Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Our new house: Before

Hello my loyal blog readers. What a couple of days. Unpacking a house with a one year is HARD. Not knowing where anything is is HARD. No cable since Saturday is HARD. Missing the exit twice on your way home from different stores because you forgot where you live is HARD. Now onto the bright side... (lol).
We love our house already. Like seriously, love it. Cannot believe it is ours sort of love it. Wake up so happy and proud to call this our home sort of love it.
Our neighborhood is so beautiful but we have only gotten to enjoy it two days since moving in since mother nature is a..... you know what I am thinking.
Our neighbors are all amazing. We have a cop and teacher right next door who have three kids, 1 girl and 2 boys... the youngest boy is only 2, so him and Tori are very close in age... their girl is 7 (going on 17) and loves Tori and has already referred to her as her bff haha. She has already come over for a play date where she follows Tori around and tries to show her the ropes of the neighborhood. Both parents are super nice and so friendly. A couple of houses down is a family with 6 kids.. 5 boys and a really tough girl (lol).,. and then right behind us is a teacher and her vice principal husband (also so so nice) and their two kids... a 13 year old girl and a 9 year old boy. They are just adorable. The little girl has already volunteered her babysitting services and the little boy "Bubba" is a wild man who is convinced Tori doesn't like him. At some point on Sunday there were about 5 kids just running through our yard like crazy kids, playing, pulling wagons, etc. I am sure those who have experienced this for awhile would probably say I will get tired of that but for now, I am really soaking it up. I love a family neighborhood, neighbors you can trust (and who drop off champagne for you with a note on it that says "Welcome to the hood" haha), kids who are going to babysit your child, kids who are going to grow up with your child.., ride the same bus as her, etc.. Grandview heights, I love you.
So, the house. One big thing we knew right away going into the home that we were going to change is converting the home from oil to gas. I called around and got oil prices on Monday and it confirmed that we absolutely need to do that. The price is just insane. I called and confirmed everything with UGI and we are expecting to get the contract in the mail this week to get everything started so for now we are committing to not using up all of the oil we have left (it heats both the water and heat) by not using the heat which of course then brings 30 degree weather this week where our house is freezing and we have small heaters running in Toris room (at night) and the living room(during the day). The previous owners of this home had their garage converted to a bedroom and their first floor bathroom made into a handicap accessible full bathroom because they had a son who was in a freak accident and paralyzed from the neck down. That part of the house is so beautiful and new, and then the rest of the house is old fashioned and beautiful. They took amazing care of the house and had the whole thing painted for the sell, etc. So here are some pictures that were featured on the MLS and I plan to do a room by room update once we move along with décor and painting and stuff.

Front of the house:
Back of the house:
Dining Room:
Kitchen:
BTW, I want to do a chalkboard wall in the kitchen, do you think on this wall looking straight into the kitchen or in the picture under it which is the wall that has the door leading to the basement?


Downstairs full bathroom:

Tori's playroom:

Sunroom:

 
Living room:
Bedroom:
They all 3 look the same except the master has a large closet
Upstairs bathroom:

 
*And for all of you interior decorator types: let me know if you have any décor ideas! I pretty much have the kitchen set except for the chalkboard wall and Tori's playroom is done except for some wall décor. So I am open to ideas :)
 
I hope you enjoyed the 'before' tour. Enjoy this hideously rainy day.
 
 
 

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The little engine that could

I think I can, I think I can....

This has to be repeated multiple times a day to myself as I wrestle a 1 year old, PACK MY WHOLE HOUSE, run to the bank for the 101 things that the mortgage company needs from me, work a shift a week at LA fitness, handle my real estate clients and try to maintain my sanity with things like going to the gym and taking Tori to the library.

Life is busy right now.

I am not complaining about the busy with work part.. its the packing that has me all frazzled. We are still in our current home for a few days so how do you decide what you HAVE to keep out, what can be packed away now, what to throw out, what to save for Good Will, etc.?

How do I convince my husband that we do NOT need EVERY SINGLE PIECE of Tupperware at our fingertips this week? We "have to pack those last"... no we don't. How do I convince my husband that no we don't wait until the day before to pack up all of our clothes? I do not need summer dresses right now and I don't need hoodies right now. I will easily wear the same 3 outfits over and over again for a week.

Packing is hard when you have two chiefs and no Indians.

But, to look on the bright side... the light at the end of our tunnel: We move into our new, big, beautiful home this weekend. Life is good.

