Our Home Down The Hill

I am so ashamed that it has been over eight months since our last blog post. I guess we never knew what a commitment blogging really is!

We've just crossed the one year mark in our home, so I thought it was appropriate to post an update on how far things have come. We've done a lot in the last year, so bear with me.

We've bought a lot of paint this year, and have painted all put one room inside the house.  I'm now considering repainting a couple!

Here we are painting the hallway

The backyard has also come a long way.  Chad and Freeman tore out the scary, ugly greenhouse.  Chad and Andy laid sod where there used to be nothing but weeds.  Bodega promptly dug a giant hole in the sod, so now the sod is behind a fence!  Chad also worked with my dad to build a beautiful redwood planter and I've been busy working on my green thumb growing flowers.


Chad has also done a lot that you can't really appreciate in photos, and I'm amazed at how much he has been able to figure out how to do.  Here's just a short list of his accomplishments this year:

• Installed timed sprinkler systems
• Repaired rotting galvanized pipe
• Replaced old, energy draining, pool pump
• Repaired solar pool heater
• Installed two solar powered attic fans (thanks to my mom's boyfriend, Allan, for helping with these!)
• Replaced fan/light in guest bathroom
• Installed fan/light in master bathroom
• Installed ceiling fans and remote controls
• And he's crawled around under the house doing God only knows what, more times than I can count!

Clearly we've been keeping busy working on the house, but it hasn't stopped us from doing some fun stuff, too.  Chad and I spent our first weekend away from Bodega on a trip to San Luis Obispo and camped on Pismo Beach.  Bodega had his first camping experience just a few weeks ago when we took a trip up to Eagle Lake with Chad's family.

We also bought a boat this year and have been enjoying our summers out on the lake whenever we can.  We mostly go out to Folsom Lake, since it's so close to home, but we've also taken it out on Eagle Lake and Jenkinson Lake.  Chad's very modest about his wakeboarding skills, but truthfully he's awesome.  He jumps the wake like it's nothing and is even experimenting with flips.  I, on the other hand, am not nearly as skilled behind the boat, although I have figured out how to get up on the wakeboard, I'm still working up the courage to venture outside the wake.  We're always looking for friends to go out with, so if you're interested, let us know!

It wasn't long after we bought the new boat, that we decided that we probably needed a new truck to tow it.  The old Tacoma just didn't have the braking power to feel totally safe when towing the boat, and it lacked some power pulling the boat uphill.   We fell victim to a very persuasive team of salespeople at Roseville Toyota and came home with a brand new 2011 Toyota Tundra.  Chad promptly got to work fixing it up, and though we've only made two payments, she's already undergone a pretty huge transformation.  Check out the before and afters below.


So that brings me back to the house.  We've done a lot, but there's still plenty on our wish list for year 2.

• Paint the exterior
• Build a deck (or do something nice) in place of the old greenhouse
• Upgrade A/C unit
• Tear out nasty front "lawn" that's full of weeds and plant beautiful green lawn in its place
• Install wood flooring in living room and hallway; replace carpet in bedrooms
• Replace kitchen countertops

We're looking forward to continuing to share our home with all of our friends and family.  The pool is a great temperature these days, and you're all welcome, anytime!

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We couldn't have asked for a better first Christmas in our new home.  Outdoor decorations were a bit sparse this year, but we got a steal on some lights at the Home Depot After Christmas Sale yesterday, so you might be calling us the Griswold's come Christmas 2011. 

Bodega loved his first Christmas.  Like a real toddler he was always sneaking into the living room and trying to unwrap all the gifts.  Actually these days he's always sneaking away and getting into some kind of trouble - we're pretty sure he's beginning to think his name is "HEYGETOUTTATHERE"!  Christmas Day he was able to run and play like a mad man with his brother Titus up in Foresthill at Chad's parent's house.  It's amazing how much they have grown.  They will be five months old on New Years day and they're both well over 50 pounds, probably pushing 60 by now!

