We’re In–And I’m Loving It!

 

We’ve been moved into the new house for three days now (movers left around 11PM Saturday) and each day I become more and more happy we’re here! My head is overflowing with ideas of decorating, organizing and projects, I had to start a list so I don’t forget them.

First off, the paint is amazing! The colors are bold and bright, with “Swiss Coffee” doors, trim and baseboards so it all really pops.

It helped while dealing with the movers and all the chaos during the actual move. It took 8 hours for them to load the truck, the last 3 hours we were repeatedly told they were “almost done”, “just a few more pieces” etc. When they finally got the truck with our belongings to the new house it was pretty much dark yet that wasn’t the worst part. With our stuff in the truck at the end of our driveway we were told the price would be over $1900 – more than double the quote!!

Talking to the manager got us nowhere – basically we pay the exorbant amount or they’d leave with our belongings. Not seeing any real option we gave the credit card (so we can dispute the charges if needed) and had the movers proceed. Instead of them moving furniture and boxes to the correct rooms we decided to have it all left downstairs to save time (charges were per hour). And Marc decided to help just to get it over with. By the end of the night I was seeing Marc coming in and out with stacks of boxes more often than the movers! Ridiculous.. So our house ended up like this:

A few hours of sleep and I got back to moving the boxes into the correct rooms.. While it wasn’t exactly progress it felt so much better after the two downstairs rooms were cleared of all that really would be staying there.

Like I started with, at least we are now in the new house, the pups and cat have adjusted very well and who couldn’t be happy surrounded by all the bright colors?!

 

-J 

Getting Ready for the Move Pt 3

Everything is falling in to place with getting to the new house. Took some more of our stuff to some friends that we no longer need, replaced all the broken/missing lightbulbs and smoke detectors, the cleaners were at the house on Tuesday and the carpets were taken care of Wednesday. 

While waiting for the cleaners I started working on the cabinet liners and realized they aren't all the same size - thankfully before cutting!

On the bright side, I remembered that the lower cabinets have roll out shelves! 

I'm off to peek at the painting, they started this morning and plan on finishing tomorrow evening but I can't wait!!

Getting Ready for the Move Pt 2

Bracing for a hectic week over here. Currently have cleaners on Tuesday, carpets on Wednesday, painters Thursday/Friday and movers Friday. Going to try and get the carpets changed to Monday or Tuesday but have a feeling it's too late to change.

On a super happy note we got all of our paint colors picked out on Saturday! Thanks to Dunn Edwards in Gilbert and my girl Kris for helping us out!

For the kitchen we're using Burnt Crismon and the rest of the downstairs will be Whole Wheat.

Upstairs we have Trail Dust in the hallways, Crashing Waves in the loft, Wild West in the Master Bedroom, Peas in a Pod in the Office, Roman Dust in the Guest BR and Toasted Marshmallow in the Nursery. Yes, while I'm not pregnant yet I'm already calling it the Nursery so we don't put anything else in it. Hopefully my internal system gets the hint!

Swatches of colors (my pictures came out all wrong!):

Didn't get any packing done today but planning to hit the garage tomorrow. Off to bed I go!

Getting Ready for the Move Pt 1

We are getting ready to move in a week and while I'm really excited it is getting pretty crazy. Thankfully the majority of the house is packed, all that is left is the day-to-day things (toiletries, office things, kitchen/pantry/fridge). 


I had to make lists - the post-it notes and scribbles on notepads all over the place were totally NOT working. I've got one for all the companies I'm working with with their phone numbers, dates of service, account number and any other information I got over the phone. It's been such a lifesaver!

As for the house, we had it rented out the last 18 months. I met the inspector there on Tuesday for the walk through and to get my keys.. Oh my.. The renters left it horribly dirty, messed up and overall just didn't give a crap about it. Some examples:

• There are rust, kool-aid and who knows what the others are stains in the carpet in every room
• About one of every four lights work - many sockets are empty (yes, they the lightbulbs), a bunch are burnt out and a couple are broken IN the socket (my assumption is they were trying to steal them and couldn't get them out). Including the dryer that now has no light!
• Our toilet paper holders are gone - one completely, for the other two the chrome holder was replaced by the cheapest plastic one I've ever seen
• There is a large hole and three small holes in the screen
• The baseboards are chewed up - interesting considering 0 animals were on the lease.. Hmm...
• Outlet plates are broken
• Corian countertops have a plethora of scratches and scrapes
• Toilet in the second bathroom is filthy and clogged (found by trying to flush and almost overflowed!)
• The whole house is painted, as the inspector called it "skin" color. Not even close to the "coffee" color that was approved.

As an added bonus, the property management company does not seem to be concerned with timely responses. We've got the movers coming on the 11th and as of today the property management company claims they don't even have the report from the inspector and have not given us any clue as to what/if they will be cleaning/doing repairs etc from the tenants deposit. I've had to book house cleaners, carpet cleaners and about to meet with painters since these are things that can not be booked the day before. And where do we think the money is going to come from? 

It'll all come together, hopefully I will still have my sanity when it does!

The Beginning (of the end?!)

After my first week of checking out tons of blogs and getting totally inspired to do all kinds of projects (much to hubby's quizzical looks of who he married) I realized a blog might be good for me. I can rant and rave all I want maybe even saving some friends' ears from having to listen to my jibber jabber nonsense although I'm not making any promises to them. Since I seem to be typing up a storm I'll break this into multiple posts. :)

I'm totally psyched to start a bunch of new things at home! It all started with wanting and needing to find a new way to store our ~800 DVDs. I outgrew my big DVD rack a couple years ago and ever since have had them scattered in three other racks  (a new one and took over the two that used to hold CDs), in and on the TV stands and various stacks all over the house. A Google search online for DVD storage took me to a blog about organizing with a post about finding holders at The Container Store - I was sold immidiately! I remember going to The Container Store with my parents when I was a kid/preteen and the sheer thought of it had me giddy. The bad news - the only one in Arizona is an hour or so away so it had to wait until a weekend.

I spent the rest of the week searching for reviews and other versions until finally the weekend came! Hubby decided to go with me which was great and daunting all at once. I love when he will accompany me but I am one to browse in certain stores and he is not. However, it turned out better with Mr Wonderful there - I showed him the boxes I intended to get (acrylic with colored disc holders) and he noticed faux leather ones that as he pointed out would look much better if on shelves. They were a little more money and held about 20 less but he was correct in that if we end up having them on shelves where we see them all the time we will be much happier with the nicer looking ones. Sold!

While the DVDs I had in the big rack were in alphabetical order the stacks all over the rest of the house were not. I was planning to make an inventory sheet so tried to tell myself that the order didn't matter since I could search out the movie I wanted. I got through putting about 30 in sleeves and couldn't do it, my OCD(?) kicked in and I had to at least start in alphabetical order. So out came the 30 and started the long task of getting the discs from the various stacks in order.

It took about three weeks including another trip to The Container Store to buy out the rest of their boxes (there are now 7 total for the DVDs) but it got finished! Well, I did find a stack of another 15 or so DVDs that are now in a pile and need to be filed but I'm still counting it as a success. :) Here they are all nice and neat waiting for me to find their home in the new house.

Ever since I found the idea I've been finding more and more that I want to do. Thank goodness for the internet - it's chock full of great ideas!!! Now if only I could find more time...