Monday, July 29, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
New House in Carmel!
Our last week has been exhausting as I thought it would be. But productive! We are under contract on a beautiful home in Carmel. We flew to Denver Friday night, arriving after 10pm mountain time. My parents picked us up and of course we stayed up to late talking (SO worth it!). On Saturday mom and dad hosted a lunch with dad's slow cook short rib burritos with mole sauce as the star. Oh. my. gosh. They were amazing. We got to visit with Rena, Carsten, Grant, Robin, Ross, and even Chris, Pam and Maureen who all happened to be in town. It was awesome.
We meet our real estate agent on Sunday. I just knew we were going to really like her and sure enough we did. We started at a Pulte home builder rep in Zionsville and toured a already built home with the floor plan we like (though no basement which is a must for us). We really love the house and priced out the basement and a bunch of options. But of course we would have to wait 4-6 months for it to be built. Plus we were not crazy about the new subdivision. After that we headed out to look at homes for sale.
I was surprised at the condition of the places we looked at. They were really, really dingy and none of the floor plans were very good. I was doing my best to remember how much a little paint would help these places, but our agent was also not impressed and reminded us that it is never a good sign to see a home that has not been well maintained. Soon we made it too *thee* house. I already had it in mind as my favorite. And sure enough it was! Our house was purchased and flipped by the current owner. He has done a really nice job on it. Here are some stats and things I love:
Built in 1995
2700 square feet on main and upper levels
1400 square feet finished basement plus unfinished storage area (woo-hoo)
4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths
2 car plus tandem garage
0.23 acre lot
Matures neighborhood and low HOA fees (It is all but impossible to find a home without an HOA in Carmel. Welcome to the burbs)
NO BRICK!! ;-)
Awesome wrap around porch
NO vaulted ceilings or ginormous master bedroom!
4 year old roof
All new flooring, carpet, hardwoods, tile in the bathrooms
9ft ceilings
upper level laundry
White cabinets in the kitchen
All new stainless steal appliance, including a fridge
All new cabinets and counter tops in the bathrooms
New light fixtures
New back deck
Tile backslash in the kitchen
Granite in the kitchen (not my favorite solid surface, but def a step up from laminate!)
The kitchen sink is open to the dinning and living space
The "breakfast" dinning area is big enough for our dinning table and we are making the formal dinning room an office (I don't care for two dinning areas).
Utility sink in the garage
Central air conditioning.
Um, yeah. I like a LOT about this place. I really didn't think we would find as many things on our wish list for a home as we did. It is amazing.
That is all for now, we are in go mode around here. The movers are coming on Thursday so we are busy, busy.
We meet our real estate agent on Sunday. I just knew we were going to really like her and sure enough we did. We started at a Pulte home builder rep in Zionsville and toured a already built home with the floor plan we like (though no basement which is a must for us). We really love the house and priced out the basement and a bunch of options. But of course we would have to wait 4-6 months for it to be built. Plus we were not crazy about the new subdivision. After that we headed out to look at homes for sale.
I was surprised at the condition of the places we looked at. They were really, really dingy and none of the floor plans were very good. I was doing my best to remember how much a little paint would help these places, but our agent was also not impressed and reminded us that it is never a good sign to see a home that has not been well maintained. Soon we made it too *thee* house. I already had it in mind as my favorite. And sure enough it was! Our house was purchased and flipped by the current owner. He has done a really nice job on it. Here are some stats and things I love:
Built in 1995
2700 square feet on main and upper levels
1400 square feet finished basement plus unfinished storage area (woo-hoo)
4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths
2 car plus tandem garage
0.23 acre lot
Matures neighborhood and low HOA fees (It is all but impossible to find a home without an HOA in Carmel. Welcome to the burbs)
NO BRICK!! ;-)
Awesome wrap around porch
NO vaulted ceilings or ginormous master bedroom!
4 year old roof
All new flooring, carpet, hardwoods, tile in the bathrooms
9ft ceilings
upper level laundry
White cabinets in the kitchen
All new stainless steal appliance, including a fridge
All new cabinets and counter tops in the bathrooms
New light fixtures
New back deck
Tile backslash in the kitchen
Granite in the kitchen (not my favorite solid surface, but def a step up from laminate!)
The kitchen sink is open to the dinning and living space
The "breakfast" dinning area is big enough for our dinning table and we are making the formal dinning room an office (I don't care for two dinning areas).
Utility sink in the garage
Central air conditioning.
Um, yeah. I like a LOT about this place. I really didn't think we would find as many things on our wish list for a home as we did. It is amazing.
That is all for now, we are in go mode around here. The movers are coming on Thursday so we are busy, busy.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Elsie is 2!
Our baby turned two on Monday, dang how time flies when you are having fun:-) Here are some favorite birthday pictures.
She had a check up on Monday morning. She is still 95th percentile for height and about 55th for weight. She got a few immunizations and that was that. Afterwards, the girls and I took her to Toys R Us to pick out a birthday gift since I had not gotten her anything. It was kind of a fun thing to do. She chose a new Melissa and Doug floor puzzle and she loves it. She is obsessed with the other big puzzles we have, and though she needs some help with them (they are for 3 and up), she is getting pretty good at them. They are constantly in various states of completion all over the playroom floor:-) Elsie took a super long nap on her birthday (probably thanks to the shots) so Katya and I took her out for some sunset birthday pictures that evening. She is such a little cutie!
