3 for 3......

You know how things come in 3s.....

When you think of major purchases (as far as expensive goes) in your life...what do you think of?

I think first of house and cars maybe boats too.....right??  Well it would appear that we have all bases covered.... and each one gets a bit more expensive than the last....

Change #1

in June we had to go from this 200,000 mile car with only 3 hubcaps (we replaced countless hubcaps through the years), melting and sticky steering wheel and NO air conditioning (it broke) (and to repair it was going to be about $4000 and that is NOT all that was wrong with it).  Michael, bless his heart never complained about the condition of this car but when I drove it...YIKES can you say POS (piece of @#$%)

Moved from that to this.....2011 Sonata = AWESOME car!  We are so impressed.  Yay for safe and happy transportation for Michael (and new family car) (and a seriously positive carmax buying experience).  The car has perks I'd probably not ever pay for - so yay!!

Change #2

Then we went from this house that we had just upgraded with tile ($), it was in an "OK" neighborhood but we were worried about falling property values and decided to see what would happen if we decided to sell.  So we were listed for 14 days...one looker...one buyer.

To this - totally, incredibly, beautiful, amazing, DREAM home for us.... in spite of our flood issue, we LOVE this house so much!  It IS a dream come true!!!

Well.... Change #3 happened MUCH MUCH sooner than anticipated or expected.... for awhile we've been smelling gas/exhaust with the car below.... (sorry it was late last night when I took the picture so it's dark).  Monday it seemed exceptionally bad so Tuesday morning when we were all packed up and leaving for the day, Michael (very last minute - I say divine inspiration led us) said you know, lets switch cars today and I'll see if I can find out what's wrong with it.  So we did that, I drove Change #1 car and he drove the below POS (piece of #$$%) and well.... turns out that the gas tank has a crack in it!!!   um...WHAT????? and we are not to fill it above 1/2 or go below 1/4 tank of gas..... SOOOOO incredibly dangerous on sooooo many levels, not to mention smelling it so badly inside the car or the potential blow up possibility!!  and it's going to be about $2000 to fix it and that's not all that's wrong (other stuff probably minor but in light of the major repairs required...) so... we officially reached the point of no return with her :(   just 2 months ago we put in $560 in repairs, 2 months before that $230...and so on... so unfortunately (or fortunately) we just can't put any more in.....

SO that leads us to.....Change #3.... OHHHH SHE IS SO PRETTY our new Expedition......loaded to the hilt with features I'd never pay money for... (again sorry for darkish pictures, it was early this am)

Mikayla says HI!! (through the sunroof)

OK....so we are officially 3 for 3.... I hope and pray we're done with these big purchases.  Our goal for today is to NOT spend any money......

Also... yes.... this is our 5th GREY/SILVER car...we just can't seem to get out of the grey's....LOL  HA!!!

Fingers crossed and prayers nothing else goes wrong - we're at the end of our tolerance..... 

So, we're officially on to new chapters.... new cars, new house, soon to be new flooring.... ahhhhhhh it's all good!!!! 

Well....well.....well.....

The picture below will show you the little gems that caused our entire problem.... the white tube is the overflow inside the toilet tank - the plumber cut off these 2 inches because it was too high for the water to flow out...meaning it flowed out of the tank before it reached the top of the overflow tube causing our flood.... and because the tube was too high - the black cord was kinked and wouldn't sense the water.... so between these two small gems and the fact that a label that the toilet manufacture sticks on the lid of the tank got wedged in the flap preventing the water from shutting off....we officially had our own little perfect scenario for disaster.  So please, go check your tanks and make sure the overflow is appropriate to the tank fill line AND make sure there is no darn laminated label inside the lid that will eventually fall off!

So it has been determined to STOP trying to dry out the flooring, it ALL has to be replaced.....  so demolition has started on the evening of the anniversary BEFORE OUR FIRST WEEK IN OUR NEW HOUSE!!!!!  (sorry, got carried away)

We will bid farewell to our beloved hardwood flooring that sold us on buying this house...and the carpet.....

Cement Palace here we come... I don't know how long it will be until we are able to get new flooring - or even how long until we can finish unpacking the first floor of our house *sigh*

All down to the slab....wow!

Now, I'd like to think I'm a good friend..... but seriously this is taking it WAY too far...the picture below is my BFFs house right now - she had a major plumbing problem and they have had to remove ALL flooring in her home and has had to live on cement for the last 5 months and 1 to 2 more months until the foundation issue has a chance to resolve.... so below is her bedroom.... hello cement.... you have another friend just down the road.....



Seriously- what are the odds of that?

The good...the bad...the ugly!

The good..... (don't you practically hear harps when seeing this 1/2 of the kitchen) (I do...LOL)

The bad... um...where is that stuff going to go?

The ugly...um...yea.....

Ahhhh....the good

The bad........

The Ugly.....

What are those marks on the carpet.... well.... it's water..... hum....that's pretty ugly huh.....

but just wait....there's ugly, uglier...and ugliest....you pick what you think....

picture below is my beloved butler's pantry :(  water is underneath it....

