China Girl

We're headed to Michigan in July and I'm excited to see Curt's extended family - it's been four years or more since I've seen most of them. We're going to spend a night on Mackinac Island which Curt has been telling me about for 10 years. He said we could rent bikes to tour the island and I can't wait. I will definitely bring fudge home because Curt's mom has sent it to me before and it's delicious! We're driving back to Denver in a truck Curt is getting from his dad - this will be a huge help for transporting construction stuff from Denver to Breck. I'm most excited about the truck though because it will allow us to bring home a set of Currier & Ives dishes that my mother in law has been collecting for Curt for years. She intended to give this set to him when we got married but we didn't have the means to transport it from Michigan nor the space to store it. But after seeing a C&I plate in a thrift store and noticing the nostalgic image of the cabin in the trees, it seemed to me like the perfect thing for our house in the mountains. We don't have any traditional china, I didn't register for it and most of my plates have come from Goodwill so I don't have a full set of anything. I'm so excited to have a real, full set of vintage china that has sentiment attached to it - knowing someone collected pieces over time to hand down. I hope Curt can build a pretty hutch for it. It's making me think about designing our kitchen there with a lot of white and blues, very crisp and clean but casual too. Though very different in style, the colors remind me of the dishes I ate on growing up - a navy striped Dansk set my dad still owns. These dishes will be perfect for all of the eating and hosting of family and friends we plan to do. The first time we set our table for our first meal in that house is going to be very special!

One Week, Maybe

We're one week away from our scheduled closing date. Though our inspection issues and needed repairs ended up not delaying things, apparently the sellers are having issues with the inspection on their own house purchase. So, we may not move in next Thursday but they've yet to give us a firm indication either way since they're waiting on repairs too. I'm going to blindly proceed and hope for the best. I'm SO ready to move out, in, on and up!

Even though most of our belongings are boxed and in the garage in our rented townhouse, there was some overflow inside. This meant the living and dining areas were full of boxes, random junk and even some excess furniture. But now that we're FINALLY moving out soon, we've been preparing and weeding out even more. We sold my green rocker and red living room/lounge chairs, a king bed frame Curt built and the matching mattress, our two cruiser bikes (to be replaced with cheaper non-geared versions after we move - live and learn) and a few other odds and ends. Nice to not have to move those things since we already have three other mattresses and bed frames to move, plus three other bikes, plus everything else. We had a huge amount of bottles of products in the shower that we annoyingly moved when they were less than half full, and those are all finally emptied and trashed. We're trying to hold out buying more before we move, and therefore are surviving with hotel shampoo and conditioner and travel size toothpaste and deoderant. Fun! I've been using up the near-empty bottles of condiments in the fridge and just last night tossed two with a few more bottles soon to follow. Our freezer is mostly emptied and the cupboard we've been using as a pantry has hardly any food in it compared to what we hauled out of our house. Things we should have done in January... We even emptied an entire case of wine and a few bottles of liquor. Stressful winter :)

These are so minor yet all combined make me VERY happy! Next thing to go is my Mini Cooper - we're just waiting to receive the title from WA DOT. It needs to be sold since it can't survive winters in the mountains and Curt and I may not always be traveling in the same car - especially while we finish building the house. I'm a little sad, but not too much since I don't actually ever drive. In fact once this rainy spell ends, I will get back on the bike commuting schedule I loved last summer. Between that and the bus, we've rarely needed two cars. Still downsizing. Feels great!

Hurdles Cleared

We had our inspection Monday and appraisal yesterday and thankfully have passed both - a first in our house hunting process. The inspector did turn up huge mold spores on the garage ceiling due to drainage from the roof through the deck into the garage below and I thought Curt was going to bail entirely as soon as he heard the news. It wasn't visible to the owners, nor to us, because it was right behind where the garage door opens and closes. Luckily the HOA is covering all repairs and is still keeping things on schedule for closing April 28. We might not move in that Thursday and instead wait until the weekend to give them more time to fix everything - they need to not only replace the drywall in the garage but also rip up the Trex decking and put the correct water barrier underlayment down to prevent this from happening in the future. But the sellers are under contract on their own home now too so everyone is moving quickly. Exciting! There was nothing else to note in the inspection, other than the townhouse is build pretty solidly and with some forethought - for example, the AC units are larger in the upper floors because they need more cooling power due to heat rising. Both the water heater and AC unit are larger for this townhouse than they were in our 3,000 sq ft home. Just smart stuff like that.

I ordered two of the orange blown glass pendant lamps from the post below to hang over the kitchen island/bar from Amazon for just $8 total . They were marked down to $19 each (accidentally, I think because they went up to $89 right after I ordered) and I had $30 in gift cards. They were originally $130 apiece! Something to tide me over for the next two weeks until moving day. I'm sure I just jinxed myself.

More Ideas, Again

After an up-and-down week, and having to change our loan type AGAIN, we're back on track. Our inspection is next Monday and appraisal after that, with all signs pointing to closing on schedule on April 28. While I may be wasting my time thinking abut ideas for a (town)house I don't own yet - again, especially after being burned - I can't NOT do it. Of course my mind is already turning. It drives Curt crazy but oh well. I'd rather be kept up at night thinking about stuff like this rather than listen to someone firing a semi-automatic rifle for an hour like what happened a few nights ago, just a few blocks from us. I'm not moving that far away, but in my head it's plenty far.

I like these colors for the kitchen - lots of green and aqua like I already have and some orange to tie into the living room since it's a combined space. And lots of different wood tones. Bright + fresh + natural.

I like these types of colors for the living room

I like this lamp to replace the pendants over the bar

And this pillow