7 days in comparison

November 2nd: We spent the afternoon enjoying the sunshine and even spalshed in the water table.

November 9th: We spent the afternoon enjoying the snow.

The weather changes fast around here!

First Guests: Evening Walks

I love ending the day with a good walk. Most evenings during my parent's visit, we did just that. My favorite walking moments...

1. The girls taking turns riding the trike and walking the dog. Sometimes there was screaming when the ability to cooperate wavered.

2. Looking for bunnies. Bunnies are just as common here as squirrels and chipmunks. Still, every time I see one I feel like I've spotted a leprechaun.

3. Looking for wildlife significantly less cuddly than bunnies. Ick, spiders! Consider yourself lucky if you can't find them in the photos.

4. Admiring the sunset. Who doesn't love a good sunset?

Seeing the House- Finally!

We survived the first night in Denver. The hotel room was really nice, but sleeping in an unfamiliar bed is always a little strange. Weird noises, odd smells, you know what I mean.

We woke up early, grabbed some free breakfast in the lobby, and headed down to Highlands Ranch. I was finally going to see the house! I'm sure Rick was ready to mess his pants because there was no turning back whether I liked it or not. Picking out a house your wife has never seen must be lot of pressure.

Anyway, we met Jan at the house first thing in the morning. And guess what? I liked it. I really liked it! The floor plan is great, it has some nice built-ins, and the backyard is actually a respectable size. Not huge, but not itty bitty.

The house does need some updating, but it will be fun to do....that's what I keep telling myself anyway. The plumbing fixtures are kind of gross and out of date. The lights in the house are outdated, and some are just really, really ugly. The only other things that need to be replaced are the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, all the sinks, all the countertops, the dishwasher and the washer and dryer. The hardwoods could probably use refinishing too. Most of the walls need minor drywall repair and paint. The basement needs to be finished. NONE of the bedrooms have overhead lights. Neither does the family room or the living room. Did I mention there is a permanent odor coming from the kitchen sink? It's not good odor, by the way.

The carpets aren't bad, though. And, the powder room has a nice faucet. Now that's something!

Even though it was apparent that it needed some things done, I was really excited about the house. Everything I didn't like about it could be changed. The things that can't be changed (the location, the floorplan etc) were awesme. Mad props to Rick for picking a great house!

We went straight from seeing the house to go to the signing. It went smoothly and was uneventful, which is a good thing for a house signing. One thing that I liked was that the seller's agent and our agent was there, which is standard in Colorado. That's unheard of in Washington.

We dropped Rick off to work afterwards and the girls enjoyed seeing Rick's new office. Of course, I love any opportunity to show off the girls.

The rest of the day was pretty lowkey....the girls and I hung out in our hotel room and Fiona took a nice, long nap. She had a little cold and seemed to not be feeling well.

The moving truck was scheduled to arrive the next day. We were looking forward to moving in and starting to get settled!

Hello, Colorado!

The day had arrived.

I woke up realizing there was no turning back (not that I didn't already know it). Our house was sold. Rick had a new job. There was a house in Colorado waiting for us. This was it.

Our flight was late in the morning on Labor day. We had just enough time to eat breakfast, get the girls ready, and pack up without feeling rushed.

My parents drove us to the airport in two cars since we couldn't all fit in one. Rick rode with my Dad in his car and I rode with the girls in my mom's car.

Since we had several bags, plus two car seats (and two energetic girls), we decided to indulge ourselves and use the skycap. My attempts to hold back the tears were unsuccessful as we were unloading our bags, shuffling through boarding passes, and corralling the girls. I hate crying in public. I especially hate crying in front of strangers. Gwen, on the other hand, had already made a friend. A cute little girl named Hannah was in line in front of us and they were talking, giggling, and dancing around like they had been friends for years.

After saying our final goodbyes to my parents, I wiped away the tears and tried to focus on getting though the skycap. Soon I was talking to the mother of Gwen's new friend. Her name was Lindsey and they were also flying to Colorado. Gwen and Hannah were overjoyed to learn they would be on the same flight!

We got through security smoothly and had plenty of time before the flight. We passed the time (and got the wiggles out) in the children's play area.

Gwen's friend Hannah soon showed up at the play area and they had fun spending running around. I also got to talk to Lindsey more and enjoyed getting to know her a little.

