Big news: I'm moving!

Just when I got settled in and comfy, I started noticing a few things around here that don't work quite right.  I've tried to repair them myself but after talking to some experts, I have learned it can't be done. They're simply defective and no one knows how to fix them. 

I've tried to just live with them, work around them, and ignore them. But to be honest, some of these problems are downright annoying.   And life is too short to settle, especially when there are better alternatives available.

So I decided it was time to see what else was out there.  After weighing all my options, I'm happy to report I've found a new home and I'm packing up everything to move, starting tomorrow.

I'm really hoping it will be a one-day move, not spread out in a piecemeal fashion.

Realistically, I'll probably wind up with stuff at both places for a while, which will be a pain, but it will give everyone time to get comfortable at the new place.

The good news is, the new place should look and feel a lot like the old place - in fact, it's an almost identical layout, so everything will be pretty much in the same spot as it is here.

I thought I should let everyone know the new address, so you can find us.

Here it is:

domesticateddilettante.wordpress.com

(notice the extra "d" - I'm not just a domestic dilettante, but a domesticated one.)

Oh my.

I just realized the potential for confusion here.

But surely you didn't think we were moving to a different house so soon after our last move. 

Did you?????

Puhleeze!  We haven't even been here a year yet!   Give me at least a few years before I could begin to entertain that thought without laughing hysterically.

Anyway, please come visit me soon. The good news is, it will take you EXACTLY the same amount of time to get here instead of the old place.

Happy moving,

Home, sweet home

Houses are a bit like us girls - they can use a day of beauty every now and then, ya know?  We can't take a house to a spa, but we can treat our dwelling to a day of refining and beautifying.

No, this isn't yet another post about our new house.  We recently offered our old place for lease (read: we stuck a sign in the yard) and were pleasantly surprised by the immediate response (within hours!) from several families interested in renting it.

As I showed the house and eventually made arrangements to lease it to one particular family, I began to look at our old home through the eager and bright eyes of a prospective occupant, rather than the weary eyes of the one who moved out.

The whole-house paint job looks great, but I realized the blinds needed cleaning (they weren't gnarly gross but they wouldn't pass anyone's white glove test.)  Ditto for the windows.  And the floors.  And the bathrooms and kitchen were passable, but I knew if I were moving in, I'd have to spend some time cleaning before I put my own things in the cabinets and drawers.

So this past week, I spent several hours (over the course of several days) deep cleaning and gently buffing and polishing everything to move-in condition.  At long last, the storage towers and hanging rods were installed in the bedroom closets, a new wire shelf/rack was up in the hall closet, the spot where the TV hung in the master bedroom was painted over, the bathrooms were sanitized to operating room condition, and all the floors were mopped and gleaming.  A flipped-over closet switch was righted (up is on, off is down), and the front door lever now operates properly.  It's the pesky little things you live with when it's yours, but you wouldn't wish on anyone else. (And after you do them, you wonder why you didn't find a few spare minutes to do it months or years ago!)

As I worked, I thought back to our own move-in experiences over the years.  As I reminisced, I thought how nice it would have been to find a few essentials and niceties to welcome us.

So I put myself in their shoes and made sure all the toilet paper holders were full and the bathroom sinks each had a dispenser of hand soap. I wiped out all the bathroom drawers and put a penny (heads-up) in each bathroom (because everyone needs a little luck, right?); changed out the filter on the HVAC system, and left the rest of the three-pack in the laundry room to encourage changes when needed.

New lightbulbs were inserted in all the the sparkly clean light fixtures and ceiling fans, and I tucked a few starter packets of dishwasher detergent under the sink; a scrubbed and bleached almost-new kitchen trashcan and a few trash can liners is at the ready.

On a whim, I snagged an inexpensive plastic  pumpkin and filled it with candy (they are moving in over the weekend and I have a hunch their trick-or-treating will be pre-empted by packing-and-moving.  As a final touch I filled a small basket with some apple-scented dish soap, new sponges and dishrags and a cute Thanksgiving towel to say "Welcome Home!" 

After I finished giving the old place its spa treatment, did I wish we were the ones moving in?  It did look pretty and welcoming.  But I am very content with our new home and I don't regret any part of our decision to find and move to a different home.

I have very high hopes for the future of the new family moving in.  I wish many blessings and joy on them as they make our old home their new home.

Happy moving in (and on),
 

Loose ends: Closing the gap

This fourth week marks four notable endings to some loose ends.

First is an extremely satisfying (if messy) chore now on the "ta-DONE" list.  The new deck was power washed, stained and sealed (had a rain-out on the railings, but another few hours next week and they'll be finished.)   The old deck was cleared off and the few scuff marks created since last July's staining job will be touched up today.  The new house's deck has plenty of time to cure before the parties begin.

