christmas in july

I am turning our middle bedroom into a media library. I wanted to paint before I took all my CD’s, DVD’s and books out of the boxes but getting anything in this house painted is taking more time than I originally anticipated. So after about seven months of storage I decided to use my day off to unpack my stuff sans paint. It was like Christmas come early for me as I opened each box and pulled out my beloved CD’s...popping one after the other into the CD player and singing along to all my favs as I made my way through the numerous boxes. I had the same childlike delight as I made it through the DVD boxes making future movie night plans in my head!

weekend 3

This is our third weekend living in the house but it feels so much longer. We continued to organize things inside the house and work on the yard. We made the most progress on our enclosed porch.

Before…



after...



Believe it or not...besides the desk the rest of those boxes are garbage. Most of it is from the previous owners that we are slowly getting rid of...sooner rather than later I hope!

Saturday night we took a walk and admired all the historic homes in our neighborhood. They are all just gorgeous!

The highlight though was the Turkey BLT's and the Stuffed French Toast Sundaes I made! De...lic...ious!!!!!

cook yourself some lemon bars!

Today my first non family member came to see our new home…the best girl in the world…and my friend since the beginning of time! I was really excited to show her around and I was even more excited to make the lemon bars we had been planning to bake. If getting to chat over lemon bars and coffee wasn’t enough excitement she surprised me with the best house warming gift ever! The Cook Yourself Thin Cookbook…and copies of three Ray LaMontagne CD’s! What can I say she knows me and I love her!!!



Sorry…I don’t have a picture of the lemon bars…we dug into those before I could think about a picture!!

YES!

Two years ago my dad went to Italy and brought me back a really nice and expensive bottle of red wine. The only provision was to save it for a special occasion. When we finally closed on our house I of course wanted to pop the cork and pour a glass but my boyfriend said to wait. Today I found out why! After months of calculated planning he proposed to me!!! It was perfect and the surprise of the century! Needless to say we didn't have to wait anymore to enjoy our wine!!!!

you've got mail!

We were very excited last Thursday when we received our first congratulations on your new home card in the mail! We have received two more since then and I just want to say thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and an extra thank you to the ones that included gifts! We appreciate it more than you can know!

a memorial day to remember

I can’t deny that the extra day off was a plus…

However…while everyone was enjoying their hamburgers and hot dogs we were having our resident plumber, Walter, clean out our pipes due to some over grown tree roots. If that wasn’t enough…a good portion of the carpet in the basement was soaked from the pipes backing up…so we were struggling for a way to dry it out quickly.

My goal today was to get the dining table actually in the dining room. I am happy to say...result!



My boyfriend and my dad were hard at work in the yard cutting down some trees that were taking over our deck.

before...



after...



I can actually see out to the yard now!

day 2

Last night was the first night we slept in the house. It was really weird being there at night because up until then we had only been at the house during the day so it made me a little uneasy at first. Getting to sleep has always been a challenge for me but since I was undoubtedly exhausted I thought I would have no problems. I was wrong. With the combination of my boyfriend’s relentless snoring and the house creaking and cracking I think I got about 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Two hours of sleep or not...I am quickly finding out that a home has no use for a tired homeowner. So at about 7am I was downstairs making some coffee and going through the mountain of boxes. I must have said it at least 10 times…“how did we get so much stuff?” More interestingly is how did it all fit in our one bedroom apartment?!

My main focus was the kitchen…which I felt was pretty well organized by the end of the day.

While I was busy in the kitchen Dish Network was busy for like 5 hours installing our dish and setting up our cable in four rooms...all I can say is...thank you!

moving day!

First and foremost I have to give the biggest THANK YOU to my boyfriend's brother who came up for the whole weekend to help us move! If it was not for him we would probably still be unloading the truck! I still don't know why he offered to help but I am SO grateful for his time. Some of my other friends offered to help too but I refused. Why you ask? Because I HATE moving and not only would I not want to put anyone through the agony but I couldn't have them volunteering to do something I myself would not do willingly.

When we started at about 9am this is what the living room looked like...
Around lunch time I ran to our local Meijer to get some sustenance for my hardworking guys....

I think I have an idea why my boyfriend's bother came up to help now!

