Making It Home

We’ve lived in the new house almost a week now and I have not written about it yet!  It was because this week was the busiest week at work on record for me so far (well, at least at B+L).

But we made it to the weekend and I am going to recap the last 6 days.

Monday, 1:30pm – We met Maria and the seller’s agent at the house for the final walk-through.  It was not pretty.  I had to take pictures of the house for the lawyers, so here are some of the things we found that day.

First, there was a new leak around the furnace.

Then, we discovered the rest of the house was a MESS.  It looked like no one had taken anything out… in fact, it looked like it was the same amount of stuff just messier.  The former owners were definitely hoarders.  (Two days later, we had even found canned food in the pantry that expired in 2001.)

Crowded closets:

Bedrooms were turned upside down (more so than they were before):

The attic was not touched:

There was still food in the fridge (including frozen lasagna!!):

And the garage was PACKED!

Dave and I were a little overwhelmed – and I was slightly panicking.  However, we went to the lawyer’s office and worked out an agreement that they would have the place cleaned by the end of the week.  Plus, we still got all of the furniture we requested, so we proceeded.

Closing took a little over two hours.  Not as stressful as I thought, but I think I was working up to this day for a while now.  Once we finished, Maria gave us a little gift (a Christmas decoration) and we went to our new home!

The first thing we did was call a guy named Paul… the caretaker of the house who was the person assigned to clean it all out.  He came over that same night and spent four hours working on it.  We ended up liking Paul immediately – he was almost like a live-in handyman for the week.  It was comforting knowing he was around since I would point out problems.  On top of that, he was going to take care of both the furnace leak and the leak beneath the stairs at the water pump.

Paul also allowed us to keep as much stuff as we wanted – dishes, artwork, book, and other decorations.  Here’s the table where we piled the stuff that we wanted:

Dave and I moved some things in that night, and Mommy and Daddy came over to help.  We got as much as we could done and we set up our bedroom.  We also brought over Sam and kept her in the bedroom while Paul was around.

That night, we went to bed around midnight and proceeded to sleep only 2 hours the whole night because Sam (and us!) were kind of nervous!  The house made a lot of noises and just felt so big.  Sam could not sit still for one minute and paced around the bed the entire time.

The rest of the week will be recapped in the next post!

We’re just about ready to go!  Two more days!  We found out this week that the seller is also going to leave us the refrigerator in the basement, the bench in the basement, the grill and all of the patio furniture.  Wow, did we score!  And Dave can satisfy his dream of having a bar/gym – keeping beer down in that fridge.  haha.

Today we are going to see two more wedding venues – Lake Valhalla Club, a country club right on Lake Valhalla near Parsippany, and McLoone’s Supper Club, a restaurant in Asbury Park.  We are hoping that our Oct 29th date has not been taken yet at Perona Farms!  We wanted to make sure these two additional places were not better before booking.

My sister Casey wrote such a nice blog post the other day –>  https://younglawyers.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/wedding-bells/

All so true things!  I can’t believe how fast the time has gone.  Playing Barbies feels like yesterday.  Love you Cas!

And for Jenna… we miss her around here.  But just a couple of more weeks and then she is back for a long break.  And I am hoping to get her an internship at ZS.  Fingers crossed!

Finally, I managed to find a doctor with weekend and night hours!  I made an appointment for tomorrow at noon since I have been getting headaches and neckaches lately.  It all might be stressed related but it’s getting annoying.

Monday December 6th, 2:30pm – closing date and time.  It’s like a huge weight off to finally have it scheduled.  We definitely are getting all of the furniture we requested and I could not be happier!

I packed up my room today – it was so sad.  The first time I am really moving out of the house because my times spent at college or in New York did not count.  I think it still has not hit me that I am moving out, getting married… one day soon the tears are going to start.  I will miss Mommy and Daddy!  But luckily we will be close to home.

As sad as I am though, I am excited to get back into some kind of routine.  I have been packing up a bag every week for the last 5 years.  Between commuting back and forth from the city on the weekends to staying at Dave’s a few times a week (now more like 6 days a week!) the past couple of years, I am always on the go!  Anything I really need either stays in the car or the perpetually packed bag.  I can not wait to finally UNPACK and SIT DOWN.

As exciting as moving is, it’s also very stressful.  Between it being my first move plus the new experience of being a homeowner, I have been stressed.  On top of that, work has also been very stressful lately.  The company is going through a re-org, and although I will be fine and everyone I work with will be OK, I am no longer reporting to Rudy (so sad about this!) and I will be responsible for new things.  On top of that, the mood of the whole office is very tense.  It’s hard to work in that kind of environment.

