The Last Part of the Year

So 2009 is quickly coming to an end, with Thanksgiving just taking place this past Thursday. We spent the day at Anna's parents' house where we had some great food and a fun time.

Just yesterday and today, we have put up a bunch of Christmas decorations. You can view a few photos by clicking this link to our Flickr page. We put a few photos on there for you to check out, and we hope you like them.

As we approach Christmas, we're excited to once again be able to spend some time with friends and family. I'm hoping to post more on here as we approach Christmas, but if not, have a great holiday season!

-Bruce

This Coming Weekend...

is going to be awesome! We're looking forward to having everyone over to our house for the 4th of July.

Safe travels and we'll see you soon!

- Bruce and Anna

June's Here and a Busy Summer is Ahead!

So it's June, and this is the first post in about a month. Things have been crazy for us, but everything is going well.

So, what's new? Well:

• Bruce's friends from Ohio Mark and Nicole came up to Aurora last weekend to hang out. We went to a Chicago Fire professional soccer game on Friday night, and then the Cleveland Indians vs. Chicago White Sox game on Saturday night. It was a great time and a nice visit.
• This weekend, Anna went down to get a haircut and to see her parents while Bruce took his little brother Austin to the Children's Museum and to lunch. It was a fun weekend.
• Anna is now working different hours since it's the summer, but now has the weekends off!! Woo Hoo! Big excitement from both of us.

What's on our plates coming up? Well:

• Next weekend, Anna's parents, grandma and Aunt Mickie are coming to visit on Saturday. That should be fun.
• July 4 weekend, we're having a cookout at the new house. We have a number of RSVPs so far, and if you're interested in coming out, let us know!
• Later in July, we're heading to Ohio for Scott Hehr's wedding, then Bruce will be at the Fraternity Convention in St. Louis for a week.
• In August, we'll be heading to Anna's 10-year high school reunion in Michigan City, a wedding in Ohio, the Jimmy Buffett concert in Chicago, Bruce will be in Toronto for three days for a conference, and then will be volunteering for the Solheim Cup, the women's professional golf equivalent to the Ryder Cup.

As you can probably tell, we have a crazy schedule this summer, but there are still a few weekends open. If you want to come out and hang with us, let us know and we'd be glad to have you (especially all you friends with new babies!!)

As always, thanks for reading!

- Bruce and Anna

New Fun Experience

So we haven't posted in a while, but I wanted to get on here and let all of our millions of regular readers know that we're still alive, and that I have a new volunteer role that I have recently started.

I recently became a Big Brother for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Kane and Kendall Counties here in Aurora. I am completely excited to be doing it, and just got to meet my new little brother and his mom yesterday. It was really great, and they were both very nice.

Anyway, a neat little thing that I wanted to share. Things are still going well with the new house, Anna's job, my job, and everything else!

Hope you're all well...

-Bruce

Success - the Last of the Wallpaper is Removed!

The last of the wallpaper was removed recently. It was an amazing day, and one that we will not soon forget! Ha!

Check out the video below:

A Fun trip to a B&B

This past weekend, we spent a few days at a Bed & Breakfast on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, in Saugatuck, Michigan. The hotel, Belvedere Inn, was a beautiful, old home that was the perfect place for us to get away for a few days!!

Anna in front of the Belvedere

We were able to take advantage of the fact that there were VERY few people in town. That made our evening dinners easy, and we were also able to roam around downtown Saugatuck with very few others clogging up the sidewalk!! We shopped a little bit, went to the beach, and checked out the top of Mount Baldhead... Yes, it's an all too real place (see below)...

Anyway, we hope you'll take a look at the rest of our photos! We had a nice time, and will likely return to the area in the late summer or early fall to see what it's like at that time of year, in season.

Have a great one everybody, and thanks for reading!

-Bruce and Anna

Bye Bye Apartment...

Today, we finally gave our keys and garage door opener back to the apartment complex, ending one our occupancy of our former apartment...

You may be asking why we still had the keys and garage door opener for the apartment being that we have been living in the house for a month and a half. Well, it's because of spite...

