Moving On And Moving Out

I owe you all quite the explanation. We moved. Over a month ago now. We knew moving was inevitable but the way it happened was so shocking that we are just now finally feeling somewhat settled again. Let me explain...

I believe it was a Wednesday. I heard the sound of the mailman dropping the mail in the slot on the outside of our house. I took note and then kept doing whatever E and I were working on. Around 12 I opened the door, grabbed the mail, and noticed something from a lawyer. I opened it quickly as It struck me as odd.

Back up a bit. On the 13th of August our house was going up for auction. Because we had an offer on our house (which was actually friends of ours) the auction date should have been postponed. Long story short..it wasn't. So we had been waiting to hear what the next step would be. We had assumed we would be given about 30 days so at the time that I received this letter we believed we had 20 days left.

We didn't.

The letter had a whole bunch of legal speak, but the one thing that stood out was the part that said we had 10 days after the auction date to be out of our house. That meant TODAY! I called Josh in a panic and he left work to come deal with everything. After a little chat with the lawyer (because certainly no one sends a letter through regular mail saying they expect you to move within a few hours right?) we found out that yes that's exactly what they expected but they would let us be out by Sunday night. Reasonable if it weren't for the fact that we had to be out of town for business that weekend.

So, a quick message to friends and we had a whole moving crew at our disposal. It was amazing. I should add that I was only 8 weeks pregnant so very few people understood why this move was even harder for me. I was sick, tired, and couldn't lift much. Good thing for friends who make you sit and relax!

So where are we now? We moved out with not a second to spare and made a quick plea to my parents for us to move in. We have been here since and it truly was a blessing in disguise. It was so helpful having extra hands to help me with Eden when I was too sick to do much. We have our own floor of the house so I think we stay out of each others way for the most part ;) at this point we are just saving up and trying to relax a bit before making any more moves (literally).

I'm thankful to be done. We loved that house but it is just a temporary home. We both recorded videos (unbeknownst to one another) for our kids to watch one day to see our first house. We learned so much and are so thankful for every moment of those lessons..even when I was in tears at times. It was hard, but we have been blessed so much through it. Thank all for your love and support!

Bye little bungalow!

I Did It All By Myself

Or better known as...how I surprised Josh with a big, giant mess in our master bedroom.

One day a week Josh goes into the office for a 4 hour shift. Knowing this, I decided it was time to do something all on my own. I kept it a complete secret from Josh. I crossed my fingers that Eden would take a nap so that I wouldn't have to worry about her health and safety during this process. I got really lucky the day I decided to master a new skill.

At 1:15 in the afternoon I set out into our room with these things in hand. Yep, just ONE tool and a pair of gloves.

Want to know what my target of attack was going to be?

The final bit of carpet left in our entire house. It was the thorn in my side. Little bits of carpet and padding would fall off and I would find them tracked throughout the house. Drove me batty. On top of that our lovely extremely small bladdered dog felt the need to use this as her potty spot during the days that we were A) out of the house for a long period of time or B) it was wet outside and she didn't want to get her paws wet. Spoiled much? Anyway, I was DESPERATE to get rid of this nastiness.

I definitely knew this was something I could do, but I still was a bit hesitant. I mean, I had NEVER ripped up carpet...well besides the day that we toured the house when we were getting ready to buy and I snuck into the closet to see if there was wood flooring underneath, THERE WAS! Hello captain obvious.

The first step was to rip up the carpet.

Next, I knew I had to get rid of that awful padding. I just pulled up and carefully maneuvered it out of the staples that were holding on for dear life.

The next step is removing all of the staples that were holding down that carpet. For some this task may be easy, for others this may be the most daunting project every. It may have you cursing, even if you have never cursed in your life. Thankfully ours fell more towards the easy side. We were quite lucky with all of the carpet in our house, whoever installed the icky carpet over the gorgeous hardwoods was at least smart enough to not do too much damage. Thank you carpet installer. I will say that some staples were particularly hard to pry out with the pliers so I would usually just move on to another one for awhile...otherwise I would get a bit persistent and would let the pliers dig into the hardwoods in order to get that staple out. I am semi very stubborn like that so it is best for me to take a break before I do permanent damage.

