Bedroom - Day Two

The second coat of paint went on the walls the other day, and boy is our bedroom pretty.  We even got the bed moved in there so that we could sleep in a bed again (I've been sleeping on the floor because J always pushes me off the couch).  So a nice comfy bed always makes me a much happier camper in the morning.

The beds still on the floor because we have to pick up taller legs for the bed on our next trip to Ikea (we want to put some storage under the bed).  But I'll take a mattress on the floor any day to just on the floor.   

We still need to paint the trim.  I know we should have done that already, but oh well.  We wanted to see how it would look with the wood trim.  It's nice, but the last time this room was painted, no one thought it necessary to tape anything off, so now all the trim is covered with white paint (as well as the hardwood floors).  So the amount of visible paint is driving me nuts, so we're just going to paint it all white and be done with it.  We also are going to paint the dresser black in the spring.  That's gonna look awful nice.

Here's a  horrible, awful, who the hell did this, fantastic photoshop job of what I would like our bedroom to look like.  I actual would like to add crown molding too, but I forgot to photoshop that in.  Oh well. 

We're going to make a nice big fabric headboard (I'm hoping ours turns out better then the one I drew).  And the bed will be centered under the window at some point in the future, it's just not centered right now.

We also have these fantastic vases that will be going in the room as well as nightstands and some wall sconces next to the bed.  And of course some photo collages on the wall.  Then this room will be done and we can move on to the next one.  Which will hopefully be the living room.  Then we can get some furniture and actually live in our living room.  Boy, that's an idea.

Well I hope all of you have a fantastic new year.  I know we will and we have a whole bunch of projects lined up for this next years, so join us on our travels into adult hood and home ownership, it aught to be and interesting one.

Bedroom, Day One

Here is our bedroom before we started the painting.  It's an average room with average white walls.  Nothing really all that exciting. 

We took down the curtains and have decided to redo the closet a little bit.  We chose to go with the room with the smaller closet because the room itself is bigger.  I know doesn't make a lot of sense, but oh well.

All of J's clothes are still up in this one, but they'll be down soon.  We're going to redo the whole thing and add some nice white doors to it.

And here's the room after our first coat of paint.  I'm in love with this color.  Oh it's pretty, oh so pretty.  We went back and forth on the trim, but I think we're leaning towards painting it all white.

My teal, black, and white room is one step closer to becoming a reality.  Well the paint color isn't really teal, it's actually blue.  It's more in the turquoise family, but it's oh so pretty.

I can't wait finishing up all the paint and getting our furniture back in the room.  We're going to be making a nice headboard (black) when we finish up the paint.  And then I'll paint the dresser you see in the above picture black to match.  I'll finish up the room with artwork collages on the wall and our tall flower vases we've been saving for years.

So we're one step closer to getting this house the way we want it.  One step closer to it saying, ' this is our style and this is our house.'  Exciting!

And so I don't forget, I'm offering 15% off everything in my etsy store now until February.  Yoda needs a few surgeries, so to help pay for them all sales in my store will go towards that.  You can get more info about Yoda on my other blog; Three Fates Design.  Thanks and stay tuned for more exciting news.    

The Changes Have Begun!

Now that the holiday is over, we've finally started doing all those things that homeowners do to make a house there own.  Our first project, heat diffusers.

Old Heat Vent Covers

Now the old diffusers were made by a very talented person.  They were all hand made with different pictures.  But that's not quite our style.  So we replaced them with good old fashioned white metal diffusers.  What a difference.  I'm so happy with how they look.  Now I really can't wait to get the paint on the walls.  Oh beautiful Latte, I can't wait for you to go up.

New Heat Vent Covers

Then our next project wasn't really as simple as we thought it was going to be (isn't that how they all are).  There was a half wall as you walked in the front door. We wanted to take that down to open up floor plan as much as possible.  So J got out the tools and started taking it down. 

As we took it down, we learned that they the wall was built into the hardwood floors.  So who ever put up the wall, cut the floor up to put it in.  So now we have to figure out how to fix it.  Our solution, we're going to put in a nice tiled entry way.  It's just a small little area, so we can splurge and get some really nice tile. 

Look at that boy go!

But I do have to say, even with the hole in the floor, the living room looks so much nicer.  It's so open and big in here now.  Perfect.  Just what we wanted.

No more half wall!

J started to feel a little overwhelmed when we ripped that wall out.  He actually told me he was ready to go back to renting and he was going to play video games. I know he'll get over it.  And I'm sure both of our parents are waiting for the first phone call.  You know that phone call, the one where we are hysterical on the other end because something went terribly wrong and now they need to come fix it.  Yeah, I'm sure that day is coming. 

And the next project of the day was the band studio.  J and his band mates are taking down the paneling in the new "studio" and putting up new walls that will be hopefully sound proof.  I really do hope that it's as sound proof as possible.  I don't know how much I want to hear them practice.  They have to replace the drywall on one wall because the last owners just put up paneling as walls.  Just paneling nailed to some studs.  Not very sound proof.  That's the current project.  Today is "demolition" and then hopefully it will only take one more day to put the walls back up.

Tomorrow's plan is to go to the grocery store for some actual food, not just frozen pizzas.  And when we get home, the ceilings will be started.  J has a show tomorrow night (at the High Noon Saloon, if you're in the Madison area), so I'm sure I'll be doing the painting tomorrow while he practices and gets ready, but who cares.  I want the damn paint up. 

So more pictures tomorrow.  I'm hoping those pictures will have some walls with paint on them.  ;-)

What did you get for Christmas?

Well this has been one heck of a Christmas.  It's unfortunately the first Christmas that I can remember that I didn't have some form of a tree up, but that's okay, I'll get over that some day.  I'll probably be scarred for life now, always remembering our first Christmas in the new house without a tree :( but I'll deal with the broken heart of living in a tree-less house.  I don't know if you notice, but I'm not really over it and I've let J know everyday how sad I am.  But anyhow.  

J and I didn't really celebrate that much or even exchange gifts.  But I guess we bought each other a house, so that's probably the best Christmas gift ever.  Okay, that IS the best Christmas gift ever.  And we did get each other little things.  J got me (and himself) an awesome travel tea mug.  I love tea and buy a lot of loose leaf tea, so these are perfect for us.  I will be getting got him a single cup coffee maker.  It's not one of those k-cup kinds, it just takes normal coffee filters and coffee, but only brew one cup at a time.  We got my boss  the same one for the office.  He likes it and I think it made J was a little jealous, so I got him one.  It's a nice cuisinart one.  I'll have pictures of it when it finally arrives (hey give me a break, we just moved last week).

