Recap: Christmas

I recapped packing the U-Haul on Sunday Dec 23 ... which was a whirlwind ... now on to the Holidays!

First off, I hope everyone truly had a fabulous Christmas with family, friends, and whomever else!  Last week went way to fast!  I can't believe it is already NYE. 

Anywho, Christmas Eve we headed to work for a couple of hours.  (I still can't believe our company didn't have Christmas Eve off ... nonetheless).  Then it was off to my parents house to celebrate - Christmas Eve at my grandma's house with my dad's side of the family and then Christmas at my mom and dad's house with my mom's side of the family. 

I don't have many pics... I just soaked up the R&R.  It was fabulous though - good food, good times with the fam!

Here is a good pic from my cousin though - 4 dogs at Christmas (my parents 2 labs, our lab, and cousins hound mix).  The labs are attentively staring and waiting for the ball to be thrown, the hound on the other hand, just wants to run and smell things!

Aka 'Dog Park'

Recap: The Packing

A lot has happened in the past week!  It has all been so fun, exciting, and tiring. 

Lets rewind shall we.  Sunday, Dec 23rd, was official packing day.  Hubs set his alarm for 7:30 .. PM by accident which meant we woke up to Grouper requesting to head outside for a pee break at 8:15 AM!  We wanted to be at the U-Haul place by 9 AM (when they open) so that we could have everything packed up by 1:30 PM which was our last inspection. So between Grouper's break, a coffee run, and breakfast pick-up, we made it U-Haul in DC around 9:15.

And here are the next several hours in pictures!

Hubs getting ready to drive the 20' U-Haul

Living Room all clear

Few items left in Dining Room, Grouper wondering what is going on

Our blow-up for the night

Some bedding for the night

We finished packing the U-Haul up by 1:00-ish, abot 3 hours of moving furniture and boxes!  I was quite amazed and how quickly we finished up.  Did some minor cleaning (all those Grouper fur-balls) and were ready for inspection at 1:30 PM (to make sure everything still worked and everything remained that was required per contract).  All that was left Sunday night were a few items left to pick-up Wednesday morning, a blow-up mattress, and Grouper's bed. 

Success!

1 Week

Ladies and gents, we are 1 week away until we close on both places.  Yay jump up and down yay!

We haven't made any additional progress on packing, well, because, Hubs is SUPER sick... like the flu sick.  Wtf?!  He has been laid up in bed the past 2 days.  Honestly, I don't think I have ever seen him this sick since we started dating.  So, in the meantime, I am keeping my distance from him as much as possible in our 800 sf condo, taking lots of Vitamin C, and praying I don't come down with any sickness.  We have lots to do still over the next 4 days. 

Here is to hoping the both of us make it through the weekend, into Christmas, and land in our brand new house healthy!  Otherwise, this whole moving thing could be anything but fun.

Packing Fun

Sunday was part 2 of packing.  The Sunday prior we started boxing things up.  We tackled pretty much every room.

Packing Superlatives:
- Room most impacted = Kitchen (only some essentials remain to get us through the week)
- Room most changed = 2nd Bedroom (it is no longer Office, Grouper's Room, Hobby Room .. it is where 90% of the boxes live).
- Most Confused = Grouper (he was by our side the whole time, hoping for some explanation I believe)
- Most likely to get Sick = Hubs (arg, we just got over 2 colds this fall, and hoping he doesn't get sick this week and give it to me.  Looks like it is from work though - his whole team was sick last week, and now 2 people on my team are sick too, the odds aren't in our favor).

It is looking good though...

 

Grouper - 'Mom, what did you do to my room?'

 

Oh Christmas Tree!

Selling, buying, and moving all over Christmas comes with its challenges .. as in, minimal Christmas decorations!  I am a huge fan of REAL & BIG Christmas Trees, so I was kinda bummed when I realized we wouldn't be able to do our fair share of decorating this year.  I wasn't going to let that totally deter me from not having some type of Christmas Tree.

