Our new home

Just a quick update on our new home.

We moved into our home on Wednesday and Thursday. The movers were here at 8am on Thursday morning and didn't leave until almost 4pm. The cat was locked into the spare bathroom so he wouldn't be disturbed and no one would accidentally open the door. He seemed to survive okay. We didn't pick up the dogs until that evening when we had found our dog cage and bed.

We didn't realize how much stuff we owned. =) It's been an adventure trying to find things. The packers weren't great at putting things together. So we have all of our clothing - but no hangers, some toys - but not all of them and no toy boxes, and books mixed with dishes and clothes.

It's been five days and we still don't have everything unpacked. But a little bit gets done each day and we will have it done eventually. In the mean time we are LOVING living here.

It's only a few minutes to the stores and yet we live in a country setting. Our neighbors have been stopping by all week to introduce themselves and Dominic has found neighbor kids to play with every afternoon.

This house is, of course, bigger than than the carriage house we moved from and I'm enjoying the extra space.

Today during the kid's quiet time I sat in our new library chair and enjoyed the peace and quiet while I read a book I pulled from one of the boxes. Just the fact that I'll have all of my books within reach again is enough to make me fall in love with this home. =)

Our puppies are the cutest things ever. The kids are enjoying them and Dominic is getting over his fears very quickly. The fence has a 3 inch space beneath and this is just enough for Sarah to squeeze under and go back to Mommy. Josie has surprised us by staying at home. She's the more talkative of the two, but seems to be less of a trouble maker. We purchased some fencing to attach to the current fence that will prevent escapes. We just have to find the time to put it up.

I have quite a few cute pictures, but will post when I have more time.

Have I mentioned how much we love our new home? =)

We made it!

Well it was a long process with plenty of stress, but we made it. Here's the story.

We didn't close on the NC house at 9am. Closing was pushed to 2:30pm. Which didn't get us enough time to close here in Cookeville. We were pretty upset. The movers were already on their way and we weren't sure what to do. If they didn't come today then we would have to wait until next Wednesday because of Labor Day weekend. Also the lease expired on our storage unit and we didn't want to have to pay another month for just one day's worth of use. So Jon emailed the attorney and our realtor and begged to close with just the final paperwork and the promise of money tomorrow.

I wasn't sure it would work because we had asked to move in before closing and the owner had said no. But it turns out that she had wanted to dig up all of the rose bushes in the yard and forgot to put that into the contract. So she was hoping that by saying yes to closing without the money that she would be able to get her roses.

I said yes and we closed today with the money on it's way (wire transfer) but not here yet.

So after we closed we ran over to the storage unit which had a lease expiring today and cleaned it out. We now have a few things in our home and are spending our last night at the hotel before meeting the moving truck at our new home at 8am tomorrow.

Home Sweet Home!

Anxiously Hopeful!

Today is Tuesday. Three business days from when our house was supposed to close. Our NC realtor "thinks" that we will be closing at 9am tomorrow morning. I'm having a really hard time being hopeful. When I see the final paperwork I'll be more hopeful. If we get that paperwork today, then we will be closing on the New Bern house at 9am and the Cookeville house sometime in the afternoon. IF this doesn't happen we will be in a pickle. Because the movers are leaving at 7am tomorrow to drive here so that they can begin unloading our things at 8am on Thursday morning. Talk about pressure!

But Jon and I have prayed and are trying to patiently wait.

Frustration!

Jon and I are pretty frustrated right now!

We were supposed to close on our New Bern house on Friday. But the lender for the buyer didn't start paperwork until Friday morning (closing was scheduled for 2pm). So they came up with some things that needed to be done. So the closing was pushed to today (Monday).  Now they are coming up with more and more things. So we are just hoping that we can close tomorrow in time to get the money for our Cookeville closing which is scheduled for Wednesday. Ahhhhh! The stress!

