Monday, March 29, 2010

Where did the UTILITIES go?

Ok, I've heard of home ownership mishaps but of course you think those are just made for TV situations, right? Wrong...

Last Saturday, we go and visit our house to label which ceiling fans the contractors need to take down to the garage and which ones they need to put back up once the ceiling work is all finished. Mr. Man decides to check out the water dispenser on the fridge and barely any water came out! Not until after I-Dude "tests" out their bathroom and discovers he couldn't flush, that we figured out that the water was turned off. (Can't you tell we're new at this?) It was the weekend, no office hours for city employees. Great...

The gas and electricity were still on when we checked on Sunday even, but we unplugged the fridge and left a note stating, "PLEASE DO NOT TURN ON". Well a lot of good that note did!

Today, after calling the utilities company to have things transferred to our name, we discovered that there's no electricity even though our power company says, "...today, immediately." Which actually translated to- "anywhere from now but no later than midnight." *sighing*

Then I check out the gas on the stove and only fumes! None of the burners came on and I even barely smelled gas fumes. Man!

The best part is that the contractors that would be removing the popcorn ceiling need both water and electricity! Can you say DELAY? Spell it first. "D-E-L-A-Y? DELAY!" (Yes, unnecessary but here we are.)

The water coming on Wednesday along with trash and sewer. Gas, tomorrow. Speaking of trash...

In front of our house, the sellers piled on their "unwantables" that amounted to the whole stretch of the lawn area by the curb. We discovered that in one of the boxes, the sellers stashed a whole slew of hazardous spray cans (lube, paint, etc...) Well, Mr. Man diligently called the city and found that we cannot be putting such items for curbside pick-ups. Mr. "Seller" says, "they pick up anything on Mondays!" Great!

Of course, we call our now "former" realtor, Misty and informed her that the sellers need to pick up their hazardous items, their iron (that they left behind like their OLD dryer) and their son's collage frames of himself and friends "mooning" people, at the front door. We also informed Misty that if the city leaves behind any debris from the pile they left, we will have to invoke our right per the contract since the sellers would be in violation of agreeing to "leave the property in clean condition."

Oh... I also found out that my realtor's office was supposed to transfer all utilities accounts to our name as part of their complimentary service. NOT in this case... The lady in charge completely forgot to do that for us. We would not have this problem if she did... *deeply sighing*

Can you hear that?... You can't? It's quite loud! Yeah, my head throbbing!

Friday, March 26, 2010

House Pics!

Here are some pictures of our house! I hope you like it as much as we do! I'm so happy that I was able to upload some pictures! Yay!!!

The front of the house...
Mr. Man and I... at our front door (boy, that feels good to write!)
Our lovely co-habitants. LOL
We love our stairs layout but we'll be changing the rails soon enough...
The top landing, right off the foyer...

Here's the master bathroom
My side of the bathroom.
My closet- it's pretty spacious!
L's walk-in closet
J's closet
I's closet...
I and Mr. Man are planning what to do in his new room after they get rid of the ugly valance and the ceiling fan.


And here's the picture of our new fridge!!! I've wanted this style since they first came out! We all love it and can't wait to fill it!


Glad, joyful and excitement hasn't fully hit us yet, so more adventures to follow!

Soon... the backyard!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

We have the Key!

Today, along with two of my neighbor/great friends' birthdays, we drove ourselves down to a title company TO CLOSE ON OUR HOUSE!!! Yeah!!! We picked up the key this afternoon and finally told and showed our children. Whew!

We found it January. Saw and toured it in February. Bought it in March. This beautiful 2-story, brick facade, double column elevation built in 1989. The inspection revealed that the original owners/sellers took great care of this house. We lucked out.

All throughout, NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, but a few people whose help we needed, knew. Not even our children. It was quite stressful keeping it from them and my side of the family, but we just didn't want any of our hopes dashed. Mr. Man and I fell in love with this house. I knew this was our house the moment I saw the pictures on our realtor's site. So we got sneaky and did it on our own.

Onto the surprising our children... We pretended to have our realtor lend us a key to see this newly "emptied" house that's on the market. Immediately, they loved it! That's just from the front lawn! Once inside, we told them that we have to be careful, stay together and tour the house, one story at a time. We started with the downstairs (Foyer, LR, FR, DR, K, G, Storage, Laundry), then we went upstairs to all the 4 Bedrooms and 2 Bathrooms.

