Our House

On December 15th we moved our family into our first home together. It's the type of grown up thing I would be too scared to do, but Carl was all about it. Of course there were the incentives that made it easier; the $8k back from the government, along with the 2 car garage for us to park, so we never have to wake up early to go scrape snow off the cars. Other incentives included the things we would leave behind like the 2 flights of stairs I had to climb with one arm full of groceries, and the other arm full of Benjamin and more groceries, and possibly our neighbors that we'll never have to share walls with again. We'll never have to hear blenders running first thing in the morning from one wall, or vacuuming 4 times a day from another. Never again will we suffer through the Michael Jackson memorials, in which I have heard the same song cranked on repeat for over an hour on more than one occasion. (I'm all for MJ, but hearing 'Beat It' 14 times in a row is a little much.) We will be free from all kinds of noises during nap time and the loudest of all, the extended family crammed into a small apartment living below us, that you could hear throughout all hours of the day and night, whether it was loud conversation, music blaring, movies blasting or children running around screaming just outside the door. I will most assuredly not miss the dirty looks from across the parking lot from my neighbors whom I kindly requested (once) that they keep it a little quieter, at 10 o'clock at night, after my baby kept waking up, as they had a conversation with one person in the apartment and the other in the car, yelling out everything she needed to remember at the grocery store. Suffice it to say, we're so excited for our new home. The backyard is full of fruit trees, making us even more excited for the spring. It's been fun making all the changes to make it more our own. We've spent most Saturdays, as well as some nap times painting. My dad is giving our laundry room a makeover, and there are other little things we are doing. The process is going a little slower than we'd like, with Carl's busy schedule and a little one that needs constant attention. We've made some progress though, and there are pictures below for your viewing pleasure.

Our first night in our new home.

The color here is the color we chose for Ben's room and the office

Guest Bath
BEFORE
Notice the sea shell wall paper and the pink plastic shower rod. When we moved in there was a matching shower curtain. You won't see it here, because we took it down immediatly. We appreciated the thought, but why, oh why did they leave their old shower curtain for us?

DURING
He's only smiling because I told him to. Scraping off wall paper actually is not fun.
No more sea shells!

AFTER
We took out the mirror and slider cabinet underneath and replaced them with a 36" white trim medicine cabinet with the triple mirror (perfect for doing your hair). Replaced the shower rod, ripped out the caulking around the sink, recaulked the sink and shower, and painted the walls green, and the base boards bright white.

Here is our room. The only thing that's different in here is the paint, so for a "before" picture just imagine dirty white walls. There's a part above the closet that's not quite finished. And we still need to hang our pictures.

Funny Carl

I couldn't resist posting this one. It reminds me of the movie Incredibles. The sene at dinner when they tell the mom she makes a face. I love that he is completley unaware. I was trying not to laugh into the camera.

My Precious

A day under 10 months and we did it! Not totally smooth yet, but we'll get there.