Relax.. don't do it...

Yeah I'm singing in my head again :) It was a wonderful day of relaxation today! I went to visit a friend from work with our dogs. It was great! We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine, and I didn't think about the boxes laying around the house all day long! It was a much needed break. Plus the puppy had tons of fun too.

Off on vacation this weekend. Can't wait! Kent took of Thursday, Friday and Tuesday next week so we can have a wonderful weekend with all of my crazy family up north! Drummond Island here we come! I'll think about the boxes when we get back next week! Hurray for vacations!

Rental Ready... Check!

Finally, the last load of stuff from the old house is out... perfect timing as the renters are coming over tonight to get their keys! We had to last minute paint a bedroom - I tried to fix a few holes from nails, and we didn't have the paint to touch up the color. One quick trip to Home Depot proved that we could paint a bedroom in under 2 hours. Sheesh! One last road bump in this process... the washer and dryer hose are MIA. I think they got moved to the new house when the movers took the washer. However they can't be found. Here's to an afternoon of looking around the house for them (and most likely running back to Home Depot for some new one!) Other than that, the stuff is out of the house and it is clean and ready to rent! *Sigh! What a crazy week. At least tonight we get some relief. We are off to meet some friends for dinner :) Margarita here I come! Then tomorrow it's back to the good life of unpacking boxes. Almost done with the boxes... but after all of the old house trips yesterday and today, stuff seems to be multiplying again! Will it ever end?!?

Busy in the kitchen!

Well it is official. After one weekend, we have no boxes on the first floor to unpack! (no I didn't move them to another floor!) It's amazing. I spent all weekend organizing the kitchen, living room, and bedroom - okay there are still boxes in the office, but to be fair we don't have furniture in there yet to put anything away! I have no idea where anything is in the kitchen but it is all put away in cupboards and drawers. Plus with the new table in the dinning area the kitchen looks great - and almost finished. I have a few things I need to find a place for, like the beautiful blue bird platter my mom got us for a wedding shower. But other than a few misplaced items - and probably a reorganization once I get used to the kitchen, it's done! Now for the dinning area. I need chairs. The table is a white oak with a honey stain to it... I think I want white chairs but can't seem to find the chairs that I like. I really like the Pier1 Torrey Chairs, but they are a dark brown. Do I get them, sand them down and repaint? That seems like a lot of work for the chairs. Plus they are expensive and I hate to buy something that nice to just sand down and repaint. I like the simple look of the chairs and don't want anything too modern so it is hard to find something that both Kent and I like. We also like the Vintner White Chairs from Crate and Barrel, but the reviews we have seen say they scratch easily. I'm not opposed to wood chairs, but they seem harder to match than the white. Not to mention we need 6-8 chairs and then 3-4 bar stools... More shopping to come. Hopefully we'll decide on something so that when we have book club here next month, we will have something to sit on :) Oh and don't worry, the stools at the island right now are only temporary, we had them in the basement at the old house and needed something to sit on for now.

My First Weekend

Now that our stuff is all here... Kent is off again. He had a golf weekend scheduled for months and left me for the weekend. Boo! It was strange sleeping in our new house for the second night all by myself. I enjoyed running to the local Meijer last night and picking up things for the house. I grabbed more hangers - can one ever have enough? I also picked up two small trash cans for under our sinks in the bathroom. I also bought tons of yummy food for this weekend. Ice cream, popcorn, chips and salsa, cereal, and even some lunch meat for something heathy :) It feels good to enjoy a glass of wine in my new whirlpool tub!

Today was wonderful. I woke up to a beautiful blue house. The sun was shinning. Life is great! I organized our kitchen today, because my parents are stopping by with our new dinning room table. I can't wait to see it. We had it built by a great father/son duo in Saint Joseph, MI. Still haven't found chairs to go with it, but hopefully I'll be inspired once the table is here.

