Summer time at our house

On warm days, we enjoy having picnics in our backyard. We found this cute, little picnic table at a rummage sale -- it folds up into a carrying case.

Caleb eating a snack outside

Sonya found a squirt gun -- the beginning of many water fights!

Here she comes!

How does it work?

Just hanging out in her stroller

The kids really love playing in their play house. Sonya has learned how to go up the ladder a little bit and loves when we help her go down the fire pole.

Caleb is constantly running up and down it -- such a boy! We can see into the neighbor's backyard from there too. Since the family behind us has five kids, a few around Caleb's age, he likes to see if they're outside so he can go over and play with them. He doesn't really need to climb the play house though because my little monkey boy can climb the fence to peek over.

Caleb climbing the fence by our gate

Just hanging out

Not looking at the camera

Feeding Sonya yogurt

They just love each other!

Sonya also likes to stand at the bottom of the railings on the play house while looking into the neighbor's yard to bark at their dog. It's so funny. She makes an "o" with her mouth and goes "woof, woof."

House Pictures (Take 3)

Garage -- We love having a place to put our cars and store our outdoor toys (both Caleb's and Tim's lol). Although, I think Caleb is more obsessed with pushing the garage button.

Garage

Interior of the 2.5 car garage -- before we filled it with junk.. hehe

Yard -- Other than having to maintain the yard, we love having a place to play when it's nice outside. I can just let the kids go in the backyard as long as the gate is closed otherwise Sonya will escape and take herself for a walk. We even have a play platform area in the backyard and horseshoe stakes set up too! There's all sorts of plants growing -- I'm learning what they are and trying to keep the areas weeded.

Tulips blooming :-)

Flowers by the patio



Backyard - Patio area

Backyard - Different angle of the Patio

Backyard - fenced in! and play area

Backyard - Yes, we have a firepole!

House Pictures (Take 2)

Bedrooms -- There are three bedrooms in the house. We were so blessed that they had the perfect colors already on the walls so we didn't need to paint. Caleb's room is a pale, sky blue while Sonya's is a light lavender. The master bedroom walls are hard to describe -- I think they used a textured roller to paint a beige over a light gold sort of color.

Caleb's Room -- bunk bed

Caleb's artwork

Sonya's Room!

Sonya's Room -- new dresser!

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom -- Tim's new dresser!

Basement -- Half of the basement is finished. We have our computer downstairs as well as a play area and an area to watch movies. It's so nice to have this extra space to entertain and just to hang out as a family.

Stairs (before) - Leading down to to the basement

Stairs (after) -- well not really an after picture, but couldn't help posting

Half-finished Basement (before)

Half-finished Basement (after) -- looks better with furniture

Half-finished Basement (after) -- TV area

Basement - New washer and dryer

House Pictures (Take 1)

I know some of you have already seen the house or maybe pictures on facebook. But... for those of you that are reading from afar or don't have access to facebook, here they are:

Family photo outside our NEW house

Kitchen -- It came with a stove, microwave, refrigerator, and a mobile island. We haven't done any painting yet. Maybe some day we'll add a few more of our own touches on the walls.

Kitchen (before)

Kitchen (after)

 Dining Room -- We did a little painting because the yellow/gold color was a bit overwhelming. The green probably looks better in person (or maybe if I had opened the blinds before taking the picture, it'd be better too!)

Dining Room (before)

Dining Room (after)

Living Room -- We painted over the yellow using a light brown color called "mesa" and the wall from the dining room into the living room is the "grape leaves" green. I don't have a photo with our newly acquired loveseat, but it gives the room a more homey feel.

Living Room wall (before)

Living Room wall (after)

Living Room window/corner (before)

Living Room window/corner (after)

Living Room built-in bookshelf (before)

Living Room built-in bookshelf (after)

Hallway (before)

Hallway (after)

Home Sweet Home

We're finally home owners!!! I can't believe it. I feel like we've been living here for a while. It's such an amazing feeling to know that I'm home!

