16 Things I Love About Our New House

We have been in our new house for about 4 months now.  We painted the main living areas, we have kitchen tiers on the way and have hung our first bit of wall art.  We plowed through our savings buying furniture, appliances and window coverings. There are still lots of plain bare walls that need to be decorated and too many white walls that could use some color but we have what we need and I'm really just glad to be here.  It takes money to decorate a home and therefore it will also take some time.   What a journey it has been from house hunting, home building to house closing.  We stuck it out in my tiny studio condo for 6 months but it was well worth the wait.

1.  Overall Space.  I can be at home and not see Mj all the time. What a concept!  People need space and we absolutely did not have it in the tiny studio. We were on top of each other and it magnified clutter and anything else that bugged me times 10. He can be upstairs in the loft doing homework and watching baseball and I can be downstairs watching House Hunters. We can be apart and then come together.  Mj's untidiness is spread out so I can tolerate it for a little bit longer then usual.  Peace.

2.  Decorating fun. I now have all of these rooms to decorate which is great once I figure out what the heck to do with them. I may not know exactly where to start but I love the possibilities.

3.  King size bed.  We squeezed into a little double in the studio.  I wanted to save money and hold onto the old Queen bed of Mj's that came out of storage but he really wanted to up size so I agreed.  Most of the time we end up on one side or the other but it's nice to have the space.  I can lay spread eagle on the bed with room to spare and I actually have to roll over a few times to shut of my alarm if I'm on Mj's side!

Plenty of room and I love that we each have our own night stand.

4.  Double Vanities.  Again, space.  I have my own side to do what I need to do in the bathroom and he has his.  We each have our own cabinet under our sinks.  Mine is full and his is not.

I like having my own side

5.  Toilet Room.  Our bathroom has a separate little room and door for toilet.  It even has a window-don't ask me why!  Not that we've never seen each other on the toilet but we love the extra privacy.

6.  Thermostat.   Sometimes it gets a little chilly for me because I am chronically cold but that's what blankets and sweaters are for.  I no longer have to sweat through summers with only an AC Wall Unit or hope for a cool breeze to come through the windows on hot nights while trying to sleep.   When we come home from work it does not feel like walking into a sauna.

7.  LG fridge with ice maker. This sucker was not cheap but I have to say it's worth it. I still can't figure out how this unlimited supply of water magically comes out of my fridge but access to ice cold water anytime without having buy bottled water and keep up on our water supply is great. I think I'm even drinking more water because of it.  And I kinda think ice is cool.

This fridge is the BEST

8.  Sectional with Ottoman.  We searched high and low for this cozy yet modern couch.  When you push the little square ottoman into the corner of the sectional it creates this lovely little bed like area which is perfect for cuddling while watching movies.  I can't get enough of cuddling with Mj so this works out quite nicely for me and I think he's OK with it too.

Modern, comfy and cuddle friendly

9.  DVR baby! I know I'm a little behind on the technology here but this is the first time in my life I have ever had this and I love it. I don't have to rush home to watch anything and I can watch various TV shows at my convenience-and fast forward the commercials. Online viewing of shows helped before but this really takes it up a notch. Not that I watch a ton of TV but it's just super convenient to have.  It's also the first time I've had a flat screen TV which of course was an Mj contribution.

The TV console has lots of storage to "hide" crap.  So does the coffee table.

10.  Dining room space, Bar Area & Kitchen.  We actually have a place where there is room for us to sit down and eat dinner together the good old fashioned way.  It's not right in front of the TV but we can  still see it because we have an open floor plan.  When one of us is in the kitchen cooking (ideally Mj) the other one can sit at the bar and chat.  The condo kitchen had next to no counter space and was really not functional.  I was totally uninspired to cook there so I didn't.  I vowed I would start cooking when I actually had space to do it and I did.

A table to enjoy meals together

Functional cooking space

11.  Garage.  No more searching for a parking space and having to pass up most of them because I suck at parallel parking.  I no longer have to worry that my car will be vandalised yet again.  No more carting loads of grocery bags from the car down the street, through the gate, and up the stairs into the condo.  We don't have to get into a hot car and we don't have to haul our trash out to a stinky dumpster because our trash bins are right there.  It also provides more storage for crap that we should probably throw away but won't.

12.  Extra closets & rooms.  Yes.  Back to space-which is quite a  beautiful thing.  The clutter in the condo was driving me mad.  The master closet could use a Closet World make over to make better use of the space but it is a walk in and way bigger then I have ever had before.  There is now a whole extra room for Mj to leave his folded laundry for weeks at a time and toss his clothes on the floor instead of hanging them up.   I don't have to see it so I don't nag him about it.  Well,  not as often anyways.  Win win situation.

