Sunday, June 14, 2009
New House
Well, we are moved in. All we have left to do at the old house is to clean it and hand over our keys. Today we tried to get unpacked and organize the different rooms in the new house, unfortunately we have not completely finished and the house is not ready for pictures yet. Once we get everything looking nice we will post pictures to entice all of you to come for a visit. Our new place is definitly smaller than the previous place, which was 1800 sq.ft. I would guess that this new place is probably like 1200 or 1300 sq.ft. and we surprisingly have not really had any challenges with space and find a place for all of things. The one thing I HATE about our new house is the room we are using for an office. The only reason I hate it is because it's split pea soup green. It is nauseating to be in here. We plan on painting....hopefully soon. Other than that we really LOVE our new place and are excited to be here for hopefully a few years before we make the big step to purchasing a home. Also, Hank is adjusting well. During the packing and moving phase he was a little confused and stressed out, but he seems relaxed and rather happy now. He absolutely loves his new yard, but is still adjusting to hardwood floors. I did take a picture of Hank enjoying his soccer ball in the backyard for your viewing pleasure.
Monday, June 1, 2009
2 weeks notice
Only two more weeks until school is out and we move to our new house. We are both extremely excited for both of those events. As would be predicted the kids are getting anxious to get out of school and it seems with anxiousness comes listening problems, which is slightly annoying. Both Ryan and I have mailed it in for the year and are just playing fun games with the kids in the remaining days. It would be silly to try and actually teach new skills at this point, and around this time of year we get kicked out of our gym A LOT, so it's also nearly impossible to do anything productive with the kiddos anyways. I have field day on Friday, which is a day when all the kids get to rotate through a ton of fun stations and play and have fun. This event is planned by me and falls completely on my shoulders, but being the well planned, slightly OCD person I am it is planned and ready to go. I am not really too nervous about it and feel like it will go off with only a few hitches. I still have some loose ends to wrap up, but I will get that done tomorrow and then I'll just wait and see how Friday goes. Ryan has been gracious enough to take a personal day and volunteer to help me setup all 37 of the stations along with the two parent volunteers I was able to round up. We will have to get there at like 6 am to make sure we get it all set up in time, but it will be worth it because the kids have a blast. Other than that we are counting down the days until summer vacation. Being a teacher is fantastic :).
This last weekend we decided that we really should start packing for our big move. We packed up the office closet, which really never got unpacked. I also started packing up all the extra blankets we have and the winter sheets. Other than that though we realized it will be hard to pack much else because we use the kitchen stuff and bathroom stuff on a daily basis and besides that there isn't much else to pack! It's amazing how much stuff you realize you don't have when you move, which isn't a bad thing at all. I'm just glad we are not pack rats like some people, it just makes life so much easier. In fact whenever I move I get rid of stuff I haven't used in the last year and I have encouraged Ryan to do the same. Although, he's rather attached to some of his clothes from HIGH SCHOOL!!! and it took some convincing that it was okay to give it away because he bought it so long ago it's lost any value it once had. When moving day rolls around we plan on having moved most of the boxes the day before so that we only have to focus on the furniture. Alex has been kind enough to offer the services of his truck and muscles to help with the move and I believe we may borrow a family friends truck as well that day so we can knock it out quickly. My mother has also offered to come up and help, so I'm sure if she decides to we can put her to work as well. Either way, I can't wait to move and take pictures of the new place so you all can see our awesome new house and YARD! Hank is going to be sooooooooooo happy :). The only bad thing is that our landlord said we cannot have a puppy :( which is fine because Hank is more than enough for us. We have also purchased some new patio accessories such as a tablecloth for our rusty patio table, matching pillows for our new patio chairs, matching cups and plates for outside AND this awesome candle holder that wraps around the umbrella and sits in the middle of the table. When we move we will also get the opportunity to use our new grill that Kelli got us for Christmas, along with all the grilling accessories she got us. Consider this an open invitation to come up for a BBQ, just let us know in advance because since we have all summer off who knows what we'll be up to! Oh and did I mention we have all summer off?
If you want to check out the roof of our house and yard here is the link:
http://maps.google.com/ and type in our new address 8009 SW 54th Ave, Portland OR 97219, then choose the satellite view from the top right hand corner of the map and zoom in!
This last weekend we decided that we really should start packing for our big move. We packed up the office closet, which really never got unpacked. I also started packing up all the extra blankets we have and the winter sheets. Other than that though we realized it will be hard to pack much else because we use the kitchen stuff and bathroom stuff on a daily basis and besides that there isn't much else to pack! It's amazing how much stuff you realize you don't have when you move, which isn't a bad thing at all. I'm just glad we are not pack rats like some people, it just makes life so much easier. In fact whenever I move I get rid of stuff I haven't used in the last year and I have encouraged Ryan to do the same. Although, he's rather attached to some of his clothes from HIGH SCHOOL!!! and it took some convincing that it was okay to give it away because he bought it so long ago it's lost any value it once had. When moving day rolls around we plan on having moved most of the boxes the day before so that we only have to focus on the furniture. Alex has been kind enough to offer the services of his truck and muscles to help with the move and I believe we may borrow a family friends truck as well that day so we can knock it out quickly. My mother has also offered to come up and help, so I'm sure if she decides to we can put her to work as well. Either way, I can't wait to move and take pictures of the new place so you all can see our awesome new house and YARD! Hank is going to be sooooooooooo happy :). The only bad thing is that our landlord said we cannot have a puppy :( which is fine because Hank is more than enough for us. We have also purchased some new patio accessories such as a tablecloth for our rusty patio table, matching pillows for our new patio chairs, matching cups and plates for outside AND this awesome candle holder that wraps around the umbrella and sits in the middle of the table. When we move we will also get the opportunity to use our new grill that Kelli got us for Christmas, along with all the grilling accessories she got us. Consider this an open invitation to come up for a BBQ, just let us know in advance because since we have all summer off who knows what we'll be up to! Oh and did I mention we have all summer off?
