Tag Archives: house

What I hate about moving…

1 Aug

Travis and I painted more last night and actually got quite a bit done. We painted the guest bedroom so that is done, except for the baseboards. We also painted the purple wall in the living room. It is now a celery green. But there isn’t an overhead light in the living room and we were painting it at sunset (and it faces east, not west) so there are a few minor spots that we missed with the roller. We’ll try to touch them up. The other wall in the living room that we were going to paint (to cover up some marks) we’re just going to touch up. The couch will go in front of the marks anyway.

Then Travis left for his hockey game so I started working on the trim. I finished one doorframe! Doesn’t sound like much huh? Actually, I got one coat on the closet and door frames of the MB, on the door frame of the GB, and on the door frame of the linen closet. Everything is going to take 2 coats so it’s just a long tedious process.

Tonight, we’re going to paint the office and try to get all the baseboards done in the rooms where we’ll have furniture against the wall. Then we’ll be ready to move in tomorrow and we finish painting over the next week or so.

A reassuring thought, though, while I’m busting my butt doing all this painting (I painted last night from 5 PM-11 PM) is that this is our permanent residence. We can live in this house as long as we want. And we don’t have to worry about our rent going skyhigh or landlords tweaking out. We can make improvements like this and ENJOY THEM for longer than a year! Seriously, I haven’t lived in one place longer than 2 years since moving to college. My freshman year, I lived in the dorms. Then I lived in a house my sophomore year. Then I lived in an apartment my junior year. Then I lived in another house my senior year and stayed there the year after I graduated (because Travis lived only 3 houses away!) Then I moved when we got married. Then we moved to boulder, Colorado. Now we’re moving to Wheat Ridge. And all that since 2002. Whew!

This is what I hate about moving:

Changing your address with the bank, school, work, credit cards, and places you never even think about until you get a forwarded letter in the mail that they had sent to your old address.

Having to throw out perfectly good address labels because you no longer live at that address.

Having checks with the address on them that you lived at 2 houses ago because you didn’t live there long enough to actually use up those checks.

Having mail go to 3 different houses at one time.

Going to all the work of making your residence liveable only to move out a year later.

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I heart my new commute

31 Jul

It only takes me 10 minutes to get to work from our new house. Woohoo! I won’t even mind going to work now…just kidding! If anything, it’s even harder to go to work now because I’m so excited about the house.

We slept on our new bed last night. We bought the Durango from Denver Mattress. It is lovely. It has the individually pocketed coils so that you can barely feel the other person move around. And it’s a queen so we have a lot more space on it than our old bed. I bought new teal sheets (on sale) from BB&B with a matching bedskirt that I just happened to find on clearance (love it when that happens!) We’re going to put the new duvet cover (that I bought with my mom in MN) on our bed and our old duvet cover on the bed in the guest room (Travis wanted a change).

I got our whole kitchen unpacked last night and went grocery shopping. So at least we can eat real food while we’re moving in. It’ll take a little while to get used to a new setup (as it always does) but it’s SO nice to have a bigger kitchen!! The cabinet arrangement isn’t ideal but we’ll make do. After Travis left for his “guy time,” I started to paint the trim until I realized we didn’t have any painters tape (I forgot it in Boulder). Kind of a necessity. So I decided to prime the guest bedroom instead. I got it all done by about 10:15 and then went to bed. I am such a messy painter–I get paint everywhere, including the carpet at least once or twice–so I have paint all over me today!

Tonight, we are going to paint the guest bedroom, prime and paint the purple wall in the living room, repaint another wall in the living room (they puttied holes in the wall without repainting–but they left the paint), and try to get some of the trim done. Tomorrow night we’ll paint the office and more trim. Then Saturday we move in! Yay!

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Excitement kills the work ethic

29 Jul

It’s not Monday but it still feels like it! For the next couple of weeks, it’s going to be really hard to be at work and be productive–I am so excited about our house that I can’t concentrate!! Add to that, we’re going to have so much going on outside of work that I’m pretty sure by the time my brother’s wedding rolls around, we are going to be exhausted (and might not be able to drive back!)

Tonight, we are going to go look at beds again. We have a full-size bed that I’ve had since my sophomore year of college. It’s getting a little old to be in such a small bed. So we’re going to buy a queen. We went looking on Sunday and found a couple that we’re interested in. It’s just so hard to know which one we’ll like! So we’re going to go lay on our 2 contenders again tonight and make a decision. We’re going to have it delivered to our new house and move our full into the guest bedroom. Yay! But that means I have to buy queen sheets sometime in the next couple days…

Then we’re going to buy paint and champagne for our little party tomorrow night. Except Travis is eating dinner with some friends from church so we won’t be having dinner on the floor. Oh well, I’m so excited to paint and be in our new house that I really don’t mind.

