Before I get started on the blog I wanted to mention a very fun blog that I read that you should check out! She is giving away a basket full of Munchkin products that are really great for any mom with young kids! Her blog is NEW MOMMY RANT She has a great blog to read as well!
The kids are doing well. The babies have hit a new level of mischeiviousness. Is that a word? They have figured out how to open the doors in out house and now nothing is safe. We have a few door handle covers on, but I don't want to buy any more because we are soon going to move. We have door handles – not knobs. Our new house has knobs. Anyway, they are driving me crazy with going in and out. And Finley has taken to the game of slamming them and Cainan thinks it is funny. I am afraid someone is going to get their fingers caught! She will open the door and Cainan will be watching her, and they will giggle, and then she will shut it. I used to be able to just shut all the doors in the house and that kept them out – but no more. Hopefully they will not figure out the front door. I try to keep that one locked, so that helps.
So the little ones are getting wilder. They escape to the upstairs without me even knowing! They are very quiet climbers. I had to resort to gating the stairs again until they get past the “newness” of opening the doors in the upstairs. And having two of them who do it - ugh! Somedays it just seems like constant chaos at our house. Ebb and flow. Wait until we get to the new house! A whole new place to explore!
Arlington is doing well. We are still working on her books. I help her with the hard words and she reads the words she knows. She is getting them faster and faster – not having to think about them as much when she looks at them. Next will be teaching her to write them from memory. She is still getting upset with the move from time to time. She will say she will miss Florida, miss her friends, etc. That is understandable. (well, at least the friend part!) Then I will show her pictures of the new house and we will talk about Kindergarten and all is good again. Her favorite book series at the moment are the Rainbow Fairies books and Junie B. Jones. These are great series with tons of books! She loves when we read them to her, and they are actually pretty cute stories.
Arlington got her hair cut today. We had a fun time. We went to the “Sweet and Sassy Salon” which is a salon for little girls. It is where we had her birthday party. Today she got her hair cut pretty short – just because we are getting her bangs to grow in – her nails done, and nail art. They were running a great special, so we took advantage! She got glitter in her hair, and picked sparkly nail polish and got heart nail art and a ring, plus a free lollipop and balloon. She was a very happy girl. It is fun that she is getting old enough to do these fun things.
Today is a party for Mat – one of two going away parties. The next one is in a few weeks at our friend's house. So he and Arlington are going to that this afternoon. The party is right during the babies nap time, so we aren't going. I wish we could have gone! We are also having Finley's big girl bed delivered today. Since she and Arlington are going to be sharing a room, I wanted them to have the same bed. We bought Arlington's bedroom set down here in Florida at a local store. I checked on line and of course, this is the only place they sell this bed, so we need to get it before we leave. No biggie. We are just going to have it moved with the rest of our stuff! Finley will first spend a few months in her crib that we will convert to a toddler bed to get her used to that first. Then once she gets a little bigger, we will move her into the bigger bed. I wish we could have waited and bought it when we actually needed it, but this store doesn't ship out of state, so we had to get it now. Oh well. I am excited that they will have their matching beds. And we have all the other furniture we need, so that is that! And Cainan already has a whole bedroom set (bed, dresser and nightstand) so he doesn't need a thing!
I have had a very productive week. All of our local services have the date to be turned off, and all of our new services are set up to be turned on. So that is a big job done! I changed the address on most of our bills and magazines, and made a huge dent in my list! I am very proud of myself. I still have quite a few things to do, but they are minor.
So as for the septic tank – we had it inspected. The took pictures, found it (big plus!) and emptied it (yuck). The people who did all of this said that the results will be back next Monday night or Tuesday morning and then they will call and talk to me about the findings. The results were 50/50 unfortunately. 50% chance that everything is fine, and a 50% chance that it isn't fine. The septic tank should have been emptied and cared for every 5 years, and it has been 12 years and these folks never emptied it once. So, even thought the people dealing with the septic tank said they couldn't say anything, our agent felt that they think there is a problem with the tank from their findings. So it might need to be replaced, which is going to be a huge issue. If that is so, septic tank replacement can run several thousand dollars, and it is on the SELLER. These sellers are not going to like this, but they have to understand that they will not sell their house unless it is fixed. We will be insisting that it is fixed before we close on the house, or no deal. But I am jumping the gun. It could be fine. I just think the people emptying it were a little worried because it hasn't been emptied in so long. That can damage the system. So we will see. I am holding my breath until then. I love this house, and I know the sellers already have a new house that they have a contract on, so let's hope they do what they need to do - if it comes to that – to make the sale happen.
So that is my lesson for they day! Okay – so here are the picture explanations and below that are the pictures. Enjoy!!
