October Recap

Can anyone else keep up with all of the photos they take on their cell phones these days?? I'm falling behind. I finally transferred photos to my computer from my phone and couldn't help but want to share an October recap!

Oct. 2nd - we said goodbye to our home in Alabama. The movers came and packed up our house and we made the final trek north. I can't believe this was only a month ago that this happened!!! I feel like we've been living in Cleveland for so much longer!

Oct. 17th - Ross' good friend, Christina, got married! The reception was held at the Rivers Club at the Oxford building in downtown Pittsburgh, which was the same building and floor I used to work on when I worked at GVA Oxford 7 years ago! Talk about a trip down memory lane :) Ross took a pic of me in front of my old office too which I need to find and share!

 Does this dress make me look fat pregnant?!

 

Ross & Jay feeding eachother. Yeah.... I don't ask. I was just told to take the picture...

Here's *almost* the entire gang of Ross' friends! What a good lookin' group :)

All in all, it was a great night! And I spent a majority of it at the cookie table. No shame.

October 25th - Ross & I snuck in a maternity photoshoot before it was too late! I NEVER hire a photographer, so this was a true splurge for me, but I knew I just couldn't do it myself and I really wanted to capture this phase of life before our next chapter begins! (and a remote & a tripod only go so far!) I shared my favorite pics on facebook and am ecstatic with how they came out! The lady only charged $150 for a one-hour session, and I couldn't believe how many pictures she got in such a short amount of time! And how talented she was! Best money I ever did spend :) I've hired her again for a newborn session and some hospital photos. And THEN I promised Ross that I would stop spending all our money on professional photos and start doing them myself, haha.

October 27th - the official closing date on our house in Alabama. All went smoothly, at least I heard. We FedEx'd our portion of papers and didn't hear another word. Another chapter closed!

October 31st - Halloween!...

Ross & I had no special plans for Halloween this year, but Ross' parents decided to come up for the day, so it turned out to a be a fun day of carving pumpkins, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and Ross trying to scare the trick-or-treaters.

I picked up a small pumpkin for baby girl, since it was the same size as my belly!

Ross always wants the largest pumpkin!

Below - My 'costume' for the year. And Ross' scarecrow costume he wore to scare children. I told him to only scare the older kids, I'm not sure he obeyed :/

Ross had Halloween music playing in the bushes, him and his dad both dressed up to scare kids, and my MIL, Rose, and I sat inside and handed out candy. It was a really nice evening and we had a good turnout of about 75 trick-or-treaters.

November 7th - Mom and dad came up for the day to visit and took us out to lunch. We tried to show them a bit of Cleveland. Mom just wanted to see the water though so we took them to a park up the road from our house and took in the scenery of Lake Erie :)


I have to say, it is SO nice being able to have day-visitors! And I bet they'll be coming around even more once baby girl comes along. I'm really enjoying it (for now!) and love showing everyone our cute neighborhood and our rental house. I am just so happy and content in this home, I'm counting my blessings that the Lord allowed us this opportunity to rent a 'house' and not be stuck in an apartment (again). I knew I would grow restless immediately if it felt like a 'rental' but our house doesn't. I am so content to not even think of our next step. I'm enjoying where we are right at this moment! And Ross is really enjoying the fact that we have a landlord to call on when something breaks, haha. It's a welcomed break from the home renovations we're used to!  And our landlords, by the way, are awesome. They are a married couple in their mid-30's with 2 young kids and simply outgrew this house. The had trouble selling the house this past year and finally decided to rent it out. They have been so easy and kind to work with anytime something comes up! I think they are just as happy to have someone renting it as we are to not be tied down to a mortgage :)

As for baby girl updates, Ross & I are anxiously counting down the remaining 4 weeks. I'm getting pretty uncomfortable these days. I'm having trouble sleeping and breathing when I lay down, heartburn, etc. I think now that we're settled in and our lives are calm again, we're ready to just meet her. And hopefully by the time she comes, we'll have thought of a name!! Ross has a few favorites, but I have none :( Ross may get to decide because I just can't think of anything I really like, haha. We'll see. Hopefully once she's born something will click.