So, here ya have it.. our 2012 Christmas Tree

The intent was to add some christmas lights to our $8.00 Home Depot tree (pre-decorated), but we haven't made it down into the storage unit to dig those up in the mist of packin.  Luckily, our goal is to tackle some of the storage unit packing this weekend and I hope I can pull some lights out to adorn our itty bitty tree :)

Home Tour Page Added!

As we get ready to say goodbye to our very first, made it our own, home, it is never too late to capture our DIY home improvement journey in the Home Tour Page (see above).  It is fun (and funny) to see where we started and ended with our place! 

Like the following pictures.  Our master bedroom when we first bought the place was dark purple with some pretty 'used' beige carpets.  It ended up with new hardwood floors, crown molding, blue-gray walls, and some decorating!

Before

After

The 2 Week Craze

We close in exactly 2 weeks on both properties.  I have a feeling of both calm and anxiousness - meaning I don't feel like I have much to do yet I also feel like I have so much to do.  Say what!?

Things we have Accomplished:
-  All loan items are complete .. at least from what I know. 
-  All inspections and appraisals are done done done!  That was our last hurdle, especially on oure current place.  But, the appraisal came back at the sale price and therefore all our 2 bedroom neighbors should be sending us cookies for helping them out on their home value (per hubs, haha)
-  All utilities have been transferred / set up (well, Dominion Power is 90% there, Hubs has to do that since the utility was in his name at our current place).  I am still up in the air on our internet and cable situation and whether to stick with FIOS or get cable and a hotspot... ugh.  Something to worry and think about.
-  UHAUL has been scheduled.
-  Lastly, SKI VACATION is scheduled!  Not house related, but oh so important.

Things left To Do:
-  Packing has started, but is far from done.  Oy vey .. I want to get it done like, now, but we also have to live in it for 2 weeks
-  Cancel storage unit rental.
-  Christmas Shopping.  Not house related, but house stuff has totally screwed up anything Christmas related. 

So, that list is probably more for my benefit.  At least I can stop dreaming about it all and just reference my list!

Star Struck by YHL

It has been a little over a week since I went to the Young House Love Book Signing on Dec 1st!  The book signing was held at Living Social in DC.  I must say I was quite star struck - I didn't think I would be so nervous, but it was kinda sureal to a-c-t-u-a-l-l-y see them vs seeing them on their blog.  I even was repeating what I would say to them in my mind for most of the line for fear that I may say something stupid. haha.

 

But really, Sherry and John couldn't be any more friendlier, happy, and just down right down-to-earth.  They can strike a conversation up with anyone!  I immediately dug into their book and can't wait to try out some of the ideas in our new home.

Kitchen Inspiration

Our new home's kitchen is quite 'builder basic-oakey cabinets-... just quite blah'.  So of course a girl is to search high and low for kitchen inspiration! 

What we are working with:
- Light Oak Cabinets
- White Appliances
- White/Gray Ceramic tiles

I love the look of white kitchen cabinets, but after thinking about it and knowing a kitchen transformation will take some time, white cabinets + white appliances + white floors = overwhelmingly white hospital look.. eek.

So, with that thought, I headed back out onto the interwebs and blogosphere for gray cabinet inspiration and white + black kitchen cabinet inspiration.  I had seen some gray cabinets (mostly on islands with main cabinets in white) and figured it would be the middle-ground I was looking for.  I also love the split white upper and black lower cabinet look, like House Tweaking's new kitchen. 

Now lets just get right to it... pics that make we wanna 'jump jump'...or something like that ;)  Sources are via my pinterest page, uon

House Tweaking's New Kitchen

Sally Wheat's Kitchen

August Field's Kitchen

After pondering and obsessing for days, oh yes, I realized gray was the answer.  That opened up a whole new can of worms, as in, I had to find the absolutely perfect gray for our kitchen.  I googled for what seemed an eternity every benjamin moore gray color that has ever existed - I really liked rockport gray, chelsea gray, and secret.  And then lighting struck and I landed on a picture of sally wheat's kitchen and cabinets in Fieldstone Gray.

That my friends, was like being punched in the stomach, gasping for air as I oogled her kitchen.  Which led me to August Field's kitchen as well.  I am super pumped to start the kitchen cabinet painting!!

My Kid* Grouper

* and by kid, I mean dog ... but really, I swear he is mostly human.