They made us pay rent until the end of March, so instead of giving them the keys and garage door opener when we moved in early February, we decided to hold onto them so they weren't able to turn our apartment around and re-rent it for March while we were still paying rent on it. They were ridiculous in not letting us break our lease, so we made sure they weren't making anything on it.

The funniest thing is that we gave them a letter prior to moving out as we were required to do (need to give them 60 days notice), and we received a letter on the apartment door on Saturday when we went to pick up Anna's bike from the garage. Their letter stated "A maintenance person will be entering your apartment on March 16 or 17 to check your water and sewer, as it doesn't appear to be working..." The reason that's funny? Because we TOLD them in the 60-day letter that we were moving out in early February to move into the house, and that we could be reached at our new address if they needed anything... The reason the water and sewer company wasn't registering anything for us is because we USED NO WATER since we weren't living there...

We're glad we're done with that apartment complex - now it's a matter of getting our full security deposit back, which I have a feeling they're going to screw us on somehow...

New Bathroom Decoration

We put up this new decoration in the master bath today after purchasing it last weekend. We really like it, and think it adds something to the generally boring bathroom... Hope you like it!


Hope you can come check it, and everything else in the new house, out in the summer!

-Bruce and Anna

Long Time, No Post

So it's been awhile since we have posted to this blog, and I'd like to just give a quick update as to what's been happening. It can really been described in one word:

PAINTING

We have painted the spare room, the office, AND the laundry room in the recent weeks, and have been enjoying the new new home. It's been a little over a month and a half, and we're completely excited to be here!!

We'll be sure to post new photos soon so you can check them out, and we will look forward to hearing your comments!!

- Bruce

Tours of the House

We will soon upload tours of each level of the house so you can see the flow, etc. W're excited to show it to you!!

Bruce and Anna

New Photos after Painting the Office...

Hi everyone, and thanks for checking back in!

We have taken some new photos of the house with some of the wall hangings up, so we wanted to share with you! This weekend was spent painting the office from its ugly yellow color to our off white. We also hung a number of things on the walls! We still have some things to hang, but we're getting it done little by little...

Check out the new photos by clicking here.

Hope you like them!

New Look...

As you can tell, we changed the look of the blog. The old one was a little stale, so we changed. What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments...

The Pink Monstrosity is GONE...

This past Saturday, while Anna was hard at work in her private practice, I went to work on the pink room - filling holes in the wall, sanding them, and then painting the room. It went from looking like this when we went on the inspection:

to this:

Since we also had our new bed delivered yesterday, we put our old bed into the old pink room (which is now the official guest room and is open for business) and we're all set.

This weekend, I'll be tackling the "so bright you need your sunglasses" office, so I'll share some photos from that once I get it done.

Have a good one everybody!

We're All Moved In!

So we have moved everything in, and I decided to put together a little before and after show and tell here on the blog. I hope you think the improvements that were made are as cool as we do!

Click here to see the photos. Keep in mind that I have added descriptions to the photos (click Show Info at the top right of the screen), and you can pause the show at any time at the lower left side of the screen as well.

Special thanks to everyone who helped make the move possible, including Bruce's Dad who did much of the painting and faucet changes, Anna's parents who helped us for a number of weekends as we were getting ready for the move by removing wallpaper and cleaning the house, in addition to on the day of the move by cleaning and putting up our bathroom fixtures, and Anna's cousin Liz, her boyfriend Tom and Bruce's brother Joel who were the heavy lifters! We appreciate all of your help!

Sunday, February 1

We were at the house all day today - from 8:30 am until around 7:00 pm or so painting most of that time. We have completed the following:

• Kitchen Ceiling (two coats)
• Foyer ceiling (two coats)
  
• Living Room ceiling (one coat)
  
• Kitchen walls (one coat)

The plans for tomorrow include finishing the second coat of the kitchen walls, and completing the walls and ceiling in the family room. It should be a good day tomorrow - lots of painting and hopefully two completed rooms - the kitchen and family room..

We'll post pictures soon!

Bruce

Day #9 - More Wallpaper Comes Down

Last night, we got more than halfway done with the master bathroom, which was an exciting development. We're moving forward with it, and will continue peeling, even after we are living in the house.

Speaking of living in the house, we are planning to be fully moved in February 7, 2009. However, we will still have the apartment until the end of March in case we do need to back that timeframe up a little bit.

