Day #1: Success!

Today we managed to prime and paint most of the downstairs. Our accent wall's primer wasn't dry so when I tried to paint it the paint looked awful so I have to redo that. I can't believe how much we primed and painted though! We also did the ceilings and that was brutal.

My dad came down around 1pm and fixed the garage door opener, hot water heater, and re-attached the lock to the gate. What a guy! I am so glad he came over so we can now have hot water! He also hooked up our washer and dryer but we need new seals or something like that and we were all tired so we'll just have the handyman do that on Monday.

We still have to paint the top half of the entry way, up the stairs, the hall, the second bedroom, and the bathroom. After painting for 8 hours straight, I'm thinking that painting those can wait and we can spread it out. I don't think I could life my arms anyways! I can't believe how exhausted and sore I am from two days of painting! Holy cow!

Well typing is taking too much energy so I have to cut this short. I'm trying to remember to take pictures every once in a while so I'll post those tomorrow. Our big move happens tomorrow at 8am though Lance is handling that while I work. After he "supervises" the move, Lance is going to clean up our old place as much as he can then I'll help finish up after work. At the new place we won't be doing anything tomorrow night! Just relaxing and taking it easy. Saturday we have the cable guy coming out to hook everything up and Sunday our couch is being delivered AND a new refrigerator since the one that came with the house doesn't work so we found one that fit the space (the current fridge is small thanks to a wall next to it so we had to find another thin fridge, ugh) so we'll be keeping busy. Lance's family is heading down Saturday to visit and my mom will come up on Sunday. She doesn't know our downstairs paint colors - in fact no one does - because this morning at 7am at Miller Paint I picked all new colors and threw them on the walls because I finally reached the point where we just needed to paint! I painted so much of the main color today I stopped being able to see it, so I am excited for tomorrow when I get to see it all dry! I just hope I can move in the morning to get to work! Oi vey!

... And the homeownership has begun!

Yesterday afternoon we got the keys and we are finally in our new house! We are so excited! We took a few things over there and started out by testing the paint samples. The original colors we chose for the downstairs walls made it look like an Azteca restaurant so we are going to head back to the store to see if we can find a more neutral wall color but keep our same accent wall color (though that might have to be changed as well, it ended up looking like orange mud instead of a cool modern burnt orange).

Last night we managed to get the master bedroom ceiling painted then did the walls - we just didn't paint all the way up to the ceiling. I am in love with the color! It looks gorgeous! Here's a picture I snapped with my cell phone before we left late last night:

It's way more pink-ish than the photo shows, but it looks really nice! We went over the ceiling almost three times but we still couldn't get it to look even! It took me about 10 minutes of ceiling painting to really understand how you're supposed to paint, then I did fine but I just couldn't get it on so it looked right. We also forgot our nice roller that extends far so we had to use a shorter one (do not even ask why we didn't drive 3 minutes back to the apartment and grab it - we were so tired even thinking of stopping to do that sounded awful) and it didn't make it very easy to do. 

I must brag that I am quite the wall roller! I managed to roll out the bedroom walls quickly and evenly (I also excel at placing blue tape along molding). Then Lance went behind me and did the edges and around the outlets. When I finished I helped him out and it only ended up taking us 5 hours to do the room. Is that good? Bad? I have no idea! I just hope it goes faster and faster now that we A) know what we're doing and we'll B) have our nifty long roller thing.

Oh, bad news - last night we went to get a gallon of each of the bedroom's paints and the people at Miller didn't put the lid on the second bedroom's color and it dumped ALL over Lance's trunk. The whole thing. Everywhere. I just called them and they're going to replace the paint and they'll pay to have his trunk detailed. It was just one more thing to go wrong after a huge battle to get into our house!

My dad is going to head down today to help us paint and check some stuff out for us. Of course we have NO hot water and we have no idea why. Our fridge also doesn't appear to work so we may be out buying one of those today. Oh and the couch people called. The couch is in two weeks earlier than anticipated so now it's coming on Sunday so we've really got to get the downstairs painted because I don't want ANY paint even near my prized sofa! IT'S CRUNCH TIME! Fix the water heater, fix/replace the fridge, paint the house, cable guy coming Saturday, couch people coming Sunday, handyman coming Monday... oi vey!

Well, time to pack some stuff up and head out to Miller for paint and to pick a new main color for the downstairs and get our replacement paint. Then we'll be back to the house to paint the next bedroom and make as much progress as we can! I am SO glad my manager let me take today off! 

We get the keys TODAY!

