CONTRACT!!!

[fisherofmengirly]

This is the deck on the first floor. I like the trees behind the house. Now, they are blooming and are so pretty. Back in February, they hadn''t yet blossomed. There is a dogwood in the backyard and the flowers came out last week and it is *so* gorgeous! I was so excited when it blossomed, because I had no clue what it was when it was bare.

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Last, but certainly not least, is Paul''s "man cave" which is the finished room in the basement. It''s currently that pale pink from the someday-to-be nursery, but we''ll paint it some many color, I''m sure. It''s also currently painted concrete, and Paul wants it to be carpeted or floored in some other way. Getting the "man cave" into good condition will be one of Paul''s top tasks this summer.

 

[fisherofmengirly]

And that is the overview of the house as it currently appears.

 

[zhuzhu]

What a lovely house you got, congrats again! Did you say you live in Chicago area? I don''t see any snows in the pics! What is the total sf of this beautiful home?

 

[fisherofmengirly]

We live in the north metro Atlanta area.

The appraisal hasn''t been completed yet, so we don''t have an official square footage, but it''s around 2000.

 

[sumbride]

For the "man cave" you should look at those carpet tiles... I think they are called "Flor". They would be easy to deal with if you had any leaks ever, or spilled chili or whatever.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Looks like a wonderful home Fisher -- congrats!!!

 

[sumbride]

Now that I''ve looked at ALL the pictures, WOW! It''s awesome!!! And so great that it''s in move-in condition! You will love having laundry on the 2nd floor.... I HATE hauling mine up 2 flights of stairs!

I agree that you definitely need something fun for the light in the nook, but it also needs to "go" with the hall since you''ll be able to see it from the front door. There are a lot of great pendant lights out there now, so look carefully! One you might want to consider is the kind that is on a sort of cantilevered pulley system so it can go up or down with just a pull. I think Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware have them. It could come in handy if you have to move the table during a party and don''t want people running into the light, or if you want to pull it down to do something that requires more light. I really want one over my island.

Congrats! I''m so excited for both of you! It''s a GREAT house! and soon it will be a fabulous, love-filled home!!!

 

[ChargerGrrl]

Fisher, CONGRATS on your new home! best wishes for you and Paul as you go thru escrow.

 

[lauralu]

now that your inspection is complete and you found nothing that would keep you from buying...I hope your Realtor is removing the inspection contingency so it is officially yours and goes pending.

It looks like a beautiful home! How heart warming of you to think of the people before you who lost it. I am sure they would most likely be happy to know that the new owners may just love it as much as they may have.

CONGRATS!

 

[Mannequin]

Catching up on a few threads here, and I saw this good news! Congrats Fishie! I am so excited for you two! You''re going to love that big kitchen, lots of room to make naked cupcakes.

Can I just say how funny I think it is that all the pictures are titled Argh Fish House?

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Equ, I was having a hard time finding a name for the pictures that hadn''t been used before. Arghfish seemed to work really well, so I went with it.

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Today we were talking about how crazy it is that one month from tomorrow is our closing date. Eeek!!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Sum, I''m going to look into the "flor." I heard about something like that on TLC one time.... It''s a great idea. I hope it''s not super expensive, but I''d think that would be easy to lay ourselves, since it''s only tiles at a time...

 

[fisherofmengirly]

This weekend we went to the house and pulled weeds, got the shrubs trimmed down and looking pretty, and cleaned out the mulchy area around the trees (so I can plant flowers!!). So exciting to think of finally having a yard to work in. We had the best time!

We met more neighbors, too, and this really does seem to be a great neighborhood. So exciting!!

I don't know if I posted this or not yet, but the appraisal was done last week and we don't have to make any repairs, not a one, before we can close. And, the house is happily worth several, several thousand more than we will be paying for it. Our realtor was so excited to tell us about "instant equity," as she calls it.

Yay!

This way, we get to pick what we work on and when. We like it better this way. Some things we'll still do prior to move in, but it's good to know we didn't have to if we didn't want to (in some odd way, that makes it seem more like home owners making decisions instead of the bank).

 

[tulip928]

Your new home is beautiful!

Congratulations!!!! You will have so much fun making it yours!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Paul and I went to work on the yard of the house again today, and guess what? I met Poison Ivy for the first time. Poison Ivy liked me a lot. Now I have fun little bumps on my arms, in such a nice design, I must say.

Paul's mom pointed out that there was poison ivy at the house (some vines that are trying to climb the back fence) and suggested we pull them as soon as possible, as they grow fast. So, I had on garden gloves and everything, and didn't touch the plant with any part of my bare hand. Then I forgot about it when it came to time for putting it in the trash yard bag. My hands are fine, but my left arm is a hot mess right now.

Thank goodness for Cortizone!

 

[zoebartlett]

What a gorgeous house Fisher! Congratulations on your big purchase!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Thanks, Zoe. I''m getting crazy excited at this point. It''s three weeks away.

Whooo hoo!