Here's a glimpse of what the past week or so looked like:

Last Tuesday (May 17th), my sister was still visiting to help with the kids and moving. While Caleb was at school, Jenny watched Sonya. Tim and I had one quick walk through to do yet on the house because the owners were still in the middle of cleaning and moving when we did a more thorough walk through on Saturday (May 14th). So after that, we went over to Port Abstract where we closed on the house. Signing the papers went faster than I thought it would. Before we knew it, they handed over the keys and the house was ours. Talk about surreal! Our agent was wonderful throughout the whole process. :-) After we signed everything, we decided to take go to the house, just the two of us -- no kids. I took a few pictures and jumped up and down in excitement a few times. :-)

I think we brought a few items over that we had packed the night before and unloaded those before heading back to the apartment. Then we packed up Jenny's van and all of our cars to go back to the house already. Tim picked up Caleb from school -- He was pretty stoked about the house! We all got McDonald's to go and had a picnic in OUR backyard. So fun! 

We brought Sonya's crib over already to reassemble since her pack'n'play was still in the apartment (in our walk-in closet where she's been sleeping for the past who knows how many months). My sister left around 3-ish after bringing over another load of stuff. Then it was time to vacuum, wipe down walls, and start taping everything off so I could paint. I even filled in a few holes here and there. I was hoping to get more accomplished, but wanted to enjoy every moment too. 

On Wednesday (May 18th), I sanded down the walls a little bit and started to edge the corners, the ceiling, around the windows, etc. with the colored primer. Then Tim brought home a really cool painting edger which made the process go by so much quicker. My friend, Terry, from church helped me get all the walls primed. A friend from college, Kyle, started working on the green (grape leaves) paint in the dining area. I was so nervous about that color because it was pretty bold compared to the neutral beige, off-white sorts of colors that are hard to screw up. Tim, Kyle, and the kids ate pizza while I relaxed at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner with some of my fellow moms at church. The boys finished the first coat of green while I was gone. 

Thursday (May 19th) was another painting day. I finished a second coat of green in the morning while Caleb was at school. Sonya sat in her pack 'n' play and watched me. After we picked up Caleb, we ate lunch and enjoyed the nice weather for a little bit. Later on in the afternoon, my friend, Jen, came over to get Caleb while I started painting the brown (mesa) color in the living room and hallway. Sonya was napping so a got quite a bit accomplished. I got about a quarter of the way done with the brown and found a good stopping point so Sonya and I could walk over and get Caleb. It was such a beautiful day! Then we met Tim back at the apartment where he had supper waiting for us. We took another load of boxes over to the house and I went back to painting again. I finally finished around 11pm. Whew! Talk about a long day! But... it was worth it! The rooms looked better than I had hoped. 

Friday (May 20th) was more packing and cleaning. Debbie watched Sonya while Caleb helped me with the doors while I brought more boxes to the house. I was able to clean up the plastic and cardboard that I had laid out during painting and removed all the blue painter's tape. We returned to the apartment, filled up my car again, and went to the house to have lunch. The kids enjoyed playing in the back yard. Sonya and Jonathan picked some dandelions. They are so cute together!! Around supper time, Sears dropped off and installed our brand new washer and dryer. Another friend from college, Nick, was doing a motorcycle trip around Wisconsin to visit friends and then his sister so he stopped by for a little bit. Caleb liked the motorcycle. :-) It had been about 4 years since I've seen Nick so it was nice to reminisce. Then we had some time to disassemble the bunk bed and our queen bed at the apartment so it was ready for moving day.

On Saturday (May 21st), we were all ready to move. Everything was taped shut and disassembled as much as possible. Tim got the U-haul around 8-ish. My dad and two of my brothers started moving some furniture out. Another brother and a friend from church, Andy, came to help too while I watched the kids, packed and unpacked a few things and also directed traffic. The furniture was all in place and beds were assembled again by 11:15 right around the time that the pizza was ready. I think we had all worked up a pretty good appetite and ate all but 5 pieces of pizza out of the 5 pies that we bought. After everyone had left, poor Sonya fell down the stairs to our basement. Caleb learned pretty quickly that he needs to lock the gate right away or ask for help if Sonya is in the way. Considering she fell down the whole set of stairs, I think we were all mostly just scared. She was back and laughing a few minutes late. Thank God our stairs are carpeted! 

