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),
 

Thankful Thursdays: Gimme an A!

Two weeks ago, I started a countdown of six things I'm most thankful for and each begins with one of the letters of the word "THANKS".   First was Today, because it is all we can really say we have for certain.  Last week was Health, something I all too often take for granted. This week, I am thankful for...

abode.

Webster's defines "abode" as a temporary place to abide or dwell; a habitation.  Our homes may be old or new, humble or grand - it's all relative.  As long as we are mindful that our earthly dwelling is temporary and we use it wisely, our home is truly a blessing to all who gather under its roof.

By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established;by knowledge the rooms are filled  with all precious and pleasant riches. (Proverbs 24: 3-4)

"Home for Thanksgiving" by Grandma Moses

I love our home and the good times and wonderful memories we create as a family living inside these walls.  Someday, it will be just a place we passed through.  Until then, I pray that God continues to bless our home and all who dwell within with wisdom and faith.

Are you ready for Thanksgiving?  Friends who know me well also know I skip past Halloween, so that gives me lots of time to decorate our home with fall stuff.  This Grandma Moses print is especially poignant, as I remember a Moses print hanging above on the wall behind the dining room table in my grandparent's home.  I think it captures the true essence of welcoming family home for the holidays.  It's not about having a grand home or setting a magazine-perfect table, but the joy of seeing family and friends gather together.  I snagged a copy of this from eBay for $3.50 the other day - can't wait for it to arrive so I can frame it up and move the mantel forward another step toward the holidays.

Of course, these days there's almost always something cooking or baking as I plow my way through old and new recipes for rib-sticking, heart-warming foods.  (Yes, last week's focus was on health, which means avoiding the fattening and rich foods of the holidays.  It's not a paradox  I cook up a storm, but then send plates of goodies with Mr. Official to share with his staff and co-workers - a few nibbles and bites for everyone means no lasting harm to anyone's waistline or blood sugar levels.  This week's bake-a-thon is turning out cinnamon pumpkin pull-apart bread, pumpkin-spice baked donut holes and sour cream chocolate chip bread.  Mmmm, mmmm, good.)

Happy thanks-giving,

Day of rest week 7: This is getting easier

Seven weeks does not a new habit make, but I will say it is getting more natural to plan ahead and make sure I have everything I think I will need to tide us over from Saturday to Monday. (Did I really just use "tide" in a sentence? After Saturday night's epic fail to 'bama?  Abject apologies to all my Vol-fan friends and family.)

Anyway, we ate up a variety of leftovers for lunch and it was as varied as a restaurant menu, with choices including 3-cheese pasta with chicken and alfredo sauce and toasty warm French dip sandwiches. Hot, fast, delicious and it used up food that would probably wind up tossed out otherwise.

After lunch was out of the way, Mr. Official and I each headed to the old house - he to mow, I to install closet cubbies and rods. I coulda/shoulda spent part of Saturday on this task but I chose to play with the grandpuppy and bake instead.  I knew before I went that I'd stall out midway - there were some items I'd need to buy in order to finish up (which is why I had planned to work on it Saturday.  Procrastinators Anonymous meets tomorrow, right?) 

Background, in case you didn't follow our house adventure.  It began almost a year when I got a wild hair to look at our old Oklahoma house, which turned into a wish list of features I'd like to have in a house.  In turn, that became a casual, then serious house hunt and eventual purchase and move.

My, how time flies. We moved out of our old house back in May, then somehow the summer flew by and we never quite got around to putting it on the market (an unusual situation, to be sure.)  The good news is, we have a family moving into it in a matter of days.  The bad news is, all the postponed to-do's must turn into checked-off "dones" in the next few evenings.

It's a manageable list, especially since I no longer need to cool my jets outside the swimming pool for a couple hours each evening. Yes, another vehicle has joined our caravan, so swimmer girl now has her own wheels to get her to and fro.

Sniff.

Smile.

Sigh. 

Dinner last night was a new recipe featuring sweet potatoes and black beans in some spicy chili.  (Recipe will be posted on Wednesday.  I know I'm featuring pumpkin recipes for the next several weeks, but sweet potatoes and pumpkins are nearly indistinguishable once they're cooked right?)

And because I planned ahead, I am enjoying my coffee with cream this morning as I type this.  (I was running dangerously low on both by Saturday, so swimmer girl and her oldest brother took my credit card and headed to fill up "her" Highlander and snag a few foodstuffs from Publix.)

