house pics

We've made more progress on the house and despite some bare walls, the downstairs is mostly complete.  We hosted a few events between Thanksgiving and Christmas and it was fun to get to use our new space and see how it functioned with hosting.  One of our goals when building was that the kitchen/living room area would work well for hosting people, and it seems to work great... the big island and open layout definitely help.

Here's a peak inside...

Some before pics:

right inside the front door (dining room on the left, kitchen/sunroom/living room through the hallway)

sunroom

living room

... and the much improved ones:

the powder bath, which we decided to try crackle paint on.  Turned out we probably should have experimented with it a little before we tackled the bathroom, and it turned into a little bit of a disaster - ran out of crackle stuff and paint and it didn't look good.  So we repainted a couple walls dark and left the sink and toilet walls crackle... it's interesting, but I like it :)

dining room

living room.  our brother-in-law built the entertainment center, which is our favorite piece of furniture.  the doors slide close over the TV, with shelves on both sides

more living room

the view from my kitchen sink.  I love being able to feel a part of the action while in the kitchen

I posted a pic of the kitchen before, but we added a subway tile backsplash, which I love

sunroom.  love all the natural light it lets in during the day

view from the entry hallway into the kitchen/sunroom

view from the living room into the sunroom/kitchen

view from the kitchen into the dining room.  I like how the dining room is connected to the kitchen, but separate

And now we're working upstairs!  We painted (well, I should give most of the painting credit to Chad :)) over Christmas break and the boys/guest bathroom is now navy, the upstairs loft area is very very light gray, which I plan to continue into the [now white] entry once we decide to paint it, and Beck's room (which the boys will eventually share) is orangey-red (his request).  Chad said to just pick a color for the boys room, so we didn't sample it.  Turned out a little more bold than I intended, so we did a white/navy stripe on two walls.  I think it will be fun and bright when it's done.

Our bedroom is still a need of some major attention... here's the proof:

It's been the gathering place for decorations that need placed and other random things, so nothing goes together and it's plain and boring.  We are pretty much Never in our room other than to sleep, and I'm getting ready for it to be a place we enjoy. :)

I'll do a post of the upstairs, once our bedroom and the guest bedroom are done... with tax season coming up, that may be by this summer?!

toothless grin

This story takes place the week we moved into our new house... it was very good timing.  Or not.

It was Sunday night and Creighton was playing in the bathroom around the tub (Beck was still in the tub), when he fell and chipped his tooth on the side of the tub.  Not just a little chip, but a chip so that there was nearly no tooth remaining kind of chip.  We were still living with Jim and Kim - Kim used to be a hygienist and recommended that I just call the dentist in the morning.  Ok, will do.  He cried for a little bit and it bled a little, but he was eating popcorn soon after it happened and didn't seem too bugged by it.

Called the dentist in the AM and they recommended bringing him in just to get it checked out.  Made an appointment for that morning at 10.

side note:  the boys were supposed to go to Chad's parents for a few days while we moved, and I was supposed to meet Peggy that morning to drop off the boys.  The updated plan was for me to meet her after the dentist.

The dentist appointment went just great and the dentist gave me the undesirable news that he wanted to pull the rest of the tooth, in order to prevent toothache or infection.  Like, wanted to pull the tooth that day, was his recommendation.

other side note:  I really do not like these situations b/c I don't feel like I know enough to make a good decision, other than just do what the dentist says, which was clearly inconvenient.

I didn't want Peggy to have to deal with a potential toothache, so I scheduled a tooth pulling for 1:30 that afternoon... Peggy planned to make some stops on her way out to extend her trip since she was already on her way.  Got childcare lined up for Beck and prayed that Creighton would be very good during his appointment so he wouldn't have to be put under to get the tooth pulled.

Prayers were answered!  My feisty little Creighton laid so still on me while they numbed his gums and pulled out his tooth.  It was amazing.  The only part he didn't like and cried about was the x-ray.  No biggie.  And it turned out that the nerve was exposed in the back of the tooth, so it was a good thing we had it pulled.

