It's now near the end of June and the house is finally complete. It's been a long 3 months.
We had our final walk through a few days ago and it felt like home. Seeing all the things we picked. Like the laminate flooring in the entry and kitchen. The tiles in the bathrooms. Even seeing our appliances in the kitchen. I didn't want to leave once the walk through and inspection were over.
It's been an amazing, fun, but at times stressful process. We've had to deal with weather delays, installation delays, product back orders and even vandals. Through it all though we've just kept our heads up and said "Soon. We'll be in our home soon."
Now we are in the packing process. We've got about 50% of our apartment packed. We no longer have to rush our move since we found out we can stay in our apartment until July 10th and here we thought we needed to be out by June 30th. I can take it easy and let my back rest at times. Which is great since the heat in this place is making it so I'm restless at night and end up getting a stiff back.
Besides the packing we're waiting to sign the escrow papers. Those should be signed in a few days. After that we have a week of waiting and then we get the KEYS. That's right the one word every home owner wants to hear. Once we have those let the moving and apartment cleaning begin.
I think out of this whole process it's the moving and the cleaning I'm dreading. But then again I will be able to enjoy the whirl pool tub in our new home. Which I can't wait to do.
Well my next post will either be moving day or once we're in our new home.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
New House - Part 2
So, it's been over a month since I last posted about our new house.There was a day or two of back and forth, but a final contract was agreed upon and construction has been moving along smoothly.
It's been wonderful to watch our home actually being built. My mom and I drive by almost every week. While my BF and I have walked through a handful of times. Watching it from being just a drawing and then being framed and then having the roof and drywall added. It's just amazing.
Sure it's been fun to watch, but don't get me wrong it has also been a bit stressful. There have been a lot of decisions to make, which I had no idea about. Like where do we want light switches and outlets, are there enough outlets, do you want this closet here or over there, etc, etc .
On top of things like that we also had to pick flooring, tile, cabinets, garage door, doors, handles, lights, appliances, etc. I mean trying to match everything from little samples is just nuts. I just hope everything we picked turns out to be a good decision.
The other difficult part was trying to compromise. For example I really wanted some kind of wood flooring in our home, while my BF wanted carpet. So we went with wood in the entry and kitchen, tile in the bathrooms and laundry and carpet in the rest of the house. Then there was the garage door fiasco. Who knew picking how your garage door would look could almost become a battle, but we compromised on that as well. Plus trying to pick matching tile and granite. Oh man! Luckily, I have a wonderful BF and he found a way for me to have the glass tiles I wanted and for them to match.
The next phase of this process is starting this week. Installing everything we picked. That means the cabinets are going in, the tile flooring and garage door. After that there will be appliances, granite and carpet. And finally all the fixtures and doors. Plus some where in there the place gets painted.
Speaking of paint now that is a very difficult decision. We still haven't picked anything final for our exterior. Well, I did pick a coastal blue siding with white trim and part of that has gone up, but we haven't picked an accent stucco color yet. We're still waiting on that sample. Plus we also have to decide on if we want to add fake rock to the house. I mentioned to the builder that I liked the look, but I'm not sure how it will look on a house that has part siding. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
With all that's left to do the house should be done in about 2-3 weeks. Pending the weather staying nice. After that it's just signing the final paper work and moving. Which should happen at the end of June because we've already given our landlord notice.
Which means I get to start packing in the next week or so. Once we have the keys we can have a hassle free move, due to packing everything early. (Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.)
It's been wonderful to watch our home actually being built. My mom and I drive by almost every week. While my BF and I have walked through a handful of times. Watching it from being just a drawing and then being framed and then having the roof and drywall added. It's just amazing.
Sure it's been fun to watch, but don't get me wrong it has also been a bit stressful. There have been a lot of decisions to make, which I had no idea about. Like where do we want light switches and outlets, are there enough outlets, do you want this closet here or over there, etc, etc .
On top of things like that we also had to pick flooring, tile, cabinets, garage door, doors, handles, lights, appliances, etc. I mean trying to match everything from little samples is just nuts. I just hope everything we picked turns out to be a good decision.
The other difficult part was trying to compromise. For example I really wanted some kind of wood flooring in our home, while my BF wanted carpet. So we went with wood in the entry and kitchen, tile in the bathrooms and laundry and carpet in the rest of the house. Then there was the garage door fiasco. Who knew picking how your garage door would look could almost become a battle, but we compromised on that as well. Plus trying to pick matching tile and granite. Oh man! Luckily, I have a wonderful BF and he found a way for me to have the glass tiles I wanted and for them to match.