We unpacked a few things, got another quick load of stuff rom apartment, got groceries and slept at the house for the first time. I woke up feeling like I was finally home after a long trip. It was such a nice feeling. :-)

Sunday (May 22nd), there was a speaker on creationism vs. evolution at church. It was really intriguing so we went back later that night to hear more. The rest of the day was relatively relaxing. We didn’t do much cleaning or unpacking so that was nice.

Monday (May 23rd) consisted of cleaning the apartment all day and packing up a few odds and ends that didn't make it over to the house on moving day. 

Tuesday (May 24th) - I cleaned the apartment in the morning, watched Veggie Tales with the kids after lunch. Sonya fell asleep in my arms so I put her to bed. Then I read Caleb a book and he fell asleep on my shoulder while reading. He was so cute. It's been a while since he crashed like that for me. So while the kids napped, I unpacked and organized the house a bit. Then we grabbed some Subway when Tim got home and headed over to the apartment to finish cleaning. I can't believe we're done with that place! All we have to do is replace a lightbulb and turn in our keys. I don't think I want to clean another stove or refrigerator for a while though. lol...

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I'm hoping to clean up the house a bit more so I can post some before and after pictures. This was such a fun and exciting process. I can't believe we're in the house already. I might go through home buying withdrawal without all the excitement of exchanging emails and phone calls and viewing houses, etc. But, I'm sure we'll have find enough projects around the house to do to keep us busy for a while.

Phone Calls and Paint Colors

So we started making phone calls to change our water, electric, and mail services over to the new address already. I think we just have to deal with AT&T for our internet now. Maybe I'll make Tim do it. haha... He doesn't like having to call them at all. Their rates are good, but their customer service experience is NOT! Anyway, it feels good to get those little things out of the way so I don't have to worry about our water being shut off while we're trying to move in or not having electricity to turn on lights. :-)

As for paint colors... haha.. poor Tim. I keep changing my mind on the exact shades of green and brown that I want to use. We went to Home Depot on Saturday so I could get the color cards vs. trying to use the Behr online colors. I think I have it narrowed down to grape leaves and mesa now. I'll compare the colors against the living and dining room walls when we do our walk through on Saturday. Hopefully I won't need to change my mind again. It's just so tough because the shade changes depending on the amount of light the wall gets throughout the day. If there's only a 5 minute period during the day where the walls look "ugly," I think I can deal with that. BUT... if it's for half the day, I'm thinking I'd need to paint over it.

Things are slowly coming together though. Tim just bought our washer and dryer from Sears so they'll deliver next week Friday. We'd been looking at prices and comparisons for a few weeks now and decided it was time to go ahead and order them. It sounds like we'll have a lawn mower to last us through the summer. Then maybe next year, we'll buy one unless the one we're getting really won't last all summer. lol... I'm just thankful we won't have to spend money on one for right now. One less thing to research and worry about, I guess.

I started putting the felt circles on the bottom of furniture. Although, I think I'll wait until the weekend to finish because otherwise I noticed that they come off easily if dragged on our carpet. Caleb likes to pull his chair over to the counter to help set the table and I can just see the felt coming off of our chairs.

I still have some boxes to pack. At this point, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. It seems like there's not a lot to pack, but then I look around at our "mess" and feel like I have a long way to go. I'm just glad we have two weeks to move and clean everything. The cleaning part is not something I'm looking forward to, but I want to get our deposit back on the apartment! Anyway, as long as we can move all of our big furniture that won't fit in either of our cars, I'll still have another week to pack up those last few things and not feel so stressed out. Only one more week left until we close!!!!!

Counting down until closing!

I can't believe how quickly time is flying by. We close on the house in a week and a half! Am I done packing yet? Not quite.... There are still toys, books, games, and movies that are still out. A few posters are still up on the walls in addition to a few wall hangings. All of our pictures are down though and packed and most of our little knick knacks. I went through a lot of papers and notebooks that I saved from high school and college. Since it's been 5 years since I graduated from college, it was time to let go of some of those things. Was I really going to need my calculus and biology notes anymore? They might come in handy some day, but by then, I don't think I'll be able to decipher any of it. haha

There are still lots of little putzy things to pack, but I've been trying to wait until I'm absolutely sure I won't need it anymore -- like clothes, kitchen items, bedding, our computer, and toiletries. We have quite a few boxes packed up already though so I'm slowly getting there. I can't believe how many boxes of kids' clothes that I have though! There's over 12 boxes of boys' clothes ranging from newborn all the way up to 7 years old. (I just got two big garbage bags of clothes from my aunt during Easter so that adds to it). At least Sonya only has 3 or 4 boxes of clothes. Most of them are too small on her, but I have to save them in case we ever decide on baby #3.