We’re also going to pack up the rest of our stuff tonight (like our dishes, computer, DVD player) and bring as much as we can down to the house tomorrow–I want to get as much set up as possible because we have a limited amount of time. Plus, I want to be able to eat actual food for the next week, instead of getting takeout and fast food every day.

Tomorrow, I am going to stop by the house in the morning to put all our perishable food in the fridge. Then, I have to work 😦 but after work, we’re going to pop the cork, toast to our new house, and get the paint brushes out. I am also going to do laundry (way past due) and try to put away all our dishes and pans in the kitchen.

Until Friday, that’s pretty much it but then on Saturday, we’re moving all of our furniture out of our apartment. Sunday, we’re going back to the apartment to clean everything so that we can just be done with Boulder already! (I am SO excited to not make that drive everyday anymore!!) Monday and Tuesday will be unpacking. Wednesday I go get my bridesmaid dress from the alterations place and a mani/pedi. Thursday night, we leave for Minnesota. Friday is the rehearsal and grooms dinner (it starts at 3 in the afternoon!) and then Saturday is the wedding. Sunday we’re planning on just hanging out with family and then Monday we drive back. Whew! It will be a whirlwind of activity but good thing it’s all exciting stuff. Except that part about going back to work on the next Tuesday.

Anyway, I know that I will want to stay up until midnight every night putting stuff away but I cannot let myself–or else, I will not be coherent for the wedding or the drive to MN. I just have to be patient…which I’m not very good at!

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Packing up

26 Jul

The fact that we bought a house is becoming a little more believable every day–because every day we get closer to actually moving in. On Wednesday of this week, the house is officially ours (meaning we aren’t landlords anymore, just homeowners and residents!) I want to buy a bottle of champagne and go to the house after work to eat dinner on the floor and toast to our new house. Yay! I think we might also bring some clothes, toiletries, and our sleeping bags to sleep there Wed, Thurs, Fri night (so that we don’t have to drive all the way back up to Boulder every night.)

So today is packing day. Tomorrow might be too, depending on how much we get done today. And there are the things that we can’t really pack up right now, like dishes, clothes, toiletries–stuff we use everyday. But we’ll at least get the majority of our stuff packed up (like winter clothes, books, decorations, etc.)

I am SO pumped! I went to Home Depot yesterday and got paint chips so that I can decide what paint I want and start painting on Wednesday!

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We’re homeowners!

8 Jul

We just got back to our apartment from our house closing so we are officially homeowners. Everything went without a hitch and my hand didn’t even get sore from signing so many papers.

I was saying to Travis on the way home that it’s weird that all you have to do (pretty much) is sign a bunch of papers and then you own a home. It’s like highschool graduation–somehow the importance of the event is not in proportion to what you do to achieve or celebrate it. But this is a lot more important that highschool graduation. This IS the real world baby!

The best part about the process of buying a house for us was seeing God’s hand in it all. I had prayed for God to let us find the perfect house at the right price in the right timing and we did. Then we had all but postponed buying a house for financial reasons but God provided down payment money for us in the form of my parents.
The sellers accepted our offer, the house appraised, we were approved for our loan, we got all the correct documents, and today was a breeze. If it had not been in the Lord’s will for us to buy a house, it either wouldn’t have happened at all or it wouldn’t have been this easy. When everything falls into place so easily and effortlessly, I know that God is there behind the scenes, flawlessly orchestrating it all according to His sovereign will.

So there you have it. We get the keys to the house at 8:00 AM on July 30th. Until then, it’s Minnesota for 10 days and then lots of packing!!

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They accepted our offer!

16 Jun

As of 5:41 PM today, our house is officially under contract. The sellers signed our offer “as is”–which really surprised our realtor. She said that it rarely happens that the sellers sign the offer without changing a thing. Does this have God written all over it or WHAT?!?!?

So Travis and I are WAY pumped about “our” new house–Travis would remind me that it’s not officially ours yet. But I don’t care about those petty little details. This means that I can officially start planning out how I want to decorate the house. It is going to be SO HARD to wait a month and a half to move in! I’ve been looking at magazines, The Nest, and other people’s blogs for ideas. I went on Craig’s List to look for cheap furniture but I didn’t find anything. I know we shouldn’t buy anything right now anyway because whatever I buy now, we have to move later.

