I Will Remember You

Bear with me, friends. I'm sitting here in my tiny living room watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, surrounded by boxes and packing material and the general discombobulation that accompanies any move. I'm feeling quite wistful and nostalgic. I actually cried a little bit while I was packing yesterday.

I came into this house a fiancée, not yet a college graduate, and my dad had to co-sign with me. It was just me, my soon-to-be-hubs, my cat and my stepson a couple times a week when we moved here. My stepson was 3. He is now 13. We leave as a family of 5. I brought both my babies home from the hospital to this place. They are now 5.5 & 3. They all learned to ride bikes on the bike path that runs parallel with our back yard.

We are really going to miss that bike path. Not long after we moved in here, we got our first dog together - a chocolate lab puppy we called Bettis (the hubs is a Steelers guy). He had to be put down in Jan of this year after an aggressive bone cancer, but before that he was walked every single day rain or shine on that bike path. And that's how we got a 2nd dog - who we still have - she followed them home from a walk one day and never left. The animals are starting to clue in that something major is about to transpire and they are a little out of sorts. I hope the transition isn't too hard on them. Especially the cat. I haven't made a move without my cat since I was 19 years old - I'm 36 now, so he's no young thing.

I'm ready to move on. We all are. We outgrew this place 1 kid ago at least:) There's only one bathroom and its really small. And there's no dishwasher. And the washer and dryer are in the kitchen. But what a great place to start our life together. I don't know much about the people who are buying from us, but this time next week they will be here, starting their own time in this space. I hope fortune smiles on this home for them the way it has for us. I'm thrilled about this next phase in our lives, but I will always have much, much love for this little ranch home that has housed me and my family for so long.

And as an aside, no one believes me when I tell them that our Ravenna will be the first time I have ever lived anywhere with steps. Really! Both homes I lived in growing up were ranches, too. Even the apartments I had were on the first floor. Never had a basement either. It's going to be an adjustment for Miss Emily, people!

A very, very, very fine house

Blogging from my phone, but just a quick update about the pre-settlement walk through. The meeting lasted about 2 hours and we went through the house bottom to top. Our pm is very knowledgeable and very thorough and the meeting went very smoothly. My folks, our realtor, my hubs and myself were all there - it was definitely helpful to have some extra eyes around to point things out we may have missed. But really, there wasn't too much to point out! A few spots already had painters tape on them when we got there from things either the pm or the inspector had noticed. And we didn't notice more than a handful of minor things. I don't know why I was expecting to find more wrong - probably because the interwebs are so full of horror stories, or maybe because I'm so ready to move I wasn't being critical enough, but I suspect its just because they did a kick-ass job building our house and there just wasn't much to find. It's really spectacular.

So anyway, after the meeting we went shopping for a new fridge - home depot had a great deal on it - $100 off and free delivery & hook up. Up next is blinds, a ceiling fan, new couch & TV - hoping we might be able to do some wheeling and dealing at Morris if we buy both of them there. Then will be a new kitchen table for the morning room and a king size bed for the master. Only a few more days until we are in!!! Can't believe it!

It's A Beautiful Day

I wasn't expecting to post again so soon, but my ever diligent father-in-law made a stop out to the new house earlier today and all the landscaping was being put down! We made a stop later this evening after pee-wee soccer to see for ourselves and found all the sod laid down and the seed & straw in back. So I've got a few pictures from his visit, and a few from ours. it's gorgeous!! I'm just tickled with how everything has turned out. Can't wait for the big pre-settlement walk through on Friday!!! Stay tuned....

Closer and closer

Well, our pre-settlement walk through is this Friday AM. It's all happening!! Our pm called today to say that things were kind of wrapping up this week - the deck is getting finished and other than that it's going to be mostly cleaning the place up. The shutters are up and the laminate floor in the kitchen/foyer/powder room has been laid. We close on Tuesday. I can't believe it's finally time for all this!!! On the agenda in the coming days: shopping for a new fridge, pricing blinds, and researching sealant products for our tile grout, cement driveway, and garage floor. We're also going to
shop for a new couch for the family room, a kitchen table for the morning room, a king size bed for us, and a new tv. A few of those things are going to have to wait a little bit - in the weeks after the big move we have our big girl turning 6 (which means party & presents) and a trip to Disney in early Nov. Priorities up front are obviously the fridge & blinds, everything else we can take our time with. Without further ado, some exterior shots from our drive-by last weekend, and some interior shots from our pm. In random, blogger app order:

