We are Officially Homeowners!!

As many of you already have heard, Rob and I signed documents last Tuesday to close on our house. It took a few days for the paperwork to process and it was Friday when the title officially transferred into our/our mortgage company's name :) We spent the better part of Friday evening and yesterday cleaning like crazy and have made significant progress, but still aren't done. The cleaning process is taking a lot longer than I had hoped and anticipated. At this point, we have cleaned the front/family room, master bedroom (except for the bathroom) and laundry room completely. We've also cleaned the guest bathroom except for the bathtub, where we've been dumping all our dirty bucket water. We have been washing down all of the walls and cleaning the windows and blinds. The baseboards and little crevices in the doors have been ridiculously time consuming. I was working on cleaning out the cabinets in the kitchen yesterday evening when I opened a drawer and a cockroach (alive, mind you) was crawling around. I screamed a lil and that was basically the end of cleaning. (It was late at that point anyway.) Rob had hosed out the garage earlier that day and it seemed to bring all the gross lil creatures out of hiding. We sprayed using some indoor/outdoor stuff we bought at WalMart, but I really want to have an official exterminator spray. Unfortunately, it would be useless for them to spray until we were done cleaning...so our goal is to clean at least the bottom of the walls in the remaining rooms and get the carpets steam cleaned a few days before we move in, so that the exterminator can spray before we are there. There's so much to do! I am really looking forward to having everything cleaned, and starting in on the painting and decorating and organizing stages :)

Everyone has been asking for pictures, and to be honest, everything looks like it did in the pictures we've already posted! We haven't made any significant changes, aside from changing the locks and door handles, which I've posted a before and after picture of below.

Honestly, at this point for other pictures, just check out past blog posts. I promise to post pictures of other improvements we are making as they are completed, but I think it will be a bit before this is the case. This week and next we are going to focus on cleaning. Next weekend we will be in DC for Agnew's wedding and the following we will be moving. I have a feeling it will be the first weekend in March (moving weekend) before we post any other pictures, but I will do my best to update in the next few weeks despite the craziness. We hope all is well with everyone and are officially inviting you to visit Arizona and stay in our new house :) Come after we've worked this cockroach issue out though... :)

Just a quick post to let everyone know that all is well (but busy!) here in Arizona. Rob and I are anxiously awaiting closing on our house, and seem to have gotten caught up with all the paperwork we have had to read through and sign (knock on wood!). It is looking right now like we will sign papers next Tuesday and receive the title and keys next Wednesday, but nothing is scheduled quite yet. Either way, we should be busy lil cleaners two weekends from now :) We are gradually acquiring boxes from work, and packing is the other big job that looms on the horizon. Moving is so much work!!

Rob has been very busy at work these past few weeks. His flight hours are much more steady now than they were around the holidays, which is keeping him sane despite the high number of hours he is there. In his little free time, he finished the model he's been working on for quite some time now. (He requested that I upload a picture, but I'm not sure where it is, so that will be to come.) He also was able to take a piece of a rotor blade from a helicopter that was going to be overhauled, and we are planning on putting it in the office of the new house. At first it was a strange thing, but it's starting to grow on me and be pretty cool. I'll probably try to put a picture of it up here too because it's probably a difficult thing to picture in your mind.

I (finally!) finished grading research papers this evening, which was quite the feat. They were pretty rough...a lot of plagiarism and very few parenthetical citations. I am very glad to be done with that project. I also had a few students who transferred into the school join my English classes without speaking a word of English. Due to budget cuts made this year, there is no longer a specific English Language Learner class for them to enter into, so the responsibility falls on me to teach them English. Joy. I also took on an additional tutoring client out in Queen Creek, went crazy for a few weeks with that responsibility added to my plate, and ended up dropping the family after overhearing the "father figure" tell a potential employer that he was a convicted felon. Eeek. I am very glad that I am finished there. In the midst of everything, to keep my sanity, I bought fancy salon shampoo/conditioner and OPI nail polish. (Even though there are lots of Spanish speaking students, I keep thinking about how nice it is that I can paint my toenails and wear sandals in February here in Arizona!) We also picked out all the appliances for our new house....a fridge, stove, dishwasher, washer, dryer and beautiful flat screen tv.

Rob and I have heard that most of you were dumped on with snow this past weekend, and so we hope you are all staying warm and enjoying it! We are headed to DC in a few weekends for Jeff Agnew's wedding, where we will get our small lil share of the cold. (Rob wanted to fly up to Flagstaff next weekend for a Valentine's Day dinner, but I'm more in favor of flying somewhere warm :) I think I've adjusted well to this winter desert climate :) (Summer is still another story sometimes!) Okay, I am off to get ready for the week. Miss and love- Sarah and Rob