Yes, 5000 sq. feet is a lot, but 2000 sq feet is basement and so will just be storage at first and I can work up to 5000 square feet sloooowly (and the cleaning of it). I will be glad to have the space, though, and you can bet we planned for plenty of storage. We have been in an almost 1900 sq. foot house, but moved from a 3000 sq. foot house. It's amazing how different that is!
No, I don't get any new furniture for a while...we have just budgeted to get in the new house and for landscaping, etc. right now. New furniture will come later. That's okay, though, I certainly don't want to be in debt for that! Plus, that gives me time to really look and see what I might want and where I will want it.
Yes, I am very excited about the whole thing. I am a little overanxious now, though and am imagining where everything will go in the kitchen, laundry room, etc. That's the fun part for me, though...the planning.
Thanks for all the encouraging comments! It's so great to have friends and family who encourage me in this journey.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
This week so far Jan. 16-18
Well, Tuesday morning at 10am, the inspector came for our Certificate of Occupancy Inspection and Alyssa had her driver's test for her license. We passed our Certificate of Occupancy, but Alyssa did not pass.
For the Certificate of Occupancy inspection, the inspector had nothing to reinspect! Everything is fine and they don't need to come back. Woo Hoo! Now on to the "essentials before we move in". This will be finishing kitchen counters (we kind of need to eat and can't go out for every meal....hmmmm...or can we?...naaaah!). We also would like to get primer paint on the walls so we don't have white dust all over us and everything else all the time. Tim can do the final painting after we move. He loves to faux paint and do fancy effect painting on our walls and if we had to wait, it would be another three months or so. We also will need to do some backsplashes in the bathrooms as we don't want water splashing down behind the vanities and mirrors in the bathrooms. Tim also has a shower door to put in the girls' bathroom and ours is being made, but we can live with a shower curtain if it takes too long. Last, but not least will be the closet organizers and pantry and linen closet shelves. You gotta have a place to hang your clothes and I will need shelves to put food on in the pantry and linen closets. I think that is about it and it shouldn't take too long (maybe four weeks or so). Tim is not planning on taking any parts of his shifts off, though, so it may take longer depending on how fast he can work.
I have in the back of my mind the lesson God may have wanted to teach her through not passing her drivers test the first time, but I am not sure whether or not she learned it. We went back the next day and she did pass with a 96%! Now we have another driver in our house. Last night it was so nice to have her drive the girls to AWANA and pick them up. I think I might really enjoy this!
For the Certificate of Occupancy inspection, the inspector had nothing to reinspect! Everything is fine and they don't need to come back. Woo Hoo! Now on to the "essentials before we move in". This will be finishing kitchen counters (we kind of need to eat and can't go out for every meal....hmmmm...or can we?...naaaah!). We also would like to get primer paint on the walls so we don't have white dust all over us and everything else all the time. Tim can do the final painting after we move. He loves to faux paint and do fancy effect painting on our walls and if we had to wait, it would be another three months or so. We also will need to do some backsplashes in the bathrooms as we don't want water splashing down behind the vanities and mirrors in the bathrooms. Tim also has a shower door to put in the girls' bathroom and ours is being made, but we can live with a shower curtain if it takes too long. Last, but not least will be the closet organizers and pantry and linen closet shelves. You gotta have a place to hang your clothes and I will need shelves to put food on in the pantry and linen closets. I think that is about it and it shouldn't take too long (maybe four weeks or so). Tim is not planning on taking any parts of his shifts off, though, so it may take longer depending on how fast he can work.
I have in the back of my mind the lesson God may have wanted to teach her through not passing her drivers test the first time, but I am not sure whether or not she learned it. We went back the next day and she did pass with a 96%! Now we have another driver in our house. Last night it was so nice to have her drive the girls to AWANA and pick them up. I think I might really enjoy this!
Monday, January 15, 2007
Jan. 15, 2007--And we have more cleaning!!!
Today consisted of...you guessed it...more cleaning! We worked on the basement today and it was an absolute mess with drywall tape and texture dust everywhere. Why did I say 5000 square feet was a good size of house?
We all headed over right before lunch (except Alyssa, she stayed behind to get caught up on her drivers log for her test tomorrow). After I got there and we got started, Tim asked where Alyssa was as he was going to work with her a little on parallel parking. I had to go home and get her and then I got the girls lunch on my way back. It's a very good thing it's only 3 miles.
After we got there the girls went to eating and I headed down to the basement to get going again. After a little while Tim took Alyssa to parallel park the car in the street. He said she did pretty well. I looked like I had completely grey hair by the time we got done cleaning and my clothes were all grey and white too. We finished everything, but the extra pantry, bedroom and wine cellar. There was stuff in there I wasn't sure what to keep and what to throw away and Tim didn't have time to help us go through it so we left it for another day, but did get some stuff cleaned up in those areas. When we were almost ready to go, the neighbor came out and asked if Tara could come over to play. Of course, we said yes (she had been waiting for them to come home all afternoon so she could go over). We were ready to go in the meantime and so left her there for Tim to bring home when he leaves.
