Our first party

Yes, we had a very small get-together to break in our new house. We had pie and snacks with a few of our friends. I made cherry pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and chocolate pie. The chocolate pie was a big hit, even though it was just an Oreo crust with chocolate pudding and whipped cream piled on top. Maybe I should stop knocking myself out to make homemade pie crust, if this is so popular. I will post a picture or two when Derek gets them off of the camera and onto the computer. I don't know how to do that, and he doesn't want to teach me how, because he has his own very particular way of arranging the pictures in files.

Here is my grandmother's pecan pie recipe. It is really the best one I have ever had. To get a pie crust recipe, see this earlier post.

Nadine's Pecan Pie

4 large eggs (no, Eggbeaters will NOT work)
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup dark Karo syrup
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup pecans
1/2 tsp salt

Beat eggs and sugar until thick and slightly foamy. Add nuts, corn syrup, and vanilla. Pour pie filling over an uncooked pie crust. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour.

Pretty easy, right? Are you up for more? Then make sweetened whipped cream to serve on top:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat all ingredient on high until light and fluffy. For a stand mixer this might take 5-7 minutes. For a hand mixer it will take longer. (I don't really suggest you beat this by hand. At least use a rotary hand mixer!)

Enjoy your pie with coffee. While you're at it, you can dump some sweetened whipped cream in the coffee, too. Hmm. . . I think I'll go see if there is any pie left.

Still unpacking...

Actually, I think we will be unpacking a year from now! We do have an awful lot of stuff. For one, we have far too many board games:



And, now that I have put them all together, I think I might be oversupplied with candles, candle holders, wrapping paper, and stationery. Gee, sounds like I could open my own gift shop!

We have emptied out our apartment, but we are still working on getting it clean. And our new house is starting to look more like home. We have a pot of flowers by the front door.



And a nice, full pantry. (Why do I feel like a squirrel stashing nuts for winter?)



We had a fire in our fireplace on Saturday. Well, it was one of those Duraflame logs, but it was definitely on fire.



And we got some curtains for the bedroom.



It was hard to sleep past 6 am when the sun started coming in. Derek had a little trouble hanging the curtain rods. They are very complicated, with rods for sheers, drapes, and a valance.



Then his trusty drill started giving off sparks. So, we now have a new drill.

Derek poses with the new drill. Notice the manly stubble (he stayed home from work to move, not to shave!)

As everyone has warned us, being a home owner is expensive. We estimate that we spent about $300 last weekend. There was the drill, an outdoor broom, curtains, floor mats, shelf hardware, and a few other small things. Nothing too exciting, but it was expensive. And we still need more curtains, a ladder, a small table and chairs for the breakfast nook, and grab bars for the two bathrooms. That sound you hear is the piggy bank breaking.

Moving Day(s) - part 1

The move is coming along, and slowly but surely we will get it all done. Most importantly (well, not really) we got our phones and internet hooked up! So now we can take breaks from moving to blog! Over the next few days we'll update everybody on the moving process and how good (or bad) it is going. So, stay tuned!

We started moving Wednesday night ourselves, shortly after we got back to Bloomington (the closing was in Indianapolis), moving a few things over to the new house. Emilie spent her evening shelf papering the kitchen and bathrooms (and talking on the phone to her mother)...


...while Derek tried to figure out how to reset the clocks on the microwave and stove (darn Daylight Savings Time -- life was so much easier before Indiana decided it had to join the rest of the country and start participating in DST!).


By the end of the evening, we were pretty much ready to start moving in earnest. Emilie had even installed (on a temporary basis) our new "Welcome" sign that she made.

Update: Mailbox thievery

Well, I'm sad to report that we (well, actually, Lot 356 in the Highlands, since it technically wasn't ours then) were not the victim of a small crime wave, but apparently one on a larger scale. We learned today that besides the 5 mailboxes stolen in our neighborhood, mailboxes were stolen from other developments as well. And by the way, when I say they stole our mailbox, I mean the whole darn thing...all that was left was a hole in the ground!


We may have to look into a locking mailbox (as suggested by one of our gentle readers), but I don't know that that will stop them from stealing the whole darn thing! (Our mailboxes are on a post out near the road, not attached to the house -- I'm guessing that is some silly requirement of the homeowners association.) Maybe setting it in some nice concrete would do the trick? We did realize that the thieves knew which houses were vacant because the driveways still had a "no parking" barricade that is put up when the driveway is poured to give it time to cure. Our house still had one of the barricades, so our mailbox was stolen.

Fortunately, yesterday they installed a "temporary" mailbox. And today they added our "temporary" street number...

Closing

We had our closing yesterday, and everything went just fine. Although, I will say I don't think we've ever had to sign our name so many times within the span of an hour! And then you can't just sign your name, you have to use your middle initial (even if you don't usually use that as part of your signature). However, the lady from the title company was really nice and patiently waited for us as we read every page (at one point she even got up and left the room to "process our check," but she obviously waited several minutes before coming back so we would have time to finish reading). At the end of the day, we had a ton of paperwork...


