1 year...

1 year ago today I woke up excited and nervous.

I had a million thoughts running through my mind and was feeling a million emotions at the same time. Would everything go as I had spent 2 1/2 years planning? Would I mess up my vows? Would I trip and fall in front of everybody? Would I pass out in the heat? Would my dress fit? Would everyone notice all the small details that I agonized over? Would I even notice all the details? How would the food taste? Would Jeff smash the cake in my face or behave and not mess up my makeup like I had asked him? Would the dance floor be hopping or empty as a ghost town? Would the day fly by? Would I remember the day forever?

And then I decided to just calm down, and try and enjoy every single moment of the day.

And I'm so glad I did...

The day was magical...

It was a day I had counted down til for 2 1/2 years. And it was worth the wait. We were so lucky to be surrounded by so many people who loved and supported us. I can vividly remember every emotion I was feeling throughout the day. I know this will fade with time, but I know I will never forget how truly happy I felt standing in front of everyone with Jeff by my side.

Thank you to all who made our special day just that...special. We cannot thank you enough.

It was the best day of our lives.

To my loving husband...

Thank you for being my better half. Thank you for being patient with me, even when I am not at my finest. Thank you for understanding that sometimes all I need is a hug. Thank you for cooking dinner every night so we don't have to eat at 9:00. Thank you for helping me realize that perfection is not reality, and that imperfection can still be perfect. Thank you for making me feel safe, for making me smile, making me laugh, making me happy.

I am so lucky to have found you.

Here is to many more years of happiness... together.

Before's...

I'm trying to get my pictures organized after realizing I hadn't uploaded any pictures since the honeymoon. Oops. So here are the "before" pictures from the house. These were taken by my mom from a visit before we moved in, before we had the house cleaned, before we even knew the house was ours.

If you want to enlarge the pictures, please click on them.








We've been busy trying to work on the house, visiting family, and having family visit us. Time is flying by (where did March go?!), and it's hard to believe that we've already been in the house for almost 2 months. Hopefully I will take and post some updated pictures soon of some of the afters.

Learn By Doing...

Cal Poly's motto, mantra, and all around way of thinking is "Learn By Doing." Which means almost every class has a lab while you are in college to give you hands-on experience.

We have been applying our alma mater's motto to many of the projects we have been tackling with the house. If we haven't done it before, oh well. Time to figure it out, and learn by doing!

This weekend's project: Lake Angus

We have had a small "lake" in our yard, which we had thought was just due to poor drainage and the clay-like soil. Every morning along the edge of the lawn there's standing water. (The other morning I enjoyed watching about 10 little birdies playing in it...kinda cute, but not good that there's enough water for them to play in!) It slowly evaporates all day, and then reappears overnight when the sun isn't out to help evaporate the water. Water cycle, anyone? After further sleuthing, we determined the lake was being caused by the sprinklers, and we were betting on a faulty valve. I know next to nothing about sprinkler repairs, besides knowing that my dad hates it. And that it inevitably leads to cursing and getting wet.

So Jeff bravely tackled replacing a valve while I worked inside on unpacking more boxes. Then we patiently waited for the glue to dry and crossed our fingers that water wouldn't come shooting out when we turned the water main back on. We have since tested the sprinklers, and the valve now works and doesn't leak! Way to go, babe! And it only took us 3 trips to Home Depot & Lowe's! The true test will come tomorrow morning...will there be a lake? I hope not...

We also mapped out which sprinkler lines water where, and have decided that the previous owner must have known less about sprinklers than I do. Way too much overlapping with way too inefficient sprinkler heads. And then there's the over-abundance of sprinklers in the front. 22 sprinklers to be exact. No problems with inefficiency there! The drip lines out front need some help, but since most the plants they water are already dead, we're not in the biggest rush to fix it.

Tomorrow we plan on tackling some of the inefficient sprinkler heads. And putting some door & drawer pulls on the cabinets in the master bathroom. And maybe finishing some of the painting in the large guest room. And there will most likely be a few more trips to Lowe's and Home Depot in the process.

Officially Poor...

Well in case you haven't figured it out/heard...we got the house and are officially poor homeowners! We ended up moving in on the 17th, with the help of my mom and Aunt Judy and have been settling in since. Details to come...with pictures. We've been going pretty non-stop since the move and we're definitely ready for some down time.

But now we're homeowners, and down time is a thing of the past.

We're still living out of boxes. Still wondering where certain things are. Still making lists of things to do, things to buy, things to fix, things to clean, things to change. While we are a long way from having things perfect, they are truly wonderful.