Thanks to our own initiative to drive to Puyallup and harass the escrow company, they were able to get everything out in time, the seller sent the documents right back, and Diane called in a favor for us and had our paperwork pushed through the King County records department faster than we could've hoped for! Our realtor will be at the house at 1pm to meet Lance and give him the keys! We can't actually move in or paint or do anything to the home until 3:30pm or so which is when we'll hear from the county that they've finished processing our record and it's OFFICIALLY ours. Our realtor is coming up now since she'll be busy later and she trusts us.

I can't wait to move in! Finally, the Dyson's have a real house!

Fans, fans, and more fans!

We are trying to find a nice ceiling fan for our bedroom as well as one for downstairs in the living room. I found one that I LOVE, but I don't know if this would look too out of place in our bedroom. We're going for a whole modern, contemporary look in the house and the bedroom will be a nice dark pinkish red color. They have this fan in oil rubbed bronze, but I think that looks a little old. I know this fan for sure would be great downstairs, but I love it so much, I might want one in the bedroom too! Most "ceiling hugger" fans look super fat and gaudy to me. This one still looks neat and won't cut our heads off when we come in the room since it's only a few inches off the ceiling.

This one is what most of the ceiling huggers look like, though I think it still looks a whole lot better than most other ceiling huggers. I do love the brushed nickel finish on this one and wish the one above came in this finish, but I either have to choose what actual shape I like better or the finish. I am so torn! I love the nickel finish, but I LOVE the shape of the one above because of the way the top of it mounts to the ceiling. The nickel just seems like it would look so much better.

Any thoughts? We need help!

To close or not to close - that is the question!

OH the things we have learned during this home buying process. After our mortgage broker swore that we'd be done and closed by tomorrow, it appears that he meant to say he "hoped" we would be and that even if we do close, it could take up to 72 hours to get the keys. So, knowing that he was screwing up, Lance and I both left work early, stopped by the credit union and got a check for closing costs (the closing costs were thousands over what our mortgage broker said the make the check out for - thankfully I knew better and had the cashiers check made out for much more). We then headed to the title and escrow company and sat outside and kept calling, saying we were waiting outside and we'd wait until they could see us. Finally a sweet woman named Diane took pity on us (probably because we have the same name!) and had us come in and sign all our paperwork. She sent everything out THEN said she'd call in a favor to try to get us processed faster. The last thing we have to do now is have the seller sign the final paperwork then we're done! FINGERS CROSSED THE SELLER SIGNS FIRST THING TOMORROW MORNING! Something about the record of such and such defines when we get the keys, but the favor Diane was going to try to call in was supposed to help with that. Hopefully things get done tomorrow! I have no words for how disappointed I am in our mortgage broker. If I had known all I do now, I could've pushed this through and been closed two weeks ago instead of letting him drag his feet and not ever follow up. He let things go until the LAST possible moment then let me clean up his mess. He also should've stepped in with the appraisal and made sure utilities were on instead of wasting weeks letting it be appraised and re-appraised knowing the whole time the utilities weren't on and that the appraisal couldn't be finished. SO FRUSTRATING! I just need to remember that in the end, we're getting a great home! It's been worth the 10+ hours I've spent on the phone arguing and fighting and begging and convincing people from home insurance agents to title agencies and escrow closers to help us out and push through our papers since our mortgage broker didn't do anything for us. A little upset still? Yes. I just wish he hadn't promised us a closing tomorrow when he didn't have a clue if it could happen!

Things I wish we knew before buying using FHA:

- Sign everything in black. Even if they don't tell you that, they'll make you resign things WEEKS later and blame the late close on you even though they had the documents for a month.

- Follow up on EVERYTHING yourself. Don't let your mortgage broker follow up if you can help it.

- Verify receipt of everything with BOTH sides. And ensure that what they received is 100% correct. Wait on the phone for them to verify - don't rely on them calling you back.

- Ask your broker to ensure the utilities are turned on BEFORE ordering an FHA appraisal since they can't appraise without utilities on.

- If you ask your broker to outline all the things needed to close and they give you a vague description, don't trust that. Ask them to itemize each thing they'll need so you can track the status yourself. If they ask you for something not on the list, ask them why it wasn't included. Do extra research to be sure you have everything.

We're trying to reschedule our move for Friday instead of Thursday since we had thought we'd be done on Thursday. The moving guy hasn't called back so hopefully I hear from him soon. We're disappointed that we were so mislead by our mortgage broker but at least we'll still have the house thanks to the fact that WE decided to drive down with a cashiers check and camp outside their office since our purchase and sales agreement expires the 31st and our broker totally messed up our entire closing. Our mortgage broker had said to not bother which makes no sense since you have to go close in person and he also swore the paperwork would be ready by 2:30 - not at 4:30pm like it really was. He also didn't tell us that we'd have to be down to Puyallup in person to sign which would've been impossible even if we'd heard from there around 2:30ish since Lance is up in Kirkland. I can't wait to close and be DONE with our mortgage broker. We definitely won't be recommending him to anyone and are very disappointed. Now we have EVERYTHING in and all finished (thanks to us!!) so we just need the seller to sign (I got the seller's agent's direct number so I can deal with them directly since i don't trust our broker) and send the paperwork back then we should shortly get the keys.