There is a posh subdivision in our city and some friends of ours live there. Their subdivision only has yard sales on two weekends a year, and this weekend is their spring sale. Last night they had a "preview" for the residents, so we went with our friends around and got some awesome stuff for the house, and all of it looks almost new!

So exciting!

We finally can get rid of the nasty, hand me down of a hand me down three times over dining room set we have. Yeah, the kind where you have to push the back of the chair into the seat of the chair before you sit down unless you want to feel it snap when you sit down. Nice.

We ended up getting a six setting table that is in a dark stained wood (almost black), and that is made of substantial, real wood. You know, not the kind were they put on a laminate type of fake wood grain, but where there is a real wood grain. The family we bought it from had it two years and decided to get a new one because of a small fading (white in color) stain in the wood, but I know how to fix that. There are a lot of methods, and one of them is bound to work; it worked on my parents'' dining room table. If not, Paul and one of his friends are going to sand the whole top piece down and stain it a complimenting color. Either way, it''s exciting! We got the whole thing for 60 bucks and it has the really wide legs on it, and it''s a substantial table. Sweet deal!

We also got a dresser that''s pretty nice. Not sure if it will be in our room or the guest room.

Our friends have a just bought a new ottoman/coffee table, but before that, they''d made their previous coffee table into an ottoman/coffee table by taking it apart and cutting out for a cushion to be inside of it, like a giant seat. It''s covered in a not-our-style fabric, but I know how to reupholster, so we''ll do that and get fabric to make throw pillows to match for the couch, too. This is also exciting because the couch we have is brown with threads of red, blue, green mixed into it and the red has been the color played up by the pillows and I''d like to swap that for the blue/green colors, which are much more calming.

The coffee table is square shaped and has black legs. It''s cute.

Things are coming together, indeed!

 

[Dandi]

Date: 4/26/2008 12:37:22 AM
Author: fisherofmengirly
Thanks, Zoe. I''m getting crazy excited at this point. It''s three weeks away.

Whooo hoo!

There is a posh subdivision in our city and some friends of ours live there. Their subdivision only has yard sales on two weekends a year, and this weekend is their spring sale. Last night they had a ''preview'' for the residents, so we went with our friends around and got some awesome stuff for the house, and all of it looks almost new!

So exciting!

We finally can get rid of the nasty, hand me down of a hand me down three times over dining room set we have. Yeah, the kind where you have to push the back of the chair into the seat of the chair before you sit down unless you want to feel it snap when you sit down. Nice.

We ended up getting a six setting table that is in a dark stained wood (almost black), and that is made of substantial, real wood. You know, not the kind were they put on a laminate type of fake wood grain, but where there is a real wood grain. The family we bought it from had it two years and decided to get a new one because of a small fading (white in color) stain in the wood, but I know how to fix that. There are a lot of methods, and one of them is bound to work; it worked on my parents'' dining room table. If not, Paul and one of his friends are going to sand the whole top piece down and stain it a complimenting color. Either way, it''s exciting! We got the whole thing for 60 bucks and it has the really wide legs on it, and it''s a substantial table. Sweet deal!

We also got a dresser that''s pretty nice. Not sure if it will be in our room or the guest room.

Our friends have a just bought a new ottoman/coffee table, but before that, they''d made their previous coffee table into an ottoman/coffee table by taking it apart and cutting out for a cushion to be inside of it, like a giant seat. It''s covered in a not-our-style fabric, but I know how to reupholster, so we''ll do that and get fabric to make throw pillows to match for the couch, too. This is also exciting because the couch we have is brown with threads of red, blue, green mixed into it and the red has been the color played up by the pillows and I''d like to swap that for the blue/green colors, which are much more calming.

The coffee table is square shaped and has black legs. It''s cute.

Things are coming together, indeed!

Geez girl, you''d be handy to have around! You''re gorgeous AND clever! And I SO hear you on the dining room chair thing, I know EXACTLY the kind

It''s all so exciting!

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Looks great fisher! Congrats again! Sorry about the poison ivy.

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Thanks for the happy comments, ladies.

I''m still beside myself with excitement. Our new neighbors all seem really sweet; since we''ve been going nearly every evening to work on the yard, several of them have come to visit and introduce themselves. It''s fun. There is one family (we haven''t met them yet) on the culdesac who just had a baby two weeks ago. I hope to make friends with them. I love little ones!!

I read up on ways to potentially get rid of the staining issue on the surface of the dining room table and I hope like mad it works, because sanding and re-surfacing is way more work. We''ll see. Paul says we should just throw a placemat over it and be done. Such the handy man he is, no?

The poison ivy is gone, and happily, she is no longer my friend. I did notice yesterday that the vines were trying to weasle their way back through the fence and into the yard. I wonder if RoundUp kills it?

Another cool thing is that today is a holiday for me (Confederate Memorial Day, who ever heard of such???) and a couple at our church just bought a new home and I''m going over today to learn to paint! We''re doing their daughter''s room and it''s going to be a soft violet and then they will put in a "Tinkerbell" theme. She is three years old and so excited about the "Tink Tink room." Ta Dah!! is going to visit and play with her while we do some painting. I''m so excited. We can''t do any of that on our house yet, but Dawn says she''ll help out when the time comes.