Anyway, it's crazy to me to look back at this month and realize we only settled down in Cleveland a few weeks ago!! I feel like we've been settled for months. I guess my lightning speed unpacking did us some good, ha.

So for these next few weeks, I'll keep trying to enjoy the rest of this pregnancy and enjoy having Ross all to myself. But omigosh.... I'm so excited to meet our baby girl!!! *squeal*

*Kristin*

Newbies in Cleveland :)

I have to go back and read my old posts to see where I last left off! It's amazing how our lives have changed in just over a month! I can't remember the past 24 hours, let alone the past 2 weeks, but here it goes!...

Our house in AL is *SOLD*. The official closing date is not until 10/22, but the inspection period went well and it should be smooth sailing until then.

Last weekend, Ross & I made the first trek up to Ohio with his car and Dakota. We're currently living out of a hotel in Cleveland until our rental house lease begins (Oct. 1st). It's been the first time in weeks(!!) that I've had enough time to just sit and watch tv. Hotel living really ain't that bad and we'll be out of here in no time :)

Ross started his job at Alcoa this week. It's been all training and meeting people this week, so not much to report other than he'll have his hands full once he gets in the swing of things! The environment will challenge him in his career but he's so good at what he does, I'm confident he'll do great. And if he doesn't, well heck...we'll just move again! :)  #kiddingnotkidding

Our movers are scheduled to come pack up our house on 10/1 & 10/2, so I'll fly back down to B'ham for the week to oversee that, see my coworkers one last time in the office before completely working remotely, and make the final trek up to OH moving my vehicle this time (Ross will meet me down there to help with the drive). This will be our FINAL farewell to Alabama and the life we made there these past few years. It's always bittersweet to see your house left empty as you drive away but it's hopefully for the better!

We'll move into our rental house the first weekend of October. Of course, our furniture and belongings will not arrive for another 3-10 business days, but that's expected. Let's hope it's not more than 10 days (movers love to make promises that never keep!). We'll be sleeping on an air mattress until they arrive with our bed. I'll make sure to play up the pregnancy sympathy card while they are packing up the truck :)

Here's a pic of our rental house that I stole from the internet...


The house *feels* like a rental but I'm sure once I give it a thorough cleaning and get our stuff unpacked, it will feel like home! It's been vacant a few months so it needs some TLC.

It's the cutest house in an adorable neighborhood with sidewalks and tree-lined streets... I've always envied these cute neighborhoods and thought now would be the time to try one out since we're only renting! It's in the town of Bay Village, OH. Go ahead... google it. I'll wait :)  Do you see how close Lake Erie is?!?! I'm picturing strolls around the neighborhood, waving to neighbors, watching the sunset on Lake Erie, etc. I guess maybe after the dead of winter!...

So now that we're *finally* in the downswing of our chaotic lives, I'm able to focus on Baby Girl. I'm 29 weeks today and feeling good! She's moving a lot more now and I love it! I'm also giving into every dessert temptation I come in contact with, so watch out!!

This weekend, Ross & I have NO plans. I repeat.... NO plans! I don't even know what to do with that. Ross celebrated his 30th birthday on 9/7 while we were camping over Labor Day weekend with our friends in N.C. but we barely got to celebrate with everything going on and I completely failed as a wife to get him a cool, memorable gift (aside from one little item I bought at the last minute), so we're hoping to get out this weekend and just have fun!

Next weekend is mine & Ross' baby shower in Pittsburgh! I'm so excited to see all of our family & friends.... but really, what I'm most excited about?! The 2-hour drive to go home!! (as opposed to an 8-hour trek spent flying & on layovers). Yeah, it's dumb... but 2 hours thrills me! :) And I'm sure the shower will be great as well! haha

So that's it for today :) See most of you next weekend!!

*Kristin*

Before & Afters! (Part 2)

Welcome back! Let's move on to the rest of the house :) I'll warn that a lot of these are just 'After' pics. For whatever reason, we failed to get some before shots of the hideous pink walls we painted over.