I can't wait to move in! I am tired of living amongst boxes and only have paper plates to eat off of! And our poor dogs have NO room to run around since we have everything covered in boxes and bags. Lance is taking tomorrow through Monday off so tomorrow he can finish packing and organizing everything then as soon as the keys come in on Thursday he can start priming and painting, then be there for the movers on Friday (or whenever they come). He's also taking Monday off - yes he's the best - for the handyman to come out and do our work.

We are so ready! NOW JUST GIVE US THE KEYS!

A few favorites!

I thought I'd share a few of my favorite photos:

Lance with my cousin Zach.

My parents with Zach. They're so adorable with him!

Our happy little puppies!

I have more but I can't get them to rotate correctly so I'll have to post them later! 

Mornings in the Dyson house

I wanted to share a quick picture of what mornings look like in the Dyson house... how adorable are they?!

I love these guys!

Quick pics of the new couch!

I took these in the store with my cell phone so they aren't the best quality, but here are some pictures of our new couch! It'll be delivered around April 15th. I LOVE that what you get from the outlet is brand new - just overstocks from items the regular store discontinued. Our sofa is one of their most popular outlet items so if we didn't buy it when we did, we'd have to wait at least 6 months to get another one!

It sits pretty low to the ground but not TOO low. It's also super comfortable! White leather was a bit of a risk, but it just looks so nice and modern and comfortable! Plus we'll have a burnt orange-ish accent wall that'll really make it pop. I also LOVE the artwork they have at the outlet. We will definitely be back once we move in and paint and get shelves up to get all of our art and accessories because they have a ton of modern and contemporary items that would work perfect! The last piece of the couch is actually an ottoman that you can attach to it to make it a chaise or move it around the room to use for whatever you want! We can't wait to get it. We will be measuring ASAP to be sure it'll fit! Thankfully every piece is separate so we can re-configure the couch to fit the room if one end is too long or too short.

Who would've thought I could get so excited about a couch?! Not me! And of course we bought it after I told Lance that I wanted to hold off on buying anything big since we were spending so much moving and buying the home and all. I'm happy to eat my own words if it means I get this amazing comfy couch that is EXACTLY what I am looking for! And it's big enough for Lance to nap on so he's on board!

OFFICIALLY CLOSING ON WEDNESDAY!

We received the final word today! We will be closing on Wednesday the 30th! We don't know exactly what time or where but we know it's going to happen! I already called our movers who are AWESOME and they are all set up to be here on the 31st between 8 and 9am. I even made sure to leave them my credit card when I called so Lance doesn't have to deal with much while they're here. I've labeled what room every single box goes in so there won't be any confusion and we just grabbed a few extra boxes to toss the rest of our stuff in. Hopefully moving goes nice and smooth!

I also called our handyman but he was coaching a little league game for his son so he'll call back tomorrow. I have my list all typed out so I know what to ask him about and what specifics to give him. Hopefully he'll make it out soon because our major concern is getting the few roof shingles replaced that have blown off. I also called Comcast and they're scheduled to be out this Saturday to hook up our internet, TV and our home phone! We've never had a home phone but since we want to put in an alarm on the house, we'll need one. Plus this way we can drop our cell minutes way down. Also, bundling all three literally saves us $40 a month off our usual bill. And this isn't a promotion or anything - just bundling does that.

I think we've taken care of just about everything! I can't wait for Wednesday! They said there's a small chance we might close on Tuesday and if we can we definitely will! Things are FINALLY falling into place after what has got to be the most difficult close in the history of FHA loans!

Hope everyone's having a great night! I'm off to pack a few more boxes!

What a day!

Well, today was a bit crazy for us! We got up early, headed to Starbucks, then packed and organized some more. I swear, I keep thinking we're done and there is STILL junk laying EVERYWHERE! It's driving me nuts! I don't want to pay movers to move the boxes and end up with a ton of stuff laying around that we end up having to move ourselves. So, even though I am driving Lance crazy, we're still packing! After we organized for a while, we took a "short" trip to Costco. I swear, when I told Lance I wanted to go, I really only meant to grab 2 things. An hour later I had all new dishes (they are exactly what I wanted and they were such a bargain!), new glasses, cleaner to spray on the side of the house, an awesome kit of garden tools that come in a collapsible bag to haul your weeds and such around in while you work, a set of nozzles for our hose, and I even managed to get what we originally went in for: a new USB flash drive and toilet paper (BOTH on coupon, of course!).

