a few pictures of our past week. Over the weekend Calixto's parents came for an early Christmas...

Very excited about their gifts...
On Monday Catherine had a little parent's Christmas show at ballet. Aside from her pretend sneezes, itchiness and tiredness she did great!

Here is the progresss we have made. This used to be a closet in the bathroom. We tore out all of the cedar ripped down a wall and then put a door way into the hallway. The bathroom is much bigger and guests will be have access to a bathroom without going through a bedroom. The only problem is this is the way the room will look for a while!
This is as you come in the back door, right off of the kitchen. Here the guys tore out the pantry(dont' know where I'll have a pantry now?!) wall, took down all the paneling and began to install pipes etc for the washer and dryer. That should hopefully be done today. But, again this unfinished look will stay for a while...eek! When the house was built, they didn't use dry wall just these wood planks.

Our house update-
So far we have removed all carpets, tack strips, staples from the floors; blinds, drapery and mold from all the windows! Wow, what a chore to get all of that accomplished. My parents are now here and I had hoped to get into some major work. I havea list of jobs I had hoped to complete before we leave for NJ next week. But, an unexpected project came up yesterday stealing some precious time (isn't that the way it always is?) We had to install a new water heater!("tyranny of the urgent") Not a fun project but a very necessary one, we now have hot water! I have to be very selective about the projects, choosing the ones with top priority, that is a very difficult task, as so much needs to be done. We will get it all done in time but, I need to make the best use of my dad (the home builder and jack of all trades) while he is here. Todays project is to install the washer and dryer.
We have a contract on our house with a great couple! We are so excited about them buying it. I know the neighbors will love them. There are a lot of changes going on in the neighborhood but the families moving in are wonderful...I only wish we were staying!! Good thing we are close by!

Well, we have made progress in the past week. I have a sore back, a sore neck and bags under my eyes!! We have also made some progress on the house, here are a few photos...After Cat's nap I'll head back over to do more work!
I spent 3 hours on the kitchen today. The stove was incredibly dirty, yuck!! I preliminarily cleaned it but, it needs more!
Here is our bedroom. I thought I could take out the mattress and just have a hard surface for pictures or something but, there is a built in box spring below the mattress! I have no idea what to do with this space...except tear it out to make roomier closets. The closets are quite small. We are gaining floor space in the move but we are losing closet space.
Here is a look at Catherine's room without the carpet and curtains and with new blinds.
back to the kitchen, sorry for the random order. There is tons of cabinet space, in fact I think most of them have not been used. I have a dishwasher! With the exception of my first 2 years in Longview, I have never had a dishwasher (besides myself) I am excited about that!! I found today that the faucet wasn't correctly installed and leaks under the cabinet, and whenever I turn on the faucet, water comes out of the tube for the icemaker...all over the floor, don't know what that is about!
This is Catherine's room again. So nice to have the curtains down and actually look out of the windows and let the sunshine in. By all the mold on the windows I doubt they ever opened the curtains or blinds!! I walked around this morning singing, "Let the sunshine in, let the sunshine in..."

A quick prayer request. A friend from home, Eileen, found out this week that she has a tumor on her pancreas. It is most likely cancerous. She is a breast cancer survivor, it has been 2 years since her treatments ended. This last week she was very itchy from head to toe, she had tests done and found the tumor. It is close to the bile duct which made her itch, which in turn brought about a quick diagnosis. (Praise the Lord for that!) They are hopeful that surgery will take care of it but, will know more after an appointment with the surgeon tomorrow at a top hospital in Philly. Thanks for your prayers! Also check out baby Ashley's blog site at www.ashleyadamsjournal.blogspot.com and pray for this precious baby and family!

Here are inside photos of our house...the kids started jumping into the pictures just as a snapped them thus, the odd faces and bodies!! Here they are ceremoniously taking out the yard sign!!!

This is the master bedroom looking at the built in window seat. and His/her closets.
This is Christopher's room. We pulled back the carpet and the floors are beautiful underneath, maybe just some buffing will be needed throughout the house. The previous owners didn't quite understand that they needed to remove everything, leaving this old stereo behind, with a few other things as well.
Here is Catherine's room, I didn't get a good picture of the whole room...she has tons of windows! Each bedroom has at least 5
This is the den looking out toward the back porch. Funny how they have the same drapery throughout the house. I am sure it cost a lot but they sure are ugly...ok, I should say they are just not my taste! They will all be coming down very soon.
the kitchen, half of it anyway. It is a huge room but, they divided the space, making 1/2 of it into a breakfast nook. I would like to open it up and use it all for kitchen area.
Here is the living room, the fire place doesn't work (yet). the french doors open into the den
Here is the master bath. just to the left is a shower. I think it was originally a closet. You can't tell from the picture but this space is huge!! and it needs a lot of updating!
This is the dining room showing the built-in shelving. I am not a big fan of all of the wood...so, I am not sure what we'll do with it all. We have to sit down and formulate a master plan and then do a little work at a time. I would like to tear this whole wall out, opening the space into the kitchen.
Well, that is our house. As soon as we get the heat turned on (tomorrow) We'll be over there cleaning and ripping out the carpets. My parents will be here next week to help start some other work too!! Yay!

We now own the house!!!
We successfully closed the deal and signed our lives away this afternoon! Everything went very smoothly! Our mortgage guy is even going to try to get some money back for us b/c the cost of the survey was outrageously high!! We so appreciate any help with that. The sellers want to take us out for lunch sometime soon.
So the kids and I will head over to the house tomorrow to begin some work. Hopefully, my parents can come down and get a little work done before they leave Okla and head back to NJ. We probably won't move until after the holidays but that depends on the sale of this house.
The Christmas parade was a bit chilly tonight, we were prepared with snuggly blankets!! We enjoyed it but, it didn't seem as good as in years past. The chinese food we ate afterwards sure was good!!