A Little Before and After

The last few weeks have been insanely busy.....moving into our new home, me working overtime at work, trying to get the yard in order, and finally making our own changes to the inside of the house. So here is a small update in photos.

This is the "bonus room" before. The previous home owner used it as a dinning room. Tim thought it would be a nice idea to have a place for me to keep my books.

I guess Tim and I were feeling brave when decided to go dark for the wall color.

Lady's effort to help us paint.

Definitely dark....and we LOVE IT.

Light bookshelves to contrast with the walls.
The final photos will be posted soon!

In the meantime, Lola A.K.A "Evil Princess" as Tim calls her, learned how to climb the pear tree two weeks ago. Then she looked over at the wires that are behind her in this picture and decided it would be fun to tightrope walk them. At that point I put the camera away and started swearing. She got about five feet before I ran to get a ladder and chased her back to the tree. She has since learned that she is NOT allowed in the tree anymore.

Lola's middle name may be trouble, but Charcoal likes to occasionally find it too. Here he is under the deck. Luckily for him he was able to squeeze back out so we didn't have to dismantle it.

House Hunting or Daily Bartering

It is official. Tim and I are about to become certified grownup adults. We have spent the better part of the last several months looking at houses on the internet, driving by houses to check out the neighborhoods, talking to our agent, touring houses, and finally putting offers on houses. Yes, that is right, we put an offer in on more than one. No, it was not at the same time. Our agent, who happens to be very pregnant, was incredibly patient with us. The first was cute with a nice floor plan and a spacious backyard that was completely fenced including a dog run. If you know me well, at this point you might be wondering why I want a dog run.......more on that later. It had a great view from the east bench, easy access to the freeway but tucked away into a nice neighborhood, and near some great parks and schools. Things were cheery and bright and we put in an offer. The people rejected it and wanted the original asking price. We counter offered but they still wanted the original asking price. Their agent said they are upside down in the house but the husband is being relocated for work *we may have seen a paper saying he is a special FBI agent, but would probably deny it if anyone asked* and a relocation company is willing to give them fair market value. The problem is they owe more than the fair market value, or so they say. So we walked away and went looking at other houses. We spent several more days looking for the right fit. Finally we found what felt like home. We even spent a day walking through the first house we put an offer on and the "home" we wanted to get and both felt like we were making the right decision. Oh, by the way, the first home is now asking for less than what we first offered. We still like our "home" more. We both knew that if we were patient the right home would come along, and here it is. It has all the elements Tim and I wanted. A decent sized yard for Tim to play in, a nice floor plan, windows that let in plenty of light, not to mention friendly neighbors on both sides. And it is a two car garage, which is not very common in this area. I love the hardwood floors and the "old house" feel. Lucky for us, previous owners renovated and updated the wiring, plumbing, and air conditioning. Our inspector told us it was like we are buying what looked like an old home on the outside and a brand new home on the inside. That said, it is not perfect but perfect for us. I already have a list of projects to be done. Here is part of the back patio. Tim has plans for us to eat dinner out here nightly as long as the weather lasts. It will be great to have an "outdoor room" to enjoy. The back yard, a.k.a. Tim's space. Plenty of room for gardening, dogs, and hopefully hens. That is right, hens as in chickens. My boss has been spoiling us with fresh eggs the last year and Tim had chickens as a child, so why not give it a try. The Tour de Coops this past weekend helped further educate us on what type of coop might work for our hen house.

Let me get back on track and finish telling the story of our home. We spent several days bartering back on forth about a few things that need to be fixed. The former owner is a lawyer, so it was like going to battle each day, but we stuck we our guns and all parties came away happy in the end. In about three weeks or sooner we should close and have the keys to our new nest.


These are just a few of the ladies we saw on the tour. Can't wait to have a few of our own.