Our Living Room and Dining Room

Things are starting to come together and there are less and less boxes every day. Two rooms that are done are the living room and the dining room. The only thing we want to do to the rooms are paint when Darrick gets home. Right now the walls are a light green with white sponge paint on three of them. Right now we are leaning towards the orange or yellow in the rug.

Sam and Darcie

You may recall that at our old house we had a squirrel in our backyard the kids named Jumpy. Well this week we were visited by 2 squirrels at our new house. The kids decided to name them Sam and Darcie. I have no idea why, but don't you feel honored Uncle Sam and Auntie Darcie?

The real Sam and Darcie

Family Fun Fair

I feel like all I have been doing is unpacking! So it was really nice on Saturday that Forest Park had a Family Fun Fair from 11-3 pm. There was a break in the rain so we decided to walk over. Naomi picked her own outfit for the occasion.


There were all kinds of community groups there and each had a fun activity for the kids to do and we tried almost all of them. But the favorite was the goat and the bubbles!

We sure love our new park!

Cleaning and Enjoying

Sunday was such a beautiful day. They say here in Washington "that all the rainy days are worth it when you have a perfect day like this!" and I have to agree. Since it was so nice we took some time to clean the outside kitchen windows. The boys jumped at the chance to get on the garage roof which is the only way to reach a few of them.

After they were up there the boys had to tell me that they needed to talk to Dad because they have plans for the roof. They would like to build a fence all around it and make it like another deck where they could hang out.

I did a little arranging on the deck and then just sat in the sun and soaked up the rays and enjoyed the view.

Darrick tells me that he has plans to refinish the deck. Right now it is painted and some of the paint is chipping off. It will be fun to work on projects to improve the look of our home!

Moving Day!

I'm back! Today we got our Internet hooked up! We have now been in our house for 6 days and we love it!

But first let's talk about moving day. Thankfully the sun was shining which living in WA is a blessing in itself. On Friday Jenn T. came over and helped me with the last minute packing like the kitchen and things like that. The kids played while we packed and then we had pizza for dinner.

I was up early Saturday morning doing some last minute things. We told everyone to arrive around 8am but people started showing up about 7:45-what eager beavers. In total we had 13 adults, 5 trucks, 3 cars and 1 uhaul. Everyone except 2 people were from our church. I have never seen a house packed so fast. A family from Homeschool came to pick up my 3 kids and took them for the whole day. By 10:15 everyone was in their cars and driving to the new house with everything loaded! It was amazing!

Once we got to our new house the unpacking began. Our street is small so they had to take turns backing their trucks into the driveway to be unloaded.

By 2:00 they were done and I mean done: beds were set up and made, washer and dryer hooked up, living room and dining room set up, and kitchen unpacked.

Another lady from church made two crock pots of soup for all the workers for lunch. Others brought drinks, ham buns and cookies and bars.

One of the boys teachers, Mrs. Doud, brought us the most yummy dinner that night: Penne pasta, salad, watermelon, bread, soup and cookies.

I cannot even tell you how loved and supported our family feels. It was really hard to do this without Darrick but our friends made it easier.

Needless to say we were all so exhausted and ready to crawl into our beds for our first night sleep in our home!

Naomi learnes to peddle a bike

Happy Easter

I don't want to be a downer but today just reminds me of another holiday without Darrick. Usually I am pretty good at putting my feelings about missing Darrick aside but today it was hard. Thankfully I have the kids to keep me busy.

The kids loved their Easter baskets and got up early to check them out. I made cinnamon rolls the night before so we had those for breakfast. We had a very nice service at church and then spent the day with the Timmermans and their extended family. They always make us feel so welcome.

We have less then a week until moving day so it will be a crazy week!

Cats Playing Patty-cake, what they were saying...

Meeting the Seller

April 19: Today we had a chance to meet the seller of our house. She and her husband came up to Everett today to clean out the house of the last stuff that is there. They arranged for someone to come with a truck to haul the stuff to the dump.

The sun finally came out today so we parked at Forest Park so we could see how long it takes us to walk from the park to our house. Micah timed it and it took us 4 minutes and 23 seconds. I took some pictures on the walk so you can see the journey!

When we got to the house Barbara was working in the garage and her husband was in the basement. We had a very nice conversation and when we were ready to leave they told us that they were so happy they are selling the house to us.

Appraisal

April 16: Today marks 2 weeks until Moving Day!

Yesterday we received the appraisal report. The house appraised for $210,000 with a few contingencies. This means that there are a few things the appraiser wants done to the house before he gives the OK. Most of them the seller is already fixing but he requested some painting be done around the windows, eaves and exterior doors. When the work is done he will go back to the property to complete a re-inspection and verify that the work is complete and then we can close.

I have had a piece of scrapbook paper for years that I love. I never used it, in hopes that one day I could incorporate its design and colors into our home.

Yesterday when I walked into a store, I saw an awesome rug that reminded me so much of that scrapbook paper! I bought the rug for our living room and the best part was that it was on clearance so I got it at over 50% off the original price!

We have dark gray couches which I think will look great with the rug. So now we would like some help! We want to pick a color off the rug to paint the walls. What color do you think we should use?

Here is a picture of our living room to help you visualize it!

Part 7

April 7: I met with Sharon today at 10 am. Darrick was able to call in. She gave us an update on all the bids and who is going to be doing what work on our house. The work is going to start this coming week and she hopes everything will be done at the end of the week. Sharon read us an email from the seller and we could tell by the email that she is really happy that we are buying the house. We also heard from Jill that in just one month we were able to improve our credit score the few points that we needed. She thought it would take a couple of months. So we were able to lock in our interest rate at 4.75% and she said we are aiming to close on May 22. I asked Sharon if there was a SOLD sign up yet and she said that it has been up for a week. Darrick asked us to take a picture by it so Sharon offered to go with us and take the picture. April 11: This morning at 9 am the boys and I met Sharon at the house while Naomi was in preschool. Our agenda was to go through the stuff left in the house to see if we want any of it. Sharon had some of her staging stuff around that she packed up. She left some stuff so it will look nice for the appraisal, which should happen this week. We started in the basement and then the garage. Sharon brought signs to tape on stuff that said "please leave for the purchaser". We made piles in each spot- one for them and one for us. I was quite surprised at what a difference that made already. The basement and garage both looked so much bigger. The seller is coming on the 17th to remove the rest of the stuff. *The woman who owned the house passed away over six months ago and her sister is selling the house. They did an estate sale but the stuff that did not sell is still is the basement and garage*