We also went and picked up some paint.  We're set for the living room/dining room, kitchen, hallway, and master bedroom.  I figured those rooms were enough to start with for now, then we'll move on to the other rooms.  I'll hopefully have some before and after pictures soon.  We went with Latte for the walls in the living room/dining room, kitchen and hallway.  Then deep red for one of the walls in the dining area.  Then of course a wonderful blue-green for the bedroom.  Oh I'm so excited about the bedroom.  You have no idea.

And of course the best part of our paint store trip; we picked up a color deck.  I have been dreaming about one of these for ever.  Not only will I be able to use it to pick out colors for the rest of the house, but I'll be able to use it to create new color combos to use in my art work.  That was totally worth the trip to the paint store.

We also made our first trip to the home improvement store since we've become homeowners.  I can attest to the fact that once you own a home, those stores take on a whole new feeling.  We became completely overwhelmed the second we walked in the store.  Was it the first time we've been there?  Hell no, we've been there hundreds of times, but now we're homeowners, so we have to care about everything in the store.  We did manage to calm ourselves down long enough to buy a few lights for the front entrance way and the hallway, as well as a lamp (our first nice lamp ever).  We also picked up paint supplies and some caulking crap for J's studio in the basement.  Oh and we picked up registrar covers to replace the ones the house came with.  I know, he was a very skilled woodworker, but I'm sorry, they just aren't our style.  The plain, simple ones are fine in my book.        

So as you can see we had a wild and crazy Christmas (we did spend it with family, so not all boring).  Oh the lives of homeowners, EXCITING!! ;-)

The Metro System

So I'm going to take a little break from talking about house crap today.  There really isn't all that much so share right now, we didn't do anything except get the appointment for cable set up yesterday.

But anywho, I would like to do some venting on how I feel about the city metro line.  I'm fine with it.  I'm more then happy with it, but it seems to me, not everyone is.  Most people seem to see the city buses as their own personal taxi service.  I just don't understand it.  The buses are a privilege not a right, don't go bashing them right now.

Our new house is a block and a half from a bus stop.  That is a huge plus for me.  I walk a whole block and a half, a bus picks me us and then takes me practically to the front door of the vet school.  How fantastic is that.  It saves me the money it would cost me for gas as well as the whopping $745 parking pass.  Oh and my sanity, because driving in this town in not really all that fun.  Some of the people here are insane when it comes to driving.  But I digress.  The fact is, I ride the bus for free (next year we'll have to pay a small fee for our passes).  It saves me a crap ton of money and I don't get all pissy and up in arms when the bus is behind schedule.

Especially right now.  I'm not sure if some of you have heard or not, but the Midwest is completely covered in snow.  And then on top of it, at least here, we're experiencing sub zero temperatures.  So that means any snow that didn't get completely cleared from the roads is now a pure frozen ice mat.  So everyone SHOULD be driving slower and more careful.  And that's exactly what the bus drivers were told, Be Safe and don't worry about being a little late!!  And I completely agree with this.  I'd rather the bus drive a little slower then me die because the bus ran off the road.  But as I found out the last couple days, no one else sees it this way.

There was a woman at the bus stop this morning just bitching away at anyone who would listen about how she felt about the buses being late.  That they were huge vehicles and they didn't need to drive slow.  They could easily pick up the pace and be just fine.  Ummm, okay, and that's why I don't like driving here.  That sort of attitude.

The buses are not your personal taxi.  They do not cater to you, they come when they come and just shut up about it.  It's not like it's a lovely summer day out and the roads are free and clear.  No, it's the middle of winter in WI, things take a little bit longer.  And even if it wasn't winter, the buses must obey the rules of the road.  They can get stuck in traffic just like someone driving can.  Shit happens.  Luckily Metro has a little up to the minute tracker that tells you when the bus is coming.  Just check that, it's pretty accurate.  I just don't see the point in getting on the bus and ripping the driver a new one.  It's more then likely not their fault.  Sit your ass down and enjoy your (more then likely free or discounted) bus ride.  And if you're late to work, take the earlier bus, it's that simple.  And if you don't want to do that, drive yourself to work, or call a damn taxi.  Just don't complain about something you won't be able to control.  Calm down and life will be a little better.  Am I thrilled to wait in the ice cold weather for the bus, no not really, but it beats having to drive myself.  And really, who gets that upset over a bus being 5 min late, life's to short to get upset over something that small.

Okay, that's all for now.  I'll share with you how I feel about the rude people on the bus some other time.  :-)

I DID IT!

Hell yeah, I drove that stupid truck back last night with no problems at all.  I even pulled it into the gas station without any problems.  Yeah, I know I'm awesome.  We were talking to the guys at the rental place and they said that the trucks suck in the snow.  They just had to move all the trucks from on side of the lot to the other for the plow to get through and that took them 4+ hours.  I should have gotten a picture of it before I took it back.  I actually should have gotten a picture of it stuck in the road, but we didn't seem to find it as funny at the time.  But all is well in the giant rental truck world.  It's out of our driveway and safely back at the rental place.  Thank god that's over.  Now we can focus on more important things.

Like unpacking and painting.  We have made progress in that category as well.  We have the bathroom unpacked as well as most of the kitchen.  It's actually starting to feel like home.  Even the cats have come out of hiding and are exploring.  As for Yoda, she pretty much didn't miss a beat.  She's loving the new place and all the room.  So all is well so far.  Lets just hope it stays that way for a while.  :-) 

We Did It!

So, we did it, we became homeowners.  We are the proud owners of a 3 bedroom ranch house.  Awesome!

We're even almost completely moved in.  We rented a big ass truck on Saturday and filled that sucker.  Thanks to the help of three of our friends, it really didn't take that long.  We even beat the storm.  Although I did have to drive a few towns over to pick up the truck, which didn't make me happy.  And then J made me drive the truck, the 26 foot truck, full of our stuff.  So I pretty much drove the 40 some odd miles thinking I was going to die the whole time.  But I made it and I did okay.  We almost got the whole truck unloaded before the rain started.  

