Living the American Dream...

... scares the crap out of me but is also very exciting.




So BF are going to be homeowners (barring the house passes inspection, which we think it will, fingers crossed) and I am so relieved and happy!  When we started looking back in November I got a little down because I was hoping the Good Neighbor Next Door program house in Southeast would work out, but it wasn't meant to be.  We looked at MANY homes, some good, some downright awful and then a few that we loved.  We made an offer on one we adored a couple weeks ago, but it was a short sale so we knew that it may be months before we even heard anything.  


From the get-go things seemed to be working for us as we heard the next day that our offer was accepted by the seller and given to their bank to review (again, necessary in a short sale).  We were then told that it no one could guarantee when we'd hear back from the sellers or their bank and that the average wait time for these was close to 2 months.  Luckily last week they updated us that things were moving along just fine and that we should be expecting the paperwork, etc from them shorty.  This week we got the paperwork, sent it back and started scheduling our inspections and appraisals!


I have a really hard time being patient when I want something (which I've really tried to work on the past few years) so I had resolved that we may not have a house until late Spring/ early Summer and there was nothing I could do about that.  Just when I was getting used to the idea of waiting, no more!  I am so grateful for that blessing because Heaven knows I might have lost my mind.


BF and I have all of our decorating ideas noted and cannot wait to get started!  What I am dreading is moving our stuff.  I absolutely hate moving, but am willing to do it since it will be to a home that we OWN and will hopefully be in for a while.  


So on our To Do List is:


1.  Buy paint for the downstairs (right now every wall is white, so we want to paint before moving in).
2.  Buy a dog door for the back door- no more taking the dogs out at 4 am!!!
3.  Buy a medicine cabinet with mirror for the bathroom- BF loves them and the downstairs bathroom has no sort of storage in or near it.
4.  Shop for a smaller dining room table- the one we have is pub height and much too large for this space (and our current space) but it can wait until we are settled and can shop for a cool used one or one we really love.
5.  Get rid of things we don't need or use because I don't want to have to move them!
6.  Start packing up the house!
7.  Bookshelves- with our libraries combined, BF and I have a hefty collection that we don't have enough room for.  I'll be trolling Goodwill and antique stores for used ones first since we do not have any built-in shelves in the new house and definitely want to keep all of the books we  have and be able to find them easily.


I'm trying to devise a plan for packing and labeling so that things are easily moved and easy to locate and unpack.  What I've landed on is colored tape.  I will assign each room in the house it's own tape color and use that tape for the boxes.  For example the Master Bedroom tape color will be Blue so that I don't even have to read the label on the box(but there WILL be labeled so when I unpack I know what is in each box) to know where it goes, I just know to pile it in the bedroom. 


My color coding looks like this:


Master Bedroom:  Blue
Kitchen:  Yellow
Living Room/ Main areas:  Green
Bathrooms:  Purple
Office Stuff:  Black
Necessary Items to Unpack FIRST:  RED


I'm also trying to get everything packed up, taped and labeled first so we can put the boxes in the very front of the moving truck (by the cab, so I guess the back of it if you are looking from the back towards the front) and the furniture in last so that we unload the furniture first and then not have to try to move furniture in and around piles of boxes.


Any good tips or tricks you've found while moving?


And just for your reference we are definitely planning on having a House Warming Party so everyone can swing by and say hello!