I will do a long post in the next few days, but here is a link to the pictures from my mom and dad's trip to SD and my cousin's wedding in Nebraska.
PICTURES
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Finally, We Post
Apologies for the lack of posts - things have been moving at the speed of light - I have trouble remembering what day of the week it is these days. I will do a quick synopsis and then go into detail...
We moved out of the city. That's the synopsis.
We have spent the last few weeks packing and with the help of our parents over the last few weekends, we moved out yesterday. We have brought a few Jeep loads to Crystal Lake over the last few weeks and it all culminated yesterday with USA Moving and Storage coming and taking all 90 or so boxes and furniture to storage. How we had 90 boxes of stuff in a two-bedroom condo - I don't know. I don't want to know. For a week or so, we played the game Where's Ethan. Can you find him in the pic below?
So we are officially suburbanites - although as of Friday we will technically be homeless. The condo is still scheduled to close on Friday which is a good thing. We will be rich for a few weeks.
Here are some more pics of the move:
Before we left, we enjoyed a last supper of sorts with Kristi and Ben at Enoteca Roma:
So we now wait to close on the house in Glen Ellyn - which we finally have pictures of as shown below. While we wait, we take the hour and a half train ride from Crystal Lake to the city every day (for Matt - three days for Ali.) Of course we are thankful to Ali's parents for letting us invade their house for a few weeks.
Without further ado - pictures of the house - these are the listing pictures, not ones we have taken.
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Movin' On Out
"Don't forget about me!"Just a sneak peak into what our lives will entail for the next week or so....packing, packing, and more packing! The movers are coming on the 26th and we have lots to do!
More to come...
Monday, May 11, 2009
House Update...for Susan
Susan wanted a house update, so here it goes.
We do have the house/got the house. So hooray!
The picture above is a random house Ali saw on the listings and she liked it so much she put it on the blog. No, just kidding, it is our new house in Glen Ellyn.
We had the inspection last Thursday and everything went really well except one small thing - we forgot to take pictures. I took both cameras out there to get shots and video, but when we were leaving dinner after the inspection, I said to Ali and her mom and dad - "We didn't take any pictures." It was stupid and idiotic, but I can't do anything about it now. Sorry about that.
So let me describe it to you...
Close your eyes and envision...
Walk in the front door and to the right is the living room, hardwood, built-ins on each side of the fireplace, windows on the front wall with interior shutters. Straight ahead is the bath on the first floor which is attached to what is supposed to be the master bedroom and closet space. Just before reaching the entrance to the "suite" is a coat closet. To the left is the dining room - with a ceiling fan that we will replace with a chandelier - since we are fancy and all. Again, windows with shutters on the front, two windows on the side. If you turned left and walked into the dining room, the stairs to go up are on the right, walking past the stairs is the entrance to the kitchen. Currently painted a crude yellow-ish gold, the kitchen has white appliances, white cabinets and blue countertops. Yes, blue. It really is too bad we have no money left. The kitchen is big, has a lot of counter-space and cabinets. At the end of the kitchen the counter raises and juts out a little for a two-seat bar-type thing. At the end of the kitchen (behind the two-seater) it opens into a breakfast eating area - big enough for a table and four chairs and a buffet. If you go to the back of this area, it is a three-door full glass window with a slider out onto the deck (to be described later.) If you take a right, you go down about 4 stairs to a door that leads outside to the driveway, or you can take another right and head down about 6 stairs to the basement.
As you are walking into the basement, there is an office to your right, about a 10x10 room so good size - we will turn it into a playroom. You walk a little further and down a half stair, the room opens into a "T" shape which is living space. On the right is a walled-in storage place that will be about 10 times the size of our current storage situation. There is a full bath in the basement along with another smaller room with the mechanicals. Ceilings are low, but Ali is still thinking we can fit a treadmill.
Turning around and heading back upstairs, if you go out the slider you go out onto a 10x5 deck that is big enough for a big grill and two chairs. Four stairs lead down to a much bigger deck with a built-in bench. The deck space is covered by a huge locust tree that will provide ample shade. To the right of the deck is the two-car garage that has plenty of space for me to break something then attempt to fix it. Left of the deck is the side yard/back yard. The yard is huge, I couldn't throw a football from the front to the back of the lot - and since we are on the corner, its all ours. There is a playset that is staying for Ethan.
