Lights in the Former Living Room (12/19/17)

The front formal living room has no lighting in it.  There were just lamps in the room previously.  Mike added some recessed lights!

This is my next room to tackle the trim and paint along with the entry-way.  

Living Room - Kitchen - Office Painting (12/16/17)

On Monday I started painting the trim white in the living room, kitchen, and office.  Took about 3 days and then I painted the walls.  It really brightened things up and got rid of that warm tan that was here before!

Before

After

Meanwhile out in the garage, Mike has been busy insulating the attic so we can get the heater going and so he can get some storage up there.

First Projects! (12/6/17)

Well so typical to our fashion we already started in on some projects in our new house!

The walls in the storage room are sheetrocked but never painted.  I painted the walls white so it looks fresh and clean and then we put up shelving.  I am loving all the storage space we have!!

Before

Before

Brings me right back to our reno days!

Before

After

After

After

After adding shelves & organizing!  I love this!!!!!

Mike has been busy in the garage finding new homes for all his stuff.  There was a large ramp going to the door to the house that was taking up a lot of space.  Mike took out the ramp and built some stairs.  

Before

After

 Mike's been moving things around and figuring how he wants to arrange things.  He brought the Camaro home which took up his parking space because the 3rd stall is full of all the other things that need homes.  He was able to shift things around and can now park in there with the Camaro in there too!  He is beyond excited with all the extra space and plans for what he can make it into....I'm surprised he can sleep at night!  

Yard Clean-up (12/3/17)

Today I mowed the backyard and picked up all the leaves.  Whoa now this is a yard!!!  I see a riding lawn mower in my near spring future!  There's only one tree in the back and it's a little strange.  Mike trimmed up the low hanging branches so I could get around it with the mower and also some other branches hanging over the fence.  There is a little city land beyond the fence and we have a gate back there too.  So I was able to dump all the leaves and Mike put the cut tree branches back there.  That sure makes life easy!!! We are loving our new space!  Oh and Bentley loves his new backyard too!

Moving In (11/29/17)

We are here at our new home!!!  It feels so good to have the home selling/purchasing process behind us!  Now time to unpack and get settled into our new life!

On Wednesday night our realtor and friend, Jeremy, unexpectedly and graciously helped us unload the trucks.  His wife-Kelly, Pam, my mom, and our friend Matt also were here to help!  We got all the heavy furniture in the house - one truck was mostly empty and the other was about half full still.  I'm so thankful for the help!  

On Thursday morning Mike and I unloaded the rest of the stuff and brought the Uhauls back by 11 am.  

Moving Day!! (11/29/17)

It's moving day!!!  We slept in a pretty empty house last night and put the kids on the bus for the very last time. Or first closing isn't until noon so we have plenty of time to get the final things loaded into the truck.  Of course the morning turned into a mad rush to get all the things done and make it to closing on time....but we did it!  And my favorite part was cleaning that dark floor for the very last time!!!  That floor was so pretty but man it was a pain to keep clean!

Farewell!

Confused Doodle

Empty house!

And that's a wrap!! Time to celebrate as new homeowners!!

Packing (11/28/17)

We've been packing like crazy!  Monday afternoon Mike picked up the first Uhaul truck.  Our friend, Matt, came over and helped him load all the furniture in the truck.  The house is looking pretty empty now without the furniture.

Tuesday morning Mike picked up the 2nd Uhaul and loaded boxes all day while I cleaned and packed all the misc. things.  

We had our final walk through for both houses at 3:30.  It was so nice to get back to the new house.  It had been so long since I've been there that I was forgetting what I loved so much about it.  But after going I was very sure again, all the rooms looked even bigger than I remembered without furniture in them.  I finally felt a relief and got the excited feeling to move!

We sure have a lot of stuff!

Last family pic in front of our house

Kids are excited about the Uhaul!

 

Closing Date

We finally got a closing date of the 29th.  So just a week and a half left.

I've been busy packing in the house.  Most rooms are packed up, except the essentials we still need.

Mike on the other hand.....well let's just say I hope he works well under pressure! He got a small start on the garage and that's about it.  He'll be home early all this week since it's the Thanksgiving holiday week and will be working on getting the garage packed up.  We also got a Uhaul truck lined up to be picked up next Monday afternoon -- feels real now! 9 days to go!

Taking Down the Playset (11/14/17)

Mike took the playset in the backyard down tonight.  It's looking a little empty and sad!