After that we headed to the Kasala outlet in SoDo. I've never been there before but holy cow, that store is AMAZING! In their main area, everything they have on the floor is outlet priced but if you want to buy it, they order you a brand new one. In the back they have their warehouse and everything is as-is but SUPER cheap. For example, an amazing brown leather sectional sofa for $700 and everything was an additional 10% off. I found a great king bed frame for $299 (yes, this included a brown leather headboard, the sideboards, foot board and the slats across the bed) but Lance refuses to buy one until we figure out if our king sized bed will even fit in the room. I however am sure it will and an extra 7 inches added by a minimal bed frame won't kill us! But, in the tradition of picking and choosing battles, I let it go. We did end up buying a couch though! It's white leather (I never thought I'd love a white leather couch). It's really modern looking and super low to the ground and comes with a great ottoman and it's really comfy to sit on. They are holding the next one to come in for me that'll arrive in 3 weeks or so. Thankfully I got to put down a refundable deposit so if we get into our new house and measure out the size of the couch and it ends up being too big, I can cancel and get my money back. I really, really hope it fits because I am in love with couch!

Other than that, we swung by the Home Depot and grabbed 4 gallons of primer, some roller covers and a shower curtain rod for the new place. I think if we purchase one more thing for the new place before we actually move in Lance's head might explode because our apartment is already jam packed with boxes and ladders and paint cans and I just keep adding more! Thankfully he's very understanding after I provide him with a few Busch Light beers so I think I'll be okay.

Fingers, as always, are crossed for this closing to actually happen on the 29th! Off to clean and pack more stuff up now!

The ORIGINAL Rockford

I just found these pictures of what Rockford looked like before we adopted him. These are from the breeder's website. His hair was a ton longer when we picked him up since these were taken when he was still a puppy (only a few months old)! And just last night I hacked ALL of his hair off. He told me he wanted a summer look so I obliged. He looks a little bit like a rat dog now, but he's still SUPER adorable! 

What an adorable fur man! I love this guy!

Things are coming together!

Our moving guy came by yesterday and he said there is a 60/40 chance that he'll be able to get his truck up our hill. We're hoping he can because it'll save us about an hour and a half in moving time which adds up! I also forgot that moving companies charge you for actually driving out and using their truck, so that's an extra $100 I didn't anticipate but if it costs us $300-$400 to get moved, it's well worth it and I'd rather do that than do it ourselves. We have SO much stuff. It would just be a nightmare!

I also chatted with two handymen yesterday. One sounded super nice and his rate is only $30 an hour. The second guy seemed to be a little bit more knowledgeable and asked more questions, but he wants $65 an hour to do really, really basic repairs. We need some shingles stapled on our roof, some duct replaced in the attic, and an earthquake strap attached to our water heater. These are all things we could even do our ourselves if we were so inclined but for $30 an hour we'd rather have someone else climb up our extremely hight roof and deal with the attic and such. 

I am glad we have our mover and our handyman all lined up! Hopefully we close on the 30th as that is now our latest close date. Yesterday we got EVERYTHING submitted that we need to close so it's just a matter for the re-signed IRS forms (NEVER ever sign in blue ink) to be verified and sent back and then we are good to go! WOO!

This weekend we plan on finishing up packing, trying to clean up the best we can, repositioning things so it'll be easy for the moving guys to take stuff out of the apartment and maybe picking up a few last minute things for the new place. I can't wait to get in there and start painting and getting stuff put together! Since we are starting off with small projects instead of going all out with new carpet and such, we'll be able to keep saving and make sure we don't overextend ourselves the first few months. Heck yes for being super financially responsible! Even though new, super plush carpet would be great, we're willing to stick with ugly dark brown for a while. Plus that way the first time Rockford decides the carpet is a great place to pee, I won't have an absolute heart attack about my new carpet getting peed on. Oh Rockford...

HAPPY FRIDAY! 

Appraisal is finally here!

Yesterday we received word that our appraisal came back from the FHA underwriter and that the appraisal came in for more than the purchase price - woo! We are super excited! Of course something else has gone wrong and the appraisal came back with a work order on it. The FHA won't give us the loan until all the utilities in the house are turned on. This is ridiculous because the reason getting an appraisal took so long was because they had to get the utilities turned on to do it. So, the utilities are on since the appraisal was finished on Monday and we're not sure why the underwriter made it a condition if it's already done? Anyways, at least the appraisal is back and our mortgage broker Terry is working to get the work order removed. We also ran into issues with some documents having the signatures fade because we signed in blue ink (lesson learned - NEVER sign ANYTHING in blue ink) so we had to re-sign paperwork then they messed up Lance's credit report so the title company wouldn't let him on the title so we had more paperwork to fill out for that. Our plan is to just keep taking care of these issues the second they come up so we don't delay anything! Too bad the title lady waited until 4:50p to email us the form she needs (she was supposed to send at 3:30p) since title closes at 5pm and if we had gotten it in before then, we could've had this resolved yesterday. Oh well. Our quick turnaround on all this stuff will hopefully save us! Had we not had forms with fading ink, wrong credit reports and a work order, we'd be closing tomorrow.

