the tour begins

Today is day ten of living in our new house.  And slowly but surely we're getting things unpacked and in place.  It really is starting to feel like home already.  Our living room, dining room and kitchen are unpacked and as we want them, minus paint and decorating, of course.  So I wanted to share them with you. 

I got the idea for compiling pictures into one composite shot of the room from Kal Barteski.  She did it to share her super cute space in this post here and I decided to give it a try.  I wish I had a wide angle lens for such purposes, but alas, I only have a 50mm.  And that just won't do for interior shots.  I used my phone's camera for these shots. 

 this view of the living room is standing right at the front door.  its a big combines living and dining room.  very open with vaulted ceilings and recessed lighting, big windows that let in lots of light and a sliding door that leads to the back yard and our patio. 

 our large kitchen pantry separates the spaces, and man do I love it!!  There is soooo much storage in this house!  I'm a little in awe of our kitchen.  The house came with the dishwasher, stove and microwave/range hood.  Chris' parents were so kind and bought us the refrigerator as a housewarming gift.  And I have a GARBERATOR!!  (that's a garbage disposal for all you Americans!  lol). 

So there is the first half of my home tour for you.  Still to come: the guest room, office, master bedroom with bath and walk-in closet, the other bathroom and the laundry room.  We're hoping to get some paint soon to get started with my office and the master bedroom, so I'll probably wait and just share "before&afters" with you once they're complete. 

Its been a little slow here on the blog, but life right now is anything but slow!  But all good things.  I am now regular auxilary pioneering, which takes up my days off work and has been bringing me so much joy.  I've got 2 blog design projects in the works, and one more coming up.  Chris and I are planning our big vacation in August for my friend Katie's wedding.  I just finished her wedding invitations and she LOVES THEM!!  Chris is in another play that starts in June and has had a bunch of rehearsals and read-thru's.  So fun!  and my sister Megan is getting married at the end of this month. 

So yeah, crazy busy! 
But good busy. 

So thank you to all who stop by amidst this crazyness and say Hi.  I'm so glad to have this space online to share. 

moving day

today i am thankful for many things.  included in that list are:

• the keys to our brand new house
• house-warming presents.  eek! 
• strong friends with trucks.
• the internet alive with congratulations.  thank you so much.

we are so exhausted!  with the help of 7 of our friends, 4 trucks (one with a trailer) a van and a little Suzuki we got everything loaded, moved and in the new house in 2 1/2 hours and in one trip!  that's an accomplishment I'm proud of!  and sooo thankful to our friends for.

we treated with pizza and beer.  a necessity on a moving day!  now you wish you'd come to help too, eh? ;)

and i tried to be a good blogger/scrapbooker and took lots of pictures of the process.

first up, all the boxes and things packed and ready to go at the old house.

and then friends arrived and we got to loading!!  we've got 3 couches, 2 bed sets, 4 dressers, a huge desk, dining room table and chairs, 2 big shelf units, tv stand, 2 big living room chairs, a rocking chair, 2 different coffee table sets, washer and dryer, and then all the boxes.  but we were ready to go and things moved smoothly once everyone arrived.

we set up the bed in our new master bedroom and fell right to sleep.   and then this morning I just layed in bed for awhile a little in awe of all that's happened.  Chris and I are homeowners!!  I get to create a home with the man I love and share our lives together within these walls.

I am so content.

now comes the fun part:  unpacking.  time to find new homes for all our things and unpack the boxes I packed back in september.  it will be a bit of a treasure hunt I'm sure. 

thanks so much for all your comments and congratulations. 

and for those who need to change their address books you can now reach us here:

its official

its official everyone:  WE ARE HOMEOWNERS!!!

we got the keys this afternoon.  I am beyond excited!  We'll be spending our first night there tonight and hopefully be all moved in by tomorrow.

its for real.  and its ours!

bliss.

oh yes....this is happening

so my blog is beginning to look like my life:  all about house!!  im thinking maybe you (my readers...are you there still??!!) might be getting a little tired of it.  but honestly, i've got nothing else to share!  LOL.  this is it, my whole life right now. 

but seriously, how exciting is this right??  im excited!! 

