Transformations!

I have been obsessed with blogs like Young House Love and Bower Power for a while now. I may have even gone back and read the entire Bower Power archive from start to finish in the weeks leading up to us buying our house. I am fairly OCD sometimes, lol. I don't regret it though. I learned a lot and fell in love with their adorable family.

So I'm excited to post our own before/after photos of our house as we get to redecorating and all of that fun stuff! 

So far we haven't done too terribly much because we've been working on moving our things over to the house from the apartment, making lists of everything we need to do, comparing options, and getting quotes. 

But we did manage to tear down the walls in our bedroom. Before we did anything, it was only half done. The seller had put up some drywall on half of it, but the rest was lathe and plaster. There were a couple of holes and broken pieces and horrible wallpaper. In the picture below you can see the side with the drywall.

The other half of the room, which I never got a picture of, had ugly green/blue flowery wallpaper with streaks in it. I did get a picture of it from when that brick column started peeling though. It looked a little more blue than it does in this picture below.

We decided that the walls couldn't be salvaged, so we started ripping them away. That actually was more fun that I thought it would be. And a good workout too! I'm still sore from the tear down and then trying to shovel all of the plaster out of the truck at the dump. 

We'd had weeks of frustration and anxiety waiting to find out if we were going to get the house, so I like to say that was my release. We also took off the drywall because there was a little moisture damage, so we'll be replacing that. 

 The view from the other side. We're hoping to get rid of that ceiling fan too and replace it with something a little more up to date. 

So we have a whole list of things we want to do (eventually) in this room. Some will be sooner than others. And since I love a good list, I'll share it with you. 

• Put in some new wiring/more outlets
• Put up new drywall
• Put in a drop ceiling
• Replace ceiling fan with one that's more our style
• Paint the walls (pick out a color)
• Put in carpet
• Figure out window treatments
• Put the door back on and fix it so it closes easily
• Put in supplemental heating or forced air (still deciding)
• Decorate (too undecided to itemize, lol)

SOLD!!

I've disappeared again. Sorry about that. But we've had a lot going on. A lot, a lot. 

We ended up changing our closing date. Again. For the 5th time. We got to the eve of closing and realized they had put us down for the wrong downpayment %, so we changed it, and in doing so had to wait a week for a new closing date. 

So finally, on Thursday, we got the green light, and were able to close. We didn't actually look to see where the building was, so we parked way down and almost had to run to get there on time. And then we had to take an elevator (which I don't handle very well) so I had to sit down when we got off because my head was spinning. But that passed after a few minutes. 

We got there just a minute or two late, but had time to sit down for a minute before the title agent came in to get us.

Ok, so we'd never been through this process before, and I had heard to expect to sign a ton of papers. But holy geez! I'm sure my eyes bulged out of my head when I saw the two inches of paperwork that we had to either sign or initial. I wish I was exaggerating. I would say that home buying in itself is responsible for half of deforestation! I'm surprised my hand didn't cramp up. 

So signing the paperwork took about an hour, and the guy didn't even really explain each paper in detail, just a quick summary of what it was we were signing. We got to talk to the seller afterward and ask some questions and everything. That was really helpful. And then he gave us our keys! It was so hard to leave them lying on the table where he had put them, but I wanted to at least appear calm and normal when inside I was dying to grab them and do a happy dance, lol. 

So, an hour later, we were walking out of the title agency and back to our car so we could drive to the house and soak it all in. That's about all that we did too, soak it in and make plans. It was late by then and I had to work the next day, so we locked up and went back to our apartment.

Gift from the seller.

The next day, Friday, Hubby was off of work so he went out and ran a few errands while I worked half a day. And when I got off work my mom, mother-in-law, and a friend showed up to help us start moving things. We got everything but the big stuff (couch, bed, cabinet, etc.) moved that day, so it was a big day. On Saturday my mom was replaced by my brother and we still had my mother-in-law and then 2 friends helping us, so we moved all of the big stuff in. 

Now we have just the things that we need to live off of during the week until we get Internet hooked up and we can fully move to the house. We've been keeping busy over there with some big changes, so hopefully tomorrow I can post about that. I will say that it was a ton of fun removing some ugly blue wallpaper! : ) 

That's probably long enough for now. I'll try not to be gone so long next time! Hope you all are having a good week!

Dating, of the Up Variety

That post title would be a glimpse into my husband's lingo ... and it means updating, lol. He has rubbed off on me a bit in the last few years. 

I've mentioned that we are buying a house, so I thought I'd give an update. 

We found our house, the one we want, that fits in our budget, and we will be happy with. We negotiated for a few weeks and finally came to an agreement. We've gotten the inspections done. We worked for a few more weeks on getting things fixed and passing our well test. That one took the longest. 

We finally got confirmation that our well passed the test and the well casing now just needs to be raised. We are writing up an addendum to the contract to say that the seller will just pay that part in closing costs and we'll get it fixed after we move in. So we are just waiting on that addendum. 

Hopefully we'll get it today and we can get it into our lender and we'll get to hear when our closing date will be. I hope. Prayers would be wonderful at this point. We are getting so, so close! 