The next task on the list is to remove the tack strips. These are ridiculous and while they do not take much time to pull up, you can very easily damage your floors. Instead of being super woman and pulling them up, I decided to just leave it to the pro a.k.a the husband. Although I would have liked to have the entire project done before he arrived home, I decided that having damaged floors would probably make him too frustrated to realize just how great of a wife I was to pull up the carpet in the first place. See my dilemma? So, I left them knowing that he would be able to pull it up super quick and figuring he would still be thankful for the little work that was left. I was right. It took him 2 minutes and he was thankful that I didn't attack the floors with a crowbar (that was what I planned to do). So if in doubt, let someone else do it.

Want to see the final result? No? Okay then I won't show you. Just teasing...

See that collage of photos on the ground? That frame has been sitting there since we moved in over a year ago. It is supposed to be hanging above our clothes on that back wall. A certain someone in our house who shall remain nameless has yet to follow through on that assignment. The shorter person in the house is crossing her fingers that this post will spur him on to check it off the list. I'll let you know if it works...

Oh that's right...you are all curious about what is up higher. It really isn't very pretty. I have plans to attack the closet with a paint brush and try to make it a little more organized and fun in there. I mean, who wants to pick out clothes in a bland closet? Yeah, didn't think so. Okay, don't say I didn't warn you...

See, I told you. And yes, Josh and I both fit our clothes into this one tiny "walk in" closet. Our nightstands are also full of undergarments and such, but other than that the closet is where it is at. We are trying to live by the "less is more" standard. Basically if it doesn't fit in the closet then it can't live here...okay this only applies to clothes...not children, animals, or any other living thing, just wanted to clarify. Yes, I have become quite the minimalist. Although, we do have a dresser located in our basement that does have off season items as well as all of the clothes that didn't fit me while I was pregnant....and still don't...another ranting for another day.

I have also been trying to keep it real on here so I am going to tell you something that I never admit. If you come over to my house and think I have everything all neat and tidy and put together all the time well you are very wrong my friend. See, I can clean with the best of them, but sometimes I just don't have the time. Want to know my secret? Here she is...

A laundry basket. There is typically always one hiding in our closet full of stuff that I just don't feel like putting away or don't have the time to put in the right location. Josh loves it. Oh by the way, complete sarcasm, he can't stand it and is always trying to get me to put everything away. My thought is...at least it's not on the floor. In fact, my closet is always my downfall. I can keep the rest of the house spotless, but I always have one place where I feel like I need some chaos. I feel like a bit of chaos is good for my perfectionist ways. Got to keep the balance.

So all this to say, go forth and prosper! Not really. What I actually wanted to say was that I encourage you to push yourself to do something you have never done before in your home. Be courageous. Obviously I picked something that wasn't super scary, but I am sure I could have screwed it up. Doesn't take much for me. Even you renters can find some projects around your home that won't do permanent damage, I am sure of it. I also want to make a full disclosure that even though I did this without Josh's knowledge, he was fully in support of getting rid of the carpet. I would never do something that he wouldn't be okay with. That's just how we roll.

Obviously it is much too late for me to be awake because my jokes are just pathetic today. Who am I kidding? I should say EVERY day. Glad you all love me anyway! Oh and yes, I do realize I owe you some pretty pictures. If this post didn't feel like a novel already I would add some, but alas it is rather long so I will make you wait. Hopefully not for long.

Happy Birthday!

1 year.

It has been a full year since we moved into our home. Honestly, we are so in love with our house...and just keep falling more and more. Yes, there are leaks in the basement, crazy wiring throughout the house, odd layouts, and more...but the truth is, we love each and every quirk of our house (even if our wallets don't love it as much). Our biggest desire was to have a house of our own. We had made a personal goal to own a home before starting a family and amazingly enough we found out we were having Eden right when we were due to close....although it was extended out another month. We have so many ideas for this house and are still anxious to get started on many of the projects we have in mind. So, in honor of our houses' birthday (he is turning 81 this year!), we thought we would do a list of our 2011 goals. Yes, I realize that most people did these in conjunction with the New Year, but as usual I just can't be a rule follower. Some of these goals may be more personal than house related, but I figured they might as well all go together because I want them to.