Source: lemonsandlaundry.blogspot.com via Mackenzie on Pinterest

The Joys of Home Ownership...

Source: thankyoucardsshopblog.com via Mackenzie on Pinterest

...or homership as I like to say. And yes, it's already begun and we don't even have the keys yet.

Turns out there's more problems with the roof and it won't be a simple, easy fix. The roofing guy says that yes, he can just get 2 new tiles and put them on the ridgeline. But they'll probably just blow off again. He says the entire ridgeline was not installed correctly and needs to be redone, which will bring up the price to $1500 or $2000. Great.

Our realtor is trying to contact the builder/roofer and see if they will fix it, but she thinks the house is just old enough where they won't. That, and it's not the original sale of the house.

Jeff and I haven't decided what to do yet. On the one hand, we'd love to just pay a couple hundred bucks instead of a couple thousand to get this fixed. But in our (money-empty) guts we know what we should do. We know we will never want to fix the roof, because honestly, no one would probably even notice. Whereas everyone would notice our adorable puppies that are being bumped off the priority list.

So buying puppies is going to have to wait. As will buying blinds, area rugs, a coffee table, a new dining room table...the list goes on. It's ok. At least we'll have a roof over our heads (pun intended) and we'll finally have the keys to our own house. It just might take us a little longer to turn it into our home.

The End is in Sight...

We just got finished signing the final batch of paperwork on the McMansion. It wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. I think it helped that our loan is straight-forward. Still lots of fluff to sign about thanks to our very litigious state/country. But I'm definitely much better at signing my name quickly now.

We also wired the down payment to the escrow office. Good-bye money!

Our escrow will close this Friday, and we should get our keys on Friday as well. Woohoo! We plan on starting the painting process this weekend. Good-bye down time!

To begin with the family room/kitchen or master bedroom?

Jeff's company has a huge release today, so he's working a 24-hour shift. No hubby tonight. But he'll have tomorrow off to make up for it. He can't wait for this to all be done with. And neither can I. I will never take his making dinner every night for granted again. It is getting old coming home and still having to cook dinner. And I thought eating at 7:30 was late...

We're looking forward to this very exciting time and transition to the next phase of our lives. Home ownership, here we come!

Inspector Gadget...

Actually, his name was Greg. And his last name was not Gadget. But Jeff and I kept singing the theme song the days leading up to and after the inspection. We had our home inspection last week and fortunately, there was nothing major to fix.

There were 3 fix right away items:

1. One of the breakers had died and there was no power to the master bedroom and one of the walls upstairs. Now how the owner didn't know about this is beyond me. There was also a slight wiring problem inside the breaker box that was a shock risk. Nothing that immediately needed fixing, but since the electrician was coming out anyway, might as well have them re-wire it. Our realtor called her trusted electrician, and it was already fixed by 12:30 that day. Check!

2. The upstairs furnace (yes, we have two heating and cooling systems) was not turning on. Our inspector didn't think it was the furnace itself was the problem, since it's only 6 years old. It was either the upstairs thermostat or the circuitry board in the furnace itself. He also suggested that we get the lint vent cleaned out since it was very full of lint. On a side note, probably most of you reading this should have it done as well. To prevent fires, it should be cleaned every 3-5 years. Our realtor called her trusted HVAC guy, and the vents are cleaned and our thermostat is fixed so the furnace is functioning. Check!

3. Two of the roof tiles on the ridgeline have blown off in a storm and the owner never got it fixed. Fortunately, they are sitting there on the other side of the roof so they just need to be re-attached. Our inspector said there are no leaks in the roof and no signs of water damage. But, the longer it sits there with the tiles off, the more weather damage the underlying paper is getting. Which will eventually cause leaks. Our realtor has called her trusted roofing company (man, I love her connections), and they should be coming out soon to give us a quote on the fix.

Besides those 3 main fixes, there are several other things that will eventually need attention, but are not damaging the house:

-The house is filthy...tell us something we don't know!
-The dishwasher probably doesn't have much life left in it...fortunately, it is one of the cheaper appliances
-The spring on the oven door is broken, so you have to catch the door so it doesn't just slam down...either fix it or replace it down the road
-The backyard does not drain well...Moat on one side of the house included! At least we're protected from the black knight! No damage is being done to the house, no water is getting in, but eventually we'll want to either put down gravel or put in more drains, or both.
-The seal in one of the windows in the master bedroom is defective...merely a cosmetic problem, and can be fixed whenever we get tired of looking at it
-The faucet in the kitchen sink is, um, loose...it looks like it's barely connected to the sink. Again, how exactly did the owner not know about this??? Probably will be fixing that in the near future before it becomes a serious problem. Unless it's an excuse to not do the dishes?
-There are several cracks in the concrete outside and in some of the walls...nothing structurally wrong, just ugly.

