We're home!

We are so excited to announce that on August 5, we moved into the north house (which from this point forward will be known as our home)!!  We were able to close on the house that day, which was a lovely way to celebrate Katie's 38th birthday!  Here's a picture of us at closing with the certificate of occupancy:

Prior to that, on July 30, we had an amazing crew of family and friends helping us move the majority of our belongings into our new home.  Special thanks to Duke, Jeanne, Brody, Ryland, Angie, Angie's nephew Matthew, Kristie, Andy, Jayson, Steve, Joan, and Ryan!  

When we arrived to the house on July 30, the painters were still there (we weren't expecting that), so we moved everything into the center of rooms, like this:

This was a little frustrating for us, since we had such great help that could have moved the big furniture and washer/dryer into position, but we rolled with it.

On Aug. 5, Angie and Gary helped us for 4 hours getting most of the remaining items from the south house to our home.  They even brought a pie and sang "Happy Birthday" to Katie.

Katie's dad Marshall arrived the next day and helped get a few more items from the south house.  He also brought pie.  Four of them!!  Awesomeness.

On Aug. 11, we successfully closed on the sale of the south house, so we are now very happy to be owners of just one home.

On Aug. 13, our friend Ryan came over and helped Matt get the internet connected, the TV antenna installed, and (most importantly!) the TV mounted on the wall.  It was a big day:

And now for the moment some of you have been requesting ... photos of our mostly finished house, with most of our stuff unpacked and put away ...

Check out the new mailbox!  And the fact that we can park both vehicles in the garage!!

Our front door ... 

Entryway ... 

The stairs leading to the basement will be carpeted when we carpet the basement floor ...

Laundry room, which leads to the big-ass garage

Dining and kitchen area

French doors to the deck, where we've had several breakfasts and dinners lately.  Love the cool weather we've been having here!

Main floor living room

Hallway to the main floor bedrooms

Master bedroom ... with a view of the sunrise

Master bathroom, toilet room, and shower ... 

Holy closet space, Batman!!

The septic system was installed the week we moved in.  It's big enough to accommodate a family of 10, so they tore the crap out of the yard.  The final grade is happening this week, so the dirt piles will be cleaned up.  Eventually, we'll throw down some grass seed.

Office

Extra bedroom on main floor

Main floor hall bathroom

Temporary seating for the TV.  Matt's in love.

Basement bathroom

The kitties will eventually move to the mechanical room when the basement floor is finished.  This is one of the basement bedrooms:

And here's the other basement bedroom:

The bedrooms and bathroom are set apart by a little hallway, which we really like.

Matt's sister Linda joined us for lunch this past Sunday and brought this sign, made from wood from the front porch of the original Cramer house.  We can't wait to find the perfect spot for it!

Thanks for joining us on this journey.  We will probably still post updates when we finish up necessary tasks (filling in the basement foundation of the old house, landscaping, flooring, etc.), but we may just e-mail our family members when we do that--unless anyone specifically requests to remain on our update list.  We love you all, and we can't wait to have you visit us!!