Moving And Glass Houses

I saw an article early in April titled "I'm not a liar, but Facebook sure is." If you haven't read it, you should click on it and do so immediately. It gave me a lot perspective and insight specifically related to the fact that we often compare someone's best moments to our worst moments. I vowed then to be more real in my presence on social media.

Lately I've been gushing about our new house. There are many reasons we have been thrilled. Who wouldn't be? We are doubling our square footage, adding a two car garage, moving to a better location in town, quadrupling our yard size, and buying something together to make ours.

The thing is, it's not all roses and smooth sailing. It's not easy. The process of applying for/qualifying for/closing a mortgage is outrageous. AND we have excellent credit! There were no disputes to file, no reporting to contest, no accounts to clear up, the mortgage officer said it would be her easiest close of the year! AND STILL it took hours, and papers...lots and lots of papers.

Also, we have SIX MONTHS of construction ahead us of. My pictures on your tour were strategic, but trust me, the place needs some serious TLC. We knew that, we went in eyes wide open. Basically we are only unpacking belongings in the basement because it will be the last sight for construction while the upstairs will be one of the first. It means we actually are living in a SMALLER living space that we were before. Boxes. Everywhere.

You know what else? MOVING SUCKS.  There were three things I could not help load that The Hubs had to call for help on. They were: washer, dryer, deep freeze.  The thing is though, he only got help loading them at the old house into the trailer. When it came time to unload and place at the new house, it was all yours truly.

Aside from that 20 minutes of help loading at the old house, we loaded everything else on our own. We rushed to get things out of the old place thinking it had sold (it hadn't, but that's a story for another day) and unloaded into the garage of the new house only. We had some help with one of the 7,846,395,385 loads we made, but not the kind of help that relieved much of the heavy lifting.  The point is, I'm not the best lifting partner, and while he would likely deny it, my husband would have rather died than lift another thing with me.

As for me, I have never been so sore in my life. My hips popped out of place. I am covered in bruises. I look like someone beat me, and if I have to inhale the smell of soft scrub with bleach one more time I might burn my lungs completely off.

The truth is that despite the rainbow at the end of this tunnel, the process of getting here has totally sucked. The work ahead of us to turn this house around and make it a home will also totally suck. Worth it? Absolutely, but we're living in glass houses over here so lets call a spade a spade and admit that it hasn't been roses the whole time.

We're keeping it real by putting our first hole in the walls trying to manhandle a couch that four grown men should have actually been lifting.

We're keeping it real with pizza picnics on the floor and popping sparkling juice on the deck to celebrate though.

We're keeping it real climbing the crumbling siding to catch the view from the roof.

We're really, really, really excited, but we're keeping it real.

If You Wanna Take A Tour With Me...

.....Oh why do I live this way? Hey! Must be the money 'cuz I'm funny! You know, because I certainly don't have Nelly's money.

Seriously, I can't help myself. When I was typing that title I had a flash back to sophomore year of high school (I'm aging myself here) and thinking I was seriously THE COOLEST jamming that song with the top down. Boy, was I dumb! 

We live too far away from too many of the people we love. It just happens that way in this world. There used to be a time where everyone lived on the same family plot of land, working cattle and hoeing gardens for generations and generations, but that time has long passed us. Despite my certainty that I should have been born in 1885 and not 1985, it just doesn't change the reality that unless I blog it, those spread far and wide don't get to see or know.

***SIGH***

I digress. We're going on a picture tour of the new house ladies and gents!! I am also hopeful that there will be a serious amount of before and after posts as we update you on our progress along the way!

The side of the front facing portion of the house

The front of the house, street facing

P.S. - Does anyone know anything about artificial grass? Maybe turf is the way to go. Permanent. No need to water. Looks fab. BUT, can you sit in it?

Come on in!

Did I mention I said I'd never own a split level? Oh, the twists of fate!

Let's go right/up!

I spy a kitchen, but let's take a sharp left at the top.

Top of stairs

Sharp left into the hallway

Want to see inside that closet? Probably not. I'm going to show you anyway. Then, in the doorway to the left just beyond the closet, we're entering bedroom numero uno upstairs.  See how I did that? Hope you can speak Spanglish.