So are you tempted to join me in this little social experiment?  C'mon...it's easier than it sounds. And honestly, doesn't it sound pretty simple to just steer clear of the mall and restaurants for one day a week?  Give it a try - you might find, like I am, that it is fairly easy and certainly more economical to give your family (and yourself) a day of rest, with a combination of leftovers and freshly prepared food that hit the table faster than most sit-down places can deliver. 

Happy Monday,

Where ARE we?

Our mailing address is now Rockvale, Tennessee.  That meant we had to give up our decade-old phone number (which was firmly ensconced on the Do-Not-Call Registry) and start over.   I'm amazed how many people live in Rutherford County and don't know where Rockvale is.

But I guess maybe whoever decided we were in Rockvale doesn't know where it is either.   What most of us would consider Rockvale "proper" is located 6 or 7 miles from us and it's mostly farmland between here and there. 

In actuality, we are closer to the outskirts of Murfreesboro or Blackman than we are to Rockvale.

Almaville is almost as close as Rockvale and when I click on the little location link in Blogger and give it my street info, it tells me I'm in Almaville.  Huh?

Well, wherever we are according to the postal service and the cartographers, my heart says we're home.  And that's the best navigation sign of all.

Happy homing-in!

A game of cat and mouse

(For my friends who hate to see rodent tails or hear tales of rodents, stop reading now. You know who you are. I know who you are, and how you react to the mere mention of mice. I'll skip to the last page just for you: the mouse is no longer among us. The end.  All is well.  Sleep tight.)

Last week, I was hanging curtain rods in our bedroom. (This was during a day packed with work, working out, volunteering at our church, work, pruning oakleaf hydrangeas, work, driving the swim taxi, more work-while-waiting; a late dinner and finally more work before I collapsed. It was one of THOSE days.) So I'm up-and-down the ladder with the level, a pencil, tape measure, drill, drywall anchors, brackets and screwdriver. Trying to make short work of hanging four curtain rods and still have them straight and even and all that before I move on to the next task of the day.

On one of my countless trips up the ladder, I happened to glance over toward the door going to our bathroom and I saw the cat (Luci - which is short for Luci-fur), lolling on the floor, playing with something.

This cat is quite capable of amusing herself with a twist-tie for hours on end, so I didn't give it much thought. Then I looked closer at the object of her....well, we'll call it "affection." My first thought was "mouse."  My second thought was, "No, that's not a mouse. You and your monovision contacts are totally misconstruing a harmless piece of cardboard." Then it moved. Without her help. And she jumped back. And I stood still.

I called Swimmer Girl to come do reconnaissance from ground level. Her initial reaction was to discount my fears.  "That's not a mouse," said she, reassuringly.  But then it moved again. Unaided by the cat, again.

And she - to her credit - calmly confirmed that it WAS a mouse.   No shrieking or screeching. No vertical leaps onto tall furniture.  The mouse started moving, but slowly - it was injured. Apparently our cat likes to PLAY with her food. She was certainly not keen on killing it; in fact she jumped back every time it moved.

The 12-pound cat is afraid of a 3-ounce mouse. Sigh.

Long story short, we easily captured the walking wounded, and....uhhh, we disposed of it. As soon as it was taken captive, the cat decided she DID want her toy back after all, and was rather miffed at us for taking it away from her. Too little, too late, Luci. You had your chance.

We've found no evidence of mice in the house (except this lone ranger), so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that it slipped in when we left the door to the garage open for a few minutes earlier that day. Because it's pretty obvious our cat did not inspire the phrase "cat and mouse game."

Happy Monday,

Me versus the pressure washer

It occurred to me yesterday (when our pressure washer nearly knocked me off my feet for the umpteenth time) that 2500 PSI is probably a lot more force than my 5 foot 2-inch frame is really equipped to handle. I have learned to brace myself if I'm on a ladder when I'm power washing - the first time I tried it I nearly launched myself into the hot tub, much to oldest son's consternation. (Well, at first he was concerned. Then he was merely amused.  My kids are pretty accustomed to my klutzy antics.)

But even though the force can and does push me off-balance with regularity, I refuse to turn over the power washing to anyone else. Power-hungry or simply empowered? Either way I get a lot of satisfaction from successfully wielding the wand and knocking the grime off windows, walls, gutters and concrete. I go easier on decking (after I figured out what that kind of pressure can do if you aren't careful.)

Something tells me I'd flunk...

