We did it!

Well, we did it! We're finally proud home owners. We've had a long day, that started out with a final walk through with the builder. There were still items that needed fixing before we could close. They were really great this morning, and they got it all finished. Then we drove straight to the closing, which took about 2 hours. Nothing bad happened, it just took a while to go through all of the paperwork. Luckily, the closing agent was pretty cool, and Jackie and David and I joked around most of the time. Then our day really began. Mom met us and helped me clean the floors and then seal the tile/grout. That took forever, and being on your hands and knees scrubbing like that for 4 hours, really takes a toll on the body. I'm so sore! While we were taking care of the floor, David was busy installing a ceiling fan on our patio, making several trips to Home Depot, our storage unit and his mom's house for certain cleaning supplies and furniture. Thanks Dora for babysitting Bert while we were busy at the house. You really helped out a lot! So, tomorrow is a new day, and while I have to go to work, David is going to clean the floors again and put down plastic so the painter won't get paint everywhere. And tomorrow evening, Tom comes to visit! We're looking forward to him being here and finally seeing firsthand our new home.

Welcome Home Tomasson Family!

Well, here we are, less than 12 hours away from owning our dream. This past week has been full of ups and downs and pleanty of drama. After all has been said and done, we shouldn't have any problems tomorrow morning when we go to sign the papers. There are still a few things on our list that the builder hasn't fixed after the walk-through, but we meet with them tomorrow before the closing and they should have pleanty of time to fix all of the outstanding issues. At worst, the closing will only be delayed by a couple of hours. Overall, David and I are very pleased with the outcome. I just can't believe we're fortunate enough to live in such a nice house and in such a wonderful neighborhood. We have so much to do in the next few days. Tomorrow, after the closing, we need to stop by the post office to pick up our mailbox key, and then Mom and I will be sealing the grout in all the tiles. That could take a while. In the meantime, David will be trying his hand at a little electrical work by moving and installing ceiling fans in all of the bedrooms and even the porch! Tuesday, after the water softener and office furniture are delivered, David's dad arrives just in time to help put plastic coverings on all the floors in anticipation for the painter, who begins his work on Thursday. David and his dad will undoubtedly have a great time together playing pool and romping around with Bert while I'm at work. I'll be sure to take pictures of the painting progress. Our official move-in date isn't until July 22nd. Keep your fingers crossed that all of our deliveries come without any problems and that the coaches won't flake out when it comes time to do the heavy lifting. Here is a room by room tour of the house. Hope you like it!

I was super excited to see our new trees planted. We've been waiting this entire 5 months wondering if we'd get any, but they pulled through and the tree's look awesome.

Welcome Home Tomasson Family!!!

This is a huge side yard. We may have the fence moved up a bit to add to the back yard, but what I really look forward to is hanging a swing from this tree.

Our beautiful house looking from the font entry. It's pretty empty and white right now, but by early next week, it will be painted and furnished and home sweet home.

Here's the front bedroom, better known these days as Bert's room.

Downstairs Guest Bathroom.

Here are the french doors to the study which is just off of the dining area. It's so nice to have a separate room just for the office.

I'm hoping to have a few big family holiday dinners here some day. Maybe Thanksgiving???

This living room is great! The trees in the background make it so peaceful and private.

Let's not forget about our lovely stone gas fireplace. Come winter, it's going to be so neat to start a fire with the flip of a switch. Someday I will replace the mantle. It just doesn't fit such a nice area. Maybe it can be a nice birthday gift...hint...hint....

My finished kitchen. I just love the stainless appliances. Our stuff has been in storage for so long, I'm excited to get my kitchen gear back now that I have tons of cabinet space.

Not a great picture, but here's our breakfast knook right off the kitchen and living room.

Another not-so-great picture, but this is what we'll see every morning when we wake up in our master bedroom. Again, I just love all the trees and privacy this lot provides.

Here's a pretty good glipse of the entire master bathroom through the mirror. This is going to be my favorite room of the house.

The game room will defintely be a fun place. The pool table is on its way from the manufacturer in Tennessee, and will be here by the end of next week.

I'm pretty sure if we have any get togethers, this will be the most happening place in the house.

The upstairs guest bedroom is a mini-suite with it's own bathroom. Our first guest will be here on Tuesday, and he'll move in with us after the painter is finished. We're excited to see you Tom!

Here's the upstairs bathroom. Tom will have to share with anyone playing pool up there.

And finally our backyard. I think Bert will thoroghly enjoy running around in this yard. Maybe he'll have a pool to cool off in someday.

