The End of a Rainy Week

It has been a rainy, busy week out here in Arizona! On Tuesday, Rob and I drove out to Glendale (about 45 minutes away) in the rain to buy a stove and dishwasher we found for ridiculously cheap on Craigslist. I am not sure if we mentioned it before, but our house needs to have both a stove and a dishwasher when it is appraised in order for us to qualify for our loan. (It isn't a conventional loan, but one through the government specifically for housing in growing rural areas that allows us to skip the down payment, but pay a bit more in closing costs.) I'm not sure of the logic behind it, but these two appliances are considered part of the home, and the previous owners should not have removed them. Because we signed an addendum agreeing that we are purchasing the home "as is," the responsibility falls on us to get a stove and dishwasher in there. Luckily, we found these two old, gross, cheap appliances. We didn't want to deal with the liability of installing the brand new appliances we will eventually purchase, and letting them sit in a vacant, foreclosed house. Hence the trip to Glendale on the perfect night to put on sweatpants, make hot cider and stay inside, listening to the rain.

Luckily (???) we had another of those such nights on Thursday. It stormed like crazy here! It rained the entire day, and in the afternoon the winds really picked up. I tried to watch Grey's and Private Practice that evening, but both were interrupted over and over again by the meteorologist, who was pretty excited about having something to report for once. They exaggerated a few tornado warnings (even though no tornado was ever sighted) and called it an "epic rain storm" over and over. A lot of roads flooded and even around our apartment complex there were a few decent sized trees whose roots had been pulled right out of the ground! I think because the ground was so soggy from the rain, it didn't take much wind to rip the roots out, especially because they don't go very deep into the ground out here. There was even a little while on Thursday afternoon where there was talk of school being cancelled on Friday. A rain day in the desert...imagine that! I took a lil video on Rob's camera of the storm from the front door of our apartment, but I think they've updated the blog options, and for some reason, uploading a video is no longer an easy option on my toolbar. I will have to look into this and hopefully will have a video of the storm to share at some point.

Yesterday, Rob and I headed out to the house to hook up the stove and dishwasher. (I failed to mention that last both appliances were in the back of the SUV all week!) We also needed to change the batteries in all of the smoke detectors, replace a smoke detector that was missing and cover all of the exposed wires that were dangling where the fans used to be. (They definitely stripped this house before leaving.) It took the better part of the afternoon. After we were finished, we rented a movie and picked up a pizza out in Queen Creek. (I had a buy-one-get-one coupon on a school discount card that I think only worked at that Papa Johns.) We both were sad that we had to head all the way back to our apartment and weren't living in the house yet. Hopefully though, everything will go well with the appraisal and it will be ours in just a few weeks! Basically, we just need the house to appraise for the value of our loan (or higher). Our mortgage company won't approve our loan if the house is not worth the value of the loan. I have no idea what the appraisal is based on, but fingers crossed, it will go as smoothly as everything else has thus far. I also have no idea when we will hear back on appraisal, but I am hoping it will be soon.

That is the excitement out here. Rob is at work and I just finished baking blueberry oat muffins and running. We are both gearing up for another busy week. Rob's night flights leave him with long days, and my new tutoring family makes my Tuesdays and Thursdays long as well. I'm also planning on going to a Foothills soccer game on Wednesday...then I will have seen at least one game of all the winter sports. I am off to shower and do some dishes now. Love, Sarah and Rob

Pictures from our fantastic home inspection...

Happy three day weekend! I have been quite productive the last few days, and so am finally getting around to updating you all on our inspection last Tuesday. The inspection itself went far better than Rob or I had anticipated. We were nervous that the previous owners may have intentionally broken things because they were foreclosing on their house, but aside from taking all the appliances and fans and dirtying up the walls, it looks as though they left everything else in pretty good shape. The inspector just did a visual inspection, but he seemed to really know what he was talking about and looking for, and even gave us (mostly Rob!) a lot of useful tips for being handy around the house :) We have a few smoke detector batteries to replace, drains to snake and some part of the garage door opener to fix, but aside from those small problems, the house itself is in great shape. This was quite the relief. We took a lot more pictures, but when I looked through them, I realized they all looked pretty similar to the other pictures I'd posted. (I guess there really are only a limited number of angles from which to effectively photograph a room.) Here are a few, though, that seemed a little different from those posted before.