13.  Laundry Room.  I used to do laundry once a month.  Or even longer if I could get away with it.  I know it's terrible but I was so over hoarding quarters, staking out the washer/dryer, and carting loads of heavy laundry up and down stairs to the laundry room.  Laundry is fun easier now.

The bobble head bride and groom was a wedding gift.  Really.

14.  Backyard.  It still happens to be a pile of dirt pending landscaping.  This project has been totally left to Mj and he assures me that progress is being made.  We'll actually have a place to sit outdoors and relax.  It's small but we did not want any grass cutting so that's fine.  There is room out the front door too where I can actually stand there in my pajamas and check the weather and not be seen by every single neighbor.  The condo didn't even have a balcony.

15.  Recess Lighting.  This was what I felt was an Mj upgrade splurge but like most everything else I'm glad I agreed.  It came included in some areas but we addeded it every where it didn't except the 2 spare bedrooms.  I like the modern look it gives the house and we don't need lamps.  Some of our lights even turn themselves off after a certain time period if we forget.  The light switches are all on dimmers which can save energy and is really good for setting the mood...if ya know what I mean!

16.  Community.  I still don't know any of my neighbors but our little neighborhood is like an oasis in the middle of the little city we live in.  There are only about 42 houses spanning 3 private roads.  I don't walk out my door onto a busy street.  I feel comfortable taking a walk if I want to.  There aren't random hoodlums roaming around or broke down sofas in any front yards. I feel so much safer.  We have an HOA in full effect that I might come to hate at some point but it does wonders for curb appeal.  We are only about 5 minutes from the condo but it makes all the difference in the world.

Are there some things on my wish list that we didn't get?  Yeah.  We couldn't do all the upgrades we wanted like granite or hardwoods.  We could use a little bit more counter space and cupboards in the kitchen.  I wish we had a linen closet but there is room to build one.  I also wish we could have afforded to buy more centrally located.  And while I'm at it, I would really love it if I could get my mortgage sliced in half!  But really, I'm not complaining one bit.  It's brand new, it's OURS, and I love it!  According to Sandra Rinomato on HGTV's Property Virgins, whom I trust completely, if you like 90% of the house you should really consider making it your home because no house is perfect in all ways and there will always be something that you wish you could change.

Building the Home

Home Sweet Home

Home Renovations

Got A Renter and Life is Good

I have met people over the years who seem to have a fairy godmother floating above their head. Everything they touch turns to gold and even the bad things in life often yields rewards. They land hot jobs and somehow manage get what they want and do what they want without even seeming to have to try that hard. They seemingly coast through life without a care in the world and why shouldn't they? They are the "charmed ones" and things just have a way of working out for them. Unfortunately I have never been one of those people. I work hard and try to do the right thing but nothing has come easily to me and I always seemed to be left wanting or with the short end of the stick.

About 2 weeks ago I got a call from my property management company that there was a woman interested in renting my condo. Ever the pessimist I was so happy and so relieved yet I did not count on anything until she actually paid her deposit, signed the lease and moved in. Well Friday.....SHE MOVED IN! I officially have a tenant in my condo who is locked into a lease for one year. Due to market conditions I was not able to rent for the full amount I owe but will only be taking on about a $100 per month deficit which could have been a lot worse and I should be able to absorb that into my budget. I never wanted a rental property but due to circumstances I have one and am just thrilled that I can finally stop stressing myself out over this-which I've been doing for over a year. Ideally, she will pay rent every month and I won't have to think about a double mortgage situation for at least the next year.

I actually still can't believe it. Every week after we moved out without a renter I got more and more anxious.  It's such a tiny condo-what if no one wants to live there?  I was already trying to figure out where I could tolerate working for a second job and how I would ever find the energy to do it. I tend to be surprised when everything works out according to plan while Mj expects it. Getting a renter was the last thing that I really needed to work out for me and just in the nick of time....it did.  Throughout this whole house hunting, home buying, and rental property journey he has said over and over "Don't worry. It will all work out." Did I listen? NO. Did it work out? YES!