The theme of my decorating is going to be “on a budget.” We won’t have much money to decorate with at first so I’m going to go to antique, consignment, dollar, and thrift stores as well as garage sales and Craig’s List to find furniture and wall pieces.

This is what I’m thinking so far: the main bathroom has a mirror and vanity of light-colored wood. The accents in the tiles and sink are a light tan color. The color scheme is going to be sage green, white, and light-colored wood/tan. I want a shower curtain that is white with sage green leaves on it, kind of like this one from Bed Bath and Beyond:

shower curtain

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll buy sage green towels and press wildflowers into frames to hang on the wall.

For the master bedroom, we will keep our current bedspread (light tan with a white vine design) and I want to add details like these awesome pictures, also picturefrom BB&B:

 

 

 

 

breeze2

 

 

 

 

 

They’re a little on the spendy side so what I’m going to do is see if I can find 12×12 scrapbook paper kind of like this (at least the same color scheme) and glue them to a 12×12 canvas from a craft store. The master bath will be this same color scheme: taupe and light blue. LOVE IT!

I have more ideas but it’s time for bed. I’ll keep them flowing some other time. 🙂

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Sitting on pins and needles!

16 Jun

The sellers of the house we made an offer on are meeting about our offer right now as I type. I am so nervous and excited!! It’s good that I get to leave work in 8 minutes because I cannot concentrate right now!!

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We’re putting an offer down!

15 Jun

After going out with our realtor 3 times to look at houses; having endless conversations about options, prices, and dates with Travis; and almost completely pulling the plug on buying a house due to budget constraints (which were alleviated by my parents, who generously offered to help us with our down payment), Travis and I have found the house we want to buy. It is 3 miles from my work, 8 miles from Travis’. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths (one of which is a master bath!), and a HUGE backyard. And it’s move-in ready, meaning we wouldn’t have to do anything to it before we moved in if we didn’t want to.

Our realtor wrote up an offer and sent it to us today. In about 1 1/2 hours, she is going to call us to go over the offer, make any necessary changes, and then sent it to the sellers’ agent. We should know by tomorrow at the latest if they are going to counter or accept. We’re so excited!!

The wheels in my head are already turning with thoughts of how I could decorate the kitchen and the bathroom and what we could put where. Bad, I know, because I’ll be heartbroken if we don’t get this house. But I keep reminding myself that God is sovereign and all of His plans for our lives–including our house–have been pre-ordained by Him. Like our realtor says (in a secular mindset), if it’s “meant to be” (i.e. ordained by God), it will happen and it will be easy. If it feels like putting a square peg in a round hole to get the deal to go through, it wasn’t meant to be (i.e. it wasn’t in God’s plan).

Here’s a picture of the house from the outside:

house on garland
There are 2 huge pine trees in the front but the yard is very green and well-kept. It is a one-story brick ranch (the kind of house I said that I would never buy!) and on the smaller side (about 1100 square feet) but it’s a very efficient use of space and just the cutest little house ever! And with 3 bedrooms, Travis and I can still have an office, a guest bedroom, and our master bedroom. The kitchen and the main bath were both updated within the past couple years so they are very nice. There are 2 big windows, one in the living room and one in kitchen, facing east and west respectively–so lots of light in the main rooms of the house. 2 of the bedrooms have 2 windows and the other one has 1 window.

It’s a one-car garage, which Travis was a little disappointed about. But in our price point and in the neighborhoods we’re looking at, 2-car garages are very few and far between. The garage on this house is oversized, though, so Travis can still have a workbench at the far end. There is also another parking spot on the side of house (note the SUV in picture) and lots of street parking. The neighborhood is very tidy and quiet but there are little kids running around so it’s not just senior citizens (which is good).

Overall, we just love the house and are very excited/nervous to see what the sellers say tomorrow. We are putting an offer in $2K lower than their asking price + $5K in concessions. We’ll see what happens!!

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The Crazy Adventures of Save and Spend

7 Jun

So we made it through our first day of house hunting. Travis and I went out with our realtor Victoria (she’s great!) to see 14 different houses today. We really liked 2-3 of them. They were a nice size, with great layouts, in our price point. But some of them were so weird and gross…hard to believe anyone can live like that!