The front of the house. Anyone know how to clean this driveway?!?!

 

Again, the front of the house as the sun was setting and we were leaving.

 

entryway from the front door.

 

kitchen with nice lighting and more high ceilings.

 

the kitchen again. As you can tell, the sun sets at the back of the house. This might not be the greatest in the summer.

 

close up of the carpet and ceramic tile.

 

backyard.

 

more backyard, plus Ed and me. :)

Rob and I spent about 2 1/2 hours at Home Depot yesterday just window shopping yesterday :) We picked out new appliances, a new kitchen sink, knobs for the kitchen cabinets, shower doors, new door handles, paint...the list goes on! We haven't actually purchased anything yet. Aside from the appliances and paint, we are planning on doing repairs gradually. Despite not buying anything, I never thought I'd have so much fun in a home improvement store ever :)

We also read through a solid 100 pages of crazy HOA rules this weekend, and I am planning on setting up homeowner's insurance tomorrow. In preparation for packing, I even used the three day weekend to my advantage and cleaned out the closet! I am hoping to sell some of my clothes to a consignment store out here and add the money I get back from them to our appliance fund :) I am quite proud of the big pile of clothes I am finally able to part with.

I also cleaned the apartment and made banana nut muffins in the big muffin tins Mom and Dad gave me for Christmas. Super domestic! Rob worked like crazy all week, then had to go into work again yesterday, worked at Cutter today and doesn't have tomorrow off. Yuck. I took on a new family out in Queen Creek to tutor (so I won't have to quit tutoring when we move after all...good and bad). I'm starting to meet with them this week, and will be there for 1 1/2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are both getting home late on weeknights now. I am going to make a pan of veggie+ground beef too lasagna to reheat for dinner on our busy nights this week. Okay, enough randomness. Time to continue the appliance hunt online :) Hope all is well with everyone! And happy birthday to my Grandpa Chuck! Wish we could have been back home to celebrate. Love, Sarah and Rob

Pictures Galore!

First off, just to clarify, this post will be entirely pictures and lil captions. All the real details are in the post from yesterday which will actually be below this post on your screen. Okay, that said, here goes...

As many of you have requested, here are pictures of our (hopeful) new house. I will update with more pictures after the inspection on Tuesday, but for now this is what we have!

This is the front of the house.

And the entry way at the front of the house.

You walk right into the family room.

The family room leads into the kitchen, which as you can tell, currently has no appliances. The doorway to the left leads to the bedrooms and the kitchen continues out to the backyard (the picture is below). One of the things we would like to add to the house is an island.

This is the continuation of the kitchen. You can see the higer ceilings here.

One of the two bathrooms. They are both about the same size (not our favorite feature, but we have a few good ideas to make it nice.) Also, notice the lovely doorknob. I want to change those too :) So many plans!

Closet and a little piece of the master bedroom. These mirrored doors will probably be changed at some point too.

Tile hallway.

Laundry room. Really, this picture doesn't show much other than the fact that we will need to purchase a washer and dryer. Luckily, we have a friend who used to work for an appliance company and can help us get them at wholesale cost. And there are lots of government rebates :)

Garage with a ridiculously huge oil stain. We are plannig on epoxi-ing the floor (still don't know how to spell this one) as a DIY project before we move in. Good thing Rob is so handy :)

View out into the backyard from the kitchen.

And a view of the back of the house :)

Now...a few pictures of our hike yesterday. (I am still unbelievably sore!)

View from the top of Flat Iron Peak.

Another view from the top, looking out over the entire Phoenix valley.

Rob and I relaxing on a rock at the top before our hike back down.

Our hiking partners, Heidi (a guidance counselor at school) and her fiancee, John, with us at the top.

Heidi and John, about half way down the mountain.

Rob and me, on our way down as well. Above us you can see the peak we climbed to. It is shaped like an iron. (Hence, Flat Iron Peak!)

The sun setting at the very end of our hike.

And last, but not least, all the pictures I promised last week we took in California from Rob's camera.

This is Logan, Rob and I in California, ready to set off on our adventure.

Catalina Island from the air.

The runway on Catalina.

Rob and I after we landed in Catalina.

Another runway/airport we are approaching...this time it is Santa Barbara.

The Fisherman's Wharf in Santa Barbara.

The coast of California.

LAX!