Lindsey was very empathetic to my situation. Her husband plays for a major league baseball team, so they have moved over 30 times. During baseball season, she and her family live in whatever city her husband plays for. They also go with him to spring training. During this time Lindsey homeschools the kids. (She has an older son and also a baby girl close to Fiona's age) On the off-season, they live in their hometown in Colorado.

She definitely understood how I felt....going to a city I've never lived in....living for several weeks without my husband. Really, I've just had a taste of what her life has been like for the past 10 years. I felt bad all the complaing I've done for the past two months.

Lindsey and I exchanged phone numbers and she promised to have the girls and me over to play. Since the season was wrapping up, they will be in Colorado until the 2011 spring training. I was excited to already have a friend and we hadn't even gotten on the plane yet! Now let's just hope that her hubby gets traded to the Rockies so they can stay in Colorado for a while.

While waiting for our flight to board, Gwen and Hannah found each other and continued to play. As they talked they discovered that they have the same middle name. From that time forward, Hannah was known as "Hannah with the middle name Rose." So cute.

On the plane, Gwen begged me to sit next to Hannah. We settled on sitting across the aisle from each other.

Fiona was having as much fun as Gwen was. This was her first flight and she was very interested in everything. She loved looking out the window with Gwen.

Eventually the novelty of flying wore off and Fiona started showing signs that she was beyond ready for a nap. The whole back of the plane had already had the pleasure of hearing Lindsey's baby cry for 10 minutes while she rocked her to sleep. Next it was our turn to cause a ruckus. Finally Fiona stopped fighting me and feel asleep. She slept for a good hour on my shoulder. I was so grateful that she was getting some much-needed rest. Notice my new friend Lindsey in the background...

Gwen is old enough now that flying with her is easy. She loved watching a movie and having a special drink...

After we landed we landed the typical chaos following a flight began....baggage claim, hauling luggage around, riding in a smelly, 90 degree van to the off-site park-and-fly that seems decades away from the airport.

We finally got to Rick's car and squeezed (or should I say jammed?) all of our luggage into Rick's tiny Civic. My car was still en route, so we were going to be a one car family for a while.

We arrived at the hotel (the Hyatt Place at Denver Tech Center) and were so glad to sit down and rest for a while. Our room was awesome and every 20 minutes I talked about what an amazing deal we got it for on hotwire.com. I'm a sucker for a good deal.

I loved that there was a couch (actually, it was a huge sectional) that was separated by a little half wall from the sleeping area. We pushed Fiona's crib up against the couch, so when she was in bed, she would be able to see us on the other side. Out of sight, out of mind is definitely true in Fiona's case.

After we got settled, we decided to drive down to the house. We weren't closing till the next day, but Rick was dying to show it to us and we were dying to see it.

We couldn't go in, but we peeked in windows and looked over the fence. It seemed cute and I couldn't wait to actually go inside the next day. The neighborhood seemed really nice too!

Afterwards we went to the local park and then had dinner and Noodles and Company.

Back at the hotel, Rick took Gwen for a quick swim and then it was off to bed. The next day was closing day, so we needed a good nights rest. Not that I could sleep...

The Errand of Angels

I've been blessed with many beautiful, wonderful, amazing girlfriends. I still wonder what I did to become worthy of these ladies.


The night the moving truck left, many of my angelic friends came to my house armed with mops, brooms, and vacuums, ready to take on the task of cleaning my not-so-small house.


These ladies were quick and efficient and cleaned with smiles on their faces. I don't know how many times I apologized for the dust bunnies that rolled across my floor like tumbleweed. At least I didn't have to apologize for dirty bathrooms. Not able to face the embarrassment, I cleaned them earlier in the day while the movers were loading the truck.


After we cleaned, we sat in my empty family room and ate ice-cream (thank you Dzana!) while we laughed. I almost peed my pants when a certain friend revealed that she had been having romantic dreams involving her and Jim from The Office. Just when you thought you knew your friends...


It was a wonderful way to spend my last few moments in my house. I went back to Bob and Cathy with my heart full, but heavy all at the same time.

Kedra and Traci (back off guys, they're taken)

Emily



All of minus Emily who was taking the picture

After getting the timer figured out, we got a shot of all of us. Left to right: Dzana, Emily W, Julie, Leah, Me, Kedra, Traci and Emily S.

"The" House

With our house sold, we knew we needed to find something fast. Our buyers wanted a 30 day close, so time was tight. Our agent told us that it would be nearly impossible for us to find something so quickly. She said that when houses are occupied, owners need at least 45-60 days before close so that they can find new housing. We were going to have to hope that we could quickly find something that was already vacant. Otherwise, we would be stuck in temp housing.