Serves as a pantry to the kitchen

Looking in at the entrance of the bedroom

Standing in front of the window seen in the previous picture and looking towards the entrance into the bedroom.

Standing in the threshold of the doorway to Bedroom #1 looking out

We are going to walk a few feet and go into that door on the left. It is Bedroom #2 upstairs. On the right you can see a door for another closet. We'll get to that. Straight ahead is the bathroom upstairs. We'll get to that, too. First, left!

Standing in the threshold looking in

Looking out the bedroom window

I'm standing in the middle of the bedroom, showing the closet and the entrance to the bedroom.

Alright, back to that closet I promised, which when leaving Bedroom #2 you see directly in front of you when standing in the threshold.

I probably have enough towels to fill this.

To the left, to the left (seriously my musical references today, #killingit). Upstairs bathroom.

I love windows in showers. It starts the day on a much brighter note!

No one wants to gaze at toilets for very long, so lets head out of here back towards the top of the staircase and see what that has to offer us.

Leaving the hallway away from bedrooms/bath

Oh, look! A living room!

Why is there so much floor in this picture? Let's open those curtains and try again!

MUCH BETTER!

See that little octagonal window? I am going to go stand by it and turn left so you can see into the dining room. You're welcome.

Dining Area with sliding glass door that leads to huge yard.

I know you are dying to go outside, don't panic. We'll be back. BUT FIRST, we are going to walk over and stand by that glass door and look into the kitchen!

So the counter space isn't what I always dreamed of, but have no fear, the appliances are here! That stove? TO. DIE. FOR. Also, remember at the top of the stairs when you could spy the kitchen? Let's go back to that view for a minute.

I die over that window above the sink!!! I'm getting distracted again. As promised, I'm going back to the sliding glass door to get some pictures of that yard!

Opening the patio door and turn left.

Opening the patio door and looking straight back.

Opening the patio door and looking right.

Then, if you walk all the way to the back of the yard by those lilac bushes and look back towards the house, this is what you see.

Whew. That completes upstairs.  I'm tired. All of this walking around is killing me. Plus I'm sore from all the moving of those heavy things. I wish I had an awesome backwards video we could rewind to get us all the way back to the front door where we will go downstairs (instead of up) but I'm not cool enough for that. Instead, you will have to pretend.  Ready? Hear that bzhhhuuup rewind sound? Great! Me, too! Suddenly, we're back here, and this time, we are going down!

At the bottom of these stairs take an immediate left into the family room!

From the bottom of the stairs looking left into the room.

Looking straight into the room.

Looking right into the room.

Standing on the brick taking a picture of the south side of room.

Standing by boxes seen in previous photo taking a picture of the north side of the room.

Pretend we had taken a sharp right at the bottom of the stairs instead of left.  We'd see a closet. Then, we'd see the third bedroom. Where the magic happens.

Under the stairs closet

Silence of the Lambs chamber, but they claim it's a coat closet.

Looking in from entrance

Looking out from sitting on the bed

Closet

Windows, which I should have opened for this picture. I didn't. Sue me.

If we exit the bedroom and take an immediate right, we are going to find three doors. 

To the left (which you can't see) is a closet door. Straight ahead is bathroom number two. To the right is the mudroom.

Closet to the left

Bathroom Straight Ahead

Then, to the right, the mud/laundry room. 

If you look directly right you see this view.

If you look left in the door, you see this.

This is a little more centered of a view. That door goes into the garage.

This view is from that door seen in the last picture.

So if we were to open the door that leads into the garage, we are presented with a set of stairs that lead up into the two car garage.

I am going to let you see the garage now, because we're friends and we don't have secrets, but I want you to know I'm dubbing it the garage of doom. It's a full on disaster in there right now!

The view from the outside of the garage.

This concludes your tour of our little home, our own little slice of paradise brought to you directly from 1981. 1800 Square Feet, 3 beds, 2 bath, and a .25 acre lot. We are living the American Dream over here!

But seriously, about that astro turf....

Thank you for choosing Magic Carpet for all your travel needs. Don't stand until the rug has come to a complete stop. Thank you. Goodbye now.