House Goals:
- Pull out closet carpet
- Paint trim in hallway, living room, and (hopefully) the master bedroom
- Paint the hallway
- Put up a gallery wall in the hallway
- Frost bathroom window to allow for more light
- Put in new window treatments in the living room and master bedroom
- Organize the basement (updating storage areas)
- Take updated house photos
- Reno the one and only bathroom (fingers crossed that we can do this in '11)
- Rewire the entire house (this one is scary...and expensive...)

Yard Goals:
- New bark dust where needed
- Plant LOTS of tulip bulbs
- Make and start a compost bin
- Do round 2 of a veggie garden
- Add sunshine loving plants to our front porch (everything we put there fries in the sun)
- Make the backyard more "user friendly"

Now we don't just have house and yard goals, we also have some personal and blog goals as well. I feel these tie in nicely to this post since our blog was created to chronicle the good, bad, and ugly of our lives as we looked for and purchased our first home. Our personal goals are important because many of them are geared towards making us better stewards of our money and in turn using money that we have saved to make this house what we envision it to be (and we have a LOT of safety concerns in this house).




Blog Goals:
- We want to GROW! Not necessarily in readership (although we wouldn't mind that), but we just want to expand what we are doing. Basically this is just a challenge to ourselves to push beyond our comfort level which will make us have more fun and exciting things to share on here. Oh and make Josh write something every once in awhile. 
- Name change. This one we are contemplating. We still like our name, but I kind of came up with it in 5 seconds (our last name makes people think of birds and birds have nests...done). We have one particular one in mind, but still aren't confident that its the direction we want to go. Sometimes I like changes, sometimes I don't...not sure which one I am leaning towards at the moment. 
- Make it pretty (my words, not Josh's). I really want to push myself to learn coding a bit more and make the blog more user friendly and useful. It makes me want to pee my pants to do something so scary, but thankfully I have two pairs of pants so I can always change... ;)




Personal Goals:
- Live healthier lives (we are already doing this! Loving the P90 Beachbody system)
- Keep daily cleaning routines
- Learn to TRUST God (we did this in making the big leap to have me stay at home)
- Be social. Josh is social, I am not. We want to have friends over so this is my push to do so.
- Become a crazy coupon lady. Okay, not really, but I have been couponing for a few months now and I am really loving all of the savings. Don't worry, I am not hardcore or anything.
- Do a spending freeze (we are in the midst of one that we started in January and will last through February)
- Become Dave Ramsey. We don't want to be him, but we would love to be like him.
- Organize. Our lives. Our home. 
- Grow Josh's real estate business. 
- Continue going outside of my comfort zone in photography (Mallory). See photo below, I just submitted it to be considered for a website...YIKES...I must be sleep deprived thinking that I even have a chance...

So, there you have it. A big giant post celebrating our house and a whole lot of things that we need to get started on or 2011 will just make me feel like a big giant failure. Let's not have that happen mmmm'kay? 


I do plan on doing a video tour of our house one of these days. The thing is, I REALLY don't want you all to know that my house is messy. No seriously, it is giving me hives thinking of you traipsing around my house looking at all my piles of stuff and thinking, "man, Mallory...you got yourself one dirty house. What kind of woman are you anyway!?" See, that is just not something I want to hear. I like to pretend that I am clean so exposing myself would hurt my imagination immensely. 


Happy Birthday House...we LOVE you! 




**Don't forget to enter our very first giveaway right HERE. Only 10 days left!**

Let 'Er Rip

So just because we had a baby does not mean we have totally fallen off the face of the DIYosphere. Look it up, it's in the dictionary...maybe the dictionary I made up...but in the dictionary nonetheless. 


