Our New House

Here's our new house! It's not the best shot, but it's the best I could do in all this snow. (Ahhhh, Buffalo!) I'm not thrilled with the color, but we can change that without too much trouble. We signed the purchase agreement yesterday and the mortgage has been approved. We should be in sometime around May 1.

I'm finally getting my feet under me again. That last move was surprisingly tough. I was tired before we even moved, and the next week was crazy. I packed John and Noah's things pretty well, but I kept getting called over to make decisions about the new house, and it took me most of last week to find my clothes. Almost everything else is in storage. My parent's leave for Florida tomorrow, and they'll be gone for a month, so things should calm down a bit now. Maybe I can start to get into a routine again.

Karen and Nate, how's your house going?

Everyone else, have you had trouble signing in? It only takes a minute!

Whoa! What a week!

I'm finally starting to feel normal again. Things have gone extremely well, but it's still been a long week. Thanks to friends and family, last week's move went wonderfully. The weather was clear. It wasn't terribly cold. We had so much help that the apartment emptied in record time. Everything that should have ended up in storage ended up in storage, and everything that we needed in the house is actually in my parent's house. My only oversight was the heavy-duty power strip for the computer. I could have done much worse.

Actually getting our things here was only the beginning. First, there was the issue of unpacking. Noah's stuff was easy to handle. Most of John's is in drawers. Mine, however, is split between several suitcases, and the summer and winter clothes are all mixed together. I've been putting off getting that done all week. I'll feel much better when I get that done.

The new house is coming right along. It's actually happening too fast. At this rate, we might close by mid-April, which would mean we'll have several months of rent and mortgage payments if the apartment doesn't rent soon. I'm really hoping that doesn't happen. We had the option of trying to find a new renter for our place ourselves, or letting the apartment manager show it. Either way, we're responsible for the rent until it sublets. Since we won't even be in Rochester to show the apartment, we took the later option. I still think we made the right decision, but I'm still worried. It's hardly ideal. The apartment manager keeps telling me it will be an easy sub-let as soon as spring comes. I hope she's right.

The folks who currently own our new house are eager to sell it. We'd agreed that they'd do a certain amount of work on the place before they sell. This week all the hardwood floors were refinished. They look great. All the interior painting is finished. I've picked out linoleum for the kitchen, bathroom and front entryway. John and I will pick out the basement carpet tomorrow. I still have to pick out a bathroom sink, mirror, and lights. That should be all. We should have the purchase agreement signed by early next week. It's all a bit freaky, but we're excited.

So, that's the quick update. Until yesterday, I felt lousy. Between the packing, the moving, the un-packing, house stuff and getting up with Noah, I just pooped out. I guess I don't have as much stamina as I should. But I'm back on my game now. As John keeps saying, our goal is in sight. Literally.

Photo and apologies

OK. First, a brag shot. Love these. Noah is 2 months old already! Hard to believe.

Second, my apologies for updating the blog to the New Blogger. Every time I've logged in for awhile it's asked, "Would you like to update?" and I've said, "No." I finally got the idea that I'd have to do it sooner or later, and updated when I was blogging to Snyderhuset, not thinking that both blogs would be updated. I did this first thing in the morning, before my allowed several ounces of coffee. I should never try to do anything these days without making sure I'm paying attention first. This goes for everything from updating Blogs to putting on my pants.

(Of course they both would be updated, what was I thinking?! . . . honestly, I haven't had more than two consecutive hours of sleep in a week, and he was sleeping so well before! I don't know what's gotten into Noah. I'm assuming it's a growth spurt.)

But I digress . . . when I logged in, it asked me to enter a Google Account, which I didn't have, but said something about entering an already existing email address, and in my fog I typed in my yahoo address, thinking it would log me in and lead me through the process to getting a Google account. Imagine my surprise when I realized that my new "Google Account" is my yahoo email address.

Once again, I felt like a total nitwit, and it got worse when I realized all of you would be logged out of the Hunny House until you did the same thing! The odd thing is that I can now log into Blogger with my odd-bad "Google yahoo-looking address," but it doesn't work as a G-mail account. I'm a technically savy gal, but I really don't care enough to figure this out until I'm done packing and moving. I don't know what I really have. I just know it lets me continue to post.

Sooooo, here's the deal. I don't think I can go back to the "Old Blogger." I thought if it was a problem for any of us I'd just start a new blog for Hunny House, but I have a feeling that if I do, it will be a "New Blogger" blog.

Sorry for the troubles.

Sabrina, how is Jayden doing? I'm assuming his allotment of morphine is long out. Hope he's doing well. Keep warm, everyone!

Well, we survived

Two Brothers
Originally uploaded by davemayp.

Hello Hunny Housers - a big thank you for your notes of support and encouragement during this super difficult last 24 hours. Jayden is now recovering from his three hour operation, and Corban is recovering from being without his twin or his parents for a day. Jayden's incisions are very raw and fresh right now - we've got him on round-the-clock pain meds. Here's to things getting better from here on out!

(Jayden is the one in brown :))

This is getting pretty wierd

OK. The Snyders will be leaving town the 17th of February. I've already kinda started packing. We've taken a few loads of stuff to my parents' house in Hamburg. Moving in with the parentals short-term is the best plan, but I've been feeling like I'm heading full-speed on a bicycle with one crooked wheel downhill towards a cliff with no brakes.

I don't do change well.

So there is this house across the street and about two doors down from my parents' house, and it's going to go up for sale. The current owner just inherited it, and they're working on it before they put it on the market. The more I've been hearing about this house, the better it sounds. They've put in new a kitchen floor and painted the cupboards, put in a new bathroom vanity and replaced the floor there, painted the entire interior, waterproofed the basement and putting in new floors there, put in a new circut breaker . . . the list goes on and on. Most of the stuff you'd want to change is being done ahead of time.

The only problem? Well, it only has two bedrooms. It dates from the 50's, and has that odd plastic tile that was popular back then in the bathroom and kitchen, and the kitchen cupborads really should get replaced . . . and, oh Yeah! It's across the street and two doors down from the house I grew up in!!

However, I didn't want to rule anything out, so I decided to go look at it. John and I both think we can be very happy there. It's a nice size. They're asking an incredibly low price for our neighborhood. If nothing else, we could easily sell in a few years and move on. We're going to continue to talk to the current owners and see what happens.

In the meantime, what do you guys think: When moving down the street, does one actually rent a truck and drive one's furniture a few hundred yards, or make 100+ trips from house to house carrying everything one owns? The thought of us carrying the couch and dining room chairs down the street cracks me up.