But if for some reason we don't get the NC house closed in time we'll just keep pushing the TN closing back until we can get everything in order. It just means that we have a ton of people to call to reschedule things that we had planned for after we had closed.

Spending Money

This weekend was tax free weekend. So we went shopping. We needed quite a few things and had put off getting them because we knew that we were moving. And now we needed some new things for the house as well. So we drove to Mt. Juliet (suburb of Nashville). At one store we were able to find most of the things on our list. But as the shopping cart began to fill up I started to feel panicky. I know that we have the money for it, but I just can't stand to spend so much. So I volunteered to take the kids outside so Jon could go through line and I wouldn't have to see the total. Completely crazy, I know. But it somehow made me feel better.

The kids have been having so much fun in spite of the cramped quarters and crazy messed up life we seem to be leading right now.

Caitlin playing with Dominic's hat.

Dominic enjoying his legos.

Dominic and Tolkie watching a dvd during quiet time. 

The cat would actually move if the screen was turned so he couldn't see it.

The kids asked me to take their pictures. Notice that in most of these pictures Dominic is wearing the same shirt? It isn't the same day. He had a drawer full of shirts and every time I wash this he puts it right back on again. He said green is his favorite color.

One more month

Received news from the seller today that we can't move in before our closing date. We were not surprised by this and were actually expecting it. It seems that the house was under contract before us and the buyers started moving some things onto the property before closing and then their financing fell through. The seller had a time getting their things off the property. So not surprising that she didn't want to deal with that again.

So now we have a definite date to move into our new home. September 1, 2010. Also our 14th wedding anniversary.

I convinced the repair man to leave the dehumidifier in our room and he also removed the mold from the walls. So now we are set. We can begin making plans for our new home and wait (hopefully patiently) for our closing date.

Under Contract in Cookeville!

When we didn't get the house that we had made an offer on we were disappointed. But then I remembered that we were disappointed about the job in Greensboro and God had something even better planned for us (Cookeville). So I called our realtor and scheduled to look at some more houses yesterday. It was the last day that my mother-in-law would be here to watch the kids so I needed to find something unless I wanted to take 2x as long and drag the kids with me.

We looked at several houses that were nice, but I found an older home in a really nice neighborhood. It was built in the 60s and had only had one owner. It has approx 1 acre of fenced in back yard with a shop building for Jon's Model A and workshop area. The house is 3 bedroom 2 bath w/ approx 2000 sq ft. It needs quite a bit of cosmetic work, but it was priced to sell so we made an offer that if accepted would allow us to pay cash for the home.

They accepted this morning and we are under contract. We are super excited. It isn't the prettiest home right now, but I've seen a ton of homes over the past week and have lots of ideas to incorporate into our home. And since we won't have a mortgage we will be able to start work immediately.

Front view of home.

View of back yard from the patio.

I'll take more pictures when we return from Canada.

While we wait!

My kids have been adjusting very well to the changes we've had lately. They have found a ton of ways to entertain themselves.

This is Dominic's guitar. He's getting pretty good. =)

Dominic has been enjoying emailing all of his friends. He will dictate to me what to say and then type underneath in his "own words". He will place his hands on the keys and try to type just like me.

 One of the perks of living in a hotel is the elevator - at least for Dominic. He has learned to operate the elevator and will ride up all by himself while we ride the other one. He's quite proud of himself.

Watching the helicopter take off next door.

Caitlin's palate is much larger than Dominic's. Dominic will eat the same thing every time we go to Taco Bell (or any other restaurant). But Caitlin seems to want different things. Since she loves vegies we ordered some sides and she had a little salad. She was happy and ate the whole thing. Dominic had his bean burrito that he has every time.

Starting again!

The strangest thing happened with the home that we had made an offer on. Jon and I had really prayed that if it was God's will we would get the house. This morning our realtor called and said that they had taken away part of the acreage and came down on the price $1000. They also wanted to close 2 weeks later (leaving us in this hotel for about 7 weeks). Turns out they didn't want to negotiate and had turned down another offer that was $2000 less than list price. In this market that is crazy! Their realtor wasn't happy with them either.