Waves crashing along the beach in Carlsbad where we ran New Years Day. Not a bad start to 2010 :)

Weekend Excitement.

Dear Family and Friends,

This will be very short. I owe you all pictures, but that means I need to attach my camera to my computer, which requires extensive amounts of movement. And that is impossible. Rob and I hiked to Flat Iron Peak today, a mountain peak on the eastern edge of Phoenix in the Superstition Mountains. We made it to the very tippy top! (I had gotten close before, but never quite made it. I was very proud to get there today!) It was a 6 mile hike, gaining over 3,000 feet of elevation which means more than 6 miles really. We went with Heidi, the guidance counselor from school and her fiancee, John. It was so much fun to get out with new friends on a perfect day to hike. But now, my legs and arms and tush hateeeeeeeee me. So very much.

I am posting, however, to tell you about more than our ridiculously impressive hiking accomplishment. We heard yesterday morning that our offer on the foreclosure we saw last Sunday was accepted!! This means we are one giant leap closer to being homeowners! It is definitely further than we have every gotten before. We have a home inspection scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, which is one of the last big hurdles to jump through. Assuming all goes well there, our lender will appraise the house, making sure it is worth what we offered before they approve our loan. Rob and I are both really, really happy that the end of this 6 month process is finally in sight! The house is not in as nice of shape as the short sale we were originally hoping to get, but it doesn't require too much work before we move in. The carpets need steam cleaned, the walls need cleaned and painted pretty badly and it needs all new appliances. (There are no appliances in the house right now.) There are also a few other fixer-upper things we'd like to do, but they don't need to be done before we move in. Right now, our closing date is set for late February! We will keep you all posted on the results of the inspection and will post pictures very soon. (I know I said this about pictures we took in California from Rob's camera, but it is high on my to-do list tomorrow!) I am also planning on taking a lot more pictures on Tuesday while we are there again for the inspection. More news to come when I can sit still without intense pain in my legs. Wish you could have all been here to enjoy the beautiful day and hike with us :)

Love, Sarah and Rob

Happy 2010 :)

This has the potential to be the longest blog post EVER. It has been a ridiculously busy (and definitely wonderful) couple of weeks. I headed home right after finals/the Friday before Christmas on the red eye and Rob followed on a red eye flight that landed in Cleveland early Christmas Eve morning. We had a busy couple of days, cramming in as much as we possibly could, but enjoyed every minute of it and loved the chance to catch up with so many of our friends and family and even share in a bit of cold weather and snow :) We had lunch at the Original Pancake House, went to both of our families church services Christmas Eve, spent time at Rob's Grandparents and Aunt Sue's house, played board games and laughed forever with my family, saw his sister's apartment and met up with friends at B-Dubs. And, realistically, that doesn't even cover half of it! On the Sunday before we left, Rob's parents came over for brunch and we pulled out our wedding cake! It was a lil past our one year anniversary, but we had froze it at my parents' house and planned on eating it at Christmas. It preserved fairly well and as I expected, Rob smushed it all over my face like I did to him at the wedding!

Wedding cake eating above and friends at B-Dubs below :)

We came back to Phoenix the Sunday after Christmas, but just for a few days. I had enough time to unpack, attempt some after Christmas shopping (I really wanted a tree on super sale, but the only ones left were ugly) and bake cupcakes! Cupcakes are my new thing for 2010, I've decided. Rob bought me a book about decorating cupcakes for Christmas and his parents bought me a book of cupcake recipes. I decided to try both out and baked Ohio State/New Years cupcakes to celebrate the Rose Bowl. I made chocolate chip cupcakes and homemade vanilla frosting...but the real accomplishment was that my decorating looked like what I intended it to! I made buckeyes out of caramels and tootsie rolls and block o's out of red m&m's. We brought them out to California, where we spent New Year's with Brian, Dad, Adam and Dad's friend, Jeff. Adam, who is my ultimate validator, gave them the taste approval. I was pleased :)

(Pictures of the set-up/work area and final product!)

