The Mathieu House is up!

I can't believe how fast Callie and Nuri's house is being built!  We went and checked it out this morning before recruiting everyone's help for moving some final heavy items from the old house.  I'm so excited for them and it is pretty cool to actually get a feel for how the house is going to look. 

Christmas 2013: in our new house!

We hosted family Christmas yesterday in our new house- amazingly we had it set up and ready to go after only 2 weeks of being here.  Lots of great food and fun gifts and it was nice to show Hannah and Seth the new house (my parents had already seen it- just not with furniture in it).  Now we just have to get ready for our New Year's party!

Christmas Cat

I remember taking very similar photos as a child of our cats (Mindy and Riley) on this ladder.... the tradition continues.

Christmas Morning

We had a pretty quiet Christmas in the new house- after presents and a big breakfast, we spent most of the day unpacking and cleaning.... The real celebration will be tomorrow when Hannah, Seth and my parents come for dinner- today is "crunch time" to get the house functional and looking decent.  THANK GODDESS I have the week off of work- I have no idea how this would have panned out if we weren't moving right around Christmas- the timing couldn't have been better!

Moving out....

I spent hours and hours last week cleaning out our old place and there are still a few odds and ends to deal with (today we moved a bunch of firewood).  We left a few heavy things for Sunday when we'll have more help- but other than that- it is empty and clean! (and honestly, has never looked better)

Christmas Ladder

And it wouldn't be Christmas without the ladder- which finally made it over to the new house yesterday.  We are totally behind on Christmas this year- I still need to do some final shopping- but at least the ladder is SUPER EASY to set up!

Finshed Floor Project

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER (mid-finishing)

AFTER-unfortunately there are these dividers on the floor from when the living room used to be 2 rooms

Adam nearly killed himself on this floor project (not exactly great on the back) but it is finished and it looks great.  We were so excited to tear up the carpet (we knew it was hardwood underneath) that it was the very first thing Adam did when he got the keys.  Unfortunately- and we curse whoever did this- half of the floor had an awful adhesive on it which looked black and had to be sanded off and re-finished.  It took a few days and some new tools- but Adam got it looking amazing!

Mornings in the new house

We

Sunrise view out living room window

Sushi loves her cat tree so much

Friday morning snow

We are settling in at the new house- sleeping well and staying warm.  We had a little snow on Friday morning but it didn't stick around long.  Which is fine with us- we still have quite a few trips to make to the old  house to finish up with moving.  Don't you hate those last few trips of moving- all the random stuff you don't really want but you have to take?  I'm planning to do some Value Village donations today. 

First night in new house

We spent the first night in the new house and moved over Sushi and our fish!  We were going to wait for the weekend but we're both too excited to get moved in.  We also set up the new kitchen so it is functional now. 

First day in our new house

The floor project

Finn loved discovering the old school phone (the kind with a really long cord)

walking our property

stairs with the carpet removed

We are officially home owners and there is so much to do!  Adam has been working hard on tearing up the carpet on the stairs, hallway and living room- which includes removing lots of staples and sanding and refinishing- but it already looks way better than the carpet did!
We took a walk around our property for the first time and found some cool nooks and spots- although it is very wet and hard to get around right now. We even heard some owls last night!

Holiday Party

Yesterday was an exciting day!!!!  We got the keys to the new house around 5pm, I worked til 5:30pm and I had an office work party at 6:30pm (so we didn't get much time to explore in the new house).  However, I found out that my work puts on a pretty good Christmas Party and it was fun to meet everyone's significant others.  (There was an email out about wearing an ugly Christmas sweater- but I did not partake).

This weekend is going to be busy with: moving, cleaning, packing, buying a washer dryer off craigslist, setting mouse traps and exploring our property (we haven't seen half of it yet!)

Snow dusting

We had a little snow yesterday morning- Sushi's first- she kept sniffing it.  I can't wait to see in her a few inches of snow to see what she does.... In other news- we are definitely closing early on our house- we are supposed to sign paperwork this week and hopefully get the keys before the weekend (although I'm not holding my breath on that- it could be next week).  Either way- we have some packing to do!

Walking in the woods....

What a beautiful, cold weekend!  Adam and I got outside a bit for a walk at Mission Creek Park today- we're going to miss walking here when we're gone... since it looks like we are definitely moving!!!  We passed appraisal and underwriting and our loan officer even said there is a chance we could close early! 
We couldn't be more excited!