We Moved!

We did it!  We bought a house!

We picked up a huge cashier's check . . . 

 . . . did a walk-through with our Realtor . . . 

And then she was ours!

The closing process was quick and easy.  We remember the closing paperwork from the last time we bought a house (26+ years ago!), and it seemed that we were signing papers for hours and hours.  This time, we don't have a mortgage, and there were maybe 10 signatures.  Probably fewer.  It was great!

We enjoyed a bunch of time at The House that first day.
We unloaded a car-full of stuff and then had lunch.

First meal at The House by the fire!

I was busy pointing out some ideas for how to arrange furniture in this room, which is a semi-awkward shape.

Greg went outside to check out the footprints on the frozen pond.
He saw some droppings and deer prints.  We live in nature!

Our agent had a sign ready for taking photos.

Of course, we wanted to take a photo in our beautiful backyard, too!

I am excited to have such a big, lovely laundry room!  I now really enjoy doing laundry and I've been doing a lot of it.  Before we put clothes in the closet, I want to wash them.  Some have been in boxes for 4 months!  Before we put sheets on our new bed, I want to wash them.  Before we put towels back in the cabinets, I want to wash them.  Good thing the washer and dryer are working!

Of course, I can't get enough of the view.  As I type this, I'm sitting on the couch in front of a window that looks out over the pond and IT'S SNOWING.  It's gorgeous here!

This is the sliding glass door in the basement that goes out to the backyard.  The other evening my brother Mark came over to take away some of our empty boxes and packing paper because his family is having their basement remodeled so they need to pack everything up.  We gave him a little tour and when I turned on the outside light and looked out this door, two deer looked back at us!  They surprised me and made me squeak.  But it was a happy surprise!

This room is the front room upstairs.  It is the guest room, though we're sleeping in it right now because the main bedroom bed hasn't arrived yet (it should today!)  This room is purple with a pink closet!  It's so girly that it's almost a shame we'll be painting over these cheerful colors.

Happy in the laundry room:

Happy in the main floor powder room:

After the walk-through and the closing paperwork and unloading the car, we went out for pizza to celebrate.

Because our New House is so beautiful, it was very hard to go back to our rental to sleep!
We had a few more nights there before the movers came to move most of our things to the New House.  The day after closing (a Wednesday), our agent paid for a cleaner to come clean the whole house (lovely!)  The next day, we had scheduled a mouse control company to come check out the potential mouse tracks the inspector saw in the attic.  Then Friday, we moved!

Thanks to Mark and Jillian (who have an inflatable mattress) and my parents (who have a pump - Mark & Jillian's was in their camper and wasn't immediately accessible), we had a bed to sleep on for the last night at the rental house!

The next day (last Friday), I holed up with the cats while the movers took most of our stuff to the New House!  The cats were happy to have me SITTING STILL because I had been gone a lot over the past days supervising things happening at the New House.  We may have taken a short nap.

After the movers packed things up, they drove over to the New House and unloaded.  Greg drove over at the same time to manage where things went.

The couch looks better than I thought there in front of the window!  We might want something with a lower back, though, so it doesn't block any of our magnificent view.

Here's our guest bedroom all set up!

This is where we slept on Friday night.

Saturday was the first morning we woke up in our beautiful new home!

The past few nights and mornings have been really neat because the back of our home faces East, so we can see the moon (full last night!) rising over the pond and trees as the evening progresses.  Then in the morning, we see it setting over the front of the house.

Here's the view I got from bed as I was waking up yesterday morning.

Things like that can't really be planned for very well when purchasing a new home, and I'm enjoying all those sweet and pretty surprises with this wonderful house!

Saturday was a very full and satisfying day.

Greg's Dad, Rick, and Step-Mom, Karen, came over to help us with moving additional things and unpacking (respectively).  Greg and his Dad made a couple more trips back and forth to the rental house for truckloads full of things, and Karen and I unloaded all the kitchen boxes (and there were a LOT!)

I knew I had a lot of kitchen stuff and I couldn't tell exactly how it would fit into the available space in this kitchen, but this kitchen is BIG compared to my previous one!  I had no idea how much more space there was.  It's great!  I don't need to get more dishes, of course, or more cookware or more small appliances, but the ones I have are easily stored in an organized and beautiful way.

I started out by lining the drawers and cabinets with this cute liner.

I ran out after about 2 drawers and 2 cabinets, so I ordered a bunch more.  Even though most of the cabinets have things in them now, I'll take the things out, put the liner in, and then put the things back in over time.  It makes me happy to open a drawer or cabinet and see cute little daisies! 

Here are the bowls, best mugs, and desert-ware (mostly footed parfait cups of various sizes for puddings and parfaits and trifles):

These upper cabinets are less deep that our cabinets in Arizona, so I used a cabinet in the island for our dishes.  It's perfect and right across from the dishwasher.

Karen and I worked hard.  At first we were surrounded by boxes almost as tall as we are!