Rick was given the task to look at more houses with Jan. One evening after they had been out looking, Rick called me saying that he found "the house". He said it was amazing. He said that it was more than amazing. I could hear Jan echoing her approval in the background. They said I needed to get to Colorado fast to see the house because it wasn't going to last.

At this point, I was at my mom's house. It was the day of our most awesome day ever. You know, the one were we picked blueberries, went to Remlinger Farms, and went to Snoqualmie Falls? I was tired at this point, but after talking to my mom, I went online and booked a ticket for two mornings later. She was sweet and said she would watch the girls. My mom rocks.

Not long after my phone rang again. This time it was our selling agent. Our buyers wanted to do the house inspection the very next morning. It hadn't expected this. Mutual acceptance had only been two days before. Even worse, the house wasn't exactly in viewing condition. I had slacked a little knowing it was sold. There was a little cleaning to be done and some small maintenance items to take care of to ensure we impressed the inspector. Even worse, I was in Renton- an hour away from home. It was 10 at night and I needed everything ready by 11 am the next day.

My mom couldn't watch the girls, so I brought them with me up to the house. On the way, I called my amazing friend Leah who offered to watch the girls last minute while I took care of the house.

For two hours I sweated my guts out while frantically cleaning, changing air filters, vaccuuming exhaust fans, and fixing a leaky built-in soap dispenser at the kitchen sink. I finished in the knick of time.

I brought the girls over to Bob and Cathy's and they played with the girls while I made arrangements to have dinner brought in to a friend who just had a baby. After the inspection was over, I went back over to turn off the lights and close the blinds. I also grabbed a few extra things for the girls and some items I would need for my trip.

I also turned off the oven, which the inspector had left on BROIL. It was piping hot. Seriously, how negligent! He's lucky he didn't burn my house down. He's extra-lucky I decided to come home after the inspection, otherwise my oven would have been on broil until I got back from my trip.

Anyhoo...completely exhausted, we went back to my mom's house and I got the girls to bed.

The next morning (Friday) I was up at the crack of dawn for a 6 am flight and met up with my agent to look at "the" house plus a few others since I was there.

The verdict? I hated "the house". I loved the floor plan, but everything was outdated. Plus, the carpet was nasty and needed to be replaced asap. I also didn't like how it backed to an elementary school. Who wants to hear bells, buses, and kids yelling all day? Also, there would be the traffic to deal with.

I flew home that same afternoon exhausted and disappointed.

But, we did get some interesting news. There was another house on the market just like the nasty one. It was the same floorplan and same builder, but in a different neighborhood. It was already on the market, but they weren't going to let anybody look at it until that coming Tuesday. Rick and Jan made plans to look at the house on Tuesday along with some other ones that I sort of liked on the trip.

Tuesday rolled around and Rick and Jan called me again. This house was "it". They were sure of it this time. It was in much better condition and on a street littered with kids. They said we needed to make an offer asap and I agreed only having these pictures and a virtual tour as a reference....

Livingroom

Diningroom

Main floor Den

Kitchen

Family Room

Master Bedroom

Master ClosetBedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Bedroom #3

House at Night

I also knew from the listing that the house has 4 bedrooms upstairs and a den on the mainfloor. It is 2714 square feet (about 500 less than our current one), but has a 934 square foot unfinished basement, which we could later finish down the line. It has a large yard almost twice the size of ours with built in sprinklers.

Late that same night we made an offer for 10k less than asking price with our fingers crossed. Houses in Highlands Ranch are always in demand, so we knew that it wasn't likely that we would get it for less than asking on the first day it shows. But, it doesn't hurt to ask, right?

The very next morning they responded. They accepted our offer outright! We were shocked and elated. By the end of the day, our agent said that they were already getting requests from people wanting to put in back-up offers. Jan couldn't understand why the accepted ours so quickly. It was meant to be, plain and simple.

Not wanting any hold ups, the sellers already had an inspection and made all the repairs found in the report. A few days later, Rick met with the inspector to follow-up on the items in questions and everything looked great.

The best part was that they already moved and wanted to do a quick close. Everything was falling neatly into place. All there was to do now was wait. I think our agent was mightly pleased to. The poor lady must have shown us at least 60 houses.

It's still crazy to think that we bought a house I had never seen before...

Sold!