So. . .we are back to square one. But I'm sure that we will find the most amazing house and be very glad that we didn't get this one. Only problem is my mother-in-law is leaving tomorrow evening so I only have one more day of child free looking. Maybe I'll find something tomorrow. =)

Offer on House

My dad came up today to check out the house that we liked. After he gave his stamp of approval we went to the realtor office and made an offer. I'm sure they will counter, but it gets the process started. We are excited about this house and I have been mentally decorating it. Not a good thing to do, I know. =)

If we get a contract I'll post some pictures. In the mean time please pray!

Safe and Sound

We are finally here in Cookeville, TN. We (my mother-in-law, the kids and I) drove over on Wednesday. The kids were really good. The battery was dead on Dominic's dvd player. He was so disappointed, but handled it very well.

The only problem that we had the whole way there was with our phones. For some reason no one could call us. I did wonder why Jon hadn't called to check on our progress through out the day. Turns out he (along with several other people) had been trying all day to get a hold of us.

The past two afternoons I have spent with the realtor. She has shown me some beautiful homes. But I walked in the door of one and fell in love. It wasn't the one that I was expecting to like the most. It's not the typical style that Jon and I would have gone for, but the home is gorgeous inside and it feels like home.

I called my dad and he's coming over on Sunday to check out the house and give us his professional opinion.

We are staying in a decent hotel, but would really like to be in our own home so we are praying that this house is the one that God wants us to have and we can proceed.

Forward Facing Carseat

The law in NC states that a child must be 1 yr old AND 20 lbs before facing the car seat forward. Poor little Caitlin is 19 months and 19 lbs. But since Jon was taking the Accord so he could haul the motorcycle and kitty I didn't have a choice. Our little Acura doesn't accommodate rear-facing car seats. So Caitlin had her 1st time (we put her forward 1x before when we tinted the windows in the Accord, but it was only for a short ride.) facing forward. As you can tell from the pictures, she loved it.

It's a little difficult getting the kids into the back with a 2-door car, but it's only until we get to TN and then we can put the car seats back. I'm tempted to put her car seat in rear facing again. It's safer and since she can see Dominic she hasn't really minded so far. We'll see what happens. Also if you look closely you can see the top of Dominic's head is almost over the top of his car seat. So he's almost ready for a booster. He's growing up so fast. =(

Moving Out

I think the stress of the move is getting to the kids. At least Dominic seems to be affected by it. Today he mentioned several times that he didn't want to leave our home, that he was going to miss our home so much. In the very next breath he's starting to cry because he can't wait until we get to TN so he can see Daddy. Poor little kid is worn out and confused. I haven't seen him cry this much. Caitlin seems blissfully unaware of what is happening, but is so sensitive that if Dominic is crying she'll cry too even if she has no clue why.

Jon left on Sunday so he could start his new job today (Monday). He was pretty loaded down with stuff, but said he didn't have any trouble getting there. Kitty and a plant made the trip with Jon to TN. I will be bringing the kids and the other plant that we decided to keep.

The packers came today. They did an amazing job and actually got some things loaded on the truck already. So I'm hoping that they will be finished tomorrow before I go to pick up my mother-in-law from the airport in the afternoon.

My temporary barricade for the stairs. They packed my gate.

I've had some interesting moments because I forgot things. Today I forgot to get the hair dryer before it was packed and that is what I had intended to blow up my air mattresses for tomorrow night with. But I'm hoping my neighbor has one I can borrow.

Also I had intended to keep out some paper/plastic eating items in case we wanted something here at the house. Somehow I forgot again. So when I went to get the ice cream out of the freezer (I'm trying to eat as much as I can before we leave and I give the leftovers to my neighbor) I realized that I didn't have anything to eat it with. I found a bowl and a slotted serving spoon that the movers forgot to pack. It was difficult, but doable. =)