SOLD!!!

Apparently, the Re/Max sign has completely frozen into my front yard.  And since my house faces NORTH (but my garage doesn't and that's what counts!), the yard hasn't seen sun since last summer/fall.  Therefore, all attempts to remove the "for sale" sign have been unsuccessful. I still don't know why the listing agent didn't at least put a "Sold" placard at the top of the sign...so I did!  Three strips of 2" blue painter's tape serve as a canvas for my post-adolescent finger painting.  This should prompt her to remove it quickly! LOL

Painting is...

...lotsa work!  

But with Chloe's expertise and her mom's supervision, we managed to get the living room and dining room finished up on Saturday.  I refused to touch the red paint (figured spilling my water cup while brushing my teeth that morning was NOT a good sign!), so DeAndrea is responsible for the graffiti on my walls.

 

Oops! I forgot to get a picture of the finished product!  Sorry...more later. ;-)

It's all mine...

...ok, so Wells Fargo "owns" 80% of it.  So far.  That'll be changing soon. ;-)

My Realtor, Debbee, and my mortgage consultant, Jennifer, are very excited for me.  Maybe I'm seeing all the work still involved before I can actually live in my new place so the excitment for me is greatly diminished.  Or maybe it's just my personality.  Yeah, I say it's  my personality. ha

BUT, I was excited enough to go buy paint samples yesterday afternoon and start painting in the kitchen and living room.  Dea and kiddos came by in the afternoon and we had a picnic on the living room floor by the fireplace, then while the kids ran around like little wild Cowboys and Indians (they love all the open space!), Dea and I narrowed down my paint colors.  Off we went to Home Depot to pick up the little sample pots...and then I painted (for the very first time, I believe) the interior walls.  Ok, so just sections of the walls.  I've painted exterior walls years ago, but don't ever remember painting inside.  That's hard work!   At least painting with a little foam "brush" of yellow in the kitchen and "Clair de Lune" in a little of the kitchen and in the living room was brutal!!  Then I pulled out the cute "Tiny Touch-up Kit" roller and "pan" and dipped into the "Red Pepper" paint and in a fraction of the time it took to paint with the foam, I painted a large block of color above the fireplace.  As you can tell from the picture below, a left-brained person has been let loose with a paint brush in my living room.  Seriously, it wasn't intentional to be so structured!!!

 

This picture is just to the left of the kitchen sink...that light switch is for the garbage disposal...

After work today I'll buzz by and make sure the colors look OK with all the natural light blasting in from the three south facing windows and the patio door.

"Phipps Clear to Close"

The last "hurdle" had been cleared, with 9 days to spare!

6:01pm - Monday - February 15, 2010

From: Jennifer @ Wells  Fargo

Subject: PHIPPS CLEAR TO CLOSE

WHOOHOO!  You are Clear To Close (which means all conditions are signed off on and you are Final Approved).  Now, girl, you can CELEBRATE!

02/15/2010/CKIM/RECON/ RCD #12
CLEAR TO CLOSE ACCEPT: 31A, 30E, 30F
WALLS IN COVERAGE - DWELLING REPLACEMENT COST. 

S'pose I should start packing?

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

It's been ages since I've been able to decorate and/or paint my home as I like.  Wait...have I ever?  Yeah, that lovely basement apartment I had in St. Louis was blessed with my homemade kitchen curtains. The fabric was, I think, a gardening theme...seed packets or something.  Maybe something else.  My main memory of that apartment was the day I found a snake in the room beside my bedroom...and I moved out.  :-(

But now since I'm getting my VERY OWN place where I don't have to re-paint the walls back to their original color when I moved out, or worry about re-spackling the walls from nail holes from pictures, I'm gonna go crazy decorating!  LOL  Currently I have NO pictures on my walls. Yep, three years in this cavern and I still haven't decorated it!  Well, what can you do with wall-to-wall mocha colored carpet (which I do like) and ALL walls painted a strawberry chocolate milkshake color??!!!  Seriously, put anything up against it and it looks PINK.  I don't do PINK!!!

So, today my wonderful Realtor Debbee met me at MY house so I could do some measurements for curtains (just thinking about the kitchen right now) and I also made general room measurements and took a boatload of pictures so I can begin to figure out where I'm going to put what.  Sorry, not sharing those pix 'cuz they are b l u r r y. :-(  My camera battery was almost toast so I didn't use any flash and was trying to hurry and, well...)

Last Saturday DeAndrea and I spent an hour or so at Joann's Fabric browsing through their bolts of fabric and sample pieces hanging like a rainbow-plus of colors of placemats for their "special order" fabrics.  And of course, I found a couple pieces in the spendy stuff that would work with the color scheme I'm wanting.  So, for five bucks each, I rented the samples for a week (I do get my five spot back) and promptly tacked both up on my cubicle wall at work to see which one annoyed me after a few days.  While I was at it, I figured I would get some input from my co-workers.

This first piece was a favorite of my two immediate neighbors and I delighted in telling them each time someone would vote "against" their favorite.  These Stripes earned 7 votes.

Here's what one gal said against the Stripes:

• "The Stripes look dated.  Very Brady-ish"      uh oh...

The second piece was a great conversation starter...and I decided to jot down the responses I got.  Amazingly, the first two guys to vote like the Swirly!

Here are some of the statements I got from the TEN people who voted for the Swirly pattern:

• 
  
  It has character  (male)
• 
  
  It's alive (male)
• 
  
  It's interesting (male)
• 
  
  I like it 'cuz I'm into modern and wild  (female)
• 
  
  I like it 'cuz it's out of my comfort zone (female)

There were actually two negative comments about the Swirly...can you imagine?!!

• 
  
  It reminds me of the carpet at Vegas (male)
• 
  
  It makes me dizzy (female)

Hmmmm.....

What do you think?  Here's the window I plan to cover with one of these two fabrics.  The walls above and below the cabinets will be a deep yellow...and there will be a rust or burgandy in the dining area (10 ft away from this window). 

(these walls aren't yellow yet...this picture is the product of no flash, bad lighting and improper white-balance on the camera.)

Ok now, VOTE!  Swirly or Stripes???

Approved!

I think I can finally let myself start get excited...here's an email I received from Jennifer, my mortgage consultant, last night:

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 9:37 PM, Jennifer wrote:
Hi Audrey,
CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Your loan is APPROVED! It doesn't appear there are any conditions I need from you, either :-) THANK YOU for helping make your loan such an EASY file for the underwriter :-)
 
Hmmm, guess I'd better start putting stuff in all these boxes I've been bringing home from work. ;-)