into a lot of details because I really don’t want to bad-mouth anyone, but it’s been extremely frustrating on many levels.  Oh, and we now have an open house this weekend, too.  I’m not thrilled about that…

However, with all my negativity, I should point out that there are some really good points about this house too.  I’m not sure I would go as far as to say I’ll miss them, but I’m enjoying them for now.

  • Large back yard
  • Gorgeous huge tree in the backyard (pictures to come soon)
  • Laundry right next to Dende’s kennel, so if he has an accident in the night I just toss them right in the washer
  • No spidery basement (since it’s a split level)
  • My studio and waiting room are far from the noise of the kids
  • Eat in Kitchen
  • High ceiling heights (which are probably standard but feel high to us!)
  • Quiet street
  • Nice Neighbor
  • Close proximity to Chloe’s Preschool
  • Window about the kitchen sink
  • Did I mention the wonderful backyard?  It’s the best!  Okay, okay, I can honestly say I WILL miss this…

See?  There are always things to be grateful for if I just start looking.  🙂  And in all seriousness, I am incredibly thankful for being able to live here.  God knew where we needed to be for now.

 

 

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