By this time tomorrow. . . .

we should be starting in to some of our projects at the new house.  I am so excited  (and a little nervous!) about this exciting change.  

New House Excitement

One of the main reasons Tim and I were so interested in the house we are buying is the almost half acre yard (which is not very common any more in the suburbs around us.)















Half of the backyard is fenced in, perfect for the dog we plan on getting next spring and for my small children that like to wandering off.  We plan building a huge sandbox


I'm excited to have all of this wonderful outdoor entertain space.  I really hope we have the money (and find a really good deal on)  some outdoor furniture, since we only have patio table and chairs.  I'm not really sure what I would pick out, even without a budget.  It looks like I'll have to scope out some ideas on pinterest. Any recommendations on where to find some fun pieces?  

The built-in fire pit is another exciting feature.   I can't wait to have our first party next spring.  

4 more days. . . .

Until we close on our new house!  I can't wait!  And then 13 more days until we move in completely.   It will go by fast.
One of our first projects once we move in is to take down the horrible wallpaper in the two upstairs bedrooms.  I wish I had pictures of the horrible 1980s floral loveliness.  I'll post some after we close.
The boys have decided that they would like to continue to share a room for now.  (Carter was concerned that Jack might get scared at night without him.)  I plan on painting the walls of their room blue, but I'm not exactly sure what shade yet.  I'm toying with the idea of a pirate- themed room, but I'm not 100% sure on how to make it cute, but not cheesy.
Choosing a master bedroom color is a much more difficult choice.  Our current bedding from when we got married 6 years ago.  The pattern is Calvin Klein Bamboo Flowers.

Tim and I both still like the design, but after six years the bedding is starting to show some wear.  I'd love to paint our bedroom something that works with our current bedding, but would be fine with what we might choose for new bedding.  Tim is extremely fussy about colors and patterns, so it's going to be challenge to find something we both like.  

12 Projects of Christmas: Wood Ornaments

One of my goals for myself is to complete 12 projects before Christmas and blog about them.  I'm going to try to involve my kids whenever possible.  They love to help.  By involving them in creating gifts for our friends and family, they can learn how much fun it can be to give (especially something you worked hard to make!).

On pinterest, I saw a cute project Mod Podge, scrapbook paper, wood ornaments likes these.

My local Joann's and Michael's didn't have anything similar and I didn't want to wait to get them from some place online.  So instead I found some wooden stars in the regular wood cut-outs sections.  After attempting the original project by myself, I decided it would be too frustrating for the kiddos.  So I replaced it with washable markers.  I also had picked up a couple packs of assorted ornament shapes to color.  (My 4

          

It was easy enough that Jack, my two year old, was able to participate.  Carter, my four year old, was busy working on his ornaments for over an hour.  

I plan on using them as gift tags for our presents this year.  

Appraisal

The new house is getting appraised today.  I'm extremely nervous about it.  We're 99% sure it won't appraise for the price we've agreed to because of the comps in the area.  We're hoping to be able to negotiate to whatever it actually appraises for.  The seller so far has proven to be very stubborn, so the whole deal could fall apart.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but Tim and I both can imagine our future in this house.  

Waiting

We playing the waiting game again.  We place another offer on the same house we were trying to get before.    Two weeks after we had originally walk away from negotiations the sellers had lowered their price.  Tim and I hadn't been able to get this house out of our head.  Even though Any house that was in our price range and in one of the school districts I would be okay with the boys attending we had already seen.  So we started negotiating again.
Our biggest issue has been the difference between what the seller thinks the house is worth and what the house will probably appraise from.  We finally worked out a deal that we would split the cost of the appraisal,so if the seller can't agree to sell the house for the price it's actually worth, we wouldn't have wasted as much money.
The appraisal was ordered Monday, so now we're just waiting to get it scheduled.  

Recap

We moved out of our townhouse a week and a half ago.  Tim and I were a lot more emotional about it than we expected to be.  It was the first place we lived in together.  The place where we brought our babies home from the hospital.  The place where we remodel together.  Even though we had outgrown the space, it was still hard to say goodbye.
We are currently living in my parents until we can close on a house.  (Which has it's own set of challenges that I'll write about another day.)  The house we put an offer on over a month ago is back to negotiations.  It's any one's guess whether this will ever end up as our home because we still have many hurdles to jump in the negotiations.  If all goes well, we could be moving in December.  The market is really slowing down for the holidays, so if this deal doesn't work out, we may have to come up with a different short term plan.
The boys are handling it about as well as a 2 and 4 year old can.  Carter is very moody these days.  Pretty much anything can cause a meltdown.  (A bad cold is also contributing to this, too.)  Jack has almost completely stopped napping and is up 3-4 times a night screaming.  They're trying to be so good, but living at my parents' house screwed up pretty much all routines in their lives.  I am thankful Carter has school three mornings and week and Jack has ECFE one morning, so we have at least one thing that has stayed constant for them both.