Then we made the mistake of not returning the truck that night.  How is that a mistake?  Because when we woke up the next morning there was a foot of snow on the ground. And then came the failed attempt to try to return the truck during a snow storm.  Lets just say it wasn't pretty and we may or may not have gotten a huge rental truck stuck in the road outside our house.  Luckily our new neighbors are supper nice and helped us out and got it unstuck and back in the driveway (that's after I called the rental truck emergency hotline and talked to a tow truck driver, so then I had to cancel that).  I called the rental place and told them we needed an extra day added and they said they were giving everyone an extra day to get trucks back because of the storm.  So luckily we didn't have to pay extra for that.  But unfortunately our road wasn't plowed until late and J didn't get the driveway plowed until even later.  So there sat the truck, and that's where is was when I left for work this morning.  So it looks like we will be getting a late fee, but I'd rather be safe then save 40 bucks.  But we're leaving work early tonight to try and miss the late night commute and getting that truck back ASAP.  I don't need to rack up any more charges on it then needed.  Lets just hope I can pull into a gas station to get gas without running anyone over.  Check back in tomorrow to see if I'm still alive.       

Aaaaaaaaaah

Yup, that's pretty much how I feel right now.  Tomorrow is the big day, closing day.  In just a few more hours we will be at the title company buying our first house.  Holly shit!!!  That's how I feel; I'm exhausted, nervous, excited, stressed, happy, etc, etc.  And we haven't even closed or moved yet.  This better be worth it.

☜ Yup, that's a Three Fates Original right there.  I know I'm an awesome artist.  It kinda looks like I'm showing you some "see food" and I think I might be naked, I'm not sure.  Maybe I better stick to beads and glass. 

Yesterday was our final walk through.  It went well.  We met the woman selling the house, she was nice.  She has all the manuals for everything in the house ready for us and she showed us how the childproof outlets work (she had to ask herself).  Everything seems to be in order and I guess we're ready for tomorrow. 

We're still waiting to hear back about our moving truck.  They let you reserve them online and then they don't get back to you until the night before to officially confirm everything.  They don't really leave much room for you to make other plans if you can't get what you want.  That's starting to stress both of us out.  We just don't want to have to drive two towns over to pick up a truck, the millage would cost a fortune.  Living in a small town can be so frustrating at times.  Oh but we won't have to worry about that any more, "big city" here we come.

We have a group of friends that will be helping us.  I just have to feed them and fill them up with beers.  I can do that.  I can't believe anyone volunteered, it's December in Wisconsin, I sure as hell wouldn't want to help a friend move.  But we have awesome friends.  They are so awesome they will help us move in the middle of the winter while it's snowing.  Yup that's right, it's supposed to snow this weekend, but at least it won't be bitterly cold, it will be in the 30s.  It'll feel like summer.

So home ownership here we come.  Again, holly shit, are we really doing this? 

This is the Week!!!

http://www.fotosearch.com/BCD117/jptm12/

So this is the week.  We have our closing on Friday and then moving on Saturday.  Holy crap, I can't believe it's finally time.  I'm ready for this.  I'm ready to leave the JC and not look back.  Well okay, I'll still go to the outlet mall there, they have an awesome kitchen store and a great tool store, as well as a Coach store (yes Coach handbags).  But I'll avoid the town.  It's not like it's a bad place to live, I'm just done living in a little town in the middle of nowhere without a grocery store.  And I've defiantly had it with the little monsters that live on our street.  I'll be so happy when they are just a fading image in my rear view mirror.  Monsters, just monsters.

But enough with that (maybe I'll share some stories at a later date).  We are almost completely done packing.  All that is left is the food in the kitchen, the sheets and blankets on our bed, and some odds and ends.  I'm proud of J for letting go of so many things this last weekend, the homeless shelter will be getting boxes of men's clothes soon.

Our house is a maze of boxes.  They are everywhere.  Nacho is so upset with the boxes, Toonces is pissed off because of the boxes, and Yoda is loving it.  I'm pretty sure that dog would be happy no matter what.  And I'm sure she'll think that we're going to a party (don't say that word around her, it makes her go insane, because she likes to party) for a while, then it might dawn on her that it's her new home.  Maybe not, you know what, she probably won't even notice we moved.  She's not dumb, she's just a happy dog that is happy as long as her boy and girl are around her.

So we're ready to go, and I'm very much looking forward to the Glass Nickle pizza I've been promised on Saturday.  Mmmmm, Nickle nuggets.  Num, num, num.    

One and a half weeks left!!!

We're so close now I can taste it. We only have a week and a half left before closing and moving day. WooHoo, I can't wait!!!

But with the big move comes new furniture.  Our couch is only a couple of years old, but it's a sectional and the chase part is in the wrong direction for our new living room.  Boo that couch.  So now what are we doing?  We're looking at new furniture. Blah.  I'm not a fan of furniture shopping.  I'm pretty picky about what I like and it always seems to be the opposite of what J likes.  And my least favorite thing is the sales people that follow you around when you don't need them, but then when you do, they are nowhere to be found.

But anywho, this is the sectional that we're leaning towards.  It's the right color and it's the right size.  The ottoman doesn't come with it, but I do like it and so does J.  I think it would work really well in our new living room.  We were looking for another couch with a chase, but I think if we get the (overpriced) ottoman, it will be like a chase.

We're also looking into getting a new TV.  I think our current one is fine, but J wants a new one.  We have an old school rear projection big screen TV, that takes up a large majority of our current living room.  I think that our new living room is big enough for it, but J's ready to trade up for a flat screen.  So that means we'll have to get an entertainment center.

We like this one from Ikea.  It's simple and best of all pretty cheap.  You design them yourself so that if fits your room and your TV, so that's kinda cool.  I like the idea of the solid doors so that no one can see our massive amount of DVDs and PS3 games.  It will be nice to be able to keep everything out of sight.  Much better then the book case we're using now.

We're going to go dark with the furniture and light with the walls and floor.  The hardwood floors are a beautiful blond color and we're thinking about getting a light tan colored area rug.  J was a little worried about it being to dark in there, but the bay window lets in so much light, that I don't think there will be a problem.   

Then in the future we like to get a pair of chairs or a love seat for the living room as well, but that can wait a little bit.  We'll probably go with a lighter color for that and maybe even a print (fun).

Oh a complete living room, I can't wait to look like we're homeowners and not college kids anymore.  I think we've been out of college long enough, we really need to graduate to a big people living room.  Adulthood here we come!!!           

Thanksgiving is over and we have less then two weeks!!

