Shelves in the Toilet Room

I posted pictures of the empty house without any comments because there were too many pictures, if you have questions as to what room is what please refer to the earlier post of the Unfinished House.

This picture I did want to say something about. :)

The master bedroom has a separate toilet room with these awesome shelves built right in. I'm still not positive as to what's going to go on these shelves but seeing them reminded me of my sister-in-law Tara and the awesome food storage she has in her master bathroom.

No Box Left Unopened!!!

It's kind of like "No Child Left Behind", the difference is, I've accomplished it!!! Hurray!!! This is not to say all boxes are empty and taken care of nicely, that stage is still to come. :) In fact there is really only one room that is totally "done" and that is the kitchen/dining room.


Okay it's not totally done, I just noticed the box of all our plastic-ware, I'm not really sure where I want all of that to go just yet. Although, Andrew and I were thinking about getting one of those big pot racks to hang over the island and if'n'when we do that all the plastic-ware will go where the pots and pans are currently. So I guess we're as done as we're going to get at this point in time. :)

Now that we have a nice clean area to prepare and cook food I need to plan meals so we will actually have something to prepare.

Empty House Pictures

Just a Quick Update

We got our keys on Tuesday and the movers and everyone else came yesterday so I'm working on finding a spot for all our stuff. The fact of the matter is I am sitting on the floor in our living room posting this comment because even though the desks are put together they are surrounded by boxes. Every room has boxes everywhere.

Funny story from yesterday, after the movers and Andrew left I was here at home eating lunch, I had asked Andrew to pick up one of those microwave meals for me. As I was cooking it in the microwave the thought crossed my mind "I need a fork", so I started opening boxes and came to one that said utensils on it, sounds promising, huh? Too bad the utensils were serving utensils. But I did find two mismatching chopsticks in that box, so I ate my lunch, a chicken breast and veggies, with chopsticks. **By the way I have yet to find the real silverware, though I have high hopes for finding it today. :)**

We Closed Escrow on Our House!!

Yesterday we went to the Title company and signed all our papers for the house. It is technically officially "ours". We still don't get the keys until Tuesday, that's when they record the deed or something like that. We are very excited!! It seemed like such a long time to wait back in July but September finally came, as it always does. :)

For those of you wondering what our address is you will have to email us and ask for it. :)

Possibly the Last House Update Before We Move In

So today we had our walk-through with the Supervisor and our Realtor. Basically we walked through the house and found cosmetic things that need to be fixed; for example there were a couple of power outlets that had visible gaps between the wall and the face plate. We went through all rooms and outside, luckily there wasn't very much that needed to be done mostly touch ups on the paint. Though they are going to have to regrade our yard since it isn't draining properly. The supervisor mentioned that monsoon season is a good time to buy a house so you can easily figure out the drainage.

One thing that I found interesting is our fuse box is actually outside the house. I'm used to seeing them in the garage and more recently living in apartments having them inside the house in random places.

We have our meeting with the escrow people on Friday (the only thing left we are waiting for is the appraisal on the house) then I will go back on the 9th and walk through again to make sure everything on the list got done. The letter we got says that we will get the keys no sooner than 4pm on the 9th, but the sales lady said that if they get the call earlier that the deed has been recorded they will call us when they know, she said that giving the keys to the new owners is her favorite part of her job.

Another House Update

We went to "check on" our house again today and we were very pleased with what we saw, progress!!! Hurray! :)

The front yard was landscaped with a tree and gravel and everything, most people don't "do" grass south of Phoenix, and the backyard was leveled out and most of the weeds are gone. The carpet is finally in and the sinks and faucets and toilets are in. It looks like all that's left to install is the electrical outlets/light fixtures, doorknobs, blinds, appliances and our stuff.

There's only 9 days until our walk-through with the super and then only 7 days after that until we get the keys!! We're so close and yet so far away. :)

Update on the House

It turns out that the sales lady who said that we would probably be able to move in the 3rd week of August was mistaken. It is now the 3rd week in August and we are not moving in to the new house. In fact it is still unfinished, we stop by the house after church on Sundays to check on the progress.

We have a walk through on September 2nd to make sure there isn't anything that the builders might have overlooked that needs to be fixed/finished and then once those items are done we will get the keys which will be September 9th, which is 3 weeks from tomorrow. We're excited to finally have a house and we've got all the essentials lined up: water, gas, electric, internet, trash. We have the movers scheduled to bring us all our stuff on September 12th (Andrew has every other Friday off and that is his off Friday). It's the 12th and not the 10th because I didn't want to be alone with the movers.

Pictures of our Unfinished House

We went down to Sahuarita, the town we're going to live in, and took pictures of our house. We should be getting a call on Monday or Tuesday letting us know what the official date we can take possession of the house will be. Right now we only know it will probably be the 3rd week in August.

The first group of pictures are the front of the house.





This next group of pictures are of the back of the house. The backyard is actually quite large and there is only one house that can actually see into it and it's not completed yet. The rest of the houses around us are 1 story houses and we are at a slightly higher elevation than them. Plus the concrete fences are at least 5' tall.




This is bedroom #2 which will be the baby's room.


This is looking from the living room into the hallway. The main door at the end goes to the garage. The little door to the right is the pantry in the kitchen.

This is the kitchen with an island and to the right is the dining area.

This is the "library" it isn't called a den because there aren't any doors enclosing it. This is directly off the living room. To the left is the front door and to the right is the hallway then the kitchen. I'm excited because both of our desks will fit in this office area.

