Bring it on!

We got the loan approval paperwork in the mail today, and we are paying the homeowner's insurance tomorrow. Friday we close on the house.

We are not moving until the first, but get ready for a slew of photos and a rundown of what's been going on.

And now, I have to pack.

A year in the life...

A little less than a year ago I stopped writing completely. A lot of things have happened in the past year, and a lot of it I couldn't write about without either compromising relationships or upsetting myself. So I just stopped talking about it.

This time last year Jesse and I had just started our house hunt. We were excited, nervous, and having a lot of fun with the process. In September and October we were outbid on two houses, and had to cancel a contract on a third due to undisclosed information. I should have seen that red flag, but we blithely continued on as if we were in for a great year.

Two weeks after Evan's first birthday Jesse lost his job. He lost his job on a day that I had met him at his work for lunch, and talked to his boss for at least twenty minutes about anything and everything. We have yet to step back inside that building.

To add insult to injury we spent the following 10 weeks fighting for unemployment benefits. In the end we won our appeal because the company's lawyers were too lazy to show up.

Jesse didn't go back to work until the end of February. Energized and ready to find a house, we got a foreclosure under contract relatively quickly, only to find out three weeks later that the basement flooded during rainstorms. Luckily for us we were under an inspection period at the time, due to repairs being made to the plumbing of the house.

Between March and April we suffered through looking at house after house. We were outbid twice, and I started to wake up every morning unable to face the day. In May we got a pre-foreclosure under contract, and spent nine weeks waiting on the seller's bank to approve the sale. After nine weeks they came back asking us for more money. We walked away.

Can you blame us for closing ranks and keeping quiet? Who wants to hear about this day after day? (Thank you to those of you who listened to my rants. I love you.)

Finally, during the last week of July, we were outbid on a house again. I looked at Jesse and started to cry. All told, in the past year we have probably walked through 60 - 75 houses. We decided to consider townhouses as an option, something our realtor did not think was right for us. He talked us into going through one more round of houses.

Thank god for him.

That last day we saw four houses. The first three were not what we were looking for, and on the way to the last house Jesse and I talked about how we could adapt to townhouse living after a year of having access to a backyard and privacy (sort of).

When we pulled into the driveway of the last house, there was a glimmer of hope. We walked in the front door ... and I know this is cheesy but Jesse and I both reacted the same way.

"Where do we sign?"

We close in fifteen days.

We have so many plans, so many things to look forward to. Financially this recession has not been terrible for us, we were lucky. Emotionally, however, this has been the worst year we have been through as a couple.

We are ready to start over, and be a family in our own house.

If you gotta party...

For Evan's first birthday party we tried to keep things as minimal as possible, using dishes that weren't disposable and buying as much of the food locally as we could. Thank goodness for the farm stand!

We spend a month gathering up party supplies, because I'd rather spend $10 here and there for a month or two than buy everything at once and have a heart attack. Our party theme was Chicago Bears, so there was a lot of navy blue and orange floating around.

Jesse had originally wanted to buy this party set at Target, but each set was $25 and we needed two (they were $1 a place setting).



I said no, and was going to purchase the standard paper plates because I couldn't justify that kind of expense for one time use plates. They went on clearance about a week later and Jesse bought them at half price. I was upset until I saw that every piece of that set (except the napkins) is recycleable.

We put a sign on our garbage can to tell our guests this, and every single one of them put their plate, cup, and fork in the recycling bin! It was a huge success, and I didn't have to feel bad about serving a buffet to 25 people and then throwing away their garbage because I was too lazy to do that many dishes.

Another month already?

As the holidays loom closer, and my access to a computer is lessened (see here), posting gets more and more challenging.

But today we bring you an idea for something you were most likely going to buy anyway!

Locally grown pumpkins are the greenest way to go for Halloween jack o'lanterns. Since the only fuel used in transporting them is the gas in your own car on the way to the farmstand, these leave the smallest footprint behind. Plus, local farms are more likely to cut back on pesticides and other common farming chemicals.



We bought our pumpkins at Stade's Farm, which focuses on bringing fresh, healthily grown produce to our area. We enjoy their produce from May to October each year, and I have to say, you can tell the difference!

Up for consideration...

I have wanted to switch Evan to cloth diapers for months, but since we're living with my parents I figured it wouldn't be a great idea.

I just found out Target is carrying BumGenius diapers, which are made to work just like a disposable diaper. They have the velcro tabs and everything! Since Jesse gets his discount I can get them there way cheaper than anywhere else, and I'm soooo tempted.

Hopefully we'll be in our own place soon and I can try them out!

So, it turns out that blogging is really hard whilst house hunting

It's not that I've forgotten about posting here... it's more that I haven't even had time to take a shower in peace for the last four weeks.

However, I do want to share a tidbit with you today! So cheer up!

Jesse and I are starting to look for paint. This is both exciting and terrifying. Exciting because hey! we get to choose our own decor! Terrifying because hey! painting is a LOT of work!

Anyhow, we did some homework, and we found that HomeDepot's paint brand, Behr, is ALL low VOC paint, which is awesome. They also carry a paint called FreshAire that is completely VOC free. It is $10 more a gallon than the Behr paint, but it's worth it to us, especially since we will be painting an entire house.

I'll update the paint thing as soon as we choose colors and get to work. I'm sure you'll want to know how the paint performs.

Oh my God I love this soap

Product number two on my list of potentially awesome thing is this soap by Kiss My Face. I have been using it to wash my face in the morning and my skin is AMAZING, especially considering I'm in that horrible PMS phase where you break out and eat chocolate four times a day.

I have oily skin and this cleanses gently while not stripping all the moisture out of my face. I'd imagine it'd be great on your body as well, but I'm a loofah kind of girl.

I have to admit I bought four bars of this because it was on clearance at Target.

It's not crazy expensive as a full sized bar, but you can also purchase a bucket of trial sizes to make sure you like things before you commit to a full sized purchase, which I really like.

They're packaged in just recyclable paper, which is also pretty awesome.