Yup, we have less then two weeks before our closing.  It's pretty exciting, but still pretty stressful.  I'm finding it harder to concentrate at work.  My thoughts always seem to wander off and my mind starts thinking about how long it will take me to paint and what color sofa we should get.  I'm also thinking about how no one's getting Christmas gifts from us, we bought ourselves a house and now need furniture to go in it.  Oh well, I'm sure everyone will understand. 

We accomplished a lot this last week.  Our Thanksgiving consisted of sorting out all our crap in the basement and packing, packing, packing.  We skipped all the family events and just packed.  We did a pretty good job.  We got the basement cleaned out and the majority of our stuff in boxes.  I have one last little art show this Friday then my studio gets put in boxes and awaits the move just like the rest of our stuff.

Unfortunately our house is now a maze of boxes.  We have such a small town house that we don't really have room to put them anywhere other then in the living room and hallway.  So you just have to maneuver around everything. 

Nacho has realized that something was up last week.  It was pretty funny to watch that unfold.  She sat in the hallway and looked at the boxes, came into the living room and pawed at the stuff in there, then went back into the hallway to look at those boxes some more.  Then she jumped up on the couch and just stared at us with worried face for the rest of the night.  And this has sparked her nervous licking habit, so now she has four nakie legs.  This will now persist until long after the move.  Hopefully it won't take her too long to settle into the new place.  It took her almost a year to get over the fact that the dog was a permanent resident.

I also had a unfortunately meeting with our basement stairs on Thanksgiving.  The stairs felt that it would only be fitting if I tripped and fell down.  The only problem was that I was holding a large empty box in one hand and a little pug in the other.  So my shins and left hand did the trick and stopped me from dropping the pug and falling down myself.  Now I'm in a festive wrist brace.  You just don't realize how much you use your left hand until you don't have full mobility of it.  Luckily that's all that came from that fall.  A broken pug would have really ruined my day.

So far we're on track.  We have the kitchen and bedroom left to pack.  Everything else is done.  I'm proud of how hard we worked, even if J got distracted by Gran Turismo 5 a few times.  Now I just have to convince myself to stop daydreaming and get back to work.  ;-)
             

PAINT!

Disclaimer: I hate, hate, hate to paint.  The actual process of painting bores me in about 5 min.  I get really psyched up about it and then I'm already done before a single wall is painted.  BUT, I do love to pick out the paint colors.  I love all those wonderful little chips of paint in all those wonderful colors.  That's the best part about painting. 

So me and J have started to seriously start thinking about painting.  Because we close in the morning and J has to go back to work afterward, I thought I might volunteer my time to start painting our walls.  I mean that really would be the best time to paint.  There will be absolutely nothing in the house.  J can drop me off with my rollers, brushes, and paint cans, and I can get started.

So here's what we came up with last night.  Wait, quick side story.  I asked J if we could stop by the paint section of the store last night (we had to pick up some light bulbs).  He just kinda looked at me funny and asked why.  I told him my idea about painting after closing and then he asked what I was going to paint.  Ummm, the walls.  Oh and he had his sad face on.  When I asked him what was up, he told me he thought I was going to do all the paint deciding without him because I didn't think he would do a good job.  So after calming him down and letting him know he was going to be a full part of the process, we headed over to the paint section.

And THIS is what we came up with.

 Here are the colors for the living room, dining room, hallway, and kitchen (it's an awesome open floor plan). 

The walls are going to be a nice warm sandy brown.  It's a little bit more brown then in this picture.  Then the back wall that is behind the dining room table will be the nice rich red color.  I was going to do floor to ceiling curtains on this wall, but I think I like the idea of a red wall instead.  And J picked out the red color.

Then the trim is going to be the white and we're going to do nice dark, rich brown accents in the room.  We might even do a couch this color.

I think these colors will look beautiful with the nice blond colored floors.  And someday, the crown molding that will be around the ceiling.  I'm happy with the colors we picked.

Then the bathroom.  We went to an open house once that was the best decorated house I had ever been in.  Their use of color and style was just fantastic.  They also had an unbelievably modern bathroom, that J and I both fell in love with immediately.  So we decided that's what we're going to do with our upstairs bathroom.

The bathroom has wood paneling in it right now.  Just on the bottom half of the walls.  We were going to take all the paneling down and paint, but we decided we would first try to paint it and see what it looked like.  Kinda treat it like wainscoting.

So the bottom half of the wall will be white, and we're going with a nice semi-gloss to give it a nice contrast to the upper walls.  And the upper half of the wall will be gray.  But now we're not sure if we want to go with the light or darker gray.  We wanted to go with the lighter gray before we were going with the white on the bottom, but now we're not sure.  There will be a lot of white, so the darker gray won't be too dark.  I think we're leaning toward the darker gray right now, but I still like the lighter one.

I have to decide soon, the bathroom is one of the first rooms I want to get done.  It's so dark right now.  I would really like to freshen it up and make it modern.  Which color do you guys thing will look nicer?  

Maybe we should get ready to move soon...

So our official "OK" came back yesterday from the bank.  That means we will be homeowners in just a few short weeks.  Crazy.  I was so excited yesterday at work that I pretty much ran around telling anyone that would listen.  I'm sure I annoyed quite a few people.  I was just so happy and excited to get the official word.  I wanted to go to Babcock Dairy Hall and get a Brownie Boat Sundae to celebrate.  If you're not from Madison, WI, you have no idea what Babcock is, but I'll learn you, it's okay.  Babcock is well, you probably can guess, the university's dairy hall where they teach the little kiddies about making dairy products.  And the most exciting part, they have a dairy store where you can buy all the wonderful dairy products that make WI such a great palce.  They have milk and cheese and of course, ICE CREAM.  And this ice cream is fantastic, especially the super premium.  And then they have this thing called a brownie boat sundae, and yes it's exactly what it sounds like.  It's a massive tray filled with two warm brownies, 4 scoops of what ever flavor ice cream you want (and we're talking WI sized scoops here), real whip cream, hot fudge, caramel sauce, and cherries.  There might be more on there, but I can't remember much before the sugar comma set in last time.  And yes, I know from experience, this is not a one person sundae.  I wish I took a picture the last time I got one.  It's beautiful.     

Wow, I got a little side tracked there.  I can't help it, I'm pretty passionate about my dairy, especially, ice cream.  But enough about ice cream sundaes and back to the important things (even though I feel ice cream is pretty important).    

Back to house related things.  We got word that all the updates we requested on the house have been done.  We have to call the utilities company, decide on a specific time for closing, and let our landlords know we'll be leaving soon.  But other then that, I think we're good to go.

