selling and buying a new house

here's a picture the house we are buying in Ballwin, MO. We accepted the counter offer on wednesday, and yesterday the buyers on our house in spanaway accepted our counter offer. so the timing is working out pretty great with the spanaway house scheduled to close on may 1 and our new house here scheduled to close may 2. so as long as everything goes according to plan with inspections, etc we should be moving into our new home the first week of may.

bedrooms and bathrooms

Kiersten now shares a room with Evie. This is Kiersten's side of the room. The walls are a pale green, it didn't show up too well in the pictures. So We let her pick out a few things to make it feel more girly for her. We got those pink bins under her bed at ikea. They work perfectly for the items that were homeless, when she lost the drawers on Kara's bed, that she had in our old house. We also put the tea party table in here, so it wouldn't be taking up half of the play area. to the left of the window is a small little mermaid painting Ben ordered for her. She loves the little mermaid. Ariel is by far her favorite princess.
This is Evie's side of the room. We turned her crib into a daybed, but then we added the cinderella panel to keep her in there better. That flower on the wall is a nightlight, except it's a little too bright to leave on all night, so she still has a plug in night light. Evie is sleeping in here every night for at least part of the night. Sometimes she stays in here all night, but most nights she wakes up and comes in bed with us. just another view of the room.
Kara was upset when she saw that her room had blue walls. But she soon decided she could girly it up with decor. That star is a nightlight, but not as bright as Kiersten and Evie's. The painting on the wall is a Kinkaide Cinderella painting that Ben ordered for her. It's cooler than I realized. It is very detailed and has some hidden characters, such as Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and Snow White. It's more impressive in person. She loves her own room. I put a toddler lock on the door, so when she wants her privacy, she can close the door, and Kiersten and Evie can't get in. She loves that, though Kiersten is not too happy about it. We gave her the cd tower Kerry made for Ben. She is so cute keeping her cd's on there, and inviting her sisters in to have dance parties.
We also gave her this white bookshelf that was in the playroom. She had it all decorated before I got the chance to fill the shelves. There are still a few things I will probably change. To the right of the bookshelf is a 3D Cinderella sculpture and some decals Ben put up for her.
another angle in Kara's room. She gets to keep the dvd's in here. We gave her this dresser that used to be in our walk-in closet. So now she has more than enough space for all of her things. I had the drawers all set up how I wanted them, and she already took it upon herself to do some rearranging. I thought that was kind of funny. She put all her pajamas in a seperate drawer from her nightgowns, and seperated her pants and shorts, and also seperated long sleeved shirts from short sleeved shirts. She's a funny, particular girl.
This is the girls' bathroom. They don't keep it very clean, which is bad, because this is also the main bathroom on the upper level. So I've really been getting after them to clean up after themselves. Kiersten still gets toothpaste EVERYWHERE, but I really want her to brush her own teeth, so she can learn.
another view of their bathroom. the bathtub is to the left, just out of the picture.
We have a much smaller master bedroom, but we worked it out to fit all our stuff. I did regret having so many clothes at first, but I just had to start putting things in drawers that I used to hang. I love being able to sleep by Ben again, now that Evie doesn't sleep with me all night.
another view. This is the tv that used to be in our livingroom. We still haven't got curtains in here, but there are blinds, so that works for now.
The master bathroom. It only has 1 sink, but we've gotten used to that. The only thing I don't like, is that there is only 1 outlet in the entire bathroom. That door you can kind of see to the right is a huge linen closet. The floor has a laundry shoot, which has been nice to be able to dump the laundry down all at once, instead of making several trips up and down with baskets. I didn't get a picture of the laundry room, but I LOVE having a large laundry room again. There is even a nook in there which I am using as a scrapbook area. Ben hung a shelf and bought a light to hang for me. The bad part about the laundry shoot; the other day, Ben found Kiersten dangling her legs down there, because Kara had told her to go down the hole. It was SO scary. So the girls have been banned from opening that door. I think we succesfully scared her from ever trying that again.
This is the downstairs bathroom. I hate the curtain, so that will be getting replaced eventually, probably with some sort of roman shade. The jetted tub has been nice.

taking the tour

We are finally unpacked enough, that I felt comfortable taking pictures of our new house. This is the familyroom, which has 4 functions; tv room, playroom, office, and sewing room. This angle shows the tv area, and to the left, you can see some chairs. That is my sewing area, which I didn't really get a picture of. Our glass table is there in the corner with my sewing machine, and bow making stuff.
This is our office/computer area. We just got that desk and the bookshelf on the left at ikea when we moved in. Ben has been great about putting things together every weekend since we moved in.

