Progress!

At a slow pace, but progress none-the-less! I don't' remember what i wrote last time, but we've moved past painting and on to framing. Framing is going well. We still have some demo to do but right now there is a table saw where the demo needs to happen...so we need to finish what we're doing now first. Here's a peek!

 That second picture there...yeah that's me, using a table saw, on my own. That's not all i've done. I shot a nail gun and used a paint sprayer and i've cut the grass at my house like 4 or 5 times already. It's getting there. 

4 day weekend coming up, followed by a 4 day work week. After that? 2 days at work and on to Universal Studios!!! back home and back to work and then FARM AID! on Sat the 22nd. Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews in the same place?! How did i get this lucky <3

Well, things at my future home are going well. We have painted Drylock over the walls and it's done an impeccable job of covering the mold. Then, to get in the cracks and pebbley wall we have covered them with our Greco paint spayer with Killz premium paint. It's going great. I'm very happy. 

I thought i'd try my first attempt at a recipe share...i've heard my french onion soup is awesome so i figured since i'm making it, why not share it :-)

FRENCH ONION SOUP A LA KASSIE!

Here are the ingredients

 That's 2 medium yellow onions, 3 tablespoons of butter, a splash of garlic powder, a pinch of onion powder, a can of campbell's french onion soup, about 2 to 3 tablespoons of garlic, beef broth and texas toast!

First you slice up the onions and half them. Then you add them and the butter to a large sauce pot with the garlic.

 

Add on some garlic powder (the stuff you can see) and a little onion powder. Mix. You let that simmer for about 5 to 7 minutes until the onions are kinda clear, but still have a slight crunch. They will look like this....

Now you add in the can of campbell's...

Let that simmer for a few minutes, enough to change the channel on the tv or go to the bathroom...

Then you add in half the container of beef broth and a can and a half of water. The pot will look like this...

I let that simmer on medium- medium low for 10 minutes. It looked like this most of the time...

While that was in the pot, I baked the Texas Toast for 4 minutes, pulled it out and added the mozzarella cheese. Before oven it looked like this...

I baked the toast for another 4 minutes and i really kept an eye on it because i didn't want it to burn. After the 4 minutes it looked like this...so cheesy and delicious...

Then you slap a piece of this delicious toast on top of soup that looks like this...

The finished product will look like this, you take a piece of toast and put it on a bowl of the french onion soup...

Eat and enjoy! And i will say, this was FANTASTIC! :-)

WOW

Incredible, that's all I can say. What a difference a month can make. Here's a little rewind and catch up.

June 10th - my last post

June  18th - lawyer's office called, asked if we had the continuation of CO (certificate of occupancy) and smoke cert (for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. My response "WHAT?! we are buying a foreclosure that no one has lived in for over a year. THERE IS NO CO". Lawyer's office "you must secure one by tomorrow, OR have the town write you a letter saying they will not stop you from purchasing this house without one, on the town's letter head."

June 19th, 8:02 am - the town office opened at 8. I called the office that handles COs and explained my situation. Closing was scheduled for 11 am this morning. I spoke with the town official, he informs he will have the letter i need for closing between 10 and 10:30. Naturally, Joe and I head over to the municipal building at 9:40. Obtain our letter, proceed to lawyer's office. Estimated time, 10 am. The confirm 11 am closing, ask us to return after our final walk through. 

10:45am - we meet our realtor at the house, locks have been changed, unable to access the home. Cannot complete final walk through (to make sure no one stole all my copper piping, furnace, hot water heater). Head over to lawyer's office for 11. They inform closing has been moved to 12:30. Realtor finds out the new keys were mailed to his office, we head back over to the house, complete final walk through (nothing was missing) and head back over to lawyers after we smiled a lot for a little bit.

12:30 - CLOSED ON OUR FIRST HOME TOGETHER!!!!! What a terribly stressful event that all was, but well worth it. On June 19th at 12:35 pm we were home owners. I couldn't be more proud. What a wonderful feeling.