(1 hour before we took the kids, we went back into the house to put up the signs with their names on it in each of their future rooms. Mr. Man hung it up on the window blinds since we didn't have any tape with us)

We steered the kids into the Master first. They loved the separate walk-in closets and the hidden commode (we love that, too). They loved the raised ceiling and the bay and big windows. They loved all the storage in both bathrooms and the separate sinks in the Master Bath. Then L-Infinity happen to open the first closed door... in it was her sign-"L's ROOM" and she was shocked! Then J-Pony opened the one across- it had her sign then I-Dude opened his and saw his sign. L whispered, "Wait, does this mean, we want this house?" "Or... Did we already get this house?" Mr. Man nodded. They raved about their own walk-in closets. And that's when the noise factor rose and the kids simultaneously offered their design ideas and cell phone batteries were quickly spent. It was a great sight to behold...

It was the best day of our lives! Finally having a home we can call our own... Our move-in date will be delayed about a week as they refinish the ceiling and rid it of the awful "popcorn" texture on all the ceilings!

Even better... We managed to keep the kids in the same school district and the same church ward! The kids will still be close to their friends in the neighborhood. Why? It's 2 minutes away from our current apartment! That means we save money on movers!!! What a great blessing indeed! My heart is full and honestly it hasn't really sunk in yet. Give me until late May...

Again, I apologize for no pictures... our systems are still being polished. But I promise, very soon!!!

'Til next post!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Packing, Packing and more Packing!

I can hear you saying... "As if she doesn't know any other word lately." But that is the ugly truth right now- we are packing every little thing we can think of and organizing while reducing at the same time.

To keep us sane, we also look for opportunities to serve, spend time together and hope (while quietly chanting the Spring dance) for the sun to stick around longer than a few days.

IT IS MADDENING!!! All the packing, chaos and errands to close up gaps in our move. I'm both having cabin fever and wanderlust boredom. I don't like being out but I also can't stand being indoors when I hear happy voices soaking up the beautiful day. Oh well... I've endured many a Spring time packing, but how I wish that this would be our last- for a long while...

Ok... So who's with me? One, two, three! Cross your fingers!

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!!!

See ya!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

3 Families, 1 Dinner, >$13

You read right... I made dinner for three families: Mine, Next door and a Mother&Son. A total of 12 mouths.

I made Spaghetti with Homemade Sausage & Parmesan Spaghetti sauce and Texas toast.

Real Food Real People dot com


Here's my total:

Barilla Pasta- 4 boxes- 99 cents each = $3.96
Tomato Paste- 1 can- 35 cents
Tomato Sauce- 75 cents (big can)
Tomato Diced- 75 cents
Parmesan, Herbs, Spices- FREE (already had it)
Texas Toast- 1.5 boxes- $1.97 each = $2.96
HF Beef Smoked Sausage Links- 1.5 pkgs.- $2.50 each = $3.75

$3.96 + .35 + .75 + .75 + $2.96 + $3.75 = $12.52 Total

Why did I do it? Well, it was back on Sunday night the 7th, before I-Dude's birthday, so the spaghetti is a traditional dinner to wish him a long life ahead. For our next door neighbor, it is to help their daughter who comes to YW, get some of her Personal Progress checked off and because my friend Annette has started working again. For my friend Heather and her son, it was because her MS turned for the worst and she needed some dinner help while the steroids did their thing to help her legs.

See? Service and Frugality can be totally complimentary. (I actually already had the pasta from last month, February, so technically they're already FREE, according to my budget.) No need to go to the store for the whole meal if you just stock up on few necessities...

Til next post!

(Still can't upload pictures)

Monday, March 8, 2010

Happy 8th Birthday, I-DUDE!


I can't believe that I'm a mother of three, much less a mother to my youngest who just turned 8 today! Our son, I-Dude will now face baptism, scouting and much more fun times ahead! I can't wait!

No pictures to be uploaded because we just installed Windows 7 and Office is not quite installed yet, much less Picasa. So... I'll have to redo a post-birthday post about his birthday this year!

We started to celebrate yesterday, I made him brownies and gooey cupcakes and spaghetti with sausage and texas toast. Things he loves to eat! Today, we didn't get to do much since Mr. Man had to work so we just had ice cream and a song. I also made him one of his favorites, fried rice!

They call this his GOLDEN YEAR. I would have to agree.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

In Between...

... slowly packing for our pending move (hoping to find one nearby by next school year), our children's school/church activities and commitments, and our current "Windows 7, extra external hard drive and jumpy keyboard dilemmas", blogging for me may be hampered quite soon and for a few or several months. I'll try to squeeze in a few here and there, but no promises...

See you when I can...