Moving on from the kitchen, we have what we use as our Den:

As you can see, we never got around to this redoing this room. This (and one other) room still have popcorn ceilings. I eventually wanted to paint the wood paneling white, but then again, it felt so home-y as-is :) I'm curious what the next homeowner's will do with it. The carpet in this room probably also needs to be replaced, but again, that is for the next homeowners to decide.

Stepping into the hallway, we have the main hall bathroom:

In this bathroom, we removed a very ornate/flowery wallpaper and painted the walls beige (the same beige used in the hallway and spare bedrooms). I also added the frosted window decals so that we didn't need window treatments and still had privacy. Lastly, we installed a new toilet back when we moved in and recently, needed to have a plumber fix the bath/shower fixture (new rough-in for handles and showerhead). I also painted the doors and trim white and gave them new hardware.

Eventually, I would have replaced the flooring and maybe re-purposed the vanity (or at least given it a new top). And replaced that light!!! haha But again, we ran out of time.

Moving on to the Master Bedroom:

It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do!! As well as smooth ceilings, freshly painted white trim, and freshly painted white doors with new hardware. When all is said and done, I repainted 20 interior doors (!!!) in this house from their outdated yellowish white paint to a crisp clean white that matched the new white paint we used on the trim. We also updated all the hardware (hinges & doorknobs) that I bought in bulk online. The white doors made the whole house feel more updated and clean. And I LOVE dark hardware on white doors :)

You can ignore the ugly handy-down dressers... ONE day I will buy us new furniture. *sigh* The fabric headboard I made myself. And lastly, we took down the window treatments and put up white wood blinds that I found at IKEA (they were surprisingly the only ones that would fit the size of our windows).

Attached to our bedroom is a Master Bathroom (though there's nothing Master about it!):

When we moved in, I immediately removed the wallpaper, painted the walls gray, put the frosted decal on the window (not shown) and installed a new medicine cabinet. 

Moving on to the 2 spare bedrooms across the hallway from our bedroom.

Here is the guest bedroom:

And another spare bedroom:

In each of these rooms, the walls were pepto-bismol pink and the walls were dirty and filled with nail holes. It took a lot of prep work to get them ready to paint. 

Again, we had to scrape popcorn ceilings in both of these rooms, painted the ceiling white, painted walls the same beige, painted the trim, installed window treatments, and also tackled painting the doors white. What a difference!

Finally, we have a room upstairs where the previous homeowners converted some attic space into a 4th bedroom and 3rd bath:

This room we tackled a week before listing the house! We've never used the bathroom (it's tiny!) and Ross just used this room for storage. It was the same pepto-bismol pink as the other spare rooms and just felt dirty up there. It has walk-in attic access which was really nice. 

Don't you just love the avocado green bathroom?! (it looks much better now that the attached bedroom is not pink, ha!)

So we spent a week (on crunch time!) prepping and painting the bedroom & bathroom beige, painting trim white, and painting the remaining interior doors white. This room also remains with popcorn ceilings. There was no way to tackle that in a week before wanting to list the house with all the other last-minute projects we had going on.

So that's it!! This house was mostly cosmetic updates. Sure, we would've tackled a bathroom or two down the road and maybe the kitchen, but in the short-term, it wasn't worth our effort or money. We made some major improvements as well which helped the value of the house (replaced the furnace, updated the breaker box, etc.).

With this house, we became pros at:

• scraping popcorn ceilings (FYI, it's a LOT of work, scrapping, skim-coating, sanding, painting, etc.)
• painting interior doors (with no brush marks showing :)
• updating electrical (only Ross)
• installing crown molding and baseboards
• installing plank walls (only me!)
• and other numerous projects. 

When all is said and done, we'd probably do it all over again. The payoff to us is a house that we can be proud of and bringing a house back up-to-date! We also love tackling a project! What will be next?!

*Kristin*

Before & Afters! (Part 1)

I'm so excited to have put together some 'Before' and 'Afters' of our house! I didn't have all the before's, but enough that I can look back on these fondly and remember all the blood, sweat and tears that went into every room.