Oh wait, I think there is something we're forgetting.  Hmmmmm, yeah, I'm pretty sure we might be forgetting something.  Oh yeah, we ACTUALLY need to move in a few weeks.  Translation, we should probably start packing soon.

Yup, we haven't even started to pack, not even one little box.  I think we might run into a problem if we don't start soon.

Here are all the boxes that I've collected at work so far, ignore the liquid nitrogen dewar, that's not part of the packing material.  Unless we needed to move something really cold, no, no I don't think we'll need it.  But back to the boxes, I've collected a nice amount of boxes for us to get started packing.  The problem with them is, they are still sitting in my lab.  I haven't even brought them home yet.

I know, I know, we're a little behind on that.  We've just been so busy with everything else that we've sort of forgot about the whole packing thing.  And any free time we might have, we don't want to do anything physical.  We just want to veg out on the couch.  But we need to keep reminding ourselves that there will be no vegging until we move and get settled in.  After all of that we can just lounge on the couch.    

And just because I'm still stuck on the earlier subject, anyone want to join me at Babcock for a Brownie Boat Sundae?  

Appraisal Done!

So we are another step closer to owning our own home.  We just got word from our agent that the bank's appraisal went fine.  So that's good news there.  The banks been working on our loan for about 2 weeks now, so I'm hoping we hear back before the holidays.  I'm a little worried the holidays are going to slow down the process, but with fingers crossed I'm hoping they won't.

We have our closing day reserved at the title office, now we just have to decide if we want to close in the morning or afternoon.  I know it would be easier for J to close in the afternoon, but anything will work for me, I just want those house keys!

My paranoia that something was going to happen and we would loose the house is starting to lessen. I know, things still could happen, but lets just hope not.  See, I am totally the tense, uptight one of the relationship, worrying about everything.  J's always having to calm me down.  I might, just maybe, need to work on that. ;-)
 
Now about that packing...


***UPDATE! Seconds after posting this, I got and email from the bank.  Our loan has been officially approved and we are good to go.  We will be homeowners in less then 4 weeks.  What a Christmas gift!!!  Now I really do need to start that packing!***

7000 Bracelets for Hope

Please stop by my other blog for more information on the Global Genes Project.  It's helping to raise awareness for the millions of children suffering from rare diseases/disorders.  And you can help make a difference today by donating a bracelet to the cause.     

Home Inspection!

Yesterday was our home inspection.  My nerves have finally started to kick into overdrive.  All I kept thinking was maybe the crawl space would be filled with mold or the house was about to fall down.  Things like that kept running through my head.  I was making myself crazy, like I always do.  J is so much better at taking these things in stride.  Nothing bothers him (well something do).

Our inspection was early afternoon, so that meant I had to take the bus from work, which isn't that big of deal, I take the bus everyday.  Normally there is a bus that drops off at the end of the block so I would only have to walk a few houses to get home (oh my, in a month it will be our home).  But that only runs at "peak" hours, so that meant yesterday I needed to do some transferring.  I wrote out my bus schedule on a post it not and carried it with me all the way.  Luckily, there were no mix ups and I made it there fine.  I had to walk about 3 blocks, but the weather is so beautiful right now, I didn't even mind.

But on with the inspection.  It went well.  There were a few minor issues, but nothing that would be a hard fix.  There were a few outlets that had reverse polarity, but that's not a huge issue.  J's dad could easily fix that (he's a maintenance guy for the county prison system).  But I'm pretty sure our agent is going to make sure the home owner has an electrician come out and look everything over.  Other then that it was just normal stuff you find in a home that is a little bit older.  There really wasn't even that much for a house that's 50 years old, I was pretty impressed.  

The inspection was a long, long ordeal, like 3+ hours long.  The inspector was extremely thorough and did a good job of explaining things to us.  He took pictures of everything, I'm talking probably close to 100 pictures.  Just to remind himself of the house and so if we had any questions in the future, he'd be able to look back and see.  I thought he did a pretty good job.  But who am I to say he did, this was my first home inspection.  So now we have to look at the report and decide what needs to be done next.  Buying a house is hard, but I'm sure it will be worth it.

And I mean look at what we have to look forward too, I'm sure the cats will claim the bay window as soon as we move in.  And the view is nice too.  It's such a nice tree lined neighborhood.  And oh so quiet.  Yesterday we were there before and after school got out and you would have never guessed there was a school only 2-3 blocks north.  It's amazing how quiet the neighborhood is.

I guess we should probably start packing some of our stuff soonish.  The current home owner already has most of her stuff packed up and out.  We haven't even started (except for my collection of boxes in the lab, if that counts).  I guess we're just waiting to make sure everything goes smoothly at the bank.  We still need to wait for the bank assessment and the underwriters to finish up.  So fingers crossed, I hope everything else goes as smoothly as it has been, even though I know it might not.  I keep reading about the housing market and the underwriters being so overwhelmed.  I'm a little scared that things will slow down because of the holidays coming up and everything will take twice as long.  But I'm staying as optimistic as possible.

So I'm off to "virtually" paint the walls in the pictures I took, gotta love technology.           

Kitchen Ideas

So I'm super excited for our closing date, December can't come soon enough this year.  It's going to be the best Christmas ever.  Our home inspection is next week, so hopefully that will go well and we will only have good news next week.

We've really started to get serious about thinking about the renovations we have planned.  We want to go with a lovely warm sand color for the walls in the living and dining room.  I like Beach House from Sherwin Williams.  I think it's warm and wonderful and will play nicely with our rich red living room accents pieces.  I want to paint the wood work white, but J doesn't really want to.  So I'm compromising for now and keeping it a nice blond color for now.  I might whitewash it in the future, but for now we'll leave it as is.

Because the house is an open concept (my favorite) I'm also going to paint the little dining area the same color as the living room.  Then I would like to do a nice floor to ceiling deep red curtain on the windows in there.  I really think it will look beautiful.

We have been going back and forth about what to do with the kitchen.  It's an open concept, so it has to go with the living area, but what to do?  The current home owners just installed a beautiful dark slate, almost black, counter tops and stainless silver sink.  It instantly made the kitchen modern (we saw it before and after.  Some people like cannery yellow counters, I am not a fan).  So we've decided to to bring the sand color into the kitchen as well.