The table looks great, it's unbelievably heavy and will never be moved! Still not sure on the chairs. I'm thinking white or off white but now need to find the chairs that we have in mind. Somehow I can picture them in my head, but can't find them in the stores... darn!

I ran back to the old house to do our first round of cleaning. I freaked myself out when I got there because there was a window that was unlocked and had two very dirty hand prints on the window and the screen was up. I quickly ran around the house looking for the "intruder" it was not a good feeling. Finding no one I began to relax. I cleaned the upstairs and first floor for ever! The fridge was disgusting! How did I even keep food in there! YUCK! I did a quick clean up of the basement, but was losing steam and figured I'd come back for the basement and the garage. We also still need to get our canoe that is in the backyard.

Back at the blue house, I did some weeding while working with Petoskey on finding the boundary of our new electric dog fence. The collar doesn't fit her, so while we order a new one, we have it hanging off her normal collar so that at least she can hear the beep. It's a little makeshift but at least it works. While weeding, I dropped the leash to see what happens. She stayed with me and within the boundaries. This may go better than I thought. I was really scared and nervous for her because while she is young and should be able to pick up the new trick, I was afraid of the horror stories I'd heard about dogs not wanting to go outside anymore after being shocked. Plus I really don't want to shock my dog. Anyways, she was great while I started weeding. It's a slow process, there are weeds everywhere. There is even one in the back yard that is as tall as our deck! It's going to be a long summer of wonderful weeding outside. I get to enjoy the sun and work with the dog... life doesn't get much better!

Moving Day

Moving day started really early. I woke up at 6 - I am really looking forward to sleeping in soon! I took apart our beds and made sure everything was ready for the movers at 8:30. The movers showed up and we were busy packing the truck for hours. The massive Two Men and a Truck truck looked like we would never fill it up, but somehow after 4 hours we filled it to the brim and were off to the new house.

Unpacking was busy, it sprinkled on and off all day and we seemed to miss the storms - thank goodness! The movers helped set up the beds, washer and dryer, treadmill, and furniture as my mom and I rushed around cleaning and removing dog hair from all of our furniture. It's amazing, we are pretty clean people, but there was so much dog hair everywhere. It was gross! I was really embarrassed as the movers moved things around at the old house and we discovered the tumble weeds of hair that Petoskey left behind. At the end of the day, our old house was almost empty and our new house was full of boxes and sorta set up. What a day!

Kent came home and was happy to see that everything had made it safely. We enjoyed our evening and went out to dinner and ran some errands for some pillows (that we couldn't find). It's going to be a lot of fun shopping in the next few weeks!

One more day

Wednesday was long. Work went by really slow, and we only had a half day. We celebrated our last day and a very successful first year. Teaching online has been great, but I was ready for my house. My mind was elsewhere. We all went out for pie after work and said our summer good-byes. We have such a great staff and I am already looking forward to next year.

My mom came up to help us with the move. Kent couldn't take off work on Thursday for the movers, so she came up to help! Thanks Mom! We took a few trips over to the house and really got ready for the movers. It was a quiet night but we were busy until about 11. I was pooped and happy for one last night in our happy Cape Cod house. We'll miss you...

Wonderful Week

It was a busy week this week. Monday - Wednesday were my last days at work and seemed to drag on as I was so excited to be moving things to the new house each evening. Everything was going great... until...

