Thursday, March 29, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Eli's Tooth
At long last, Eli's front tooth is finally started to come out. It has been almost four years since we've seen him with a front tooth in that spot!
Monday, March 26, 2012
And so it begins...
We found and bought a house we love. Now we begin the process of making it ours! Before we actually move in to the new house we had a few things we considered must-be-dones. First on the list: interior paint and get new carpet. We have lots of other plans too but those will have to wait until the wallet catches up with the dreaming!
I really wanted to bump out (up?) the arch in the front entryway and remove this curved architectural "feature". We have such a beautiful front door and both of these things partially obstruct the view of the door from the living room. See?
We called a handyman to come give us a quote for opening things up a bit. It ended up the arch part was a bit more expensive than we hoped so we'll save up for that (or attempt to do it ourselves at some point) but the removal of the partition wall wasn't that much and it made sense to remove that now before we get new carpet anyway.
So early Friday morning Jerry let the handyman in and by 10:30 he got the call he was done! The difference was AMAZING! He did a great job! Just that simple thing let in so much more light. It was money well spent. Jerry snapped these to pictures with his cell phone for me when he went to pay the handyman. The mess was all cleaned up by the time I saw it in person later that evening.
The painter will start his magic on Tuesday. I'm still trying to decide what paint color I want. They have some prep work to do before they start so I didn't have to give them my final answer just yet.
We have plans for new furniture and since I don't really know what we'll be getting I just want a nice neutral color with white trim. We've never been wild and crazy paint color lovers anyway. (Remember the blue room we hated at the old house?) So taking all things into consideration, I think I've narrowed it down to two colors...
I went and bought three paint samples. One (called Arabian Sands) was out immediately because it looked too peachy in our light. The other two are similar to each other. I am pretty sure the wall to the right of the door is already Classic Taupe and it's a very nice, neutral color. If you look up in the first picture in this post you can see it (and a bit more to the right of the patched wall in the second photo above). When I painted the samples on the various walls to see how they looked I had a hard time finding the spot I painted on that far living room wall so I am guessing that is the color already there or something very similar.
The Gobi Desert is a tiny bit darker and is from the "Yellow Toned Neutrals" while the Classic Taupe is from the "shaded orange" color family. Paint names and "families" are strange, neither looks yellow or orange at all. I'm still not sure which one I like better. Jerry votes for the Gobi Desert. It might end up being a last minute decision when the painter asks for our final answer.
The painter should be done by the first week in April. He's painting the whole house (walls, doors, trim) and whole guest house so it will take awhile. Next up will be new carpeting. We've decided to just get something inexpensive since our gang tends to be hard on carpet. Thankfully all the high traffic areas are tile so that will help. We just don't see the point in getting expensive carpet at this point... we can save that for when the kids are grown.
The only other thing we need to do before moving in is get appliances. Technically we only need a fridge but we will probably just get a package deal. That way we can move the current appliances to the guest house.
It's looking like mid-April for a move-in date, but I'll keep you posted.
I really wanted to bump out (up?) the arch in the front entryway and remove this curved architectural "feature". We have such a beautiful front door and both of these things partially obstruct the view of the door from the living room. See?
We called a handyman to come give us a quote for opening things up a bit. It ended up the arch part was a bit more expensive than we hoped so we'll save up for that (or attempt to do it ourselves at some point) but the removal of the partition wall wasn't that much and it made sense to remove that now before we get new carpet anyway.
So early Friday morning Jerry let the handyman in and by 10:30 he got the call he was done! The difference was AMAZING! He did a great job! Just that simple thing let in so much more light. It was money well spent. Jerry snapped these to pictures with his cell phone for me when he went to pay the handyman. The mess was all cleaned up by the time I saw it in person later that evening.
The painter will start his magic on Tuesday. I'm still trying to decide what paint color I want. They have some prep work to do before they start so I didn't have to give them my final answer just yet.
We have plans for new furniture and since I don't really know what we'll be getting I just want a nice neutral color with white trim. We've never been wild and crazy paint color lovers anyway. (Remember the blue room we hated at the old house?) So taking all things into consideration, I think I've narrowed it down to two colors...
I went and bought three paint samples. One (called Arabian Sands) was out immediately because it looked too peachy in our light. The other two are similar to each other. I am pretty sure the wall to the right of the door is already Classic Taupe and it's a very nice, neutral color. If you look up in the first picture in this post you can see it (and a bit more to the right of the patched wall in the second photo above). When I painted the samples on the various walls to see how they looked I had a hard time finding the spot I painted on that far living room wall so I am guessing that is the color already there or something very similar.
