It's been WAY too long :)

So life has change a TON since our last post. It has gotten quite crazy and quite fun. We moved into our new home, and it is everything we imagined. We absolutely love it. I promise to post pictures soon, since we are all unpacked!

Here are a few highlights from this past month.

1. We got a 42 inch LCD tv with a free wall mount. Walmart display model prices are INSANE!!

2. Josh has done a ton of projects around the house. Everything from:

a. garage door opener

b. new lighting fixtures

c. put up shelves

d. put up the TV

e. blinds

f. installed microwave

g. made a coat rack

3. Elsa had surgery. She had a tumor removed on her side. I was concerned it was cancer, but it was benign!!!!!!! It was just a fatty tumor, which is pretty unusual in cats. When we dropped her off at the vet, the nurse took a look at her lump, and said it was "uggie". That was pretty funny. That evening, she couldn't even lift her head up. Broke my heart.

She has been a very good girl. She has taken her medicine and been a trooper about wearing a onesie. We cut off the butt of the onsie, so she is just wearing this really adorable t-shirt. Insanely cute. She has 4, rather larger, stitches that will need to come out in a few weeks.

4. I got an internship!!! It starts in May and is with a public accounting firm called CBIZ. The people seem wonderful, and the work seems fascinating. The internship will be 50% accounting outsourcing and 50% auditing. A perfect combination to determine which is a better fit for me long term.

I have NEVER felt so blessed in my life. This is such a happy time that we are just trying to soak in and enjoy immensely. Life is beautiful!

--Cara

God is awesome!

So we were FINALLY told how much to bring to closing, and the number was $1000 less than we thought it would be :) YAY! We had been over estimating the closing costs.

So, of course, we had to buy something for the house... so here is the new dining room light fixture from one of my favorite stores, CB2. Much better then the porcelain socket that is currently in the dining room.

Just about there!!!

We are set to close on Thursday! (that is, if they will ever tell us how much we need to get a cashier's check for)

So I thought I would take this post to talk about the choices we made for the house. Once we move in, and are there for a while, I will post whether or not they were worth it, or if I wish we would have done things differently.

Upgrades we chose:

We chose to do mainly structural upgrades, because we figure we can change just about anything else later for a lot less money then the builder would charge.

1. Vaulted ceilings in the kitchen and living room. The model had these, and it just opened the entire house up.

2. Move the kitchen from the front of the house to the middle. This seemed to be a much less awkward floor plan. It also allowed for a kitchen island.

3. Additional window in the living room.

4. Elevation B. I had to have a front porch, it was my one requirement I was not willing to give up.

Elevation A:

Elevation B:

5. Brushed nickel doorknobs and hinges. They overcharged us on this, considering that brass and brushed nickel cost the same, but I would have cost us more to change this later.

6. Overhang on the kitchen island. This would have been a lot of work to do ourselves.

7. A better oven. For $95 we could upgrade to an oven that had a window in the door, and a light! OOOOhhhh

Things we didn't upgrade:

1. floors- we hope to put in hardwood later

2. cabinets- eventually some Ikea ones would be great!

3. No fireplace- but it would be great eventually.

4. No coach lights- Josh will be putting those in.

5. No dead bolts- again Josh will do that

6. No ice maker line

I think that is it!

--Cara

Our builder and chapter 11 bankruptcy

So it took about 5 days for the news stations to start reporting that Whitaker went into chapter 11 bankruptcy. (we have known since Thursday) So, in case you saw it, I just wanted to let everyone know that we already know, and we aren't concerned. It's chapter 11, not chapter 7, so they aren't closing or anything. They are just restructuring their debts. All of the money we pay at closing will go right to the suppliers and subcontractors, so we are not worried about liens.

--Cara

Breaking into our own house

Today, we went by to take a look at the house and, we got in. I won't say how we got in but, since we were in there, I took some pictures. I will give you a little tour.

This is from towards the front of the house looking to the back. On the left is the dining room, kitchen and living room. On the right is the garage, steps to the basement, and the hallway leading to the bedrooms.

Here is a picture from the entryway looking into the kitchen. The dining room is on the left and the living room is on the right.
This is from the living room looking back at the entry way. This one really shows the vaulted ceilings.
And, this is my basement
-- Josh

Lots of Progress

I went by the house yesterday after work to find that on Monday and Tuesday, they finished putting in all the cabinets and counters, put in all the outlets and switches, installed the gutters, put in the forms for the driveway and patio, had the appliances delivered and it looks like they are working on the ducts in the basement.

I if the weather holds out, we may have a driveway and patio by the end of the day.

The list of things yet to be done is getting really short!

-- Josh

Another Siding pic

We were able to lock in our interest rate today, so we are happy. Next step is appraisal then underwriting. The vinyl flooring is is, as well as the baseboard. Hopefully we will be able to take some interior pictures this weekend.

--Cara