And yes, I am aware I run all kinds of risks by power washing in flipflops, but I keep my toes out of the way.  (Don't ask me how I learned that lesson...I just know, okay?)   I also prefer sunglasses to safety goggles, shorts and tank tops over full length pants and waterproof gloves.  Ear plugs, pshaw.  What fun would it be to power wash if you had to wear all of that?

This year I've had double the power washing fun - old house and new house both needed some serious power washing. New house's deck and guttering along the back are cleaned (and the deck is stained and sealed.) Old house's windows, siding, gutters and north-side sidewalks are cleaned.

I think that just leaves a little deck work at the old house, and then I might have to put up the power washer, at least until I'm ready to tackle that big wraparound porch on the new place. Trim, rails and concrete to be cleaned - woohoo! Sounds like a fun job for a hot July or August day.

Happy powering!

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,

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,

The house: a reality check

As I move into full-bore moving mode today, I thought I would take a moment for a reality check:  dream house versus real house.  Below is my wish list, and how this house measures up:

1. A bigger kitchen. Not commercial-size - I don't want to run a marathon to fix dinner. But I really doubt I will get duped into another 9x18 space for kitchen and eating area. Fool me once, all that.

Got it.  Plus a second sink, a fabulous island, convection oven with warming drawer and beautiful black granite countertops.  Winning!

2. A walk-in pantry. I will miss my big pantry I have now, unless I find a way to have another one. (Note to self: forget the "mom cave" - just give me a big honkin' pantry, preferably with built-in cabinets, electrical outlets and maybe even a sink beneath a window, with countertops on either side.)

Not exactly.  (But it's big enough and the excessive abundance of kitchen storage makes up for it.)

3. Taller ceilings. I'm no giant, but even at my stature, eight-foot-ceilings feel a little claustrophobic, especially when you've lived in a house with soaring space above your head.

Got 'em.  Love, love, LOVE them.  Another winner.

4. Fireplaces. As in multiple - one outdoors, and at least two or three indoors. They are one of the things that make winter bearable.

Got one.  But there is room to add one outside (on the list of future projects.)  And if I really want one for our bedroom, there's always ventless...

5. Windows, windows, and more windows. Tall windows that let in lots of light. And that tilt in for cleaning.

Got 'em..  Another one for the W column.  Light streams in, but with the big wraparound porch, it's not direct sunlight beating in.  And the sunroom that adjoins the den makes a fantastic spot to curl up in the mornings.

6. Closets, closets, and more closets. B-I-G closets. There ought to be a law that all closets must be large enough to do what they're designed to do (plus some wiggle room), whether they are for linens or coats or clothes.

Got 'em.  This place has way more closet space than we have had in the past but I'm sure we'll find something to put in all those nooks and crannies.

7. A central vacuum. Had one, loved it, would love one again.

Nope.  But it's always possible to add one.  Right, sweetheart?  Sweetheart????

8. A garbage disposal. (Or, put another way - no septic system.) It's the little things that mean a lot. You don't miss 'em until you don't have them any more.

Yes and no.  Yes, we have a disposal.  But we're still on septic. We'll see how that works.

9. A walk-in attic. One that you can actually stand up and WALK around in. Every time I pull down the attic stairs, I get a mental image of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and flinch at the though of the staircase smacking me in the face. It can't, but it just feels like it might. And hauling my Christmas decorations up and down attic stairs and stooping over at the waist to tuck them away is JUST NO FUN.

Got it.  (Now let's see if we can keep it organized :-)


10. A covered or screened-in porch. With a niche for a TV (above that outdoor fireplace) and an adjacent hot tub, preferably with a view of a pond, stream or other burbling natural water feature, close enough to hear and far enough away to not pose a flooding threat.

Big deck, but not covered. No hot tub yet, but those are definitely high possibility projects for the future.  And in the meantime, there's that humongous wraparound porch - perfect for sitting and rocking.

I'd have to say the reality is pretty close to the wish list.  Three of the not-quites are potential future additions (if/when we feel like tackling them.)  And the rest of my wishes were met in some form or fashion. It's hard okay, impossible to complain, especially when I also got the bonus gifts of a fantastic wraparound porch with a view of a  huge pond and farm life all around me every time I walk outside.  (All the fun of living on a farm and none of the expense or mess.)

The search for the perfect house was frustrating and discouraging at times.  But I'm really glad I had a list of high-priority items that I was seeking, and stuck to my guns.  May all YOUR wishes come true, too.

Happy wishing,

My house of many colors

I am not a white girl.

Well, I am, but I am not a white-wall girl - I don't think I've ever bought a gallon of white wall paint.