I''m really starting to lean toward wanting to paint the walls in the kitchen. It''s just such a deep, orange-red color and I''d like the room to be lighter, brighter. I think a soft green (not wild lime, but the color I''ve seen that I''m most fond of is Key Lime by Behr or Honey Dew by Behr) would be so pretty with the white cabinets. What would you ladies suggest?

I''m also going to switch out the hardware on the cabinets. Right now it''s country-esque gold knobs and I''m looking for some funky silver ones. I''ll have to change the hinges, too, as they show from the outside.

Happy happy!

And Paul''s at work today so I can do some packing when I get back from painting without him telling me to save complete junk. (He comes through and reads this, but I promise it really is junk he wants to keep. The other day, I had gone through some of the stuff we''ve stockpiled into the utility room and found a broken 35mm camera. It''s his. I bought him a new cameral for his birthday last year. The 35mm is the camera he used when we first started dating and he wants to keep it for that reason, along with the fact that he traveled a lot prior to our meeting and he took pictures on all of those adventures. But, isn''t the pictures what you keep for memories? He''s a silly one!!)

Oooh, and Paul let me get a toy chest from Pottery Barn at the yard sales this weekend. It was a sweet deal for $10 bucks and I think we''ll use it for storage in the empty room that will one day be the baby''s room. He says nothing else until we''ll we''re pregnant, but it was just so cute and for such a great price. Add to that it was painted BLUE, and he turned to a softy and let me get it.

 

[fisherofmengirly]

I love to paint. Who knew it? I''ve never painted walls before, but I love to paint old furniture and things like that. It''s fun with a roller. Whoo hoo buddy!

I found the prettiest fabric today for the reupholstering of the coffee table. I''m going to make some throw pillows to match, and I also am going to make some out of this striped fabric I found with a lot of the colors we''ve been looking to introduce into the living room. It may end up being too bold for Paul, though. I guess we''ll find out when he gets home.

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Here is a picture of the couch (I tried to get the picture to pick up the subtle colors that are woven into it--blue, red, green, gold), the faux leather that has a really pretty design printed into it (this will be used for the cushion portion over the coffee table/ottoman and some throw pillows, perhaps) and the striped fabric that I was hoping to help make the couch "pop." Now that I look at it more, I think the colors might be too wild and bold for me, let alone Paul.

The coffee table/ottoman has black legs. Our TV stand/entertainment center is black and we're looking for a black case to keep it in. The end tables will be black, too.

Hmm. I'm so not a designer.

Any suggestions?

 

[fisherofmengirly]

We are on the home stretch now (literally!!!)!

Today marks 10 days on the countdown to closing!

Excitement!!!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Today we are one week away from closing.

Our loan package is complete, our title work has been completed, and our home owners insurance is in place. We didn''t have any repairs that had to be made prior to closing, so we''re good to go there, too.

The biggest issue we''ve had was convincing the insurance company that I''m not married to Pete. I don''t know a Pete. After talking to me, Paul, verifying our SSNs, and getting a signed copy of our marriage license, they believed us. Yay!

 

[Dandi]

Date: 5/9/2008 7:02:02 AM
Author: fisherofmengirly
Today we are one week away from closing.

Our loan package is complete, our title work has been completed, and our home owners insurance is in place. We didn''t have any repairs that had to be made prior to closing, so we''re good to go there, too.

The biggest issue we''ve had was convincing the insurance company that I''m not married to Pete. I don''t know a Pete. After talking to me, Paul, verifying our SSNs, and getting a signed copy of our marriage license, they believed us. Yay!

Ha, well that''s handy, isn''t it!

Here''s to a fast week!!!

All systems go!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Man, after three days of going back and forth with these people (and by the way, whoever Pete is, he''s 83 years old!!) that I don''t know a Pete, but rather a Paul, I was in tears. I mean really, how much more can I do than send the marriage license and have my husband provide his social? So odd. He was already on the car insurance policy, so how they came up with Pete is beyond me.

Anyway, "Pete" has like three properties in three different states and the insurance company was saying I was trying to claim this as our first home (FHA) and it wasn''t. The biggest mess....

But happily, a mess that is over now.

5 days!!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

We closed!!! I love the house and the dogs love the yard and it''s just wonderful!

We don''t have internet at the house yet (that comes Saturday); I would have posted sooner, but I came by the apt. to get some more stuff (mostly moved out now, just some clothes and odds and ends left).

Hope everyone is well; I''ll have to check in and catch up soon!

 

[zoebartlett]

Congratulations Fisher!! That''s so exciting for you and Paul!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I am a little behind checking your thread, Fisher, but congrats on moving into your new house! It looks great! I like your idea about changing the kitchen to key lime or honeydew. I''m sure you''re enjoying the long weekend in your new home!