This is the entrance to bedroom #1. You can tell it's the master suite because it has a fancy door way. Our window opens up to the backyard.

This is the living room. The sliding glass door opens to a large covered patio in the back yard. You can see the arch way to the "library" on the right and just out of the picture on the left is the entrance to the master bedroom. Directly behind me is the kitchen.

This is bedroom #3. This will be the craft/guest room. I really like the bay windows. We will have to put some external screens or something on these windows because they face due west.


There's still quite a bit of stuff to be done but most of it is cosmetic: tile, carpet, lighting, doorknobs, installing the blinds, plumbing for the sinks, installing toilets, installing the kitchen appliances except for the refrigerator, and grading the ground outside. I'm pretty sure that the final paint color is on the walls, though they will need to touch it up. So all in all I'm pretty sure it will be done by the 3rd week in August if not sooner.

Crazy Whirlwind Month

So it's been a while since I last posted anything. A lot has happened in the last month and a half.

The Gardners had a family reunion the 2nd - 5th of July in Federal Way, WA. Megan and I organized it and as Andrew predicted only a few things went according to the plan. It was still a lot of fun. We saw a Tacoma Rainier's game on the 3rd (they lost, way to be like the Mariners) and there was a pretty awesome fireworks show after the game. We got some pretty awesome family pictures. The one problem I have is I look fat not pregnant, but I guess that's life.

Andrew and I both quit our jobs and packed up our car and drove to Tucson, Arizona (the movers took the rest of our stuff). We are officially homeless though Tim and Megan are being awesome and letting us stay with them until we find a house. Actually we've found a house but it's not done being built so it will be at least until the 3rd week in August that we can move in. That is actually just a little bit longer than the average 30 days that it takes to close escrow.

We looked at quite a few houses before we decided on buying a new build. One of the houses that the Realtor showed us, though he didn't realize it when he agreed to show us the house, had 5 bullet holes on the roadside wall of the house. We discovered the holes because one of them went all the way through the dishwasher into the island in the kitchen. One of them was so big you could see daylight through it. There were other older houses that we looked at that weren't quite as bad but they all required more work that we anticipated.

Andrew has come to the conclusion that older houses down here are not as nice as older houses up in the North West. In fact anything that was build before the 90's falls into the category of not so nice.

Andrew started his new job today. That's where he is right now. I'm sure he'll like it. I'm still contemplating getting a job, Andrew thinks that I could do some contract work. I'm not sure about it though.

So we left the rainy North West to move to the sunny South West just in time for the monsoon season. So instead of the typical hot and dry days we were expecting, we are experiencing less hot but more humid days. I now understand why they said we moved during the worst time of the year. Not because it is hotter but because it feels hotter. We could have gotten this weather back in Seattle. :)

So I am now 16 weeks along and I'm feeling better. I was experiencing a lot of nausea thankfully no "morning sickness". I'm still really tired but I have a feeling that that's not going to fully go away. I am starting to look more pregnant but I think that has something to do with all the maternity clothes I've been wearing.

We're Moving to Arizona!!!

This week Andrew finally heard back about his interim clearance and he was approved!!!! Hurray!!! So now we're moving to Tucson. We still have a lot of details to work out, like where we're going to live. That's the one that I'm most concerned about. We really want to buy a house. I'm tired of apartments and they are WAY cheaper in Tucson than in the entire Puget Sound region. The best part about this move is we get to have movers do all the work! No packing boxes for me!! Hurray!!!

Update on the Arizona Thing

First of all we had a lot of fun while we were down in Tucson for Andrew's job interview stuff. It was so great to see baby Shaun David and also to see how much little Eva has grown. It was also nice to see Tim & Megan and Jared & Tara. :-D We love you guys!

Andrew got an offer along with copious quantities of paperwork to fill out. Everything has been filled out and sent it. So now we are playing the waiting game to find out if he gets clearance. We're figuring that since it took Tim 3 months to find out about his clearance then it will take about the same amount of time for Andrew to find out.

Once we know that then we can work on the logistics of it all, I hate the anticipation! I want to get going on the things that will need to be done. That means a couple of months of month-to-month rent at our apartment, which sucks 'cause it's $150 more a month. On the brighter side we're hoping we will be able to find a house in our price range down in Arizona. I'm really tired of living in apartments. I know houses are a lot of work but I'm willing to put in the effort, also I'm SO ready to stop throwing my money away on rent.

Arizona Here We Come... For A Weekend... Or More?

So here's a tidbit of potentially exciting news... Andrew has an interview with Raytheon down in Tucson next week. It's only potentially exciting news if Andrew actually gets a job there. Until then we are reigning in our excitement. We decided to turn it into a long weekend to hang out with Tim & Megan and if Jared & Tara come down we will, of course, hang out with them as well. :) So we're flying in late Wednesday (April 16th) and leaving Sunday afternoon.

A lot of people who live in the Pacific Northwest have seasonal depression because of, among other things, the lack of sunlight from September until the end of May. I seem to be feeling the effects of the gray skies more than usual this year. It will be nice to get away for our own mini spring break to a place where the sun is always shining. I believe that spring break was invented in Seattle, by those who hoped to believe that there are places that exist that don't live with gray skies all the time. Though I did hear a rumor that it's supposed to get all the way up to 70 degrees this Saturday!!! Or maybe it was only 60 degrees. Either way it will be better than 45 degrees. Now all I need to do is find something to do to force me to go outside.