We will have owned this house for 2 years (in Oct. '15) and have accepted an offer on it this week! I'm actually more sad to see it go than I thought I would be, b/c I never loved it. It was't my mid-century style and never could be, but it still had good bones and cleaned up really nicely. The house had a frenzy of showings when it hit the market last week and got a total of 3 offers (one offer which eventually walked, one offer was wayyy too low, and the perfect 3rd offer which we accepted yesterday!).

Here we go!

Welcome to our home:

None of the curb appeal was changed. Just properly maintained :) And Ross got the sidewalk light working again. (We got a LOT of things working again *big disgruntled sigh to previous homeowners*)

Again, just properly maintained, nothing changed.  This backyard is why I love older homes... I can't put a price on mature landscaping and private backyards!


Walking inside, here is the foyer. Such a small space, but one of my favorite 'Afters.'

The flooring is just peel-and-stick vinyl. I have a feature plank wall behind the mirror which really gives the space some visual interest in person :) The chandelier was from World Market ($99!! compared to the expensive PB version). And lastly, since all of the walls are painted a clean white, I painted the door black to make it *pop*. I have a new obsession with black interior doors :)

This is the view you get walking in from the entryway:

The walls were repainted a warm gray, popcorn ceilings scraped smooth and painted white, trim painted, decor added and *boom* what a difference! :)

Next up, the dining room:

Again, we painted the walls gray, ceilings smoothed, trim painted, new light fixture. Oh, and we removed the chair rail wainscoting and had a lot of wall patching to do b/c of that. The chandelier I got on clearance for $50 from Lowe's becuase they switched out their display lighting. *Score!*

Also, all of my window treatments are super cheap. Rods from Walmart and white curtains from IKEA, hemmed to length. I love my frugality :) But also how crisp and clean they look.


Let's move into the Kitchen:

This was one of our biggest undertakings. If I could've completely demo'd the kitchen, I would have (b/c honestly, the cabinets are original (from the 70's) and in bad shape, the previous owners put new faces on them to only make them look good. The inside of my cabinets are avocado green and in rough shape!).

First off, we removed the door leading to the garage on that wall in the right of the picture (behind chandelier) and moved the garage access to the mudroom, where it belongs. Just by closing off the door, the kitchen felt 1000x more home-y. No longer was I looking into the window-pane door to the junk in our garage! I then decided to also plank that wall to give it some visual interest since it's painted white (I'm obsessed with neutral paint right now but using textures instead to give the rooms some interest). Also, a HUGE update was changing out the florescent light to 3 new recessed lights (on a dimmer switch!). It gave the kitchen such a different feeling and WARMTH! I am obsessed with the recessed lighting! Props to Ross for becoming a self-taught electrician these past few years! And with the help of one of his more experienced friends who helped us wire up the 4-way switch.

Another view of the kitchen and the eat-in kitchen area. The clean white walls made such an improvement. We removed more outdated and dirty wainscoting and chair-rail in the kitchen. There was also a LOT of wall-patching to be done when it came down. That's sort of how the plank wall came to be about... I chose to cover up the ugly wall instead :)

Ross & I also finished the crown moulding in the kitchen (a feat I'm really proud of us for. Cutting all those angles was quite the learning curve, but now we're pros!). Ross also finished putting up new baseboards and quarter round. All of those finishing touches really brought the kitchen up to the 21st-century without breaking the bank!

Moving on....

This is our pantry, that leads into the mudroom, and leads out to the newly installed door to the garage. I'm obsessed with our pantry. It's huge!! It was the old washer/dryer location that we converted into shelving, with the same vinyl flooring from the entryway. I also love the hardware I installed on the bi-fold doors, they reflect nicely off of the black photo frames in that hallway. I sadly put a LOT of obsessive thought into these tiny details :/ But pretty hardware makes this girl happy :)

In the photos above, the wall on the right of the pic was actually the first plank wall I decided to do about a year ago when Ross was out-of-town one weekend. I didn't tell him what I was up to but it was fun playing with his miter saw and nailgun :) He wasn't sure if he liked it at first, but over time, is really happy with it. And I am absolutely obsessed (hence the 2 additional plank walls down the road)! I also get a lot of compliments on it so it's makes me blush and love them even more :)

Next up...