We multi-tasked while we had the inspection, and also had our flooring estimate. We want to re-do the flooring in the kitchen/family room area which is currently carpet and linoleum. I could deal with the linoleum if the carpet transition weren't coming up and the tack strips weren't exposed. Long story short, the estimate came back reasonably within our budget so we went ahead with ordering everything we needed for the flooring. Then we got a phone call that the trim strips are insanely back-ordered, and won't be in until Feb. 28th at the earliest. Not sure what's going to happen, but we're hoping they'll still be able to install the flooring part before we move in, and then come back to do the trim. We'll see.

So when will the McMansion officially become ours? No one seems to be able to tell us. The answer is "by the 6th...or earlier." Isn't that helpful??? We're guessing sometime next week. We will be signing our ginormous stack of papers on Tuesday, and will hopefully have an idea when we'll get the keys in our hands. You mean, this might actually happen?!

The movers will be coming on Thursday to give us an estimate. We're planning on having them move us on Feb. 17th, which is also when our bed, bed frame, and appliances will be delivered.

For now, we're packing in what little spare time we have (which currently we are both fighting colds, so it's a slow, painful process). Jeff is insanely busy at work, and figured out that he's worked 27 of the last 29 days. yuck! I've been working long hours, as usual, and trying to maintain my sanity. I think I'm more stressed about this house/move than I was about the wedding. Although as Jeff points out, I had almost 2 years to prepare for the wedding, while I've had less than 30 days to prepare for this big step.

Stay tuned for more news on the McMansion, moving, painting, cleaning, and packing. Hopefully Jeff and I don't kill each other in the process!

McMansion Shopping...

This weekend, between my being at a continuing education course all weekend and Jeff working all weekend, we did some shopping. Appliance shopping. Shopping that involved research, decision-making, price-comparing, and compromising. And this is what we got...

A new fridge.



This was something I was not willing to compromise (much) on. I have wanted a french door fridge for quite some time. After absolutely hating every side-by-side I've ever used, and tired of the usual single door style. And it needed to be stainless. For Jeff, it needed to have the water and ice-maker in the door.

A new washer and dryer.

(Not sure why the washer looks so skinny...it is not that skinny in real life. In fact, I thought it was HUGE inside!)



We had gone looking at a local dent and ding center to try and save money. Unfortunately, they recently decided to close and you had to take it at that time. So that wasn't going to work.

This was a hard decision for me. Jeff didn't care as long as I was happy. To be honest, he doesn't really care what his clothes look like. I love the look of the front-loading washers and dryers, and I know they are more water efficient. But the run time is almost double that of a top-loader, which means it uses more electricity. Although the new top-loaders don't have the agitator so they are more efficient and gentler than the older models. And I am constantly finding things last minute to add in, which you cannot do with front-loaders. But front-loaders are gentler on clothes. And quieter. And prettier. But I would need the stands to put it on, so I'm not constantly having to bend over. Which adds $200 per unit. Ouch. And my mom had talked about her friend's front-loader leaking and ending up with a giant flood in her laundry room. No thanks. So the decision was made. I hope we like it.

These will be delivered to the new house in February. I can't wait to have them. I've never had brand-new appliances.

We also bought our bedding...sheets, pillow cases, a mattress pad, a bed skirt, and picked out a duvet (they were out of stock).

And then we decided, since we were already dropping loads of money, why not spend a little more?! So we bought a new TV for the bedroom. And it's pretty. Pretty big. We looked at smaller ones, but I decided they were way too small and I wouldn't be able to see the screen while lying in bed without my glasses on. So bigger it was. Like 42 inches big. And my husband is one happy man.

Exciting things are in store in that new house. And I can't wait to enjoy them all! Yay for new, expensive shiny things!

Chaos...

Source: artofecstasy.tumblr.com via Mackenzie on Pinterest

This rings so true right now...rushing to get papers and files and signatures for this house. But great changes are in store, and I am clinging onto that thought to help get me through this stress.

The McMansion...

So I've decided that this McMansion is an emotional vacuum. And I'm not sure how much more of it I can handle.

When Jeff and his parents had gone to visit the house on 1/2, our realtor had told us that both banks had verbally agreed to our offer and we should hear back on paper by the end of the week. Woohoo! So excited! This might actually happen!

Then on 1/5, our realtor e-mailed Jeff to tell him that the selling agent had called to tell her that there was going to be a delay with the 2nd bank and it would be another 2 weeks. Sigh...here we go again with "2 more weeks". I've lost count with how many times we've heard that in the past few months.