And for those who have wondered where the pictures of the new house are... as I am a huge SHARE-ER (not a word) of pictures on social media... I have decided to wait until Settlement day to post. As a real estate agent, I know all too well not to count your chickens before they hatch. So keep an eye out for this Friday, as soon as its officially ours its posted!

*Side note: I used two expressions in this blog post CORRECTLY. That is a record for me.






Tuesday, April 15, 2014

535 E. Orange

We sell our house today, so in a couple of hours we are officially "homeless". The buyers of our home are actually allowing us to stay here until we settle on our new home in two weeks. Thank God. We got lucky to have buyers who are so easygoing and helpful.
When Dan bought this house we had only been dating 3 months... not quite long enough for me to really have any say but just long enough that I got to see the house before he bought it. He lived here with his brother Dave and a fellow coworker named Ben.
I loved and hated this house lol. It was not the best situation to come stay the night and be in a house that was shared between three guys. It was everything you would imagine lol.
By the time I moved into the house (2 years into our relationship) we had some major changes we did to the house. Painted pretty much every room (except for the hallways which are a tan color with dark brown trim) and then there was a wall in the dining room that Dan exposed the brick to and it looks pretty awesome. We had played around with the idea of re-decorating the kitchen but never ended up committing to anything more than painting it because we knew we wouldn't stay in the house too long. From the time I moved in to now we have lived here together for 5 years. I really didn't think I was going to be sad at all with leaving this house.. there are so many things I really hate about it lol. Its 1600 sq ft which is a great size but its an old city home so the style is very narrow and tall. If I am in the kitchen and Dans in the living room, we could never talk to each other or see what the other is trying to do or anything else. The living room is also an odd shape, its like long and skinny so the set up of the couches makes it hard to walk past the fireplace without bumping into it. There is also hardly any closet space or storage at all. There is only one bathroom. Two of the bedrooms are connected by a door. The hallway is really skinny. Sometimes if I am holding Tori in a laying position I cant even lay her out the whole way because she would either hit her head or her feet on the walls.
As I started packing, the things I love about the house has become more and more apparent. Its Dan and I's first house together. Its where we brought home our baby girl. I remember getting up and down the ladder with my big 7 month pregnant belly to paint her nursery(probably not the best idea lol). The many, many nights in our backyard drinking, playing beer pong, flip cup, drinking around the fire with our friends. We literally had like two summers in a row where every weekend was a party at our house. The many days of work watching Dan do the wall in the dining room. The fact that our master bedroom was almost every bedroom in the house (we moved it a lot lol). Our basement stairs that we made people sit in with the bugs if they got shut out during beer pong. Walking to Marion Court. Throwing the ball with Riley out back. Having people sleepover here all the time.
Moving out of this house is a bittersweet feeling. I will miss it for everything that it has meant and brought us the past 5 years. I am also excited for the new chapter we will be starting in our new home. Our family home, our watching our kid(s) grow home, our developing the next parts of our marriage home. Moving on to bigger and better things.










Monday, April 7, 2014

When 1 turns to 2

Since Tori has turned one I am getting a lot of the "so, when is the next baby coming?!"

And I have no idea how to answer that. Seriously, is there like, a formula you can follow to know when? If so, I would like it so please share!

I love, love, love being a mom. It is the most rewarding yet the HARDEST thing I have ever done in my life. The joys definitely outweigh the hard times but the hard times do exist. It is a hard transition to go from the selfish lifestyle of doing what you want, when you want.. to every decision you make then being for someone else.
But now that we have made the transition, how do you decide when you are ready to have another? I think the part I struggle with the most is feeling like I would be betraying Tori somehow. I know that giving her a sibling would be a great gift. I know it is a relationship she would cherish her entire life. But....

I wouldn't be able to give Tori as much attention. I wouldn't have as much energy. I wouldn't have as much money. She would have to share her mommy with someone other than Daddy.
Can I love another child as much as I love my Victoria? My first born, my daughter, my best friend. Tori has been such a good baby, such a good sleeper, so happy, hardly cries, eats anything and everything... what if our next child is horrible?! And then on the other hand.. its just one more child to love, to cuddle, to hug, to kiss, they will be best friends, they will play with each other... our family will only be that much happier with another person to love.

I think that because I am so back and forth on it... when I finally decide to have another...I will have twins next. Mark my words lol.








 
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