I would love to put in a slate floor to really bring out the subtle colors in the counter top, but also go with the sand walls.  I like this slate.  It's not as dark as the counter tops, but it compliments them nicely.  I think it will also compliment the sand colored walls as well.  So this is probably what we will be looking for when we go floor shopping.  Something to bring everything together.

Now my next dilemma is the back splash.  I would love, love, love to go with a glass tile.  I love glass tile.  They are so beautiful and add that little touch of class to a kitchen.  There are so many choices to pick from, and that seems to be my problem.  I want something that has the natural pallet in it, but is not to busy. 

   The first one that caught my eye was this combo slate and glass tile.  It matches the counter tops really well, but I'm worried this will start to make the kitchen seem really dark and I'm not sure how well it will work with the sand colored paint.  But I love how beautiful it is and I love how it combines both the glass and slate tile.  And because the colors are similar, it's not super busy.  They have it also in a 1x1 square pattern, but I think I love this style better.

Then I thought maybe I should leave the whole slate color behind and go more natural and brown to match the walls better.  Like maybe this one.  I think it would go with the wall color well and also pick up the colors of the wood cabinets.  But will it go with a dark counter top?  I'm not sure.  Is it too brown or is it okay?

So maybe this one.  It's slate and glass again, but the lighter slate with a more brown glass.  I like this one a lot as well.  It will definitely compliment the floor and the brown walls and I think it will look nice against the counter tops.  And I think the brown in the glass will pick up warm tones of cabinets.  It also is brighter, so no dark dungeon of a kitchen.

Picking a tile back splash is a lot more difficult then I thought it would be.  There are so many options out there.  I foresee us getting a lot of samples before we make the decision.  But I will be so excited when it's done.  We will have a kitchen that is beautiful and just what we want, not the cheap crappy kitchens we've had before in our rentals.  And who knows, maybe I'll go completely different and go with a bright green glass like this one.        

After we decide on a tile it will be the light fixtures and cabinet hardware. So many decisions, so much fun. I can't wait to be able to actually get my hands dirty and start working.

Wordless Wednesday - Toonces

What A Weekend!

Oh Halloween, one of my favorite holidays.  I mean who wouldn't like dressing up and having fun?  I love to get dressed up and go out.  It's always a fantastic time (except for the time we got food poisoning on State Street, that wasn't as fun).

Unfortunately we haven't done the whole fun, dressing up and going out thing in a couple of years.

Last year on Halloween, we picked up little Yoda from the doggie hospital because she had a life saving operation three days before (at only 5 months old, what a little fighter).  Then we had to go home and monitor her for the next 24 hours because she had a few complications.  She was fine.  What we do for our pets!

This year me and J were so busy with everything else, we didn't do anything again.  We wanted to dress Yoda up in some ridiculous outfit, like a bumble bee or Nibbler from Futurama, and hand out candy, but we weren't even in town for trick or treating.

We were in Madison all weekend.  I went with J to watch him record his part to the Christmas album they're working on.  It was a long, long process.  I brought stuff with me to do, but I didn't ever get any of it out to actually work on it.  Why, I don't know.  The best part was the group dressed up as characters from StarWars.  The guy that was dressed up like young Obi Wan was spot on.  I am always impressed with someone that will grow their own facial hair out just for Halloween, that's dedication to the holiday.

That's not the only thing we did this Halloween weekend.  We put a bid in on that house!!  And after a couple counter offers, we got it!!!  OUR OFFER WAS ACCEPTED!!!  We are now one step closer to becoming homeowners.  I'm very excited, but trying not to get a head of myself.  Things could still happen, and we could still not get the house.  I'm trying to stay level headed and make sure we get each of the next steps done.  I'm not going to fully celebrate until we have those keys in our hands.

Next on our list is to make sure to get the earnest money out today and call the inspector to set up an appointment.  And the agonizing wait for the bank and our loan approval.  Hopefully everything will go quickly and smoothly and before I know it, it will be our closing date.      

One Step Closer!

Last night we met with our loan officer at the bank for a little check in and update on everything.  We had already been pre-approved to buy a home, so we were not really expecting anything out of the ordinary.  And there really wasn't anything.  We both have pretty good credit (J has almost perfect credit and I'm just on the verge of reaching the excellent status) and had been approved for far more then the price range we're looking in.  But we feel that we need to keep our first house a reasonable price and not get carried away.  Our loan officer was really nice and explained a lot of things to us on how everything would go on our closing day and what our next steps should/would be.  She has worked with our real estate agent before, so we trust that she'll be honest and up front with us, and she's already at the bank that we go through, so it's an added bonus. 

It's starting to get exciting and nerve racking all at the same time.  We're excited to buy our first home, but the stress of knowing that we might OWN a home soon is outrageous.  I'm pretty sure I'll never sleep a full nights sleep again, well at least until we get the house, and probably not for a while after that.  This is such a big step for us.  We're so lucky because we have one of the best real estate agents ever.  He seriously is fantastic.  He has constant contact with us and makes us feel like we're his only clients, which we know we're not.  I'm so happy we decided to change agents, it was the best decision we've made.   

And after taking this first step into adulthood, well I guess getting real jobs was the first step, but anyway, maybe we'll actually get married next summer.  You know one of those other big things adults do.  Who knows, now that we've stepped into the realm of adulthood, we might be making big decisions all the time.  ☺

Wordless Wednesday - Favorite Flowers

Three House Showings and a Decision?

Disclaimer - this is a long post, so you'll probably get bored half way though.  I apologize in advance.  ☺

So we saw all three houses this weekend.  We saw them back to back, well almost, the one house we had to see on Sunday because the people decided not to show on Saturday.  All of the houses were second or third showings, so knew that these were the three we were going to pick from.  And after seeing 20+ houses, I was glad to have then narrowed down to three.  So lets look at the pros and cons of each. 

House #1

This was the first house we were supposed to see on Saturday, but ended up seeing on Sunday.  It was a three bedroom ranch, with two car attached garage, fenced yard, and finished basement.  

Pros

• 2194 sq ft
• Fenced yard
• Finished basement that was large and very open
• Bar in the basement
• First floor laundry
• Hard wood (laminate) floors
• 2 1/2 baths
• Large extra room upstairs that could be an office or extra family room
• Nice landscaping
• Beautiful deck
• New Windows
• Nice neighborhood

Cons

• Very small two car garage, two cars could barely fit in there
• The kitchen had newer counter tops, but I still would want a full tear out
• Small odd shaped yard
• The house across the street had a front yard full of statues
• Price, this house was on the high end of what we would like to pay
• Busier street
• Not within walking distance of anything

So we liked this house the first time we walked through it.  It was in a nice neighborhood and it looks adorable from the street.  The house is very nice on the inside with new windows and wood floors (they are laminate, but looked nice).  The basement was fantastic, it was very open and had a bar, full bathroom, and a workshop.  Unfortunately, the duct ran right through the middle of the basement, so tall people could never stand in the middle of the room or even in front of the bar, but me and J are both short enough, so it really wasn't a huge deal.

