Move day is Tuesday so we are very busy packing, making daily trips to the house to check out how the final things are coming together, trying to keep the rental house somewhat in order because they are showing it and trying to keep up with our day-to-day regular tasks, such as fixing meals and doing laundry. I can't wait until this is over.
When I am here at the rental house I feel overwhelmed, disorganized and stressed. When I am at the new house I usually feel very calm and happy. It really is a wonderful, calming place. It is very quiet and serene and has the sounds of country living (minus the cows and chickens and such).
The new house has come together quite nicely. I was a bit skeptical they could finish everything in time. It is a good thing we decided to move on Tuesday instead of Monday because it would not have been quite finished. They still have a few final details to take care of on Monday and we still have to do a walk through with them. The final inspection is also scheduled for Monday, although at this point I think it is pretty much a formality.
Last weekend the people who do the clean up started cleaning. They did all of the windows, removing all of the stickers and cleaning them so nicely. They really look great. They were there off and on throughout the week and they were there again on Saturday.
There is a water leak in the yard just in front of the house that they are working to repair. The yard is currently all dirt... actually, it is now all mud - at least what is left of it, as it has been raining here non stop for quite a while now. We were having one of the worst droughts in many years here and then the rains and severe thunderstorms started and now it seems it will never stop. We are to receive over 4 inches of rain in a few days, from last I heard on the weather channel. I checked today and they are showing cloudy but no rain for Tuesday so I am hoping they are right and we have a good day for moving.
The irrigation guy is suppose to start work at the new house on Wednesday but I'm sure that depends on what the weather brings. I am hoping he can because the sooner he is finished, the sooner we will have grass. Until then, all along the bottom of the new house, the rock/brick will stay covered with splashed up mud and dirt. Actually though, the bigger issue is that the boys have no where to play until the grass goes in. They enjoy riding their scooters on the driveway and sidewalk but that does not last very long.
Today I thought Ben was starting to waver on wanting his own bedroom. He was talking about how they would not be able to have pillow fights if they had separate rooms. Nick just thought of reasons they could still do it and seemed to still want his own room. I asked Nick if he thought he would be OK sleeping by himself in his own room and he thought he would. We'll see. I am not convinced. He frequently will not go into a dark room by himself and does not want to be alone in a room away from everyone else.
What else is going on in our lives? This house thing is so all consuming. We have not had any reading lessons in a long time. The funny thing is that the boys are reading everything these days, especially Nick. I can hear them both reading to the dad right now. They are upstairs, reading stories before bed. More and more they want to read them to us. Today during quiet time Nick was reading some of the readers we use for our reading lessons so Ben started reading some too. Ben tends to do it in response to Nick doing it. Nick seems to do it because he really enjoys reading and books. Ben likes and enjoys books too but he stays very busy in pretend land most of the time. Pretend land these days includes a lot of Batman, Robin, the Joker and the Penguin, Peter Pan and anything to do with castles, tree houses, jails and hand cuffs and dressing up as a police man or a pirate. Those are the most popular things lately. We are once again listening to Peter Pan in the car so he is on the radar again.
The boys are still in soccer and swimming once a week and violin lessons, although we will miss violin on Tuesday and they have not practiced in a couple of weeks. I think, after the upcoming week, we will all be looking forward to getting back into a nice groove, having a bit more structure in our lives and having more of a routine. We will start our daily violin practice again and we will also start regular reading lessons again. Sometime this summer, after things settle down again, we will start doing a bit more school, at least three days a week or so.
It has been a long day and time for me to turn in. Hope you all had a Happy Easter.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
April 12, 2011
I finally got up the courage to cut my hair short. Here is a picture of how it looked right after I came home from the hair dressers.
It has been dried straight here but I actually like it better when it is curly. If I remember (and find the time), I will take another picture after I wash it and leave it curly so you can see how it looks curly.
I will include a house update with pictures below but, in the meantime, here are a couple of pics I took of my handsome guys.
Aren't they such cuties? Now for the house update.
We are still on track to move in the last week of this month. I'm not quite sure when it became the last week of the month, since we had heard the middle of the month but that is now where we are. We are all holding tight to that date, since we have already given our notice that we will be moving out of this rental house.
We were up there today and they were moving the large piles of dirt around the yard. After that, it should be ready for the sprinkler system and then for sod. Today we met with the landscaper to discuss where the flower beds will go, although this will definitely not be complete when we move in. He is going to provide us with a master plan. His guys will put in the big stuff, such as trees and large bushes, and we are planning to put in the smaller stuff, according to his plan. The husband is also considering to put in the sprinkler system for the backyard himself to help stretch the budget a bit more. He has good knowledge and experience with working on them in the past so hopefully this will work out.