Anyway, this post is just a rambling of all my thoughts and trying to not go crazy. I want to have everything all planned out ahead of time so the transition of painting and moving goes smoothly. Then I can enjoy my house right away instead of spending all my free time trying to finish cleaning the apartment during the last week of the month.

We do our final walk-through on May 14th. I don't know what time yet, but probably in the morning since that was our preference. Then I can make sure of the color choices I have for painting the dining room/living room and hallway. It's narrowed down to a combination of tate olive and desert camel for right now, but the shades of green and brown might change yet. :-) So after we walk through the house, we'll probably go and get paint samples and most of the painting supplies.

Tuesday, May 17th is the magical day that we close on the house! I'm looking forward to it, but am a little nervous too. I had a break down the other night as I realized that I'm not in control and that God is. I'm always trying to be in control and have everything happen just perfectly. So I needed that reminder that everything will work out in the end even if it doesn't go exactly to plan. It's just so hard for me if I don't have some sort of schedule. Now, I have a loose schedule of what is going to happen so that we can try and figure out how to coordinate painting and moving with some of our volunteer helpers. We're so thankful for all the offers to help. It's almost overwhelming. I just hope we have enough muscles to do the big move on May 21st. (I'm a weakling so I don't help with the big lifting).

I'm hoping to do some cleaning of the new house on the day we close. Then I can get the walls prepped for painting. Worse case scenario, I get them ready the next morning. I'm thinking it'll be a two-day painting project since we'll need two coats. (That's my guess anyway). So painting day #1 will be May 18th. I'm looking forward to our Mom's Group dinner that night at the Cheesecake Factory. It'll be a nice break. Then the following day, May 19th, I'm hoping to finish painting during the day and then start moving some smaller boxes over already after dinner. We'll see how that works out. Friday, May 20th will be a day to tie up any loose ends before the BIG move on Saturday. We're getting a U-haul to make things easier. Then we'll only need one or maybe two trips. I think Tim's plan was to start loading up around 10am that day, then do pizza for lunch, and finish unloading after that.

This post is getting long, but I needed to write it all out. I could probably write more, but I need to go finish some laundry and maybe pack a few more boxes while I'm at it. Or I should see if we have the felt circles and such to start sticking to the bottom of the furniture that'll go in the living room and dining room. We're going to have hardwood floors! There's a few scratches in the floors already, but I'd kind of like to hold off on refinishing for now since they aren't in too bad of condition.

I'm so excited!!!

Trying to remain calm...

If anyone thinks that buying a house is easy, it's not exactly true. I'm trying to remain positive and calm mainly for myself, but also for my husband. The fun part was walking through other peoples' houses trying to determine where our furniture would go, if it was the right fit for our family, and finding all the little nooks and crannies that made the house special.

Since our offer was accepted last Wednesday, we've been rushing around like mad to try and meet all the deadlines for everything. We had to complete a release form to remove our secondary offer on another house right away. Then on Thursday, I called up a few more house inspectors to check on pricing and make sure they had all the qualifications and insurance. We found one we liked so our agent offered to set up everything directly with the home inspector and the sellers.

Our weekend in Champaign, IL was just what we needed to just get away from the craziness and enjoy spending time with relatives. Then, Monday morning, we had Tim's cousin watch the kids while we did our home  inspection for close to 3.5 hours. I started to fall more in love with the house. It's still kind of surreal. Anyway, the inspection went as well as can be expected. No flaws! haha.. right.. in my dreams! There are definitely some things that need to be fixed up. So we have to get some estimates and try to figure out what we want the sellers to fix and what we plan on taking care of ourselves.

