LADDventure

"Champagne" toast - Day 10

We went over Wednesday night to have a toast to our new home with our roomies, Erik and Jess. We are so thankful for such good friends to put up with us for 4 months. We sat on the floor in the sawdust and drank out of the same paper rodeo cups that our friends drank out of when they got their new house. A night to remember.

ALMOST DONE!

So funny story about the champagne.... We had champagne left over from Jeremiah's 30th birthday party, so we decided we would bring it over to the house that night and properly toast our new home at the last minute. Since it wasn't chilled, someone suggested to put it in the freezer. Um, yeah, note to all of you - do not put champagne in the freezer! The cork popped and there was slushy champagne all over the frozen vegetables and ice cream. So, we had to improvise, thus the Boone's Farm from the gas station on the way :-)

Jess pretending to pop the cork

First AZ Thanksgiving

Mico's spot after dinner under the table

Buddy's spot after dinner at the table with Carrie and Cody. As you can see, he's making new friends. Progress.

Erik and Jess hosted all of us misplaced people.

Windows and Walls - Day 2

These are some pictures after Day 2 of construction. The first two are the repaired windows. They both had a crack, one from a rock (or a bullet if we were in Raytown.)

Here is the repaired wall after they took out the entertainment niche and the floor all ready for new wood laminate with all the tile ripped up and the floor smoothed out.

Patches and Patio Doors - Day 3

We got there yesterday and they had patched every little crack or hole (sounds inappropriate) in the place, which were many.

Here are our new french doors out to the patio (not finished yet, but installed). Bye-bye cheap, ugly, broken sliding door!

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Anyone else feeling like this lately?

Pile o' ceiling fans and light fixtures

The ying and yang of home improvement

Out With the Old - Day 1

Here are the kitchen cabinets with the door removed ready for new countertops and new paint.

Here is where they have ripped out the entertainment niche and the tile floor in the living room, adding lots of space and making room for wood laminate floors in there.

KEYS PHYSICALLY IN OUR HANDS!!!

Ok, for real this time! There is nothing else standing between us and our house. As I write this our realtor is driving over to meet Jeremiah to give him our keys. I actually cried as he called me at work and told me we were officially closed and the selling bank had signed all the paperwork. Nothing more can go wrong at this point, no more hurdles in the way of this part of the process. I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief, and quite literally all new doors are opening for us. I'm going to continue to go have my "omg" moment and post more later hopefully including pics. of us in our new house with huge grins on our faces and champagne in our hands!

Closing Papers Signed!!!!

This morning we went over to the title company to sign our final closing papers on our new house! They now just go to the seller to sign, and then we get our keys (probably by Thursday). We did our final walk-through yesterday with our realtor and I just cannot wait to get in there and start improving the place. The contractors will be ready to hit the ground running, ripping up stuff, putting in new stuff, painting everything that wasn't ripped out.

We were rushing around this morning, trying to get there on time. I was making sure I had all my school stuff ready cause Jeremiah was dropping me off at work afterwards. We were fighting about directions, and who grabbed the check for closing costs, and the fact that he was fogging up the bathroom with his audacity to shower while I was trying to blow dry my hair. We finally got there, in plenty of time, despite my laments that we would be hopelessly late and I should have taken the day off.

As we were signing through the endless stack of paperwork, one sheet in particular caught my attention. Jim, the title company guy put this one in front of us and paraphrased the legalese, as was his way, by saying, "This one just basically says that you are acknowledging you are doing this jointly." I jokingly noted what a good reminder that was as we spent the morning rushing around being crabby with each other and fighting over directions. But, as I think about it throughout the day, I am really moved by what an important symbol of our new life it was to sit in that office, signing everything together, doing this jointly.

The "Before" Pictures of the New House

Ok so we don't close until Nov. 13th and then we have about 2 weeks worth of work that's being done before we move in, but here is the house as is before improvements and some remodeling.

Ok that's all you get for now :-)