Since then! Wow, where do I begin. So much has happened. We bought a fridge, washer, and drying for $400 from a close friend, took down all the walls and framing and ceiling in the house, knocked out 2 of the concrete wing walls, and began mold eradication. For those of you who don't know, my new home was poured out of the same concrete Thomas Edison mixed to build the original Yankee stadium. It's solid. My great, great, grandkids can give this home to their children. But, concrete is porous and when homes go unoccupied for so long, moisture becomes an issue. It's being handled though. Did all the mold test, it's penicillin which won't harm us unless left untreated. Which is most certainly won't be. 

We've already gone though one 20 yard dumpster, we're on our second and it will be there until we frame and drywall our house. I am SO excited for when i get to pick out my floors, my cabinets, my paint colors, etc. All the fun things. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get here soon. 

Here's a little window into our lives...

 9th picture...yeah that's the horse hair insulation that was so prevalent when my home was built back in 1921...yuck.

It's been a while

So I haven't been posting lately because for a while there I had only bad/annoying news to report. Nothing getting us any closer to having the keys to our first home together. All of that, however, has changed.

Last Saturday night my husband informed me he had spoken with his parents. His mom finally got the chance to go see his dad for the first time in a while. He is currently living in Virginia while working and she is holding down the fort here. While they relaxed and ate dinner together and caught up on each others busy lives, they discussed the status of our home. They told Joe they wanted to pay for the house and have us pay them back as to avoid all of the RIDICULOUS stipulations the lender puts in place before we can even think about doing anything with our home. We were ecstatic. I cried. INCREDIBLE!!!!

So now we have a tentative closing date of June 20th... 10 days from now!!!!!!!!!!!! I am excited beyond belief. 

In addition to that fantastic news, we were invited to join my in-laws on vacation, to Orlando, FL September 12-18. So looking forward to Harry Potter's Wizarding World, and everything else. I can't wait. 

This weekend I went to Maryland to enjoy a girls getaway. It was super awesome and I love my family <3

 

Happy Memorial Day

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day. I know I appreciated my ability to do whatever I wanted all day long in the gorgeous weather. Thank you to all the men and woman who made and make that possible. I'm forever grateful.

No news yet. The lawyer has our paperwork, the bank has our paperwork. We need to get a contractor. Anyone know of a good licensed, insured contractor in western New Jersey that they've used or can recommend?!

4  day weeks are so easy. I love them.

One down, 4 to go!

I'm glad to say Monday is done, as far as working goes anyway. I'm also VERY excited to say that I am mega confident that I aced my civil service test!!!!!!!!!! I will know for sure in a timely manner (4 to 6 weeks, gotta love the State). We had a bit of a celebration weekend for my confidence in how well I did on my test. Joe and I went to Staten Island to visit his cousin Karen, her husband Mike, and their 3 kids and 2 dogs. From there we went to Point Pleasant Beach. It was a gorgeous day. 


We went back to Mike and Karen's after and wanted to have some adult time but Hubby was a little bit worn out from the sun...

That's him cuddling with Leo, so sweet.


Still no house updates. We are waiting to go into Attorney Review I guess? I'm not really sure how this all works. But no progress has been made. We did get notice that we have to let the landlords here know if we are extending our lease. I don't want to make that call. They never answer. -_-.

Almost halfway over!

I live for the weekends...and when I say that, I mean I live to lay around in my bed with my husband until about 1:30 pm on Saturdays. Those are my most favorite weekends <3. I hope we get one of those real soon. It's been too long.

In other news, I am going bananas over being "partially deaf", which is a major exaggeration. I got some water in my ear on Sunday and ever since i CANNOT stand the way things sound in my left ear. They are muffled and loud and it sounds like gale force winds are constantly forcing their way through my ear canal. It's maddening. In addition to that misery, I am taking the Civil Service test on Thursday. AH! I am very nervous and very excited. If nothing else, I'll be in the rotation to take it again when it comes back around. Which is better than NOT being in that rotation.

I've decided my summer theme song for the moment is going to be this little gem. It;s an excellent summer time song and Rome's voice is beautifully smooth. Lovin' it. I'd definitely like to see him tour with Sublime...if you can't have the real thing, it's good to have something close. And he can meet that standard. 


Oh, and if you're wondering, no news on the house. I don't even know if I WANT any news. Like I said before, no news is good news.

No news is good news...unfortunately we have news.