Appraisal is DONE! (11/14/17)

We got word this afternoon that the appraisal has been done and came back just fine!!!!  What a relief!  We can now move forward and get all the packing done and be ready to move to our new house!  We still don't know the closing date but should find out in the next day or so, and they are still hoping for next week-before Thanksgiving!  Yay I'm so relived that part is done and I can be happy to pack and this is really happening!!

Still Waiting (11/14/17)

It's been nearly 2 weeks since the appraisal has been done and we still have not heard the results and set a closing date yet.  It's officially too late in the process to get that info and still close on the original date of 11/17/17.  Our realtor talked to the appraiser this past Friday and he said he'd have it done that day or on Monday - it's Tuesday now with still no answers.  I'm beyond frustrated!

I'm hesitant to pack because I'm afraid that the appraisal doesn't come in for enough and we have to cancel the sale.  I don't want to unpack, how sad!  Obviously there's a good chance it'll be just fine but this whole process hasn't been all that easy so I'm not ready to just trust the process and pack it all up.  We did hear from our buyers bank that they are just waiting for the appraisal and then can set the closing date and everything else is pretty much ready.  This also worries me....we could find out and only have a few days to pack!  I have packed a lot already, but there's still a lot to pack and Mike hasn't even touched the garage yet.  

It's been a total roller-coaster, I've been so frustrated and stressed.  I know we could find out any minute about the appraisal and the closing date and my mood will immediately shift, but until then the days just keep ticking by with nothing.  I'm ready -- Lets do this!!!

The New Appraisal (11/2/17)

Today the appraisal was done on our house.  Now we wait impatiently for the results and the confirmed closing date.

The Inspection (10/25/17)

Today we had the inspection completed on our house.  All was good, just a few small things that Mike could fix.  The radon test came back good.  Now the next step is the appraisal.

New Offer (10/22/17)

On Sunday evening we received an offer!  It was very similar to our first offer, we countered and all accepted.  Whew! What a relief to not have to put the house back on the market.  The buyers are motivated and would be ok with the same 11/17/17 closing date if the bank can make it work with the tight timeline, but 11/30/17 "or sooner if possible" was put in the purchase agreement as the new closing date. 

Our Buyers offer Fell Through (10/19/17)

On Thursday evening we found out that our buyer no longer qualifies to buy our house!  Not the news we wanted at all!!  She had her title work done and a $40k lien came up against her.  She would have to pay that lien and so she no longer qualified to pay the amount in the purchase agreement. She was able to qualify for an FHA loan for $15k less that our agreed amount, which is what we are thinking the 2nd appraisal was for - but we didn't want to take $15k less.  Our realtor called back the 3 people that originally had requested showings but we cancelled once we got the offer.  Two of them were still very interested and wanted to come on Saturday for a showing.  

The Appraisal (10/12/17)

We were ecstatic to get what we did for our house, however there is a chance that the house may not appraise for that much since it is in an older neighborhood.  Our realtor warned us about this and it's been something that has been bothering me since we started this process.  There are not a lot of comps to match up with ours, so until I get that appraisal I don't feel comfortable that it's all going to work out.  The appraiser came on Thursday, October 12th.  The Bailey house was done on a Friday and we had the results back on Monday, so I was hoping to hear by Monday if not sooner.  The weekend went by with nothing, Monday comes around and we get a request for another appraisal on Tuesday.  What, why!?!?! We asked and the only thing they could say is the one previously done was not valid and the bank ordered this one.  So I left the house on Tuesday for the new appraisal, when I returned after the hour appointment they requested there was not a business card left on the counter.  I'm not sure if anyone came or not.  A couple more days go by and we still don't have the results of the appraisal.

We got an Offer!! (9/29/17)

The house went on the market first thing in the morning on Thursday, within 15 minutes of it hitting the MLS I had a request for a showing right away at 10:30 am!  Wow this is great!!  Then another for the next day - Friday evening.  Friday afternoon we ended up getting an offer from the very first person that looked at it!  We went ahead and had the showing Friday evening and then ended up getting 3 more showings for Sunday.  By Saturday morning we wanted to get back on the offer, we wanted to have the 3 showings but since they were another day out we didn't want the offer people to wait and maybe pull their offer so we decided to go with the offer since it was very good!  We ended up cancelling the 3 showings on Sunday.  What a good feeling this was to have an offer so fast and not have to deal with a long period of time doing showings!

Putting our house on the market (9/28/17)

We did some decluttering over the next few days in order to prep our house to put it on the market. It officially hit the market on the morning of Thursday, September 28th.