And because we're getting close, we've started packing! We've gotten most of what will be put into boxes, into boxes. We've got a spare room that is full of stuff like tents, sleeping bags, camp stoves, that we've accumulated over the years, but most of that stuff is in containers already, so we'll just have to pick them up and go. 

We've still got some clothes unpacked and a lot in the kitchen unpacked, but we're close! And I just did a load of laundry at our laundromat last night. I had to stand there and wait for someone to come because all of the dryers were being used, except they were all done being dried. So they were just waiting for people to come get them. And I am one of those paranoid people who thinks that if I take someone else's clothes out of the dryer so I can dry mine that they will come back and pour bleach on my stuff or something, lol. So I waited. Eventually it worked out. But I'm hoping we don't have to rely on a laundromat for much longer. Luckily, our house will come with a washer/dryer so we don't have to worry about buying one!

 

Please ignore the crummy iPhone photo. 

So that's our update. Hopefully the next time I update you guys I will have a closing date! It seems that whenever I expect something, the opposite happens. So I'm sure there will be more 'fun' to come. Pray for us, lol. And hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Update on the House!

We started this process back in the end of July. We've gotten everything done and paid for that we're required to do before closing, but we are waiting on the well. The well is the one thing that we really expected to fly through. But we are now on our fourth treatment and testing to see if we can get it cleared up. We should find out the results some time today. So a little good luck/prayers/fingers crossed would be greatly appreciated today! 

We don't really have a lot of options if this test comes back negative again. I don't think that continually treating it and testing it is going to get anywhere if it comes back negative a fourth time. I haven't seen the reports beyond the first one though, so I'm not exactly sure what is going on. 

But if it comes back negative then we have to discuss the seller digging a new well for us. We're not sure if he'll be willing to do that. He is required by the bank to have the house up-to-code before selling, but I'm not sure if he could find someone else with a different kind of loan who would be able to buy as-is. 

So we are holding our breath and crossing everything possible that we get some good news today. I know that everything happens for a reason, but we're hoping that we don't have to start all over from the beginning and lose all the money we've put into it thus far. 

And since we all love pictures. Here is one that I took of our baby furbaby, Gus. : ) 

It's About Time ...

Source

It's about time for another post. I've really been slacking off here. Feel free to give me a kick in the booty next time! I seem to have drifted off into the world of Pinterest and Bower Power. I have so many wonderful ideas for this house that we are buying may be buying. 

Source

The updates on the house are pretty much the same news over and over. We had been looking for a house for over a year. We toured quite a few of them, put offers on a few of them, and they all didn't work out for one reason or another. We finally decided to give up on looking for a while and focus on saving more money/ paying off debt when we came across this house. We decided to give it one last try. And to our surprise, the seller negotiated with us. So we spent a couple of weeks going back and forth with him and finally came to an agreement. We spent a pretty chunk of change getting inspections done and everything that we thought would pass with flying colors has turned into a road block, while the things we were expecting to be a challenge ended up being barely a rolling stop. It's been a pretty surprising process. 

So the latest news is that all of the inspections have been done, they came back and told us that the well was contaminated. It had been sitting a few months so we weren't really totally surprised, just disappointed because that meant waiting for them to treat it and test it again. We finally got all of that done (after a week of waiting) and now they said there's still a small trace of contamination. So that means retreating and retesting. They were supposed to retest early this week. I believe. It's hard to keep track now. So we should find out either late this week or early next week if the well will pass the inspection. We can't move forward until it does. And that is the last thing our lender is waiting on. We've gotten insurance and the whole she-bang ... so fingers crossed that the well passes this time, please. Pretty please! : )

And speaking of the house, I'd love to turn this blog ... or adapt it ... to include all of the projects/home repair/remodeling that we'll be doing to it over time. We aren't going to have much money starting out, so it will be a slow process, but I'll share what I can! : ) I think maybe if I start incorporating more of our daily lives into the blog I may end up writing more often than once every two weeks, lol. It will still have an emphasis on being healthy, but with a touch of this and a dash of that along the way! Hopefully you all enjoy it!

Source

I'll post another update as soon as we hear more info! Until then ... happy Thursday!  : )

Wish I Could Say...

Source

I wish I could say that I had an update on the home-buying situation, but we still really haven't made much progress. It always seems like two steps forward and one step back. 

I did get a few more papers sent in, but otherwise we are still waiting. Right now, specifically, we are waiting to get a verification of my employment. I don't see why it's been so hard, but apparently they need a special report. They got hubby's report done and out of the way last week. 

We did narrow down our homeowner's insurance choice to one company though and will be calling them tomorrow to finalize all of that stuff. But at least we aren't moving backwards, right? And we're now down to one week and one day until closing... so hopefully there isn't much that can go terribly wrong in one week, right? Right!

Ok, moving on. 

