Our New House Home

This is crazy long, probably boring post.  Good luck.

So Dan and I moved again.  Shocking I know.  This is the sixth place we've lived in our five years of marriage.  This is the fourth house Atticus has lived in.  Yep, he's two.  We move a lot.  Every summer, like clockwork.  Fortunately we bought a house this time.  So moving again soon won't be happening.  And if it does, I may die.  
Dan will graduate with his master's this December and we found out that his company wants him to stay here instead of heading out to Boston.  (A bummer because it would be nice to have a little culture shock for a few years but still okay with us because we can afford a lot more house this way.)  So we decided to be grown ups and stop renting.  After looking at houses all spring and summer we found one that we loved (though Dan was reluctant and nervous as I'll explain later)  (Oh and by "we loved"  I mean I loved and Dan thought was pretty good. As he never loved any that we saw.) and made our offer.  We got it for well under what our budget was because the basement is not done.  (Enter Dan's nervousness)
It's in Nibley, which we love.  That's where our last house was and we love the view and the quiet, plus it's about three blocks from Dan's office.  We plan to at least start on the basement this spring as well as putting on a deck as we currently have a door that leads to a big drop off in our yard.  Dan's kind of excited now for the basement and to be able to put our own touches on it.  It's already framed out but we are going to tweak it a little to expand the family room and make the bedrooms a bit smaller.  The windows down there are above ground as well which I love.

So here's a bunch of pictures.  

We've not really put up any decorations or we've just put stuff in places to see if we like them there.  Also, I do not know how to decorate so anyone who wants to, can come decorate my house for me I would be so happy with you.

We want to take the vinyl welcome off the door (because we are recluses) but I fear it's been on there too long and the rest of the paint will have faded.

 My cute helper.

 See how we have no deck?  Just a door.  It's cute.

Living room.  Once the basement's done the tv and the black couch will go downstairs.  For now the couch is serving to block the deck doors that lead to nowhere.  

 Also, the fireplace is really why I wanted this house.  I am in love with it.  (And also I don't know how to decorate a mantle.  I just threw stuff up there.  Any suggestions?)

My cute boy some more.

 Kitchen.  In case you were unsure.  Also that's the laundry room back there, with my pantry and garage.

My favorite window above my sink.

 Mine and Dan's room.

 This, I don't know what to do with this.  (Also don't mind my old bed waiting to be put together for Atticus' big boy bed, which is waiting for me to finish making his quilt for the bed.)  So this is the baby's room which is cute but so, so pink.  Really, so much pink.  I would like it if the pink were toned down a bit.  But the real problem is that all my nursery stuff is turquoise and brown damask.  The turquoise looks okay with the pink but the patterns don't match and again, that is so much pink.  So now I have to figure out how to paint it.  I don't know how to pick paint colors or how to do anything cute.  Anyone?

 This is Atticus' room.  I wanted to paint over the letters but he loves them so much (Literally says "Thank you for mine letters" in his nightly prayers.) that I think I'll keep them for a few years.  I haven't hung anything in his room yet because I don't know what the set up will be once we put in his new bed. (hopefully next month)

Our bathroom.  Love the mirrors, wish there were two sinks or that I could at least see the mirror when I'm standing at the sink. 

Atticus' bathroom.  Don't know what my plan is with this room.  The wallpaper is peeling so I need to get rid of it and repaint.  The shower curtain was like a five dollar one I bought a few years ago just to have one in our other bathroom but it may just stay around. 

The basement.

Family room

 Storage room, bedroom, and bathroom.

Two bedrooms (One behind the back of Dan's giant white board back there.) 

Atticus struggled for the first few days, saying he wanted to go home, but after spending a few hours at the old, now empty, house while I cleaned he will now tell you that "I not like old house, it boring" and he very much prefers "Our new house home".  He especially loves the Lazy Susan in the kitchen for giving his toys rides, opening and shutting the sliding door to the laundry room, finding all the various letters painted in his room, the low windows he can stand and look out of, the slanted driveway he can roll his toy lawn mower down and chase after, and his new friend across the street (Knight, who is 3) whom he calls "Mine Knight friend" and for whom he watches for and asks about all day.  (Oh and on that topic, being socially awkward as I am, and having not grown up in a neighborhood, I have no idea on how to handle neighborhood etiquette or what to expect.)

Buying a house is different from renting obviously, but the biggest annoyance I've had thus far is the cleaning.  I'm used to scouring my house as I move out and then having to clean the house I move into but these people had no obligation to clean as they moved out.  And while I realize it could have been much worse, it has certainly made me feel like I am cleaner than I thought.  (And don't get me wrong, Dan won't hesitate to agree that I am not the cleanest person.  And I'm sure I miss things in my regular cleaning that others never would.)  I've had to clean weird things since moving in that I would never have left unclean for either the fact that the mess is right there glaring me in the face and that's gross or out of sheer embarrassment.  Such as splashes of who knows what across the walls in various parts of the house, so many spots of grime in places that were obviously seen daily, bathroom floors that I won't go into details on, so much pen and crayon from children writing on the wall (not just scribbles, writing), and I could go on.  We've been here two weeks and I'm still not done cleaning.  Oh and the grossest thing, just piles of dog food all through the basement, because who needs to use a dish to feed your dogs?  And who wouldn't want to invite some mice in to feast with them?

So yes, I more and more think these people may have been a bit crazy.  (Though they seemed pleasant enough and I'm sure are truly wonderful people)  Besides the mice invitations, etc, this lady was obsessed with vinyl.  There were precious quotes in every room in the house.  Some with sayings on more than one wall.  But the thing that really makes me believe they were nuts is the fact that they had this great big yard with beautiful grass, and no sprinkling system.  No sprinklers.  The lady, as I've learned from neighbors was the only one to take care of the yard, went out daily with a hose and screwed on rain bird and watered.  Luckily it's rained quite a bit since we moved in and I have thus far only had to water twice.  It is an all day pain-in-the-bum activity.  It takes ten minutes to figure out where to move the sprinkler and to adjust it appropriately and then every five minutes the sprinkler will work itself out of the ground so it needs readjustment or will get stuck and stop turning.  And this lady did this every summer for the six years since they built the house.  Insane.

Sorry, I've whined a ton.  I really love this house and am so happy to be here.