Why I didn’t put our pumpkins out until October 31st

aka I still hate squirrels

You know you’re old when

… you’re really excited about your new refrigerator.

               

Seriously, I’m really excited that we can actually stand our water bottles and pitchers up while filling them.  And the refrigerator has a smart diagnosis system where if something is wrong with it, we can just hold our phone up to the sensor and it will relay information over it.  Gotta love technology.

We have a street

The work on our block has almost been completed..  The street, curbs, sidewalks, gas lines and sewers have been finished.  They just need to put up our street lights and put sod down where they ripped up our yards and then everything should be done.

Fall

We put up a few of our Halloween decorations yesterday, including the ghosts that we always hang in our half-dead tree. 

 

 

 

Demolition

Our area is getting new gas lines, sewers, curbs, sidewalks and streets.  It’s going to be really nice when it’s done but right now we’re living with this:

The one where I complain a lot

We were partially without power for the last two days.  And when I say partially, I mean that we didn’t have power to the things that count (like the refrigerator and air conditioning). 

A big storm rolled through here on Friday night.  We had power before we left for Kenny’s swim meet on Saturday morning but when we got home we weren’t getting power to one side of our breaker box.  How do I know this?  That would be because I called KCP&L to see if the partial power was likely due to the storm or if it was a bigger problem and I needed an electrician.  They said I would have to make that decision so one electrician and $100 later, I was told that it was a problem for KCP&L. 

We are very lucky that we have family in town that we were able to stay with (thanks Mom and Dad!) but I had to throw all our food that was in our refrigerator away.  And then I got to spend more money on refilling said refrigerator.  Also, KCP&L doesn’t have a system set up to tell you when your power was on so I had to keep driving home to see if we did or didn’t.  Very frustrating!

Eric lucked out.  He was in Portland for his cousin’s wedding and got to miss all the fun.

These boots are made for walkin’

We’re walking away from the Candy Cane Lane house.  Basically, it all came down to foundation problems and who would pay for it.  The owner didn’t and wasn’t going to fix it and we couldn’t take on that responsibility.  She did offer to drop the price by $2,000 but since the fixes were going to cost around $15,000, that wasn’t that great of a deal.  Plus, we talked to our loan company and they won’t approve loans where there is a foundation problem unless that problem is fixed beforehand.  We thought that would be their stance but we weren’t sure since we had two engineers with two different opinions.  Our loan company said they (understandably) always err on the side of caution.

We signed our cancellation papers today and are trying to figure out what our next move is.  We are definitely keeping our house on the market and will be going to every single open house out there during the next few weeks.

Update on house stuff

New house update:

We had an inspection on our new house last week and some big foundation issues came up.  It’s nothing that can’t be fixed but we’re not 100% sure that the owner is willing to do it.  I feel really bad for her because she said that she had the same concerns when she bought the house and paid a lot of money to fix it.  But apparently (according to our engineer and another company I’ve talked to), the pulley system that was put in did nothing to fix the actual problem.  Her agent asked if our engineer’s findings were negotiable and we had to say no.  We really love the house but it’s just too big of a problem for us to take on.  So now we’re just waiting to hear from the owner to see if she’s willing to do the repairs.  We’ve extended that deadline to Friday (an extra week) to give her more time to figure things out and to show that we want to work with her.  We know she had an engineer out the other day to get a second opinion and I’m sure she’s been making a lot of calls to her old engineer and the company that did the original fixes.  Or at least I would be.

Current house update:

We’ve had a lot of showings but no offers yet.  Most of the feedback has been good except for the very first one.  I specifically told the company that set up the appointment to tell the agent that the wood rot on the house would be fixed within the next few days.  The agent must not have gotten the message because the majority of the feedback was on that.  After that, I just started leaving notes on things that were going to be replaced and fixed.  For example, I’m still waiting for a window in Luke’s room and a kitchen drawer front to be replaced.  They’ve both been ordered but haven’t arrived yet.  The wood rot has been fixed and the majority of the house has been painted.  We’re just waiting for the weather to warm up so we can finish the rest.  I think we’re going to try to have an open house this Sunday if the weather is better.