After closing, we hurried home (well, okay, we stopped at Gray Brothers in Mooresville first for a nummy early dinner). When we finally made it to the house...

We crossed the "threshold" together...

...and were greeted with a beautiful sunset from our back patio

Derek covering up the "Future" part of our sign

Today we started moving, and tomorrow the movers come to do the heavy lifting. More on that soon!

Orientation (and a stolen mailbox!)

We had our new-home orientation Monday afternoon. It took about 45 minutes, and we just basically walked around the outside of the home, and then through the inside. Terry, the customer care manager, pointed out features of our house and talked about the various warranties. He also showed us little tips and tricks, like how to hand-crank the disposal in the kitchen sink when we put too much stuff in and clog it up, and also some hints about how to get a good fire going in our fireplace. He also showed us how to use the major mechanicals, like the heat pump, and explained how during the cold winter months the outside HVAC unit will be completely covered in ice, then 20 minutes later it will be melted away as the heat pump goes into its defrost cycle. (I guess that's something you folks down in the warmer climates don't really have to worry about!) He also showed us all of the warranty paperwork and who to call if something goes wrong. Finally, we got a coupon for a free paint touch-up kit -- apparently people rough up the walls a little bit when they move in.

That was Monday afternoon. Tuesday evening we drove by the house specifically to check for mail (our insurance company has insisted on mailing our policies, etc., to the new house, even though we aren't technically there yet). As we pulled up, we were appalled to find out that we had no mailbox!!! We looked around, and there is definitely the hole in the ground for the mailbox, but no mailbox. We thought maybe one of the construction vehicles had accidentally knocked it over, but there were no tire tracks or anything like that in the grass. Then we noticed that a couple of the other vacant houses in the neighborhood also were missing their mailboxes (the houses that were already occupied, like our neighbor, still had their mailbox).

Well, figuring that maybe Beazer Homes was doing something with our mailboxes, we sent our construction manager, Steve, an e-mail last night. Alas, no such luck. The reply came from Steve this morning:

Good morning. Monday night we had a total of 5 mail boxes stolen. Monroe County Sheriff was notified Tuesday morning. We are working with our purchasing dept to have another one set today.

So, we haven't even moved in yet, and already we are in the midst of a crime wave! Originally we couldn't decide whether or not to get the home security system -- now I think I'm glad that we did. And, fortunately, we had checked our mailbox right after the orientation (late Monday afternoon), so hopefully none of our mail was actually stolen Monday night.

Still waiting...

I can't wait to move into our new house! Our apartment is so full of boxes that we can hardly walk, and our house is so close to being finished it is making me crazy. We even got mail at our new address.

Derek and I experienced a conflict over packing, though. I am the compulsive, organized, get-everything-done-way-in-advance kind of person. Derek is the relaxed, last minute, that-looks-good-enough kind of person. This means that, so far, I have done most of the packing (75% maybe?) I will come out of the office, covered in dust, lugging a heavy box, and he will be sitting on the couch watching tv. Now, I realize that I am probably over-planning and over-preparing, but he just keeps saying "There's not that much left to do, we'll just throw it together at the last minute." I discovered today that he meant that to be a comforting statement, and he discovered that this phrase was making me homicidal.

Now, he is probably going a bit too far in letting things slide, and I am probably going too far in doing everything in advance. He decided to escape the packing frenzy this afternoon by leaving for a few hours. At least he did it by going to the laundry room to do three loads of wash. I sorted through old shoes and socks to see what could go to Goodwill, what could go in the trash, and what needed to be packed. Yep, we're both crazy in our own way.

On Monday, we are going to have our "New Home Orientation," which I think is when they tell us how everything works and how not to void our warranty on stuff like the carpet. It will also be when we check to make sure they fixed everything they were supposed to fix. Just little things, except for the two windows. Tuesday is Election Day in the US, but we voted today. In our state, you can vote in advance at the county clerk's office for any reason. Our reasons were to avoid missing a chance to vote because we were doing last-minute house stuff, and to get a paper ballot instead of an electronic one. The electronic ones here don't give you a paper receipt or anything. They seem reasonably secure against hacking, but there is little provision for malfunctions. If the power goes out, votes are lost, and so forth. I mean, come on people, these are COMPUTERS! How often does your computer malfunction? I don't believe there is no provision for a backup system. Like paper. So we voted today.

Wednesday, we go up to Indianapolis to close on our house. This is when we hand them a really big check. It is odd, it was okay to sign up to buy the house and have them start building in the office here in Bloomington, but for the closing we have to go up to Indianapolis. We also need to pester them to find out exactly how big that check is going to be. It seems like they ought to be eager to tell us that part. We have to bring a cashier's check from our bank, so we need to know in advance how much money there needs to be. Our bank balance looks healthy right now, but it is all about to go away. Sigh.