My only explanation for all of this is Mj-who incidentally just so happens to be one of those charmed ones. My general outlook and my life has totally changed since he entered it. I was lonely and depressed with little expectation or hope for better. I wore my misery and independence like a badge of honor and faced life in general with a mild sense of dread. The way I saw it life is hard. Happiness and fulfillment is promised to no one so you better just learn to deal with it. Fast forward two years and I am genuinely happy, planning a wedding with the man of my dreams, decorating our house and feeling an overall sense that life may not be perfect but the good in it far outweighs the bad. I still tend towards pessimism but no longer see gloom and doom lurking around EVERY corner. While I'd like to take 100% credit for this change I can't. Mj is the catalyst of all of this.  He has changed my life and I hate to think of where I'd be right now if I'd never met him.

I know that this doesn't mean that nothing bad will ever happen. Not even the charmed ones can count on that.  Maybe Mj's good luck has rubbed off on me a little but I still don't count myself as one of them. It doesn't even mean that I will stop worrying because chances are I will always be a worry wart-it's just the way I'm wired. However, it does mean that my panic meter goes down a few notches and my happy meter goes up. It means I no longer feel the heavy weight of the world sitting on my shoulders and every set back won't feel like the end of the world. It also means that I can finally say, "life is good." In the past those words would never EVER cross my lips under any circumstances. I was just too sad. So no matter what happens down the road of life I know that I have come an incredibly long way and that alone is something to be happy about.

The Reluctant Landlord

I held onto the property management contract as long as I could but they told me they recommend 45 days out to properly market my unit so I had no choice but to get it together and send it out. I signed the contract. I made copies of my keys. I took photos. I Inquired about a landlord policy. Mj finished up a few minor repairs. All of this in preparation for something I never wanted in the first place.

When I bought this tiny condo 5 years ago I fully expected that I would live there for the rest of my life. No balcony, no in unit laundry, and street parking but it was affordable for me on my own and I'd never have to move again. While frustratingly small at times and suffocatingly hot in the Summers it was brand newly renovated and it was enough for just me. I was tired of crappy apartments and never knowing how much my rent might go up year to year and this seemed like the ONLY way I might ever get even a small piece of real estate in an outrageously priced housing market. Yes, it was settling a bit as I have done with rentals in the past but I am no stranger to making sacrifices for budget. I had no intention of meeting anyone, falling in love and totally outgrowing said studio. But it happened and I have to adapt accordingly considering there was no way I could convince Mj to stay there forever with me or buy the house and get a roommate. Not that I necessarily wanted to.

I have had passing visions of how wonderful it would be to live in a house again some day and not have to settle. I left quiet suburbia of my parent's home for city apartments in sometimes questionable neighborhoods about 6 months after college graduation and have not made it back there yet. I envision myself washing my car in my very own driveway and doing my laundry inside my very own house. I would have a garage to park my car and a bike if I want one. There are extra closets to store things. I could have guests over and do a little entertaining. I'd sit outside in my backyard reading a book with a glass of wine and be able to take walks in my own neigborhood. Seeing as how I have saddled myself with a condo and a property value that has dropped more then 50% since I bought it the only way for this to happen is to rent it out. Selling is not an option and neither is paying two mortgages.

In preparation I started a condo fund. Over the last year once I accepted that this was inevitable I began transferring what I could spare into this account to cover any expenses that might crop up. I contemplated renting it myself but decided that at this point it's not something I want to undertake on my own.

I have three major fears where this is concerned.

1. Not finding a tenant.
2. Having said tenant destroy my property or stop paying rent causing me to have to evict them.
3. Having to rent it at a huge deficit.

Rental rates are down and there is so much competing inventory out there for renters. Ideally, I'd like to rent the place for an amount that would cover my mortgage and HOA but realistically that might not happen. This is the last piece that I need to fall into place.

The place is listed and I have a little over 30 days for someone to decide they want live there.

Clutter Crazy

I am not allowed to do dishes anymore. Mj found hamburger meat in one of the pans and bleu cheese on one of the plates after I "washed" them. The problem is not that I am a miserable dishwasher. I can clean with the best of them. I am not the greatest cook but I always try to make sure I am the one who does the dishes and cleans the kitchen to compensate. The problem is that I can't see. By the time I get home from work it's dark. By the time we finish eating dinner it's even darker and the kitchen light has been broken since well before Mj came back. I am in there scrubbing pots and pans and plates that I can't even actually tell if I've gotten clean because of the poor lighting. Mj just has to re wash everything and so I have been banned. I will definitely get in there on the weekends but apparently during the week it's just not such a good idea until that light is fixed.