The day I left for Denver to look at houses is the same day our house went on the market. I wouldn't recommend leaving on a trip the day a house is listed without the assistance of a husband. I had to pack all my stuff, pack the girls' stuff, and leave with the house looking immaculate.

The day of my trip, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning got myself ready. I then packed all the last minute things I couldn't pack the night before (toiletries, refrigerated foods for the girls, etc.) I packed as much as I could in the car and cleaned everything I didn't get to the night before. (At 1:00 am I had finally collapsed)

The girls were up at 6 am and I immediately brought them downstairs to eat. I packed the remainder of their things (lovies, toiletries, etc) and finished packing the car while they were at the table.) When they were done eating, I took them immediately from the table, put them in the car, and ran inside for 2 seconds to rinse their breakfast plates and throw them in the dishwasher.

I managed to leave the house looking perfect, but it was no easy task! I drove away praying that somebody would make an offer on the house while we were out of town so that I wouldn't have to continue keeping it so clean.

Later that night I got a call from my agent who said that somebody wanted to see the house already. She ended up showing them the house that very same day because their agent was out of town. They didn't want to wait for him to return to see our house. As it turns out, they were renting in our neighborhood and really wanted to stay in it because their kids had lots of great friends there. Seriously, I have no idea why somebody would be so attached to our neighborhood, but to each their own.

Apparently, they have been looking in our neighborhood for months and nothing they wanted came up. Maybe that's because almost every house for sale in Outlook Ridge was a nasty foreclosure or a short sale.

My agent said that they loved the house and couldn't stop raving about how wonderful everything was. They also asked about where the bus stop was and wanted to know the gender and ages of the kids in the cul-de-sac. My agent said these questions were "buying cues" and they wouldn't even ask it unless they were serious.

But, we didn't want to get our hopes up, and afterall, it was only the first day the house had been on the market.

Several days went by and we didn't hear anything. We started to wonder if they weren't interested after all. Our agent contacted them and they called her back saying that they were camping, but would get back to her once they got back into town. But then a few more days went by. We started to lose hope. Only a couple other people had looked at the house and they didn't have much potential.

Then a week and a half after they first looked, they came to look again...this time with their agent. That very same night my agent called and said that they were putting in an offer and that she would email it to us asap. Since it was late Saturday night, we told her that we would respond to their offer on Monday. We had decided at the beginning that we wouldn't do any business on Sunday.

We didn't end up getting that offer like we expected. I swear I checked my email every 10 minutes on Sunday. But, I didn't call our agent to find out what happened because I didn't want to call her on Sunday.

Monday morning I called her first thing. I was surprised to hear that she had emailed the offer to us Saturday night. The email just had never gone through. As it turns out, the wait was for nothing because the offer was low. Way low. About 35K below asking price. Plus they wanted our very nice washer and dryer, our fridge, all the curtains, and 3 large shelves in our toy room. We countered back just barely below our asking price and told them they couldn't have any of the extras except for the shelves and the curtains.

We didn't hear back from them for 4 days....in fact, it was the day before we were going to leave for Birch Bay. Last time we sold a house we were also at Birch Bay. Taking care of real estate business while on vacation is such a hassle!

Anyway, their next counter offer was just as lame. They came up a measly 7k. It became apparent that they were interested in getting a screaming deal. We thanked them for their offer but let them know that we weren't going to respond to it.

We then lowered the price of our house just a tad...hopefully enough to generate some more action. That must have paniced our buyers because the next day they put in another offer. This time it was 15K below asking which wasn't so bad. But still, we wanted to see what else we could get from them. Not that we were trying to be greedy, but we were losing a LOT of money on the sale of this house. At this point, every penny counted if we wanted to be able to buy another house when it was all said and done.

Since we were on vacation, we decided it would be easiest to do the rest of our negotiating verbally at this point. We asked if they could come up another 7.5 k. They said this was really pushing their limit and we didn't hear back for several days. We started to get nervous and thought maybe we should just accept their previous offer.

Finally, we contacted them again and asked if they could at least come up another 3.5 k. They accepted almost immediately and I think both parties were happy!

It took almost a month to reach mutual acceptance from the first time they looked at the house! In the end, we sold it for 13k less than asking price which is not bad for the market. I should also note that the sales price was 2k more than what our agent and another agent we interviewed suggested we even list the house at. Not gloat or anything, but I'm gloating.