 Ok, I lied about the kitchen... the mudroom was DEFINITELY the biggest under-taking.  We hired out a plumber back when we bought the house to move the washer/dryer connection from our pantry to this new location. We had no clue what the purpose of this room was previously, but to us, it made sense to turn it into a mudroom/laundry room. This is also where we installed a new (fire-rated) door to the garage. I came up with the layout, w/ a lot of pinterest inspiration! I needed to make sure I made good use of every inch of space in this tiny room and I think I succeeded! I love this room! The cabinet was from walmart.com and we built around it. Ross made me the built-in bench. I just love how the room serves so many functional purposes!! We also hired an electrician when we bought the house to update the breaker box, a much needed update to this house and well worth it.

That's it for today! The post is already too long, so stay tuned for 'Part 2' of the Before & Afters!

*Kristin*

Happy Easter

Ross and I had a wonderful weekend.  It was in the 80's here and nothing can keep my mood down when it's that nice outside! Our Easter was spent just the two of us but with plans for an Easter Brunch buffet at Ross Bridge Resort. It's a luxury hotel/golf course about 20 minutes from our house.  I've heard spectacular things about the food as well as the setting so we were really looking forward to our Easter Sunday :)

After an inspiring message at church, we headed over to our brunch. Apparently the community of Ross Bridge is more than just a golf course and hotel. They even have a planned community, with pools, playgrounds and a small village of stores/shops. If this isn't the definition of "Pleasant-ville" with every bush and tree perfectly manicured, I don't know what is! Just take a look at the perfection as you drive through the neighborhood:

In the background, you can see a glimpse of the castle hotel. Here's a close-up of the hotel:

Luckily, we did not get lost inside the hotel and found our way to brunch :) The place is massive!

The brunch was nothing short of perfection. The food was delicious, we had everything from lamb to prime rib, many side dishes, pasta, assorted breads, muffins, and an array of desserts! The only stations we skipped were the salad bar and omelet station (we can make those at home ;) We wanted to make sure we had enough room to try everything, and we certainly did! Ross tried all 12 desserts, haha. We got dessert after every trip up to the buffet. We know how to dine :)

Here's a few shots we tried to take ourselves:

We also spent a lot of time outdoors this weekend, cleaning up the yard and planting some container gardens. We bought perennials, hoping these containers will be enjoyed year after year our dollars will stretch year after year! Ross will help me water and maintain them since he has a much greener thumb than I do. How sweet of him :)

We bought two hanging flower baskets for the window box which were annuals. I wanted the look of them spilling over the sides and I love how they turned out:

We're now ready for summer and to get out and enjoy the weather!

*Kristin*

Spring Happenings

Life here is going really well. Ross & I have been here for almost 2 years now and we're finally starting to meet people. Maybe we hold the record for longest time it takes for us to make friends, but I won't fret about it. We were really out of comfort zone when we moved here and it took a deliberate act of joining groups at our church to finally meet people, something we never did in the past in pgh, b/c hey... we had all the friends and hobbies we needed back home! So for us, it was a huge learning curve, especially with both of us being the introverts we are! And finding a church we loved here was just as difficult so I'm happy to be over that road bump.

I joined 2 small groups at church that meet during the weeknights and I *love* them. It's so nice to get out of the house and mingle with like-minded people. Ross joins me for the one group since it's a marriage small group. It's been great to meet other couples and I've gotten a lot out of the group. It actually ends soon but I'm excited to see what comes next and how I can get more involved with our church and such.

Besides finally getting involved, the weather here has been warming up and it's glorious! I actually look forward to yard work just so Dakota and I can get some much needed Vitamin D :) I'll admit, it will be extremely hard to go back to a snow climate one day if we ever move back home. I sure don't miss it! And I sure do love the whole city being closed here when we see a few flurries, haha.

Ross and I are slowly making our house our home. The mudroom is almost complete and I can't wait to share pics!! The progress is slow going on all of our projects but that's only because Ross works so hard during the week, it's hard for him to not want to just relax come Saturday.

