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!)

While Derek was on the computer...

...I was packing. We are up to 134 boxes, and I am really puzzled by what is in all of them. I seem to have most of what I need day-to-day, but there are all these boxes full of stuff. It must be Derek's stuff.

Speaking of stuff, I decided to follow a suggestion and start a wish list at Target for our new house. I was delighted to learn that, after 90 days, anything still on the list will be 10 % off, so we can buy things for ourselves. I was somewhat less delighted to learn that the clerk had set up the registry as a wedding registry. We are already married, have been for over 12 years. We are staying married, but apparently we are drawing out our the nuptial celebrations a bit.

You can look at our list at Target.com. You can, of course, give us stuff on the list, but you can also amuse yourself by critiquing our taste and wondering why someone would actually need a pink cotton ball holder (but it is unquestionably the cutest cotton ball holder in the world, it is pink glass and looks like a Depression glass candy dish!) Not to mention the personal benefits the list offers you. For instance, if you give us a croquet set or a serving platter, I am sure we will invite you over to play with it or eat off of it.

The best part of the gift registry was getting to use a little hand-held scanner that looked like a gun. I felt like a Star Trek cadet. And this very charming older lady thought I was registering for wedding presents and started giving me helpful advice for my marriage. My favorite tip? "Always keep a full cookie jar. You never know when you'll need it." Gee, maybe I should register for a cookie jar...

Target.com also helpfully suggests other items you might add to your wish list. I signed up for a pink soap dish and it helpfully suggested I buy soap to go with it. I added a cheese grater and it suggested I buy frozen pizza (presumably to go under the grated cheese?) I think this is what happens when a computer tries to think like a human. Amazon.com also does this when it makes suggestions. It once offered me a discount if I bought both the 2nd and 3rd editions of the same book. I bet there were few takers for that offer. I wonder, if I add a rug to the list will it offer me a vacuum? If I added pjs would it suggest slippers...or prophylactics? If I added aspirin, would it also suggest Tylenol, or relaxation tapes?

We have reserved a moving van and 2 professional movers for Friday, November 9th. We hope to stay in the house that night, since our bed will be there. Anyone want to help us finish up on the 10th?

"You've Got Mail"

Well, actually, we've got mail! We stopped by the home tonight to see if it happened to be unlocked (it wasn't). However, we did peek into our mailbox, and there was mail! Our homeowners and auto insurance policies were being sent to our new address (even though we pointed out that we weren't moving in for a couple more weeks). And when we happened to check the mail today, there they were.

On another note, we are up to 130+ boxes -- some are big, some are small (books work best in boxes that aren't too big, and we have a ton of books!), but our apartment is starting to fill up with boxes. After making another trip to Goodwill today, I'm really starting to wonder how we have accumulated so much stuff. Oh, well, back to packing...

Insurance, utilities, etc., etc., etc.

Oh, the joys of homeownership -- and we're not even in the home yet!

I have spent much of the past week or so on the phone and internet, dealing with insurance companies, utility companies, and the like. And this was after Emilie and I have visited three different insurance companies in Bloomington to get homeowners insurance quotes. We finally found the best price on homeowners insurance and are going with that company. BUT, then you realize that you can get a better rate on your car insurance with the "multi-line" discount, so basically we started the whole process over again to get an auto quote. Finally, a week later, we have our new homeowners insurance and auto insurance lined up through the same company (with the coveted multi-line discount). And I just cancelled our existing auto insurance, so hopefully all of the insurance strings are tied up.

On the utilities front, that, too, has been somewhat of a struggle given the non-existence of our new address. I tried to hook up phone service though the company's internet site, but since our address doesn't exist, they couldn't do it over the web. I finally had to spend about 30 minutes on the phone with customer service one morning. Then they called me back last night to ask me more questions to which I don't really know the answer (do we have this type of junction box or that type, etc.). We finally got it all worked out, and hopefully they'll be transferring our phone service over to our new house just a few days after we take possession. (I'm not sure, but despite all of this new fangled technology stuff, and since our address doesn't exist, I think the customer service rep is literally going to be walking a handwritten piece of paper over to the technician, handing it to him, and telling him to go hook up our phones -- at least he can find our address on Google Maps!) Hoperfully, and knock on wood since we haven't heard for sure yet, starting our electric and water will be much smoother, since both of those services are already in place at the house and are currently being paid for by the builder.