I have truly been aching to get my hands dirty in the house (other than by changing diapers 24/7). I actually have two projects on the brain right now...ok well I have a lot, but two that are doable within the next month. The update that we made was actually done by Josh. I had no part in it, other than to say that I wanted it done. My excuse is that I was working full-time and just did not have a free moment to help...oh and because my wonderful hubby decided to do it without even telling me so in my defense I really couldn't help. 


Now, on to the project at hand. One of the first big projects we took on in our house was ripping up the carpet. I had peeked underneath it when we were first purchasing the home to make sure that the original hardwoods were still intact. Not only were they intact, but they looked in fairly decent condition. Well, we Josh ripped up the carpet in the living room, hallway, and Eden's room while I was busy cooking up a baby...seriously, I shouldn't have even stated that, but oh well. The one room we didn't get to during the pregnancy was our bedroom. 


When we were moving in we had decided that our master bedroom would be the last one that we focused on. Now, that wouldn't be what we would usually do or recommend to anyone...I think the master bedroom should always be a focus. However, in our house, the master was the room that needed the least amount of work, and we felt that it looked "good enough" to just leave as is since we had other rooms that desperately needed our attention. I still think this was a good idea because the room, although not perfect, still has a romantic touch to it and we are happy with what we have for now. So, without further adieu, here is the before and after of our in progress master bedroom...

BEFORE

(The serious BEFORE from our first showing)

AFTER

As long as you ignore the green tinted floors (seriously don't know why three rooms out of four have green flooring), the room is  actually looking fairly decent. Oh and please ignore the lump in the bed, that is our firstborn daughter, a.k.a Bella the dog, in the spot she frequents the most. Honestly, she is in bed from 10 p.m. until 2 p.m. the next day. It is ridiculous. Anyway, we still have a rug to add and some other touches, but for now I am just so happy to be rid of the carpet. Josh and I absolutely love hardwoods so it is nice to be rid of all most of it. That is right, there is still more.  Thankfully all that is left is a small square in our master bedroom closet which should take just a couple of hours to rip up and then we will be free from carpeting. I. CANNOT. WAIT. 

Living Room Reveal

We have been working away at making our living room feel less like a mix of unmatched furniture and more like a comfy and welcoming place to relax. While we have many rooms that we plan to renovate, the living room was the one that I picked as a MUST DO before the baby arrives. Now that it is nearly there (a few elements will have to wait until after baby) we can focus on Eden's room. In case you forgot...here are a few photos from when we moved in...

BEFORE

AFTER

(That table you see above is not staying, it was set up for a party. In its place will be a future project we have in store)

We finally had a sunny day so I could get some pictures of the space. This also happened on the day of the party so you get a sneak peak of party decorations as well. Here are the things we have done in this space: bought a new couch, chair, chandelier, rug, and some accessories. We pulled up the carpet to reveal the beautiful dark hardwoods that were living below. We painted the walls (twice). Put up curtains. Added new tile to the fireplace hearth. We did a lot of other small things that cannot necessarily be seen, but adds to the efficiency of our house. One of these changes was replacing the weather stripping around our front door. Let me tell you, it is a simple change, but really saves on energy usage.

We are not done with this room, but we are very close. We still want to paint the trim a bright glossy white, repaint the fireplace in that same bright white, add bamboo blinds to the windows, and make a desk/entry table for the back wall. We also need to purchase a few more pillows as well as two ottomans to replace the coffee table for a safe place for Eden to play as well as a place to put all of her toys. We will update more as more changes take place. Now off to work on our little girl's room...

Bungalow Full of Updates

I have been absent from the blog. I am sorry for that. I never could have imagined how little time I had for the computer once we moved into this house. We have been renovating and updating every moment of every day. Our goal before the baby gets here is to "finish" the living room. When I say finish I don't actually mean having every single little detail done, because honestly this room is going to evolve over time. However, I wanted it to feel comfortable and livable. I figure Josh and I will be spending lots of time snuggling Baby Crain (and Bella too!) in our living room so we wanted it to feel like home. It has been amazing to us how quickly this house really has become our home. We fall more in love with it each and every day. We will both admit that every once in awhile we are overwhelmed thinking of all the projects we want to get done, but it dissipates quickly because honestly we would be bored if we didn't have a million and one projects on our to do list. Will all that said, here are some sneak peeks at our in progress living room.