For the past 4 hours, Travis and I have been having a very heated debate/discussion/argument about our finances, spending habits, and mortgage amounts. He tends to get very pessimistic and Debbie Downer during times like this when he feels very pressed financially–“I just don’t want to spend so much money buying a house that we can’t enjoy it or put anything in it.” He also wants to put exorbitant (IMO) amounts of money in savings.

Needless to say, I tend to be very optimistic and borderline idealistic during times like this. I see a problem and start brainstorming solutions–“Well, we’ll just stop going out to eat and only limit movies in the theaters to once a month and save half of our ‘blow money’ to fly to Mexico in March with my family” (or else we wouldn’t be able to make it happen). In a lot of ways, it might end up being like my New Year’s Resolutions: very ambitious but hardly ever carried through.

But I am willing to change our lifestyle somewhat to make buying a house possible. And we’re not talking about a $300K 2,500 square foot tri-level mansion. We’re talking about a $170K 1,000 square foot ranch house (but there are some really nice ones out there!) And we wouldn’t have to reduce ourselves to rags and Ramen. We just couldn’t splurge on new camping gear and plane tickets and going to the Frozen Four for $150 a person. Things would be a little tighter, they’d be a little hard.

But we would grow. We would be forced to depend on God for provision. I don’t think that going into buying a house right now is a poor financial decision. We have about $600 wiggle room for “things that make life enjoyable” each month so it’s not like we’re putting all of our pennies into the same piggy bank, hoping we never need that money for anything else.

So I have proposed a trial run: for the month of July, we pretend that we have a mortgage. And are saving for Mexico in March. And are saving for grad school in September (which is SO CLOSE!) We limit our “date money” and we only get half of our “blow money.” Travis thinks it will be absolutely horrible. I think that it will be doable. (which is very weird considering I’m the spender and he’s the saver…) I think that we just need to be more discriminatory about when we go out to eat and to movies, etc. We have to make it count.

We will see how it goes. But a praise: today, I really felt like I was trusting the Lord to provide a house for us instead of freaking out that the house we like will be snatched up. I even prayed throughout the day when I felt myself getting overly excited for the Lord to remind me of His sovereignty and goodness. This morning, I felt reassured by this verse in Ephesians: “And now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

To God be the glory because I am nothing without Him.

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Us, homeowners?

25 May

Travis and I drove around and looked at houses again today after having a little BBQ and reading session in a park near our apartment. The first 3-4 houses we looked at were “Eh?” or “Ew!” so we weren’t feeling very optimistic about the houses for sale in our price range. But the last 3-4 houses we looked at were more like “You know, given the right touches and help, this house has some potential” and “I could see us living here.” So we headed home with high spirits and high hopes.

So now the action plan is: prayer. Prayer, prayer, and more prayer. Travis and I are really asking a lot with the whole house hunting scenario. We want a nice, well-kept home selling for no more than $200K ($175 would be more like it), with a large yard, porch and/or patio/deck, a 2-car garage, a master bedroom w/master bath, and at least one additional bedroom and bathroom. On our “wouldn’t it be nice” list are: vaulted ceilings, open floor plan, lots of storage, big windows, and only minor tweaks needed (like not needing to overhaul the grody outside color of some houses!! honestly, WHAT were some people thinking?!?!?!?) 

In addition to all those requests, we are having our first day of looking at the insides of houses on June 7th. Hopefully, we’ll get to know what we like and don’t like, see what’s on the market, what goes for what price, etc. Then, according to our plan, we have a 2-week window to find a house we like, put an offer down, have it accepted, and set a closing date at the end of July. Some people spend 2-3 months looking at house (or longer!). We have about 2-3 weeks. 🙂

So you can see how we’re asking for a lot…

But God is able and willing to provide. And even when all of life falls into place just how I think it should, God is behind it, orchestrating it all. Even if our house plans don’t fall into place how I “think they should,” God is good and sovereign and has a purpose for everything.

So as we’re driving around looking at houses, and I can feel rising up in me the controlling maniac that wants to run up to the door of a house that I “kinda like” and yell “We’ll take it!”, the same maniac that will throw a fear-based temper tantrum if I see a house I want to put an offer on but Travis doesn’t, I know that I need to ground my heart and trust in the Lord everyday. I need to be a godly woman whose roots are sunk down deep into the truth of the gospel, a woman who doesn’t fear ANYTHING that is frightening (insert John Piper’s voice from his sermon The Beautiful Faith of Fearless Submission).

God will provide. He always does.

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