Oh, and Emilie just reported that she delivered our change of address form to the Postal Service. She asked about our non-existence, and apparently got to go back and talk to the USPS boss in this super-secret office. Emilie has been assured by this boss that sometime, hopefully by the end of the week (maybe!), our street will officially exist. I never really thought about it much before, but I guess adding a new street means more work for the postal carriers, so they have to fight about who is (not) going to have to do the extra work. I'm sure seniority, union rules, and the collective bargaining agreements get involved and it is probably just a big, ugly mess -- you know how much of a pain in the butt those union people can be! (By the way, I'm allowed to say that since I am the union steward where I work.)

Let me just say it's a darn good thing we both have government jobs, otherwise I don't know how we would find the time to get all of this extra stuff done! (Of course I'm kidding! I, for one, always work a full 8 hour day plus only take a 30 minute lunch -- and that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

Time to pack like crazy!

Yes, it is now time to panic! There is so much left to do. Not just packing, but cleaning the old place, changing utilities, changing addresses, hiring a mover, and probably lots of important stuff that I am forgetting! And I can't really take any time off of work to do it. I was so sick I literally could not stand up two weeks ago, and I missed one day. It was a huge problem to find a sub and give her something to do and then play catch up. It was almost more work than just going to work!And Derek has a hearing on Halloween that will require lots of preparation time, including evenings. I appreciate the hopeful comments people have sent me, but I feel pretty panicky about getting everything done. I suppose some readers might not know that I have fibromyalgia, which causes joint pain and fatigue. When I overdo it, I feel like I was run over by a truck for at least a week. And it doesn't take much for me to overdo things, either. So I worry that I won't just be able to just pull a couple of all nighters to get everything done. (Learn more about fibromyalgia at this site: http://www.fmnetnews.com/basics-symptoms.php)

On a more cheerful note, we have been doing some shopping for our new house. We thought the lawn wouldn't be put in until spring, but here it is. So now we have to buy lawn toys. We got a rake, a hose, a sprinkler, and a little water-gun thing to water flowers (it goes on the end of the hose.) Fun, huh? And we have been window shopping for more stuff.

My Grandmother is giving me her china and a china cabinet to put it all in. We have looked at china cabinets a lot. Most of them are either very dark wood, ornately carved, with gold decorations or really rustic and countrified. I just want a very simple one, in medium oak, that is somewhat smaller than a bus. Apparently this will be hard to find. We have also been looking at rugs (to protect the new carpet in the dining room, of course), a little table to go behind the couch (which will be in the middle of the big room), and a cute little table and chairs for the "breakfast nook." I think the breakfast nook maybe known as "little room with no furniture" for a while. I have had a hard time not buying things on sale, though. Like the cute little fireplace toys (oh, I mean "tools"), light blue guest towels, and American flag I saw last week. All stuff I want but don't NEED, and all on sale. Hide my credit cards!

Staking our tree

Well, they stood our tree back up on Friday and staked it, so hopefully it will stay in place. Now we are just keeping our fingers crossed that there was no serious damage to the tree and that it will be able to recover.



Other than the tree, the other exciting news is that they gave our house its first cleaning (see the vacuum tracks?). That, of course, means that our house is currently the cleanest it will ever be!

Mourning our tree

For those of you faithful readers who were frantically searching the internet to help us identify our brand new tree -- never mind! I arrived at our homesite today to see a very tragic (or maybe "dramatic" is the better word!) Emilie lamenting the loss of our brand new tree.



You know how I mentioned we were excited because we were supposed to get a lot of rain last night (which would help our lawn)? Well, it also stormed this morning, and apparently our newly planted tree just couldn't hack it. But this is not without a silver lining...the storms that are blowing through right now created a very vivid rainbow.

A yard! And appliances!

They seem to be settling into a routine with constructing our new house. We go about a week with nothing much happening, then, just like Emeril -- BAM! Today they installed our new lawn, a tree, six bushes, and most of our appliances! BAM!!!