I also now have a new mover lined up who actually seems reliable. He is coming by the apartment today to see what it'll take to get a truck up the hill and, if not, how long it'll take him to carry stuff down. He's the same price as the other mover we were talking with except he returns phone calls promptly and gets stuff done right away. I also tried to get ahold of yet another handyman but I called later last night so hopefully this one actually calls back. I bit the bullet and joined Angie's list (did a one month membership - it's $5 a month and $10 to start up a monthly membership but a bit of Googling got me a 50% off code) and that's where I found this mover and the handyman I am hoping to hear back from. Fingers crossed people actually start returning calls!

I can't wait to hear back from the mortgage broker! Hopefully we get the work order taken off and we have all our paperwork in so we should be good to go!

Cancel that new close date!

So we were supposed to have our appraisal from the FHA underwriter yesterday morning at the very latest. Yesterday morning came, and went and continued into the afternoon with no word. I finally heard from our broker (after I emailed him and texted our realtor) who said he'd let us know when he received it without even a mention of why he promised it by the morning and it never showing up. I heard from our realtor at 8pm last night that apparently now it's going to take at least two days to get this FHA underwriting done so we MIGHT have it tomorrow. This all coming after the broker promised us on Monday morning that we would get it back Monday/early Tuesday and close on Friday. I'm thinking that there is NO way we're going to close by Friday at this rate. I just hope we close by the 28th since that'll BARELY be enough time to get moved into the new place.

Why are people so flaky when calling you back about this kind of stuff? The moving company we are trying to schedule with has also not returned my call about moving availability for the 29th or 30th. AND the repairman I called about the minor work we need done also didn't call. I think I am cursed. Maybe Lance needs to take over all these calls. I sit across a cubicle wall from our senior business manager Tiffany (one of my lovely blog followers) and when she is on the phone, she gets stuff done! I need to pick up a few tips from her because she always get stuff done and is willing to say when something is unacceptable! I figure I have a good 24 hours before I actually start making calls and not being so incredibly understanding and accommodating about all these screw ups and continually changing closing dates and never letting us know what's up. This really is absolutely ridiculous and to not keep us in the loop, even to say things are delayed and taking longer than expected is not acceptable! Okay enough ranting.

Happy Wednesday morning! Off to work!

New Close Date!

So I talked with our mortgage broker and even though we were supposed to get our appraisal back Wednesday of last week, apparently the appraisal is just now with the Winderemere FHA underwriter! Of course we were supposed to get the appraisal in hand today around 3pm but it never showed up. Our mortgage guy has sworn to me that he will call and raise hell first thing tomorrow morning. He said that if we can get it back first thing tomorrow, we can push our paperwork through and might close by Friday! Fingers crossed that actually happens.

Also, after a long discussion, Lance and I have decided to be really financially responsible and not replace the carpet right away and wait on a lot of the improvements we were going to immediately do. We decided we're better off saving for a while since this is our first house and we're adjusting to house payments and such and be sure we have a really healthy amount in savings before we embark on our not yet necessary carpet replacing, kitchen updating, house overhaul journey. We'll still do small things like stain the cabinets and see what other inexpensive updates we can make, but nothing major for a year or so. Oh to be an adult...

Let's hope we close soon! WOO! ... back to packing... IT NEVER ENDS!

Get your toolbox Lance!

I just found the PERFECT dog house for our dogs at the new place! This way they can still feel special when they're outside. Lance said he wanted to build the house ourselves but I think we might have a tough time with this one... I highly doubt that it would end up similar to the photo when we were done, but nonetheless, this dog house is awesome!

Lance's grandfather is also a master wood worker so maybe we can supply him with the materials and he can magically produce this. He made me a jewelry box for Christmas the year before last and it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! Seriously, he built a box then took thin board and carved love birds and designs into it continuously so the design just flows around the whole box. How he managed to do that eludes me but it is seriously amazing. I'll have to take a picture of it and post it because my description did NOT do it justice!

Anyways, here's to hoping the dogs actually end up with something as classy as this once we move!