If you want to check out the roof of our house and yard here is the link:
http://maps.google.com/ and type in our new address 8009 SW 54th Ave, Portland OR 97219, then choose the satellite view from the top right hand corner of the map and zoom in!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Can you say Epic 72 Hours?
Wow. I thought after Saturday we would have a good little blog to post, but no. We are too awesome for our own good. There also might be a lot of paraphrasing for some of the days since there was too much good stuff.
Saturday
It was a beautiful day, so Jenny and I took it upon ourselves to take care of the weeds that I believe were overtaking the property. After a few hours of pulling weeds in the sunshine and eventually filling our yard debris bin, we took a break and had lunch. The night before, I went to go play shuffleboard with some guys from my fraternity while Jenny was at her softball games. While we were there, my friend Trent and I talked about how our dogs should get together and play, especially since Hank never plays with other dogs. So after we were done pulling weeds, I gave Trent a call and we set up a puppy play date! Jenny and I drove over to Trent's house and as soon as Hank saw the other dog, it was go time. Full on whining, pulling and overwhelming excitement. We walked the dogs close to each other so they had enough time to "get acquainted" before we got to a nearby park. Prior to this whole play date, Jenny and I were SUPER nervous given Hank's turbulent past with other dogs. However, once those two dogs were off the leashes, they were so happy to be playing with each other (especially Hank). Trent's dog is a Springer Spaniel, so she absolutely ran Hank to death, which was great. After a good afternoon of playing with each other and chasing tennis balls, Jenny and I were SO proud of Hank. We both finally knew it would be alright to get another dog when the time came.
Sunday
We had no plans this weekend, so we decided to run errands and go house hunting (since it's getting to end of our lease). We do this pretty often because you never know when the new rental signs will be out. Our plan is to move more halfway between our schools so we both can share the commute and gas bill, instead of me getting just hammered on both (I promise I'm not bitter). Like most house hunting days, we had barely any prospects and like most days, were on our way back home. However, I thought I would give these neighborhoods up in Multnomah Village a try. That is the wonderful thing about these house hunts: we get incredibly lost, drive around and look at houses until we find a familiar road. While driving through Multnomah Village, we saw this small rental sign pointing to this dead end street. Peeking down the road, this neighborhood had a lot going for it: very quiet, lots of trees, big yards, and it was definitely more halfway between our schools. While Jenny and I were looking, we found out the owners lived next door and were actually doing work on the house, so we got to go inside and take a look. Our house right now is pretty modern, has almost too much space and is kind of spread out. This house was honestly perfect. It was an older house, so it had a lot of charm and a lot of original design to it (like original hardwood floors, windows, etc.). The best part was not only was this house at the end of a dead end road, it was on a 1/4 acre, was one level and was everything Jenny and I wanted. The owners were nice and offered us an application, which we quickly filled out. As Jenny put the completed application into their mailbox, she noticed there were other applications in there, which made us a little nervous. How many were there? Would other people be better candidates because they are older? At that point, all we could do is just wait and hope. After we were done with the application, we stopped by the store to pick up some groceries and headed over to my mom's for a ravioli dinner.
Monday (Today)
Neither of us slept. It was hotter than hell last night. Both Jenny and I were dragging as we left the house this morning. Both of us had equally terrible days but luckily, we both were able to come straight home. After seeing that house and realizing how much closer I could be to work if we lived there, Beaverton traffic stressed me out. "Damn it. Just think if we had that house. I would be home by now!" I got home around 4pm and went directly to bed for a nap. Jenny, of course, followed me in and laid next to me. We were talking about our days and afterward, Jenny said she did not think we had a very good chance of getting the house. She said it was just a gut feeling, like it was too good to be true. At this point, I'm dazing off to sleep.
15 minutes later, Jenny's cell phone rings. Like I said, I was comotose on the bed and didn't make sense of anything happening around me. I hear sounds of Jenny talking, but can't make out words. All of a sudden...
*Tap tap tap* on my shoulder.
"Ryan, the landlord said the house is all ours! They said everything checked out and it's ours if we want it!"