so i started packing back in september...when everything fell through with our other place.  i was just done emotionally with the whole thing.  but now im packing with a renewed vigor!!  chris and i have spent some evenings this last week working on organizing the rest of the stuff in our house and packing up what we won't need for the next couple weeks. 

we don't have that much stuff so we're making quick work of it.  and i think its going to be interesting to unpack once we move in.  to see all that stuff that's been in boxes since september.  i obviously don't need it in my life, right?!  so maybe this is a good time to purge too.  im excited about the unpacking part too!

in other news:  our new house is now GRIME!!  :P

 ohhhh!!!  we just LOVE IT!!  this is exactly what we wanted!

on monday of next week we have New Homeowner Orientation with the builder.  im assuming we'll learn things like: what does this switch do?  where is this?  how does that work?  im really looking forward it!  this is so happening! 

can you tell i'm excited!? 

so i was wondering, do any of you have some tips for me??  home-owner tips??  i'd so appreciate it! 

one step closer

today i got news back from our mortgage guy that we have preliminary underwriter approval with just a few loose ends to tie up!!  that means that this thing is HAPPENING!!  and way faster than initially anticipated.  when we made our offer last friday we put the estimated closing date out 45 days to May 10th.  but now its looking like we'll move this month! 

so chris and i decided to go out for dinner to celebrate.  right now we're saving for closing costs and our vacation in august, so we only go out for dinner one time a month.  so we blew it on the 1st but it was worth it!  we're so excited!!

i had steak, loaded mashed potatoes, green beans and asparagus and shrimp and scallops.  amazing!  chris had a Texas burger with burger patty, pulled pork, coleslaw and crispy onions.  and then we shared our favorite desert at Michaels.  yum!

so now we move on to the next stage, which will be all of our day tomorrow: PACKING!! 
anyone for a packing party?? ;)

accepted

our offer was ACCEPTED!!!
we did our earnest money deposit.  the mortgage company is verifying our employment.  the title has been ordered and we have signed SO MANY PAPERS!  lol.

and then we got to pick the paint color for the outside of the house.   we knew we wanted something in the green family.  and something dark with white trim. 

and this is the color we picked after literally 4 minutes of discussion.  our real estate lady was shocked and how little time it took us.  we were like:  "this one or this one?"  "i think this one"  "that's my favorite too"  "okay, perfect."  "this is the color we want!"

its called "grime"  which cracks us up...but i think its going to look so great with white trim and will really stand out in our new neighborhood.

we are sooooo excited!!  its finally happening!!  we're going to be homeowners. :) 

we made an offer

im sooo excited to share this update of our "in search of a home" journey!!

the last time i shared we had gone to a few open houses and were having chris' parents come take a look at all the options we had going to give us their wise and experienced opinion.  so after that visit, and after a few nights in bed talking things through chris and i have decided to move forward. 

last night we made an offer on a house!  its one of the brand new homes built in the development.  its got 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a 2 car garage and has a stove/range and dishwasher.  its a floorplan i can learn to love (yes, there is a hallway!  lol) but the master bedroom can fit our bedroom set and has a huge closet. 

we signed the papers last night and sent our offer in to the builder.  we should hear back monday or tuesday!

so, if everything goes as planned this will be OUR HOUSE!!  they just laid the sod and finished the front drive, so its totally move-in ready.  if our offer is accepted and things with the loan underwriter goes as scheduled we should be able to move in early may!! 

i'll keep you posted!!

open house day

yesterday was open house day.  chris and i went and looked at three houses.  2 in ephrata and 1 in soap lake.  it was an interesting afternoon.  we haven't really looked at homes that were currently occupied, so it was different being inside a place where people were still living.  here are the houses we saw:

HOUSE #1:  this is a 4 bedroom 2 bath house with tons of square footage.  its got a large living room and an even bigger family room in the addition on the back.  the master bedroom and bath are huge.  that was my favorite part.  there is also a fenced back yard and shop. 

HOUSE #2:  this is a 3 bedroom 1.5 bath house and after seeing the first place, this house is tiny!  i don't think our bed could even fit in one of the rooms, to be honest.  it had wood panneling in the dining room and the washer and dryer were in the kitchen.  it had a partially fenced back yard and the sellers were putting a new roof on before purchase.