The paper was excessive.  BUT because everything was packed so well, not a single dish or piece of glassware was broken.  In fact, the only thing we've run across so far that has been broken was a coated cardboard tray that had gotten snapped in half.  At first we piled all the paper in the library (the front room directly to the right of the front door), but I have spent a few hours flattening it out into piles and putting it in the garage, so now the library is free of crazy mad paper.

Allistair liked the paper piles, though!

Just today (quite some time since these photos were taken . . . this has taken me some time to type up!), Allistair buried Wanda, his toy whale, in the pile of packing paper.  I decided I was done having a huge pile of paper in the middle of the living room (even though my babies liked it!), and I took it all out into the garage without knowing Wanda was still in it!  Allistair cried in spurts all day long and I couldn't figure out why until I realized I hadn't seen Wanda all day, which is unusual.  I spent 15 minutes outside in the cold garage (it's 8 degrees F outside) sorting and shaking the paper until I finally found Wanda - hooray!  Now Allistair can finally settle; he's snoring cuddled up right next to me at this moment.

The cats have been having fun looking out the windows and so have we!

We have seen downy woodpeckers, chickadees, crows, nuthatches, house finches, blue jays, cardinals, pileated woodpeckers (HUGE!), and deer in our yard!  I think I saw a weasel or stoat yesterday morning.

I went out to fill the birdfeeders, but I didn't realize the side garage door would lock itself automatically . . . yep!  I locked myself out in the cold!  Greg was working in his office upstairs, but eventually he heard me knocking.  In the meantime, Allistair and Claude watched.

My sweet friend Echo and her husband Jeremy sent 2 of these adorable tissue boxes as a housewarming gift - very thoughtful!

And the stools for the island arrived!  They are beautiful.

Greg assembled them and he did an excellent job!

We are very much enjoying the natural surroundings here.  Yes, there are other houses around, but there is also a LOT of beauty!  Even the houses are beautiful, their roofs covered in snow.

I love to see the pine trees with snow!

Sometimes we see ice crystals on the sliding glass door.

I love this pretty view from our entryway.

Don't worry; it's pretty, but it doesn't prevent napping!

The cats have been surprisingly comfortable surprisingly quickly in this beautiful new home.

Sun rise on the first morning here.

Claude saw a RABBIT!

More news to come . . . check in again soon!

xo

New House Walk-Through

"Fall in love with this wonderful modified 2-story home in a great family neighborhood! The property features a gorgeous pond in the backyard which attracts local wildlife and has been used as a hockey rink during the winters. Three bedrooms on the upper level, including a main equipped with a full bath and large walk-in closet. Spacious main floor kitchen with an informal dining area and large family room overlooking the backyard pond creates a great atmosphere for hosting. The lower level features a huge rec room with a walkout to backyard patio, large bedroom, full bath, and an entertainment room. Seller is the original owner and has kept the property in great shape. Brand new carpet on upper and main levels. New roof, siding, and water heater in 2019. Multiple offers received, calling for highest and best by Wednesday, 12/29 at 1pm."

 While we were doing a walk-through with the home inspector, I snuck away while they were discussing electrical and mechanical things (no major issues!) to take some videos of the basement and the main floor.  I forgot to take any videos of the upstairs (three bedrooms and two bathrooms) because I was tuned in to what he was saying about wood window maintenance, eaves, roofs, etc.

Our offer was the first presented and the one ultimately chosen!

Here's the main floor:

The room to the right of the front door will be our library (yay - a library!)  The other rooms are self-explanatory except the main floor bedroom, which will be my office.  Office idea board post will be coming soon because I've been brainstorming!

I didn't film the main floor powder room, the main floor laundry room/mud room, the room that will be my office, or the garage (the entry from the garage comes into the laundry room/mud room).

Here is a quick video of the basement:

Our new house has lots more room than our old house in Arizona (twice as much square footage!)  We have a BASEMENT (which are extremely uncommon in Arizona homes) and we're thrilled!  We're planning on using it as a recreation level.  Between the sink and the sliding glass door out to the pond we are planning to have a games table.  I plan to add a cute little beverage fridge under the countertop (in the open spot!) for our guests to pick sparkling water or other tasty drinks.  The place where the ping pong table is in the video will eventually have some comfy seating (probably a sectional) and a big TV set-up.  The back room (that's currently set up as a TV area) will be Greg's foosball room!  There will probably be a couple of chairs in there and at least one storage unit.  The bedroom in the basement will be our yoga (and other exercise) room.  We have a stationary bicycle, which will be in there, and my parents have offered us their treadmill, so that will also go in there.  The less-than-attractive exercise equipment will be stashed around the corner where it's not visible from the main area.  I plan to set that room up like a home yoga studio with calming colors and natural textures.  The utility room will also double as an electronics room for Greg's exploration.  

I will also post an ideas board for the basement rooms soon!  It helps me to think through the mood, colors, textures, and arrangement I want for each area.

And then there's our beautiful back yard!

We are thrilled to have such a gorgeous location for our new home!
The nearby area is full of parks, nature preserves, conservation areas, lakes, etc.  It's just beautiful and we're excited to get there and start enjoying it!

Hope you enjoyed this tour of our new home.  Stay tuned for more home-related content as we move and get settled in!