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

 Another informal walk through at Lot 15 today - this time featuring our mothers. They hadn't seen the interior since it was 2x4's except for via the blog. So much has changed in the last 10 days or so since we were there last! Siding, porch columns, kitchen backsplash, carpet, beginnings of laminate flooring...its all happening!!! Two weeks exactly until we close. So much to do in the next 2 weeks I can't even wrap my mind around it. I'm just taking it day by day because if I think too far ahead and think about everything happening in these 2 weeks I might go mental. Or I might already be there.

As an aside, the pm/sr switcheroo could not be better. Both our new pm and our new sr have names beginning with "A", so I think I may refer to them as the A Team. Because they are Awesome! I have yet to meet the new sr in person, but she's been great about calling and keeping in touch to see if we need anything. Super cool chick. And our new pm is so accommodating and helpful. The switch has been seamless and we really appreciate that.

 I know, I know "Get to the pictures, Lady!!!" Here goes.

Front of the house. Columns are up and siding is almost complete. The sides and back of the house are already finished.

I'm loving the Monterey Taupe with the Falls Canyon brick. The brick wasn't as gray in person as it looked on the sample in the model home, so I was worried the siding would look off, but I'm thrilled with it. Looks different from every other house in our cul-de-sac.

Driveway concrete is poured - and its so long! For some reason I was expecting some shrimpy driveway, but this is perfect. And that's my girl, Eliza. She fell right after I took this picture. Kids....

Columns are up on the front porch.

Our new mailbox - its missing a number.

Closer up shot of the siding next to the brick. Love the green/gray look. It is going to be a stunner once the black shutters go up and the door is painted black.

Now here it doesn't look as green/gray to me. Its all about the lighting, yes? Still looks sharp, though!!

Literally, in the door not 2 seconds, Dominic sits down in the living room and takes his shoes off. Keep in mind this carpet has not been stretched or fully trimmed and there are carpet tacks sticking up everywhere. Kids.....

Our first appliance! Welcome, shiny microwave. I hope you like turkey dogs and popcorn, because you'll be seeing a lot of that very soon!

What a lovely surprise - the tile backsplash up in the kitchen! I didn't think this was going up until next week - I am officially obsessed. I love it so much. The color is warmer than I expected, so I may have to rethink my paint palette. I had considered painting the kitchen a slate gray. I thought the contrast against the cabinets would be really sharp, but now I think maybe a warmer gray might work better. Either way, I'm thrilled!

The stove is waiting patiently in the garage.

Eliza said "look mom!!! I found the dining room!" Whew - so worried we'd lost it for a minute:)

Foyer.

This scares me. I am sooo not a TV/electronics person. I mean, I enjoy using them, but to install...forget it. I am a dunce.

Master.

Close up of the accent tile in the master bath. Am now thinking maybe I can do the slate gray in this room instead.

"Mommy, I take shower. You get in here too. You take shower. You stink" Kids.... (for the record, I had just come from work. I did not stink)

Tiny nick in the trim along the upstairs hallway.

Another nick in the trim along the stairs. And some really attractive carpet padding. Eliza said "wow mommy! this carpet is really colorful!"

Everyone checking out the basement while this poor guy is trying to seam our carpet together. I'm sure he loved having us all watch him.

If these two ever come up missing, I know exactly where I'm looking first. Under the basement stairs or in any of the bedroom closets.

Thermostats installed. Nice, cool 70.

A view of our rear neighbors from our family room.

Yes. Every time I see it, I love it even more. So glad we asked about this at our Rite Rug meeting. So glad the Rite Rug gal suggested the diagonal layout.

So warm. I love you.

Beginnings of the laminate flooring in the morning room. Some of it came in damaged, so there's a little bit of a delay as they had to send it back, but it won't affect our closing date. Im thrilled with how it looks.

I don't know if we'll get back in ourselves before our final walk through on the 21st, but I'm hoping our sr will hook us up with at least one more set of pics to post before then:) Stay tuned!!!