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By kilax, January 7, 2016 6:07 am

• We’ve been in total limbo with the new house purchase. We know it’s moving forward, but we’re constantly getting new information as inspections are (now) completed (this week’s: “Hey, you need a new septic tank!”) and we don’t have a close date. All typical home purchase stuff, right? But then throw in the fact that the house we’re renting is under contract to close on February 5th, and things get a little interesting. Ha. Surprisingly, I am very calm about all this. I’m someone who typically struggles with the unknown, but with this, I’ve been okay. Steven and I are working really well together as a team (going through this has brought us closer together), and I know we can get done whatever we need to. We’ll make it work. I have faith in us. (And I hope that by saying we don’t have a close date, the universe will do what it usually does, and provide me one, making me a liar).

Scwheet gate in front of the entry doors to our hopeful home

• When we took Steven’s dad and brother to see the house, I realized that I was wrong about something. There isn’t one ceiling fan… there’s FOUR!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Sorry, Data.

OMG SUPER SCARY FAN IN GUEST BEDROOM!!!!

• And for all my complaining about the rental house kitchen (and other things that I haven’t mentioned here, but you’ve probably heard if you know me in real life, ha), we’re so much happier in the rental than we were in our townhome. We felt on edge in our townhome for many years, because of noise and other disturbances. It’s peaceful where we’re living right now, and it’s wonderful. We’re not stress-free, but THAT stress is gone.
• This post is all house, house, house. And it continues. Our new home is in (the unincorporated part of) a town where ,when we tell people we are moving there, they say “you’re moving WHERE?” with cat making home alone face when you tell them… and not in a good way. Ha. And yesterday, I was buying a train pass to get WAY out there, and the agent was like “All the way to there?” Yep! Ha.
• One more house thing – it’s so weird to think of someone living in our old townhome! I hope they’re liking it!
• Buah ha ha. I spoke too soon when I wrote this post about being back at knitting and remembering everything. I apparently forgot how to read, because I made the hat way too short, despite having made this pattern before! Oops! I am hoping it will fit the head of Bobbi’s youngest daughter. Luckily, I had purchased two skeins of the yarn and finished hat #2, on skein #2, last night. Ha.

Hat #1 – At least the yarn is making it turn out cute!

Hat #2 – this one may be TOO tall. Ha. I will get it right, eventually.

• My older brother is getting married in Alaska in June (!!!!!!), and Steven and I, and most of my immediate family, purchased our flights for the trip on Sunday!!!! YAY!!! There aren’t any races where I will be, but I obviously plan to run there. Big thanks to my parents for covering the flight costs until we can pay them back after we close on our house (because the close costs about a zillion dollars).

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By kilax, December 28, 2015 3:52 pm

This is our first time living somewhere where we are responsible for snow removal. In fact, we didn’t even own a proper shovel until Saturday night. Ha! Luckily, we looked ahead at the forecast and thought to get one before we needed it.

That was some HEAVY snow.

I definitely got a shoulder workout in, which is good, since we are canceling strength class for tonight due to road conditions.

Here’s part of the driveway at the house we are hoping to buy. I’ve indicated where the street is with a red arrow. Yeah. Won’t be shoveling all THAT! Buah ha ha.

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By kilax, December 17, 2015 6:08 am

Even though we moved in to our rental house two weekends ago, that doesn’t mean we were completely out of our townhome. Ha. Not at all. In fact, I think we’ve been over there every day since we “moved out,” except the days we were out of town in Dallas.

And going back and forth has been exhausting.

But last night, we took the last of our stuff and cleaned up. I think we are FINALLY out of there.

I thought I’d feel some sort of sadness over leaving my home of 8.5 years, but I didn’t at all. I am ready to get out of there and on to our next adventure. The rental is feeling like “home” for now, and even Data has found his groove there, too. As Gina said when I text her our last photo in our first home (below)… bye, Felicia! Ha!

Empty and ready for the next owners!

Okay, okay, there is ONE thing I will miss – my walk in closet. Cry. How does someone who doesn’t care about fashion have so much clothes?!?!?

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By kilax, December 11, 2015 6:40 am

I’ve been without my training partner, Kelly, for over five months! Our last run together was June 30th. Wah! Ha ha.

One of our last runs together and Kelly’s new 5K PR!

I’ve been trying not to feel too sad about being apart from each other. (REPRESS THOSE FEELINGS – SO HEALTHY!) We text and call and keep in touch. We’re still close.

But moving in to this rental house, so close to where she used to live, I can’t help but think about how cool it would have been if she was still here and I could run to her house. And how nice it would have been to run together when I was dealing with all our house stuff, and let it out all to her (in person). And how much she helped me prep for the Dallas Marathon last year, and how much that helped!