The real problem was with the small garage.  It was so small there would be no way J of working on his car.  There was no room for a work bench or our bikes.  And there is no way we could add on because of the shape of the lot.  So that was a real deal breaker.  The other problem was the kitchen.  The counter tops did not line up and had fairly large gaps, and the cabinets were very old.  Plus it had an original faux brick wall.  The kitchen would be a full tear out, and that's gonna cost us some money.  And with this house being on the high end of our price range, would it be worth it?

House #2     

This house was a three bedroom ranch with an attached garage and unfinished basement.

Pros

• 1340 sq ft (unfinished basement)
• Beautiful landscaping
• Nice size yard
• Large windows
• Huge garage
• Very large basement
• Nice neighborhood
• Quiet street
• 2 full baths
• Fenced Yard

Cons

• Carpet thought the whole house, blah
• Outdated kitchen with all original items
• Strange floor plan
• High Price

This was the house that J went and saw the other day while I was at the dentist.  He said it had potential and he wanted me to see it.  It was a decent square footage considering that the basement was unfinished and could be finished.  A very large family room or rec room could be put down there and probably make the square footage of the house well over 2000 sq ft.  The garage was huge.  It was perfect for what J would need it for and plenty of room for my car as well.  The yard was very nicely landscaped, probably way better then I could ever do.  It was beautiful

But there were some glaring problems that I saw.  One the kitchen was all original, meaning it had yellow counter tops, yellow sink, yellow appliances, as well as yellow floors.  That means all the counter tops would need to be replaced, the floor would need to ripped out, and all the appliances replaced.  And it had a single sink, and there was not room for a double.  I don't think I could live with a single sink.

It also had a floor plan I didn't like.  You walked in, to the left was the door to the kitchen and to the right was a hall to the bedrooms and next to that was an open staircase to the basement and then your living room.  An open staircase to an unfinished basement in the living room.  It was so strange.  I just didn't like it and I didn't like that it wasn't an open floor plan.  I love open floor plans and that's why I want a ranch house.  I just wasn't feeling this house at all.

House #3

This is a three bedroom ranch with a two car detached garage.

Pros

• 1843 sq ft
• 2 full bath
• Nice neighboorhood
• Quiet street
• Large garage
• Full finished basement including workshop, extra bedroom and full bath
• Nice size yard
• Hardwood floors (real)
• 3 season porch
• New windows
• New counter tops and sink in kitchen
• Bay window
• Upstairs office

Cons

• No landscaping
• Small deck
• Unfenced yard
• Long driveway
• Flooring needs updating in some rooms
• Bathroom needs a little updating
• Lighting needs updating
• Needs a new paint job

So this was the third time we've been through this house.  We really like this house.  It has almost everything we're looking for.  It needs a little updating here and there, but nothing major.  The hardwood floors are beautiful and are in such good shape for being original.  The floor plan is very open and great.  It has a beautiful large bay window in the living room.  They just replaced the counter tops and sink in the kitchen, and they are beautiful.  The three season porch is huge.  We would like to put a patio door from the porch to back yard, but that can be a project for next summer.  The yard is large and very private.

The house does need a little updating.  I'm not a fan of the floor in the kitchen, J keeps telling me that it's not that bad.  The yard isn't fenced in, so we'll have to decide if we want to fence it in or get invisible fencing for little Yoda.  They just painted the house blue, and well I'm not a fan of blue houses, so we discussed painting it next spring, which will be easy since it's a ranch.  Like I said before, we would like to put a patio door out to the back yard from the three season porch to kinda open it up and make the flow a little nicer.  The bathroom needs some updating, but nothing a little cosmetic work and some paint won't do.  There is a half wall as you walk in that we might take down and we would probably take down a pair of upper cabinets to open up the flow of the house.  Then we would also take out a built-in in the kitchen to add a little more counter space.

✺✺✺✺✺✺✺✺✺✺

We think we've made up our minds and we're going for house number 3, I know big surprise.  We just really like this house and think that it has almost all the things we want.  We've done our homework and looked at almost every house on the market, and we keep coming back to this one.  It has the least amount of curb appeal because the lack of landscaping, but has the most potential and everything we're looking for.  We're talking to the lender today about closing costs and getting a pre-approval for this specific house (we got a general pre-approval when we started looking).  Then we're going to make the appointment to really go through the house and check everything; faucets, windows, water pressure, open and close doors, etc, etc.  And after that visit, we're planning on making an offer.

It's exciting and scary all at the same time.  I've already started freaking out, but I know we'll be happy with our decision, we really did our homework and planned everything out.  So I'll keep everyone up to date and hopefully everything will go to plan.      

Almost There - Narrowed Down to Three

Picture from Wisconsinhomes.com

I don't have much for you today.  All the stuff we're doing and going through right now really has us stressed out.  But the good news is that we have narrowed down the houses to three of them.  All of them have their perks and their downfalls, but they all are really nice and have what we want.  J went and saw one of them by himself on Tuesday (I had a dentist appointment), he said it was really nice and that we should add it to the list.  So that one was added to the other two.  It really has a beautiful yard and it's a really big house, so I'm excited to see it.  

I'm really looking forward to finally make a decision.  I can't wait to live closer to family, friends, and work (and a grocery store).  I know owning a house is hard work, but I think if we can cut our daily commute (45 min each way, plus 45 on the bus) out, I think we will have so much more time and we won't feel as exhausted every night.  And it will be great to live closer to friends and family, we'll actually be able to do things with them without the hour+ drive.  And best of all, I'll be able to paint my walls what ever color I want. ☺

Wordless Wednesday - Sleepy Potato

The Light at the End!

So I think we actually might be nearing the end of our house search.  After two more open houses this past weekend and what I think will be our last home showing this week, I think we're getting ready to make that big decision.  I think we might actually be ready to sit down and decide which house we want to pursue.  It's exciting.

We did two open houses this weekend.  One was a nice house, but needed a lot of updating.  And the basement had water damage, so we weren't as thrilled as we thought we would be. 