Sunday + Cafe Besalu = Perfect

This morning we woke up early and headed over to Ballard to Cafe Besalu. They have amazing hand made pastries that are to die for! We haven't been there in forever so we figured a little pastry indulgence couldn't kill us. We tried their chocolate croissant (it had a much fancier french name, but it was really just chocolate in a croissant), their apple filled croissant (another one that had a fancy french name) and this weird little cake-like pastry that is orange flavored with dried cranberries. All were DELICIOUS especially since we washed them down with cappuccinos. Yes, we are those kind of people now. Now that we're full of caffeine and pastry, we're going to clean the apartment up, rearrange the boxes so we can actually get around the house, and head out to run some errands.

Oh the days as a Dyson!

A very successful Saturday!

We started out this morning (after lovely Lance got some extra rest) at the Home Depot. We wandered for quite some time staring at the most fascinating things -- things like light fixtures, toilets, doors, tiles and wood stain (WOO!). We ended up leaving with a new front door knob and deadlock for the house so when we first move in we can install them ourselves and have different locks. We also picked up a new paint brush which is very... nice. Home Depot started ranking things so you supposedly don't have to think as much when you buy. You can get Economy-->Good-->Better-->Best. To me it kind of yelled at you "YOU ARE CHEAP IF YOU DON'T SPRING FOR THE BEST AND THE OTHER ONES SUCK!" but that's okay. I am happy to announce that we spent the extra $3 and bought ourselves a "best" rated paint brush! Also, quick side note about the Home Depot: I haven't been there much, but every time it was like pulling teeth to get ANYONE to help you out. Today that places was FLOODED with employees. They were everywhere! You couldn't go up or down an aisle without someone asking if you needed assistance and sometimes the employees traveled in packs so if you did need help one would break off from the mother ship and the rest would continue their journey. It was nice... except today we didn't need any help with anything. I am sure when we return to buy our primer and get our new fencing that we'll have to stand in the middle of the store and sing Karma Chameleon to get anyone's attention.

After the Home Depot we headed up to Walmart to buy a stainless steel trash can. We found a Simple Human one we loved at Crate and Barrel but it was ridiculously expensive for something that was going to hold trash so we found a comparable one at Walmart (even made by the same company, just their "economy" brand) and grabbed that. We also picked up our paint shirts so we have something to wear while we're painting. One of us (me) packed up everything that we wouldn't mind ruining and old left out clothes we regularly wear.

From Walmart we headed back to Magnolia and grabbed lunch at Niko's Gyros in downtown Magnolia. If you are looking for amazing greek food, try this place! We LOVE their gyros and they have an awesome greek salad. After lunching for a bit and playing with the dogs, we headed to Builders Hardware and Supply on 15th avenue. That store is confusing to say the least. You are bombarded with thousands of knobs and handles and we were a little lost. There also seemed to be no one working there so after wandering around and locking and unlocking tons of different doors and touching all their germ ridden knobs, we headed to Miller. Miller Paint is close by and a locally owned company so we thought we'd support local and buy some stuff from there. We're getting all of our colored paint from them (I can't wait to test the colors! The testers are sitting in the hallway waiting, too!) and we picked up an extra paint brush, a bucket holder for the ladder, a few rollers and this amazing "push button" roller that extends to 9 feet that you can screw any hand roller on top of. It will be perfect for our super high ceilings and walls. Leave it to me to be excited about a paint roller! But seriously - you push a button and it extends! How handy is that!

Anyways, after our super exciting day we're ready to have some dinner then hopefully it's still light enough to take the boys (the dogs) to the park so they can play a while. Tomorrow will be even more exciting - HAIRCUTS! Yep. That's the Dyson life.

Saturday = Home Depot Day

Well today is our big exciting excursion to the Home Depot! We don't really need anything in particular, we're just going to check everything out. I had thought Home Depot Day would've been in full swing by now, but apparently on Saturday's Lance doesn't want to wake up early just to be sure we're the first customers through the door and he is still soundly sleeping. The dogs and I will give him another hour before I send them in to jump all over him. Then we're off!

Who would've thought going to the Home Depot could be so thrilling? Not me. But here we are.

I love this!

Just had to share - seeing this always cracks me up!

Time to Reminisce!

A year and a half ago, I just HAD to go to this concert and I just found these on my work computer so I had to share... what a night!

Showing off our AWESOME matching Miley shirts after the concert.

Us at the concert. Notice the girl behind us who looks like she is about to croak.

Aww, how adorable is this?! We're some cute kids!

Adorable Puppies

I know that I am super biased because they're my dogs (yes, I know they should be OUR dogs, but they are my dogs when they are cute, fluffy and adorable, OUR dogs when they are relatively well behaved, and Lance's dogs when they destroy stuff and pee on the carpet) but I think my dogs are the most adorable fur men to ever walk this earth. I am a little partial towards Rockford who, for those of you that don't know him, is deaf. He always wanders around with the happiest look on his face! I think it's because he never knows when he's in trouble and thinks life is always grand. Turnip is a great dog too. He is so sweet and does so well walking on his leash and knows quite a few tricks. Right now he sits, stays, stands, spins and lays down. Rockford has caught on to sitting, but only when there is food involved. They both go NUTS for this special kind of treat we get from a local speciality pet store. In the morning after we let them out to go to the bathroom, they love to lay back down on top of us and go right back to sleep. Of course we can't move and have to try to fall back asleep however they're laying on us because they don't allow any tossing and turning once they've settled in. Anyways, now it's photo time!

