Settling in

Sorry it's been so long since you got an updated post, but we just got the internet last night and we've been busy putting the house together. But I'll slowly post pictures of how the house is progressing. We're having friends over tomorrow for the Superbowl, so we needed to get the downstairs in some sort of order.

We moved in last Saturday with the help of my family and our friend Anne. The move went well and everyone stuck around to help and unpack until mid-afternoon. But we were unsure what was going where exactly and what we had--we have received wedding and shower gifts that we had never opened as we knew we would just have to pack them up and move them in a few short months. So it was kind of like Christmas. The fridge and furniture showed up on Saturday as well, so we had the bedroom and living room sets the day we moved in, which was nice.

This week has been a bit trying. First was the random outlets that didn't work, one of which was for the refrigerator. Turns out those 4 were all on the same circuit and were not properly hooked up. Why didn't we think to walk around with a hair dryer at the final walk-through? It was just a call to the builder who had the electrician out in a matter of hours to fix it. Crisis averted.

Then there was the dryer incident. We had purchased a relatively inexpensive washer and dryer about 2 years ago, used them for 3ish months, and then moved into the apartment and stored them in the garage. We were concerned that we would have blown a gasket in the washer, but it seems to be running well. The dryer had the wrong plug, so Rick and Dad fixed that and it tumbled, but did not heat (which I did not realize until after the 1st load didn't dry, so I had another in the washer and we had to spread the wet clothes all around the house to dry). Sears quoted $135 for a consultation visit, not including parts, and we paid $199 for the dryer. We did some research and everyone said it must be the heating element, so we bought a replacement part and after Rick spent half an hour behind the dryer installing it, we found out that wasn't the problem. There was something about a heating fuse inside the dryer that someone would have to come out to diagnose, so we decided to stop throwing money into it and purchase a new one. The dirty clothes stacked up for about a week, the new dryer showed up, and we had the same problem. What are the odds that we would have 2 broken dryers? An email to the builder who had an electrician out within 20 minutes on a Saturday morning, 10 minutes worth of work replacing a bad breaker, and I have been doing laundry all day. Seriously, I would say I have done at least half a dozen loads. I am less mad about the whole situation than I was this morning--we most likely got rid of our other dryer for no good reason and spent more money on a dryer we probably didn't need.

Curtains were another fiasco. We took measurements and forgot to take them to the store. I then convinced Rick the 63" curtains would be fine as our windows were 56" tall, but I had measured the actual windows and not the frames, so when we got the curtains home, they were too short. Another run back to Target to exchange them for longer ones... And it turns out you have to be really skilled to hang curtains. They give you these little wall gripper things that you're supposed to put your screws through but they bend like crazy when you try and drive them into the wall. The curtains are up and you can't tell unless you get right up to them that we had a difficult time with the process. At least now the sun won't wake us every weekend morning as our bedroom has an east-facing window. It's the small victories.

The TV came early in the week but we didn't get satellite until yesterday, so it loomed in the living room in its 47" glory. When they installed it, I thought it was uncomfortably large, but it's growing on me. I like that there's no problem seeing it from the kitchen. We finally have Rick's sound system hooked up to the TV (I know I never used it in the past 2 years) and it's pretty cool. Today I was really frustrated with the 4 remotes and couldn't fugue out how to do anything, but Rick gave me a crash course so now I can change the channel, switch to the blu-ray player, and go back again. Sounds silly, I know, but I was proud. Here's a picture of our new tv on the fireplace:
Unpacking has been a task, but we're getting there. Work has been going well--I'm picking up things quickly and it's been busy so that makes it interesting for me. Coworkers invited me out for a drink after work yesterday so Rick and I met up with them. It was nice to get to know them a little better.

Thought I would show a little more of the house as it comes together. Here's the living room--I really like the couch and loveseat! We had the recliner before, but it fits in pretty well so we're keeping it for now. We decided to push all of the furniture to the perimeter of the room to keep it open and also to keep an appropriate distance between viewers and the tv.

Here's the kitchen. Like my new fridge? It's so pretty :) We bought the bar stools today and I love them--they're perfect for the height of the island (which was also drama at the store--I just couldn't decide what height would be better!) and we have been eating exclusively at the island since the chairs for the kitchen table won't be in for a few weeks. You can't tell, but there's chocolate chip cookies on the island--it's officially a home now that there's baked goods!

We met one of our neighbors today, she seemed very nice. They are young and engaged and she was helpful--explained why we have mysteriously have not been getting any mail (apparently there was too much snow in front of the box--today it was warm so I got out the shovel and fixed the problem). Once we get everything squared away, maybe we'll invite them over for supper so we can get to know them better.

I'll try and put up pictures of the bedroom tomorrow. Superbowl party--can't wait to have friends over!