Yes I realize the pictures are dark and blurry. I did have a reason for that, and the reason is that we are not ready to reveal the full living room just yet. That would be why its called "in progress" folks. New photos will be coming soon!

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Baby Crain Update:

Our little mermaid is moving and grooving in my belly. Feeling the kicks is such a weird and amazing feeling. It makes me realize there REALLY is a real live baby growing in there, I'm not just getting fat. Seriously this belly is growing at amazing rates. The really exciting news is we are THIS CLOSE to knowing if the merbaby is a maid or a man. I do have a theory about what we are having. See, I have come to the conclusion that you have the opposite of whatever gender your pet is (if you have one that is). I am sure someone can prove me wrong on this one, but I only have so many examples to go by and each and every one proves my theory. So, according to this theory of mine Bella is going to have a brother. We will know very soon whether or not my theory is proven correct.


Thanks all for hanging around for my update. I would certainly provide more details, but I just don't have any right now.

House Tour: Before

 Thank you all for your sweet comments about the baby! We are so thankful for each and every one of you!

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Welcome to the much anticipated post, the pictures of the INSIDE of our new home. These will all be before pictures as we bought this house with the intent of renovating. Renovations won't be happening all at once, we are choosing to save up for each project and do one at a time. This may not be the way that everyone likes to work, but we feel this is the best for our family. Plus, after just over a month of living here we have already changed our minds about a few of the renovations so we are thankful to be taking our time so we can really get to know this house. Without further ado, please meet our house...

Living Room

Kitchen

Dining Nook

Bathroom

Baby's Room 

Master Bedroom

There is also a basement and a backyard to be seen, but that's for later. Hope you enjoyed the small house tour. As we update the house we will share the "after" photos. Thanks for joining us!

Honey, I'm Home!

We are still here! It has been just about a month since the last time I posted and for that I apologize. Our lives have been so chaotic that I have not had even one single second to sit down and blog about it. Here is a quick summary of what was keeping us so busy...


For seven weeks our apartment looked like this...

 

...and we were living here...

 

 

...and then after a two month process we moved out of both places to here!

 

 After many days and nights of pure stress leading up to the closing, we finally get to call this little bungalow our own. We definitely had to work hard to make it ours. There were tears, anger, frustration, but in the end we just found ourselves loving this house even more. We started the process in mid-November with a closing date of January 7. Well, due to our evil lender (well, we think they are evil after everything we were put through) we didn't have our closing until February 4. You know what? I would never admit it to the lender, but everything worked out in its own special timing. Yes it made for a very stressful move since we were paying to house our boxes in our apartment for an extra few weeks, but in the end it really didn't matter. We are here, and we are happy. 

I also have to say living with my parents ended up working out okay for both Josh and I. I am sure there were times we were all ready to be apart, but it was nice to be able to spend some quality time with them. Plus, I cannot lie...having mom cook meals almost daily was quite amazing. Don't worry, we compensated in our own ways! All in all the whole experience ended up being a great blessing. My parents provided us with a nice place to stay and we were able to keep them company as they got used to life without my sister around (who is now living on a missionary base in South Africa!). By the way, their house is up for sale so if you have a few extra thousand to spend I would recommend a look (shameless plug). 

I promise I will be back with some details on the new house which will of course include some pictures. Stay tuned!

Designer Radar

Josh and I made an exciting discovery while packing away all of our belongings for our HUGE move all the way down the road (yes we are moving 1 mile away and yes I act like it's to Antarctica). For any of you that enjoy design as much as we do, please realize this is very exhilarating.

