Tomorrow is the big day

Since we found out the house is officially ours, we've been cleaning, painting, and packing. Today we are finishing up packing and tomorrow we move in to Green. This is the most fun I've ever had moving. Normally I hate it, but this really isn't so bad (although we are both exhausted). I think it helps knowing we are moving to a more permanent location (so we won't have to do this again for a long long time), and we are really loving our new house. The more we are there and the more work we do on it, the more it becomes OUR house and the more we love it.

The mountains in Utah are gorgeous and the mountainous smell is delightful. We are looking forward to spending many nights picnicking in our backyard next to a fire pit (that we don't have yet). That may just be one of our first purchases.

We've been up to the house several times this week and I finally took some "present day" pictures. The pictures I showed before of a nicely groomed house are from when it was first put on the market to sell. Here is what some of the house presently looks like...

After much watering and fertilizing to get the grass to come back, the grass is still very scarce, but as you can see our pesky weeds are thriving. But not for long... weed and feed application is in a couple weeks. Mua-ha-ha.



Here's our one good patch of grass in the backyard. Everywhere else looks like the front yard. We are going to need a mower soon.

Here is what the rest of the front yard looks like - notice all the weeds and the random "wall" of trees growing at the front of our property. Not sure how we will get rid of those. You can see the 7-ft-tall rose bushes on the bottom right, but I'm up so high you can't tell they're that tall and really gnarly. They are.

Here is our view of the valley. It really sparkles at night.

While we were at the house last weekend painting, we were visited by some woodland creatures. These pheasants are beautiful and squawk in the small ravine/gully next to our house all the time. There are 3 in this picture. Can you see the one in the trees on the left?

We managed to get one room painted before we move in tomorrow (our bedroom). I plan to show a nice before and after in a couple weeks once we get all our new (to us) furniture in. But in the meantime, here are some other rooms not previously shown that are still green as can be.

Green formal living room.

Green enryway.


Green playroom upstairs (we had a sleep over last weekend so we could get some good work in all day Friday and Saturday).

One of the few rooms that isn't green - the office that I plan to make a formal dining room. The paper border is coming down for sure.

Lot's of work left to do, but the transformation will be awesome.

Here's Connor "helping" me pack this morning. He dragged and kicked this empty box all over our apartment for at least 20 minutes.

Happy Mother's Day

I just wanted to wish all you mothers out there a happy Mother's Day. I am grateful to my mom and my mother-in-law for all they do for me. They are wonderful mothers and now the best grandmothers, and they are perfect examples to me of motherhood.

Today I was thinking about how blessed I am to have so many friends and siblings who are also excellent sources of knowledge and examples to me of good mothers.

May God bless all the mother's in the world today. May our houses be clean, and our children be happy and well-behaved. But not likely. Because a mother's work never ends, even on Mother's Day. :)

It's official!! The house is ours!!!!

This post is a couple days late, but the last couple days have been busy. But good news!! We have a house now!! It finally closed and we found out on Thursday! We are so excited!!!!!

We will be living in Pleasant View, UT, and we are on a hill with a gorgeous view of the valley and the Great Salt Lake in the far distance. Now, mind you, the house doesn't quite look the way it does in the first picture (all these pictures are from online advertising the house for sale). It is a short sale and has been vacant for over 1 year so the grass is mostly weeds, the garden areas are mostly weeds, and the rose bushes at the side of the house resemble those surrounding Sleeping Beauty's castle under a spell. There is a lot of dust, dirt, and dead bugs inside too, but with some effort and a little elbow grease, we will have this place looking like new in no time! There are some repairs and updates to be done, including but not limited to PAINTING. Yep, first item on the agenda once the house is clean - get rid of all those green walls. That's probably next week or the week after. Stay tuned for some before-and-afters as I start decorating my very own house!!

Brad and I went up yesterday (Saturday) to clean all day (for about 6 hours) and change the locks on the house. I have to say, I've never enjoyed cleaning so much! Changing the locks was unsuccessful because we weren't given all the keys for the house at the sale, only the key that opens the back door. I guess the listing agent forgot she had them?? So we will do that Monday instead.

Now after much anticipation, here is what our new house looks like! We can't believe this is ours!



Family room - main floor.

Kitchen - main floor.


Living room - main floor.

Master bedroom - 2nd floor.

Attached master bathroom - 2nd floor.

One of the bedrooms - 2nd floor. (You can kinda see our view from that window, but I'll have to get a better picture.)

2nd Kitchen - basement.

View from our backyard (we don't have a fence).

We are the very last house on the street, so we don't have any neighbors immediately next to us. The next closest house is across the street in front of our house and across the street to the side of the house. Technically we are on the corner of 2 streets, but both streets dead end after our house, so it's kind of like a cul-de-sac. Nice for privacy and an unobstructed view!

Please come visit us! If you ever need a place to stay, I think we can find some room for you at our house!