Settling In

The move went smoothly and we are getting settled in our new house. There are still a lot of boxes piled up but we are making progress. Here are a few pictures:

Kitchen:

Dining room (you can see all of our crystal wedding gifts sitting out on the table):

We were lucky to have John's parents in town over the weekend to help us unpack. Jill did a beautiful job arranging the china and crystal in the china cabinet.

We'll post more pictures as we make progress.

Closing Day!

The big day is here! We have our final inspection and closing this afternoon, and will start moving things into the house tonight. Our movers arrive tomorrow morning to get the big stuff. We also have DirecTV being installed and our refrigerator being delivered tomorrow - busy day! John's parents will be in town this weekend and we are looking forward to seeing them (and having extra helpers to help us unpack!). We won't have internet at home for a few days so we'll post as soon as we can with more pictures.

Have a great weekend!

Packing Up

We spent the weeking packing up the condo and are pretty much ready to go. The movers are coming Saturday morning and we can't wait to get settled into our new house. Our walk-through of the new house went very well. We learned everything from how to get our ipods to play throughout the house to how to winterize the hose lines - all very useful information for new homeowners! There are only a few small details for the builder to finish before we close.

Since not much has changed at the house, we thought we'd show you what a mess our condo is right now.

Henry isn't sure what is going on....

Weekend Update

We drove to the new house this afternoon with the intention of taking pictures for this blog. But we quickly found ourselves in a torrential downpour, so you'll have to use your imagination.
Upon arrival, we were surprised to find the house decorated with green tape. The builders had their own internal walk-through last Thursday and the tape is their method of indicating all the flaws they found that need to be repaired. John is encouraged because the more they fix this week, the easier our own walk-through this Thursday should be. Lauren is worried they might not finish before Thursday. Whichever way you look at it, there's a lot of green in that house right now and it's not particulary attractive. Nevertheless, the house is nearing completion and we grow more and more excited everyday.

Backyard

John got back from a great weekend in Pittsburgh and we quickly made our way back the new house. As we walked down the street, we stumbled upon a few of our new neighbors. One is a big Florida State fan and was quite intrigued by John's commentary on Jimbo Fisher. Judging by who we've met so far, we expect to have a lot of fun in the neighborhood. Here are some pictures of the back of the house and the backyard.

Back of the house and yard:

Walking out onto our old lot made John laugh out loud. The backyards are as different as can be.

Here's our new patio:

The left side of house looking towards the street:

We hope everyone had a nice weekend. John enjoyed watching Ryan Theriot help the Cubs beat the Pirates.

Moving Right Along

The inspection and appraisal for the condo both happened this week and both went well, which is a big relief. We're starting to think about getting ready to move - only a few weeks! The house is close to being ready but there are still a few details to be finished. Here are a few more pictures of the house.

The dining room:

The dining room ceiling (the ceiling in the master bedroom is the same):

The master bathroom:

This blog was meant to show the progress of building a house and it's not quite as exciting now that we're moving into a house that's already built, but we'll try to keep everyone posted on the last few weeks of finishing the house and our move!

The Old Switcheroo

There has been a change of plans with the house. We drove out last Tuesday night to see the framing of the house on the lot and were shocked to see we had almost no backyard. Based on the original plat, we expected the yard to be small but reasonable and back up against a common area that slopes down to a park. When we saw the framing, however, we realized that 2/3 of our backyard was actually the slope. After John stopped freaking out, our agent fortunately realized that another house on a much better lot was for sale. So we pulled the old switcheroo.

The new house is essentially the same as the one we were building and is available to close at the end of July. This works out very well since our condo is set to close around the same time. John is happy because he doesn't have to move us twice (into an apartment and then again into the house). As much as John loves his pickup, moving is not fun in August...in Atlanta. Some things happen for a reason, as the new house has a great back yard with no slopes nearby.

Here is the front of the house:

The entryway:

And the kitchen (standing in the family room):

Here's the view from our bedroom. You can see the common area behind our backyard. Our old lot is on the hill above the black fence (through the middle window pane). Yes, the slope covered in bushes and bark is what they were claiming to be 2/3 of our back yard.

As crazy as the last week was, we're both very excited and feel we actually made out better than expected. We can't wait to settle in and have y'all over! We'll post pictures of our original backyard soon so y'all can appreciate how ridiculous it really was. Lesson for everyone: when buying a lot, buy a long tape measure instead of relying on a plat map.