This lady puts the wind in my sails. I LOVE her like peanut butter loves jelly. It's that serious. For those of you not in the know, Sarah Richardson has top shows on HGTV Canada. Well, while I was slaving away sitting on my bum drooling over the usual HGTV shows, up pops Sarah's House. As in the best show. As in, I would move to Canada just because I truly believe her talent would rub off on me. Hey, a girl can dream. Alright, I am back from my tangent now. All this to say if you enjoy design or DIY or renovation or smart and pretty ladies, then keep your eyes out for Sarah's House. It. Won't. Disappoint. Need proof? Check out her web site full of delicious eye candy. Now if only we can figure out when the next episode is, we don't want to miss a minute!

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House Update:

We have not moved in yet and we are not keeping anything from you. We are set to move in this week, but are ready for whatever ends up happening. Thank you all for your support and kind wishes! Those who know us know that owning a home has been a dream for us and something we have been working very hard for so we are excited to embark on this new journey. We did visit the house today and it was hard not to start up on the projects right then and there. Our anticipation is growing and we can't wait to share each step with you all. And in one particular Bachelorette's words, "fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride!"

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Good Things Come...

...to those who wait.


Before we revealed the surprise to all our lovely readers we wanted to tell our parents first. We like Bella to be involved in all surprises for my parents because no matter what our surprise is they have to be excited because they love their "granddaughter" so much. We thought it was only fitting to reveal our surprise to you the same way. So, here is the book that Bella "brought" to my parents.

 

"Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

This year I have been extra good so Santa says he will bring me something really nice. I wanted to show you all of the things I asked Santa to bring me. I thought you might want to see what was on my list..."

"First I asked Santa for a ball. I like to chase balls a lot, but I especially like to chew on them. Sadly, when I chew on them, mommy and daddy have to throw them away...they say the pieces will make me sick."

 

"Then I asked Santa for a bone. Not just any old bone, a big, long, meaty one. I don't think mommy and daddy will let me have one so I asked Santa to leave it at your house."  

 

 "Next I asked Santa for a puppy. I would really like a brother or a sister and mommy and daddy don't seem to be listening to me. As much as I like to be the baby of the family, I would like another pup around the house so I can chase it and show it whose boss."

"After that I asked for a kitty. Grandma always calls me kitty so I figured she wanted one. Actually, I did not ask for a kitty...I don't even like kitties. Kitties are like nails on a chalkboard, please don't get me one." (sidenote: Bella doesn't hate kitties, she just hasn't spent much time around them).

"The last thing I asked for was king of big. It was so big that I didn't think Santa would be able to get me one for a long time. I asked Santa for a yard. Not one that I have to visit, but one that I could go to anytime I wanted. One that I could play in for hours. Thankfully Santa didn't think that gift was too big at all. In fact, he didn't even wait for Christmas to give it to me. Turn the page and you will see what I mean..."

"My New Home!!"

Yes, it is true. The Crain's are homeowners! I know that we have had to stretch the truth a bit to you, but it was all innocent I promise. With our experience in real estate we knew how many things could go wrong in the process so we weren't ready to announce it to the world yet. In fact, nothing is final until we move in which we have not done yet. We are set to move in mid January so we will keep you posted. We have many plans for this little gem and you can expect to hear all about it...like it or not. We do plan to share our experience in the home buying process...especially since ours is a bit different than most. Also, we have LOTS of renovation plans for this little bungalow of a nest and we will share our thoughts on that later on as well.

Thank you all for sticking with us while we kept the secret from you longer than we had anticipated. Please feel free to ask questions and we will do our best to answer them. We will be back soon with all the dirty details.

Secrets Don't Make Friends

We have been keeping a secret from you...





A secret so large that I have avoided the blog...





Well, maybe not large...





More like fairly large...




Or small...




Depends on how you look at it...




You can scroll down now, but all you will find is...




Well, NOTHING.


Its not time to reveal the secret yet so please stop looking. When will this secret come out you ask? Only time will tell. :) Well, the truth is we should be ready to tell you in a couple of weeks, we just have to get a few things in order. I do promise to tell you the moment I can.

Oh and for all of you who we have already revealed the secret to (or you already figured it out) please do not spoil it for everyone else. Just pretend like you don't know!

Thanks for sticking with us and being patient!