old house. new home.: Officially home owners.

So, as of two Sundays ago, we were officially moved into our house. We no longer have keys to our apartment, which in many ways is totally awesome. We no longer have to key lock doors from both sides, and we only have to enter/exit via one door to get into our dwelling; we don’t have to worry about the raccoons destroying our garbage and piling it all over the driveway (b/c we have a garage now); we get to fix the stuff that we don’t like, such as the mauve colored seashell sink and fake wood countertops; we don’t have to call a landlord again and listen to 3 minute messages about the electrician coming and the coupon she needs to make sure that we use when the guy comes (because EVERY message she left us took up most of our answering machine!). On the flip side, we now have to pay for the stuff that we want to fix, and pay for the electrician that needs to come out; but so far it’s been way worth it!

Quick home-owners schooling (many of you already know this stuff):

Sometimes your funace will just quit working, like on the first night that you actually wanted/needed to turn it on. Had to call a furnace company and get someone out there – we got lucky and it was an easy fix and not that much mulla. Pilot light problems, no big woop.
Sometimes garbage disposals sound like they're working, but in reality they aren't doing anything and your food is just beneath the sink flange and just sitting on top of the disposal, but your hand doesn't fit down there (nifty, this creates a great breeding ground for fruit flies).
Sometimes your dishwasher is not hooked up properly, and when the drain hose is loose or rotted through, or just not attached ... your dishwasher will simply drain underneath it, wherever that may be. In our case, it's our basement, and in between the 3 layers of flooring stacked up in our kitchen.
We have mold in our bathroom (to be fair, we knew this before buying the house though). We had a contractor out there to talk about remodeling the bathroom. Only option really is to gut and redo the bathroom – but, will be completely worth it since we don’t even open the door to that bathroom right now.
Ceiling fans and lighting fixtures are WAY overpriced. Seriously, $800+ for some dining room lights … we will NOT be buying you, Mr. Tiffany chandelier with matching colors that would look ultra classic in our newly re-decorated house. We will be buying your semi-flush mount cousin that costs a small fraction of your price and will look 80% as good as you do.
Also, end tables and rugs – RIDICULOUSLY priced. And I mean ridiculous like any movie you might watch on the Si-Fi channel kind of ridiculous.

Anyhoo … so we are in the process of unpacking and organizing. It’s been slow, but it's coming along. By the way - it's hard to unpack stuff and figure out where to put things and where to hang things when you don't have any furniture? I'm trying to organize around 2 recliners in the LR with TV trays for end tables, and an office that has no furniture and needs to be set up as a rec room/den; a guest bedroom that has no bed, and a linen closet being used to store the kitchen cabinets ... it's not a good place to start. Plus, it didn't help that since we ended up moving earlier than we were supposed to, we just threw stuff in boxes and brought things over (to be fair again, this is probably the way that it would have gone down regardless, but at least now I have something to blame the chaos on!).

BUT, this is what we've gotten done since the last post ...

MOVING!! (the garage is packed!)
Hardwood floors completed with shoe molding
Carpet installed in guest bedroom
Hung the wallpaper in the DR (Thanks to my mom for teaching me how!)
Replaced the smelly garbage disposal (Thanks to my dad for helping! - Also, just so ya'll aren't so grossed out, we only lived with it all backed up for 1.5 days until Saturday when we had time to replace it ... we just got lucky that my dad was in town, who had just bought one for their house, installed it, and helped to make things go faster by knowing where the best deal was and exactly what we were going to need - because we have yet to accumulate the dad size tool box/room.)

So, here are a couple of pics of the craziness going on in our home now, and the new floors - both hardwood and carpet (what you can see of them!). I’ll try to start posting more frequently again ... just have to set up wireless and find some free time to organize this mess!

Side note ... the moving was seriously the worst part of the whole ordeal. I made a deal with Patrick that I would pack and unpack everything if he did the majority of the moving. I felt as though I was totally getting the way better end of that bargain - the fun parts (especially unpacking & organizing a new home!). He whole-heartily disagreed with me, but then he got DOMS; yet, now his part is mostly completed, while mine is still fully ongoing. I'm excited to get everything organized though!

Second side note ... we will either be living here for the rest of our lives, or we will be paying someone to move us in the future. I've said that every time we've moved (4 times now) - but this time I mean it. Seriously.

Parting note ... Having a home with a dishwasher is the BEST. THING. EVER! Having a home with a dishwasher that doesn't work is the WORST. THING. EVER!