Now, on top of that, wedding planning is in full force!  We went to see more venues this weekend – Michael Anthony’s, Perona Farms, Flanders Valley, and Royce Brook gold club.  Michael Anthony’s is a restaurant in Jersey City with views of the city.  Although I wanted more of a restaurant and less of a hall, I got the cheapy vibe from the place.  At $100 a head, I did not want a cheap vibe.  Next, Flanders Valley – banquet hall kind of near Bedminster.  Cheap feel, but I loved the old man in charge.  I also loved the small size of the room.  Cheap too, $85 a head, but too cheap-y.  Next Royce Brook Golf Club – it would be a tented wedding.  As elegant as that sounds, if it rains we were screwed – no good Plan B option for the ceremony.  If we were both into golfing, it might have been cute.  FINALLY, Perona Farms.  LOVE.  We all loved it – Dave, Mommy, Daddy, Casey and Jenna.  It is a farm with a banquet hall on the property – everything about it is so elegant.  Indoor or outdoor ceremony are both amazing options.  There is a courtyard off of the reception room, with pretty stone and old fashioned black lampposts.  It is a great option in any season and any weather.  Plus they had October 29th available at a great price – $105 a head!  I will dedicate a post to this venue once we book and secure the date.  🙂  But here is a great picture from the barn on the property:

Finally, we just finished up Thanksgiving weekend.  It was so much fun to have Casey and Jenna home for the few days.  Mommy cooked Thanksgiving dinner – and we went to see Nanny in the early afternoon.  Everyone then also came with us to see Perona Farms and we went out to dinner at Famous Dave’s after.  Good times!!  And then finally on Sunday we celebrated Leah’s 6-month birthday.  Happy birthday Leah!

“You’ll know it when you see it.”  Shopping for a wedding venue is like house hunting all over again!  Atmosphere vs. food vs. location vs. price – there are so many considerations.  This past weekend we went to see two places: Jack Baker’s Lobster Shanty and Windows on the Water.

The Lobster Shanty was very nice – it was a restaurant that also has a banquet room for special events.  It was right on the Manasquan River in Point Pleasant and although the view is not breaktaking, it is very pretty.

At $15,000 (that includes tax and tip), it would also not break the bank!

Next up we went to see Windows on the Water in Sea Bright.  Absolutely breaktaking and there was not even a building there!  They are renovating the facility and literally, there is no building there right now.  But you can envision what it will look like and it is gorgeous.  Ceremony right on the beach, cocktail hour on the back deck, and an inside reception.

However, at $135 a head and a min of 150 people, $25,000 is a little bit too much for us to spend!

This weekend we are going to see five more places: Michael Anthony’s (a restaurant in Jersey City with beautiful views of downtown NYC and reasonable prices), Perona Farms (an actual farm up in Andover NJ), Sandy Hook Chapel (old renovated chapel at Fort Hancock), Channel Club (a yacht club in Monmouth Beach) and finally (my favorite) Tim McLoone’s Supper Club in Asbury Park (a restaurant right on the beach with a beach ceremony and more of a restaurant feel vs. banquet hall).

We also found out today that next Friday, Dec 3rd is the new closing date!  Fingers are crossed that it is not delayed again.  Even more importantly, the sellers agreed to let us have all of the furniture we asked for!  We really lucked out with that one.  The furniture lowers the actual price of the house to us since it’s worth so much.   I am very excited and can not wait to move in!

We are supposed to be closing in just two days from now.  But the sellers need more time.  And they just let us know this week.  It turns out the son, who is inheriting all of the furniture and other items in the house, has been slow to move his stuff out.  Furthermore, he still has yet to say yes or no on the furniture we are requesting.  We have Maria’s assistant Eva and our lawyer on their case every day about this.  We only have the mortgage rate locked in until December 6th, which is almost 3 weeks away.  Plleeassseeee don’t let it drag out THAT long!  I still am holding on to the hope that perhaps they’ll get everything done this weekend and we can close next week.  And still have Thanksgiving at our new house.