So to my dismay, on Saturday as I was yard sale-ing with 2 of my very good friends my home inspector called. Said there was good news and bad news. Of course I wanted the bad news first. He reports according to the lab who did the tests on the mold samples, there are elevated levels of mold on all 3 floors of the house, and outside? Interesting and terrifying. The good news you may ask? It's the mold they use to make penicillin. So at least it won't kill us!! (Although, I am allergic to penicillin, as is my father. But we just get hives). So there is a light at the end of the tunnel! The other news was that as of Friday, when the bank said the gas and water would be on, neither were. So our home inspector, as gracious as he is, has agreed to come to the house when it works for him to inspect the gas and water when they are both up and running. (Seriously, it's the least he could do for me paying him $1300 to talk my ear off all day). 

So we'll see where we go from here. I was googling U-shaped kitchens, because turns out, luck is on our side and we can move the kitchen to the other side of the room to make it so more than one 3 foot tall person could use it :-)

Too bad tomorrow is Monday....get through it everyone. It's the worst day of the week but it will be over before we know it!

Dun dun dun....home inspection

I knew it was going to be bad. The realtor told us "He's here to tell you everything that's wrong, not what a great deal you got". It still sucks. It's crazy how quickly the price of something can double...and then add $200 on top. AHH! 

We knew going into this the house had some problems. It was built in about 1905, it's vacant and we don't know the last time anyone has lived there, and we've seen water in the basement when we first viewed the property. I think I was better prepared to hear what the inspector had to say than my husband was. But it wasn't a good day for either of us. It's a big hit on the bank account to write a check for very near $1400 and NOT get paid for the day, and still have all kinds of questions looming while we wait for the samples of mold to come back. This whole home ownership thing is serious stuff. A lot of decisions to make and never really knowing if we're making the right choices. 

I'm hoping that come Monday I'm popping in to say how the mold isn't THAT serious and if we can just pitch the sidewalks and flower beds away from the house, and move the gutters, and dig out deep window wells, and install a sump pump, and pour another 2 inches of concrete, and run a dehumidifier 24/7 we can get rid of 95% of the problem....


And then there's the roof! Oh man, what an exhausting day. At least I had an hour and 15 of softball to get my mind off of it. So glad I'm playing again this year. It is so much fun. 

Just another Manic Monday

Oh man, thank goodness Monday is DONE! It was a crazy busy work day. In addition to that, we had to sign some papers, drop them off to the realtor, and then call home inspectors to find out when they can come and how long it will take and how much it will cost all before Saturday! We've gotten an home inspector for about $600 and he seems awesome. It's going to take about 4 hours (which i cannot believe) but I'm glad about since that means he will be very thorough. That's good news. Other than that, I'm looking forward to there being only 4 more days to the work week. Excellent. Have a good week :-)

Not a fan of Sundays

No matter how much I try, I can't enjoy a Sunday. The impending doom of 9am tomorrow is just too heavy. 

Today was ok, Joe and I went to Lowes to check out some stuff for the house. We looked at cabinets, flooring, paint. I'm a big fan of Bamboo floors. It looks great and it Eco-friendly.  I'm into that. We also were looking up puppies on PetFinder. There are just too many I want. 

Besides that, I've been studying math all day. I really hate math. But, it needs to be done. I'm taking the civil service test for a county position on May 17th (hoping that's a good luck day since it's my Mom and Dad's 26th anniversary). Time to relax a little. Too much math can make a girl crazy...at least just this girl.

Just the Beginning

 So I am very excited to say that less than a year after being married, my husband and I are about to buy our first home. If you would have asked me 5 years ago where I thought I'd be in 5 years, I would not have said married and buying a home. 

I couldn't be happier that this is where life has taken me. I'm overwhelmed with thankfulness for the opportunity we have to purchase this house and make it our home. It's a fixer-upper, to say the least. We are not skilled home renovators, yet. I'm looking forward to making a scrapbook of before and after photos. I'd like to keep up on how I'm feeling about everything as it develops via this blog. I read several blogs every day and always want to have one but can't ever stick to it. We'll see how this goes!

I just looked up our house to put a link to it here, and I am smiling from ear to ear...."under contract". This is the first time I've seen this.