Second is a VERY old loose end.  I'm sure it doesn't qualify as the world's oldest loose end, but it might qualify as my oldest one.  We've all heard stories of people getting a letter decades late, right?  Well, this one is close to that, but it was not the fault of the USPS.  As we were moving Christmas stuff, I came across a box that looked vaguely familiar.  I opened it and sure enough, it was a gift to a longtime friend.  It was supposed to be sent to her several (7? 8? not sure!) years ago.  Mea culpa to the max.  It's now on its way with a note of humble apology.

This week also marks a third ginormous "tied up with a big honkin' ribbon" loose end closure to the remaining stuff out of the old house.

You've heard of "Five S" organization method, right?  Five Japanese words, all start with "S" that describe how work should be done - sorting, straightening, sweeping, standardizing, self-discipline, safe, security, satisfaction.  (Hey, that's more than 5.  Oh well...)

Anyhoo.

This is a little more cut-and-dried:  Just three S's:  sort, straighten, and sell.  What doesn't sell is going to charity or the trashcan. Hmmm.  Guess that's a fourth "S".  And we could throw in a fifth "S," for satisfaction when it's all said and done. No matter how many "S's" you want to count, I count it as success because we will manage to seriously shed some old baggage. On a Saturday. Six S's anyone?

A fourth loose end was a little bittersweet.  I went through my blogroll and cleaned out some blogs that have gone by the wayside since I added them.  One asked me to drop them (that's a first.)  See, I told you I was a blog killer...

Happy Saturday!

He sends sun and the rain

The sermon on the mount is found in Matthew 5. Toward the end, Jesus said, "For he (God) makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust..."

A few years ago, we suffered a very late freeze (three nights of freezing temperatures after trees and shrubs had fully leafed out), and then a severe drought that summer. Before that happened, I often grumbled if the weather didn't suit my plans. After losing so many established trees and shrubs to the double-punch that nature dealt that year, I decided I would accept whatever weather we receive, and most especially, never complain about getting rain at an inconvenient time.

Last May, we endured what "experts" called a 500-year flood, when it rained for three days and nights. This year, we received nearly as much rain, at about the same time of year. The Cumberland River didn't flood this time, but so much for the experts being able to offer reliable opinions.

This week, we finally got a much-needed break from weeks of mid-90 days and no rain. The rain comes at an inconvenient time - I need to be mulching and weeding the old house in order to get it ready to sell. But I won't complain. I am planning a garage sale for Saturday. If it gets rained out, so be it. The sun feels good, and so does the rain. I think I'll just focus on doing what I can to being counted among the "good" and "just" in that teaching, and let the one who made this world worry about the weather.

Happy weathering the storm!

Moving: Out.. No, Really. O-U-T.

We moved into the new house a month ago this week. Moving in took some pre-work and some hard work on moving day, but it went fairly smooth and stayed on schedule. Moving OUT of the old house? Not so much - it's been neither smooth nor on-schedule.

Almost every day since we moved, I have visited the old house, picking up a few things here and there, sorting things, shuffling them around. But still there was a LOT of stuff to contend with. Some of it we need, some of it we don't, and some of it I'm not sure if we need or not.

But it's time to quit dithering and decide what moves and what gets sold or donated or just plain tossed. This past weekend, I hauled a carload of books to the Friends of the Library (they sell them and use the proceeds to help support our Linebaugh Libraries), and a couple carloads of other stuff back to the new house.  The boys helped Mr. Official clear the attics on Monday. It was blazing hot outside and even hotter in that attic. But they hauled it all down and we sorted and stockpiled. Every family member has a pile, and there's a massive and growing pile for a garage sale (coming soon!)

After we finished that exhausting exercise, I continued tidying and cleaning, picking and choosing. The big curbside trashcans were empty and are now full again. The garage sale pile is steadily growing.

I'm giving everyone a week to cull through their own stuff and decide what they are keeping and what they aren't. Oldest son has the biggest pile (and ironically, an attic of his own to haul it to.) Hopefully by next week at this time, the garage will be empty except for the garage sale pile, and by the week after that, THAT stuff will be gone too. In the meantime, the painters are lined up and ready to start painting. I hope. Because I'm ready for them to start and the paint is waiting in the den for them to begin.

We are meeting with our Realtor to discuss the market analysis she's prepared, and we hope there will soon be a "For Sale" sign in the yard of this newly painted and spiffed up house.

Happy moving, for reals.

Has anyone seen last week? I can't find it.

We closed on our new home (it's no longer a house but it is now home!) four weeks ago yesterday. We spent that afternoon mowing the knee-high grass and pulling weeds from the flower beds, and the next day tearing out the shower in the master bath.  That's just how we celebrate home ownership, I guess.