Tuesday morning, I ran to the allergist for my weekly shots - I hate shots, but it's a necessary evil. Never having any problems, I left the office after only a few minutes (you are suppose to stay for 30-45 minutes). I only work a few minutes away from the office and figured like always everything would be great. Wow was I wrong. Within a few minutes of leaving the office I could tell my arm was having a local reaction - it was swelling up. This has happened before, so no big deal. I got to my office and was really aware of the swelling in my arm... it kept getting bigger. It was about the size of a golf ball and very red too. Then the itching started. At first I didn't relate it to the shot, but within another fifteen minutes I was so itchy all over my body I couldn't sit still and was twitching while sitting at my desk. I had never felt so itchy. I asked my co-worker and best bud to look at my arm, and when she gasped I knew I should go back to the docs. I let the front desk know that I was going to go back to the doctor they said sure and one person even asked if they could drive me. I was thinking "Drive me! No! I'm fine... just really itchy!" I drove the couple of miles down the road and ran into the office. I went right back into the back room and said that I was itchy. Without any hesitation they rushed me into the back room, had two doctors and two nurses at my side and had stuck me with epinephrin. I went from being uncomfortable and itchy to feeling like I was having the worst panic attack ever. My heart was racing and I was very twitchy from the adrenaline. They had a nurse stay with me and take my vitals for thirty minutes and then every ten minutes for an hour. I finally started feeling better, and thank goodness the itching had stopped. I was finally on my was back to work after a crazy morning.

The rest of the day went well considering the morning. I felt like I had a really crazy caffeine high and then I totally crashed in the afternoon. By the time I got home, I fell asleep on the couch and didn't want to move. Kent wanted to install the TV with a friend so we ran to the blue house, but I was of no use. I laid down on the carpet - no furniture yet - and waited for the boys to finish. What a day!

Playing Catch Up

So this past week was a week for the record books. It was unbelievable! First it was 90+ degrees and crazy humid - perfect for packing and getting ready to move. It was gross! Thanks Michigan weather. Last weekend for Father's Day I ran home to my parents to celebrate and go sailing with my dad. Little bit of a headache considering we were getting the house on Sunday, but I made it home and had a blast with my fam on Friday and Saturday. It's only a two hour drive but I just kept thinking about the blue house and all of the packing I still needed to do. Seriously stuff seemed to multiply each time I would close a closet!

Getting the keys on Sunday was wild. Kent and I woke up early to head over to the new house. (okay, I woke up early and stared at Kent until he finally opened his eyes too!) I was so excited I hardly slept that night. We grabbed a quick bite to eat on our way over to OUR HOUSE! We got the new keys in the mailbox and walked into our new house. It was surreal. The house was in great condition. It needed the basic cleaning, but it really was an easy walk through. We were disappointed they took the bathroom mirror - it's that a fixture in the house? Oh well, it's the small half bath off the kitchen and we can grab a new mirror to fill the blank spot above the sink. Everything else looked great!

Kent and I unpacked a few car loads and just really enjoyed seeing our new house. We were still in the giddy "I can't believe it" phase! Sunday went by very quickly and we couldn't wait until Thursday for the movers to come so that we could really spend the night at the new house.

Let the rental begin

Today we were approved for our house to be a rental - Hurray! It was a little nerve-racking but fortunately we are good to go! Our tenants will be moving in at the end of the month - things are really starting to fall into place! We are on track to move on Sunday! We have to change the location of a few smoke detectors, add a plug to our garbage disposal - still not sure what that means, and move a hose for our dishwasher a little higher. Not too bad considering we worked our tails off to replace some carpet and re-grout the bathroom this weekend. Things fell into place and we finally got things done. It only took us three months to finish the carpet. Our dog, Petoskey got very sick as close to the door as possible while we were at work. Poor thing... she really tried to get outside. Unfortunately for us that was the one place in our house with carpet. Needless to say it had to be replaced. So a few last minute fixes and we were on track for the inspection today. Now we have to have the tenants sign and we are one step closer to making this crazy move. I just hope this week goes fast because I'm super excited for Sunday. I am ready with my cleaning list and supplies and can't wait!

Hard to say good bye

We currently own our home that we are in. Like so many others right now we are stuck with it and can’t sell because we owe too much. So on top of moving to a new house we will be trying out the renting adventures. After many horror stories and many fears, we found tenants and they are moving in July 1. It’s crazy to have two mortgages and be up to our ears in debt, something I had never done before. I had the amazing good fortune of wonderful parents who helped me through college – not a free ride, but an amazing help! I married into our house and my first experience with “real” debt. It wasn’t a big deal, but somehow two houses seems like a big difference. It’s a little scary but we are excited to take it all on!