Going back inside, walk through the breakfast area and the kitchen and just as you enter the dining room, take a left to go up the stairs. Watch out cause the railing is just a little wobbly. The wood stairs have a carpet runner coming down. When you walk up you are met with some of the ugliest interior decorating this HGTV watcher has ever seen - even uglier than most of the stuff they do on Color Splash. The carpet is bad, really bad. The paint, ohh, just wait. At the top of the stairs, take a right and walk back along the railing. There is an open space to the left and if you make a right turn at the end of the railing, you see the bathroom on the 2nd floor. Small is an inadequate description. We have plans of reframing and adding space in the future. Baby blue is the color I think. If you go back to the hallway and walk back towards the stairs there is a bedroom on the right, painted a very purply-purple. It's bad. Its a long narrow room with three windows looking out the front of the house. Going back to the hallway there is a bedroom just at the top of the staircase on the left - another long skinny room, this time painted some grosstastic shade of orange/gold/yellow/poo. Not sure how else to describe it. If you went to the end of the hallway, you find the little guy. The little room - no more than 10x7 with slanted ceilings because of the roof. Not sure what kind of blue it is, maybe periwinkle or something. Mix it with the salt and pepper carpet and you want to get out as soon as possible. This room also has one of the kid multi-colored ceiling fans. I can't say that Ali is a huge fan. Of the fan.
By the way, did I mention the master bedroom is painted a deep purple. I would rather have it painted with a lifesize portrait of the band Deep Purple.
That's the tour, you can open your eyes.
It's an old house - 1921. Inspector said it had a fire in the basement, probably in the 30-40's - I can show you when you come over - it's actually pretty cool (at least I think so). The floors are creaky. But, it does have character and its the house that when Ali walked into she loved. And we compared every house we saw with this one - so we made it our house.
I am pretty excited for Ethan and his future sibling(s) to grow up here for a few years. Lots of room to throw the ball around, both the elementary and the middle school are right down the street. There is a sledding hill next to the elementary. The park is a two-minute walk (and it has a rock-climbing wall - which I think is cool.)
So that's it. Susan, I hope that suffices. We will get some pictures at some point, during the walkthrough maybe.
We are closing on the condo on May 29 which means movers are coming May 26 (two weeks.) It's nuts when we think about it.
We close on the house on June 15, but they are renting back until the 24th. We will get in and paint for a few days, then have real painters come in to do some trim and ceiling work. Hopefully get the carpet replaced upstairs. We are figuring on moving in on July 3, but I haven't told the movers that yet, so we will see.
We do have the house/got the house. So hooray!
The picture above is a random house Ali saw on the listings and she liked it so much she put it on the blog. No, just kidding, it is our new house in Glen Ellyn.
We had the inspection last Thursday and everything went really well except one small thing - we forgot to take pictures. I took both cameras out there to get shots and video, but when we were leaving dinner after the inspection, I said to Ali and her mom and dad - "We didn't take any pictures." It was stupid and idiotic, but I can't do anything about it now. Sorry about that.
So let me describe it to you...
Close your eyes and envision...
Walk in the front door and to the right is the living room, hardwood, built-ins on each side of the fireplace, windows on the front wall with interior shutters. Straight ahead is the bath on the first floor which is attached to what is supposed to be the master bedroom and closet space. Just before reaching the entrance to the "suite" is a coat closet. To the left is the dining room - with a ceiling fan that we will replace with a chandelier - since we are fancy and all. Again, windows with shutters on the front, two windows on the side. If you turned left and walked into the dining room, the stairs to go up are on the right, walking past the stairs is the entrance to the kitchen. Currently painted a crude yellow-ish gold, the kitchen has white appliances, white cabinets and blue countertops. Yes, blue. It really is too bad we have no money left. The kitchen is big, has a lot of counter-space and cabinets. At the end of the kitchen the counter raises and juts out a little for a two-seat bar-type thing. At the end of the kitchen (behind the two-seater) it opens into a breakfast eating area - big enough for a table and four chairs and a buffet. If you go to the back of this area, it is a three-door full glass window with a slider out onto the deck (to be described later.) If you take a right, you go down about 4 stairs to a door that leads outside to the driveway, or you can take another right and head down about 6 stairs to the basement.
As you are walking into the basement, there is an office to your right, about a 10x10 room so good size - we will turn it into a playroom. You walk a little further and down a half stair, the room opens into a "T" shape which is living space. On the right is a walled-in storage place that will be about 10 times the size of our current storage situation. There is a full bath in the basement along with another smaller room with the mechanicals. Ceilings are low, but Ali is still thinking we can fit a treadmill.
Turning around and heading back upstairs, if you go out the slider you go out onto a 10x5 deck that is big enough for a big grill and two chairs. Four stairs lead down to a much bigger deck with a built-in bench. The deck space is covered by a huge locust tree that will provide ample shade. To the right of the deck is the two-car garage that has plenty of space for me to break something then attempt to fix it. Left of the deck is the side yard/back yard. The yard is huge, I couldn't throw a football from the front to the back of the lot - and since we are on the corner, its all ours. There is a playset that is staying for Ethan.