Week 1, the "real" work began - painting five rooms in five days. Mid-week an early morning storm cut a swath about a half-mile from the house and tore out power lines, so our five days were squeezed into four. But we (middle son, swimmer girl and I) finished on time.

Week 2 saw a frenzy of cleaning and moving in. From crown molding to quarter round, everything got a good wiping down. Mirrors and pictures were hung, dishes were transported, washed and put away. On Friday morning, the movers came and carefully carted our furniture and placed it just-so. Best of all, it all fit exactly where we needed it to go.  We were in!

But week 3 (last week) is blurry. I was supposed to finish cleaning out the old house and get it ready for painting. It didn't happen.  One week overdue and I'm barely halfway to that goal (and that's being generous.)

Somewhere I lost last week.

I know I was busy, but I don't have anything to show for it. I'd like to think I consciously chose a week of downtime to recharge, but I fear I didn't.

It's a muddle, I tell ya.

Week 4 has been another whirlwind of activity, trying to make up for last week's sub-par productivity. In spare moments, I've been cleaning the old house bit by bit and we finally put some trim in place that should have been down several years ago. As Mr. Official said when we left there a few nights ago,  "We've done nothing but work on that house. We worked on it before we moved in, we worked on it after we moved in, and we're still working on it after we moved out." Which is one of the reasons we were careful to choose a turnkey house this time around.

Word to the wise: you do not double your joy when you double your home ownership. We hope this situation is very temporary. (June 1 is our date to have it ready to be shown - and hopefully sold quickly. The sooner, the better.)  And if you see my lost week, will you send it to me?  I could really use that time next week.

Happy Friday,

Moving: Uprooting the plants

Despite the dearth of gardening activity at our home over the last few years, I am at my core, a gardener. And I have a slew of perennial plants around here, many of which will stay, but a few are going to make the trek to the new house in the next few weeks.

Among the take-alongs are my water lilies and Louisiana irises. Poor babies, the Louisiana irises have stayed a little too dry in their current home under a huge magnolia, but I suspect they will love being at the water's edge of the pond when I move them (as soon as they're through blooming.)

The new hanging baskets

I'm also taking some hydrangeas and shade plants, plus a peony or two to add to what's here. The rest of the plants will stay where they are unless/until we sell or rent the house and then I'll take one last trek through the beds to see if there's anything else I want to dig and take.

In the meantime, the porch was crying out for hanging baskets, so I took some time on Saturday to put together new baskets with plants I bought in Jackson the week before, and got them hung. They will be full and lush in a few weeks, I hope! Several containers will move into place this week.

Mr. Official is also determined to move the greenhouse. It needs new doors; well, it really needs a whole new front unit. It was a casualty of our sidewalk construction around the same huge magnolia tree a few years ago.

(For the record, in a contest of greenhouse versus skidster going full speed in reverse, the greenhouse will lose. Every time. Especially the second and third times.)

It will be nice to have the greenhouse when we move, but taking down and putting back up?  Not so much fun.  Hopefully we can get it down and then wait until fall to rebuild it.

Happy (trans)planting,

Time to lighten the load

The move-in date is upon us.  This week has been a frenzy of back-and-forth trips getting bathrooms, kitchen and closets set up and ready to move into.  The furniture gets moved tomorrow.   After that, I will have to look at the remaining stuff and make tough choices. I'll be honest, the urge to purge is upon me.
I have torn away my clutter blinders and I'm looking with clear eyes at all the S.T.U.F.F. we have accumulated since we moved to Tennessee almost 11 years ago. Added to the moving van load o'stuff we hauled here with us. It's embarrassing to consider how much stuff we have.  (At least we never broke over and permanently rented a storage unit.  But that's only because we let it pile up in attics and the shed.)

But enough is enough - it's not all coming with us.  The new shed is smaller.  The new walk-in attic is fanTABULOUS, but it is not big enough for all this stuff.  And even if it were, WHY would we take it all? My vow is we are going to move lightly (figuratively speaking of course.  Because all that pottery is heavy!)

I have two litmus tests I am administering to decide what stays and what goes:
1.  If it is not loved and/or used at least once a year, it's not going.
2.  If we haven't used it since we moved in here, it is absolutely, positively, not going.  

The superfluities can be sold, given away, recycled, tossed in the trash, burned...I don't care - but they cannot enter our new abode.

Of course, every rule has exceptions, and since there were two rules, we have two exceptions:
1.  My wedding dress, although I'm even debating that one...swimmer girl is not keen on its 1980s style; and
2. Mr. Official's baseball cards.  I just hope he doesn't rupture a disk hauling them down and up the stairs from one attic to the other.

Happy moving,

Masters of destruction

Apparently we can't leave well enough alone, not even for a few minutes.

