Jumping Ship

One month today, we’ve been in our new house.  We closed on Friday April 23rd, moved in on Saturday April 24th…. and wow, what a whirlwind. 

I can’t even tell you how happy it makes me to have my own bathroom, kitchen, livingroom, laundry room, garage, bedroom, etc.  I’ve been living out of a suitcase since December 2009 and it’s been long over due that I get my own place again and not only for my happiness, but my sanity and Chris‘ sanity too.

Let’s do a little recap, because well, I don’t know where else to start.  Forgive me if I’m repeating something I’ve already told you.  I’m going to go back to mid 2009 just to make sure I get it all.

• May 2009 – Chris got laid off
• June thru August 2009 – Chris worked with a friend who is a contractor; he lived with his aunt an hour or so away, and came home on the weekends.  We were tentatively hoping and waiting that he would get called back to his job that he got laid off from, sometime before the end of the year 2009.
• September thru November 2009 – Chris hunted non-stop, didn’t have a job, was enjoying the fact that he could hunt whenever as normally he doesn’t have enough vacation time to hunt when he wants.
• December 2009 – Realized he wasn’t going to get a call back – Decided to move to save some money.  Started packing up house we were renting and moved out on December 15th – Chris moved up to his parents cabin 3+ hours away to save money, while I stayed with my parents in Wisconsin, since I couldn’t live with Chris due to being too far away from work.  I visited Chris on the weekends so I could see him and Duke. 
• January 2010 – Chris started going stir crazy, realized he needed to get a job.  Applied with an employment agency and got hired for a 9 month contract at a machine shop with a job he loves and went to school for. 
• February 2010 – Chris lived at his grandparents place about 2 hours away from me now (1 hour closer compared to cabin).  His grandparents were in Arizona for the winter months until April 1st, so he was able to stay there, rent free to save some more money – we still weren’t sure what we wanted to do or live location wise.  We started looking for places to rent, however as you can imagine, we realized that we were going to be paying rent on something when we could be paying less to own it.  We decided to take a shot in the dark and try to get pre-approved for a mortgage and get in on the tax credit.  After much anticipation, we got pre-approved that same day, found a few places, checked out a few that we loved – however, either way, it always seemed the second we looked at them, the second someone else would put in an offer, thus leaving us to the curb.
• March 2010 – I decided to move and stay with Chris and Duke at his grandparents place.  I found a carpooler in late February and we started carpooling, and still are – best thing I ever did, we have so much damn fun, can’t even tell you!  Eventually in mid March we found the place we’re in now.  We put in our offer and it was accepted same day within 2 hours.  Thankyoubabyjeesus!
• April 2010 – We closed on our place on April 23rd, moved in on April 24th, and that Saturday my grandma, dad, mom and godmother came up and helped clean and paint.  My dad and grandma tore apart our kitchen; cleaned it from head to toe while my mom and aunt painted our bedroom.  I am SO thankful for their efforts that day; I would have never made it on my own!  There is something about your grandma cleaning your kitchen for you; you know it’s sparkly clean when she’s done – no half assing it!  And, my dad took the entire stove, microwave and dishwasher apart and made it all sparkly clean too!  We unpacked pretty much everything, got some stuff decorated, master bathroom put together, master bedroom partially put together – still have some stuff to do.  Other than that, we are pretty well settled.  Our garage is packed full of crapola, well not crap, just stuff like Chris‘ hunting things that needs to be sorted and put it in it’s places and a bedroom set of my own that needs to get either brought up stairs or down to my parents to store.
• May 2010 – Nothing new really; last week, right around May 19th, Chris‘ supervisor stopped by his machines and told him (long story short) that we don’t want the employment agency that brought you to us, to take you out and move you else where so we’re buying out your 9 month contract, 6 months early!  So, he was hired by the actually company now, no more unstability of an employment agency.  He takes such pride in his work and he’s so thankful, as am I, that his supervisor and co-workers can see that.  He’s been working crazy hours lately – they work 50 hour work weeks, but he’s been putting in 70+ hour weeks.  Nice when the paycheck comes but he is worn out this week.

Other than that, life is pretty much settling down.  Still some last minute things to be doing at home; change up the kitchen a little, maybe paint a wall a contrasting color.  I want to paint the half bath downstairs a dark deep chocolate brown, maybe paint a wall in the livingroom to brighten it up, finish painting Chris‘ bath (1 of 2 full baths upstairs) and decorating that, finish our bedroom decoration wise and get all my clothes hung up, sorted thru, etc and that should pretty much be it.

I can’t complain a whole lot, other than I’m just thankful I have an opportunity to be where I am right now and to have a home of my own.

In other news, I’m planning to jump ship soon and move on over to a new domain – I’m ready to start a different chapter of my life now.  I feel this blog has some tremendous history, however, I think it’s time to move on with a fresh start.   If you would like to follow me on to my new domain where I’m planning to post more, and regularily, feel free to either A) leave a comment here with your name, blog address and email or B) send me an email with your name and blog address.

I’ve got pictures coming, just don’t have time to throw them up right now.

Sorry!  Hope things are well with you all…