Our jobs are still going really well so we're extremely blessed in that sense.  Ross is overly busy at work so I only pray that his workload eases up a bit but other than that, he enjoys what he's doing. Mine is also going well, I'm learning a lot and still love my coworkers.

Well, I had a feeling 2014 was going to be a great year so I can only hope it continues to go that way. So far, so good :) Now, if only I could recruit my friends and family to move here as well, I sure do miss them......

*Kristin*

House Tour!

I kept promising to share pictures of the house, but then it dawned on me to just take a video :) This was the first time using the video function on my dslr so bear with me!


Of course, after watching the video there are 1,001 things I forgot to mention, but here are a few:

- Ross is re-wiring some electrical work in the kitchen for the new mudroom, so pardon the random holes in the kitchen walls and missing faceplate on some of the switches.

- The old W/D closet will eventually become my new food pantry!

- The mudroom is not finished being painted in case you hadn't noticed the half pink/half gray walls. I painted the one wall gray and that's the furthest I got :) The board & batten behind the w/d and bench area will remain white and crisp. I can't wait to have this room done! And my W/D should be arriving on the 14th, yay!

- The backyard was raked into rows of pine straw. That's not a look we're going for, just ran out of steam to finish raking it all!

- There's a handicap pull bar in the main hallway (you see it hanging down). The screws are stripped and we have yet to bother getting rid of it. And the hallway is not as yellow in person as it came out on video... it's actually a pale yellow, but regardless, it will be repainted one day!

- Our cars are still parked outside b/c the garage is full of stuff! We just look like avid Kia promoters :)

So, all in all, you can see where we updated the master bedroom, guest bedroom and living room. And you can see how the rest of the house is coming along. It's all a work-in-progress but we'll get there eventually!! :)

*Kristin*

Thanksgiving and Life in the New House

Well I really was going to update on how the new house has been going, but then remembered that a holiday just passed and could update on that too!

Ross & I had no plans for Thanksgiving. We were actually relieved and happy that we weren't traveling during the busy season. So we stayed in Bham and ate out for our Turkey Dinner. I didn't really have the energy or resources for cooking in our house yet, so eating out was the plan. The buffet I was excited about was already booked, so we made reservations at a different sit-down restaurant and $100 later, were thoroughly dissapointed ....Shoulda/coulda/woulda went to Cracker Barrel! Ho Hum. It gives us something to laugh about at least now, as soon as our wallet stops hurting. Afterwards, Ross took me to see Catching Fire. He hates these movies as much as the Twilight series so I was happy that he was willing to bear it! :) But I loved the movie and it lived up to my expectations! And my popcorn was soaked in butter. It made up for our crappy turkey dinner. I think this holiday was the first time we truly realized how much we  miss our families on the holiday. I always knew when we lived in Pgh how lucky & fortunate we were to be able to celebrate with both families at every holiday. Maybe again one day! Until then, we need to make some of our own traditions.

Anyway, living in the house has been ok. I know, I sound so pessimistic, but I'm stressed, and it's overwhelming.... again. Just like the last house. There will always be a million projects to do. And I still wonder if we should've just bought new. Yes, new houses also have their projects (I've been told), BUT, at least they have new appliances, new plumbing, clean carpet, etc.  Ross & I have one out of 3 bathrooms up and running, though we're already realizing it's almost a complete demo job. The kitchen still makes no sense to me. It is HUGE but laid out so completely wrong. I have to walk from one end of the kitchen to the other to get dinner made. And never seem to have enough counter space. Another complete demo job. But again, we just don't have the means to make any of those renovations, not for awhile. I guess I'll resort to camping out at the nearest home improvement store, waiting for a home improvement show host to ask me if I need any work done at my house!! "Yes," I beg, "Yes!!!" Ah, wait. Those shows only take place in Canada. Ever notice that?

We are however making progress in the laundry room/mudroom. It will hopefully be as nice as all of my pinterest inspiration when it's done! A project that was supposed to take 2-3 weeks though is now on Week 4 and we still have at least 2-3 weeks left. Bad planning! And I haven't had a washer/dryer for 3 weeks now. Ross doesn't seem to think this is a problem. Ugh. I'm trying my best to be patient.