Now...on to this New Years/California business. Dad and Adam bought tickets to the Rose Bowl and were planning on heading out to stay with Brian (in Carlsbad/San Diego) for a few days. As it turned out, Rob was able to get access to the Cutter plane for the weekend and we decided to join the celebration. It was so awesome to be able to fly over to visit family on what kind of felt like our own lil private plane. We headed out on New Year's Eve after Rob finished up at Quantum (one of his students had a checkride...and passed!) and arrived in California about 6:30. We went out to dinner, marveled at how the west coast doesn't "really" celebrate new years (they just show the tape delay of the ball dropping in New York) and ran around the pool at midnight with a dollar in our hand for good luck, as is the tradition passed down by Jeff. Typically, you run around the house, but Brian's townhouse, didn't really provide a clear cut path, so we went with the pool right next to it instead. We were all in bed by about 12:10. Party animals :) Everyone but Rob and me woke up early New Year's Day to make the trip to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. We slept in and watched the parade on TV (but still want to go to the parade someday!) and had a low-key day. We met Logan (who moved from Phoenix to Carlsbad almost a year ago now) for breakfast at Panera, went for a run on the beach (my favorite!) and just sat around and watched football. Such a good start to the year :)

On Saturday, we woke up early and went flying/exploring with Logan. First we went to Catalina, an island off the coast of California that you can only get to by boat or plane. It was gorgeous! Rob had read about a trail that went around the airport on the island and was an easy walk. I'm not sure we were on the right trail or maybe we were but we turned the wrong way on it, and also, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to wear flip-flops. Long story short, not an easy or enjoyable walk. I got a cactus pricker in my toe. Argggghhhhh. Here are some pretty pictures of Catalina though :)

Boats and houses and a lil piece of a community on the island.

More of the island, taken from the sky.

Pretty flowers and mountains, taken near the airport after we landed.

After Catalina, we headed to Santa Barbara. We parked our plane at an FBO there and they had a crew car that we were able to use! It was almost a Mustang convertible (which would have been super cool), but the last person who borrowed it scraped the back up a bit, and the manager needed to look at it before it could be lent out again. Sad. We ended up in some new Nissan (nice, but less exciting) and drove down State Street, where there are a lot of expensive shops and restaurants, and ended at the fisherman's wharf. We had lunch on the top deck of a restaurant on the wharf, overlooking the ocean. It was beautiful. My apologies in advance to everyone on the cold east side of the country, but 75 degrees and sunny, without a cloud in the sky, was the perfect day.

Here is a picture of Santa Barbara as we were heading into the airport, which was just off the coast. When we left, we took off over the ocean!

Rob and I in the plane, getting ready to leave Santa Barbara and head back to Carlsbad.

I took this picture on the way out of Santa Barbara. You can just barely see the wharf jutting off the coast, which is where we ate lunch.

We flew all along the coast on the way back and Logan pointed out lots of famous sounding cities and landmarks like Orange County, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Disney Land (even though we couldn't quite see it from the sky), Hollywood/the Hollywood sign in the mountains, Santa Monica pier and Los Angeles.

This is Santa Monica pier, from the sky.

And this is LA. It went on forever and ever and ever! You can see a little piece of LAX in the bottom left corner, a highway and just a lil of the huge city that sprawls out around it all.

Our trip to California really reminded Rob and me about the benefits of living out here. He was really excited to add new, awesome sounding airports to his logbook (something different than Medina, Akron, etc.), and we both had an unbelievable trip. Honestly, the pictures don't do it justice. We made it back in the mid-afternoon and spent the rest of the day with Dad, Adam and Brian before heading back to Phoenix. Rob logged the entire trip back as night hours, which was great, and I snoozed a lot of it (also great)! We woke up early this morning to look at a few additional houses with Ed and talk through the details of a deadline we want to give Bank of America on giving us an answer. We found a foreclosure that needs a bit of work (but nothing major) and has a lot of  potential that we are going to start pursuing. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will be one big step closer to being homeowners :) We will keep you all posted.

Rob has a ton of pictures on his camera as well that I still need to upload, sort through and post. However, I am thinking that the additional pictures (of Catalina and Santa Barbara) will have to wait until tomorrow/a little later this week. I need to start thinking about getting ready for school tomorrow and getting to bed. I have a feeling 5:15am will come awfully quickly after two weeks of sleeping in! It was a great few weeks, but will be good (I suppose!) to get back on a regular schedule. It was so wonderful to see everyone in Ohio and California and we cannot wait for our next trip back and to own a home and start hosting you all here in Phoenix/Queen Creek :) Check back soon for pictures and have a good first day back to reality after vacation as well! Love always, Sarah and Rob