These pictures are proof.

Tucking Grouper into Bed

Tired Puppy ...

Ok, let me preface this.  Last night, we coaxed Grouper to come to bed (as we do every night) which means waking him up from sleeping on his bed in the Living Room, dragging his posterpedic (oh yest it is!!  for another story) into the Bedroom, at which time he plops back down and continued to dream about what-not.  Well last night, after his plop, he curled into the tightest little ball on his bed (it may have something to do with the fact that our thermostat is set to 66).  He looked cold!  So, I said to Hubs 'ohh puppy, why don't I just get you a little blankie' in my granniest voice ever.  Grabbed a towel and covered him up.  He then posed for a whole minute with the towel in his mouth until I got my camera (I swear!).  So, with that Kodak moment, I was like 'why not give this puppy a pillow  too?!'  And, would you believe it (it was as if he was a movie star) he yawned that large yawn and plopped his head right on that pillow. 

Now that is a domesticated animal (or as my dad would say, spoil't) if I have ever seen one :)

Homes, Loans, and YHL

This post is really just a hodge podge of things on my mind this week. 

1.)  Appraisal on our place is TODAY!  I spent a good chunck of after-work time last night and before-work time today sprucing the place up.  First impressions count and I wanted it to smell nice, be clean and tidy, and generally yell 'OoLaLa .. I am soooo nice' :)

2.)  Loan application/processing to do's keep piling up.  Goal is to work on all this stuff tonight

3.)  YHL Book Signing!!!  You all may know about these fantastic people (I haven't met them before .. yet .. but they just seem like the awesomest people) - they have the blog Young House Love, and now a book I am dying to get my hands on!  I signed up for the book signing at Flor in Georgetown (which was yesterday) but under the stress of getting the house ready for the appraisal today, work work, and all other week day to dos I couldn't make it.  So, I bought the Living Social deal for this Saturday!  Cannot wait.  Really, this whole DIY home blogging inspiration came from them.

{via}

John & Sherry from YHL - can't wait to meet them! {via}

A little history...

Hubs and I bought our current place 3 years ago ... it was in desperate need of some updating.  Some people would be turned off by the previous owner's choice of paint, outdated kitchen and appliances, etc, but not us! Memory Lane..

Original Dining Room

Original Dining Room

Living Room

Master Bedroom



2nd Bedroom

 We have been tackling DIY things such us painting, wood floors, kitchen update, and bathroom update over the past 3 years.  All DIY - one, because we love projects and two, we didn't want to put a ton of money into the place by hiring contractors since, in a condo, you don't get the full value out of updates. 

Current Dining Room

Current Living Room

Master Bedroom

2nd Bedroom

Two years into living in our current place, we got married.  Cue love song :) 

I spent that year before planning our fabulous wedding (all DIY and on-a-budget too).  I spent tons of hours on the wedding blog Style Me Pretty (great by the way) for inspiration.  After the wedding I was dying for another creative outlet and googled 'popular home DIY blogs'.  YHL popped up and I literally spent the next 2 weeks reading (slash scimming) every post they had posted to date.  That led to other blogs, my blog, etc and I have been hooked ever since on tackling more DIY projects and documenting them.  So, I guess you can say, YHL was the catalyst for my DIY Home obsession!

1 Month Countdown

We are at the 1 month mark!  1 month until we close on both places and we have a new home :)  It seems so far away, but I know it will be here fast. 

Our checklist of things TO DO:
1)  Appraisals - the appraisal at our new place was completed last week and was just sent to us.  It has to be sent to the underwriter of our loan for review.  The appraisal at our current place is on Thursday.  Crossing fingers that all goes well. 

Basically, both places 'need' to appraise for the selling price.  For a conventional loan, if a house appraises lower for the sale price then the 'buyer' has a chance to 1) accept the appraisal value as is and continue with the contract 2) renegotiate the sales price 3) get out of the contract.  So yes, it is kinda nerve wracking.  I don't have a sense of calm yet .. Our new place appraised for the sale price, but we need the appraisal to take place on our current place.  Once this is done I will feel like we can actually move. 