On Friday, the movers come. Derek is taking off on Friday and I don't teach on Fridays. I can't really take off any work, but I only teach 9 hours a week. It is finishing the other stuff, outside the classroom, that worries me. My students pretty much expect instant gratification in getting their papers back, as in all other areas of their lives. Two days after the midterm (with essays), they said "Aren't you done yet?" Yeah, right.

Our moving company is called Soft Touch Movers. I love the name. It was kind of funny. When we mentioned we were moving, people we didn't even know had to tell us to use this company because it was so great--a waiter, a clerk at the hardware store, and one of my co-workers who happened to be walking by and overheard my conversation. So, apparently, they're the ones to use. They were also willing to do just what we wanted: we pack, they load and drive and unload. Some long-distance companies drive, but they expect you to load. Ha! I think not. Since they will be moving all the furniture, including our beds, we plan to sleep in our new house on Friday night. that is the 9th. We have to be out of our old apartment, with it all clean and inspected, by the 19th. I am kind of dreading the cleaning part, even though the carpet needs to be replaced and the walls just need to be repainted. We have lived here for almost ten years, and the carpet and walls were obviously of the one-to-two years quality.

After we move, we hope to get a dog. A miniature dachshund. That's the kind of dog my parents had and have now. This is Holly:


They are small and need only a reasonable amount of exercise (they have short little legs, a small walk is a lot of exercise for them.) They are light enough for me to pick up or hold on my lap. They don't shed, drool, smell, or cause allergies. They don't need to be groomed, just bathed maybe once a month and brushed a little. Admittedly, there are also long-haired:


and wirehaired:


These varieties need more grooming, but that's not the kind I am looking for. They look like short-legged collies and scotch terriers to me: cute, but not as dachshund-like.

I don't want to buy a dog from a mall-type pet store. They take all sorts of dogs, from all sorts of places. I think that can encourage excessive and irresponsible breeding. Dachshunds can have back problems and other health problems from inbreeding. And the local pet store has a lot of dogs without "papers." I'm not concerned with buying a show dog with famous bloodlines, but I would like to know that the parents were healthy and had a decent personality. We might try to buy from someone who shows dogs and breeds them for show. Even their litters sometimes have a dog that just isn't "show quality." Sometimes for silly reasons: a red dog with any white markings, for example, cannot be shown. Yeah, whatever. A short-haired dog with some longer hairs cannot be shown, because it doesn't fit into any one category. Obviously not a problem for someone who just wants a dog to spoil the heck out of. Bring on the puppy treats!

Final Inspections

We are finally getting really close!

On Wednesday, Emilie went and did a walk-through of the home with Steve, the construction manager, and Terry, who is our "customer care manager" and will be our contact for warranty issues, etc. There were a number of nicks and scratches, nothing too major, and in fact many of the items Emilie found were things that either Steve or Terry had already noted. Emilie pointed out that the glass doors on the fireplace were missing, and Steve said they would call the contractor and get those put on. Steve said that they would get right to work fixing the rest of the issues. It only took about 30 minutes to complete the walk-through.

Then on Friday, we had our private inspector come in and do an inspection of the house. We were both able to be there, which was nice because we got to see the inspection process, and he also did a great job explaining what he was doing and how some of the mechanical things worked (like the heat pump vs. strip heating). He started in the kitchen and then worked clock-wise through the house, checking all of the cabinets and drawers to make sure they worked, and also the electrical outlets with a cool little plug that lit up if the outlet was wired correctly. He turned on all of the appliances to make sure they were working, and ran the dishwasher for a rinse cycle to make sure everything was draining correctly. He even turned on the stove and oven and stuck his hands on the elements to make sure they were heating up (fortunately he didn't try that technique with the microwave!). In the bathrooms he ran water in the sink, shower, and flushed the toilet at the same time to make sure we had adequate water pressure. He climbed up into the attic in the garage to take a look around (we have about 16 inches of insulation, whatever that means), and he also got up onto the roof to take a look around.

Overall, the inspection went pretty well. It took about 90 minutes, but he was also doing a fair amount of explaining along the way. He found a few "marginal" items, like there is some paper or something stuck in the exhaust fan in the microwave/range hood, and the wiring for the disposal was not snug against the wall under the sink like it should be. Besides the broken window in the master bedroom, we also discovered that the window in our small bedroom was scratched and would also need to be replaced. Steve, the construction manager, was coming and going during the inspection, and he didn't think any of the things we found during the inspection would be a problem to fix.

So, here it is Saturday. Monday afternoon is our new home orientation, where we meet with Terry again and he shows us how everything works and how to care for the new house (it is also our chance to make sure everything has been fixed before closing). Then we close on Wednesday afternoon! And we'll start moving in on Thursday! By this time next Saturday, we'll hopefully have phone service established and will be able to post from our new house! We are so excited -- we can't wait!!! (But we'll also be glad when the whole thing is finished!)