Yesterday we closed on our new home.  (Happy, happy, joy, joy....)  We celebrated by mowing the grass and pulling weeds all afternoon.

Big dog oversaw our work from her hangout on the porch.

So can you guess what our first action  this morning will be?  (This was planned well in advance, I might add.)  It is not to move in anything, or start cleaning stuff.  Those are way too predictable.

Noooooo, our first to-do is to tear out the shower in the master bathroom.  Mind you, it is a perfectly good shower - it's not leaking, no nasty-funk-I-can't-get-clean, not even some hideous old gold sparkly tile (which we've actually lived with before.)  It is a simple, plain fiberglass shower stall.  Its only defect is it was too short and the backspray from the shower head had peeled away the paint around the top of the stall.  Instead of merely replacing the shower head and fixing the peeling paint, we opted to tear it out.  Because we are really good at tearing stuff up and we had a lot of practice on our last home - there's not much we can't take out.  Putting stuff back...not so much.  But prybars, hammers, chisels - we own 'em and we're not afraid to use 'em.

To our credit, we do have a plan:  we've lined up a contractor and selected the tile we'd like to use.  Hopefully the new shower design will fix the peeling paint problem once and for all...and give us a slightly larger and totally nicer shower in an otherwise gorgeous (and HUGE) bathroom.

When the tear-out is done, all that's left to do today is to have the carpets stretched, take down the old curtain rods and spackle over a few nail holes before Mr. Official heads off to the Friday night race.  We have a wedding to attend on Saturday in LA (Lower Alabama to the uninitiated), and Easter festivities on Sunday.

Starting Monday, work on the new shower stall will begin, while middle child and I are busy wielding paint rollers and brushes.  Five rooms in five days - easy peasy.

THEN we can begin the normal activities one does when one buys a house.  Like moving our possessions in and getting settled.

Happy remodeling!

Moving: Into the home stretch

If all goes as planned, this afternoon make that late morning, I will skip my Thursday yoga class and we will go from home buyers to home owners as we close the deal on our new abode. After that, I can call it our "home." (I'm not superstitious but there's part of me that just can't make that linguistic leap until the paperwork is completed.)

Almost six months ago (176 days, if I were counting), I blogged about our old house in Oklahoma being for sale, and created my own wishlist for a dream house.  I quipped I might have to start looking, and with that flippant comment, we soon found ourselves semi-seriously hunting for houses.

I would have to say this has been a journey on many levels for me. It's been mostly ups (it's actually pretty fun to look at homes and try to see yourself moving into each one); a few downs (like when we lost out on a house I really really liked).  A lot of time and energy has gone into searching for houses and searching myself for answers:  Why do we (I) want a different house?  Why do we (I) want THIS house?  Is this a wise move for us at this time in our lives?  Am I running toward something good? Or am I running away from something I should stand my ground and face?  Am I strong enough to go through this, given our past experiences with home buying? Those are tough questions to ponder, and they've kept me up a few nights as I wrestled with the answers, and tested my reasons for pushing for a new/different address.  Top of the list was asking for God's guidance and direction, even if it meant accepting an answer of "no" or "not now."

There were a few times in this process I thought about throwing in the towel.  I began to doubt that we would find THE house at the price we were willing to pay, and had started to think about setting a deadline to wave the white flag and call off the search.  But on our way home from our spring break trip, we got the news that the house we had been waiting on the bank to make a decision was ours if we still wanted to pursue it. Did we want it?  Of course we did!

And so now, finally, the day we've been working toward is here.  After today, we'll no longer be hunters or buyers, but owners.  (Soon we hope to be sellers of our current house, but that's another story for another post or two...or ten!)  We hope friends and family will stop by for a visit.  If you want us to REALLY roll out the welcome mat, show up soon with a paint brush or moving dolly or an icy cold drink.  Or just bring yourself and come see us - and the sheep and chickens and horses and cattle and emus.  (And for those who are too far away to schlep over on a whim...some photos are on FB and new ones are coming soon.)

Happy homecomings,

Ta-da! My to-do's are now da-da-da-DONE

We're down to less than a week until we close on the new house. While waiting, there's only so much you can do - you can't pack everything when you aren't going to move for a few more weeks. (Well, I guess I could pack it ALL up, but that would hamper our ability to eat, dress, and take showers and baths. No bueno.)

However, I set out some to-do's for myself for this week, and I'm proud to say they are now moved to the "done" column:

1. Drapes for the dining room (they're here already!)
2. Drapes for bedroom (they're on their way!)
3. Drapery hardware for bedroom and dining room windows (snagged the rods at half-price, to boot! Woot!)
4. Tile for the shower - picked out and ready to be picked up.
5. Paint colors for the dining room walls and ceiling.  (Have rollers, brushes and rags ready to go.)
6. Fabric for dining room chairs is picked out; just need to order it soon.
7. Coat closet is cleaned out; linen closet is slated for purging today.
8. Shower curtain for upstairs bathroom.  (Bonus: also have fabric for new window seat cushion.)
9. Carpet stretching is lined up for the day after closing.
10. Insurance is ready to go into effect.