The next phase of this process is starting this week. Installing everything we picked. That means the cabinets are going in, the tile flooring and garage door. After that there will be appliances, granite and carpet. And finally all the fixtures and doors. Plus some where in there the place gets painted.
Speaking of paint now that is a very difficult decision. We still haven't picked anything final for our exterior. Well, I did pick a coastal blue siding with white trim and part of that has gone up, but we haven't picked an accent stucco color yet. We're still waiting on that sample. Plus we also have to decide on if we want to add fake rock to the house. I mentioned to the builder that I liked the look, but I'm not sure how it will look on a house that has part siding. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
With all that's left to do the house should be done in about 2-3 weeks. Pending the weather staying nice. After that it's just signing the final paper work and moving. Which should happen at the end of June because we've already given our landlord notice.
Which means I get to start packing in the next week or so. Once we have the keys we can have a hassle free move, due to packing everything early. (Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.)
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
New House - Part 1
A few weeks ago my boyfriend brought up the idea of buying a home because he said he's just wasting money renting our apartment. I agreed with him. So we started our search for our new home.
We started by checking our local cragislist and foreclosure real estate listings. There were a few homes that caught our eye right away, but we weren't sold on anything yet. Especially since we still had to decide to go with either a new home, an older updated home or a home that was cheap enough we could do the updating. Plus we also needed to figure out what we could afford and that in turn would narrow down the homes we could look at.
One of the homes we saw on craigslist really caught our eye. It was a brand new home, just built and it had everything he and I wanted. To make it better there was an open house. So I talked him into actually going and seeing it. Well more like bribed. I said I'd make breakfast for dinner if he got out of bed.
Anyways, we went and saw the house and fell in love with it. We met a realtor there that offered to find the answers to our questions and also pointed us in the direction of a lender to talk to and get an idea of our price range. She suggested setting up a meeting with her to talk about our home needs and plans. We loved the idea especially since she had offered to find answers to our questions about the new home.
The week went by and my boyfriend and I continued with our online house hunt. When we finally met with the realtor again, she had most of the answers to our questions, so we decided to make her OUR realtor. She took down information on what we wanted in a home. Like how many bedrooms and bathrooms, location, amenities, stories, etc. From the information we gave her she was able to make a list of homes for us to browse through.
On that list were 33 homes. We picked 9 that we actually wanted to see in person as well as get more info about the model home we saw since we had thought of more questions. Of those 9 houses 2 of them were knocked off the list right away because of HOA, we didn't want to bother with it. Then another 2 were knocked off when my mom and I drove past them and saw the area they were in. Yet another 2 more were knocked off because the realtor said one of them was just bad and another had already been sold. That left 3. 1 of those 3 was the model home we wanted to see again.
So our realtor set up a time for us to go see the model home again as well and a 2nd model home in that subdivision. We went through both model homes again and still LOVED them especially the first one we saw. After that we saw 2 more homes. 1 that had some updates done and another that needed updates, but was in a good location.
My boyfriend and I finished the day feeling overwhelmed and a little undecided. We sat down and really talked things out and came to a decision.
For the price, style and location the new home was the way to go. That way we can decide right now what we want and not have to worry to much about repairs and the like. We told our realtor this is what we wanted to pursue since this was a great opportunity for us.
We met with her yesterday as well as the listing agent for that sub-division. We talked back and forth and finally wrote up a contract.
So today my boyfriend went in, signed the contract and put the deposit down for our new home. We will meet with the builders next week to finalize a few details about price, changes, etc.
We started by checking our local cragislist and foreclosure real estate listings. There were a few homes that caught our eye right away, but we weren't sold on anything yet. Especially since we still had to decide to go with either a new home, an older updated home or a home that was cheap enough we could do the updating. Plus we also needed to figure out what we could afford and that in turn would narrow down the homes we could look at.
One of the homes we saw on craigslist really caught our eye. It was a brand new home, just built and it had everything he and I wanted. To make it better there was an open house. So I talked him into actually going and seeing it. Well more like bribed. I said I'd make breakfast for dinner if he got out of bed.
Anyways, we went and saw the house and fell in love with it. We met a realtor there that offered to find the answers to our questions and also pointed us in the direction of a lender to talk to and get an idea of our price range. She suggested setting up a meeting with her to talk about our home needs and plans. We loved the idea especially since she had offered to find answers to our questions about the new home.