HOUSE #3:  this place did not have anyone in it currently, so i felt a bit more comfortable looking around.  this house does not have any legal bedrooms (which we found while looking at it). this house is a three level dwelling with 2 bathrooms and the most unique attic space i've seen personally.  it has tons of potential.  a large fenced back yard with a huge shop.  an enclosed sun room, and all new electrical.  it will need a second means of egress created in the basement before it could be livable. 

so that was our afternoon.  house #2 is already out.  was pretty much out from the moment we stepped in the front door!  but we think #1 and #3 might have some possibilites.  chris' parents are going to come up from wenatchee tomorrow afternoon and take a look at them with us, along with seeing the new build homes first hand.  hopefully they're experience and expertise will help us make a decision.  we value their opinion so much.

onward and upward!!  thanks for coming along with us on this journey!!

moving forward

as of my last update on the house front, we found a place that we like.  really like!  and then we saw the breakdown from the mortgage company.  its a little out of our price-range.  we could do it, but then we wouldn't have a life.  and we like having a life! :P  so we're moving forward and onward.

the great thing about the house we looked at, is that it is part of a development in our area with local builders.  so we talked to our real estate agent again and i had an idea:  maybe they have a different floor plan that is open like we love, but a bit more within our price range.  so this afternoon she came by with some print-outs for us to look at. 

we narrowed it down to a couple options.  she's checking with the developer to see if its possible to build the house we really like without the den, to cut down on square footage and maybe bring the price within our range.  the other floorplan is open with minimal "hallways" and is totally a great option.  we're hoping to be able to get inside one that is already built to get a feel for it and see if we like it. 

so that's what we're waiting on...news from the developer.  in the meantime, we're going to a couple open houses in town on saturday to keep our options open.  who knows?  maybe we'll find the perfect place for us.  all i know is that im so anxious to get out of the place we're in now.  ready to move on with our life. 

i'll probably share an update from the open houses on saturday.  we'll see how it goes.

house hunting

last night we met with our real estate agent Deb Adams.  she's been with us through this whole journey the last couple years.  she is kind and has been such an asset to us.  she's working the prop department in the Quincy production of My Fair Lady, but took the time out last night to show us a couple home in a new home development here in Ephrata.  we saw two different places with completely different floor plans.  both 3 bedroom, 2 bath.  here are pictures of the one we liked the best.

we love how open it is.  love that!!  the other place felt smaller because the rooms were so divided up.  and this one has a cluster of rooms (shown above) and then the master bedroom has a separete entrance off the living room.  there is also a lovely little sitting room just to the right when you come in the front door.  the morning sun will come through that window... im thinking photo studio in the making!  ;)

so now the next step for us is looking at all the paperwork.  its one thing to see the listed price of a house and quite another to see the breakdown of closing costs, taxes, etc.  once we see if its within our budget we'll move forward with making an offer.  so as of today we're waiting on paper work. 

is it natural to start planning how im going to decorate even before i know if this is our house??  :) 

in search of a home

the process of finding and purchasing a house is a journey chris and i have been on for awhile now.  i've shared a little bit along the way...  when we thought we'd found the house for us.  when we moved in and started renting while waiting for the papers to process.  when our mortgage loan was approved.  and then when the whole deal fell apart. 

talk about a roller coaster ride! 

since the deal fell apart back in september we've just stayed renting the little house until we can find something new.  but now that the snow has melted (hopefully for good) and spring seems to be on its way, we are eager to proceed and see where this journey takes us.  and so i'd like to introduce a new little feature here on my blog:

with this feature i hope to share a bit of the process:  house hunting, the decision process, meeting with the lender, packing and moving and ultimately turning the house into our home.  im really excited about this.  i think finding a new place to live will help me move past the bitterness and hurt i feel still living in the house we can't have. 

so please, join me on this journey!  i would love any tips and hints you have to offer and advice on future posts.  i think this could be fun!

we have an appointment for next monday to look at a couple places in a development in town.  who knows...maybe a new house is the way to go.  i'll share how it goes!