Next week, I'll offload the bookshelves and box those items up, and help my beloved offspring prepare their closets for moving along with a few more pre-move tasks.

Happy Friday!

Out of the closet

Oh my. The stuff I found while digging deep into the small-but-bottomless coat closet. Well, for better or worse, it is (or was) all out of the closet and sorted.

The toss pile started with a lot of old gift wrap. (Most of it was brought with when we moved here in 2000. WHY I moved it is beyond me...a few were end-of-rolls even then. Geesh.)

Also gone are the old Christmas cards. Reallllyyyyy old cards. I kept last year's cards (it helps me double-check my list next year. And then - I solemnly promise in front of God and everybody - they'll be tossed, too.)

And half-used, dog-eared old notebooks and pencil nubs without erasers. (Who puts this stuff in a closet?)

Gone are all the widows and orphans in the mitten tub. Which means we're now mittenless for next year because there were no mates in the tub.

The giveaway/sell pile.   Several cute (but just not me) girly gifty things, probably from those wild Bunco parties. Spa slippers, lotions, tea lights...  They're all destined for our church's Missions with Mommy ministry, which makes up gift baskets for our older shut-ins.

Unused coats and jackets are likewise going to a ministry that gives away coats each fall. We can't wear more than one coat at a time, and the coats I'm giving away have not been worn in at least a couple years. Far better to let them bless and warm a stranger's body next winter than hang here, unused and useless to us.

A small stack of sell-able items are ready to put on the upcoming garage sale.  I'm on a roll and if I'm going to have to throw it or haul it to Goodwill, I'd rather do that now than later.   So the garage sale stack is limited to things that I really think are likely to sell.

The "going elsewhere" pile:

• A small stack of usable school supply items is destined for swimmer girl's new room since she's the only one who will use this stuff. 
• Two organizers - one will go to my new office, the other one to Mr. Official's soon-to-be office in his man cave.
• A box of picture frames I'm sending to the attic for future use. 
• Two tubs with school pictures, wedding photos, and a few other pictures that I don't have copied in albums somewhere around here.  (I even dug through the never-opened end table and culled through the pictures and albums in those areas.)  They're semi-organized and headed for the new attic.

The remaining items now comprise a small, elite group - just a few coats, now on sturdy, new matching hangers.  (I figure if I limit the number of hangers, we'll limit the number of coats that accumulate.)  And a half-dozen clear tubs filled with:

• scarves and hats
• emergency gifts
• gift bags, tissue paper and curling ribbon
• Christmas cards, stationery, to-do list and last year's cards
• seasonal colored candles, and the January-September front door decorations.  (They could go in the attic, but the candles would melt and I'm more likely to use the decorations if they're near the front door.  Otherwise, my Easter door decoration might still be up until the fall wreath comes out.)

Whew. I now declare that chore done.   Mission accomplished.  Finis.

I promised some photos, and although I am completely embarrassed by this "before" shot:

This is why you NEVER open closets in someone else's house.

I am pretty pumped about the after-effect ("Hi, my name is Terry and I am a transformation junkie.")

No special effects - this is really all that's left in there.

This closet is now ready to receive its marching orders in a couple weeks. On to the linen closet.

Happy closet-cleaning!

Clearing out the cobwebs

Our coat closet is one of my biggest cleaning enemies

(Hmmm.  Have you ever noticed how "nemesis" is almost a perfect anagram of "enemies"?)

This closet - like the other storage closets in our home - is not large, but it is a convenient catch-all: old photographs and negatives (yeah, negatives), spare birthday and shower gifts for emergency situations, school supplies, front door seasonal decorations, and of course, coats, scarves, mittens and hats.  It hasn't been completely emptied since I painted it..many years ago.  Until today.  This morning, I will face the mess I can see and whatever lurks beneath.  As much as I dread it, it's time.  I refuse to mindlessly move these things to the next home without culling out everything that doesn't belong here and isn't loved, oft-used or otherwise absolutely needed.

I'm hoping the actual cleaning will be less dreadful than the anticipation of it.  Sometimes we put things off, and let them build up to overwhelming, seemingly insurmountable obstacles in our minds.  I think I have a few mental closets that could also stand to be emptied out and cleared of some useless stuff I've held onto for far too long.  The multi-tasker in me wonders if I can do both simultaneously.  It's worth a try.  If all goes well, the linen closet is next.  Same song, second verse.

