A quick (just kidding…super long) recap of everything since our move…
Side note: please don’t judge my writing skills. This is meant to be a way to remember and share this whole process…I’m not trying to make it big as a blogger!
Here we go…after months of searching and waiting we finally closed on our new house on Monday, June 1st. The whole home buying process is very vague and ridiculous, but I was lucky enough to have a co-worker/friend going through the process at the same time. We kind of tag teamed it, recapping with each other after each phone call or meeting we got out of, trying to make sense of it all. Our only saving grace was our lawyer. He was so on point and made the actual closing a breeze. So, at 5:00 pm on that Monday evening, bedazzled keys in hand, Jas and I went off to grab our first drink together as homeowners!
Day 1: We decided to schedule a team of cleaning professional to take the first swipe at the house. I honestly don’t know how people were living in it before, there was dirt and grime EVERYWHERE. We walked in Tuesday evening to look at their work (hoping they had taken it upon themselves to just go ahead and paint the walls, and put in a new kitchen while they were at it), and were immediately hit in the face with the smell of a high school boy’s locker room. They used bleach on everything, and that combined with the smoke/old person smell it made our eyes water. I made a mental note to come back later in the week with some febreeze action to at least get it smelling like some sort of fake citrus.
Moving Day: Luckily we had a two week overlap with our apartment and could take our time moving. We scheduled two guys to help move, since Jas and I certainly couldn’t move everything down the three flights of stairs ourselves. Thank you Michael for helping last summer!! I’m pretty sure they hated every second of it as they very slowly moved all of the big stuff down the stairs, into the truck, and over to the new house. Since we just bought a house and are fairly broke, we only scheduled two hours with them. That meant we had to take trips back and forth to the apartment every night, slowly getting the rest of our stuff. It didn’t seem so bad when we knew we wouldn’t be moving again for a least a couple of years!
Happy Birthday to Jason: Most of you probably know (via facebook), that Jas and I adopted a dog at the end of May. We’re very disappointed to say that after 5 weeks with her, we had to bring her back to the adoption agency…the night before Jason’s 30th birthday. I could get in to all of the details, but it’s been a rough month and a half, so I’ll keep it short. She was an extremely anxious dog, who suddenly turned aggressive once we moved into the house. She ended up biting a neighbor (didn’t break the skin), and then ultimately bit Jason the day we brought her back. She’s now in a training/day care program where they’re working on her anxiety and aggression. As sad as it was, I think it was the right decision for her and us.
Back to the birthday…the end of our lease was actually on Jason’s bday, and since we were not planning on bringing Sidney back the night before, we had to finish moving out on his big day:/ I’d suggest to anybody reading this, who’s planning to move anytime soon, have the movers take EVERYTHING. It’s totally worth the money (I say that now when I haven’t shelled out the $550 we were quoted). We completely underestimated the amount of stuff left in the apartment, and it took us pretty much the whole day to move it all. Fortunately Jas isn’t big on birthdays, and was just happy to have a new house…
And, no I’m not a complete slacker of a girlfriend. We had a trip to California planned, complete with a surprise booze cruise on a catamaran on his actual birthday, but we had to cancel it when we adopted Sidney/realized how much house stuff still needed to be done. Hopefully we’ll still get to take the trip at the end of the summer. Instead, I told him to buy whatever new tool he wanted, but instead he’s looking at a new grill:)
…Since we were all gross from moving, we ended up just getting take out from this delicious Italian place, which turns out is now only 5 mins from our new casa! They forgot to pack Jason’s soup in the bag, but did include a giant bone wrapped in tin foil! We’re thinking somebody finished their leg of lamb and asked to have the bone packed up to bring home to their dog. Somehow it ended up with us. Let’s hope the rest of year 30 is just as exciting as day one!
Fast Forward: We’ve been living in the house for about 4 weeks now. Having a backyard, being able to grill, having a washer and dryer IN OUR HOUSE, and being able to make changes to our place when we want to, are all great new things. It’s really exciting to think about all of the potential this place has, and how we can finally make something our own. Unfortunately, since we have a lot of projects to complete, we haven’t really been able to put anything away yet!
We decided to set up our bed in the dining room because the rooms upstairs are in rough shape. The plan was to have them be our first project (gut the plaster, install insulation/drywall, refinish the hardwoods), but after moving in we realized that about 40% of our stuff is kitchenware and 50% is Jason’s garage stuff. That being said, we decided to fix up the kitchen first, so we could put everything away (more on the garage in a minute). The first floor space is just slightly smaller than our apartment was, so it’s not a huge adjustment…besides climbing over bags and boxes everywhere…
Two weekends ago we took a trip back to Jersey to get all of Jason’s tools and the boat! Last summer was sadly boatless since we had no space/money to store the boat, so we’re pumped to have it back. It will be a nice place to relax after weeknights full of hectic house renovations.
Jas spent all last Monday unloading the 17ft uhaul (completely filled with his stuff), and getting his garage space organized. I’m pretty sure he’s excited to have an entire two and a half car garage to himself! We can still fit one car in there which is nice, and I’m sure Bob and Karen are extremely happy to have their basement and garage cleared out. I’m a happy lady because now that he has all of his tools, we’ve been able to start our first project (not to mention, I’m happy that he is extremely handy and we can do all of these projects ourselves). First up, the kitchen!!
Come back soon to read about our kitchen progress. Also, I forgot to take “before” pictures while the house was empty:/ I’m going to try and organize a little this week so you all can see what the space looks like.
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