The play area is on the other side of the bookshelf, and behind the couch. I was nervous about losing our playroom, and having to have all the toys out, but the girls have been doing a good job of keeping everything straightened up.

we went from having a walk-in pantry, to no pantry, and fewer cupboards. So some things are in the garage, but we also bought this cabinet to keep some pantry items in the kitchen. There is also a broom closet outside of the kitchen, with a shelf that we are using as a pantry as well.

The kitchen is a good size, and is working out really well. Ben and I have disagreed about the placement of a few things, but I get the last word, since I'm the one using the kitchen several times a day. Some of the cupboards and shelves are high up, and hard to access, so we found that stool at sam's club.

This is the livingroom. My favorite part is how nice and bright it is. Our old house doesn't have a window in the front room, so it was always dark. Ben's least favorite part is the windows. I open them as soon as he leaves for work, and he closes them as soon as he gets home. our old computer desk is in the left corner, and to the right is the new tv Ben decided we needed for this room. I don't love the baby swing there, but we probably wont be using it much longer.

We sold our dining set when we moved, so this is the new one we got. It came in 5 boxes, and said it would take 2 adults 2.5 hours to assemble. Ben did it all himself in that amount of time. My contribution was keeping the kids downstairs and out of the way. and I also organized some of the screws for him:)

This is the mess that was left behind after he was done! I was reminded why wal-mart always had one person whose job was to follow Ben around cleaning up. He is quick, but messy. It took me over an hour to break down all this cardboard, and haul it all down to the recycle bin. I was covered from head to toe in little cardboard crumbs. But it was worth it for a brand new dining set!

Here it is in the diningroom. I've wanted to get a counter height set for a while now, but we kept putting it off. We had said around the end of the year we would get one, so I was thrilled when Ben decided to get this table the other day!

this is the view of the diningroom from the kitchen.

Here we are enjoying the new table. We don't need the 8 chairs on a daily basis, but it will be nice when we have guests over. The leaf folds down into the table, so we can just have a square table if we'd like as well. and it's nice not to have to worry about storing the leaf anywhere.

There is a little deck outside the diningroom. There are no stairs, though, so you can't get down into the backyard. The landlord came over and put that piece of wood around the bottom, so we don't have to worry about the kids falling off. We carried the grill upstairs, and then it wouldn't fit through the door. So Ben had to remove the door and put it back afterward.

He bought some wood and built a frame to put this tent on top of the clubhouse. we still might paint it, but that's something that can wait til later. He also swept and cleaned it out really nicely for the girls.

I cleaned the slide with bleach, but you can see it didn't come fully clean. but it looks much better. Ben attatched that, and we bought these new swings with plastic over the chains, so the girls don't get their hands pinched. you can kind of see the baby swing we got for Evie. Kara wanted a tire swing, but the plastic tire was $60! so we may try to find a cheaper tire later, or let her ask for it for christmas. We didn't realize swings cost so much. They've been having so much fun out here. I can't wait til all the wood is gone, because I don't want them climbing on it.

I will do another post with pictures of the bedrooms/bathrooms, as this one is getting long.

really long moving post

We are moved into our new place. It has been slow going, and really hard to get anything done with the 3 girls around. So Ben and I have been having to do most of the work at night after they go to bed. On Friday, we loaded the uhaul with our 60 rubbermaid bins packed full of our stuff. They fit perfectly 4 across in the truck and stacked nicely. I'm really glad we used those, even if it was a little expensive. We also took over as much of the furniture as we could get into the truck. I thought we would be able to make it in one trip. We got the largest size uhaul, which is supposed to be able to move an entire 4 bedroom house. But we filled that truck to the brim twice, plus had to make two trips with both our regular vehicles completely filled. So now I'm extra glad about everything I've been selling on ebay and craigslist the last few weeks. not to mention the things we got rid of in the yard sale and gave to goodwill. a lot of that stuff was large, and would have taken up lots of space. Friday night, we unpacked a few bins and took them back to our house to get all the last minute stuff. Then we stayed there friday night, packing. Saturday morning, I was so glad to have a few of Ben's friends over to help us. I focused on finishing up the last bins, and cleaning, and wrangling the kids while they took everything over and unloaded it. We had found renters, and they were to move in a week later, but they asked if they could move in as soon as possible. so we had them come over saturday night to help clean, and we gave them a free week for helping. It got pretty clean, but there were things I'd have liked to get cleaner. They didn't seem to care though. we slept at the new place that night, and early the next morning we met them for the walk through, and gave them the keys. I really wanted to get everything in it's place and unpacked as quickly as possible. So it was quite frustrating to not have it happening so fast. It's also been an adjustment not having the same space in closets, etc. After a few furniture purchases and storage items, we are getting it all squared away. Last night we really made a lot of progress. Evie's chair came the day before we moved in. so it was here waiting for her. She is so happy to not have to fight over Kiersten's chair anymore. the girls just love the jetted tub. Ben put in some bubble bath, and it really foamed up a lot. The tub has been nice for Ben and my sore muscles too.