If I'm brave, I'll show before and after pics of both later this week.  (Posting them might shame me into not letting any new closets get to this level of messiness.)

Happy clearing,

Strategic Moves

When faced with a massive project like moving four people and years of stuff from one house to another, where do you start?

Logic says with the end in mind, of course.  Last week I started strategizing every aspect of the move that I could think of, so it will go as smoothly and easily as possible.

Step 1: Compile a list of to-do's.  Or - in my case - stop chasing my tail and start writing stuff down.

Step 2: Set a final deadline. Ideally, we'd like to be moved into our new home no later than May 8 - just over two weeks after we close.  That may sound like a lot of time, but trust me - there's a lot of stuff to move.

Step 3: Prioritize all those to-do's and give each of them a date.  It's a good thing Microsoft Excel is my friend. I've compiled a rather lengthy (okay massive) list of detailed things to remember and do to get us moved in and living in our new abode.  And that list doesn't even begin to touch the bulk of the stuff stored in the attic or shed.  Egads.  There is definitely a garage/yard sale in our future.

Step 4:  Reconnaissance.  I poked around the garage during the home inspection and unearthed leftover tiles from the master bathroom. In the box.  Move over Charlie Sheen, I'm winning now.  That half-full box of tiles will make it much easier to plan the shower re-do.

It looks like this now but our plans include something a little snazzier, so we got some bids.  The contractor we chose to install the tile looked at the pics and quickly figured out he did the original tile work in the house.  Anybody wanna hum "It's a Small World" with me?)

He's lined up to start the last week of April - perfect timing, so my next to-do is to see if we can locate the same (or similar) tile and have this project ready to start on time.

I also found labeled paint cans in the garage.  Bless the former owner's hearts - their thoughtfulness made another project infinitely easier, too.  To paint the master bedroom I just need to match the bathroom color, which is a taupe-y, greige color.

(Sidenote:  it took me a while to figure out "greige" is a legitimate word, meaning mixture of grey/gray and beige.  To all the designers tossing "greige" around, do you really think it is easier to pronounce and/or spell than taupe?  Or less subjective? Taupe is defined as brownish-gray, and greige is defined as grayish-brown.  Hmmmm.)

Whatever you call it, I like the bathroom color and it is similar to the color in our bedroom now.  So why reinvent the wheel by agonizing over dozens of oh-so-similar paint colors to choose the "perfect" color, which is ultimately going to be almost identical to this one?

And to keep things simple, the second bedroom is getting treated to this color, too.  The bonus room will probably also be painted the same hue.  Swimmer girl's bedroom is going to share color with the dining room, which is going from brick red to milk chocolate brown. (The bedroom will also get a jolt of raspberry, either on a wall or the dormer nook...not sure which yet.)

Painting those five rooms is the only DIY project to tackle before we can move in. (Remember, one of my goals was to buy a house that needed virtually no renovation work.  This home delivered perfectly on that requirement.)  The only other to-do's to get done before moving are getting the carpets stretched and cleaned, both of which I'm leaving up to the professionals.

Step 5: While we wait.  Next week I'll go through closets, culling out things to sell, give away or throw away, and readying the other contents to be moved, then emptying bookcases and cabinets. 

Any tips or pointers?  I could use them!  When it gets really quiet, I hear a clock, quickly ticking down the final days and hours until the moving frenzy begins. 

Happy strategizing,

Moving: Past the hurdles

We're now down to two weeks and two days to have a new home-sweet-home to call home. 

Inspection? Check.

Appraisal? Also check.

The two big hurdles were cleared with room to spare.  Getting termite and septic certificates from the sellers and choosing an insurance company are pretty much the only outstanding items for the underwriters to give us the all-clear and close on April 21.

Yes, that is correct.  It's not a typo, if you've been paying attention to the dates.  We've gone from April 25 to April 22, now to April 21.  If we keep it up, we'll be careening into an even-earlier closing date some time next week before we know it.  Just kidding. Really - please, no earlier than this newest date.

Happy hurdle-clearing,

Moving: Another step in the right direction

The home inspection yesterday went well after a slightly scary start - the house had been winterized, and all the spigots were wide open, even the refrigerator's water line for the ice maker and the washer connections in the laundry room. Fortunately, we requested to have the water remain off at the meter when the utility company unlocked it, so when the home inspector turned on the water, the agent and I were in the house and realized what was going on before it turned disastrous. Otherwise, we could have walked into a flood that rivaled last May's 500-year-flood levels. (Note to self: don't feel obligated to open all the spigots when you turn off the water. And don't use THAT company to winterize anything.)

Whew.

The home we're buying was officially deemed to be in very good condition, well-built with only a few minor repairs needed. The structure, plumbing, wiring and the mechanicals are in fine working order. That's a big sigh of relief, considering it has set empty for close to half a year now. And that's a big hurdle out of the way.