The week went by and my boyfriend and I continued with our online house hunt. When we finally met with the realtor again, she had most of the answers to our questions, so we decided to make her OUR realtor. She took down information on what we wanted in a home. Like how many bedrooms and bathrooms, location, amenities, stories, etc. From the information we gave her she was able to make a list of homes for us to browse through.
On that list were 33 homes. We picked 9 that we actually wanted to see in person as well as get more info about the model home we saw since we had thought of more questions. Of those 9 houses 2 of them were knocked off the list right away because of HOA, we didn't want to bother with it. Then another 2 were knocked off when my mom and I drove past them and saw the area they were in. Yet another 2 more were knocked off because the realtor said one of them was just bad and another had already been sold. That left 3. 1 of those 3 was the model home we wanted to see again.
So our realtor set up a time for us to go see the model home again as well and a 2nd model home in that subdivision. We went through both model homes again and still LOVED them especially the first one we saw. After that we saw 2 more homes. 1 that had some updates done and another that needed updates, but was in a good location.
My boyfriend and I finished the day feeling overwhelmed and a little undecided. We sat down and really talked things out and came to a decision.
For the price, style and location the new home was the way to go. That way we can decide right now what we want and not have to worry to much about repairs and the like. We told our realtor this is what we wanted to pursue since this was a great opportunity for us.
We met with her yesterday as well as the listing agent for that sub-division. We talked back and forth and finally wrote up a contract.
So today my boyfriend went in, signed the contract and put the deposit down for our new home. We will meet with the builders next week to finalize a few details about price, changes, etc.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Sign Language
A few weeks ago I found out that my 2 year old niece has some hearing loss, which in turn is making it so she isn't talking. My parents have started taking her to see a speech therapist to help her work out sounds and word association. She is also going to a developmental class that has a teacher that works with her on sign language.
I went to both classes with my mom earlier this week. I was fascinated by how fast my niece is learning sign language. She has only had 3 sessions and already knows how to ask for more, to have something opened for her and to tell us when she's finished.
At the developmental session, the teacher was having my niece put plastic coins in a can and when she wanted more she had to use the sign. After each coin my niece would start asking "more." Then when she got bored with that she signed "all done." And as we were about to get in the car after the session, my niece ran up to the door and did the sign for "open."
I am so glad that my niece is learning sign language. Not only because she can now tell us what she needs and wants, but because it's a good thing to know in general. I for one have always wanted to learn and now I get that chance.
When I was in high school I learned the alphabet, but that's as far as I went. The funny part of all this is that I've been doing a few signs and using them correctly. I've used: to eat, sleepy, sad, car and duck. I had no idea that what I was doing was signing the actual word.
The teacher gave my mom and I a sheet as a quick reference guide, so we can work with my niece on things she would need. I can't wait to go to the next session to see what my niece has learned and what the next word will be. Cause when we left she said to work on "help."
I went to both classes with my mom earlier this week. I was fascinated by how fast my niece is learning sign language. She has only had 3 sessions and already knows how to ask for more, to have something opened for her and to tell us when she's finished.
At the developmental session, the teacher was having my niece put plastic coins in a can and when she wanted more she had to use the sign. After each coin my niece would start asking "more." Then when she got bored with that she signed "all done." And as we were about to get in the car after the session, my niece ran up to the door and did the sign for "open."
I am so glad that my niece is learning sign language. Not only because she can now tell us what she needs and wants, but because it's a good thing to know in general. I for one have always wanted to learn and now I get that chance.
When I was in high school I learned the alphabet, but that's as far as I went. The funny part of all this is that I've been doing a few signs and using them correctly. I've used: to eat, sleepy, sad, car and duck. I had no idea that what I was doing was signing the actual word.
The teacher gave my mom and I a sheet as a quick reference guide, so we can work with my niece on things she would need. I can't wait to go to the next session to see what my niece has learned and what the next word will be. Cause when we left she said to work on "help."
Thursday, November 4, 2010
What I want for Christmas
Today while walking around asking about jobs and filling out applications. I noticed that most places were playing Christmas music or already decorating for Christmas. This brought about me thinking about Christmas and the question most every person has been asked for most of their lives.
What do you want for Christmas?
A lot of people would ask for cash or other material things like cars, video games, DVDs, etc. Some would ask for world peace, a greener planet, and so on. But there are a lot of us out there that would just like a job.
So many people take their job for granted. They complain or don't put their whole effort into it. This just saddens me because I know I would work harder than that.
Those of us who exhausted unemployment and still have no job, would kill for anything even seasonal. Something to just get money coming in and not have to worry about being able to pay the bills that month. Even though it's just a few months, it's a few months that we won't have to scrounge for every penny and know that we can make it a little longer.
