All Moved In!

*I have to apologize for the impromptu hiatus these past couple of weeks.  Life hit us hard recently, between our full-time gigs, a cancelled flight home from a Wedding, last-minute packing, last-minute moving and everything in between, there just weren't enough minutes in the day.  Without further adieu, welcome to our new home!*

With the help of family and friends, we moved into our first home less than 48 hours ago and we're *almost* completely unpacked (shout-out to my mom for spending three hours with me on Friday attacking the grimy fridge).  The last few boxes contain things that need furniture that we don't yet own, or are decor items that we need to find places for in our new home.

The first room we set up was the Living Room.  I had put the feet back on the sofas about three minutes after they were lugged into our Living Room off the truck and I had to pick a place for the TV fast, because the cable guy arrived while we were still unloading the boxes.  I quickly laid out the furniture in an L-Shape, with the back of the Love Seat facing the entry way when you walk in, so that I can buy we can place a console there.

I'm not quite sure yet if the furniture will stay like this.  We're living with it for a few days, but I did ask the cable guy (I should stop calling him that, his name is Lou!) to leave me some slack on the cable in case I changed my mind.  I'm already considering moving the TV to the left a little (centered on that back wall) with "built-ins" around it or to the wall on the left and flipping the Sofa and Love Seat to the walls opposite where they are now, to allow for additional seating.

So many other things about this room will be changing.  The paint color, the pillows, the lamp, the end table, the window dressings... much, much more will be changing.  The only things that will likely stay are the sofa, love seat and coffee table.

This. Kitchen.  The first time we saw the house, I apparently had my "This-Has-Potential" Goggles on, because even though I was enamored with the sheer size of it, it was GRIMY.  It might have been the dirtiest kitchen I'd ever laid eyes on, nevermind that I'd actually have to cook and eat in it.  *shudder*

It took us about three days to get the Kitchen to an inhabitable state.  I'm not joking.  There are still food stains on the wall next to the sink that NO cleaning product is capable of removing and since they're FAUX wood panels, I can't even paint over them.  We have to wait until we're ready to tear down the walls re-do the kitchen for those stains to be gone.  BUT, the Fridge was so disgusting that I wasn't even sure we could keep it.  It took SIX magic erasers and tons of soaking in bleach and warm water, but my mom and I got it sparkling again.  I actually don't have a "before" picture, because when I said I wanted to take one, my mom said, "Why would you EVER want to remember what this Fridge currently looks like?"  I wasn't thinking like a Blogger and I agreed with her.  Of course, I regret this, because you'd never in a million years guess it was the same Fridge and I was already a huge Magic Eraser fan, but now I'm a DIE-HARD Fan.  #MagicErasersSavedMyFridge

I love the little dinette side of the kitchen, because even though we have big plans to change the layout completely down the line, in the meantime, it's nice to have so much space.  We can easily both be in the kitchen at the same time and Hubby was doing some classwork at the table on his laptop while I was finishing up dinner.  We ate there for the first time tonight and I really enjoyed it!

Here's our little pass-through from the kitchen to the Living Room.  It's kind of nice, because while people are sitting in the living room, I can still communicate with them and see the TV them.  #TheresThatFridgeAgain

This room off the kitchen is where we're currently storing most of our boxes.  I think it will eventually be a formal dining room, although I'm still toying with the idea of adding more seating on the other side of this room with a little bar area.  I'm really excited about this spot, even though I'm not quite sure what we'll do with it.

The Pepto-Pink Bathroom is looking a little better than it did when we first saw it.  I think it's the white shower curtain, as opposed to the yellowed-white curtain that was hanging before.  I originally wanted to do gray and pink until we could afford to gut the bathroom and replace the pink fixtures, but I realized I had registered for brown towels when we were getting married, so pink and brown it is!  I think I will try to replace/paint the vanity and mirror for a quick update to tide us over.  One thing we will not be able to quickly address is the faux tile wall covering.  it's yellow with flowers and HAS to go, but I'm not sure how big of a job it will be to remove it all.