After speaking with our agent, I felt a lot better. She was able to reassure me that we'll get everything figured out and to try not to be overwhelmed by the list of defects and safety issues that need to be addressed. Obviously people are living in the house right now, so there's no immediate attention to some of the items on the list. It's still a little intimidating to think about. Are we going to be able to maintain this house? Of course we will! We might just need to ask for a little help every now and again or just flat out hire a professional.

Once we figure out estimates and how much the seller is willing to fix, our lender will order an appraisal and they can move forward with processing our loan. So, our next deadline to meet is Saturday. Hopefully the sellers will be willing to pay to have the electrical parts done and maybe the plumbing.... We'll see. Just trying to take it one day at a time.

We went with.... House A!!!

After looking at about 20+ houses, we finally bought House A!!! It's the one that has the fenced in yard and is right across the street from the elementary school. We'll still be in Port Washington so that'll keep us close to stores, church, the library, and stay in the Port/Saukville school district!

Here's a picture of our new home:

For those of you that participated in my little survey a few posts back, House B decided to take theirs off the market on the same day that we were going to put an offer on it. We actually looked at 3 or 4 more houses after that because we were so disappointed and didn't even want to look at House A anymore. Well, after a lot of praying, God kept pushing us towards House A. :-) 

As long as everything falls into place with the home inspection and funding our loan, we'll close on May 17th! 

House Poll

Which house do you think is worth more?

House A:
- 3 bed, 1.5 bath
- fenced in yard
- located across the street from an elementary school
- new roof
- half-finished basement = rec room/computer room

House B:
- 3 bed, 1.5 bath (plus 3/4 bath in lower level)
- new windows
- new furnace
- remodeled kitchen and bathrooms
- ceiling fans and big closets in bedrooms
- near Interurban Bike Trail

Tough decision....
When there are at least 5 responses, I'll reveal which one has the higher asking price. Have fun!

So many houses out there!

Last night, we went out to Culver's to get ice cream (technically custard... lol) Anyway, after enjoying our treat, we drove past one of the houses that we are going to view on Monday. It's a short sale and someone has already put an offer in on it, but they said we can still take a look at it so we have a better idea of what we are looking for in a house that is in that particular price range. The kids both fell asleep in the back seat so we drove around some more trying to find the house we saw earlier in the week that was going to have an Open House on Sunday. In the midst of doing that, we found several other Open Houses and many more houses for sale. It's amazing how many are out there when you've got your eye out for the signs.

Tomorrow, after church, we'll probably check out a few Open Houses and then on Sunday, our agent scheduled us to view three houses. I'm falling in love with two of them right now, but am hoping that God finds a way to narrow down my choices because I just saw a few more online today that we might be interested in. 

The great thing about all of this is that God is totally preparing my heart for this process -- both emotionally and mentally. I feel like I know a lot more about mortgages, fixed-interest rates, home inspections, escrow, choosing a home, and so much more.

A glimpse into what we're looking for -- 

• 3+ bedroom -- If we find the perfect one and it only has 3 bedrooms, that's great. We'd prefer 4 just so there's extra room for any guests and we could potentially use it as a den/computer room. Although, if it has a half-finished basement, that'd add extra space too). 
• 1+ bathrooms -- I grew up with 7 people in my family and we all lived with just 1 bathroom so I know we'd survive. It's just a little nicer to have a 1.5 or 2 bathroom house especially with guests or get-togethers.
• Garage -- It's not a huge deal if it's attached or not. My preference is attached.
• Backyard -- If the yard isn't really big, I'd like to live within walking distance to a park. Otherwise, I'd prefer to have some mature trees in the yard to offer shade.
• Kitchen -- I don't know how to explain how it should look, but there needs to be enough room to have 2 people trying too cook/bake at the same time without stepping on one another's feet. The layout has to make sense. There also has to be a window or two because right now, there's no natural light in my cooking or dining areas.
• Living Room -- I'd like a big, old living room as a place to gather with friends and family.
• Saukville/Port Washington area -- We'd prefer to stay in this area since it's a shorter drive for Tim to go to work and it's a nice central location even if Tim (or I) would get a job in Sheboygan or Milwaukee. Also, everything we need is in close proximity -- church, grocery stores, parks, library, etc.