Our house is on the market

Our house is officially on the market.  Look on FB for the link and pictures.

The House

I’ve had a lot of people ask me for the link to the house that we placed an offer on.  It’s password protected on the previous post so just comment, email or text me for the password. 

We made our offer, they responded and we’re going to counter today. 

At our house, the Pod has arrived and we’re slowly filling it as I declutter.  I’ve done Kenny and Luke’s rooms, the downstairs bathroom, the game closet and most of the family room (minus the Christmas decorations).  My goal is to finish the rest of the house by Sunday night, clean like crazy on Monday and then our house will go on the market on Tuesday. 

I can do it.

Protected: The House – password protected

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2 weeks

It’s probably the worst time of the year to be doing this but we’ve decided to put our house on the market in two weeks.  We’re going to make an offer on the other house next week and then ours will be on the market by the 27th or 28th.  I have so much to do. 

We’re excited and sad at the same time.  We *need the extra room but this has really been a great house.

If you need me, I’ll either be working, cleaning, packing, holiday shopping, working on surprises or sleeping.  Wish me luck!

* To clarify things – I am not pregnant.  We do not need more room due to an upcoming bundle of joy.

What’s going’ on

Here’s some of the craziness that’s been going on at our house via bullet points:

• I am so behind on my Christmas stuff.  I just ordered my Christmas cards last night.  Actually, at first I ordered the picture of the boys that you’ll see on the card.  Less than an hour later I realized my mistake, tried to cancel that order and then ordered the actual card.  I love my kids but I don’t need 50 copies of that one picture:)  I have presents for all the kids in our families but I’m still working on the adults.  I have absolutely no idea what to get Eric.  I have a few little things and that’s about it.  I really don’t want that much this year either.  I want a food chopper thing, a movie, an I-tunes gift card and new pillows.  That’s all I can think of.   
• In the midst of the holiday season, we’ve found a house that I think we’re going to put an offer on.  After much debating on whether we should move to a different area or stay close to here, we’ve finally decided that we’re staying in this area.  If we moved to Lenexa (where I grew up) or a little further south in Overland Park, we could definitely get a bigger house for the same amount of money.  But, we love this area.  The people are great and the schools are wonderful.  Kenny would even go to the same elementary school.  The high school that the boys will go to will never have a bad reputation.  It just won’t.  We already know some of the people who live on the street through the PTA and one of the ladies even emailed me after the first time we looked at the house to tell us how great that street is and that she hoped it would all work out.  Eric and I both work really close (1.5 miles and .5 miles respectively).  It is so nice that Eric can come home to eat during whatever shift he is on.  If we moved, we wouldn’t have that.  So, the house that we’ve found is on a street that we love (and that I’ve blogged about before).  It’s a two-story that looks like a cape cod but has a basement and more living space than we have now.  It’s already cute but it also has so much potential.  We looked at it for a second time yesterday and will probably put an offer down some time this week.  The offer will be contingent on how the inspection goes and on us selling our house.  The ‘us selling our house’ is the part that I’m freaking out about.  Our house is really cute and we’ve made a lot of big improvements to it (ex:  kitchen, fence, roof, etc)  but I’m not looking forward to always having to have the house clean and leaving for showings.  Cross your fingers that it sells quickly if we end up putting it on the market.  If you live in the KC area and know of someone looking for a house, send them our way. 
• The plus side to possibly moving is that I didn’t have to put up a lot of Christmas decorations this year.  We put up our Christmas tree and brought out the Little People nativity, Christmas plates and cups for the boys and our wreath.  Pretty much everything else will stay packed up. 
• My boss is having surgery today and he’ll be out for 4-6 weeks.  I’m trying to work a little more while he’s gone.  Plus, money is always good when you are thinking of moving. 
• I have a surprise up my sleeve that I’m working on but can’t talk about yet.  Don’t y0u hate it when people do that:)
• I joined a book club.  We read The Girl from Foreign in November and are reading Thinking in Pictures now.  I also have a huge stack of library books that I’m trying to get through.  I just read The Help and couldn’t put it down.  I started The Hunger Games two nights ago.  So far, so good.  I had to return The Girl Who Played with Fire without even reading a page of it.  I’m bummed about that one.  I’ve reserved it from the library again and am hoping it doesn’t take another three months to get it.  As you can see, I don’t really buy many books.  I only buy the ones that I’ll read over and over again (and I do).