On the inside, which is what HAS to be completed for us to move in, they have most of the knobs and pulls on the cabinets and drawers and handles on many of the doors. The electrician has been working on putting up all of the ceiling fans and light fixtures and it looks as if most of them are up. He has left the largest and most difficult to last so I am anxious to see them, hopefully tomorrow. The painter was there yesterday, putting the final coat of paint on the bathrooms so the plumber was there today, starting on all of the plumbing fixtures. The security guy was there today and I think he might have finished his part.
I'm sure I am leaving somebody/something out. There are so many things going on right now that it is hard to keep track of everything. One thing I have noticed is that there are no air conditioning units outside of the house, on the concrete pads that have recently been poured for them. So I am wondering when those are going in. I'll have to ask about that tomorrow. We are scheduled to have the carpet put in on Monday. Hopefully, by that time, the only big remaining indoor task will be to finish the floors and finish the clean up.
We are definitely in the home stretch. Here are some pics.
The following three pics are from the master bath.
They were also putting the gray coating on the brick, as you can see in the picture above.
Below are my outdoor boys. They absolutely love playing outside at the new house. They will really miss these big mounds of dirt. I have a feeling they will no longer be there when we go to the house next. "Mommy, take a picture of my stick!"
The big tree in the distance is where the dad is planning to build a tree house for the boys. They are so excited about it and they have very high expectations. They have seen the movie The Swiss Family Robinson. The first thing on Ben's wish list is a dungeon or jail. Both boys have talked about a slide coming out of the tree house and also a zip line. This may be a multi-year project.
Give them some sticks and a bunch of dirt and they can stay busy for hours and hours.
That's it for today. Hopefully, after we move, I can start posting a bit more often. I hope your weather has been as nice as ours has this week. Later!
It has been dried straight here but I actually like it better when it is curly. If I remember (and find the time), I will take another picture after I wash it and leave it curly so you can see how it looks curly.I will include a house update with pictures below but, in the meantime, here are a couple of pics I took of my handsome guys.
Aren't they such cuties? Now for the house update.We are still on track to move in the last week of this month. I'm not quite sure when it became the last week of the month, since we had heard the middle of the month but that is now where we are. We are all holding tight to that date, since we have already given our notice that we will be moving out of this rental house.
We were up there today and they were moving the large piles of dirt around the yard. After that, it should be ready for the sprinkler system and then for sod. Today we met with the landscaper to discuss where the flower beds will go, although this will definitely not be complete when we move in. He is going to provide us with a master plan. His guys will put in the big stuff, such as trees and large bushes, and we are planning to put in the smaller stuff, according to his plan. The husband is also considering to put in the sprinkler system for the backyard himself to help stretch the budget a bit more. He has good knowledge and experience with working on them in the past so hopefully this will work out.
On the inside, which is what HAS to be completed for us to move in, they have most of the knobs and pulls on the cabinets and drawers and handles on many of the doors. The electrician has been working on putting up all of the ceiling fans and light fixtures and it looks as if most of them are up. He has left the largest and most difficult to last so I am anxious to see them, hopefully tomorrow. The painter was there yesterday, putting the final coat of paint on the bathrooms so the plumber was there today, starting on all of the plumbing fixtures. The security guy was there today and I think he might have finished his part.
I'm sure I am leaving somebody/something out. There are so many things going on right now that it is hard to keep track of everything. One thing I have noticed is that there are no air conditioning units outside of the house, on the concrete pads that have recently been poured for them. So I am wondering when those are going in. I'll have to ask about that tomorrow. We are scheduled to have the carpet put in on Monday. Hopefully, by that time, the only big remaining indoor task will be to finish the floors and finish the clean up.
We are definitely in the home stretch. Here are some pics.
The following three pics are from the master bath.
They were also putting the gray coating on the brick, as you can see in the picture above.
Below are my outdoor boys. They absolutely love playing outside at the new house. They will really miss these big mounds of dirt. I have a feeling they will no longer be there when we go to the house next. "Mommy, take a picture of my stick!"
The big tree in the distance is where the dad is planning to build a tree house for the boys. They are so excited about it and they have very high expectations. They have seen the movie The Swiss Family Robinson. The first thing on Ben's wish list is a dungeon or jail. Both boys have talked about a slide coming out of the tree house and also a zip line. This may be a multi-year project.
Give them some sticks and a bunch of dirt and they can stay busy for hours and hours.
That's it for today. Hopefully, after we move, I can start posting a bit more often. I hope your weather has been as nice as ours has this week. Later!
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