As you could probably put together, we both were psyched. The landlord would be at the house for another hour and wanted to know if we wanted to come walk through it again. This got my attention, so it was out of bed for me and over to our potential new home. We did some measurements of our furniture, took it to the house and realized the house was actually much bigger than we originally thought. To make a long story short (and I know it's lengthy - sorry), we are set for the house! Our set move-in day is Saturday, June 13th: the day after school is out. Our landlords are kind of funny and as Jenny put it, "They remind me of people from Philomath". They have chickens, don't like to use chemicals on their plants and are pretty resourceful people. So resourceful that they are going to build a small fence in the backyard for Hank so we don't have to be nervous about him being out by himself.
So in the span of 48 hours, we found a house we liked, then landed a house that we now absolutely love. Jenny believes it was fate, and I can't really disagree with her. I guess that's what we get for kicking so much ass.
Saturday
It was a beautiful day, so Jenny and I took it upon ourselves to take care of the weeds that I believe were overtaking the property. After a few hours of pulling weeds in the sunshine and eventually filling our yard debris bin, we took a break and had lunch. The night before, I went to go play shuffleboard with some guys from my fraternity while Jenny was at her softball games. While we were there, my friend Trent and I talked about how our dogs should get together and play, especially since Hank never plays with other dogs. So after we were done pulling weeds, I gave Trent a call and we set up a puppy play date! Jenny and I drove over to Trent's house and as soon as Hank saw the other dog, it was go time. Full on whining, pulling and overwhelming excitement. We walked the dogs close to each other so they had enough time to "get acquainted" before we got to a nearby park. Prior to this whole play date, Jenny and I were SUPER nervous given Hank's turbulent past with other dogs. However, once those two dogs were off the leashes, they were so happy to be playing with each other (especially Hank). Trent's dog is a Springer Spaniel, so she absolutely ran Hank to death, which was great. After a good afternoon of playing with each other and chasing tennis balls, Jenny and I were SO proud of Hank. We both finally knew it would be alright to get another dog when the time came.
Sunday
We had no plans this weekend, so we decided to run errands and go house hunting (since it's getting to end of our lease). We do this pretty often because you never know when the new rental signs will be out. Our plan is to move more halfway between our schools so we both can share the commute and gas bill, instead of me getting just hammered on both (I promise I'm not bitter). Like most house hunting days, we had barely any prospects and like most days, were on our way back home. However, I thought I would give these neighborhoods up in Multnomah Village a try. That is the wonderful thing about these house hunts: we get incredibly lost, drive around and look at houses until we find a familiar road. While driving through Multnomah Village, we saw this small rental sign pointing to this dead end street. Peeking down the road, this neighborhood had a lot going for it: very quiet, lots of trees, big yards, and it was definitely more halfway between our schools. While Jenny and I were looking, we found out the owners lived next door and were actually doing work on the house, so we got to go inside and take a look. Our house right now is pretty modern, has almost too much space and is kind of spread out. This house was honestly perfect. It was an older house, so it had a lot of charm and a lot of original design to it (like original hardwood floors, windows, etc.). The best part was not only was this house at the end of a dead end road, it was on a 1/4 acre, was one level and was everything Jenny and I wanted. The owners were nice and offered us an application, which we quickly filled out. As Jenny put the completed application into their mailbox, she noticed there were other applications in there, which made us a little nervous. How many were there? Would other people be better candidates because they are older? At that point, all we could do is just wait and hope. After we were done with the application, we stopped by the store to pick up some groceries and headed over to my mom's for a ravioli dinner.
Monday (Today)
Neither of us slept. It was hotter than hell last night. Both Jenny and I were dragging as we left the house this morning. Both of us had equally terrible days but luckily, we both were able to come straight home. After seeing that house and realizing how much closer I could be to work if we lived there, Beaverton traffic stressed me out. "Damn it. Just think if we had that house. I would be home by now!" I got home around 4pm and went directly to bed for a nap. Jenny, of course, followed me in and laid next to me. We were talking about our days and afterward, Jenny said she did not think we had a very good chance of getting the house. She said it was just a gut feeling, like it was too good to be true. At this point, I'm dazing off to sleep.
15 minutes later, Jenny's cell phone rings. Like I said, I was comotose on the bed and didn't make sense of anything happening around me. I hear sounds of Jenny talking, but can't make out words. All of a sudden...
*Tap tap tap* on my shoulder.
"Ryan, the landlord said the house is all ours! They said everything checked out and it's ours if we want it!"
As you could probably put together, we both were psyched. The landlord would be at the house for another hour and wanted to know if we wanted to come walk through it again. This got my attention, so it was out of bed for me and over to our potential new home. We did some measurements of our furniture, took it to the house and realized the house was actually much bigger than we originally thought. To make a long story short (and I know it's lengthy - sorry), we are set for the house! Our set move-in day is Saturday, June 13th: the day after school is out. Our landlords are kind of funny and as Jenny put it, "They remind me of people from Philomath". They have chickens, don't like to use chemicals on their plants and are pretty resourceful people. So resourceful that they are going to build a small fence in the backyard for Hank so we don't have to be nervous about him being out by himself.
So in the span of 48 hours, we found a house we liked, then landed a house that we now absolutely love. Jenny believes it was fate, and I can't really disagree with her. I guess that's what we get for kicking so much ass.
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