The Gobi Desert is a tiny bit darker and is from the "Yellow Toned Neutrals" while the Classic Taupe is from the "shaded orange" color family. Paint names and "families" are strange, neither looks yellow or orange at all. I'm still not sure which one I like better. Jerry votes for the Gobi Desert. It might end up being a last minute decision when the painter asks for our final answer.
The painter should be done by the first week in April. He's painting the whole house (walls, doors, trim) and whole guest house so it will take awhile. Next up will be new carpeting. We've decided to just get something inexpensive since our gang tends to be hard on carpet. Thankfully all the high traffic areas are tile so that will help. We just don't see the point in getting expensive carpet at this point... we can save that for when the kids are grown.
The only other thing we need to do before moving in is get appliances. Technically we only need a fridge but we will probably just get a package deal. That way we can move the current appliances to the guest house.
It's looking like mid-April for a move-in date, but I'll keep you posted.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Spring Break for Roz
Here are a few photos from Roz's Spring Break visit.
Jerry's parents offered us their old fire pit. While Roz was here we tried it out. The kids enjoyed roasting marshmallows. The adults enjoyed sitting outside in March without the need for winter coats.
Love this photo of the Shown sisters!
The usual just kids photo.
And the usual whole family photo.
Jerry's parents offered us their old fire pit. While Roz was here we tried it out. The kids enjoyed roasting marshmallows. The adults enjoyed sitting outside in March without the need for winter coats.
Love this photo of the Shown sisters!
The usual just kids photo.
And the usual whole family photo.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Cousin Visit
We had a nice spur of the moment visit with my cousin Jeremiah and his girlfriend Jessica today. They are here on a little getaway and stopped by for a quick visit. Roz is here on Spring Break so she is here too.
The boys enjoyed some wrestling with Jeremiah.
Jeremiah seemed to enjoy playing Legos with the boys.
It was a nice, although short, visit. We took them out to look at the new house. Maybe next time they come they can stay in the guest house!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Wesley's Birthday
This year was a special birthday for Wesley! Double digits! The big 1-0!
We had everyone over and enjoyed a meal and cake.
Because Morgan requested a candy card for her 10th birthday, Wesley asked for one too. We got him a little netbook computer instead. He was pretty happy with the trade off.
Monday, March 12, 2012
The New House
Today was the day! After a month of nail biting and paperwork we are finally the owners of a new house! I do have to say the real estate business in Arizona is a LOT different than in Wisconsin, but I'll tell you all about that later.
I'm all about pleasing the people and I've had lots of people asking to see photos of the new house. So here you go. The following pictures aren't the best (quality-wise) but you'll get the idea! Some were taken with Jerry's cell phone and some I didn't take at all... the ones where you see furniture are from the real estate listing. I'll take more to share with you in the days ahead.
We won't be moving for a few weeks. We want to get new carpet and paint and we figured that would be easier without all of our stuff in the way.
Well, that's the quick tour for you! What do you think?
I'm all about pleasing the people and I've had lots of people asking to see photos of the new house. So here you go. The following pictures aren't the best (quality-wise) but you'll get the idea! Some were taken with Jerry's cell phone and some I didn't take at all... the ones where you see furniture are from the real estate listing. I'll take more to share with you in the days ahead.
We won't be moving for a few weeks. We want to get new carpet and paint and we figured that would be easier without all of our stuff in the way.
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| FRONT |
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| EAST SIDE (GARAGE) |
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| BACK PATIO (North side) with outdoor fireplace |
 | |
| GUEST HOUSE and guest house driveway |
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| YARD (grass area) Future pool?? |
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| BACK PATIO |
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| FRONT ENTRYWAY |
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| LIVING ROOM (That paint is even worse in person!) |
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| KITCHEN |
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| KITCHEN (dining area) |
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| PANTRY |
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| MASTER |
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| MASTER BATH |
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| MASTER CLOSET |
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| BEDROOM #1 (Say good-bye to the beach scene, it's coming down!) |
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| BEDROOM #2 |
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| BATHROOM |
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| BEDROOM #4 |
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| GUEST HOUSE (Living area) |
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| GUEST HOUSE (Kitchen) |
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| GUEST HOUSE (Bathroom) |
 | |
| GUEST HOUSE (Bedroom #1) |
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| GUEST HOUSE (Bedroom #2) |
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