house post

So, when I look back on this in 10 years, I want to remember all we did to get ready for our big move.



We have not closed on our house yet (either) but we know that we need to do a lot of prep work to get ready for day one.

So far, we have picked out the appliances that we want (LOVE THEM!). A nice surprise was to find out that we are going to need a gas stove. I'm pretty excited about that. We picked out one that has five burners and a griddle option. Watch out, pancakes will be made everyday. Ha!

I'm convinced we currently have the loudest dishwasher available. If we are running the dishwasher and also watching television, we have to turn the volume up to the loudest setting just to hear what is being said. When we started looking for dishwashers a big selling point was the decibel level. Apparently 50 is AWESOME to get. Some of the louder ones are around 57-58. I think we probably have 85 right now. The one we picked out is 52. I should be able to hear grass growing while the dishes are getting clean now.

We also picked out a new microwave. It has a chicken nugget function. Seriously? A chicken nugget function. How hard is it to push 1 minute and heat up some nuggets? Whatev. I'm definitely going to use it...I pay for it, I'm using it!

And we have picked out cabinets and counter tops, flooring, a new sink (farm sink!), narrowed down paint colors, picked out a back splash, decided on cabinet pulls, had the window guy come out and give us an estimate for new windows, decided on a roof color. Phew.

We have a budget (thank goodness, right!). Certain parts of our budget are high and sadly some parts are low. Sigh.

When we put together our construction budget we knew what certain things would cost. Some things are really easy to find prices for...appliances, flooring, paint, etc. Some things are NOT easy to find prices for...like a roof and drywall repair. So when we put those numbers in our budget, we were like, "Hey, this number sounds good. Okay roof will cost "x". Drywall repair will cost "y"." You can imagine how well that is working out now.

I totally see how those people on the flipping homes shows go over budget. It is so easy to do. You forget certain items that you need (in our case-garbage disposal. Thankfully it was something small and not something like, oh I don't know, carpet.)

We are really trying hard to keep within the budget. REALLY HARD. I will update as we go.

We close on both homes next week. This weekend is really our last weekend to be footloose and fancy free before all the craziness begins. I am hoping that we have some good family time and some relaxing moments...we'll need it.

And don't worry, I will post so many before/during/after pics that you will start thinking, "COME ON! Get this house done already!"