This weekend should be fun despite the house disappointment.  Tomorrow morning we have appointments with two wedding venues in New Jersey – Jack Baker’s Lobster Shanty in Point Pleasant and Windows on the Water in Sea Bright.  Jack Baker’s sounds funny… but they have a very nice ballroom right on the Manasquan River.  It is also the kind of place we are looking for – not typical a reception-y hall room, not over-the-top grand – just a nice restaurant who happens to do weddings also.  Windows on the Water is on the ocean instead, and they do the ceremony outside on the beach, which is a plus over Jack Baker’s.  Their reception room is also very pretty from what I can see in the pictures.  Hopefully we like one of them!  If not, we still are going to check out Crystal Point Yacht Club, Sandy Hook Chapel, and McLoones Rum Runner.  Great Kills Yacht Club has not fallen off the list yet either – but it might just be too much work for us to pull off.

BUT we did decide on a date that would be so perfect – October 29th.  The 3rd anniversary of the day we met!!  Not only would it be romantic, as Dave puts it, now we only have to remember one day a year!  (Did I mention we both completely missed our second anniversary?  We remembered on October 30th.  Hey, we were busy getting engaged and buying a house!

And finally, I got promoted this week!!  To Manager of Sales Force and Managed Care Analytics.  I will be doing a lot of the same things I do now (which I really like), plus some Managed Care work and Strategic analyses.  Very exciting!!  It also comes with my own office, a nice raise, and an iPhone.  I also really love my direct manager – Rudy.  He is AWESOME!

One week to closing, and we still have not heard back about the furniture.  Not much has been happening on the home side of life – just a lot of waiting and walking aimlessly around Home Depot and Lowes planning out our future rooms.

However, lots has been happening on the engagement and wedding side!  We have narrowed down a choice of venues, ranging from the ocean (Windows on the Water, Sandy Hook Chapel, and McLoones), to on the Hudson river with views of the city (Liberty House, Chart House), to the more familiar (Great Kills Yacht Club!)  We are going to meet with each of them over the next couple of weeks to discuss pricing.  Liberty House and Chart House might be far out of our price range – but are my first choices!

I have also started looking at wedding and bridesmaid dresses online.  We are only having our siblings in the wedding party – Dave’s two brothers as best men and my two sisters as maid of honors.  We are also having Kim as another bridesmaid walking down with Leah as flower girl.  Leah will only be a year – year and a half old, so I think the two of them walking down together would be so cute!  I also think our colors will be light gray and baby yellow.  Here is the bridesmaid dress that we all like from JCrew:

With light yellow flowers in the hands.  Very elegant I hope!

Yesterday, we had Alexandra (Carol/Mom’s co-worker, fellow p-365er, and photographer) do an engagement photo shoot with us at Princeton.  It was a gorgeous day.  The campus looked really beautiful – the trees were still lots of colors, even for mid-November.  Alex was great and we had such a fun time. Here are some pictures that were taken:

We’re still waiting to hear back from the son’s lawyer about the furniture.  The husband seems to be all for it.  His agent and lawyer went to take pictures of all of the pieces we are asking for, so I could confirm everything.  And confirm I did!  Those pictures were beautiful and that furniture is great!  The desk CHAIR alone is worth about $1,000!  (I googled it.)  So please please please let us have it.  Here is what we are asking for:

Kitchen table (isn’t the wall color pretty?)

Living room couches and tables

Living room ottoman and bookcase

Living room again

Office

After a little back and forth between our lawyers, Maria and the seller’s agent, we finally got it through to the seller that we would love some furniture in exchange for some important repairs that need to be made (like a leaky water valve, broken stairs, and a chimney gap).  The furniture we are asking for include the living room set, the kitchen table and the office furniture.  They are beautiful pieces.  The seller actually came back to us today saying he would be up for that.  However, he needs to ask his wife’s son, who is the one inheriting all of the furniture.  So our fingers are crossed until we hear more!

Three weeks away from closing.  I can not wait to move into the house!

It’s Halloween weekend and we do not have any plans!  But that was on purpose – we have been very busy buying a house and getting engaged!  🙂  Instead of costumes and parties, we read up on water-proofing basements, wedding venues, and playing in Home Depot.

I think we will be great homeowners – we’re already going a good job fixing up Dave’s current house!

And I am even becoming a little more domestic… check out these cookies!  Dave even liked them!

For the new house – first, we are going back to the seller with a list of repairs that it needs before closing.  Hopefully, the seller returns to us with a monetary offering.  Or even better, a shot at his furniture.  We keep asking Maria to ask about a house sale, but he has yet to get back to us.  We need furniture!  And he has a lot of nice pieces that we would love to have.

