OK, hold on, let me stop you right there! I know, who the heck is this guy, telling you he’s going to be updating and then disappears for months. TYPICAL, right?!
LISTEN.
It’s not my fault.
Yeah, I know, I always say that, but this time it’s true. If you haven’t been following me on the socials then this is going to be news to you buuuuuuuut..
WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!
Not just any house either. An AWESOME house! Now, I may be biased here, but it’s the awesomest house that has the housiest housies that any house has ever housed. (Sorry, bedtime reading tonight was Dr. Seuss)
We’ve been in here for a little over 2 months and I just can’t get over the high. Over the excitement, and joy. And I especially can’t get over… all the damn. BOXES. 2 months and still not unpacked, you believe this?! I only have about 5 left but I’m running out of nooks and crannies to put stuff. And to make matters worse, these are THOSE last boxes. You know, the ones you come across and think “eh, I’ll save this for later, and find a place for it.” Yeah, guess what. That place? You never find it. And those boxes find their way to the garage and it’s there where they’ll die. But that’s not the end, because you’ll take everything out of them and put it all into a new box, and have the whole cycle start again.
Look at me, getting caught up on the boxes that I haven’t unpacked. Trust me, I hear enough about them. And I stubbed my toe a plenty so let’s talk about something else before I trigger my Hulk again.
Like how awesome the house is, huh?? …No? Already said that? Ok, let’s talk details. But not too many because this will turn into a novel that I could’ve just published for money. Instead, I’ll get into the big details and save the good stuff about home renovation and interior decorating we’ve been so into for another post. Seriously, we should have our own HGTV show at this point.
Day 17: The wife is beginning to suspect my addiction to Pinterest. My sudden knowledge of color schemes and DIY wood work may be to blame. Must only allude to good ideas for a while and make her think she’s coming up with them.
— Los (@man_chef_dad) January 29, 2018
It got so bad that the wife had to look me in the eye and tell me adult to adult that I’m spending way too much time on Pinterest, that I needed to stop finding stuff on there to try and do in the house. I sounded so smart though! She’d say something was wrong and I’d say “oh, that’s an easy fix, we could just do [this this and this] AND I could even make something out of pallets too!” I’d get a look and I would realize what I just said and I’d remember I really had no idea how to do any of that stuff. Pinterest, man! Dangerous drug.
For real though, pallets are all the rage now with everything. I’m shocked there’s not a pallet shortage from all the hipsters trying to make rustic coffee tables and accent walls.
So back to it, here’s where I think I last left you: We were coming close to shacking up with my parents as the lease for our overpriced two-story cave was coming to an end. Thanks to what could possibly be one of the worst rental companies in business, we knew we didn’t want to rent anymore. But we didn’t know if we’d be able to buy since our area was very limited. We could only move into the school zone that seemed like you can literally throw a ball across. And since we didn’t want to pull the kid out and have him change schools again, we felt stuck.
Then one place popped up in a rather fancy golf community. Right across the street from where the cave was located, we never anticipated living there for numerous reasons, but we knew the entire community was covered by the school zone. Which is why what was outside the community – the entire 2 blocks just outside the school – is the only non-community zoned to the school. Anyway, a house was for sale and we decided to check it out. By some grace, it was priced lower than what we expected for the community (in our range! [albeit, the top]), AND it was the size we wanted with almost all of things we were looking for.
Our realtor took us to see it one day after we had initially brushed it off a month prior. She was the same realtor we used when we FIRST started looking for a house before we ever got married. Real cool people, so we stuck with her this time again. She took us to see the house and it was one of those “this is it” moments where we knew it was going to be perfect. No, not because we were coming down to the wire with finding a place, but because it was literally perfect for us. Less than a mile from the kid’s school, one story so no more stairs to worry about, big enough for us, it was all just perfect. So we started going through the process and after what seemed like forever, everything cleared, papers signed, and here we are!
Yeah, I know, wtf I been doing if everything is all fine and dandy?! Like I said, it’s been cray cray here. Even though the house was perfect for us it didn’t mean we didn’t have work to do. We aren’t like those crazy young couples on House Hunters where the house could be everything they’ve ever dreamed of but OH NO, LOOK AT THOSE WALLS, I CAN’T LIVE WITH THAT COLOR! Or my fave, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS HOUSE BUT I CANNOT STAND CARPET, THIS KILLS IT FOR ME.
No, we weren’t them. We’re sensible. We are not a retired ventriloquist and a part time guinea pig trainer with a budget of $825K. We saw the house for the potential and knew it needed new paint EVERYWHERE along with new floors. It was going to be a lot of work but with the time frame we had we knew we could get it to work. And we did! For the most part… We were taking care of all of the needed renovations all the way up until 2 days before we were scheduled to move in. It came down to the wire! But when the dust settled – seriously, there was dust everywhere – all the pieces fit, and it all worked out.
See what I mean? SO much paint. It looks like we were running an offensive in a painting turf war.
And I’ve been going nonstop ever since we started the process, hahaha. No, seriously, I laugh to keep from going mad. The wife just told me to take a break with stuff because everything big is done and I was burning myself out. Lots of stress with things that still need to be done because nothing is ever really done. But it’s not like it was where things NEEDED to be finished like changing outlets. You ever count the outlets in your house? Go ahead, count them. And imagine going through and replacing every single one. Here’s what it would probably look like, not including all the face plates AND the wall switches. I almost died twice!
Also, the unpacking of boxes. Which bee tee dub, YEAH I FINISHED THOSE between starting writing this and finishing it up. BOO-YA!
So where does that leave us? Who knows? I’ve been wanting to write up a before and after post for the house because MAN I’m happy with how it all came out. When the house is clean – which is rare because, kids – it looks like it’s straight out of a magazine. Especially the living room, and especially if it was an IKEA catalog because that’s all we have in there. (IKEA, call me babe, let’s do lunch)
So until then, thanks for reading and here’s to hoping you’re still caring about what I have to say. I promise I’m going to try and update more. I need an outlet to get my thoughts out and my podcast only gives me so long to talk about games. Which hey, btw, do you like podcasts? I got one if you’re bored 😉
About the song…
Man, this song hits.. well, it hits home in so many ways. In the lyrics, the meaning, everything. We’re living in a place just for us. Our own place. We didn’t think we’d be able to say that for a long time, but here we are. Thanks to hard work, devotion, love… Love, I think, most of all. And while days can get pretty chaotic sometimes, seeming like the sun isn’t shining as bright, or things aren’t going our way. I know it’ll all be work itself out somehow. Things will get better.
‘Cause we’ll be dancin’ in the kitchen in the pale moon light, only care in the world is that our kids are alright.
Daddy loves mamma and mamma loves him, tomorrow we get to do it over again.
We found our home. Something we can build for years
The young and old, I’ll be there to wipe your tears
We all get to see who we grow up to be
An anchor when in doubt, an ocean when in drought
We aim for it all, we lift up these walls
To make this house our home.
So smile at me, baby, take my breath away. With the good Lord willing, I’ll be happy to say..
That daddy loves mamma and mamma loves him. Tomorrow we get to do it over again.