The girls and I came home so Sammy could shower before she babysat tonight. I jumped in the shower after she was done and feel so much better. Those are the best kinds of showers....when you really feel the dirt washing all off you and you know you have worked hard! I still need to go to Walmart tonight to get more milk, coffee and dinner stuff. I am not sure what we are having yet, but will contemplate that as I finish getting ready to go. After I get home I need to make the weekly menu and do some planning for this week.
We all headed over right before lunch (except Alyssa, she stayed behind to get caught up on her drivers log for her test tomorrow). After I got there and we got started, Tim asked where Alyssa was as he was going to work with her a little on parallel parking. I had to go home and get her and then I got the girls lunch on my way back. It's a very good thing it's only 3 miles.
After we got there the girls went to eating and I headed down to the basement to get going again. After a little while Tim took Alyssa to parallel park the car in the street. He said she did pretty well. I looked like I had completely grey hair by the time we got done cleaning and my clothes were all grey and white too. We finished everything, but the extra pantry, bedroom and wine cellar. There was stuff in there I wasn't sure what to keep and what to throw away and Tim didn't have time to help us go through it so we left it for another day, but did get some stuff cleaned up in those areas. When we were almost ready to go, the neighbor came out and asked if Tara could come over to play. Of course, we said yes (she had been waiting for them to come home all afternoon so she could go over). We were ready to go in the meantime and so left her there for Tim to bring home when he leaves.
The girls and I came home so Sammy could shower before she babysat tonight. I jumped in the shower after she was done and feel so much better. Those are the best kinds of showers....when you really feel the dirt washing all off you and you know you have worked hard! I still need to go to Walmart tonight to get more milk, coffee and dinner stuff. I am not sure what we are having yet, but will contemplate that as I finish getting ready to go. After I get home I need to make the weekly menu and do some planning for this week.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Jan. 14--A Day of Cleaning Up
Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me today, but after going to church in the morning, we headed home, changed clothes and went to the house to do some much needed clean up before the inspection Tuesday. Jenna went with us at first, but then went home because she wasn't feeling great (we have had pink eye spreading around our family) and she needed to study for finals next week. Meanwhile, Sammy, Alyssa, Tara and I stayed at the house and worked on cleaning up the HUGE mess that the construction workers have left after they are done. I have noticed that construction workers (most of them that have been doing work on our house, anyway) just drop everything where they are and never clean up after themselves. This includes lunch trash and soda cans. Tara actually ended up at the neighbors playing with their daughter most of the time, but that was just fine with me as it made clean up a little easier. The girls and I cleaned up all of this stuff and then did some sweeping and vacuuming. We pretty much finished the main floor and the upstairs (I am not going to worry about the tower as it is not too bad and doesn't even have the flooring we will put down there). Tomorrow we will all go back (Jenna included this time because it is a holiday from school) and work on the basement. It is an absolute disaster! The hardest part is figuring out which is trash and which isn't as far as scraps are concerned. We also didn't get to the kitchen today as the countertops are still being tiled and it would be of no use to clean it up until it is done. I have decided I may need to give myself a whole week just to clean the new house before we move in! The construction dust is EVERYWHERE and can't really totally be cleaned up until most of the main construction is done. We are also hoping the guys come tomorrow to help Tim with the handrails as that is a Certificate of Occupancy requirement. Then tomorrow night we can call for an inspection on Tuesday. You can bet that if we pass that inspection (and Alyssa gets her driver's license as well) there will be some major celebrating going on in our household Tuesday night. WOO HOO!
The girls and I came home before Tim and I started dinner. Since I couldn't really make what I had planned as it was supposed to go in the crock pot and I didn't get that done before we left here, I am making roasted chicken breasts with honey mustard glaze and wild rice as well as a salad. The chicken is in the oven and I will get started on planning for next week while it and the rice cooks. Tonight should be a quiet night with everyone at home (I forgot a friend of the girls is coming in a little while to stay the night...oh well) and Tim was at work last night so I am sure he is tired.
I am glad to be caught up and back to blogging again. I really missed it and people have asked me when I will post again. I will definitely try and get more pictures tomorrow of the house and my kitchen. Tim took a picture of me doing some of the smart-wiring (wiring for all of our computer stuff as well as security, etc.)yesterday so maybe I will have to get that posted as well. Me wiring....what a concept! Actually, it is kind of fun as it kind of goes with my techno-geek tendencies and the guy doing it is explaining it all to me as we go.
The girls and I came home before Tim and I started dinner. Since I couldn't really make what I had planned as it was supposed to go in the crock pot and I didn't get that done before we left here, I am making roasted chicken breasts with honey mustard glaze and wild rice as well as a salad. The chicken is in the oven and I will get started on planning for next week while it and the rice cooks. Tonight should be a quiet night with everyone at home (I forgot a friend of the girls is coming in a little while to stay the night...oh well) and Tim was at work last night so I am sure he is tired.
I am glad to be caught up and back to blogging again. I really missed it and people have asked me when I will post again. I will definitely try and get more pictures tomorrow of the house and my kitchen. Tim took a picture of me doing some of the smart-wiring (wiring for all of our computer stuff as well as security, etc.)yesterday so maybe I will have to get that posted as well. Me wiring....what a concept! Actually, it is kind of fun as it kind of goes with my techno-geek tendencies and the guy doing it is explaining it all to me as we go.
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