You know that saying "We came, we saw, we conquered" ? Yeah, it was kind of like that. But not.
This house was one we had seen on the market for a long while, but were distracted by other more *appealing* homes. Meaning, they had curb appeal and then you go see it and is surrounded by junkers. And when the house we initially wanted sold, we figured "Eh, its worth a look!" Little did we know that certain features would sell us instantly... Like only a 20 minute drive to work when we estimated we'd drive a full 45-60 minutes to obtain a house on nice property.
We sat in the car waiting for his agent and Handsome turns to me and says, "Do you think you could live here for the rest of your life?"
*Inside Squeel!* Nothing makes a girl happier than to know your man is really thinking about the rest of his life... with you.
After Nichole (agent) arrived, it only took us 20 minutes to fall in love with the house. Handsome scowered the house, practically sprinting from room to room. He was kind of making me laugh because I simply could not keep up with the man! I took pictures. Because we all know that pictures on real estate websites can be deceiving and just show the pretty parts of the house.
Although these pictures are not much and definitely don't have my things in it, the house has a certain potential. Nothing absolutely needs immediate attention, but there is lots that could be done. So much potential. :) Its like a kid with a gift of playing piano. Just give the house a piano and make it play for hours on end. Except the piano is us and we will play the house! Ha!
Front room- It has an old fireplace behind that back wall that we may re-install at some point.
Dining Room- Just needs paint.
Kitchen-Needs much work (in my eyes...)
Master bedroom-Needs a major paint job.
Guest bedroom- This house is so... WHITE
Bathroom- This pic looks nicer than it actually is. We want to put a large bathtub in it as well as a walk in shower.
Pic of the property. These stalls will become Kennels for the dog(s).
Home sweet home. :)
So many plans for our home. Can't wait to start working on this. Closing date is January 17th and we will be moving on Patrick's birthday, January 20th. :) Any and all help/company is welcome!
There comes a point in life, or in any journey where you're like "Crap! I have shizz to handle!" This whole house buying thing has been... stressful and now... we get to reap the benefits if we push just a little bit more (metaphor to my workout life?... I hate it when I do that to myself) . And now that I'm getting really excited, I'm starting to lose my head! Time for this little OCD'er to make a ton of lists that I will likely never fully check off! ;)
To Do:
1. Find a House. Check!
2. Make an offer on the house. Check!
3. Home Inspection. Check!
4. Appraisal Check!
5. Well Inspection Check!
6. Pack
7. Clean the new house (because it seriously needs it)
8. Move
Yes. That is how quickly its coming. A month from yesterday, we will be moving into the country!!! "Movin to the countree, gon eat me lotta peaches."
And my personal list of to-do's grows daily:
1. Design my house
2. Paint colors
3. Sigh <3
4. Fall in love with more paint colors
5. Convince Handsome of my brilliance
Feel free to give me your opinions!
For the bathroom (color scheme... Right now the bathroom is painted a light blue, with white fixtures)
And for the kitchen (right now the kitchen is white, with gray speckled counter tops and black appliances) oh! (and eventually this color will have to go with some rustic touches, like a copper sink and wrought iron hardware):
I'd really have to pull the whites etc into this. But I love the blue!
I really admire military wives. I mean, Handsome and I are spending only two weeks apart. And I just cannot imagine the amount of trust and detatchment and courage it would take to spend your nights alone for months or years while your husband or wife are in a place you cannot go and they could possibly lose their life in. Now, don't get me wrong. I cannot even come close to comparing my term to those men and women. But this stuff is hard... I am CLEARLY not cut out to be a military wife.
"Long distance is the wrong distance, Sue." - Liz Lemon, 30 Rock.
I'm not sure if I'll ever know if Handsome enjoyed this, but one thing I did while he was gone was email him. Every single night before bed, I sent him an email about my day and tried to include pictures of everything. Which consequently resulted in me taking pictures of things... I probably wouldn't capture otherwise. Like this, for example:
Why? No one knows. Weird? Yes.