Was it set in Hooterville or Hootersville?

I actually twirled in the den after we finished the inspection. It was a brief moment of giddiness, followed by watching emus run across the neighboring field, along with a rambunctious calf who nearly knocked down the big cows in his hurry to get to the front of the line.  It must have been dinner time at the farm next door.  No sign of Arnold the pig yet, but he may show up one of these days..in the meantime we've spotted sheep, goats chickens, ducks and horses.  Come to think of it, I guess our tale does resemble the misadventures of Oliver and Lisa Douglas - although I'm not a glamorous, blonde Hungarian socialite and Mr. Official is not an attorney.  And we're not from NYC, even though we do like to visit the Big Apple.  But I digress.

The next hurdle to cross is the appraisal; here's hoping we don't run into any snags with it, either. Once the appraisal is finished, the rest of the paper chase is in the hands of the mortgage company, title company and the real estate agents.

Happy moving,

Moving: From house hunter to home buyer

It's like Andy Rooney's quip about life and toilet paper:  the closer to the end you get, the faster they both seem to go.  Tomorrow may be April Fools' Day, but this is no joke.

The first week of our adventure as bona fide home buyers (rather than house hunters) has flown by in a whirlwind of to-do's:  looking through the house as future owners, rather than contemplative buyers, a flurry of emails and calls between the mortgage company, our Realtor, the sellers and their Realtor and us; signing, scanning and sending paperwork hither and yon, calling the utility companies, scheduling the home inspection (this afternoon), and then getting an appraisal.  (Fingers and toes and everything crossed that the inspection and appraisal processes go smoothly...those are the two biggest hurdles.)

When we signed off on the bank's counter offer, we agreed to move up the closing by a weekend, so instead of having four full weeks (and weekends) before we close, we have just 21 days and counting. It's quickly becoming decision time on some things:

• Are we going to re-tile the master shower before we move in, or wait?  I vote for sooner than later.
• Are we going to paint the dining room and bedrooms ourselves, or have someone else do it?  (Am I even ready to pick out paint colors?) 
• Can we match the paint color in the den and hallways, and simply touch up the smudges?  
• Who can we get to stretch the carpets?
• If we clean the carpets after the painting is finished, how long do we need to let them dry before we move in? (Can I reasonably expect them to remain clean after we schlep through the house with umpteen boxes?)
• On moving day, will we need to rent a U-Haul, or will we move a little at a time, with my SUV and our trusty old Chevy pickup (aka "Big Red")?  
• Can we find someone willing to move just the super heavy stuff like the piano and credenza?
• What type of internet service is available at the new place?  Working from home means we're moving my office as well as our personal belongings. And moving out to the country means no more Comcast until they decide to remedy the dead zone we're moving into.

And that's just the tip of my iceberg.  I realize these are all VERY good problems to have to solve, and there's no real rush - we don't have to be out of our home by a set date.  But seeing the closing date get closer and closer tends bring out the list-maker and worrier in me. I don't want to drag out the move longer than necessary, so there is some pressure to quickly plan out what needs to happen, and in what order.

Once we get the home inspection report and the appraisal finished, then I can start scheduling painting and tiling and carpet cleaning...oh my!

Happy countdown!

Moving: Out of my comfort zone

Moving, or--to be more specific--the process of buying and selling homes, induces high anxiety in me. Like most people, I've always taken home ownership seriously - it's a big commitment, and shouldn't be entered into lightly. But beyond that, my view of real estate transactions was warped by an unusual and thoroughly unnerving situation about two decades ago.

Two of our volunteer fence builders

Our first home was beginner's luck, and we stumbled happily through the process.  We built a 1,200 square-foot house and it felt huge compared to the apartments and rentals we called home before it.  We were blessed by family and friends who pitched in to help us paint it, clean it and move in.   We sodded and fenced the yard ourselves.   (Well, the "boys" did the fencing, but I planted sod, too.)

All in all, it was truly a great starter home. Our oldest son was about two when we moved in; his baby brother came along the next year.

After a few years we felt we were quickly outgrowing the space, so we listed our sweet little home for sale. We fell hard for a two-story Tudor-style home on a wooded acre lot. With a contract on our home, we put in a contingency offer on this house and confidently assumed we would close on both homes on the same day in late February, moving out of one and into the other with minimal fuss.  What could possibly go wrong?

The nightmare began when we were midway through closing on our home.  The routine survey was complicated by unexpected flood zone issues as the Corps of Engineers maps had been updated since we built. The buyers bolted, the second home closing was canceled, and we had to turn back on the utilities and move back into our home.   Blindsided doesn't begin to describe how we felt as we reeled through the days and weeks and months that followed.  We finally obtained a letter from the Corps of Engineers confirming our property was not in a flood zone.  By then, we had lived in the house for 9 years, and I was scared witless at the mere suggestion of selling and moving.