We didn't have much time to sit and twiddle our thumbs while worrying about the house this weekend. We went to visit hubby's mom. It was hot and humid, but we had AC, so it wasn't so bad. Turns out that her dishwasher decided to die right in the middle of our visit. So hubby yanked it out and installed a new one for her. I helped. I read the instructions. Men don't do that, ya know. So someone has to keep him straight! ; ) 

Source

I do have to say that I have seen salesmanship at its best... or worst... depending on how you look at it. He was cheesy and kept changing his story. I don't even know how many times he told us something different. First he had the one she wanted in the color she wanted, but showed her a more expensive one. When he saw she wasn't interested, he suddenly didn't have the color she wanted in stock. Then she opted for a second color. He had it, but then suddenly that one wasn't in stock either. And then he started showing her a completely different one. 

When the other salesman started showing off the dishwasher that hubby's mom originally had liked, our salesman said that their salesman was not smart and that the other salesman didn't know that the one our salesman was promoting was better. He was slimy. If you followed all of that, I applaud you. It was hard to keep up with it ourselves. And he tried to make it seem like the third option he showed us came with wonderful free installation. Well, she already told him that hubby was putting it in ... so they ALL had free installation. We decided it was time to go. The second store was MUCH better. The guy answered our questions, didn't try to talk us into a different model, got it done in about five minutes. It was great. And it was about a hundred dollars cheaper than the other store too. Double win! : ) 

The installation was not all that easy because it seems the handyman who arranged the kitchen to begin with did not intend for people to take the washing machine out. There was just a clearance of a couple of inches to work with and a dip in the floor at just the wrong spot and let's just say it was an interesting night, lol. 

Source

And then...

I do have to say that hubby and I followed the rules of our Whole30-ish living very well ... until the last night. We were tired from wrestling with the dishwasher and starving because it took much longer than anticipated, so we went out to eat with hubby's mom and one of his good friends. So we splurged a little bit. It was a mistake, and we paid for it, headaches all around! But we are back to our good foods and speaking of good foods, I made one of our favorites for dinner tonight: salmon cakes with dill sauce and sweet potato fries. I'll post the recipe for that tomorrow! : )

Source

Oh, and another little bit of awesomeness from this weekend... Hubby's friend is into cameras, and I'm just getting into cameras. I just had the one lens that came with the camera and he had just bought a nice, new, huge, lens ... so he gave me his old lens. Gave it to me. Didn't have to pay at all. He tends to do that with things when he no longer has need of them, lol. I don't mind though! He wouldn't take payment, so I said I'd cook him a nice healthy meal when he comes up to visit next time. He accepted! So now I just have to figure out what to make! He'll be up in a couple of weeks to help us finish moving. 

Hope you all had a fun and safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend! See ya tomorrow! : )

Personal Update

My husband and I.

I mentioned in a previous post that my husband and I were waiting to hear back about a house that we were hoping to buy. Unfortunately, we did not get it. We were bidding against another buyer and they offered a cash deal, so the seller went with them. So now we are back to searching. It was disappointing, but we are back to searching now.

In other news, our bunny is going to get fixed tomorrow! I'm excited and nervous. Excited because I'm ready for his raging hormones to go away. Nervous because he is my little fur baby and I am always worried about his safety. I am very confident about the abilities of his vet though, so I know he'll be alright.

Gus

And then my work has announced that they are cutting my hours due to the Healthcare Reform Act. So now I will be lucky to get 20 hours a week instead of the regular 40 and I am still in search of a new job as well. 

It's been an interesting few weeks. Slightly stressful, but I am trying to do my best to stay on track and not lose control. Some days are easier than others, but I think positivity comes into play here. You can't do anything if you don't believe that you can. And I think that you can really hold yourself back from accomplishing great things if you don't believe in yourself. I struggle with this personally, but I am working on becoming more confident whether it is in selling myself for a new job or putting myself out there to call people to find the right house or believing that I can be strong and say no to temptation.

And I find that the more confident I am in myself, the easier the stressful days become. I feel like I can take on more and it doesn't tear me down like it used to. So do your best to keep your head in the right place and you'll go far!

P.S. We may have a new addition to the family soon. We will find out some time this week. I'll let you know! : )

Personal Note

Credit: trulia.com

My nerves are shot! Home buying is not for the faint of heart! We just signed an offer, it's on the table, now we just have to wait and see if they accept it or counter-offer it. I also was a bit late getting back to work, so my anxiety is a bit high because of that as well. I hate being late. So I'm about ready to sit and eat a whole box of donuts, lol. Ok, not really. I don't even have one donut. Makes me sad.

Credit: troutrageous.com

But it's good because I know that eating my way through stress is not a good thing. It's something I'm trying to teach myself anyhow. Food has always been my comfort when I am stressed or experiencing any kind of extreme emotion. I have to say that telling myself "no" when I am stressed and craving a cookie box of cookies is one of the hardest things I can think of.

But instead, I'm going to drink some water, maybe have an apple for some sweetness, and get back to the day! My after-work workout will be helpful too. For more tips on how to conquer cravings and the need for instant gratification, read my tips from a previous post!

But back to the house, we'll find out some time this week if we get it or if we have to keep looking. Wish us luck! We appreciate any extra crossed fingers! : )