Two weeks and counting

Well, I think the countdown has begun. Two short weeks from tomorrow we become proud owners of this gorgeous house. It's so exciting to see all the last touches go into making this our house. Just think--four months ago, there was nothing here but a bunch of trees and rocks...and maybe some deer. In that short time we've seen our dream come alive from the ground up. I feel so blessed to have been able to experience this process. Thanks David!!! This week we've seen carpet go into all the bedrooms/study, a dishwasher installed, the railing on our beautiful patio go up, the sprinkler system installed, most of the sod and landscaping put down, stain go onto the front door and stair railing, baseboards painted, and the last of the brick around the front door finished. We've also realized just how expensive all this moving into a new house really is. Now that it's so close, we've hired a painter to do custom painting in the entire house and bought all the paint needed (Home Depot was having a great deal), we've gotten quotes on all the window blinds, we've arranged all the appliance and furniture deliveries for after the painting is done, we've bought area rugs (now that we've got tile, and all), and we're still looking at all the little things to help make this house our home. I just can't wait now to see it all come together.

Most of the sod and landscaping are in. It will look quite nice once it's all filled out.

Here's a look of the almost completed kitchen from the utility room. We're just missing the microwave and oven/range.

This is a great shot of the gorgeous cherry cabinets and corian counters with the ceramic backsplash.

They've painted the mantle. I still love this stone fireplace, and once the house is painted, it will really pop out.

We're going to paint these two walls a deep red (called spicy cayenne). This will look so sharp and delineate the dining room from the rest of the living areas.

The back corner is the breakfast knook. It's just a great open floorplan.

This is from the back corner of the Master Bedroom. David is walking into the bathroom...

...where he looks like he's enjoying a hot bath and a good view (while there are no neighbors).

Speaking of great views, this is what we'll see everyday from our back patio. Since we're on a greenbelt, we know that we'll always have these trees to look at instead of someone else's backyard.

It's a very large backyard, especially comparing it to other houses in the neighborhood. Someday it will be nice to have a pool and maybe a swingset out back???

David's revelling in the view of his backyard. It's a lot to mow, but it will be nice to have BBQs out here for all of our friends and family. I plan to do some landscaping back here come next spring time to cover up the foundation.

Little things coming together

Ok...so it's been a little while since I posted an update on the house. Really, there are just a bunch of little things that have been going on, and nothing that would be too impressive to any of y'all. Basically, last week, the only thing that happened was the fence was put up. This week, David and I have been noticing little things like the quarter round on the baseboard are up, but still need to be painted. Also, the last of the brick on the front of the house was finally finished. This evening we went by and saw the guy cutting the carpeting for the bedrooms and upstairs. We also have a dishwasher, but still no microwave or oven/range. We've gotten a lot of money stuff done, however. We locked in our interest rate and the house got appraised (contingent on completion, of course). Our closing date is set for July 14th, so there's only a 18 days left until we're proud home owners. The house will be painted that first week, and we'll start moving in all our stuff and have our other appliances and new furniture delivered on the 22nd. FUN!!!! In the mean time, Bert is growing uncontrolably. I weighed him a couple of days ago, and he was a hefty 25lbs. That's just about double his weight from the day we got him. This boy is gonna be a beast!

Here's a picture taken from our back porch looking into the back yard.

Bert really loves posing for the camera.

What a talented boy!!!

Bert is showing off his new moves...

Getting down to the wire...

Wow...so much is going on at the house, it's crazy! The counter tops in the kitchen and bathrooms went in early this week, and then the light fixtures, switch plates, outlets and fireplace hearth. Then there was plumbing fixtures like toilets, disposal, faucets and knobs. Now we see they've finally put in doorknobs and pulls, and two very large A/C compressors. They tile man was busy laying the backsplash in the kitchen while we were there this afternoon.

It's official...We have an address plate!

These will come in handy during this brutal summer.

Here's the dining room light fixture.

The kitchen is looking really sharp! The dark cherry cabinets look so good against the tile and countertops. They'll look even better when the appliances are in.

Here's the best picture I could get of the counter tops. That's a poored corian sink, so it's completely seamless with the counters.

They've also installed the water heater.

Although the tub is disgustingly filthy, we're happy to see the plumbing fixures and toilet.

I absolutely love the stone fireplace. The mantle will do for now, but eventually it will be replaced to look more fitting with the rest of the hearth.

I know that Bert will truly enjoy the large back yard and we're both hoping that Erni will forgive us for getting him a brother.

So it's basically down to the last weeks. The builder wants to close the middle of July, and we're waiting to see how badly they want that (are they going to give us an incentive to move in early?) David and I are busy trying to get everything in for the mortgage and finalizing all of that. In the mean time we're also finishing up buying the furniture to make this house our home.

Tile Flooring

The only thing going on at the house this week was tile flooring downstairs. It looks pretty good, and now all they need to do is put the quarter round along the baseboards to make it look sharp. They also tiled around the master shower/bath tub area.







































And here's a better picture of the cabinets now that the plastic is gone.