Crisis averted

Our windows are awesome.  They’re the kind that fold in so you can clean them from inside your house.  Seriously, they’re great.  But, they started getting what looked like streaks and a film on them.  Our realtor came over last spring and said that he thought our seals may have gone bad on them and that we would need to replace the glass, which could cost around $100 per window.  We need to (and should have this past summer) get new siding so this was not good news.

My mom and I were talking a week or two ago and she said that they had a window company come out to give them information on replacing their windows.  They love our windows but were afraid that they would get the film on them like ours did.  The representative said that it shouldn’t happen but if it did, their windows were covered under warranty.  

My mom said that we should try to figure out who did our windows and see if there was a warranty on them.  I looked and could not find anything that said what company put our windows in or even what brand the windows were.  There was a sticker on them that said that the company (whatever company that was) was certified and another with the warranty number on it.  So basically, I had nothing to go off of. 

I decided to call around tonight to see if I could find a company that had our address or the old owners in their system.  The first company couldn’t find anything.  Then, I decided to call my mom to get the name of their window company and number.  I called them second and hit the jackpot.  Our windows were on file under our old neighbor’s name.  We have to pay a $50 transfer of warranty fee but the windows will all be replaced for free. 

Can you say lucky?  Now if only our siding was under warranty.

Fall

I’d say that fall has definitely arrived.  

Things that make you go hmm

Half of our tree has leaves and flowers, the other has a whole lot of nothing.  Weird, huh?

Table for 4

Notice anything different about our table? 

No highchair, no booster – this is the first time in almost 6 years that we just have chairs at our table.

D-O-N-E

Luke’s furniture arrived and his room is now done.  I ended up buying Luke’s bed and dresser at PB Kids.  I bought Kenny’s furniture there too but at that time I was working at PB and able to use my discount (you have no idea how much I miss that discount).  Their sets are from different collections but in the same color.  I’m so glad I did that because we ended up switching furniture around.  Kenny got the desk that was up in our closet and the new dresser.  Luke got the new bed and Kenny’s locker, bedside table and dresser.  I like how they both turned out and I really like the fact that everything is put away and where it’s supposed to be.   

Luke’s doing pretty well in his bed.  I know he’s gotten out of bed a few times.  Once, I looked over and even saw his light on.  That’s one example of how Kenny and Luke are so different.  Kenny never would have dreamed of doing that.  He still doesn’t leave his room in the morning until we’re up (unless he has to go to the bathroom.  We’re being pretty strict with Luke to try to train him to be the same way.  I think he’ll be fine in the long run.

HAPPY BDAY MOM!

Stuff

• Kenny has fluid in his ears again.  We go back to the ENT in 2 weeks and if it’s still there we may be looking at tubes again. 
• Luke’s potty training stats:  Yesterday – 1/3, Today – 0/1.  I can’t decide if we should just keep pushing through it or call it a day and start again when his bed gets here.  I hate potty training. 
• Luke’s bed is coming on Thursday so we spent the morning getting rid of the awful yellow that was in his room.  Yes, I’m talking about the yellow that I picked out but hated as soon as Eric finished painting the room.  I didn’t say anything at the time because Eric spent a good chunk of a day doing it when I was pregnant with Luke.  He hates to paint so I knew that the thought of having to paint it right after he already had would have either given him a permanent eye twitch or a heart attack.  So instead, I lived with the yellow for two and a half years.  But it’s gone and now it’s a pretty blue, the same blue that’s in Kenny’s room. 
• Apparently I need to work my arms out more because they are a little sore after painting.     

We knew this would happen…

See that nose?  That would be our neighbor’s dog, Daisy.  When we lost that side of our fence back in December, she and Mac were able to play together a lot.  Now that the new fence is up, they’re not very happy.  I’m actually a little surprised that it took them this long to start digging.