At about 5pm when the Uhaul was finally empty the living room looked like this...
We ended the very long day with an extra large pizza from Danny's Pizza...family owned and operated since 1968...and some beer...of course!

nothing says home like freshly baked cookies!

We spent our first weekend as homeowner’s trying to clean up a years worth of neglect as we get ready to move all our belongings from storage in next week. My boyfriend spent most of his time out in the yard. For not using a lawn mower since 1999 he did a really good job. I spent most of my time in the kitchen…where I met my two new best friends…Goo Gone and Easy Off. There is this really great invention called tin foil…which apparently the previous owners never heard of…because the oven…well...let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. Rubber gloves were my ally and my short arms my enemy…but I got through it and the oven looks great! I can’t wait to cook in it now! I also did a bit of spackling. Here are some photos of my handy work!

We also experienced a couple of firsts this weekend:
Saturday...we got our first mail delivery! A letter from Comcast, a letter from Vicky’s Polish Cleaning Service, and a letter from our lawyer thanking us for our business and asking to keep her in mind for any future legal needs.

Sunday...we had our first meal! KFC and Pizza Hut...standing up in the kitchen.

Probably the best thing that happened was our next door neighbor stopped by to drop of a delicious plate of homemade cookies that her and her daughter baked to welcome us to the neighborhood! I am starting to feel at home already!

congratulations!

Earlier this week I sent out an email to all my friends and family sharing the good news and here are some of the replies I received! Thank you to everyone for your excitement and support!

Congratulations!!!! I am so happy for you both.

Congratulations!! This is awesome. I know you have been waiting for a very long time for this to happen....so I think it makes it that much sweeter!! Your home looks beautiful. I would love to see pictures of the inside. When do you move in?

Congratulations! How exciting. Well probably in the fall/winter we will be hopefully buying a new couch and stuff, If you want you are welcome to have our old furniture. If you have a basement you can use it in. So keep it in mind.

Congratulations!!!!!! I love it, It's so cute. I would love to see more pics as you "make it your own".

i'm soooo happy for you both!! i've bookmarked yet another one of your genius blogs and cannot wait to visit your new home. i love you friend and look forward to sharing new memories with you in your new home. if you need any help cleaning, painting, whatever...you call me!

Nice work!! Congrats! I hope to read some interesting info in your blog!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! WAY TO GO!!!!!

Yes!!! I am so very happy for you with the new home! Congratulations!!

I am so happy for you! You finally have your house, that is incredible! Congratulations, I wish you both the best of luck!

Good for you!!!! New home - All the best! Things will fall into place for everyone, I just know it.

I'm so happy for both of you!!! Can't wait to be invited to the new house. Good luck on everything!

omg, i can't believe you have a house! that's fantastic! congrats and best wishes and i can't wait to hear all about it.

intro...

It has happened…I am officially an adult. Today my boyfriend and I closed on our very first home! It is a two-story colonial complete with hardwood floors, 3 bedrooms and 2 and half baths. There is a partially finished basement, granite kitchen counter tops, and walk in closets in all the bedrooms. While it sounds like a dream it is very overwhelming thinking about everything that needs to be done. There is a huge deck in the backyard that needs refinishing and the two car detached garage is a little run down and since it was a foreclosure and on the market for about a year the yard is over grown and is probably our biggest challenge at this point.

It has been quite an adventure up to this day. We started our search for a home about two years ago but didn’t seriously start looking until early 2008. Our first hurtle was agreeing on what kind of house we wanted. We agreed on the features but while I wanted an older home with character my boyfriend wanted new construction. Realizing what you want and what you can afford was our first lesson. Not wanting to be house poor we concentrated on older but refurbished single-family homes. Having lived in apartments for a good chunk of our lives we did not want to be attached to anyone. After several months and seeing over 50 houses we found it! A house with the character I wanted but with all the modern upgrades that my boyfriend was looking for. The perfect compromise. I also wanted a house where there was not a lot but a little work that needed to be done so that we could make it our own. The previous owner was a contractor so besides a little clean up and some paint the inside is pretty much move in ready. The outside will most likely consume majority of our time but I am ready to put all those months of watching DIY network and HGTV to good use and document the next chapter in our life…making this house into our home.