We had been getting pretty jealous -- most of our neighbors had their lawns put in about a week ago. Unfortunately, ours was delayed by the installation of the "water pit" -- RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the front yard (you can actually see it in the picture, just a little to the left of the tree). This is apparently the water meter, and I guess it must be for the whole entire block, because nobody else seems to have one! Does that makes our house extra special? We haven't really had a chance to positively identify the tree yet, but our best guess so far is some type of dogwood. And neither of us has a clue about the bushes. Along with our lawn, fortunately, has come some rain (they are forecasting up to .5 inches of rain tonight), which will be great for helping our lawn, tree, and bushes to take root. Of course, unless we get constant rain for the next few weeks, I suppose we now have to go out and buy some hoses and a sprinkler or two.


Our kitchen is coming together nicely. As you can see, they've installed the stove and refrigerator, and the dishwasher is next to the sinks to the right of the picture. We're still waiting on the microwave and range hood to be installed above the stove. They also installed our washer and dryer! We're really excited about that -- we've been using coin-operated laundry machines going all the way back to our early days as freshmen living in Moore Hall on the K-State campus. (Yes, that would be just over 14 years of paying to do our laundry!)


After some gentle prodding, they also finally installed our third "hose bibb" (so we now have one on both sides of the house, as well as in the garage). Despite all of the builder's assurances that "Oh, yes, that gets installed later on, don't worry about it," I'm not convinced. They basically had to knock a hole in the finished wall beneath our icemaker rough-in to run the water line out to the faucet...

Fortunately, they have since patched the wall back up!

So, everything is coming along nicely. We haven't heard anything more, so we assume we're still scheduled for a November 1 completion date with a November 7 closing. There are obviously still a few appliances they need to install, and a few other items like the glass doors on our fireplace and the lamp in our front yard need to be put in, but everything is looking good. Then they can do the final touch-ups.

Oh, and the Postal Service still doesn't know that we exist. Somebody who will remain, shall we say, "anonymous," had the smart idea of actually trying to mail something to us at our new address. Unfortunately, it was returned to sender as "no such street." (Which, of course, is really kind of funny when you think about it, since we have been driving up and down that strip of asphalt in our neighborhood for a couple of months now. Only the USPS could claim that a street that clearly exists does not, in fact, exist.) Thanks to anonymous for trying! Hopefully it will actually work if we try again in a few weeks?

Carpet

You know how I just mentioned that some days there is little progress, while other days there is major progress? Well, today we saw some major progress...they installed our carpet!


Unfortunately, we have also recently found another of those little "surprises" -- a broken window!


Either somebody is taking pot shots at our window with a BB gun, or perhaps a small rock got kicked up by some of their heavy machinery. At any rate, we'll have to make sure they replace our window before we take possession of the house!

We Exist!!!

So, over the past few weeks we've been paying close attention to whether or not our new house exists.

When I say "exists," obviously our house exists, we've all seen pictures of it and Emilie and I have been wandering around inside it. But the fact that we know it exists doesn't really matter -- the real question is does the internet know the house exists? (It has been quite a pain getting homeowner's insurance quotes when the companies can't even pull up the actual location of our house.)

Well, I checked today on Google Maps, and I'm happy to report that we do, in fact, exist! That will make it much easier for people to get directions to our new house!

Now if the U.S. Postal Service could only figure out that we exist -- we have neighbors moving in within a matter of days and the USPS website still has no record of Meeting House Lane. I guess it may be awhile before we're able to get mail. But I suppose we shouldn't be surprised, you know how all of those federal government agencies are! :)

[And yes, I know that the Postal Service is only a quasi-governmental agency.]

Subtle progress, major progress

As we get closer to a finished house, we have begun to realize that some days result in very subtle (or at least unexciting) progress, while other days seem to have great leaps forward. For example, over the past week we have seen the electrical plates installed in the house...


But we've also had sinks and toilets installed...


And also our water heater (not subtle, but also not very "exciting")...


We've also continue to find unusual stuff around the house, like this...


Yes, that is a rusty nail sticking into a Powerade bottle (which has some liquid at the bottom). This was just sitting on our kitchen counter. I don't have a clue where this comes from or what it means, but Emilie suspects that it is the result of target practice with a nail gun. Any thoughts?

Door knobs and closet shelves

More progress today, especially on the fixtures side of things...

They installed our cool lever door knobs

And a deadbolt and peephole on the front door (which they apparently haven't painted burgundy yet)

Shelves in all of the closets

And in the bathroom -- a mirror, towel bar, and a shower door (for which Emilie is reading the cleaning instructions -- they basically recommend just soap and water -- I guess our shower door will always be clean!)