In the meantime, the baby (swimmer girl) came along and we were truly squeezed for space.  Shortly after baby girl's first birthday, at the urging of a very conscientious and calming real estate agent (and friend), we successfully sold our little house after a single showing she arranged.  She made it easy, but I couldn't assume it would be successful.  In fact, I refused to breathe a sigh of relief until we handed over the keys.  Fortunately our agent had located a house for us to rent after closing, or we might have been temporarily homeless.   Yes, I was really that fatalistic.

We built and moved into our second home six months later, but in less than three years, we found ourselves moving again, this time back to Tennessee. I house-hunted for two weeks and settled on the house we're in now.  We successfully transitioned everyone and everything from one state to another just before school started, but the entire process was nerve-wracking.  Even though no missteps or mishaps occurred, I still couldn't relax until the ink was dry.

And so here we've stayed ever since - in part because of my fear of moving (and buying and selling) again.  This house is our home, but it is my least-favorite house we've ever owned.  For whatever reason, seeing our old house for sale was the catalyst that overcame my paranoia and propelled me down the path of house hunting.

The house we first fell for has suddenly fallen into our laps.  It's big, but not too big, and it has almost every feature on my wishlist.  Big kitchen with pantry, open floor plan, lots of closets, walk-in attic storage, soaring ceilings, lots of windows and a wraparound porch.   The backyard needs a fence, but has a nice big deck, storage shed, and room for my greenhouse and "outhouse"shed - I bet my neighbor will be so sad to see it--and us--disappear from his daily view, as we will him.

The "outhouse" shed in my garden.

The garage on the new house will hold our vehicles and the boat, and I can introduce my Louisiana iris and pond plants to the natural pond in the front yard to greet visitors and passers-by.  Truth be told, the place is a gardener's delight, with rose bushes around the porch, and hints of perennials greening up among the spring bulbs already flowering.  We will be surrounded by horses, cattle, sheep, poultry, and even emus.  A few strategically placed trees will screen the few neighboring houses from view.

I want this house bad enough to steel myself for a month of emotional ups and downs as we run the steeplechase course of paperwork, inspections and appraisals.  Please hang with me during this process.  I'll try to skip the boring details and share only the fun and instructive highlights of our experience as the journey progresses.

And maybe this time around, I will be finally be able to relax and enjoy the move.

Happy moving on,


P.S. A shout-out happy birthday to my dad.  May he blow out all the candles on his German chocolate cake and all his wishes come true!

Is it a house, or THE house?

Remember a few weeks ago, when I said I was tempted to look for available houses? Well, they say if you seek, you WILL find, and that's true especially in this real estate market.

And so here we are...about six weeks into serious house-hunting. We have rejected quite a few, have narrowed our focus down to three serious contenders, and of those, one that I think might be THE one.

How do you know if the house is THE house?  Or just A house?  A really nice house, but just a house?  There's a feeling that says "this is it" but if you're like me, you can get that fluttery feeling from more than one house. Sometimes it happens in two houses in a row, in less than an hour.  Hmmmm.  Am I THAT fickle?  (For those who know me, there's no need to answer that one :-)

In the absence of a strong sense of rightness, sometimes this decision boils down to cold, hard facts.  Price is certainly a consideration.  Size of property, size of house, size of rooms, size of closets - all important.  Location is also a key factor.  How many of my "most wanted" features does it have?  How many of Mr. Official's most-desired features does it have?  (Does he HAVE a list of wish-list items?  Does any man?)

With our present house, I lobbied for it based on location (proximity to specific schools), size of backyard, and - strangely enough - its severely dated interior.  I was exiting a demanding career, and knew I'd need some major projects to keep me challenged and sane as I learned to adapt to life as a stay-at-home-mom.  A house that needed serious updating seemed like a good choice, and that's what we got.  I learned a lot of things through the process (and not just how to hang cabinets or do a professional dry wall job.)  I learned that some things (like 8-foot ceilings and small windows) are not easily changed and to evaluate and consider the neighbors along with the neighborhood.

This time, I'm looking for move-in-ability.  I don't want to have to do anything more serious than change the paint color in the bedrooms and have the carpets, kitchen, bathrooms and windows cleaned before we move in.   I'm also leaning toward a house that has virtually no neighbors, except for livestock.  Given where we've been over the past decade, quite frankly a few goats and horses and/or poultry living next door sounds pretty good.

Everyone's different, every house is different, and every move is at a different point in our lives.  So is this THE one?  Or at least the one for now, tomorrow and a year or two from now?  I sure hope so....

Happy hunting,