We are in!

August 25, 2012 on 9:41 pm | In Hayden and Laura | 1 Comment

Well, after a little bit of closing date drama, we are finally in our new house and settled!  Hayden and I are constantly working to make this our home and have already accomplished so much. Our bed time is much later these days and our down time in the evenings is now focused on hammering out our “to do” list. We can’t wait to post “before” and “after” pictures..and we are making tons of friends at Home Depot in the mean time!  Once we got in here, the list of urgent changes that needed to be made quickly receded.  1) We were so tired after moving in and unpacking all the boxes we thought we could live with a few outdated elements this house has.  2) The things we wanted to change don’t stand out quite so much now that we are able to live here and look out the window at our incredible view!

As I stated in a previous post, Hayden and I had been keeping our eye out for a lake front property for almost a year, so we knew that when we found this house that we would really like living on the lake.  Well, three weeks after moving in, we LOVE it even more than we imagined.  It is truly a dream come true.  The lake is beautiful and we feel like we are on vacation every day getting to have it in our backyard…literally.  We have an amazing deck that we just got two new chairs for (still looking for a table and chair set).  Hayden and I put the chairs on the deck outside our bedroom so we can use them in the mornings or evenings to hang out.  Hayden sits out there every morning watching the sun rise and reading his Bible.  It is definitely a routine that the kids have picked up on because this morning Trey ran right outside looking for his Dad, without evening saying good morning to me as he ran by. 

Before moving in, Hayden and I had the opportunity to come have a picnic dinner on the floor of our new living room (Chinese and sushi) and move some unboxed items over on the trailer…hahaha, we were wondering what the neighbors would think of us rolling up with a trailer full of household items…the Clampets have arrived!!  That night we walked through the empty house and did a prayer walk.  Prayer has been a huge part of this move and to cap off the move, I took an hour or two to go clean our old house for the new people.  As I moved room to room, I took the opportunity and few minutes of quiet to praise God for all the amazing memories, growth, and experiences we’d had at our house on Sailboat Lane…many of you were a part of those praises.

So, all the boxes are unpacked, most everything is organized, and we are fully enjoying all the amenities the house has to offer- much larger laundry room, bigger play room, getting to use our sectional in the family room- where we can all fit to snuggle as we watch a movie and eat popcorn, incredibly open kitchen with amazing windows, stairs that are less tempting for Avery to climb, and everyone’s favorite- the oversized bath in the Master bathroom.  The kids LOVE taking bubble baths in it and ask to get in there every day. 

We have decided on paint colors and will start that process this week.  I can’t wait! 
Other projects we’ve already done- taken the fireplace screens off, hung pictures, organized the garage- I can park in there!!  Hung the tv over the mantle, painted some tiles in the backsplash…a group of them were red…stained and added safer rails on the banisters, added rollers to the dock, moved the disposal to a more useful side of the sink, bought a new refrigerator- ours didn’t fit under the cabinets, started getting the garden ready for planting, and a few other fixes.  I have never been more glad that I married such a handy guy.  Hayden has been amazing getting all the lighting, plumbing, hanging, fixing and updating done.  Not to mention all the unpacking!  He took the first week off so he could be home to help and I know it would have been near impossible to get it all done without his help.  Plus, Hayden’s parents took the kids to Jackson for a few days and we got to get work done and go on a few dates!  We’ve been having a blast making this house a home.

The girls are having fun sharing a room and Avery especially loves being even more in the center of it all. We don’t have Internet yet, so I’ve been less than distracted with the computer and have had a ton of fun playing with the kids.  Our playroom is bigger so some of the toys that have been in the attic for a while are now out again.  The kids have been playing in their kitchen and making us delicious meals and Haley found a new love for her doll house.  The former owners of the house left a pool table- which we just sold- but, the kids loved having for the few days we let them play with it.  We realized they are not quite old enough to enjoy it, and just old enough to destroy it.  It’s a really nice table, so we are selling it to make more room to play.  Instead of pool balls in the pockets we were finding plastic food from the play kitchen. 

I’m laughing because as I sat here writing this I keep having to yell, “in the potato!”  The kids are playing with the potato head on the floor and are putting all the pieces on Avery or in her mouth, instead of in the potato.  My poor little baby…she is so tolerant and just rolls with the punches…she is even laughing at most of it.  Oh goodness, aren’t siblings fun?