Ever.

Okay, maybe once when we were renting and I was covering some hideous shade of apricot in the bathroom and white was a safe choice the landlord wouldn't mind me using. 

And a garage or two.

But beyond that? Nope, never, no way, no how.

I love color.  That can't be a surprise, right?  I am a confessed Fiesta fiend, remember?

I've used every color of the rainbow except dark blue and purple to paint walls in one house or another. A range of pinks, reds, yellows, oranges, greens, light blues, and several "safe" neutral shades of taupe and gray have graced our walls over the years.


In our current house, we have 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 living areas, 2 eating areas, a bonus room and a utility room. At last count, our walls sport 3 shades of green, 2 shades of yellow, 1 shade of orange, 1 shade of pink and 1 shade of taupe.

Twelve rooms, nine colors.  And some of them don't play well with others.

The house that nearly captured my heart was painted a toasty taupey color all the way through. Its soothing neutrality was bee-yoo-tee-ful and ultimately, was a huge selling point for me:  it was move-in ready without anyone lifting a paintbrush.

The ultimate "THE" house has twelve rooms - pretty much the same as what we have now (they're just bigger and better arranged) but just six wall colors. And three of them flow and blend to transition nicely from entry to den/kitchen/eating area and into the sunroom. I'm leaving well enough alone in those rooms, and re-coloring only the bedrooms, dining room and bonus room (a bathroom will get a subtle do-over in a different shade of green soon after we move in.)

When I'm done, the house will have picked up a seventh color, but several of the rooms will use the same color: the bonus room and two bedrooms will share the master bathroom's taupe color; the dining room and swimmer girl's bedroom will share a rich mocha brown color.  Her room will get a pop of frosty pink to up the score to seven colors.

I think as I get older, I'm starting to find a better balance between my love of color and my attraction to flow and congruity in a house; instead of using various shades of the same color for these rooms, I picked one taupe and one brown, and I'm making them do double or triple duty. There might be four *perfect* shades of taupe out there, one for each room, but I'm not going to agonize over the colors or mess with repeatedly cleaning out brushes and rollers to move from room to room. And long-term it's a nightmare to sort and store touchup paint when you've got several variations on the same theme sitting around in half-filled gallon paint cans.

And after we move out of our current house, it's getting the taupe treatment - every place except the kitchen and master bathroom, which are staying their same current shades of green. I hope it'll make some buyer's heart go pitter pat to have all that lovely flow of soothing congruence throughout.

Happy painting,

Moving: into high gear

I've circled May 6 on the calendar as our targeted move-in date.  Between now and then, there's a lot to do:  painting, putting up window treatments, cleaning and of course moving in and organizing a new home.

How many times do we get to watch someone else agonize to organize? Or see real-life do-overs on rooms, rather than the magical makeover that happens in a single 30-minute segment of HGTV?

Well, here's your chance to peer over our shoulders and watch our progress as we paint and pack, and repeatedly answer the question, "what am I gonna do with THIS?" (whether it be a location that needs a little something, or a something-or-other that needs a spot to call home.)  All those questions of what-goes-where in the new space must be answered.  Your input is - of course - welcome.

So stay tuned. Starting today, bedrooms are changing colors.  Later this week, the dining room is going to get a color transformation, too - red walls and green-ish window treatments are just not me, and definitely not a good backdrop for my violet china or my good dishes.

In the meantime, the bathroom shower has already gone from fiberglass and peeling paint to stud walls:

Later this week, if all goes as planned, it will be finished in tile and stone.  

Next week will be the all-important arranging of the kitchen, moving my beloved Fiestaware, figuring out a new (smaller) pantry system, and generally getting kitchen and bathrooms in working order.  Then there will be decisions on furniture placement for the living areas and bedrooms.

Last but not least is the conversion of the bonus room into a bona fide University of Tennessee man-cave, and picking out a sectional sofa and other accouterments after we get fully moved in.

The scene still makes me shudder...

And at some point, we will have to deal with the wire closet shelving in the closets. (If they were filming Mommie Dearest in 2011, I suspect Faye Dunaway's character would be screaming "no more wire shelving!!!" and worry about those wire coat hangers later.)


Not to mention getting my greenhouse taken down, put back up, and new gardens and plants installed in the landscape here.

Yeah, this is gonna be a fast, furious and fun few days.  Strap in and hang on tight - it could be a bumpy ride but it promises to be a pretty fun adventure!


Happy home-making,

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!

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!