For the record, Rick and I both think it's very tacky to discuss finances/money with other people. But, I really wanted to remember how this whole thing went down, hence the blog post. So, forget you read this, ok? I guess house sale prices are public record anyway. Who am I kidding, I'm sure I lost all my readers 5 paragraphs ago.

Oh, and in case you are wondering (which you aren't) we gave them our washer, dryer, fridge, and shelves. Because really, will we really need those in a double wide? It seemed a double-wide was all we could afford at this point...

Finding the Perfect House: Part One

Once our house was on the market, we decided it was a good idea for me to fly out to Colorado to look at houses. The idea was for me to check out several different cities and start getting a better idea of what area best suited our family.

I was really looking forward to seeing the area. Even more, I was looking forward to seeing Rick and having a little time with just him. The plan was that I would look at houses during the day with our agent, Jan, while Rick was at work. In the evenings we would have a little time together.

Bob and Cathy were kind enough to watch the girls for us. This was my first time being away from Fiona for longer than 24 hours. The only time I've been away from Gwen longer than one night was when we were at the hospital having Fiona.

So..I was a little nervous. I arrived at Bob and Cathy's extra early to get the girls' rooms set up and to make sure they were settled. I also had to go over my several-page instruction manual with Cathy.

Once it was time for Bob to drive me to the airport, Gwen started to cry. That, of course, made me start crying and I didn't stop crying until about 10 minutes into the drive. There is nothing better than riding in the car with my father-in-law while crying.

Jan's husband, Jerry, picked me up from the airport. He was in his 70's and totally darling. He talked about Jan the whole time and it was obvious that he is still enamored with her after all these years of marriage. It was so cute. He is also in the real estate business and told me about the work they've done. As it turns out, they were the official agents for the Denver Nuggets as well as many other prominent people. I was wondering how we got so lucky to get such an experienced agent.

We picked up Rick at work and then met up with Jan at her office. We were very interested in seeing homes in Highlands Ranch because many people mentioned what a great area it was. Since Jan lives/works in Highland Ranch, she planned to show us a few houses there that evening and to show me houses more houses there the next day (Thursday). Friday we would look at a few houses in some other areas in the morning before Rick and I had to fly home.

Since it was late in the evening, we only saw 3 or 4 houses. We also stopped by one of the rec centers to look around. While we were there, we spent a few minutes at the batting cages.

Later that night we had an awesome dinner at Rick's nice hotel. After telling the server how much we enjoyed it, he brought out the chef for us to meet. It made me feel kind of cool and grown up.

The next day Jan picked me up early in the morning and we looked at tons of houses. By 3:00 pm I was convinced that I wanted to live in Highlands Ranch. I told Jan that I didn't want to see any of the houses in those other cities and asked her to change around the schedule to show us only Highlands Ranch houses the the next day.

Why Highlands Ranch? Let's see...it's in a great school district, it's only about 30 minutes from Denver, and it's just awesome. They have left lots of open space (2,000 acres) with 70 miles of trails that wind throughout. There are tons of parks and they are all kept up really nicely. My favorite part are the rec centers. There are 4 rec centers in Highlands Ranch and they are all completely free for residents to use. The rec centers have all the amenities that a gym has, plus a whole lot more. They have awesome kiddie pools with splash features, lazy rivers, and water slides. So cool.

Anyway, after seeing a couple of the rec centers and everything else, I knew our family would love it.

Back to our day...my agent had an appointment in Castle Rock (just south of Highlands Ranch) so after we spent hours looking at houses, she dropped me off at the outlet mall while she went to her appointment. After that she dropped me off at Rick's work.

It was nice to meet everybody that Rick will be working with. Afterwards, we went to the 16th Street Mall in the heart of downtown. The mall is basically a series of shops and restaurants that line both side of the street for several blocks. The road is closed to traffic with the exception of buses that run up and down. You can get on and off them whenever you want and they are free! It was really fun people watching and browsing the shops. After dinner, Rick and I saw New Moon. He hadn't seen it yet and was curious. He's going to be mad that I just told the blogosphere that he wanted to see it. Oh well.

The next morning, I looked at some more houses with Jan. Then it was to the airport with Rick so we could fly home and see our babies.

As it turned out, they survived and were just fine. Boy were we happy to see them!

You might be wondering if we found any houses with potential. There were a few that sparked my interest a little, but nothing that I had to have. Rick went to see a few of my favorites later the next week. He liked a few too, but we felt like "our" house was still waiting for us.

Wow that was long. I bored myself to death just writing it. My apologies to those who actually read this whole thing.