Our New Home! (Knock on Brick!)

I won't waist time with words - just photos!  :)

I just love the lamp post each house has! 

We've decided to turn this dining room into our front office.

We love the open floor plan!

We aren't thrilled with the ketchup/mustard themed walls. One or both colors are going to go!

Since we aren't using the dining room for eating, we'll put our dining room table in the breakfast nook.

The kitchen!

This is a bonus china cabinet that's built into a hallway between the dining room and the kitchen...score!

The master bedroom is huge!

I love how this picture makes the bathtub look like a shrine. I do love it, though!

 His and her sink - a must in this marriage!  ;)

So many homes in NC have windows in their closets. It's such a trip to think that I need a curtain for my closet!

Guest bathroom with his and her sinks - in case it's a must for our visiting couples!

The house include two additional rooms identical to his image.

When you step outside, this is your immediate view of the backyard.  As you can see, it's very private.

Since this house is the first in the neighborhood, it's largest drawback is the noise from the semi-busy street.  But this gorgeous brick wall does a good job at keeping the noise down.

This is on the side of the house - I am in love with all the brick!

I feel like I'll be living in a European hotel!

The garage comes with two fascinating features. First, a car washing station - is this a Man's Garage, or what!?

Secondly, it comes with a fireplace! See it in the background? The garage can fit up to 4 cars, or in our case, 2 cars and a boat. If we want, we could technically finish the other side and create a finished basement. But that's OK, we'll let Matt have his Super Sized Man Cave!  :)

And right on the other side of the garage door is an over sized mud room. We think we'll make this Matt's workshop or at least a good entry way to hide all that unsightly stuff.  :) 

We made an offer on the house this morning, and by the afternoon we negotiated the price and have an acceptance for both parties! Now we just have to wait on inspections and confirmation from the relocation company and we should go into escrow.  If all goes smoothly, we could be the owners by Nov 30th!

NC Day 3...Oops, And Day 4

I'm really trying my best to keep up, but golly gee wiz, it's hard to remember to write a blog post and pick out a house!  :)  Last night I had such a huge headache after house-hunting, I literally skipped dinner and went straight to bed.

By Friday evening, we successfully narrowed our list to 5 houses.  That has been a huge accomplishment since we started at over 20.  The market in NC is a little too plentiful, given it's current real estate market so we have too many choices. But, that's over with now and I feel we have narrowed ourselves down to a good final list.

Matt and I promised ourselves we wouldn't leave the state until we put an offer on a house, which means we still have some work to do! Matt and I are currently have no clue which is our top choice.  Matt said, "Let's sleep on it. Maybe we'll figure it out after some rest." Well, according to my clock, it's after 3am and I'm posting the blog, so hopefully Matt's sleep will be good enough for the two of us.

In all honestly, each house is wonderful.  It's more house than we'll ever need and each are beautiful (and so affordable) in their own way.  Each also, however, have 1 big drawback.  So now it's up to us to pick the house we love the most and are most willing to look past in regards to the drawback.  In the end, I know we'll pick the right home - not house - for us! Oh how poetic, Kirsten!  :)  I will definitely post a picture of the new house once we have picked it!  Wish us luck!

NC Day 2

Wow, did today really happen?  It all went so fast and so much happened. First, Matt was offered the new position in NC. Then, after looking at over 400 houses online (that's what happens when I'm stuck in a hotel room with too much time) I narrowed our search down to 40 and then down to 11.

We saw 4 houses in the late afternoon - thankfully between weather breaks. I'm not sure what to think of the weather around these parts. The two times Matt has visited NC, there have been tornado warnings.  Thankfully we are safe, but it does make me think that I better buy some red ruby slippers for the future.  :(

I'm not going to post any pictures of the potential houses because I'm pretty overwhelmed with our choices. I'm scrutinizing everything right now, I'd hate to mislead our feelings. Who know's what I'll be thinking tomorrow. But, I can say that we are awed by how big the houses are and how far our money will go.  We both agree that finished basements are pretty cool.  I see a movie room in the future!

A New Blog Title IS Needed!

Hooray, Matt just got offered the job in North Carolina so it is official, folks!  Matt and I are moving to North Carolina!  I'm furiously looking at houses online right now so I apologize for the short post.  We met with an agent yesterday, are already approved for a few different loans and I'm now picking out my favorite houses to look at for today, Thursday and Friday.  Thankfully Matt will be able to join us tomorrow and Friday.  :)

Whew, well, got to go.  Once we've had a chance to look at some houses, I'll be able to write a more throughout post.  :)  I can say, however, that we are very happy with the area and with Matt's new job!