Picture from WisconsinHomes.com

But the other house we liked a lot.  It's in a nice neighborhood and has a lot of square footage.  It has a two car attached garage and a fenced in back yard.  It is a three bedroom house with 2 full baths and one half bath.  It has a wonderful finished basement with a bar and one of the full baths.  There was even a work room in the basement and a pretty nice size crawl space. 

It had a family room/den off of the kitchen and a beautiful deck off of that room.  The bedrooms were on the smaller side, but not tiny.  The living room was nice and roomy and had a large picture window that let in a ton of light. 

The house looks pretty nice, but it did have it's cons too.  The yard was tiny and a strange shape since the house was on a bend in the road.  The garage was small, really small.  There was no extra room in it at all, so no work bench or tool box would even fit.  And the house across the street had a front yard full of angel lawn statues.  And the largest con was the price.  It's a bit on the higher end of what we were looking for, but the sellers are motivated to sell, so we might be able to get it for a nice price.     

But even with a few of the cons, we have added it to the list of house we are interested in.  It's a strong contender for our final cut.  We have one more house showing this week and I think that actually might be the last one.  We've been through list after list of homes, and I think we've exhausted all the homes in our price range.  I really hope make a decision soon, I'm starting to get sick of looking at houses.  You know, I'm looking forward to the frustration/exhaustion from the actually buying process and the moving process, Yay buying a home (insert sarcasm here). ☺                 

Another Home Showing!

So Monday night we went back and had a second showing of this blue house.  We really like this house a lot and think that it has a lot of potential.  But we want to make sure that we are making an educated decision when we buy a house because, well it's a pretty big important purchase.

And because of that we will be looking at another house tonight.  It is roughly the same size and they are asking the same amount for it.    It is also a ranch, so it's a pretty good comparison house.

The real estate agent also said that he would go through the list and see if there was anything he though was worth us taking a look at.  He's such a nice guy, he doesn't talk down to us or act like we have no idea what we're doing.  He has told us that we have done our homework and though this is our first home, we seem to know our stuff.  I really like working with him.  He also fully explains stuff to us and doesn't sugar coat anything. I love working with him so much more then any of the other agents we've dealt with.

I'll keep everyone updated and hopefully have some more pictures to share tomorrow.

♬♬♬♬♬♬♬♬♬♬

And in the shameless plug region, J has a gig at Distortion Thursday at Mr. Robers here in Madison tomorrow.  If you are looking for a fun time and some great music, stop on down.  You know you wanna get out there and skank (for all of you not into ska, this is the actual term for the dancing you do, you can look it up on YouTube)!!!!!  

Kiwi In Wisconsin

So I'm starting to get over the slump I was in yesterday.  But just a little bit.  Stress is a funny thing and sure takes a lot out of a person.  But anyway, no more whining on here, that's not what this blog is about.   

One of the things I can't wait for when we move is to be able to plant the garden I've always wanted.  Right now I have a potted garden (not a pot garden people, come on get your minds out of the gutter).  I don't mind using the pots, but I'm limited in ways to what I can grow, so I can't wait to have a large garden with all the yummy veggies and fruit I can imagine.  Believe me my list is long.  With almost everything you can think of.

And the most exciting thing that I found out was that I can grow Kiwi in Wisconsin.  It's a special Kiwi plant called the Hardy Arctic Kiwi and it produces a kiwifruit that sweeter then the New Zealand Kiwi.  You have no idea how excited I am about this.  I mean I can grow sweet, wonderful Kiwifruit in Wisconsin, that's pretty awesome.

They grow as vines and you need a male and a female plant to produce fruit.  And from what I've ready, they are really beautiful plants that many people just grow for their colorful leaves and flowers.  They are also insect and disease resistant and will grow in poor soil.  That sounds like and awesome plant.  I can grow them on trellises along the house.   

And look at that fruit.  The best part is the fruit is sweet and it doesn't have the brown skin.  You eat the skin on these.  It's like the skin of a cherry.  That is super awesome.  And from what I've read so far, they said the fruit is best off the vine, but can be canned or used in jellies and pies.  Even better.  

I found a few places online that sell the plants.  You do need a female and a male plant to make fruit, but most places sell two or three plants, so that's great.  I'm going to do a little bit more research and then check out some local nurseries, but I will have kiwifruit growing next year, I promise this.

Blah!

So I guess I'm suffering from a mid-week slump.  I know it's Thursday already and then it will be Friday, but I'm still just feeling, blah.  We have been busy every single night since J has gotten back from training.  But not with fun stuff, just with normal everyday activities.  You know; grocery shopping, cleaning, dealing with the neighbors and now the landlords need to talk to us.  What the heck?  I just want a day where I can sit down and relax, or at least do something I will actually have fun doing.

See, right now we live in a tiny, tiny little town that doesn't have a grocery store or a pharmacy.  It has an outlet mall because it's right on the main highway between Madison and Milwaukee, but no grocery store.  Yes, I can buy a Coach bag, but not milk.  And yes we have plenty of gas stations, 4 to be exact, and I can run there for milk, but those places are so over priced, it's ridiculous.  So every time I need to go get groceries, I need to run to one of the surrounding towns.  Blah. 

And don't even get me started on our neighbors.  We live in a side by side duplex on a privately owned road of duplexes.  When we moved in, it was so nice.  Our first year was pretty nice.  The apartment is smaller, but fine for us.  We have a yard and a deck and a basement and a garage, you know all the nice things that most people don't get when renting.  Then the neighbors moved in and everything went to crap.  I honestly can't stand living there anymore.  It's not just the neighbors, It's just a number of things that I can do with out.  I really can't wait to buy a house and move. 

We're also trying to figure out the right bus for me to take in the morning.  That's pretty interesting.  But hopefully we'll get that figured out soon.  And as long as J gives me about an hours head up of when he's going to leave work in the afternoon, I'm good on which bus I need to get on then. 

I'm just having an overload moment.  I'm sure with some rest this weekend, I'll be back to my old self, ready to take on the world.  And I better rest up, the real estate agent will be back from vacation next week.  We have three houses we would like to compare the blue house and then it's decision time; keep looking or put an offer in (I really think we're going to put an offer in).  So no craziness this weekend, just rest and relaxation.  Hey I just got an order of beads to play with, I have to get out of this slump so I can start to create.  :-)

Thank you for listening to me vent, I promise this won't happen very often.