This is at the breeder's house, the first day we went to get Turnip. We originally were looking at a different litter but when we saw his sweet little fur face, we had to have him. He is SO adorable! I just wish we had more puppy pictures of him! Look at my sweet furry guy! He was just a giant ball of the sweetest puff known to man! So fuzzy!

One of Turnip's hobbies just hanging out in the laundry basket. We don't ask why - he has a lot of strange habits for a dog. Our least favorite is when he eats all of his food and pees in his food dish. What kind of dog does that?!? At least since he is nutty he fits in well with us!

Turnip and his adorable furry face.

One of the dogs' FAVORITE places in the whole wide world is this giant brown round chair we bought. We originally bought it because we loved it and thought it would be comfy to sit and read and watch movies in, but it quickly became the dogs' number one hang out. Lance decided it was nap time and Turnip doesn't allow anyone on the dog chair unless he is there to supervise!

This is our Rockford the very first day we brought him home! We were trying to take a picture so we could remember his SUPER long hair. I have more I can try to dig up but his hair was all the way to the ground! It was crazy!

Our happy dog before he got all of his hair cut. He likes it better a little shorter (he told me so). He always smiles like that!

It didn't take long for him and Turnip to bond over their mutual love of rawhide bones. This is them chewing together on their very first day Rockford arrived.

The boys love to nap together and it is too adorable!

This is Rockford after his first haircut. He is so dang cute! And he loves to cuddle and be held. What a guy!

Turnip is a toy-a-holic. He plays until he can't stand anymore and then just passes out in the midst of his mess!

 This is Rockford's serious face. He gives you this look if he thinks a bath, hair trimming, or nail clipping is in his near future. That dog can stop you dead in your tracks with his displeased puppy look.

Yes, we are 100% dog crazy but we wouldn't have it anyway! We love our fur men! They are the best little dogs and we can't imagine not having them. We can't wait for the new house so they'll have a yard to run and play in. Fingers crossed (as per usual) that the closing happens soon so our puppies can have the grassy fenced yard they deserve!

A few pics of the new house (from the listing agent)

Here is the front of the townhouse:

This is where the need for the new front door awning, new front fence, new front door and cleaning the siding comes in from our giant to-do list. There's also a flower box that runs along the side of the house that you can't see in the picture but we're planning to paint it white and plant some really colorful plants and then spread recycled glass from Bedrock (an AWESOME recycled glass place) instead of traditional mulch to make it look more unique.

Here is the kitchen. The cabinets are in really good shape so the plan is to sand them down and stain them so we don't actually have to replace anything then we'll eventually get new countertops and a new sink. The stove is brand new, and the dishwasher isn't too old, but the fridge is shameful. Eventually we want to find a dishwasher and fridge that match the stove but thankfully that can wait a year or so. They may be ugly but they work fine!

This is our EXTREMELY tiny living room. Be forewarned: this room is super small. They made the garage of the house really deep so the kitchen and living room are too small, but for the right price, we can make anything work! We do need to replace the wall heaters in here as well as put up some curtains and of course the whole house will be painted!

This is our bathroom. It's not in bad shape, but we'll sand and stain the vanity and eventually replace the countertop. We'll also get a mirror that fits the space and we want to update the toilet with a dual flush eco-friendly one instead. We also eventually want to rip out the plastic around the tub and tile it. We found some neat, modern looking towel bars to replace the existing ones with and will either tile or lay vinyl flooring down to give it a more updated look. 

This is one of the bedrooms. The way they laid out the upstairs is kind of odd, so to get into the bedrooms you turn around a corner and walk a few feet down a tiny hall to get to the doors. Why they didn't just put the door where the entrance to the mini hallway is beyond me, but it'll work for us! We'll use one as the master and the other as a movie room for now. When we first move in we'll be replacing all the carpet (which means the stairs, upstairs hall, and two bedrooms) with a nice, light plush carpet. We know it's dangerous to go with a light color with pets, but we can't find anything darker that doesn't look to golden and old. The color we picked looks a little more new and modern so fingers crossed it cleans up well! To me even a slightly dirty carpet would be better than carpet that looks like it was meant for a senior living home!