NC Day 1

We made it safely to North Carolina on Sunday.  I woke up sick so I was a horrible driving partner with Matt.  I slept for the majority of the trip which was about a 10 hour drive.

Since I wasn't feeling well, we decided on Monday to let Matt have the car, which meant I was stuck in the hotel all day.  I took full advantage of catching up on even more sleep and by the time Matt got home, I was ready to hit the town and look around.

We drove into Winston-Salem, the nearby city.  It's got a downtown city vibe to it, but on a much smaller scale. We drove by some of the hot spots and I can see Matt and I enjoying it.  There were some neat restaurants and the city is known for it's art scene - that should keep me happy!  :)

Next we drove to Wake Forest College, the nearby university to Winston Salem. It was a very pretty campus.

  

We ate at a brewery called the Foothills Brewery and the portions were enormous!  We split (thankfully) a BBQ plate along with a side of fried mushrooms and we each got a full plate of food!  The prices were very reasonable, especially compared to CA! Gold star for NC, so far!  :)

Finally Matt, not me, Matt insisted we go to one of the famous places Winston Salem is famous for giving birth to... Krispy Kreme!  :)

Don't worry, we shared the rest of the donuts with the plant - we couldn't possibly eat them all!!!

This Blog May Need A New Title...

OK, the many of you know by now, but for those that don't, I think it's time to officially let the cat out of the bag...

NO!  Not that one!

Matt and I spent today getting ready to drive to North Carolina because Matt was extended an opportunity to interview for a Kaizen Leader in Winston-Salem, NC.  We were asked to keep things on the down low until Matt had his interview, but it seems like everyone in his department has heard, one way or another, so I figured it was time to make it official for our family and friends!

So, what does that mean? For the past three weeks, Matt has been in the Kaizen Leader training program and little did he know when he first started it that his boss had this NC position in mind for him. During the training, Theresa, Matt's boss, asked Matt if he would be interested in interviewing for the position, to which he said, "Of course!" So, now that he's finished his training, we are driving to NC to interview and check out different places to live. I can't believe this is all starting again. Can you believe that in 8 months we may be moving again!? Originally we thought we would live in OH until next summer...but now, I'll be shocked if we are here by the end of the year. So, we will be sure to document our travels along the way and keep you all informed!  :)

I Need My Space!

Friday evening we went to University of Toledo's Planetarium.  They have a unique learning program on Fridays and it's something I've been wanting to do for a while. They had a seasonal program called Scarry Halloween and the purpose of the program was to teach us the origination of Halloween and how it connects to astronomy.

We started by learning the difference between mirror/lens-based telescopes. We then moved onto the Halloween portion of the program. They had a couple of stories about Sagittarius and Medusa, but aside from that, the docents had a hard time connecting Halloween stories back to the constellations. I did learn an interesting fact.  Depending on whether you are studying Grecian or Egyptian history, the constellation Orion has a different story. I always think of the constellations as having one story - not multiple! But that makes sense that not everyone would have the same stories. The program concluded with our group walking over to a 100 year old telescope and we had a clear enough sky to observe Jupiter and it's moons.  It was a very educational evening!  :)

Kiddios Everywhere!

Thursday I had my kids' event and it was another huge success!

This one was different because we had a KinderCare daycare group sponsor the event by providing Halloween themed crafts. The kid's were thrilled, to say the least!

We had different stations for different age groups. Our younger kids' crafts included making plates:

Or photo frames:

Painting with large sponges:







Make and Take, where they could make bags and bracelets and take their goodies home:





And for the bigger kids, they had these cool mugs that included artwork that can be placed in the middle to display.  It was really cool - I just wish I got a closer picture!

Today I drove to Toledo and had lunch with Steph. I think we are going to make it a weekly thing since I enjoy having a reason to get out of the house during the afternoon (other than for errands, that is!)

After lunch, I decided to take a jog around the river. Steph's work place is surrounded by a path, so it was nice to jog in a semi-secluded area with a killer view!

Our evening's entertainment was filled with picking out new glasses - this is the pair Matt picked out:

Ha!  Yeah right!  For once I didn't put him up to this photo - he actually put these on himself...

I had some trouble picking out new frames so I opted to get new prescription sunglasses. I needed a new pair anyway so all I need to do now is NOT lose them! Something I can say I haven't had much luck with in the past. Matt got some new frames, too, so we'll be sure to do a optical fashion show once they come in.