Sigh.

The truth is, Kelly was my friend I saw the most, told things to first, and confided in greatly, just because of the way I communicate. I greatly miss that. Our runs kept me SANE. They calmed me in the early mornings before a busy day. They were a pick me up when we had one of those rare afternoon runs (“this is what you look like in the daylight?!” ha ha).

I prefer running solo, or with a training partner. I’ve been doing fine, training alone these past months, but I do feel like I need to get some thoughts out of my head during a run – to another person! But you don’t really pick up someone during a running group to do that with, you know? The history of the friendship helps. You can let your crazy out, and it’s all good.

Sigh.

Writing all of this makes me think about how open I was with Kelly, and how reclusive I’ve become lately. I hate that I’ve become that a-hole person keeping things (about the house stuff) private, that don’t need to be, but I do anyway, because I just can’t talk about it anymore. And if I update you, I’ll likely have a different update tomorrow, and I also hate being that person who says one thing then it’s different the next day. So I don’t say much, unless you catch me in person.

I’ve been in my own little world, dealing with house stuff, and I haven’t done the best job of being emotionally available for other friendships. I am ashamed of it, but optimistic that things will calm down soon so I can put more effort back toward communications. They will.

Sigh.

And I will continue to hope my training partner moves back some day!

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By kilax, December 8, 2015 11:46 am

We moved the majority of our belongings in to our rental house this weekend. Only a few things remain at the townhome, and we’ll definitely be able to bring them over before our close date on the 18th. Phew.

This x4

We had perfect moving weather for December – sunny and comfortable in jeans and a tee. Think we’ll strike that luck again when we do the second move in (hopefully) late January?

The weekend was such a roller coaster of emotions:

• Guilt/shame – why do I have so much stuff?!
• Anxiety/panic – how am I going to get this all done in time? Can I make this home comfortable for us for two months, and to host two people for the holiday?
• Gratitude/love – it’s amazing how many friends pitched in to help us. We really couldn’t have gotten it done in the timeframe we did without them. It means a lot to me.

I’m happy to report that I’ve stayed calm… even when there was a water leak in the basement of the rental yesterday and I had to move a bunch of boxes and unpack the damaged ones. Ha ha.

Steven, Data and I all slept in the rental for the first time Sunday night. Well, partially slept. We took Data over in the late evening and he was too busy exploring to sleep (and kept me up most of the night). Lesson learned – take him to the house in the morning, for the next move. That way, maybe he’ll be exhausted from checking out the new digs and hopefully sleep through the night.

Data is doing okay. He’s eating and using the litter box (phew) but he’s afraid of the long corridor in the house and spends most of his time in the living area. Hopefully he’ll come around in a week or so. I feel bad we’re doing this to him twice. I feel bad we’re doing this to us twice. But it’ll totally be worth it when we move in to our final, long-term, home.

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By kilax, November 30, 2015 6:15 am

I was surprised when I wasn’t excited about the big snow storm we had a week and a half ago. I love snow! I love winter! What was my dealio?

So peaceful and quiet… what’s not to love? By the way, that’s our driveway…

At first I attributed my displeasure to the snow hampering on plans I made with my parents – the snow made it difficult (but not impossible) to get to (and around in) the city with my mom, and it completely squashed my plans for my dad to cycle with me while I ran. I had been really looking forward to showing him one of my long run routes.

So happy to have Metra as an option… even when the train home was delayed over an hour and the shelter was open to the outside… and that Amtrak train went by and blew all that snow on us… and our socks were wet… ha ha!

But we still had a great time with them, so whatevs. Then why was I still annoyed with the snow after they left?

Sigh, cause it meant instead of running routes like this:

I had to do one like this:

Loops until you lose your mind

Or this:

Run every cul-de-sac to get your mileage in…

But I did that second route Monday and didn’t hate it and was still annoyed to see all the snow covering the trails – what’s up with dat?!

Ahh, that’s it. The trails are inaccessible for running when they’re covered in snow (I mean… you can run them, but it’ll be hella slow and a bit dangerous) and I wanted to run my local trails as much as possible before moving!!! I can’t do that when they’re covered in snow!

Luckily, the snow melted, and I was able to do one of my loop routes for my Sunday long run. And sort of say “farewell” to that route. At least farewell to running it with the starting point as our home – I’ll still try to run those trails and forest preserves from time to time, after we move.

We’re so lucky that the home we live in now is right on a trail. And that the trail connects to roads and other forest preserves. It’s perfect for me – it allowed me to create many routes, and explore and become familiar with lots of areas, which I love!

