We applied for the refinance on our house on a Friday in mid-October and had the appraisal scheduled for the following Monday morning, so spent the whole weekend furiously cleaning and finishing up as many almost-completed projects as we could. Not the easiest task, especially with a toddler who wants to be involved and won't really nap. With great weather, and a little help from our favorite neighbors, we got a LOT done and the house was looking pretty good.
The appraisal didn't come in quite where we'd have liked, though, so we had to look at our quotes and figure out what to do next. Between the project, moving and almost doubling our living expenses for a few months, and my pending maternity leave (only partially paid), it adds up fast. We don't want to spend all our savings to make up the difference, either. Our contractor has been great and was more than happy to talk with us about some ideas and then rework his quote to cut some things.
We closed on the refi 30 days after we applied and then moved to the rental house the weekend before Thanksgiving. Technically, we just emptied what was left out of our house last night. We've been living at the rental for almost two weeks now and feel fairly settled in. Most of what's left to unpack is stuff to go through and mostly toss. Architecture students collect an amazing amount of paper and other materials, but the value of most of it is significantly diminished by our current lack of need for balsa wood and chip board. We can only save so much for DD to color on.
We picked up our awesome FLOR carpet (that we designed and still love) and will put it in the den at the rental. It's held up pretty well for 5+ years of daily vacuuming and steam cleaning several times a year, not to mention the wear and tear of two 60# dogs and now DD. We'll definitely have to replace some tiles before we move it back to our house, but I'm sure the dogs will like having more space to stretch out and shed at the rental.
I stopped by our house on my lunch break to see what's going on... there's a dumpster in the driveway and the kitchen cabinets are in the living room and the den/office/dining room (we used it as an office before, but will probably make it more of a dining area/den when we move back.)
Note the poor Bronco and the sad driveway...
No more cabinets!
You don't want to know what it looks like under/behind your cabinets.It has been an exhausting and sometimes stressful process to design, draw, price and sort out all the details... but I'm really excited about it, now. The reality is we're not even done, we still have to finalize the cabinets and a few other details... and it will be weird not doing the work ourselves like we have for so long. I'm also 39 weeks pregnant today, so I have good reason to be tired... but I actually feel pretty good!
I will try to go by fairly regularly and take progress photos... maybe even with the DSLR instead of my phone... and soon with a newborn in tow!
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