Packing, packing, packing!!

Packing, packing, packing.  It feels like all I have been doing recently is packing.  I guess that makes sense and is appropriate though since we are moving on FRIDAY - yes as in 2 (not even 2) days from now.  So packing with 2 small kids is hard, but I imagine it must be like 10,000 times harder for someone who does not have both their mother and their mother-in-law scooping the children away for LONG periods of time to allow me the peace of packing whatever portions of the house need to be packed without the assistance of 2 small people who think that putting their toys into every single box we have is necessary, oh and of course those same 2 small people think that Mama should play and not pack.  So, THANK YOU times a zillion to Mom and Mary for allowing me the ability to do all of this packing - I am spoiled by your love and I know it (and am willing to take advantage of it)!  To those not visiting us right now (which is like everyone, because yeah right I am letting people see my house in this condition!!), this is what our house looks like right now:

 

 

Yep, so short break over, back to packing!

Closing Day

We closed on our new house today!!!!!!!  And, it was a really long day.  Closing was scheduled for 10am, so we left the house about 9am anticipating some traffic on our way up north.  There was not nearly the traffic we had expected, so we found ourselves with a half hour to spare, and went to get breakfast tacos at Taco Cabana - Mmmmmm.  We were still early but only by a few minutes.

We got into the title company's office, and found out that the amount we owed for closing was slightly higher than the original estimate, and that this particular title company would NOT take a personal check to cover the slight difference (apparently every other title company would, but the one we had to go to wouldn't).  So I left Blake to start signing paperwork and went to get an additional cashier's check to cover the slight difference.  On a whim, I decided to avoid the highway, and just stay on access roads - this was apparently THE BEST decision I made all day.  There was a rollover accident in which the vehicle caught fire, and shut down the highway.  So, had I decided to get on the highway (which was at a point that I wouldn't have been able to see traffic on it) I would likely have been stuck there for hours.  As it ended up, I got the cashier's check, and was back to the title company in no time (slightly jittery though for having seen the aftermath of that accident).

Unfortunately, they would not give us the keys to the house until the loan fully funded, so we had to leave without keys in hand.   :(

We took lunch back to the in-law's house, and played with the kiddos for just a little bit before heading to home depot at nap time to get various items which we were going to need immediately at the house - i.e. ceiling fans, etc.  We took those over to the house, and then headed back north to the title company hoping that keys would be available.  It was 4pm when we got there.  It was 5pm before we received keys - and it POURED rain while we were waiting.  But, we got our keys, went back to the house, and had our first dinner standing around the kitchen island.  (Kids had McDonalds, adults had Firehouse Subs!).

 

So, our house is really now going to be our home!!!

Punchlist results

So punchlist on our "little" house took me as long yesterday as the one that I did for an 18,000 s.f. commercial office space which I did years ago when I was working.  This either means that "normal people" must take like 3 days, I have slowed down significantly in my time at home, or I am way, way, way pickier about my house than the standard person.  Of course, it did only take Blake 2 hours to walk through and get his comments together/walls taped... I think I added about 2/3 more tape, and definitely had 9 pages of comments (typed) for the contractor. So probably we are leaning toward the latter and I am way picky. Oh well, my house is going to be perfect!  Highlights from the day:

 - Contractor claims that he will "try" to get the trees in the backyard  moved for us since no one ever consulted us on where they should go, and location is truly "owner preference"

 - Our wood floors look beautiful

 - We had the house mostly to ourselves yesterday which made it easier to get done what we needed to not having to step over workers, and retrace our steps all day.

 - When we went into the attic it was 95 degrees outside (after several 100 degree days), and the attic was a reasonable 80 degrees - wowza insulation doing its job!

- Mom and Dad brought Travis over, and he tried to take the blue tape spots off the floor (was nicely distracted by some blue tape of his own though and didn't undo any of our hard taping work)

and the crowning jewel:

 - Contractor came back in the early afternoon and said that it looked like "A smurf exploded", ha we weren't even done yet!

Entering the Home Stretch

Well, tomorrow we walk the punchlist for the new house.  Pretty sure that this contractor has no idea what is coming his way having me as a client (previously dubbed punchlist queen by former commercial contractors). Ha ha ha - should be fun.  In preparation, I went and bought blue painter's tape to stick to EVERYTHING in the house that I find which is less than my standard (2 rolls, one for me, and one for Blake), and a notebook to write it all down in.  Our closing date did get pushed back to the 17th, but we still have until the 31st to vacate the house we have lived in for the last 6 years, so hopefully it is doable.  Last time we visited the house, all the appliances were installed (except the ovens, they were still in the middle of the living room...)

Double ovens - in the living room (photo was from a week ago, they were still there as of Saturday - have to assume they have been installed by now though - right??)

Dishwasher being installed last week.

My beautiful range.

Backyard ready for landscaping - looks like they are putting trees in the middle of the yard (uh not cool)

Boys trapped in the shower

Front of the house - from Saturday - the garage doors are finally painted, looks good from a distance

Front door is stained!!

Microwave installed (perfect height for little boys to get into trouble with)

Travis and Grandad sitting on the stairs.

 

Photo of our landscaped backyard from our super friendly backdoor neighbor's porch from this morning.

 

 

So maybe it is just us, but we don't know what the people behind the location of those 3 trees were thinking. I mean seriously, who wants a new backyard, which is nice and big for the kids to run around in, and have 3 trees planted smack-dab in the middle of the running space??  We plan on talking to Mr. Contractor about those locations (which they were supposed to consult us on, which we only reminded him of about 50 times) tomorrow, so we'll see if they stay there or not.  Well, they won't stay there, it will just be a matter of whether we have to do the moving of the trees ourselves...

 

Stay tuned, tomorrow I'll post photos of a house covered in blue spots!!!