The new home we’re under contract for is on a street surrounded by two (!!!) forest preserves. But it is just over two miles to get to the closest trail. And I’ll no longer be in a neighborhood, but on a dead end street, so running neighborhood loops when there is a ton of snow won’t be as… interesting. Ha ha.

The trade off for the privacy we’ll have is totally worth it. And I’m stoked to create new routes! But part of me is feeling sad to leave behind the ones I’ve become so familiar with. I’m happy I’ll get a few more runs in on them when they’re not buried in snow.

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By kilax, November 28, 2015 5:13 pm

Wow, Helper Cat is so useful when it comes to packing up the house!

Or… supervising us pack up the house. Ha ha.

Because, you know, that’s the most comfortable spot in the house to lay… silly Data.

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By kilax, November 24, 2015 6:23 am

… at this house

After hating our kitchen flooring for YEARS we finally had it replaced last Tuesday! YAY!

The new flooring doesn’t photograph well, unfortunately, but it’s a HUGE improvement from the original vinyl tile, that was full of nicks and dirty spots that wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard we cleaned. Our kitchen floor embarrassed me – I hated that it was the first thing most guests saw when they came in the house.

Flooring was the last change we were waiting to make to our townhome before we listed it for sale. But, we had everything else ready much earlier (it was a long wait for the luxury vinyl tile we ordered to arrive) so we ended up listing our house on Saturday, November 7th. We had a showing on Sunday and Monday, and two offers on Tuesday, and signed a contract on Wednesday, the 11th.

I guess the kitchen (and foyer) flooring wasn’t really that big of a deal, afterall*.

The inspection and appraisal went well, so… we really are selling our townhome! Wow. That went A LOT faster than we thought it would. Honestly, Steven and I thought the townhome would be on the market awhile. We thought we might have to take it off the market and list it again in the spring, since late fall and winter can be a slow season. We feel VERY lucky. And we’re happy that a couple is feeling excited about making the townhome their first home!

But where are Steven and I going?! We’ll rent a home for awhile. We’re under contract for a home we both love, also in Lake County. I really hope everything works out with that home, because we fell in love with it this summer, and haven’t seen anything else that we are both equally as excited about. Fingers crossed!

*We did leave a note out during the showing, explaining that new flooring would be installed in the kitchen and foyer.

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By kilax, October 8, 2015 6:19 am

Steven and I have been upgrading some furniture items in our home – new chairs, a new entertainment center, an actual headboard for our bed, new lamps, a few other things…

We were both commenting on how it makes our house feel much more “adult.” And how much we like it. AND WHY DID IT TAKE US SO LONG TO MAKE THESE CHANGES?!?!

Ha, it’s not like we had a house full of dorm furniture. It was just missing some finishing touches here and there.

Steven hypothesized that we were being lazy. I hypothesized that we had other priorities – other things we’d rather spend our money on.

But we both did agree, that when we move, we’ll make the effort for the house to feel this way from the get go!

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By kilax, September 17, 2015 6:14 am

• My younger brother and his wife received the blanket for James yesterday and sent me a very nice thank you and a few pictures of James using it!!! Made my day!

• I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but when I show pictures of someone’s kids on here, or write a post that says a lot about something me and another person did, or has pictures of them in I’m not sure if they will like, I get their permission to post it. This is my blog space, not theirs, and I’d totally get if they didn’t want their stuff on here! Everything is not for everyone to see. (And I appreciate my friends and family reviewing the stuff I send them.)
• For my next knitting project, I am making some washcloths and cowls to donate for a silent auction and 5K event Gina’s running club is hosting on October 10 for a young girl in their town (in Texas) battling leukemia. If you are crafty and want to donate something for the auction (or work for a business that can donate online services or gift cards) let me know and I will connect you with her! I finished the washcloths last night! Gina requested Christmassy colors and I like how they turned out!

• (Town)house improvements continue, and we recently replaced an old La-Z-Boy couch with some chairs. I really like the pattern – they’re muted enough but with a tiny pop of color that isn’t obnoxious. And Data likes that they’re gray. Although at first I think he thought he wasn’t supposed to sit on them, and was trying to sneak around to do it, which was humorous!

• As part of an anniversary gift, Gina and Steve gave us the Dallas Starbucks mug! Our collection expands! Ha ha, I know, it’s pretty small (for the Starbucks mugs), but I have a bit of a mug problem in general, so that’s okay!

• I hit a one-year streak in practicing Spanish every day, in the DuoLingo app! Once I completed the app in the spring, I’ve been more in a maintenance mode. I would really like to become fluent in Spanish over the next few years. I think that will require classes, a language partner/tutor, and using Spanish in my community. Which sounds exciting, but like a lot of work, so we’ll see what happens with that! (Probably… not much.)

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