I'm not sure what I will tackle first, but I'm really anxious to paint and the only rooms that are ready for paint are the living room and formal dining room right now.  Every where else has some kind of weird wall covering that needs to be removed first.  I'm going to scope out some inspiration pictures to try to get ready to overhaul one of these rooms.  I'll be sure to let you know as soon as I've picked one!

What Closing On Our First Home Was Like (and some updated pics!)

First of all, I apologize for not posting this sooner, but let's just say, "When it rains, it pours."  Not only did things start moving incredibly fast on the home buying front, but work really started picking up, too.  A project that I've been working on for the past couple of months got kicked into high gear with the due date pushed up to July 31st and the only day we have available on the calendar to move into our new home is Saturday, July 27th.  I've been trying to balance working overtime on the project and prepping the home for move-in day, so things have been a little nuts.

Our closing was on Monday at 10:00 am and our final walk through was just prior to that at 9:00 am.  By Noon, we were back at the home for the first time as homeowners and had our first visitors when my in-laws came to see it for the first time.  I was way too excited to hear our doorbell ring!

Final Walk-Through

At 9 AM, we got to the house before our Agent did.  This gave us a chance to take a few exterior pictures and do a walk around the outside of the home, which I think is pretty important since we hadn't seen it in a couple of months (since our inspection): 

Since our home is "north-facing," it typically accumulates some moss on the siding, which a yearly washing is supposed to keep away.  I can't wait to give our new home a nice, sudsy bath!

Next, we walked around the backyard and checked out the lower deck, which was now cleaned of all the previous owner's belongings:

The split-rail fencing around the perimeter of the deck will likely be removed.  It also needs to be washed really well and a couple of loose boards will have to be re-secured.  

Next, we checked out the upper level of the deck:

You can see our shed in the background here and the upper deck itself looks pretty good!  I think this will make a great outdoor hangout area and I can't wait to spruce it up!

Here's the opposite angle:

But here is where it really got interesting.  We were told that the seller had already moved to Arizona (his mother attended closing in his place) and when we checked out the rest of the yard, we noticed...

He left us some fishy friends!

The terrible thing is that he didn't leave us any fishy food and we can't even move in for a couple of weeks anyway.  I'm going to send my brother to the house to take care of them and he's sort of a fish-tank expert, so I'm hoping he'll be able to help us clean it up a little, too.  My next task would be convincing my Husband to keep the Koi Pond, since he's not a big fan.  He'd rather have plush, green lawn, which I understand.  BUT... FISH!

At this point, our Agent arrived and we were able to go inside.  I don't know why, but I was kind of nervous.  I guess I was worried I wouldn't love it anymore or something, which is silly.  

I definitely still loved it, but I will say that the change in seasons made a difference.  The trees/landscaping were more bare less overgrown when we last saw the home and let's not forget how a humid heat wave in NY can impact a vacant home in terms of the types of odors it brings out.  

When we first walked in, it smelled kind of musty to me.  I think the home just needs a good cleaning and to be aired out, but it was a little off-putting (I have a sensitive sniffer), but then I noticed these stains on the hardwood floors in the Living Room:

I'm 90% sure those are pet urine stains (if this were smell-o-vision, you'd probably agree) and while we saw a couple of them during our first tour of the home, there were far more that were visible once the furniture was removed.  You can see it worse in this photo (allow my Husband's hairy arm to point them out to you):

We'll likely need to have these re-finished down the line.  Until then, we'll just cover them up decorate with a nice area rug.  

Next, we checked out the Kitchen.  Something about this house is that it currently has really cheap finishes.  I don't mind it so much, because I know we can change them over time and make it better, but on our short list is replacing the Microwave, Oven, Dishwasher and Refrigerator.  We're planning on going with stainless steel and I think a really easy but impactful change would be the hardware on the cabinets!  I can't wait to replace them with some pretty brushed nickel knobs! *swoon*

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that someone laid linoleum tile over the hardwood floors in this Kitchen.  After we've had the chance to live in the house for a little while, we're planning to renovate it and I'll likely use that as an opportunity to reveal the original hardwood floors.  