Going back inside, walk through the breakfast area and the kitchen and just as you enter the dining room, take a left to go up the stairs. Watch out cause the railing is just a little wobbly. The wood stairs have a carpet runner coming down. When you walk up you are met with some of the ugliest interior decorating this HGTV watcher has ever seen - even uglier than most of the stuff they do on Color Splash. The carpet is bad, really bad. The paint, ohh, just wait. At the top of the stairs, take a right and walk back along the railing. There is an open space to the left and if you make a right turn at the end of the railing, you see the bathroom on the 2nd floor. Small is an inadequate description. We have plans of reframing and adding space in the future. Baby blue is the color I think. If you go back to the hallway and walk back towards the stairs there is a bedroom on the right, painted a very purply-purple. It's bad. Its a long narrow room with three windows looking out the front of the house. Going back to the hallway there is a bedroom just at the top of the staircase on the left - another long skinny room, this time painted some grosstastic shade of orange/gold/yellow/poo. Not sure how else to describe it. If you went to the end of the hallway, you find the little guy. The little room - no more than 10x7 with slanted ceilings because of the roof. Not sure what kind of blue it is, maybe periwinkle or something. Mix it with the salt and pepper carpet and you want to get out as soon as possible. This room also has one of the kid multi-colored ceiling fans. I can't say that Ali is a huge fan. Of the fan.
By the way, did I mention the master bedroom is painted a deep purple. I would rather have it painted with a lifesize portrait of the band Deep Purple.
That's the tour, you can open your eyes.
It's an old house - 1921. Inspector said it had a fire in the basement, probably in the 30-40's - I can show you when you come over - it's actually pretty cool (at least I think so). The floors are creaky. But, it does have character and its the house that when Ali walked into she loved. And we compared every house we saw with this one - so we made it our house.
I am pretty excited for Ethan and his future sibling(s) to grow up here for a few years. Lots of room to throw the ball around, both the elementary and the middle school are right down the street. There is a sledding hill next to the elementary. The park is a two-minute walk (and it has a rock-climbing wall - which I think is cool.)
So that's it. Susan, I hope that suffices. We will get some pictures at some point, during the walkthrough maybe.
We are closing on the condo on May 29 which means movers are coming May 26 (two weeks.) It's nuts when we think about it.
We close on the house on June 15, but they are renting back until the 24th. We will get in and paint for a few days, then have real painters come in to do some trim and ceiling work. Hopefully get the carpet replaced upstairs. We are figuring on moving in on July 3, but I haven't told the movers that yet, so we will see.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Ethan's First Baseball Game
Ethan and I ran up to Evanston to watch Uncle Cole and the Wildcats take on the Illini. Unfortunately the Illini won, which is truly devastating for all of us that despise all things Illinois athletics.
Ethan had fun with Craig and Bev and watching the game. Here are a couple of pics:
Ethan had fun with Craig and Bev and watching the game. Here are a couple of pics:
Another House Update
The drama continues...or at least it continued.
As of Friday morning, we were "substantially" below another offer on the house - so we made the decision that we could not offer "substantially" more. So, no house.
I was sitting at the Northwestern game on Friday when Ali called and said if we made some small adjustments to money and closing dates, we could get the house - I told her sign us up. So, we had the house.
Friday night Ali called to tell me the sellers did not want to move and they were pulling the house off the market. So, no house.
Saturday afternoon, Ann called and told me the sellers changed their mind and would sell. So, we had the house.
Sunday evening, we are sitting with Ann at dinner and she gets a call from the agent - they want to rent their house back from us for two weeks after we close. But, we still had the house.
Monday morning, I just scheduled a home inspection for Thursday. So, we will have pictures of our new home up on Thursday night or Friday.
The drama. These are the days of our lives.
As of Friday morning, we were "substantially" below another offer on the house - so we made the decision that we could not offer "substantially" more. So, no house.
I was sitting at the Northwestern game on Friday when Ali called and said if we made some small adjustments to money and closing dates, we could get the house - I told her sign us up. So, we had the house.
Friday night Ali called to tell me the sellers did not want to move and they were pulling the house off the market. So, no house.
Saturday afternoon, Ann called and told me the sellers changed their mind and would sell. So, we had the house.
Sunday evening, we are sitting with Ann at dinner and she gets a call from the agent - they want to rent their house back from us for two weeks after we close. But, we still had the house.
Monday morning, I just scheduled a home inspection for Thursday. So, we will have pictures of our new home up on Thursday night or Friday.
The drama. These are the days of our lives.
Friday, May 1, 2009
GOOD LUCK MOMMY!
Ethan told me early this morning that he wanted me to post a good luck message to his mom as she is running the Indy Mini-Marathon tomorrow morning. 
So, good luck mommy - and all of the other runners - Aunt Kristi, Jorie, and many other friends (I really don't know who, but I think Heather might be running, maybe Micki and Scott or at least one of them.)
Also good luck to Uncle Cole and the Wildcats today. Assuming the weather holds out, E-man and I will head up to Evanston to see the Cats take on the Illini. Uncle Cole is officially the closer now, so we aren't sure if we will get to see him pitch, but we will have fun none the less. If he does pitch, that's a good thing because it means the Cats are beating the Illini - and there is no other school that I would rather see lose in any sport than the Illini - including Purdue. And no Aunt Megan, I am not apologizing for that.
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