Newer House Updates

Once again, quite a lot has happened since I last blogged. It seems like when I get stressed I read other people's blogs rather than write my own. Not much of a journaler I guess.

Well, we are now four days away from closing on our house. We sign the final papers at noon on Friday, May 11th. I am unbelieveably happy about our house and can't wait to make it ours. We already bought paint for the living room, kitchen, and master bedroom. The living room will be a nice butter yellow on the main wall and a medium sage green on a contrasting wall which carries into the dining room. Our master bedroom will be tan with one deep red accent wall. We're also using the same deep red on two accent walls in the kitchen.

Speaking of the kitchen, we bought our remaining appliances this past weekend. We had to buy a refrigerator, washer, and dryer. We were originally budgeting $3000 for these three appliances since that is what I was left by my Great-grandma Alice when she passed away last Spring. Our real estate agent suggested an appliance store called O'Callaghan's. It's a local, family owned company that has been in the Des Moines area for at least 30 years. My mom bought her first appliances there in 1979 (anyone else have Harvest Gold or Avocado fridges when they were little?). They were very knowledgeable and very friendly. We had done research online and in Consumer Reports for about three weeks before going shopping last Saturday, so we walked in knowing pretty much what we wanted. We ended up getting all appliances made not only in the US, but in Iowa! Our Amana refrigerator was built in the Amana colonies just south of Mel's hometown of Marion. Our Frigidaire washer and dryer were built in the factory in Webster City. We were really pysched to not only buy locally, but buy appliances produced locally. All the appliances, including those already furnished, are Energy Star certified, so we'll be helping the environment that way too!

We also bought out paint locally at the Ace Hardware in Indianola. We had found the colors we wanted at Lowes, but the Ace Hardware was able to match the color exactly! They found the propriatary pigment information and gave us the exact same paint as the big box store, but $7 less! And we helped train a high school kid on the paint machines - okay I realize that this is hardly excisting news, but the kid was really, really excited about it.

All of our new appliances and furniture (well, hand-me-down furniture from my family) are delivered on this Saturday, so we're doing painting that day too. We're also going to try to put in a small garden on Saturday. We are having a small open house on Sunday for my family. Once we fully move down and get everything set up we'll have a full open house and be sure to send out invites.

Well, this post is getting ridiculously long again, so I'll sign off. Let us know if you'll be in the area and we can put you up for the night in our new, energy-efficent house!

Love you!