So now Mr. C is down one front tooth and has a toothless grin until his permanent tooth comes in.  I know, your first thought was the same as mine... he's going to look funny - should he get a fake tooth?!  The dentist informed me that they don't put in fake baby teeth b/c they aren't strong enough and get knocked out easily.  Ok, toothless grin it is. :)  I think it will suit him just fine.

showing off his toothless grin:

why yes, I kept the tooth!  the little curved part on the left is what was left of the exposed tooth.  the root was much longer than I expected.

And in case anyone wanted a house update, I've included a picture of the kitchen, the most complete room!  Just needs a backsplash, which is waiting out in the garage. :)

I like before & after pics, so here's the before, from the day we moved in:

And here's the after, with some much needed updates:

The sunroom and living room and next on the to-be-completed list!

house update

Well, we've been living in the Bucher's basement for a little over a month now and things are going good.  We've enjoyed being able to take walks to our house and see it be built (they live in the same neighborhood where we are building).  Beck likes showing off the house to other people and telling them where the rooms will be (sometimes he's right, sometimes he's not :)).  Chad met with our builder today and we're hoping to close on the house around the middle of September... hopefully it stays on track!

Here some of the progress, if interested...

the slab was poured the week of July 4th

the framing goes up in a few days since the sheets of wood come pre-cut.  pretty crazy!

the current state... next up is siding and drywall!

we bought a house

Wow.. where have I been?  That is one of the longer lulls I've had in blogging in a while.

So, what have we been up to?  Well, we did go on one fun trip to Hilton Head over Memorial Day weekend (sure, I'll pose the two pictures I took ;)), but mostly we've been consumed with the process of selling our house and building a new one.

Yes!  We sold our house!  Unlike this time when we listed our house for a few months and it didn't sell, (or get hardly any showings) this time it sold just a week after we listed it and we only had to have two showings!  Yeah for not having to clean up after two messy boys for showings very many times!

So our "good luck" and easy house selling process kind of stopped there... not that the process has been horrible, just a little complicated.  Let's just say we are still in the process of nailing down our inspection repairs, sorting through the drama of realizing that our back fence was not built on our property line but rather on common area and needs to be moved back to our property line... aka, bye-bye back yard. (oh, and who is overly responsible and orders a survey to be done before they buy a house and what kind of HOA board cares enough to pay to relocate a fence that has been up for 12 years in common area and no one cared or knew?!)
We were also glad to find out just today that our house is in a flood plane (due to the lake behind our house), but the good news is that we just need to get some paper that verifies our house is built high enough... but the mortgage company might need this special paper before they finance our buyers, so if the paper doesn't come soon, our closing might get pushed back (currently scheduled for the end of June).

... Which might sound like a bad situation to have your closing pushed back, but for us that is actually ok news.  Remember the beginning of my house story where I said we were building a new one?  Yea, that's the fun and exciting part of all this.  In our house shopping we had a very limited area we wanted to move and we couldn't agree on a house.. so we ended up building our own!  That house however, isn't scheduled to be done until the end of September, hence the being ok with staying in our house longer.

So.. what are we going to do after we've closed on our house and are waiting for our new house to be done?  Well, that's still in the works as well, but we're thinking we are going to be living with a family we go to church with.  They generously offered and it seemed like an easier, simpler, and more affordable option than trying to rent.  We're thankful for their offer.

I have packed two boxes (woo-hoo!), but we're hoping to hit it hard this weekend.  This week is also supposed to be the week where we hear that our appraisal came back with flying colors, our buyers are A-ok with the fence situation b/c they love our house so much, we learn that the flood plane paper stuff is no biggie at all, and we know if our closing date stays the same so we can schedule our storage pod for moving day!  (how's that for optimism).

We were really excited and ready to move out of our house, but it turns out that the house selling/buying process has been a little more stressful and complicated than imagined... plus it requires Lots of patience as you wait for reports and our realtor talks to their realtor, who talks to their manager, who talks back to the realtor, who communicates with the buyer, then talks back to our realtor... you get it.  Communication seems a little inefficient, but that's just the process and how it goes.  I'm sure it will all be worth it when we are settled in our new place and loving it.  As long as we get there. :)

... oh, I just published this and realized I didn't say where we are moving, small detail.  We are excited to stay in Indy!  We are moving to Zionsville, which is on the NW side of Indy.