Well, a neighbor anyway…
I was ready to leave for work today, and this guy seemed to want to get in my way…
I still haven’t quite gotten used to seeing praying mantis around, as they weren’t common out in western Nebraska.
With a little prodding I was able to get him to move enough I could open my door and drive to work though.
In all fairness the human neighbors we have met so far are really nice, it’s just the insects that have been a problem 🙂
-Jordan
Heather and I survived the move.
We have probably 75% of our stuff unpacked, and at least the basic layout of our new home figured out.
I currently have my computer setup, but cannot locate the box with deodorant in it… This may become more of a problem as time goes on.
I mentioned that Heather was doing some craigslisting? It turns out looking at listings from craigslist is a great way to see a city! We spent two nights this past week driving all over the place looking at dressers, end tables, and bed frames.
We hauled a majority of those home. Being used items, they had a few dents and scratches. Heather factored this into her plan and is in the process of sanding down and repainting everything.
By Thursday night, this is what our garage looked like.
The drawers pictured are now painted, but still need another coat… this may have something to do with the fact that I haven’t unpacked my clothes yet 🙂
Back to the move, at the risk of making a number of people upset about this picture being online… some of the *AMAZING* crew that came and helped us move:
We managed 12 volunteers for Saturday, despite the extreme heat. With that many people helping, the entire hauling phase of the move was done in about two and a half hours! I should mention that my sister came down the night before and was a lifesaver in helping get all the boxes packed before the crew arrived.
All told, we are in the new place, all thanks to wonderful friends and family who were willing to give up some (or all) of their weekend to help us out.
-Jordan
Typically I take some time over the weekend to reflect and write up a blog post. This weekend I mostly focused on doors.
At this point we are done with the doors, and done with the massive cleaning project soon to be known as our home.
We did find time over the weekend to help a friend celebrate his birthday, by attending an Iowa Cubs game!
Typically we at least try to get the field in the background… you will just have to take my word for it that we were in fact at the game.
Sad fact about how the Independence Day weekend went for us… the baseball game this weekend was the first professional fireworks show we managed to take in this year. I suppose having a great new house to move into is consolation enough for this year.
So many things have happened… but there is still so much to do, so I will wrap this up and hope to have some great pictures of the moving day and perhaps the finished product soon!
-Jordan
The painting is suppose to be done today, but as you can see there will still be some work to be done.
Lucky we still have ten days before the actual moving day 🙂
In other news, we (and by we I mean Heather) have discovered that the Dave Ramsey “bargain with cash” plan is really effective when buying things off craigslist… We aren’t going to have any trouble filling the new place it would seem.
-Jordan
Ok… so I am about a week slow getting this posted. Our big end-of-June news was that we are going to move again!
The Independence Day weekend was jam packed with activities, so I didn’t manage to sit down and write up even a quick post.
Back to the move, Heather and I purchased a condo in West Des Moines. It isn’t nearly as sudden as it may seem, as we have been looking for quite some time, and trying to purchase this particular place for months.
Almost four months to be exact. You have heard of “short sale” houses? Well, don’t let the name mislead you, it’s a slow process. When people in real estate hear that we were able to close in under four months they say “well that’s a lot faster than I would have expected.”
I write this about twelve days after we closed, but it feels more like a month. The place needed only minor renovations, and yet it’s been completely exhausting to get those taken care of.
Heather and I have learned a lot during this process. The number one thing we have learned is that we cannot build a house… ever. Even the relatively minor work we are doing (and having done) to the condo has caused incredible stress at times. I think we are also learning at lot about each other, and how to work as a team… but it’s going to be 20 years before we have those lessons learned well enough to consider a project the size of building a house.
Aaand that was probably more on that tangent than I should have shared, but it’s worth noting.
The short version is that we are in the process of preparing a condo that we own such that we can move in.
(and besides, I have lived in this apartment for nearly two years! It’s overdue to move again! )
-Jordan
Nelsons 