That is just one more challenge of my current living space. The other issue is clutter. Everywhere. I can't find my socks or anything else. I can barely shove my clothes into drawers. Every surface has stuff on it. It is driving me MAD!! I don't know how those obsessive hoarders can stand being buried in all that stuff. Of course it is an illness and I am beginning to think I have one too but in reverse. Realistically, I know I do not have OCD but I definitely do have an issue with clutter. I need to be organized. I need the counter tops to be empty. I need for everything to be in it's place at least most of the time. Right now it is impossible to have hardly anything in it's place because there is barely a place for anything and it is quite simply driving me nuts.

Organization is more then just having everything in it's place for me. When my living space is out of whack I feel like my life is too. Same thing with my finances and my food but that's a whole other blog post. I guess it's some kind of control thing and it comes in handy at times to be so disciplined in these areas but right now it's just driving me crazy. Right now I would really like to be able to see my pajamas laying across the bed haphazardly [instead of forcibly cramming them into the too small drawer] and not care one way or another. I'd rather see a messy pile of paperwork on the table and not care if it stays there or not. I want to put things away and organize but there is no space to do it. So there things sits and there isn't anything I can do about it. I have already done everything I can to maximize my space. I can't believe I'm saying this but I have kind of given up. Not totally of course , but I am just accepting there isn't much I can do. Which is probably a good thing.

I can hardly believe I have lived in such a small space for so many years. Most people I know can't even imagine such a thing. When I tell them I live in a studio their eyes kind of bug out a little. It is definitely not ideal but I did what I had to do.

The close proximity to Mj doesn't bother me at all. I actually enjoy having him right there all the time. The idea of him being far far away in another room or downstairs when I am upstairs in bed actually feels kind of lonely. Right now we can pretty much see each other and talk to each other all the time from any location. Where he is I am and vise versa. That's kind of what happens in a studio and I kinda like that part.

But, if it means that I will have enough room in my closet and less crap shoved into every nook and cranny I am really thinking that I could probably get used to it. I know he's coming to bed eventually even if he is in a far away land down the hall.

We Are Officially House Hunters

When I was a little girl back in the days when I used to live at home and share a room with my big sis I used to cry in the morning when I overslept and woke up late. Even then, as a youngster there was that whole sense of some sort of loss of control and fear having to do with something so unplanned. Yes, I am a control freak and even if I wasn't able to identify with that back as a youngster I am sure that's where the tears came from.

So, I don't cry anymore when I oversleep but it still sucks. Good thing it doesn't happen all that often. Yeah, because of the whole control freak thing I often double and triple check that my alarm is set just to avoid this so I don't know what happened. I woke up at 6:30am and needed to be at work at 7:00am. It's about a 20 minute drive so basically I managed to get out of the house in 14 minutes [I was 4 minutes late].

Last weekend was a three day weekend but exhausting nonetheless. The day I found my dress I was out house hunting all day and then dress hunting by night. When I was trying on dresses I felt like I was on Say Yes To The Dress and during the day I felt like I was on House Hunters. Without the video camera's of course. Mj and I LOVE that show and watch it non stop. Saturday was our very first day of going out and looking. Sunday we went to Mj's friend's house to watch football and then there was more house hunting on Monday. I couldn't go out today because I have to work but Mj looked at a great condo that is a short sale. It looks like we are actually going to put in an offer on it just as soon as he can shuttle the paperwork back and forth between me and our realtor. I'm not too worried that I haven't even seen it. He is way pickier then I am so I trust his judgement. With so much competition you have to move quick.

House hunting is tough right now. There is inventory out there but in our target area there are lots of foreclosures and short sales. You might have 10+ offers for every property and often times you get priced out because some are paying over asking price. I am READY to move. It's been close to five years in a 400 square foot studio and I think it's time. I am yearning for room to put things and space to exist because right now we really have none. Things are so cluttered sometimes I can't even stand it. Clutter aggravates me to no end and in a space that small with two people it's inevitable. Everywhere I turn there is clutter and stuff crammed into every nook and cranny. The lower bar on my closet where my clothes hang perpetually wrinkled fell down because it's so overloaded.

I am working on our budget and even after having all of this time to digest this the thought of taking on another mortgage and simultaneously taking on a rental property is extremely frightening. There is so little margin for error financially. All it takes is one month without a renter to smash my carefully thought out little budget to pieces.

I just have to take a deep breath and hope for the best on this one and hopefully that is what we will get.