Bunny Story (my version of Side Story and Rabbit Trail): When Handsome first moved in, he made this hilariously large deal over this silly body pillow he has... and loves. Maybe it was the fact that I wanted him to snuggle up to me in bed or maybe it was that I already barely get enough room to sleep in our King sized bed or maybe it was that I just watched a 30 Rock where James Franco had a "real" relationship with a body pillow.... In either case, I really didn't want his dumb body pillow in my bed. -I promise, this story will really tie back into my original post- He kept asking me to remind him to grab the body pillow every time we went to his Grandparents' house.... And I would always *accidentally* forget to remind him. Well, once he actually moved in, there was no avoiding this body pillow. Turns out, him sleeping with it would actually keep him on his side of the bed! And I would actually get some sleep!
About when Handsome was leaving for Dubai he asks sarcastically, "You think you'll sleep with the body pillow?" Of course not! The body pillow conversation was pretty much an all the time deal.
In my first email to Handsome on the first night he was gone the following was included: "I miss and love you babe. PS. Yes, I will probably sleep with the body pillow tonight. No, I probably won't admit it to you tomorrow."
Emails. Emails really kept me sane. It certainly helped me feel like I wasn't missing anything in telling him what was going on with me.
Plans. I constantly was making plans for what I'd do for him when he came home. :) I made brownies, and had muffin batter ready for when he came home. I cleaned his truck and washed everything in his gym bag.
Cleaning. I got all of my odd jobs done around the house.
Girlfriends. I spent sometime with my yoga bff, Mona.
Yoga. Yoga and the gym really. I kept VERY busy working on my body and my endurance. I can't wait to get back to a regular yoga/gym schedule, however.
So, a few days before Handsome left for Dubai we find out that the house we are (regretably) in love with had an offer on it and it has been accepted. The Housing Gods were certainly laughing in our general direction.
BUMMER! We decide it's not that big of a deal because: Another one will come along that we love even more. Wrong. We decided to websurf. Everything out there with property are wood cabins. No joke. C'mon people! I want a house! Correction: We want a house but HE will take a wood cabin type house. Bleck!
So, we did the one thing we were told not to: We fell in love. And yes, the heart break does hurt. Because you start imagining yourself living the rest of your life in a place and you begin to think of ALL the projects you could find in that place. Or like me, you start decorating the whole place in your mind.
In light of losing a house I could imagine making perfect, I had to take tons of photos to remember my apartment by. I love it here, and nothing but real love would get me to move. The opportunity had to make it worth it... And living in the country in a country home with the man of my dreams, was it.
Top things I will miss:
1. Window sills large enough for Binx to sit on
2. The porch garden
Okay yes my tomatoes are about gone
3. The way the leaded windows beam squares of sunlight onto my pillowcases around 10am
4. The butler's pantry
5. Taking a bath in my cast iron bathtub every night
6. The view of the maple trees that line the street in Autumn
Goodbye my sweet sweet old apartment. I will always love you.
That's right. That's what I was singing on my way home from taking handsome to the airport... "Handsome lefffffft on an Airbus, except he'll be back November 13thhhhhhhh"
We were trying to figure out how his work Blackberry works... We're both iPhone users. Our coffee tasted like cardboard..
Getting on his first International Flight. Yes, I'm jealous he's going without me.
And so I went home, just to grab my gym bag and I saw this:
This is so annoying but so cute at the same time. I'm almost tempted to leave the sock there so I remember that I do have him coming back to me. Nahhh... I'll just have the house spick and span before he comes home! :)
That was it, but the 4 months we spent talking about living together felt so far away. Truthfully it felt like it would never happen. He kept saying it would but I am one of those people that you have to really prove your words to.
My closet is so.. FULL!
Circumstances: So, he's gotta get his stuff out of his house by November 10th. Problem is, he may be sent overseas by his job as a welder to Dubai. He has to do this for approximately 3x a year for about 3 weeks. He received his passport today in the post which means he could be gone any day. Consequently, that means he needs to get moved as soon as humanly possible. We oddly woke up at 630. He thought it was lame but me, oh man, I love it. I love having a regular schedule regarding everything. No joke. I like doing my chores the same day every week. I am the kind of person who can eat the same thing over and over, my life thrives in the continuum. Honestly, I sleep better, I lose weight, I eat better when I do the same things. Beauty in the lame. lol At any rate, we were home and done and organizing (and me doing laundry) AND took boxes down to my storage by 10am!
Anyway, so I spent my last night without him (well, really his things and him calling my place home)... I cleaned ALL NIGHT, watched Glee, did ALL my chores, fixed things I've been meaning to fix, organize all the things in the wrong place, made my house beautiful after Handsome moved all of his things in, made a cocktail, drew a bath, had a sandwich and...
laid in bed slightly buzzed. :)
It was a beautiful night.