So I ask you; what do you truly want for Christmas?
What do you want for Christmas?
A lot of people would ask for cash or other material things like cars, video games, DVDs, etc. Some would ask for world peace, a greener planet, and so on. But there are a lot of us out there that would just like a job.
So many people take their job for granted. They complain or don't put their whole effort into it. This just saddens me because I know I would work harder than that.
Those of us who exhausted unemployment and still have no job, would kill for anything even seasonal. Something to just get money coming in and not have to worry about being able to pay the bills that month. Even though it's just a few months, it's a few months that we won't have to scrounge for every penny and know that we can make it a little longer.
So I ask you; what do you truly want for Christmas?
Monday, October 25, 2010
Empty Room
For some time now I have thought about starting a blog, but I never did. Until now, but why now? I don't really know except that it felt like the right time. Probably because I had one of those "want to write in a journal" moments. Anyways, let me get to the reason behind the need to start this blog.
For the last week and a half I have been staying at my folks place because I need the money my mom offered to pay me to watch the animals. I was hoping they would come home today, but they won't be back until Tuesday sometime. Which ticks me off a bit cause I'd like to go home, but hey money is money.
But anyways, this room I've been staying in has been MY room for over 15 years and I came in tonight and was getting ready for bed only to realize that this isn't the room I grew up in. The white walls used to have posters, photographs and other "things" that I thought were important to me. The shelves above my bed used to have figurines and other knick knacks that I thought were cool. The bookcase used to be filled with books. Now these white walls are bare, the shelves are pretty much empty and my bookcase holds no books. It just has a pile of junk on it. My things are sitting in a corner boxed up or are already moved out.
This room is no longer my room.
It is weird saying that cause now I don't have a place at my parents house. Soon this room will have pink walls and another little girl's things in it. My parents aren't moving, but my baby niece will be taking over this room. The stars I wanted on my ceiling for years are finally there, but they aren't my stars. They are HER stars.
Part of me weeps knowing that I no longer have a place here. It's just weird cause for some reason I have always pictured having a room at my parents place and then moving all my things out when I finally got married. One of those "yes, I am finally an adult and don't need mommy and daddy" moments. I don't know why I ever thought that, I guess movies put that into my head or I'm just old fashioned. Plus I haven't really lived here since I left for college, well except for when I had to move back right after college.
Either way this part of my childhood is closed. I only have the memories that are now in those boxes. There will be no fantasy good bye moment that you see in movies like father of the bride. It will be just me putting the clothes I brought into my duffel, walking out and going home.
My life isn't here anymore. It is in a 2 bedroom apartment with the man I love and our 2 cats. Sure I can come and stay, but this isn't really my home anymore. This is just a place I grew up and this room is just an empty room.
For the last week and a half I have been staying at my folks place because I need the money my mom offered to pay me to watch the animals. I was hoping they would come home today, but they won't be back until Tuesday sometime. Which ticks me off a bit cause I'd like to go home, but hey money is money.
But anyways, this room I've been staying in has been MY room for over 15 years and I came in tonight and was getting ready for bed only to realize that this isn't the room I grew up in. The white walls used to have posters, photographs and other "things" that I thought were important to me. The shelves above my bed used to have figurines and other knick knacks that I thought were cool. The bookcase used to be filled with books. Now these white walls are bare, the shelves are pretty much empty and my bookcase holds no books. It just has a pile of junk on it. My things are sitting in a corner boxed up or are already moved out.
This room is no longer my room.
It is weird saying that cause now I don't have a place at my parents house. Soon this room will have pink walls and another little girl's things in it. My parents aren't moving, but my baby niece will be taking over this room. The stars I wanted on my ceiling for years are finally there, but they aren't my stars. They are HER stars.
Part of me weeps knowing that I no longer have a place here. It's just weird cause for some reason I have always pictured having a room at my parents place and then moving all my things out when I finally got married. One of those "yes, I am finally an adult and don't need mommy and daddy" moments. I don't know why I ever thought that, I guess movies put that into my head or I'm just old fashioned. Plus I haven't really lived here since I left for college, well except for when I had to move back right after college.
Either way this part of my childhood is closed. I only have the memories that are now in those boxes. There will be no fantasy good bye moment that you see in movies like father of the bride. It will be just me putting the clothes I brought into my duffel, walking out and going home.
My life isn't here anymore. It is in a 2 bedroom apartment with the man I love and our 2 cats. Sure I can come and stay, but this isn't really my home anymore. This is just a place I grew up and this room is just an empty room.
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