We closed on our new home on September 28th – the day I left with my girlfriends for our getaway weekend. What were the odds that the closing would be scheduled that day?! Crazy. But it worked out ok since two friends flew in that morning, the others got them from the airport and the timing worked out just right. I got home minutes before they arrived. Then we were off!
And I wasn’t too worried about missing out on any special moments Andy conjured up that he’d have with Elizabeth (laying in front of the new fireplace) since we didn’t get the keys until Monday, October 1st.
It had become increasingly clear that we needed more space…floor space for Elizabeth’s toys…space for her to run – inside and out…storage space…space for us to be able to do things and not all be in the same living space together…more space for lots of reasons. We were ready to move out of the condo. After several soul-searching and info-gathering months we decided to stay in Colorado. We had considered packing up once again and moving us, and the business, to California to be closer to my sister and friends. But honestly, we just didn’t have the energy required to make another big change like this again - both personally and professionally. And we like Arvada (maybe not the cold winters), but the town itself we like. We’ve met people who we’d like to develop stronger friendships with. We just need to make a bigger effort on our part. It’s easy to sequester yourself with a young child and trying to run a new business. Hopefully now we’ll feel more apt to pick up the phone and invite others to hang out with us.
Since our condo did not have a buyer yet, we had some time to do renovations without living in dust, so we took advantage of this.
Here are a couple of before pics. We had planned on replacing the kitchen appliances and Andy really wanted a gas-stove installed.
The master bathroom needed the most work, or so we thought – raising the countertop, and shifting the bathtub so we could enlarge the shower stall.
Unfortunately it wasn’t til after we got the keys that I think our eyes really opened up to how much work was really needing to be done. The contractor we hired to do the bathroom ended up with a lot more projects this month: repainting the whole house, helping us hang ceiling fans and lights throughout the house (away with the gold and in with silver or bronze), the carpeting needed to be replaced throughout, and many other little projects that came to light as we worked. I spent the entire month cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. The prior owners were the original owners. The house was built in 1994. My biggest challenge was the woodwork throughout the house was needing quite a bit of help (cabinets, doors, molding, baseboards, windowsills, every bit of it needed deep cleaning and lots of loving oil to restore it). Needless to say, by the end of October both of my shoulders were feeling the strain.
Our big plans to add a deck and install a jacuzzi were just going to have to wait.
We celebrated Elizabeth’s second birthday very quietly at home. We got a pint-sized cake and she got to blow out her candles.
She opened up her presents – here she is playing with her shopping cart (gratis from Pampers Rewards! ha!).
Thanks to everyone for mailing such wonderful gifts. She loved ripping off the wrapping paper this year and it was fun to watch her being more involved and excited.
Mid-month our house was a disaster area and we were relieved not to be living with all of this mess.
Elizabeth made several attempts this month to crawl out of her crib. It’s a good thing she still doesn’t have great core strength (attributed to mom’s genes) or I’m sure she would’ve succeeded in getting a good bump on the head. So one day while Andy was at work, I took off the front of her crib making it a toddler bed. You can watch the video of her exploring the new set-up.
So…when was the last time Andy had to mow the grass? 2004? This was just one more thing we weren’t totally prepared for was having to mow the yard shortly after moving in. We found a used mower at a local shop. Andy discovered the gas tank had a crack in it after it sloshed gas in the back of Ele when he transported it to the house. He mowed the grass then took it back to the shop to be fixed.
Elizabeth loved the packing materials that her gifts came in almost as much as the gifts themselves. Ok, packing material took top spot for days! ha! Packing peanuts (no – I’m not giving you permission to send us boxes of peanuts!) and bubble-wrap…what normal kid wouldn’t LOVE playing with these things? Oh, not to mention the boxes themselves…
Here’s our new bathroom after Michael finished. Here’s our enlarged shower stall with solid glass walls and the tub is pushed to the wall so it’s not taking up the majority of the bath anymore.
We re-used the oak cabinets, but had them raised 4 inches to be of normal height. In addition to new countertops, backsplash, sinks, faucets, flooring, lights…
And Andy got his gas stove! Michael had to work hard to snake the plumbing to get it piped in, but he did it. The stainless appliances and handles go much better with the gray & black countertop, too.
We met up with David and Beth and Bryce for a day at the Colorado Train Museum right before Halloween. I missed the line in the email where Beth told me it was “costumed”, but thankfully I had Elizabeth’s Halloween costume in the trunk for school so we just re-dressed her right there in the parking lot. (She’ll have to get used to doing things like that when she is with us!)
Both Elizabeth and Bryce love playing with trains.
Elizabeth still doesn’t like large costumed-characters. She was frightened of Chuckee (Chuck-E-Cheese) for months after seeing him…which allowed me to start talking about emotions with her. In the toddler Sign Language Class we learned “scared”, “angry”, and more age-appropriate words.
This wasn’t the first time she rode on a steam-locomotive…how many two-year olds can say that?
My sister, Karen, flew in on Halloween to help us with the big move. Our plan was to be in the house for Halloween’s trick-or-treating and Karen would be sleeping in the new house her first night in town. Little did we know that she’d be in town for the actual moving day…November 1st. Karen came to Elizabeth’s Halloween Party at school to pick her up with me.
One of the things on our “must-have” list when house-hunting was to find a house that was in move-in condition. So what happened? We found a house that sits on the Little Dry Creek Trail – a paved walking and biking trail and here is our “back yard”. Ok, our back yard ends way before that little tree in the foreground, but the small backyard with open space was even more enticing. View, openness, wildlife, birds, clear dark skies at night for stargazing (there’s a large lake a couple of blocks from us that dims the city light glow), immediate access to a trail system, multiple playgrounds in several directions, and a dirt-trail system at the lake all made this the right choice for our new home. Not to mention that the schools in this neighborhood are highly ranked. I’m still surprised that that was something I would have to think about!
We did spend Halloween trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood. It was a great way to meet our new neighbors. Our friends Stacey and Brian came with their two girls, Finley and Allison. So we had five adults, two 2-year olds, and a 5-year old canvassing our neighborhood for candy. It was perfect. Heck, some neighbors were even handing out beers to the parents in addition to candy for the kids. We found it so funny that Elizabeth just took charge and would lead us from house to house practically bouncing in her cowgirl boots in all of her excitement. And, this is the girl that only ever nibbled a bite or two of candy and then would hand it back to me. (NOTE: THIS changed after Halloween!) I also couldn’t get Elizabeth to put her coat on at the end of the night when it got chilly – I think she was so proud of her cowgirl outfit!
More pictures: October WebAlbums
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