Before Pictures

It's been just less than a week and I think we've made some great progress on getting moved in. The entirety of our old house was actually loaded up and unloaded here in 1 day. It's just taken me a few days since to unload the boxes. We even started hanging things on the walls last night. So here is a new house tour of big time BEFORE pictures. We have many plans for what the afters will look like.

View from the front door: office to the right, living room to the left, and kitchen/dining straight ahead.

View of the living room from the entry way, ignore those cords, they will all be run behind the wall eventually.

Here is the dining room still housing box mountain. And on the left of the room will be a sitting area.

This is in the dining room looking through to the living room and entry. I love that open arch.

This is from the dining room looking at the kitchen. Now imagine the carpet and linoleum have been replaced by wood floors for a seamless transition from kitchen to dining. Soon my friends, soon!

Close up of the kitchen, and that door by the fridge is my ginormous pantry.

The picture hardly does it justice, because it actually continues around the corner to the right that you can't see.

And the next door off the kitchen houses this loveliness. I know, most of you are thinking, what, it's just a laundry room. But it's indoors people! I've been doing laundry in the garage for the last 5 years, so this is amazing. 

Next up are Andi's bedroom and bathroom, which are just behind the kitchen. There are still a few boxes of toys waiting for shelving in the closet, but it's coming together. 

That is it for the downstairs. I did not show you the office, which is right as you walk in the house, because it's a horrendous mess. It's the least unpacked of all the rooms, and will probably be that way for a little while. 

Now upstairs, first is Sammy's room. 

It's quite a bit bigger than his old room, maybe now I should buy the poor kid a dresser to replace that little Rubbermaid stack.

Next door to Sammy is the future nursery, present dumping ground for all the baby things that used to live outside in the shed.

Then there is the bathroom.

And down the hall is the master bedroom.

Our bed looks so little in this huge room. We need a new mattress anyway, so it might be time for an upgrade.
That slider goes out to our little balcony that overlooks the backyard, and through that arch is the bathroom that is as big as our old bedroom.

And behind those mirrored doors is my huge closet. Yes I said mine, Thad actually has his own in the bedroom. Love it!

So that's the house. I'm having a hard time deciding on paint and  color schemes, hopefully I overcome the stupor soon. Here are a few shots of the yard. Left corner.

Middle

Right corner

 View from the back corner looking at the back of the house.

 

As you can see there is a lot to be done back there as well, but imagine a gazebo back by the fountain with a gas fire pit.  It's going to be great.

A Bit of Pretty

My house is a hot mess right now. Total Chaos is more like it. Moving day is fast approaching, and so my piles of boxes are growing and I'm running out of corners to shove them in. I told Thad not to get me flowers for V-day this year because I already packed all the vases. But he didn't listen, and I'm very glad. Somehow this little bit of pretty helps me ignore the rest of the mess that is making my OCD's twitch.

I also love that whenever Thad brings home flowers there are always stargazer Lilly's in the bouquet.He never forgets my flower. 

So being Valentines day, the kids had a pile of goodies to open this morning from us and my parents, and once the loot was opened they decided they needed their Halloween buckets out to put their stash in. Amazingly I could actually get to those, so they filled them and have been carrying their stuff around. I guess they realized it was raining outside and decided that the jack-o-lanterns would be more useful as rain head gear than candy holders. They are so strange sometimes.

Please ignore my exposed couch cushions in the background, I am washing the covers and they are not dry yet!

San Diego

Thad and I were able to get away to San Diego for a few days this week. He had a management conference and lucky for me the spouses were invited too. We left the kids with my parents and headed out Sunday morning, and it was lovely. The weather was ridiculous, 75 and sunny in January. This is why people live in Ca. Our resort was right on mission bay and there was this nice little bike path that ran behind it to the parks on either side. I had to go to meetings one morning, but spent my other day and a half reading and basking in the sun at the park. The company put on a Luau, and there was an awards banquet the last evening at which Thad received the "presidents excellence" award. Considering he was probably the youngest guy in the room and that he'd only been with the company for 2 years, I was pretty proud. Wednesday morning we did a session in the SD temple before heading home. That is one beautiful temple. They are all beautiful, but I this one is amazing. Of course we didn't take a single picture the entire 3 and a half days we were there. The only thing we have is this strip from the photo booth they had at the Luau. Better than nothing I guess!

And now project pack and clean is underway. Very slowly underway, but I'm pacing myself, we've still got a couple weeks.