Hopefully in a few weeks I can breathe a sigh of relief. Fingers crossed.

*Kristin*

Settling In

We are finally moved in!! Well, 99% moved in....

The movers came on Saturday and moved a majority of the furniture to the new house. They left behind the piano b/c they needed three guys (even though I specified that when scheduling the move) and didn't have enough room on the truck for the washer, dryer and big screen tv.

Ross & I had to make 4 more runs on Sunday to get the remaining small stuff, clothes, laundry items, and most importantly, the 40" tv, which was a hilariously played out event in case you caught that pic on facebook :) It was our last run and here's how it all went down between Ross & I:

Kristin: I was thinking, we could bring over the smaller tv today. That way we have a TV in the house.
Ross: *looks at me like I'm crazy* Seriously, Kristin? You can't go ONE day without a tv??!
K: Yes, I can! BUT... I CANNOT go one day missing the Walking Dead tonight....
R: Oh, crap. *pause*  You're right. We need to get our tv.

So at the apartment, Ross is carrying the 40" tv ready to load it into the backseat of my crossover, only to realize that it won't fit. He looks at me with dissapointment, pauses..... smiles, then briskly walks around to the front passenger seat and sits down.... all while holding the tv.  It still cracks me up ust thinking about us driving down the highway with Ross gripping the tv in the front seat. My initial reaction was "seriously, this is how we're transporting the tv?!!" as he commanded, "just drive, this will work!" And it did. And we didn't even have to miss a Walking Dead episode. If that's not true dedication, I don't know what is :)

Overall, the weekend was just overwhelming and I couldn't wait to get it over with, as I'm sure all moves are, but Ross & I were still in good spirits and it helps to have some laughs along the way.

Today, I have movers coming again to grab the last 4 big items, so fingers crossed they are bringing 3 guys like I asked and the truck with a ramp so they can avoid steps. And then it will be official! Officially done with apartment living, forever?? Only one can hope :)

*Kristin*

Little by Little

Last weekend was supposed to be our move-in day to the new house, but unfortunately it got delayed to this Saturday. Which actually is working out better even though I'm still eager to get this all over with!

But with the extra time:

• The electrician finished and we have an updated breaker box in the house. And the power is turned back on!
• The plumber should be finishing up today or tomorrow. He had to update our water heater and move the W/D hookups
• The carpets should be cleaned tomorrow. Fingers crossed that the 3rd time's the charm.... I've already been stood up twice so hopefully this new company is better at showing up!
• I finished the living room!! :) ...as far as painting goes
• I'm almost done with the master bedroom. It'll feel good to have freshly painted walls, ceiling and trim done in 2 rooms when we move in!

And on top of that, Ross & I rented a Uhaul last weekend and at least moved most of our boxes to the house. Now only the heavy furniture is left for the movers this weekend. I tell ya, I'll be so happy to be done with the move. And I knew how much I would dread it even back when we began house hunting. Moving is the worst!! Especially when you start to realize how much crap we own (even though I feel like we're pretty good at keeping the clutter down)! I feel a spring yard sale calling my name :)

*Kristin*

What's a girl to do?...

...when the electrician is 2 days behind schedule?
Causing the power at the house to be turned off for an extra 2 days (b/c he's updating the breaker box)?
Interfering with the carpet cleaning appointment I scheduled for Thursday?
Interfering with the movers coming Saturday to move furniture into the house because I absolutely refuse to move any furniture into the house before carpets are cleaned?
What do I do?!

I take a deep breath and realize that I should be thankful that I gave myself one 'buffer' weekend JUST in case things got pushed back.

So I rescheduled the movers for next Saturday, 11/23. Just 3 days before we need to officially be out of the apartment. I told myself we wouldn't plan on moving that Saturday in case we needed some 'extra time.' So I'm glad it was just Plan B and that we even had a Plan B! Of course, I'm just stressed and anxious and really wanted to be done with the move this weekend, but I guess life gives you these lessons to make you learn a thing or two. In particular, that things can't always go my way. And that sometimes, if I just give in, maybe things will go more smoothly than I could've planned! So instead I'm looking on the bright side...