On 1/7, Jeff got a bunch of texts and e-mails from our realtor saying she had gotten the paperwork from the 2nd bank (wait, I thought it was going to be 2 more weeks...), and they had written on the paperwork that we needed to have escrow closed in 30 days, or 2/7. OMG, this is really happening now!

So we are now in hyper-drive to get everything closed on time, or goodness knows what would happen. Totally love how the banks kept us waiting for so long, on pins and needles and with all fingers (and toes...sometimes even eyes!) crossed, and now that they decided to make up their minds, we get to run around like crazy. Thanks for nothing, banks!

We signed papers this morning, and are officially in escrow. Jeff spoke with our lender yesterday about our options, and we are meeting with him on Thursday to finalize things. Then onto inspections, transferring utilities, and more hoops and paperwork I'm sure we'll have to deal with before this is all finished.

And then there's the shopping! We've spent the weekend pricing out and researching refrigerators, washers, dryers, paint, flooring, blinds, beds, smoke detectors, door locks, cabinet knobs/handles...the list goes on. So many options, and it has become the trend that I always fall in love with the most expensive options. Guess I have good taste! Or I'm a sucker for gimmicks...

It's all quickly becoming very real, very exciting and very overwhelming. I can't believe that in about a month we'll be moving into the McMansion. Stay tuned for the excitement (and hopefully minimal drama) of moving!

2012...

Well hello my loyal and devoted blog followers! Bet you thought I had forgotten about this little bloggy here, didn't ya?! Well I apologize for the lapse in entries, and I hope you didn't think we never returned from our honeymoon since I never finished writing about it. How I wish that were true.

Truth is, I've been busy with work. And frustrated with work. And really I didn't know what to write about that wasn't me whining and complaining about having to work so much and so hard all the time. And then I finally would get motivated, and then Blogger wouldn't work or would take to long to load my pictures and then I'd get frustrated and give up on the whole thing.

So let me do a little wrap up on the end of 2011 for you. Sorry, the only pictures I have uploaded are from my iPhone. Haven't gotten around to uploading everything from my camera yet...

Thanksgiving...was spent at our cozy condo. Jeff's family came to join us, so we had Mike, Becky, Melissa, Derek, Grady, Kendall and Jeff's Aunt Linda all in 950 square feet. Oh, and don't forget about Blondie! We were cozy, but it was a success and it was great having everyone together. We even made a trip out to see the Monarch butterflies, which I'd had on my to-do list for years!


Christmas...was spent on a plane. I wish I was kidding. We were in Hawaii the week before Christmas with my family, and enjoyed amazing weather where I finally got to thaw out. We even tried stand-up paddle boarding, which was definitely something everyone wanted to try. We sadly flew home on Christmas day, and then had to drive all the way back up to Atascadero after landing at 10:30 pm. Yuck. We got in at 3 AM and I got up at 6 to go to work. No fun.




New Years...was spent at home. We went to Jeff's co-worker's 40th birthday party on the 30th. She had hired DJ Bob (yes, from our wedding), and we spent the night dancing away. After staying up late that night, it sounded great to just stay in. We watched Harry Potter 7.2 and then decided at about 10:30 that we had no desire to make it to midnight. So we kissed goodnight and went to sleep instead. Are we getting old??? Mike and Becky came to visit us on the 1st and spend a few days with us. We celebrated a late Christmas, and Jeff took them to see our McMansion while I went to work on the 2nd.


Which brings me to...

The McMansion...for those of you who don't know, we put an offer on a house in Paso Robles on October 17th. It is a short sale, so basically everything has been moving at a snail's pace. The seller accepted our offer right away, and since then, it's been sitting with the banks. The main lender, Wells Fargo, has accepted the offer and agreed to give the second lender, CitiBank, 10% of their loan. While we were in Hawaii, we signed more papers where CitiBank now gets an additional $650. The seller has moved out of the house and is expecting everything to go through. We are anticipating hearing a final decision from the banks by the end of this week or early next week. Should it go through, we will then move onto inspections and escrow.


So how big is the McMansion? Well, it's 6 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, about 2800 square feet and on about 1/3 of an acre. We did not want this big of a house, but we fell in love with the neighborhood and the house was pretty much the only thing in our price range because the owner has not done any upgrades to the house. *fingers crossed* Hopefully we'll be moving on to the next steps soon!

So that pretty much catches everything up. I will try my best to be better about updated the blog! I'm anticipating exciting things for 2012! Happy new year, and hopefully the Mayans are wrong! ;)