Well that's the house! We'll take and post more pics once it's ours! We want plenty of before and after. We viewed it and bought it so quickly we didn't really have a chance to whip out the camera the two times we were there, but once we have the keys we'll be documenting our journey as we figure out what to do (and what not to do) as DIY homeowners. It'll be great to look back at how it originally looked when we first moved in. Fingers crossed it looks better once we've "improved" it!

Waiting is my new middle name

Last Friday, the FHA appraiser was supposed to appraise the house. He was unable to because the utilities weren't turned on. So by Monday the utilities were turned on and the appraiser went back to the house where he discovered that a heating element in the water heater wasn't working and needed to be repaired for the FHA appraisal. Thankfully the seller agreed to send someone out to fix that, so on Tuesday a repairman was supposed to go out. For one reason or another the repairman never showed up and fixed it so the appraisal can't be finished. We're hoping that the repair gets done soon so the appraisal can be finished up.

We did some reading about FHA appraisals and were surprised at what we found. We didn't realize that an FHA appraisal is completely different than a conventional loan appraisal. When the FHA appraiser comes through, you must have ALL appliances, a working water heater, the carpet must be in good shape, there must be paint on the walls, etc. They make sure everything is up to code and they'll even come back to you if anything in the home is at the end of it's useful life. We've only got a few years left on our roof so we're concerned that they'll come back and refuse to give us an FHA if that isn't fixed which means we'd have to take an FHA rehab loan and add money to our loan to use to fix the roof. No fun. HOPEFULLY it isn't an issue and everything goes smoothly. We can't wait to get into our new house! I picked up more moving boxes today so we should be able to finish packing this weekend and then be able to relax before the madness begins. Turnip and Rockford are also looking forward to the move and can't wait to have a yard to run and play in! This house is definitely worth the wait!

And the wait continues...

Well, the second appraiser went to the property to re-appraise for the FHA audit and found that the water hadn't been turned on so after figuring that out with the listing agent, they were able to get it turned on. We then got a random email from our mortgage broker about a heating element in the water heater that must be repaired. We're not sure if we're supposed to pay to repair it or if the seller is supposed to. All we know is that we can't get our FHA audit complete until it's done and the FHA appraiser sees that it has been repaired. Hopefully someone clues us in soon as to exactly what we're supposed to do. It's amazing how when you're going through the home buying process no one takes the time to explain what things mean. When you're told that the heating element needs to be repaired for the FHA appraiser before we can move forward and that is the only information you get, it's a little scary.

At least we are ready to move whenever they say the word! I think we have most of the large stuff all boxed up and we only have the random small things still sitting around. We are going to go through the rooms and see what's left to be packed so we can grab a few more boxes and hopefully be done. Fingers crossed this all goes through soon since we packed most of our dishes and pots and pans. Thank goodness for Trader Joe's salads and all of their great frozen foods that are heat and serve!

THE To-Do List

Lance and I sat down and made a list of EVERYTHING we want to do to the new place. I figured I should post this before we lose the list! This will take a few years to get through, but at least we have an idea of where we want to go.

OUTSIDE:
- New house numbers
- New awning
- Landscape front
- New garage door
- New front door
- New doorbell
- New light fixtures
- Replace front fence
- Reinforce front gate
- Remove trees
- Install shed
- Replace patio
- Clean siding
- Clean roof

GARAGE:
- Band for water heater
- Replace shelving
- Deadbolt on door

INTERIOR:
- Paint walls & banister
- New molding
- Stain cabinets
- Hang curtains
- New light fixtures
- New blinds
- More shelves above washer/dryer
- Replace parchment paper
- New carpet
- Replace bathroom/laundry floor
- New shower curtain rod
- New toilet
- New towel racks
- Tile shower
- Install dual shower heads
- Raises attic joists
- Install ceilings fans
- New wall heaters
- Crown molding in bedroom
- Frame windows with molding
- Replace interior doors
- New kitchen appliances
- Mount TV on wall
- Floating shelves
- New attic door with ladder

So that's it. Not bad, right? We'll get through the painting and new carpet right away, and some of the other things will be easy to do. I'd say we'll need a good couple of years (at least) to finish off the list and I am sure by then we'll have another one just as long!

Still waiting!

We are still waiting to hear back from the FHA about our audit of our home loan. Of course we end up getting audited after our appraiser held onto the appraisal due to a typo and we are now looking to close a week late. Oh well - such is life! We are still keeping our fingers crossed that we'll be moved in before the end of March. We've started packing so we are currently living in a maze of boxes. Where did we get so much stuff?! Holy cow. At least the dogs are enjoying snacking on the cardboard every time we turn our backs to them.

Anyways, the waiting game continues... At least we know the house is ours, it's only a matter of waiting for the FHA to finish reviewing everything. Oh FHA, you are so wonderful to have yet so cruel to use!