  Cont'd: House Hunting Stress

Living In A Studio With My Fiance

So, Mj has been back for two weeks and it has been absolutely wonderful. It is so nice having someone to come home to every night. Someone to hang out with and laugh with at home instead of just being alone all the time. He is my cuddle bear and it's so nice to have him by my side and in my bed at night! He's taking a break and doesn't go back to work until next month making it that much harder for me to get out of bed in the morning. Who wants to go to work when there is a cuddly snuggle bear in your bed?
He fixed the garbage disposal. I thought I'd have to replace my door lock because it gets so tight every year when it gets cold so that sometimes I am afraid that I won't be able to even get in my house. Mj figured out that all it needed was just a little WD-40. It's nice having a man around! They just know things. Things that I as a kinda girly girly never would.

The man can cook and I must say that I find it very sexy. He can throw together all kinds of things without using a cook book. He [we sort of] have made some delicious meals. I am basically his assistant seeing as how I am and always have been pretty clueless when it comes to that but he makes me want to do better. I want to be able to cook a nice dinner for my husband and maybe I'll start out with cook books.  I won't be as good as him but I will do it. We went grocery shopping this week. My cupboards have never been so stocked in the almost five years that I have lived here.





There are now two people, two people's stuff, and only about 397 square feet between us in my little studio. We have a new flat screen TV now, I have a new white desk, and the futon is on the other side of the room and the bed is where the futon is, and there is an extra closet now but you get the idea. Before he got here I'd look around and wonder, how in the world are we going to be able to make this work? I outgrew this place with just me and my stuff years ago. There is basically no storage and I've had to bring in two additional portable closets and utilize a lot of under bed storage bins to make space for my clothes. I did what I could to create additional space for him with the extra closet, clearing drawers, throwing stuff away and just hoped for the best. His entire apartment was put in storage before he went to Kosovo and he has with him the stuff he brought there and any additional things he's accumulated while there so it's been OK so far. There are about 5 storage bins of various other items that my parents are letting us store in their garage and this will just have to do for now.



I can be a bit of a neat freak about certain things but I am finding that I am doing OK with the set up. Mj has just a couple little messy habits as many of us do but they are very minor and he is just such a spectacular guy that it doesn't even bother me that much. I can get a bit particular when it comes to wanting clear table tops. Mj has a tendency to come in and empty his pockets and put stuff down haphazardly so I have used baskets for him to put miscellaneous items in that I just don't like to see scattered about. The reality is, that there really just isn't much space to put things but I think that we are going to be OK.

The anxiety and depression that I could feel creeping into my soul is gone. This may sound corny and yes it is straight from the movie Jerry Maguire, but he completes me. He really does. He is my rock. I am a better and happier person because he is around. Somehow nothing seems as frightening or impossible when he is by my side.
If we can manage to live in less then 400 square feet of space for however long it takes us to end up in a new home then that's just one more thing in addition to the whole eleven months apart that we have managed to get through together. These things will only make us stronger and I can think of no one else that I would want to go through any of this with other then Mj.

I Think I Love My Husband

-MJ in Kosovo-

Ok so I don't think, I know. Oh, how I love my husband....err, Fiance.  There are seriously times that I have to pinch myself just because I cannot believe that I got lucky enough to have such a wonderful man. Yesterday during our usual lunch break phone session he told me all the reasons that he loved me. He was so sleepy and as it got closer to the end of my lunch break and closer to his bedtime I could tell he was dozing off. I don't get offended. Hey, it's late and the guy is tired. Even so, he didn't want to get off the phone until our full hour was up even though I kept saying, "just go to bed."

Today he sent me an e mail out of the blue just saying he was thinking about me. When I asked him what made him think about me today he just said that he is always thinking about me. This day is no different than any other-he just so happened to tell me about it in an e mail.  My heart...melting. Oh, and did I mention how absolutely sexy and adorable he is?

Sometimes the phone relationship gets old. I get frustrated and irritable and I told him as much today. He always more than makes up for those frustrations just by continuing to be him and I love him for it. "Awww....how cute, they must still be in the honeymoon phase.  It won't last," is what they say.  Well, we have been together long enough that we are definitely past that point. True, during the time that we have been together he has been deployed for almost half of it, but long distance relationships come with its own set of potential pitfalls and we have held up just fine through the worst of it thus far. I know the true test comes when he comes back and we shack up in my studio which is small enough for one person let alone two. On the one hand I say, "We must be crazy!!" but on the other hand I think it will be good for us to know we can get through something like that. Regardless, this will be our home for however long it takes us to find a house. Space will be limited. We're gonna get on each other's nerves. My neat freak tendencies are going to be sent into overdrive and will probably drive us both crazy. We will disagree. We might argue. Bring it. I'm ready.