... that I have another week to procrastinate on packing :) ha!

*Kristin*

Closing Progress & Seibert Visit

So we're 2 weeks down in the closing, 2 weeks to go :)

Right now, we're just waiting on getting the appraisal back. We should hopefully hear from them in the next day or two and I'm curious to hear what they have to say. On one hand, the house is move-in ready and doesn't need much work. But on the other hand, Ross & I see huge potential of what it could be!! I'll try my best to not get carried away :) We certainly wouldn't want to put more work into the house than it's even worth.

We gave our 60-day notification to our apartment office so we have the apartment until before Thanksgiving. That'll give us time to hire pros to replace the furnace before we move in and get an electrician to look at a few things.

Other than that, we're sitting pretty. I'm surprised at how much easier this closing has been than the first one, so far. *...as I'm knocking on wood* :)

In other news, Ross' parents were here visiting last week. It was so nice to have visitors and something to look forward to throughout the week! For their week visit, I think we got out quite a bit to explore -- we took them to the annual Greek Food Festival held last weekend, rented a pontoon boat one day and fished (sadly, no catches, even with my breadball fish bait, boo!), showed them our house, visited the Barber Motorsports Museum, visited the Saturday farmer's market that's held downtown, ate at the Whistle Stop Cafe, checked out the local County Fair and more! *whoo* I'm tired just thinking about everything we did :) I think we explored more of B'ham with them in a week than we've done since we've lived here! It was a whirlwind week and they left just in time for the fall weather to set in. It's officially chilly today (aka, high's in the mid-70's :) haha. Yes, it's chilly. There, I said it. I had to use the heat in my car this morning... ha.

Now Ross & I are back to our normal routines. This week, we are revving up for the Walking Dead Season 4 premiere next Sunday! We are in marathon-mode catching up on all of season 3 in the next 7 days! I tell ya... it's a hard life we live....

-Kristin

Settling Down

Well I think I can finally share the news!

Crap, no...no, I'm not pregnant :)

I guess I really need to start off with a different lead-in!

Soooo, Ross & I are buying a house :) Finally, 10+ months of browsing the listings and we finally found something with almost everything on our wish list.

I stole a few pics from the listing page so I could share. Here is the front exterior:

I'm not a huge fan of the green paint on the trim, but being that it was recently redone, I think I'll live with it for a while. But a few things it does have that caught our eye? To name a few, the 2-car garage that is a main-level garage (as opposed to a basement garage), the walk-out patio to the back yard, the ranch style, one-level living, the gorgeous flat lot (a rarity in B'ham) with mature trees, and the projects it has in store for us :)

Yup, we bought another fixer upper. It mostly needs just cosmetic updating. A few fresh coats of paint, taking down some outdated wallpaper, changing light fixtures and we'll be good to go for awhile! Oh, and to replace the original 42-year old furnace! Eek. That is priority #1.

What they did update were the kitchen cabinets:

Not my personal taste but it's nice that they are in good condition. What baffles me is the size of the kitchen! I think I need to add a kitchen island :)

Here's a glimpse of one of the 3 full baths that is in need of updating:

We have a lot of projects on hand but that makes me so excited and the ideas are spinning around in my head... Pinterest here I come!!

A few more facts about the house, it originally had 3 bedrooms/ 2 baths. Somewhere along the way they converted attic space into an additional bedroom & bath bringing it up to 4 beds/ 3 baths. It's great to have the extra room upstairs, but for now, it'll be storage. I like having our master on the main floor anyway.

We close on October 21st but our apartment lease runs until November 26th since we had to give a 60-day notice to vacate. That should give me time to paint a few rooms before moving in, and clean!

So there you have it. I'm happy for this next phase in our life. I know that as much as I hope/dream/wish to be back in Pittsburgh one day, this is the right move for us right now. I can finally settle down here and see where life takes us!

*Kristin*