1 - that is the septic guy. This is our front yard if you come down the stairs and look left. This isn't even close to where they thought the septic tank was. looks like they made a good mess. Annie said they had to remove three of our beautiful stones, but they saved them, so we can put them back. Our whole front has these beautiful stones. We were told that if they have to replace the tank, they will have to dig a lot of them up – that is going to be tragic. Let's just hope they are careful so we can keep them!
2 - this is a tree directly in front of our house - pretty flowers! It is as you are coming down the steps to the walkway.
3 – Our stairs to the second level. Anyway, I thought they were carpeted - I am glad to see they aren't because we are going to change the upstairs to hardwoods anyway. This is what you see immediately when you walk in the door. Down the hall is the kitchen. I hate the tile on the floor - we are going to change that eventually.
4 - coat closet to the left when you walk in the door. It is a big closet, and a little hallway. We talk about taking it out because we have yet another coat closet in the house. We are thinking of opening that wall to make another entrance to the family room. Right now you have to go down the hall, through the kitchen to get to the family room. But we will see. I am not sure about losing so much wall either.
5 - The office. Don't you love the French doors? Right now, where Annie (our agent) is standing to take the picture - is where there is an opening. It is what you see when you come in the house and look right. We are going to put a door in that doorway to make the office completely closed off. Probably another French door.
6 - The girls bedroom - just a different view. I think they will fit in here. Arlington wants to know if we are going to be changing the color soon.
7 - A different view of the master bathroom. I hate the wasted space where they have a mirror. But that is where they put a dormer. I don't know what I will do with that - maybe a nice hamper? Or install another counter? We will see. But you see the tub to the right, and next to that is the shower (behind the door, sort of - you just can't see it. It isn't directly behind that door. You get all the way into the room and the shower is in the corner and the tub right beside - kind of like we have now. It is a whirlpool tub! Yeah!
8 - Master bedroom. It is pretty big. They just have a giant bed in there at an odd angle. But it is not as big as we have now, but we definitely don't need that!
9 - Second bathroom upstairs. This lady loves duckies! It is decorated really cute for the kids, but I am not keeping the ducks. :)
10 - Cainan's room. This is where she has her twins. It is definitely the smallest of the three bedrooms, but no smaller than the kids bedrooms in our existing house. Cainan will have plenty of room in there. I didn't remember the foe painting. We will be changing that.
11 - Another view of the kitchen. It is a nice sized kitchen. It has a pantry that looks a lot like the custom one we had put in in our existing house. The refridgerator is also on that side. And there is a little bar area near the entrance to the family room. I like the corner cabinet with the window. We have that now. And you can't beat the stainless steel appliances! I just wish it was a gas stove.
12 and 13 - family room again. Yep - they still haven't cleaned. :) Looks like our house! But it is a nice size - I like the beams. They are leaving all the window treatments except one in the twins room. They are all blinds which are fine. We are going to put plantation shutters in little by little.
14 - Dining room. I am going to probably leave the paint color depending on what happens when she takes down the stuff on the walls. Hopefully she has left over paint. It is a nice neutral brown color. I like it. We liked a lot of their existing colors in the downstairs. But hopefully she takes the stuff over the sliding glass doors. I don't like that much.
15 - Another view of the tree - Annie loves that tree! This is looking toward our driveway
16 - Our side yard. It is 36 feet big, which is 16 feet bigger than our existing back yard! That is sad. So it is a nice size. But we are still going to plan on clearing a 1/4 acre or our 9 acres in the back to get a lot of space for the kids. It will be nice and flat. This is on the right side of the house, if you are facing the house. I am pretty sure they are taking the play structure. That is fine because I don't want to put our new one there anyway. The steps lead up to the deck. There are two sets of steps from the deck to the yard. No idea what is under the tarp.
17- -Up past the playhouse - still the side yard. You can see the back that we are going to have cleared - it is definitely sloped.
18 - The back of our house. I love the wood shingles on this house. Great character. The deck is a really nice size. It is long, so there is tons of room out there. Hopefully for a hot tub! Ha!
19 - Looking on the side yard again, back to the septic guys. Sigh. Did I tell you that the septic tank was no where near the original house plans said it was? Funny. I was glad to see it was in the front of the house, though. The well is in the back and you definitely don't want the septic tank near that for obvious reasons! But the plans now are marked where it is. But I will also always have these pictures in case we forget! :)
The rest of the pictures are pictures of the kiddos – you remember them, right?
Enjoy the pictures.
1 comment:
I hope you get the 50% result that the septic is ok. I am sure you must be getting so excited about the move. Plus- you will be very happy to have knobs. My cat knows how to work handles but he can't work knobs.
Post a Comment