Clean clean clean

Monday and Tuesday were designated for cleaning days! (And fixing up the things we broke around the house) 

Monday we cleaned the whole house up and down. Then I left for Texas Tuesday morning. Leaving Andrew to do all the work on Tuesday. Oops. 

But he's so great, not a complaint did he utter! 

Monday when we were cleaning, our landlords came over to show the house to some prospective renters. After talking with our landlords for a bit, they told us we were their favorite tenents of all 8 properties they rent out! Gold star for us! 

(Hopefully also a positive forshadowing of a nice deposit refund!) 

The old house is looking pretty empty. Kinda crazy! 

*the tiny fire in our oven when it was self cleaning. Now I know why the door automatically locks itself during cleaning mode!*

Celebrate!!

We had a little celebratory apple cider bubbly at the end of Saturday. 

Moving Day

Official moving day happened on Saturday. Pretty much all that was left to move by then was the furniture and big items in the house. 

Some sweet boys in our ward came over and helped with what they could. It was very nice for them to offer their service. 

Leonard, Matthew & Jared also came to help Andrew move stuff. (I was really only there for a little bit so I don't really count myself in the moving crew, really!)

Midnight discovery

Late last night while I was packing for my early morning flight, Andrew started pulling up the linoleum in the kitchen & mushroom. 

And guess what?! There's some beautiful wood underneath that just need some love to bring it back to life!! 

Too many pictures?! Sorry, we are so excited!!!

Andrew's shed

As mentioned before, our house came with a pretty awesome shed (used to be a barn) in the backyard. Andrew would be lying if he claimed any other part of the house was his favorite feature. There is so much room for all his tools and such - which is a BIG DEAL. And I'm pretty excited too because it also means that all his tools, axes, leather, etc. all have a place other than the inside of the house! 

We moved most of the stuff in his shed using Jerry's truck! Mr. E is so willing to help in any way he can, and that is one of the things I love most about him! 

A shot from today's haul(s): 

Kitchen process!

Today we took on the kitchen!

We have some big aspirations for this kitchen, but for now we just want it to be clean and livable. 

Mostly clean.

It was no easy task. 

Every drawer, shelf, cupboard was just piled with nasty. Serious nasty. 

So we spent all day/night cleaning out all the cabinets, bringing kitchen items over from the old house, and putting everything in it's clean & respected place. 

We put on the new Ingrid Michaelson CD and got to work. 

Here's just a little before & after for you on a shelf I cleaned: 

BEFORE: 

AFTER:

*now, it's still not perfect, but that's as good as it would get!* 

It does feel so good to have that large & most important part of the house finished. We can actually eat and maybe even cook in there....maybe. 

For your enjoyment, here are some of the overheard quotes as we cleaned the kitchen: 

Andrew: "I don't feel like I should have to use a razor blade to clean the dirt off this shelf." 

Julie: "I don't understand how the dishwasher could be so dirty. I mean it's self cleaning."

Andrew: "I'm very interested in getting all the hair out of the kitchen." 

 Julie : "Hair?" 

 Andrew: "Yeah, I just found a pubic hair up there." *Points to the highest cabinet over the microwave*

Sign, sealed, delivered! I'm yours!

Today was a very hard and long day. Just to give you a brief run down: On the way to sign papers today, I was on the freeway when ran over some plastic piece that fell off the truck driving in front of me. I think it tore the oil pan open so I called a tow truck to take my car to the shop, and a nice highway patrolman gave me a ride to the local Enterprise. And then, soon after that debacle (and lots of $$) we found out the down payment for the house was going to be more that what we thought it would be (a lot more). Andrew is out of town working, so I signed all the papers for him by proxy, and there were so many papers to sign, I believe he owes me a massage. Anyway, to make a long story short ("too late!"), it all worked out. 

And at the end of it all I still see this as a pretty great day because the fact remained that we now own the house! (Almost- I mean, now all that's left is for the other seller party to sign papers, money to go through, and have the keys handed to us.) 

But it's ours! And it feels so good! 

Yay! 

*celebratory sonic shake!*