Lastly, we're heading out tonight to look at new mattresses and bedroom sets to furnish that part of the house. That will essentially furnish two rooms - the master bedroom with what we buy and the spare bedroom with the stuff we currently have. Hopefully we'll be able to have this new stuff delivered by February 7 as well!

Thanks for reading, and we hope we can have you to the new house in the Spring or Summer!

-Bruce and Anna

Day #6 - Wallpaper Removal Continues...

So we have finished the wall in master bedroom, and are on to the master bathroom now... Anna and Liz were at the house starting at around 2 pm yesterday and made significant progress before I came to the house after work. Check out the photos below:

Above: Master bath above the tub - DONE!

Above: Where we finished yesterday

Lots more to do, but we're making great progress! Keep an eye on the blog, and we'll keep you updated on how the house is coming along!

-Bruce and Anna

Day #5 in the House

So we were at the house for around 7 hours today. Most of that time was spent peeling wallpaper. The steamer that we bought has REALLY been great, as it has allowed us to get a lot more done at a time. In fact, we finished the master bedroom wall that we have been working on for the past two days today - a big accomplishment. See the photo below...

Above: Anna in the master bedroom with the clean wall...

I also shoveled the driveway and sidewalk in front of the house and cleaned the loft and stairs' woodwork.

We had a good day today at the house, and Anna will be there tomorrow during the day on her day off starting to peel in the master bath. Hopefully it comes off a little easier than the master bedroom paper did!

We'll continue to keep you updated as we continue the work on the new house!

-Bruce and Anna

Day #3 with the House

So we had new carpet installed today at the new house. Because of this, we were there all day. The extreme cold weather caused Anna to have the day off work, as the school was cancelled, and I took the day off to be at the house with the installers. The whole installation took around 7 hours, which seemed like an eternity.

As they were doing their work, Anna and I cleaned the kitchen, as well as the baseboards and windows in around three or four rooms and the basement. So even with carpet installers in the house all day, we were able to get a good amount of work done as well.

The big project that we're still working on before moving in is removing wallpaper from the master bedroom and bathroom. It is not coming off easily, and we bought a steamer to help with this effort. We also have wallpaper in the living room and dining room, which we will likely have to complete once we move in.

Anyway, back to the house tomorrow evening to do some additional wallpaper removal. Should be fun! Thanks for following our progress...

Bruce and Anna

We're Homeowners!

So we closed on the new house this morning! Very, very exciting.

Following our hands almost falling off because of all of the papers we had to sign, Bruce went to the house and began doing some work - shoveling the driveway, removing child "locks" from the kitchen cabinets from the previous owners, and beginning the grueling task of removing wallpaper with hot water and fabric softener... That was not as successful a venture as he had hoped, so we're trying to come to a consensus on the next step - either buying a steamer to remove it or using one of the off the shelf wallpaper removal chemicals. Not sure which we'll use yet, but would love to hear your thoughts!

We're back to the house tomorrow night to continue our efforts, and we'll keep you updated on our progress as we move forward. For tonight, we're just happy to finally be homeowners!

Closing on the House...

So it's been a while since we have posted on here. Our apologies!

It's also been a while since we actually got everything ready to close on the new house, and this Tuesday we'll finally be closing on it!! We are extremely excited about the chance to get the keys to our new home so we can get in there and begin doing some work to make it exactly what we want.

What we're planning on doing:

• We have our apartment until the end of March, so we'll be moving in slowly after the closing.
• We will be removing some wallpaper, painting, changing some of the faucets, etc. during the next month or so, and will be hoping to move in full-time in early-mid February.
• Bruce's Dad will be coming to assist with some of the painting, faucet replacement, etc. at the beginning of February.
• We will be hoping to have the full house furnished in the next couple months. We already purchased a new couch for the family room, which will allow us to use our current furniture for the basement. The next room to furnish is the master bedroom so we can use our current stuff in the guest bedroom.

Other than all of that, we are just excited to be able to buy a house at this time in our lives, and are excited to have you come visit us once we have gotten everything put together!

Hope you're well! (Did you notice the new name of the blog? What do you think?)

-Bruce and Anna