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Dear Jack: The 1st Week Of Living In Our New House

4 years, 2 months.

Dear Jack: The First Week Of Living In Our New House

Dear Jack,

After closing on our house last Thursday night, we began moving in some of our things into our new house from our friends’ house where we had been living in between. Then Mommy and I took off work on Friday to prepare for the official move on Saturday.

I had been saying, and still am saying, that it’s important to keep my expectations realistic (meaning low) as we move in. I’m not expecting everything to work out perfectly.

Dear Jack: The First Week Of Living In Our New House

For example, they accidently forgot to install a power outlet in the closet where the cables are set up for Internet. So for a few days after moving in, we had to rely on Internet based on an extension cord draping down from the bathroom sink, running past the toilet, over to our closet.

The builder sent someone over to fix it after the weekend, as it’s covered under the one year warrantee.

Dear Jack: The First Week Of Living In Our New House

However, a few days later, the electrical outlet outside froze over, so we had to get AT&T and the builder over to get that all straightened out.

The weekend of moving, along with our first week in our new house, in had its share of predicted hiccups; like your new bed…

Dear Jack: The First Week Of Living In Our New House

There were absolutely no instructions in the box whatsoever!

Well, actually, some of the pieces had an “L” label on them for “left” and some an “R” for “right,” but only some of them were actually labelled correctly.

But in the end, Papa was able to figure out how to successfully build it anyway. He definitely has all those mechanical skills that I don’t.

Dear Jack: The First Week Of Living In Our New House

And while Mommy saved us over $700 by ordering our Roman shades offline for all our windows as opposed to hiring someone to install blinds, Papa and I learned just how finicky they are to install.

Something this week has taught me about moving in to a new house is, unless you hire professional movers (which we are too frugal to do), it takes a while to get settled in and set up.

Dear Jack: The First Week Of Living In Our New House

We finally have a 2 car garage, but right now it’s still full of unpacked boxes. I’m hoping by the end of the weekend we will have that taken care of.

So far, nothing has gone perfectly as scheduled, nor have things gone perfectly horrible.

Again, realistic expectations.

Love,

Daddy

How to Keep Your Home Warm During Winter
Infographic via: LivingDirect.com

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Dear Jack: The Final Walk Through/Punch List On Our New House

4 years, 2 months.

Dear Jack: The Final Walk Through/Punch List On Our New House

Dear Jack,

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t looking forward to today, which was the final walk through of our new home, where Mommy and I went through the “punch list” with the builder and our real estate agent.

Turns out, the builder was really cool, and was very quick to place a piece of blue tape on blemish any of us saw. (We left you at school for this visit of our house.)

I was fearing we’d discover something major today. Something that would delay our closing date next week. Nada.

Dear Jack: The Final Walk Through/Punch List On Our New House

All of the blemishes we found can be easily mended by the builder and his men over the next 7 days, before we officially close on our house.

Which, by the way, think about this: We are scheduled to move in next weekend!

We found the head of a screw sticking out from our marble counter top. The ceiling porch light has a big crack in it. One of the fence posts is broken. The smoke alarm needs new batteries. Two of the bulbs in our kitchen light fixture need to be replaced. Some of the brown paint from our yard fence got on the wooden siding of our house.

Dear Jack: The Final Walk Through/Punch List On Our New House

We also noticed some final finishing touches today that weren’t complete last weekend when we visited. The front door is now painted and the inside appears to have a new coat of pain.

Dear Jack: The Final Walk Through/Punch List On Our New House

Today was also our first opportunity to truly survey our backyard. It’s bigger than Mommy and I realized. The fence being in place shows us we actually will own at least 3 or 4 wider of a plot then we knew about.

Dear Jack: The Final Walk Through/Punch List On Our New House

Oh, and here’s a funny story that happened in the midst of all this today…

"periwinkle"

Our next door neighboor’s house, which is being simultaneously built alongside ours, just got its front door and shutters painted.

The neighbors chose “periwinkle” for their accent color. Mommy arrived a few minutes before I did and warned me about it.

By the end of our walk through, about a 2 hour process, the builder had already received enough complaints from all our surrounding future neighbords about the color choice.

Twilight-Sparkle-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-20571945-570-402

So now the color will have to be changed. All is well… our next door neighbors won’t be keeping purple doors and shutters that look they were designed by Twilight Sparkle from My Litte Ponies: Friendship is Magic.

As the building and buying process wraps up, here’s what lies ahead:

In a week, we’ll visit the house again, to make sure they fixed everything on our “punch list” today. From there, we’ll sign the final paperwork and officially close on the sale of our new house.

All Lord willing, of course.

Dear Jack: The Final Walk Through/Punch List On Our New House

Hopefully sometime soon, we’ll finally receive that reimbursement from the sale of our townhouse which occured a few months ago; which I’m aching to write about but I just don’t have closure with yet because I want to know how much money we made. It’s a form of closure for me.

And next weekend, Nana and Papa are coming up to help us make the big move!

We’ve still got a lot more hard work ahead of us…

Love,

Daddy

 

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Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

4 years, 1 month.

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

Dear Jack,

With our closing date just 3 and a half weeks away (January 29th), when we go to visit the progress on our house now, it’s not so much “oh look what they put in!” as much as it is “what else do they need to do before our closing date?”

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

At this rate, we’re mainly just lacking carpet, sod for the yard, and the fence!

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

So now our new home has the dark brown hardwood floors we chose (currently covered with cardboard for protection), shelves in the closets, the toilets, the microwave (which we’ll never use but we know would help the resale value should we ever move, though we never plan to), the dishwasher, and the oven.