She had a check up on Monday morning. She is still 95th percentile for height and about 55th for weight. She got a few immunizations and that was that. Afterwards, the girls and I took her to Toys R Us to pick out a birthday gift since I had not gotten her anything. It was kind of a fun thing to do. She chose a new Melissa and Doug floor puzzle and she loves it. She is obsessed with the other big puzzles we have, and though she needs some help with them (they are for 3 and up), she is getting pretty good at them. They are constantly in various states of completion all over the playroom floor:-) Elsie took a super long nap on her birthday (probably thanks to the shots) so Katya and I took her out for some sunset birthday pictures that evening. She is such a little cutie!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Pending!
We got an offer on the house on Monday, after 6 days on the market. Woo-hoo! It was a good offer, we countered with just a little bump and they accepted. Lots of paper work has been flying around the last few days. We hope the buyers will sign and it will be official today. Once they sign, even if the sale falls through (though hopefully it won't), it will be Dow's problem to deal with and we are fee to go. The movers are coming August 1st to pack the house, they load the stuff on the 2nd. On Sunday the 4th we vacate our house and head out to Mary Hill State Park for a week of camping. On Friday Aug 9th we will start the drive to CO, caravan back with mom and dad. After a few days in CO we will drive 2 more long days to Indy! I can't believe how fast it is all happening now.
Next Friday Craig and I fly to Indy to house hunt. I am praying that we find the perfect place, but if we don't we will be looking at rentals. I know it will all work out in the end. We will probably have to spend a week or two in an extended stay hotel. Which will not be fun with 2 adults and 3 small children, but we will make it work.
Next Friday Craig and I fly to Indy to house hunt. I am praying that we find the perfect place, but if we don't we will be looking at rentals. I know it will all work out in the end. We will probably have to spend a week or two in an extended stay hotel. Which will not be fun with 2 adults and 3 small children, but we will make it work.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
House is listed!
It is still a whirl wind of activity around here, but I am so happy that our house went active on rmls this morning! Way to go Nathan (our agent)! It was a real push to get it up so fast but he made it happen. The other agent we "interviewed" with said she could have it up July 8th, and I feel like every week counts at this point.
There are still a few things to do, but most of the house stuff is done. Our hard work is apparent, the house looks great. Mostly deep cleaning, fresh paint and organizing helped to spruce up the spaces. I did the biggest change in our master bedroom, which has always been a crappy hodge-podge of furniture and decor. I painted the accent wall to match the rest of the room, changed out curtains, a bedspread, bought side tables and lamps and hung some new wall decor. The huge mirror was given to us by Jen and Ben when they moved (perfect for a big wall!) and I bought a canvas and did the painting myself. I think it came together well and for the first time I really love our bedroom! Now to keep everything clean and perfect for showings....ugh.
We are heading up north for the 4th of July, hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday!
There are still a few things to do, but most of the house stuff is done. Our hard work is apparent, the house looks great. Mostly deep cleaning, fresh paint and organizing helped to spruce up the spaces. I did the biggest change in our master bedroom, which has always been a crappy hodge-podge of furniture and decor. I painted the accent wall to match the rest of the room, changed out curtains, a bedspread, bought side tables and lamps and hung some new wall decor. The huge mirror was given to us by Jen and Ben when they moved (perfect for a big wall!) and I bought a canvas and did the painting myself. I think it came together well and for the first time I really love our bedroom! Now to keep everything clean and perfect for showings....ugh.
We are heading up north for the 4th of July, hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Moving to Indiana!
Most everyone already knows that our move is now officially happening. I don't think it is really going to sink in for a while. What a huge, life changing event! Craig and I are excited to embrace the new adventure, challenges and all. He is very excited for a whole new career path in bio-safety. I am confident he is going to kill it!
We are working with a relocation company that Dow hires to execute our move. It is crazy how much is involved and how many different people/companies are contracted to get us where we need to be. We have connected with a real estate agent in IN who is helping us with our house hunt. We had two listing agents come to present to us about selling this house (we get to pick our favorite). We had an inspection of the house today which is done in case Dow has to buy out our mortgage (if it doesn't sell after 60 days on the market). We had a rep from the moving company come out to take an inventory of what they will be moving. We will be having 2 separate appraisers coming to appraise our house here. Another company is going to come out to help us with getting rid of unwanted items and organizing. We have been painting, pressure washing, weed whacking, window washing, painting, organizing, cleaning, and more cleaning (I mentioned painting right?:-)) in preparation to list our house. It is getting closer but not quite ready.
We booked plane tickets to IN in July for a house hunting trip. We finagled it so that we have a whole day lay over in Denver on the way out there so we can see mom and dad! It will be a very short visit (late Friday night till Sat evening) but I am SO excited to get to see them. I have not been to their new house yet!
Phew. I am exhausted just typing about it. Time to go relax before bed. The kids are doing great and are excited for a new house with a yard!
Love to all, B
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Uncle Spill in town
Well look who we got to see yesterday! The girls and I came home from berry picking yesterday to a message from Angie saying her brother was flying into Portland for a few hours on his way up to Whidby Island (for a friends change of command ceremony). The girls and I were able to meet them out at the business aviation place to see Scott and watch him take off. It was so wonderful to see his face and give him a big squeeze! And any reason to get to see Pattie, JoAnne, Angie, and Bryn is also great!
The Skipper was flying his own plane even:-) Scott will be handing command of the squadron over to his XO in only a few months. Crazy how fast 18 months can go by. He still doesn't have his new orders, I can imagine how hard it is to not know.
Angie, Katya, Reagan and Patrick watched the departure from inside the Atlantic Aviation building. Elsie, Moira, Bryn, Pattie and I got to get pretty close to the runway to watch which was fun. What an awesome treat!
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