There are probably many other details that I'm leaving out, but that gives you the gist of it. It's so fun to look at all the options out there. The one great thing is that we don't have a deadline on when we need to buy so that relieves a little pressure on the whole buying process. I know once February and March start up, there will be more competition in the buyer's field. Hopefully we'll have a good head start on them!

Home Buying for Dummies...

is a really great book. But... it makes me a little nervous about everything involved with buying a house. Yes, we're taking a leap of faith and starting our journey of loan applications, real estate agents, and of course finding that perfect house. So excited!!

So far we've filled out a prequalification application (not to be confused with a preapproval). We're going to finalize a few more parts of our official loan application this weekend and send that out early next week. Also, we're utilizing the USAA MoversAdvantage® program where they assign a real estate agent to us and as long as we use them to close on a house, we'll get a bonus from USAA. We weren't expecting our agent to contact us so soon. She called Tim just the other day and sent us an email with a list of houses that meet our criteria. There are four of them that might work out for us - two in Saukville and two in Port Washington. We hope to view a few of the homes over the next couple of weeks just to get a better idea of what we're looking for, questions to ask, and to see how well the internet pictures match up with the actual house.

I must say that I'm a little nervous about all the different expenses and paperwork involved. It's our first house! I don't want to screw up! House hunting is so much more of a commitment than finding an apartment to rent. However, God is great and I'm just going to have to rely on Him to let everything fall into place the way that He wants. I've been trying to pray for Tim and I a lot more so that we're on the same page with all the decision making. Plus, I'd like to avoid any unnecessary stress and arguments.

Since there are other friends out there that are looking to buy houses, Tim and I are going to keep some more of the details to ourselves for now. So if we're a little more vague when talking about houses, locations, prices, loans, etc., please don't be offended. We'll share as much as we feel comfortable. For now, I'm going to enjoy this time of learning and will try and post any tips that I get from "Home Buyers for Dummies." 

Dream House....

Tim and I have talked about buying a house for a while now. With Sonya being born in mid-February and our lease needing to be decided by the end of March, we opted for another year lease so we could take our time in choosing the perfect house. Granted, we've only been looking at newspaper and online ads and haven't even begun to figure out loan stuff. Hopefully, once all the new tax programs are available, we'll be able to see where we're at and really start the process of talking with a loan officer and see what our options are. We've heard that a lot more houses will be foreclosed on in January, so maybe we'll get a good deal!

What do I want in my dream house? 

I want a beautiful library with a vaulted ceiling and skylights.... shelves of books all the way up to the ceiling! There would be a nice and cozy window seat overlooking a small lake where I could read and sip hot chocolate on a cold and dreary day. A baby grand piano would be sitting in the corner. Then I'd have a huge closet filled with all sorts of art supplies imaginable: paint, brushes, canvas, and an easel. (Maybe I'd even get a potter's wheel... ).

My kitchen would be mostly white with cranberry red accents. We already have a few appliances and a kitchen mat in the red color. I'd like lots of counter space and cupboards along with a display case filled with beautiful china and crystal (which I also don't have). There would be double ovens and a good sized refrigerator that has the freezer and fridge side by side. I can picture having a little island with some bar stools. The dining room would be off to the side a little.

The master bedroom would have a fireplace and a walk-in closet. Our color scheme would be chocolate brown, beige, and cadet blue (kind of a light blue with greenish tint to it). There would be a love seat and a rocking chair and maybe a desk in addition to our nightstands and dressers. We'd also have our own full bathroom with a whirlpool.

The main bathroom would be primarily white. I think the white, two shades of blue, and sea foam green color combination would still work. We already have a striped shower curtain, towels, and one rug.

Our living room would be all cozy with a fireplace. I'd love one of those flat screen TV's that look like a painting to hang right above the mantel. I have no idea what colors we'd go with because the furniture that we have now would pretty much be non-existent by that point. That makes it harder to have a vision.

We'd have a walk-out basement to the back yard. It'd be fun to have a game room with a pool table, maybe ping-pong, or even air hockey down there with all of our board games. I don't know yet if I'd want an office downstairs or upstairs... I guess it'd depend on how the house format was set up.

Well, I guess I'll keep on dreaming for now. It'll be fun to look back on this post some day especially when we finally get more serious about house shopping. I may not get everything that I want, but it never hurts to dream.