Santa was good to us this year.  It's funny how gifts are much more practical once you become a homeowner.  We got an edger for our lawn and Chad got a giant tool chest and an air compressor - score!

House projects have slowed down since the weather has been cold and wet (and the reality of how expensive home ownership has set in).  We have many more projects on the list for 2011, so keep checking for updates. 

Here's to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011!  We're looking forward to sunny days spent with friends and family lounging and barbecuing poolside! 

Cheers!
Meghan & Chad

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It's no secret to those of you that know me that I love dogs and my previous "renter" status prevented me from filling the void left when I moved away from home and left my canine companions with my dad.  So it should be no surprise that less than three months into home ownership Chad and I have welcomed a new member to our little family.  Meet Bodega, our cute-as-can-be and smart-as-a-whip, Rhodesian Ridgeback.  He's a mama's boy now but before long he'll be running the distance with Chad and leaving me in the dust.

Bodega comes to us from Chico, California - where his mama, "Dessie Tutu", and her people Max and Lisa Weber live.  We first met him when he was only 4 weeks old, and although there were 14 puppies to choose from, we knew he was the one.

Our first family picture!

Bodega's dad, Tygre, is a very handsome guy whose dad was the number one Ridgeback in the nation.  You can say our boy has some good genes!

The four weeks of waiting to go pick him up were filled with puppy proofing the house and trips to Petsmart for all the necessities, plus some very fun non-essentials.

We picked him up on Saturday, September 26th, and our home down the hill hasn't been the same since.  We forget about our sleepless nights when the days that are filled with lots of puppy kisses, playtime, laughs, and the occasional bark, howl, whimper and groan.  Our house truly feels like a home.








We can't forget to also welcome Titus to the extended family.  Titus is Bodega's brother who went home a week later with Chad's parents.  They already are the best of friends and we can't wait to watch them grow up together!

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Goodbye old electric range, hello gas!

Gotta love the built in cookbook holder!

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Our apologies for the delay in updating the blog, once again we've been so busy, we haven't had a minute to spare for an update! But, we put it at the top of our to-do list today, so here it goes...

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Our biggest project so far has been the kitchen cabinets and thanks to some help from Chad's parents, Meghan's mom, and Andy and Chelsea Eckley - we're nearly done!


Here's what we started with...

The cabinets were a funky color and looked like they'd had a couple coats of "barf" colored stain to quote Chad. 

We decided we better do something about that before we moved in, especially so we could get the sanding - and dust - out of the way.

We knew it would be a lot of work, but I'm still surprised at how much time we've put into it.  Thankfully it's been worth it, and things are coming along very nicely.

It all started with a lot of stripping - of varnish and stain, that is.  Even Chad's parents and my mom all got in on some of the stripping action. 

Then came the sanding, and what a lot of sanding there was!  I even manned an orbital sander and did some of the cabinet doors. 

We sanded for a full weekend! 

Once the dust was settled, we were able to remove the plastic barrier walls between the kitchen and the rest of the house - and vacuum all the dust particles from every nook and cranny in our kitchen!

We've since moved on to staining and varnishing - which is a much quicker process.  Here's a sneak peek of the cabinets so far.


We have one coat of varnish on them so far and we still need to stain the doors and drawers, then put on the new hardware that Chad found for us online (thanks to Amazon!). 

It should be all finished in another week or so - and it's going to look AWESOME!

More pictures of the kitchen to come soon!

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We started out small for our first weekend of home-ownership.  Chad installed our new garage door opener - which is loaded with features.  I never knew a person could love a garage door opener, now I do.

Chad hard at work

While Chad was busy with that project (for about 10 hours) Kevin, Jolene, Shauna and I cleaned up the yard...

Shauna and me pulling out dead plants

Some of the plants in the front yard appeared to have been doubling as kitty litter boxes.  So not cute.  Good thing I bought my first pair of gardening gloves!