Second, this past Friday we had a water-proofing inspector come estimate the repairs needed in the basement and garage of the house.  Luckily, the inspector reported that it seems the water problems are taken care of with the three sump pumps that were installed.  He seemed very knowledgeable in both water-proofing basements but also general contracting work.  The recommendations he gave us include:

– new sump pumps with battery back-ups and covers

– dehumidifier to keep the moisture level below 50% (it prevents mold and mildew from growing)

– keep those driveway drains free and clear of leaves

– NO LATEX paint – breeding ground for mold.  Who knew!?

The inspector was from a company called Quality 1st Basements.  So he is there primarily to sell his products, but he did not push the products at all.  He gave us very usable recommendations.  And a book that teaches you how to keep your basement free of water.  If (and when) we do need to put in new pumps, I definitely will use them.  Seem to be decent products!

Third, Dave’s condo is finally listed and ready to be sold.  Now hopefully we can find a buyer.  It’s going to be tough in this market.  Recently, the real estate market was in the news because the government is trying to shed light on poor foreclosure processes in the banks.  Apparently, there are a lot of houses that should be going into foreclosure and put on the market, but because of slow and inaccurate paperwork, the inventory is just building up and the owners are allowed to stay in their homes.  If all of these houses hit the market at once, there should be another downturn in prices.  Makes me a little nervous about getting this house.  Hopefully, Dave’s home is sold before any real downturn.  The holidays will also make it a little tougher!

Finally, I have officially started wedding planning with a tentative list of guests and list of venues.  I am hoping to set a date for very early October.  It would be cool to have the wedding on Oct 9th, Nanny’s wedding anniversary.  We went to see her today, with Mommy and Daddy who brought pizza, and we all had a great time!  We had some good laughs and good conversation about the upcoming wedding and house.  Her and Aunt Phil also both love the ring.  🙂

This past weekend, Dave and I traveled up to Niagara Falls for the marathon.  We left on Thursday night and spent the night in Ithaca so we could hang out with Jenna all day Friday.  It was a fun time roaming around Ithaca with Jenna.  It was a very windy day, but no rain (or snow!).  I went to a class with her, where I did some of her homework and laughed at the professor with her and Marc.  We then walked around Buttermilk Falls, drove around looking at the river, and stopped at a hard cider brewery place where we tasted some ciders and played with some weird cats.  It was nice to just drive around and be with Jenna!

After dinner, we left for Niagara.  It was another three hours to get there, and I probably slept for about half the trip (which is nothing new for me!).  Once we got there, we checked in and decided to take a walk to see the falls.  We stayed at the Crown Plaza, which is walking distance from the falls on the Canadian side.  We even had a view from our room!

We then walked about a mile to the horseshoe part of the Canadian falls.  We walked around there, taking pictures and talking.  We then moved to one more remote section where there were no other tourists and started talking about the house.  It was at this time, Dave got down on one knee and proposed!  Of course, I said yes!  We were both so happy!  It was a great moment!  And the ring is so beautiful.

The next day, we toured some of Niagara and went to the marathon expo so Dave could check in.  We did not do too much so Dave would be well-rested for the 26 mile run.  We did do some carbo-loading.  Especially me, who needed the energy to be a spectator!  Look at my plate compared to Dave’s.  I got confused about who was actually running!

(don’t worry, Dave went back for more helpings)

The next day was the marathon – Dave was out bright and early to be bussed to Buffalo for the start.  I hung around, explored theknot.com (ah!), and went to watch him around 11.  By 1:50, he made it to the finish line.  It was a rough run, and although he did not hit his time goal, he still did great and looked so cute coming down that road.  🙂

The rest of the day, we walked around, had lunch, and went on the Maid of the Mist.  After a late dinner, we took the Sky Wheel, the same ferris wheel we went on in Sweden!

The last day we were in Niagara, we took pictures at our proposal spot.  🙂

We also went to Niagara-on-the-lake, a small and cute town up near Lake Ontario.  I tried to get fancy with my photography.

We finished the day by getting the best dinner of the weekend at an Italian place within walking distance of the hotel.  We also spent that time starting up a wedding guest list.  Who knew that should probably be the first things you do so you know the size of the wedding!  It’s hard coming up with a list we realized – our wedding might not be as small as originally planned.  But that’s OK – I have some ideas.  😉

On Tuesday, we started our journey home by stopping at the American side of the falls.

And after lunch, we took the long 7 hour trip back home to New Jersey.  Now it’s time to finish up this house stuff and move on to planning a wedding!