A Grown-Up House

I really wanted to post about the new house when we wrote the contract, but thought it'd be best to wait until the house was officially ours so I wouldn't jinx it. I'm a little late on the post - we settled about 2 weeks ago now... but better late than never. Selling and buying a house at the same time turned out to be quite an experience. The inspection on the old house was fairly uneventful... until we got a call from our agent a week before settlement to tell us that we needed to install railing leading to the basement. So, Ryan installed railing going down the steps to the basement. Simple, right? Not at all. The day before settlement he gets another call from the agent to tell him that the railing was not sufficient, so he spoke with the loan officer and they agreed that parallel railing on the main level would be sufficient. Again, not so much... The next day, while we were at settlement for the new house, Ryan gets the same phone call about the railing being insufficient! In addition to all this, our settlement on the new house took about 2.5 hours as our 2nd mortgage wasn't officially approved until the bank got to review the revised settlement sheet. We finally finished up with the new house, and Ryan and my dad headed to Lowes to buy some supplies to install railing and balisters at the old house. What we thought would be an easy day off of work turned into a pretty stressful day, but it finally ended around 6:30pm with Ryan signing all the papers to settle on the sale of the old house. We are done with living in the city!!

Despite all of the struggles, we couldn't be happier living in the new house. It is so quiet out here in the "country", the first night we had trouble falling asleep, but we have gotten used to the peacefulness very quickly. The first day here, we saw a deer in the woods behind the house - you definitely don't see many deer in the city! It has also been so nice to come home and have a parking spot in the garage! I will admit that I needed Ryan to help me pull into the garage the first time as the door is a bit narrow for the Pilot... but it gets easier every day. We are slowly getting settled and are looking forward to hosting our first family event next weekend for Father's Day! Also, I wanted to say thank you to both my dad and Crystal. My dad came and waited for the movers during our marathon settlement and also helped with the railing on the old house and anything else he could help put together for us when we moved in. We are also very lucky that my dad likes to collect lawn equipment, so we have a lawn mower and weed wacker, among other things! Thanks, Dad. And thanks to Crystal who came the night before we settled on the new house in the dark and in the rain to plant such pretty flowers in the flower bed out front. What a nice surprise when we got here to move in! I also want to thank my dad and Crystal and everyone else for all the advice/opinions on the house buying process and for helping to keep us both calm with all the stress. You guys know who you are, and we couldn't have made it through the process without you! I have included a picture below of the house, although, I think most have already seen it.

Does Anyone Have a Big Cardboard Box?

We might need to use it if we can't find a new house to move in to! The past few weeks have been a bit crazy, so while Ryan is off in Atlantic City celebrating Andre's bachelor party, I thought I'd have some "me" time on a Friday night. I'm watching the O's beat the Yanks (let's go O's!!), and I thought I'd update the blog for the goings on of the past few weeks.

About three weeks ago, we put our house back on the market. Aside from the fact that we had to list at a cheaper price than before, I actually took the whole "selling the house" thing quite well. There weren't any tears this time! Don't get me wrong, I still love this house, but I'd love it more if it wasn't in the city and was closer to my family. We've had quite a bit of activity - 7 showings this time compared to the 1 showing that we had when it was on the market in November. And... this week, we received an offer and signed a contract! The house sold... in 3 weeks!! According to that contract, we will be settling on May 28th, so Ryan and I are now frantically searching for a new place to live so we won't be homeless! We've already seen a few houses that we like and plan to visit a lot more tomorrow. We're hoping to put an offer on a "grown-up" house in the burbs early next week. Many thanks to Crystal for rushing home from work last night to go and check out some houses with me.

On the wedding front, we had a meeting with our wedding coordinator to pick out the menu and talk about details for the cocktail hour and reception. The food was great, but my favorite part of the tasting was definitely the cake! We were lucky enough to be joined by both our parents for this event, and it was so nice to have them there with us. I actually had no concept of how many questions the wedding coordinator would be asking, and I can't thank both the Lindas enough for sharing their wisdom and advice related to the important decisions (napkin colors, centerpieces, seating arrangements etc.). Ryan's parents also spent the rest of the weekend with us, and we had a chance to show them the church and discuss the options for the rehearsal dinner. Time really is flying and the wedding will be here before we know it! It will be 5 months away on Sunday!

A Sad Day....

For Wendy. We put our house on the market today. I can't believe we're actually doing it, but here goes. I've already cried a few times about the decision. Ryan, on the other hand, couldn't be more excited. Don't get me wrong... I'm excited about the prospect of a bigger house with a yard and a parking spot where drunk people don't graze my bumper when they try to pull out of their parking spot on the street, but I LOVE this house! It's so cute and it's our very first house together. What can I say, I get emotionally attached. I can't help it! At the very least, having the house on the market will be a true test to see how neat and clean we can keep everything - we even have to make our bed every day!! We have an awesome realtor, but if you know of anyone who wants to buy a cool house in Canton, send them our way!

On the wedding front, we booked the videographer this weekend. We decided to go with Perskie for this - should make the whole process of videos and photos that much smoother (we hope). We also found out that the rooms at the Courtyard Downtown are now available to be booked (since we're less than a year away). If you'd rather book a room online instead of calling Marriott, please let me know and I can send you the link. And.. more exciting news, the date is set for the first round of Dress Shopping -- November 17th! I can't wait!!

On a different note, we'll be doing the 1-mile walk for the Race for the Cure this weekend in honor of my brother-in-law's mother who would have celebrated her 60th birthday on Sunday. If you're interested in donating to the Susan G. Komen fund for our team (Team Betty Boop), click on the following link: https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=229427&lis=1&kntae229427=8BBA81FDA6FD418CB3992F8EACF652BA&supId=188821327