Bugs Palace!

Well that was a crazy few months! My last post was 3 months ago today. And we moved 2 months ago today. Where has the time gone? Ultra fast re-cap time. Lord knows I’ll miss a bunch of stuff due to the overwhelming timeline but I’ll do my best.

Crazy summer. Baseball season came and went. We’ve got two amazing little people who love baseball nearly as much as Shannon and I do. Watching them try their best and enjoying the game has been a highlight of this otherwise rough summer. With so much time taken with prepping the house for sale, showing the house, selling it, and finally packing it, there really wasn’t much time for anything else. I’m very thankful for the many trips the ball diamond and a fantastic weekend in Darien Lake. If not for those things, the summer is pretty much a blur!

August 24th we left David Street and moved into our new home. I don’t feel as though we’ve stopped since. We totally re-did one of the rooms in the house when we moved in. 24 hours after moving in, we had removed the ceiling and started removing wallpaper. Neither Shannon and I were a fan of the plaster on the ceiling and removing and re drywalling was the only real solution. New lights were installed and new ceiling hung. Hours upon hour of wallpaper removal and a few holes cut in the wall for a recessed AV unit and the room started to take shape. Dozens of other touches and I can finally say the room is coming along nicely! Since we moved in we also turned a shower stall into a closet and replaced the bathtub that had been removed many years prior to us moving in. Mind you the one we installed is much deeper. Wall was opened up in one room to create a laundry room, wiring ran and hooked up and both kids rooms have been repainted.

There are still more tasks to be done but I don’t have the ambition to outline them all. I think I’ll just update this space as jobs are completed.

I can’t thank my family and friends enough for their support of Shannon and I in this crazy little adventure we have taken. The amount of hours and sweat and love you have all given in these last couple months is a debt we will never be able to repay. From the bottom of my heart thank you all so very much!

Since the move we have celebrated the first of many family events in the new house. Happiest 11th birthday to Abby. Love you so much baby girl! And after the house full of people left, the house was still standing. I call that a win!

At the end of September Shannon I went to San Diego to visit two very good friends. We had such an amazing time seeing parts of southern California and the ocean. We tried several local restaurants and took in a Padres game along with other “must do” sight seeing excursions. Thanks again to Andy and Starla for hosting us! We had a blast!

Finally for this quickie post I have to congratulate Mr. and Mrs Faux! I had the honour of standing up with Foxxxy at his wedding this past week. The day went of without a hitch and we had a great time dancing, singing and drinking along with one of my oldest and dearest friends as well as many new friends. To the bride, groom and wedding party – you guys rock !

I’m exhausted and sure I’m forgetting all sorts of stuff…..  I’ll leave this post as it is. With my web server finally unpacked  I can finally get backing into regularly updating. Good night!

Well, we didn’t get exactly what we wanted, but we did alright in the sale of our home. Papers signed, deal is done and the SOLD sign is in the front yard. Guess that means we’re moving! I still can’t believe it.  One month ago today we put in the offer to purchase our new home and now, there is exactly one month until we are officially off David Street and into our new place. Talk about a whirlwind 2 months!

We’ve started the packing process. Lots of work to do. The packing doesn’t really bother me. Pretty straight forward. Pick a room and box it up. Move onto the next room. I’m more dreading the moving in phase. Decide whats going where; painting, de-wall-papering; un-boxing all our worldly possessions. Yikes.

To keep myself busy between the packing I have been starting the planning for the new garage. This will be much less work then adding on like we had been planning. Looks like the new shop will be approx 34’wide by 24′ deep. May be slightly larger, but no smaller. Should be awesome. Currently plans are to start building in the spring after we move in. Fingers crossed i’m not still saying that in 14 years like I did last time we bought a house.

So after picking up the plans for the addition on hour house that we bought new back in 2004, a house came on the market that I wasn’t expecting. My Aunt and Uncles home at the edge of town suddenly had a “for sale” sign out front. We had to check it out.

After contacting a Realtor (Shannon Veri) and setting up a viewing. Shannon and I decided we had to make the change. Don’t get me wrong, we LOVE our home on David St. It was our first house, the house our kids were brought home to and 14+ years of amazing memories. But the pluses at the new place keep adding up. HUGE (.9acre) lot, back-split, flat property with easy room to add large garage, still in town, and not in the middle of incoming Empire Homes are just a few of those pluses.

Not much more to say right now. Still processing and going through the steps to finish the deals. We have officially bought the new house, and now have ours listed. With any luck it will sell quick at/above asking and we can move onto the new chapter in the VanDalen’s lives.