Kevin giving our tree a "bonsai" look

And all of our trees needed work.  We trimmed the big Japanese Maple in the front yard (mostly to get a large branch off of our roof) and Kevin gave the small tree a haircut.


I didn't get pictures of the backyard, but we also cut out a ton of dead branches and big weeds back there.


Since then, we've been focusing our attention on the kitchen.  Which is, after all, a project we need to get done BEFORE we can move in!

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On Wednesday, July 21, we spent the afternoon signing our loan documents and making it official!  It took a couple of days to finalize but we were able to get our keys on Friday.

Chad is already hard at work!

We were only in the house a few minutes before Chad dove in to projects in the kitchen... removing the child locks from the cabinets, cutting out pieces of broken tile, and taking down a broken cabinet door so he can sand it down to test whether we can restain the existing cabinets or if we should paint them. 


The contractors started work this week on some minor repairs, and we're also planning to have a pool guy come out and show us how to get that baby up and running ASAP!  We're going to need it so we can cool off since our AC seems be a bit of a dinosaur.


We're so thrilled to be homeowners and can't wait to really make it our own...

Let the projects begin!  


If you need us this weekend, chances are we'll be at The Home Depot!

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Wow!  We've been in escrow now for 30 days!  And my, what a busy 30 days it has been! 

Everything is still on track to close by the end of July.  We just can hardly wait to get the keys and get started on all our projects! 

In the meantime, I'll be packing and moving because my lease at my apartment in Sacramento ends July 31!  If you're free in the evenings during the week of July 26 and feel like moving some boxes and furniture, let me know! 

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Escrow day 17 and we've survived so far... well, barely.  Whoever knew that home buying was this stressful of an experience should have given us a heads up!   We've hit a couple small bumps in the road, but we're still optimistic that it's all going to work out just fine.  But, that's beside the point, we do have some good news to report...

Today we learned an important first time home buyer's lesson - take advantage of holiday weekend sales!!  We checked appliances off of our "things to buy" list this Independence Day weekend.  Thank you very much, Sears!

We went with stainless.  It's going to look great in the kitchen once we refinish the cabinets and put some nice new polished knobs and pulls on the doors and drawers.  That's all a project at the top of our list - in fact, it's above "Move in" on the list.  So hopefully it will all be done by the time you come over for your first visit!  Or, if you're one of our lucky friends or family members, you'll get to see it in progress while you help with the work!  Which reminds me, we're lining up helpers already - so if your weekends are clear in August - pencil us in!

We hope you're enjoying a great holiday weekend!

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Our current appliance shopping list consists of:

- Refrigerator
- Dishwasher
- Cook top
- Range hood
- Microwave

We both really like black, but we're afraid it may clash with what we have planned for the kitchen counters and cabinets.  White would probably be a better and cheaper choice, but I think we're leaning towards stainless.  Like I said, I guess we have expensive taste. 

But we're also good deal hunters, so after Sears, we decided we better compare prices with another store - our next stop was The Home Depot in Natomas.

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Nothing but good news to report so far!  Our pest inspection came in at much less than we were expecting, and no termites, thank goodness!  A few dry rot repairs here and there, but nothing that's going to break the bank.

We also had a home inspector out today and he found only a few minor things that we'll need to repair - most of which we can do over time.

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It's unbelievable how much has happened in the last seven days!  We've signed our names more times than we can count; met with banks, inspectors, insurance agents and contractors; and basically analyzed the house from every angle.  We've scoured the internet for paint color ideas; kitchen designs; closet doors; BBQ sets; and just about everything else we could possibly wish for in our first home.  We've even made our first trip to Lowe's and we're still a month away from getting the keys!  One thing's for sure, we don't move slowly.  In fact, we hope to be hosting our friends and family for a BBQ and pool party before summer is over! 

In the meantime, you can follow our progress here.  Stay tuned for some pictures!

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