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

As for the washer and dryer, those are our responsibilities, but as I recently mentioned, Mommy and I bought those during Christmas break.

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

And as a family, we bought our refrigerator at Lowe’s, using the 10% off coupon we received when we moved out of our town home.

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

(I’m still not ready to write to you about that because we’re still unclear how much money we made off the deal… I feel that story is yet unsettled.)

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

You talked Mommy and me into buying you a plastic candy cane on clearance for 50 cents, there at Lowe’s.

After we left Lowe’s, you had way too much fun with that thing when we stopped at Whole Foods to buy groceries.

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

You created a wagon by attaching the candy cane to a grocery basket. While Mommy did the shopping, I ushered you to emptier aisles so that you wouldn’t run into anyone.

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

For the record, the “emptier aisles” at Whole Foods were the soda/beverage one and the one with dog food.

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

I admit, there’s a certain amount of stress and anxiety in Mommy and me having to orchestrate the move and all the details that must come together the weekend of January 29th.

Like, for example, I’m in the midst of asking around who I should get Internet through, in Spring Hill.

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

We used AT&T at our townhome in Nashville and we had no problems at all, but I do wonder if we could save some money there?

Dear Jack: Our New Home’s Dark Hardwood Flooring And Black Appliances

What we’re used to paying is $50 a month for just Internet, since we only watch Netflix on our TV.

While the big day approaching will be exciting for our family, I’ll be glad once we get all these loose ends tied and I can know for sure we actually get to move in the weekend of January 29th; and our appliances are installed and working along with the Internet.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: Our Driveway And Surprise Back Porch

4 years.

Dear Jack: Our Driveway And Surprise Back Porch

Dear Jack,

We had not seen the progress on our new home since your 4th birthday two weeks ago. So it was really exciting to see our driveway has now been poured, along with the sidewalk in front of our house; as well as leading up to the front door.

Dear Jack: Our Driveway And Surprise Back Porch

But the bigger surprise was seeing that a back porch has been added on to our house!

Built into the price we are paying was supposed to be a 5×5 foot concrete slab to put patio furniture on.

Instead, they built us a 12×12 back porch.

Dear Jack: Our Driveway And Surprise Back Porch

I suppose it had something to do with the land not being level enough for the originally intended patio. Granted, we’d rather have a back porch anyway.

The way I see it, it’s technically like having a 5th bedroom, or a 2nd bonus room!

Dear Jack: Our Driveway And Surprise Back Porch

Mommy and I are planning on buying a fire pit for the backyard. We truly want to have bonfires on a regular basis, especially in the summer and fall.

Now, we will have a back porch to add to the fun!

Dear Jack: Our Driveway And Surprise Back Porch

Our marble countertops for our bathrooms are now in, which I am proud to see are made in America.

While I carried you around the house, Mommy measured for the Roman Shades we are considering putting up in the windows.

Dear Jack: Our Driveway And Surprise Back Porch

Other points of progress we noticed include the trim being painted and the automatic garage door opener being installed.

In the meantime, our family has officially been moved out of our townhome for a week now, as we’ve begun living with some friends for the next couple of months until our new house is finished.

And I plan to have more exciting news about all this within the week, but we’ll have to see how things go…

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: Our Driveway And Surprise Back Porch

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Dear Jack: Our Blue House Is Being Painted/Our Last Week In Our Townhome

4 years.

Dear Jack: Our Blue House Is Being Painted/Our Last Week In Our Townhome

Dear Jack,

This past weekend, immediately following your 4th birthday party on Saturday, we led my side of the family in a caravan (your Nonna and Papa, along with Aunt Dana, Uncle Andrew, and cousin Calla) to see the progress on our new house we’re building.

As we drove near our cul-de-sac, Mommy yelled with excitement, “It’s blue!”

We had learned last week that the siding is actually made out of wood, and that it would be painted eventually. Well, the painting has definitely began.

2014 Scion FR-S back seat

Mommy was also very happy to see that our marble countertops are in; as well as the kitchen’s bar.

I was particularly happy to see that our garage doors are now in, along with automatic garage door openers; considering as long as Mommy and I have been married and lived in our townhome (over 6 years), we’ve never had a garage for our cars.

Dear Jack: Our Blue House Is Being Painted/Our Last Week In Our Townhome

Each time we visit our new house, I become even more satisfied with our decision to buy it, and therefore, to move out of our townhome.

Which, speaking of…

2014 Scion FR-S back seat

This apparently is our last week to live in our townhome! Mommy and I bought it brand-new in 2008, when we got married, but now it’s time to move out and move on.

Last night as I was saying goodnight to you, at your sleeping bag on top of a foam mat, I explained to you, “Jack, this is our last week to sleep and live in this house, because we’re going to be moving into the new one in January, in a couple months.”

2014 Scion FR-S back seat

At this point, other than mats to sleep on, in addition to enough food and clothing to by this week, our house is empty.

Papa helped Mommy and I move the rest of it to the storage facility over the weekend. Mommy had to secretly pack up two of your favorite stuffed animals in a box: Puppa the puppy and Cheaty the cheetah.

I had the opportunity to see if I could fit in the backseat of the 2014 Scion FR-S that I was reviewing for your birthday week. (I could.)

2014 Scion FR-S back seat

This coming weekend we’ll move our few remaining items in our personal vehicles to our friends’ house where we will be staying until January when our new house is ready.

Exciting times…

Love,

Daddy

2014 Scion FR-S back seat