One day, lots of progress

We went by the home on Saturday to see what had been going on. There wasn't really much progress, but we did happen to meet the nice guy who was doing the finishing work on the cabinets (i.e. now that the vinyl flooring has been put in, he was coming back to lay the little strip at the bottom of all the cabinets). Our driveway was marked off, but hadn't been poured yet.

But when we went by the home on Monday, tons of progress had been made!

They poured the concrete for our driveway

They stained our fireplace and installed most of our lights and light fixtures (notice the ceiling fan and spotlights over the fireplace)

We have sinks (but they aren't in place yet -- well, I guess they are in place, but the aren't installed yet!)

Oh, and they gave us a mailbox!

Closing in on target...

Yes, that's right: we have a closing date! The house should be completed on November 1, which is a Thursday. Then, on Monday, we have our new home orientation and walk-through. That's when we learn how to use the heater and stuff, and we get to point out any little things that need to be fixed, like scuffed walls (hopefully, only LITTLE things.) Then we close on our house on Wednesday, November 7. We give them a really big check, sign a lot of papers, and we get the key. We can start moving in then.


We locked in the terms and interest rate of our mortage today, which was really nerve-racking, because the interest rate kept changing throughout the day. We also cashed in our mutual fund, to pay for the down payment and the closing costs. (Thanks to Emilie's Mommy and Daddy, who gave it to us when we got married!) That was also a little scary, because we had to request it be cashed out BEFORE the stock market closed, but we wouldn't know exactly what the account was worth until AFTER the market closed. Does any of that make any sense? Anyway, it is all done now.


Our house is progessing nicely. Every day we see something new. Our walls are painted, the plastic is off the cabinets, and the doors are back up.


Today they started laying the vinyl flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms. We didn't actually see that part, but our builder e-mailed us to let us know. Next week they will finish the plumbing, install the toilets, sinks, and faucets. And, outside, they will pour the driveway. They actually build a little wooden trough for a mold, then pour the concrete, then smooth it out--but not too much. You apparently want little ridges in the concrete to improve traction, since the driveway is not totally level. They use what looks like a metal broom to achieve this. A bit like a rake in a Japanese sand garden, I think.


You can learn how to make your own relaxing zen garden here.

I just packed our 100th box. I can't believe how much junk we have! It is kind of scary to think we have to move in 5 weeks. There is so much left to do. I have packed most of the kitchen stuff we can live without, but the office still looks like the Abominable Paper Monster lives there. I can't just throw all the papers away without either looking at them or shredding them. We are in luck: the Staples (an office supply store) in Indianapolis is having a shredding day, where they will shred your mountains of papers for free. It will be November 6. I hope we can fit all the old bank papers and such in our car!

We also need to start all of our utilities, get insurance, change our address with about 50 companies, hire movers, and I fear we will need to give in and buy some packing paper and dish boxes. I worry all of our nice dishes will be broken if we don't. Actually, we don't have nice dishes. We have ordinary dishes and cheap dishes from Wal-Mart. But it is nice to have something other than paper to eat off of!

I wonder if the movers will charge extra when they find out about the card catalog? I plan to pack the contents in boxes, and take the individual drawers out. It will still weigh a ton. What do librarians do when they need to move one? Oh, wait, they have computers now, don't they? I actually sat in on a course at IU about the History of the Book. It was soooo coool! But all the library science majors who were required to take it were unappreciative. They said things like "Why do we need to preserve old books when we can just scan them?" and "Print is dead." I bet none of them have a card catalog in their dining room!

(This is a picture from our last Christmas party. You can see the card catalog in the background.)

As you can see, I am reaching a state of total panic about moving and buying a house. Any reassurance would be most welcome! Hugs and help also accepted. :-)

Painting started

I went by the house Friday evening, and guess what? They forgot to lock the door! So, I was able to sneak in and get some pictures. They have started painting, so I had to put up with some fumes. Our cabinets are all in place, but they are covered in plastic (to protect them from the paint). And although they had previously hung all of our doors, they have since taken them back down (apparently for the painting).

Here's a shot where you can see the color of the walls -- not white (like the trim), but a little cream

Our kitchen cabinets and island covered in plastic after the first coat of paint

All of our doors are stacked up in the living room

They've also mostly installed the motor for our garage door