Leaving a Mark

At the closing, the sellers told us that their oldest son, Eli, was pretty upset about moving. He decided to "leave his mark" on the house by leaving a Texas magnet in our walk-in closet. I smiled and nodded, thinking that no way was I leaving that magnet in my wonderful closet. Well.



That magnet is wedged behind the shelf. There was no way to get it out with removing the shelf or damaging the wall, so I just painted over it.

But you can still see it! Well played, Eli. You win.

Moving Day

This is Dimitri behind the dryer. He didn't come out for twelve hours.

This is Daria peeking out from behind the washer to yell at me:

Moving Day

Unhappy Campers
Originally uploaded by lolakaty

Cats do not like to move. Too bad this image doesn't have audio.

Living Room- Before and After

The living room was pale yellow:

We decided to paint it green:

I think it looks great with the white furniture. (I promise, I am going to move that laundry basket of junk out of there. Eventually.)

Den- Before and After

We decided to use the third bedroom as our den. Here's what it looked like when we bought the house:

It's sort of a dark tan with a faux finish. We thought it was too dark.

And here's what it looks like after Dad and Ryan painted it (Toasted Wheat!):

The room looks much bigger painted a lighter color. Now if only the red carpet would go away...

Absolutely Required New Homeowner Pictures

According to Krista, all homeowners have to have their pictures taken in front of the "sold" sign. Unfortunately, the Realtor never put up a "sold" sign, so I just covered up the "For Sale" part.

And here's us on the porch:

We are really happy and excited, despite how these pictures look. We probably shouldn't have waited until Sunday afternoon to take them...

Painting

We closed on the house on Friday morning, and by Friday afternoon, Dad, Mom, Krista and Luke arrived to help us paint. It was a lot of work so we are grateful that they were willing to help out.

Dad, Luke and Krista painting in the dining room-- "Mellow Yellow" and "Lemon Pound Cake." Looks great!

Krista painting "Happy Camper" in the living room. (I love paint names.)

And Mom with "Freesia Purple" paint all over her hands, even though she swore she would never help paint a room lavender. Thanks, Mom!

Why I Haven't Gotten Much Packing Done

Sometimes, all they do is sleep. Other times, they are like little furry toddlers.

In Case You Were Wondering...

This is what a gallon of deck stain/waterproofer looks like spilled on off-white apartment carpet. As we were frantically trying to soak it up with 3 rolls of paper towels, I said,
"Ryan, this was too orange anyway." He said, "Well, it isn't meant to go on carpet!"
Who knows, maybe it would have looked better on the front porch. All's well that ends well, though-- I called the apartment manager, and he assured me that they were planning to replace the carpet anyway. Whew! Disaster averted, despite Home Depot's inability to secure the lid on a paint can.

LOLcat

"I iz under ur sink, squashing ur toilet paper."

Have you seen icanhascheezburger.com? This is my version. Dimitri has a lot of anxiety about... everything, but especially the vacuum. He's going to have to find a new place to hide in few weeks.

The Outside

I sort of cut the edge off of this one, but you get the idea.

Pictures

This is a scan of the brochure the real estate agent put together. It's kind of tiny-- click the image to enlarge.

What We Are Most Excited About

Ryan is most excited about the firepit in the backyard. I didn't actually ask him, but he talks about it a lot. I am most excited about having my own laundry room. No more sharing laundry facilities with 100 other people. No more waiting for a dryer, no more paying $1.50 to wash and $1.25 to dry. No more running into the guy who does laundry in his underwear. (True story, ask Ryan about it.)

I'm second-most excited about my new walk-in closet. This is what my closet looks like now:

See how stuff is kind of spilling out? That shouldn't happen anymore. Yay!

Our New House

We are closing next Friday, June 11th, at 9 a.m. That's seven days from now, if you are counting. (I am.) I work at the office that is doing the closing, and Lori just told me that we have "clear to close" from the lender. That's really good; it means the lender has finished digging through all our financials, approved everything, and is ready to issue the closing documents. Hopefully that means that there won't be any delays.
I'm planning to post pictures of our new house here so family who don't live in Minnesota can see what it's like. If you're really lucky, I'll put up some cat pictures. If you want our new address, email me at kara_mclellan@yahoo.com.



Look how lucky you turned out to be! Better go buy a lottery ticket.