Kent had lived in this house for 6 years and we have been dating for almost 5! It’s been a great starter and sometimes it is hard to think about leaving. We have 3 bedrooms and one bath in a cape cod style house. We’ve had tons of fun and done many projects throughout the years. BC (before Carrie) Kent finished half of the basement. He made a total man cave complete with a bar and movie theater. The bar is a recycled bowling alley lane and is really cool. Kent and I tackled projects like redoing our bathroom – six months later we finally finished the project – like I said earlier thank goodness we didn’t get the fixer upper on the lake! We put in a patio in the back. Thanks to my wonderful in-laws, without whom we’d have never finished (or started) any of the projects. It’s our first home as a married couple and we trained our first puppy together here. It’s our home. Now we are on the move to make another house our home.

Out with the old

It’s been a crazy year looking for our house, we put an offer on a house in March and it fell through. My heart broke because I had mentally moved in and it was a great lakefront property – unheard of in our area! I saw myself buying a pontoon and living happily ever after fixing up a ranch style house. It needed some work, but that’s what young couples do, right? Thank goodness it fell through. Kent and I enjoy the basics but are terrible at the DIY projects around the house. It’s not that we don’t want to be creative, it’s just that it’s a lot of work and we are really not that creative or handy. When the house fell through I thought we’d never find something in comparison. Every house we looked at couldn’t compare. I was crushed. Plus the Michigan weather this spring sucked! There was rain and snow, then craziness that was April and May showers – has it ever rained like that! On one of our Sunday drives, Kent and I checked out a little neighborhood in the greater Lansing area. We found a ranch house that was built by the builder we love and the price was right. It was in the new part of the neighborhood and was one of the few houses build at that end. We lucked out when we drove by and saw that it had an open house. We walked in and really liked the house. It was a ranch with two bedrooms and the potential for two more in the basement. A house we could grow into. But life has it’s way of laughing in your face and holding out for something better. As we talked to one of the architects we learned that the house one street over was also just listed and was a killer price. We had to check it out. We did and it was nice, but we didn’t fall in love. We were pretty set on the ranch. One week later, we went back to the ranch for a second look. We weren’t convinced, the honeymoon had worn off and we really didn’t like that it only had two bedrooms and that it was expensive for a two bedroom house that had been on the market for almost 5 years! Crazy right! We decided to take another look at the second house and fell in love. For me, I realized that we had an amazing house in the neighbor hood we wanted to be in for a killer deal. For Kent, it was the built in speakers both inside and out that were playing when we walked in that sealed the deal. We made an offer, after one day we heard back with a counter, we accepted and that was that! We had signed in less than 24 hours! We scheduled our inspection and were well on our way to owning our new house.

The inspection went well, only one qualm, the radon was high and we needed a mitigation system put in to take care of it. One quick addendum and the sellers were going to put it in. Only one more thing, we now had to wait for their kids to finish school before we could move. It was a long wait but we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. What a crazy few months. I can’t imagine getting the house on the lake now, it seems like such a blessing to be moving into our dream house.

Moving on up...

Hi! I’m Carrie and this is our crazy life story of moving in to a new house. I got married in September to the most wonderful man; Kent (I know it’s cheesy!) and we have a goofy golden, Petoskey that keeps us all entertained! I am an online teacher for the fourth and fifth grade. This year was my first year online, it’s totally different than a classroom but I love it! I started this past fall – while I was getting married – it was a busy year. We figured I started the year with a bang; we should end the school year that way too… we are moving into our dream house on Thursday and I can’t wait! After searching, and driving, and open house after open house… we finally found the right one! We get the keys on Sunday and I am already dreaming about my plans to clean and organize … I have a bit of an obsessive personality – really want to be organized and I buy into the latest trends for organization but it always falls through J I somehow fall back into my old ways and leave the mail on the counter and the laundry on the floor. We have high hopes for this next house, so fingers crossed!