So...the gist of what happened is something went very wrong with the plumbing in the master bathroom, meaning the water was running full force into the room for several hours.... it went from the toilet room, to the master closet, to the rest of master bathroom, to the master bedroom, to the hallway, down the room from there, in another closet, into the formal living room, into the powder room, into the living room, into the dining room and butler's pantry and I discovered the water when coming into the kitchen and slipping on the floor.... and tracked down the culprit..... SO we called a water damage/remediation company and they came out (it happened on Tuesday) they were there from 4:00 pm to 1:30 am…. they started with a super water sucker (I had been sucking water with my carpet cleaner, bucket after bucket after bucket, that didn't even touch it - you wouldn't believe how much water there was).  They took all the base boards off – drilled holes in the walls every 12 inches for the water to drain out of the walls, fans/dehumidifiers… you name it we have it going on.  :(  my beautiful new home..... 4 days before disaster.... (how's that for dramatic?)

Each of the yellow tubes from the fans go into a hole in the wall (not all the holes in the walls get one though..ha) The clear pads are sucking water out of the hardwood floors or blowing it to try to dry it out, and the FUNNY is that the fans are blowing so hard they blew a roll of toilet paper right off the roll!!  HA!!

The sunshine in the storm of this is that I was home and discovered it before it had been all day, ALSO that it wasn't upstairs coming downstairs and damaging both up and down.  We don't know how much damage has happened yet, the hardwoods are a 50/50 chance to save but they are already buckling and separating....so.... ???  it will take 4-5 days to completely dry out and before the equipment is gone and we can start again.....

In spite of it all.... OHHHH we love love love this house, it is everything we hoped and more!  We moved upstairs until the "dust" (aka water) settles and my house doesn't sound like an air plane.

Here is a video tour for you..... the house is SO loud - you can hear the fans humming from the outside! 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QidSY_JSaQk&feature=youtu.be

We're moved!!

Here was our moving transportation....LOL.... guess the neighbors had a clue we were going....  I did have one neighbor ask...so... are you moving? 

Um... yes...yes we are....

The best part of the move was the birthday party!!!  LOL  We really had fun at Dakotah's party at Chuck E Cheese!!  Good times!!

Then we went back home and started the chore of unpacking.... more to come!!  A LOT of water under the bridge so I'll try to recreate it for you......

Oh....and not all of our stuff fit on the truck.... it took 3 trips with multiple cars each trip to get it done... um...too much stuff?

YES!!!

What does the picture below remind you of?

WOO HOO - busy times!!!

Well, it is almost here!!!  Something very exciting!!

We are moving houses......  Our current house was on the MLS listing for 14 days - we had one looker...and the same one looker was the buyer.   We closed on that house last week and we closed on our new house today!  It all happened very fast but at the same time it feels like it's been a long time coming.

WOW!!!!

Mikayla is very excited about the new house but very very sad about leaving the only house she knows.  She was up at 4:00 this morning worrying about it.  It's so easy to say don't worry it'll be fine and she says "I know it will be, but you've done this before and I haven't"...... I think that's a pretty grown up statment from a kid....

She was involved from the get go with touring houses and all that goes along with that.  She needs time to adjust her thinking/environment versus just springing it on her.  So that's what I've carefully tried to do.  I'm working on paving her thoughts and dreams towards the excited side and not being so worried about what's staying behind but rather what's ahead.  The other day she was making sure that we didn't have to go look at any more houses...LOL  she liked it but can't say it was an acitivity that she loved doing.  (who are we kidding, her nosey side - LOVED going in and nosing around in other people's houses).

But in the mean time I just pray I do it right for her to adjust easily and love our new home!!! 

So there will be some FUN ahead for us.  I actually don't mind the unpacking part, I'm very happy the packing is almost done (well it better be considering the movers are coming at 7:00 am tomorrow morning). 

Here she is.... our new home :) 

You know it's hot when.....

A swimming pool water needs to be cooled down with ice cubes.....this is from last weekend, I just haven't had a chance to share it yet.... .it was so warm.... but felt oh so good..... ahhhhh and as always the kids had a blast together!  I'm so happy when the cousins get time to spend together and just relax and have fun.

So really, you know it's hot when the pool needs to be cooled down with ice cubes....

and the ice cubes melt completely within about 4 minutes....if it even took that long...  HA....so of course it didn't help the temperatures at all but it was fun to pretend! 

Thankfully it doesn't stop the kiddos from having fun!!!



The First Grade Fall Out.....

After her first school day ended (yes it was just 1/2 day), we went for a tea party!  Who doesn't love a tea party, right!!

Pinky's up ladies!!

Orange smile...but she wouldn't smile for me to show it off....ha ha!  I was doing it too (well....it's the fun, right...no matter who is looking)....

Then we got home....did some chores....and then.....

it happened........

The little girl..........

CRASHED!!!!!!

and HARD!!!!!!

She was barely functioning at dinner time.... it was the quietest meal we've ever had with her.... HA!!! She did perk up but wow....this first grade is some serious business!!!!

The picture below is my favorite "First Day" picture!!  I LOVE this little girl!!!  She is still pretty stressed out about school.... but I'm sure she'll get a lot more comfortable as time goes on!