On saturday night, when Ben got home with the girls, he got Kara out of the car and told her to go to the bathroom. She said she remembered where it was, and as he set her down, she literally fell asleep. Her legs just buckled and she face planted right in the driveway. It was kind of a bloody mess, and she had a fat lip for a few days, but it looks like it's healing okay. The girls got to pick out some new things for their rooms at ikea and target thanks to the painfully small closets. so they are pretty excited to be here. The best part, is the 20 minutes it takes Ben to come home from work. Last night he had to stay a little late to finish some things up, and I actually did not fill with dread when he told me he'd be leaving closer to 6. That used to really push back our night and routine, but yesterday it was no big deal. He will be going from filling up his car with gas every 4 days, to only once or twice a month. So that makes up for the few things we aren't in love with about this house. (Even the giant house spiders) I have never been a spider killer. I always had someone else around to kill them. My parents, Angie, Ben, etc. So I can always get out of it. When we lived in salt lake, I would set something over a spider, and wait several hours for ben to get home, refusing to go in the room where it was. So I have loved the past 4 years of having no spiders in our house, and very few in our yard. But there certainly is no shortage of them here, and Ben has been spraying, so we are starting to find them dead. It's better than alive, but still unpleasant. One jumped on me the other day while I was putting away laundry. I had just sent Ben downstairs for a break and to get Evie to sleep. She'd JUST stopped crying, so I had to fight my instinct to run screaming for Ben. So I looked for something to throw on the top of it so he could get it later. But then I started thinking it might escape and crawl all over the girls with it's yucky, spidery legs. So I decided I had to kill it. I grabbed a boot of Kierstens and smashed it. (eyes closed, of course). I was too scared to lift up the boot, so I ran out of the room. I grabbed the vacuum and went in and used the longest attatchment to push the boot away. He was still there all squashed and curled up, so I vacuumed him up. So there's my first ever spider squashing experience. Yesterday I had to vacuum up some dead ones, and one live one that I was too scared to squash first. So I can't WAIT til we bug bomb and finish spraying!!!

Yesterday, the landlord called to see if she could come replace the sliding glass door. I agreed, thinking they'd be here, maybe an hour or two. she showed up with her dad, and some guy they found outside of a home depot. She introduced him to me, and he said, "I'm an alcoholic, but I'm 3 years sober." I don't think I really replied, and then he just said, "I only work til 4". I thought that wouldn't be a problem, since they showed up at 11. But he, and all of them ended up being there til after 7. She had asked me to keep the kids downstairs to be out of the way, which I was fine with, but when we went up for snack time around 2, I was thinking they'd be done, or almost done. They had just finished getting the door out. We went back downstairs, and the landlord's mom showed up with donuts, so they took a donut break. Then her husband and kids all showed up and were all just sitting around on the couches and helping themselves to glasses from the cupboards, which I thought was a little rude they didn't even ask. just when they were getting back to work, pizza showed up, so they all sat around forever eating and expecting me to keep the kids in the basement all day! So finally I just let the kids go back up and do what we needed to do. I did make sure they stayed out of the way. By the time Ben got home from work, they were still there, and they ended up leaving without even getting the new door in. So they had to come back for a few hours today to finish up. It's not easy dealing with landlords. I guess we got used to owning our houses, and being able to do as we wanted, but I still feel that they were stepping over the line a bit. And Ben was not happy about the home depot guy they brought over. They know nothing about him, and here he was talking to the kids, and wandering around the house. So, it's annoying, but we keep reminding each other of the reason we decided to move here, and how much it's worth it. but I don't think we'll want to rent again. Our next move will have to be a purchase, so hopefully we wont have any more issues. I think we'll be pretty happy here as we get more and more settled. I hope to get a few pictures soon. It's different, but there are several things I like better here.

7/28 & 7/29

We drove from PG to salt lake to attend Grandpa Howard's funeral. Shirley's brothers both drove out from california. Evie got to meet lots of family members. Here she is meeting her Aunt Debbie. Aunt Katie was excited to meet her too.

And of course Grandma Howard loved holdintg her newest great grandchild.

Ben's uncle Skip at Shirley's new house in Smithfield. she got moved in the same day as the funeral.

Abby, Tommy, Ben's aunt Vicky, and his mom Vicky.

Playing a game in the new house with Nancy, Victor, and Vicky.

Grandma VanSickle holding little Evangeline.

I didn't have my camera at the funeral or burial, because it was buried in our car, but it was a nice funeral, and I'm glad we could be there for Grandma Howard. We already miss Grandpa Howard, and things are so different wthout him there.