2)  Finish Loan/Closing Items - we have to fill out some more paperwork for closing .... oh the paperwork.

2)  Pack - oh geez, packing.  We packed a bunch of stuff and put it in storage when we staged our house for listing.  Plan is to pack one day each weekend of Dec 8 and Dec 15.

3)  Utilities - we need to schedule utilities at our new place and cancel our old utilities.

4)  Schedule a truck to move - So the plan right now is to load up everything Dec 23, drive the truck around with us through Christmas, go to closing, then move everything in on Dec 27. 

Home Inspections .. Oh the Stress

... Okay, maybe it isn't that stressful.  I think the majority of my stress is self-imposed, anyone agree?  Oh wait, did I just here Hubs yell from the mountaintops a big fat "I Agree!".  Likely because I keep asking him a thousand "What if?" questions.  Like "What if the seller disagrees to all our home inspection correction requests and totally backs out of the contract?" ... and because I am a huge math nerd...lots of what if math scenarios/equations, oh yeah

Anywho, back on to the topic of home inspections. 

Here is a general overview of the process:
1)  Agent/buyer orders home inspection.
2)  Home inspection takes place within 7 days (I think that is right?) of contract. 
3)  Inspection report is generated.  Buyer selects those items (s)he would like corrected.
4)  Seller agrees to correct all/some/none of home inspection items

The home inspection on our place went pretty well!  Was it scary?  Yes!  Especially since our condo building is acient - think plaster wall acient.  But all in all, we came out pretty unscathed.

So, it was nice to also be on the other end and attend the home inspection of the house we are purchasing - also ancient.  Since it is an actual house, there were a ton more things to consider - the grounds, the skin (roof, walls, etc), all the actual mechanical/electrical/plumbing systems, etc.  It is definitely worth having a fantastic and knowledgeable home inspector.  You may not include all the items on your 'home inspection correction list', but knowing they exist and what you may need to fix within the next couple of years is nice. 

Luckily, our seller agreed to most all of our items - items we felt should definitely be corrected before we moved in - the furnace, electrical grounding items, a roof (no leaks please!) and fireplace inspection (it would be nice to chime in the new year in our new place with our very first fire!). 

Some things that were included in the home inspection that we know we will need to take care of over the next couple of years (its a charming old rambler... we know it isn't going to be perfect):
1)  More insulation!
2)  A new furnace and AC unit (luckily it comes with a 1 year home warranty!!)
3)  Some grading corrections to keep the water out of our soon-to-be-hopefully finished basement... oh look at all that clean slate, bare bones, waiting to be made into our very own ... basement

 



Next up.. Appraisals!

A Smokin' Exterior

I have our new house on my brain constantly these days.  Hubs and I still can't believe how far away Dec 26 is (our closing date).  Arg. 

What I am thinking about lately ... how to spice up the exterior. There is lots of white going on, see.

Not that I don't love white, but it is just begging for pops of color.  I was thinking a red or yellow door, like YHL's first house and second house .... but Hubs most definitely vetoed the idea of a yellow door. 

So, that leaves me with the following color scheme...

Front door in either Behr's California Poppy or Daredevil

Behr California Poppy

A California Poppy Red Door

Behr Daredevil

And Shutters in Behr's Black Suede

Behr Black Suede

A Black Suede Door

Mind Painting

I have sworn off painting for the past couple of months, but the minute we put an offer on our new place, I was already thinking of what colors we could paint the place.  Maybe I have a slight painting problem.  Not that the beigey color isn't bad - I looked at it again during our home inspection visit - but really, I want to add my OWN colors - OCD, possibly.

So, I have been scanning the interwebs for some paint colors for the house.  Here is what I want to paint:
- Living, Dining, Office - color 1
- Master Bedroom, Guest Bedroom - color 2
- Bathroom & Kitchen - I am not sure (cabinet color for kitchen will dictate wall color I think)

And here are the colors I am loving (for now) from BM:
Color 1 - either Revere Pewter or Broxburn Greige


Revere Pewter

Broxburn Greige

 Color 2 - either Tranquility or Gentle Gray

Tranquility

Gentle Gray

Hmmmm.....