I felt so... domestic. And useful. And very womanly. Most people see chores as... just that. Chores. I see all my chores as my opportunity to do something nice for my man. Clean so we can really relax and spend the maximum amount of time together. It is so delicious to do all the things you have to do, so you can truly calm your mind and your heart and enjoy the time you do have together.
It may not be easy without him. And I know I am going to miss him. But I am also going to be able to love the safety within the rhythm of life. Well, my life. Not crazy. I have to admit that I do love the mediocrity sometimes. It is almost more challenging to be happy with the mundane. Just sayin.
At one point, we never thought the house would sell. We were even beginning to consider other options: Equity swaps or even moving to Kentucky. Yes, Kentucky.
Handsome has always had a dream of traveling. Which I share but not to his extent. I have specific places I want to see, but Handsome... Well, Handsome wants to see the whole world. As he has only been as far west as Seattle, and as far East as Billings, MT. No north or south traveling. However, as he had always hoped for being in his job as a welder, that he would be sent overseas to do his job. So here it was, a position was open in Kentucky that would require him to go overseas approximately 3 times a year.
And I was freaked. My family is my whole world. Almost all my friends have moved to the Seattle area and my sisters have become my best friends. The idea of living in a different place was fine, but doing it without my family? No way. I decided that I wasn't going to overwhelm my family with it until it was an almost sure thing.
Suddenly, as Handsome voiced how interested in the job he was to his superiors, they offered him the same position... in Spokane! :)
And not only that but in the same day they had him apply for his passport AND as soon as he received it (which they had it expedited so 2-3 weeks) he would be going to Dubai! As excited I was for him, I was tired of missing him. We had been talking about living together for months and there were still nights of the week where I just knew that there was no way I'd see him. And if I was having a bad day, all I wanted to do was come home to Handsome... Talk to him about it, help me forget about it and snuggle.
And then it happened. The first offer came in.
This took weeks. To settle & hear back. Argh the waiting was unbearable.
And not only that, but then we find out the closing date. 30 days out. Unfortunately, the kid who is buying it wanted some crazy kind of loan and it is taking the loan officer the full 45 days to finish it.
But let me tell you, seeing the status on the real estate website change to: "Contingnet Subject to Inspection" was the most exciting moment I've had in a while!
Pretty soon we'll be ready to say goodbye to this house we've put so much time and effort into. I never lived there but I feel proud when I look at it.
I remember it like it was yesterday. Even though it wasn't. We met on Easter Sunday. Both of us, separately taking walks in Riverfront Park. The details of our conversation have gone fuzzy but I vividly remember talking for hours and hours. And even when we parted ways, I counted the minutes to when I would hear from him. He gave me the ole "I'll call ya later" line. I figured I'd hear from him the next day or even later that week... but no, I got the call that same evening. Something in both of us knew that it was something special.
As time goes on you begin to forget little things, the plans you make or the butterflies you feel or what you say to each other that shows the intrigue. What I do remember is the feeling I had for this man was like none other. I knew instantly that I didn't want to see anyone else. Instantly. And becoming a couple was never even a conversation. No kidding! The words were , "I don't want to see anyone else." "I don't either." Sealed with a kiss and done deal.
The word "love" came quickly and so did my desire to be around him constantly.
If anything, I was flattered and thrilled the day he asked me to move in with him. Of course, he was already in the process of selling his current house to buy another... So here we are. Still trying to sell the house so we can buy another and begin a life together.
I will admit at first I was extremely excited to live together particularly when it was first brought up, it came up probably 2 months into seeing each other. But we knew it wouldn't be for a while. I mean, our plan was to sell his house then once he bought a house we would both move into that at the same time. That was the idea. After the first house we looked at, although I was excited to live with him, the anxiety set in.
Thankfully, I have a sister that would talk me through everything. She did not have an opinion one way or the other but always on my side. But the reality was that I was having anxiety living with him, when my own insecurities were still trying to hide. Once that was realized and I could have an open and honest conversation with Handsome about it, I was cured. He claims to be impatient, but he has never shown me anything other than perfect patience.
We had been together for a month and finally got to the point where we wanted a picture of us together. :) We were too enamored to notice that we were WINO's! LOL! And he looks stoned.