Here is the extension that was added onto the Kitchen and was listed as a Formal Dining Room.  I'd like to replace the carpet with some hardwood flooring to try to match what exists in the Living Room and Kitchen (beneath the linoleum).  And let's not even talk about those window dressings:

If we make our way down the hallway off the Kitchen, it takes us to where the bedrooms and bathroom are on the lower level.  Take a peek at our pinky-paneled bathroom:

We have some big plans to completely renovate this bathroom, but I have to say, despite how old and outdated it is, it's in pretty good condition!

Across from the pinky-paneled bathroom is the bedroom that we're planning to use as our Master for the time-being.  We're doing this to save on cooling/heating costs until our family expands.  As you can see, the carpet has got to go and I'm hoping to get rid of it before we even move in.  It looks like it might be older than I am.

 A few other things worth mentioning about this room are that the wall covering that looks like wall paper in this picture are actually wall paper PANELS.  I have no idea what's under them, but I noticed they had been nailed into the wall.  I'm hoping there's dry wall beneath them, but I guess we'll have to wait to find out!  Here's the same room from the opposite angle:

Finally, on the lower level is the smallest bedroom of the four in the house.  We think it'll make a great Nursery down the line and for the time being, we'd like to use it as a temporary Guest Room.  That is, as soon as we remove the carpet and that little corner shelf that I think no one besides my cat would really love.  Eventually, we'd like to make it a designated office.

Closing on the House

Closing was... interesting.  Basically, there was a weird issue where the previous owners thought we wanted to keep these big, black glass and metal shelving units that were in one of the upstairs bedrooms.  We don't know where this came from, but it came down to the fact that we didn't want them there (nor did we have the time to move them out ourselves) and they didn't want to remove them (especially since they thought we wanted to keep them).  There was some crazy misunderstanding, but it was a point of contention for a good 45 minutes where the lawyers actually walked away from the table, they threatened not to close - it was crazy.  Finally, it all got worked out and the pieces were supposedly removed from the home (we'll find out tomorrow when we go back to check it out).

Other than that, we signed a ton of papers, did a celebratory dance when they handed us the keys, said thank you and goodbye to our Agent and Lawyer and went back to the house to take some measurements!

I hope you'll stay tuned for our upcoming progress!

We're (Almost) Homeowners!!!!

I haven't written a blog post in the past few days, NOT because nothing has been going on, but because LOTS has been going on and I've just been so busy!  If you've been here before, you might know that we were in the process of purchasing our first home and had been anxiously-awaiting final loan approval, so that we could finally say this is Our Home:

Well, we received the "Clear-to-close" from our Bank on Wednesday, 7/10 and it's just been nothing but a total whirlwind since then.  However, I can finally report our official Closing and Move-in dates for you, which means lots more content for the blog is coming sooner than you think!  I can hardly contain my excitement!!!!

Our official Closing Date is

Monday, 7/15 at 10:00 am!

That morning, we will be doing our final walk-through at 9:00 am, which is when we get the opportunity to make sure that the house is in the same condition we agreed to purchase it in and that the items they agreed to fix have been.  Our Realtor is taking the keys from the final walk-through and bringing them straight to the closing table.  After the closing, those will be OUR KEYS!!!  During the walk-through (or right after closing - whichever allows us more time), I will finally be taking our own pictures of the (empty) house, so that you can see all the things the seller's photos don't show.  I'm talking FUN STUFF, like the huge bar in the basement, the second upstairs bedroom, the backyard, etc.  

As far as moving, we would have loved to have been able to move-in the next weekend, but we'll be away for our best friends' Wedding in Disney World, which we are SO excited for.  Instead, we've set our Move-In date for Saturday, July 27th!  In the weeks leading up to that date after closing, we will be trying to move a couple of boxes by car and I'd really like to take a couple of evenings to clean the house top-to-bottom before moving our stuff in, so we will have to try to make time for that.  

I know I sound like a little kid with how excited I am and all, but it's hard to describe what achieving this dream of home-ownership means to me.  It's a long story (that I'll save for a separate blog post), but it's something I'm so proud of.  Plus, it was getting a little insane how many times I'd "drive-by-stalk" our new house.  The next time we drive by it, we can actually go inside!  And we'll only be a few hours away from OWNING IT!!

I just wanted to say thank you to those who have stopped by the blog so far, as well as anyone who is new.  I hope you'll stick around while we practically decorate our entire first home! :)