Goodbye, good ole' Lowell....

We closed on our house in Lowell today. We were so glad to finally get this done. We now can focus all of our attention on Pinnacle Court.

We met the buyers - a very nice couple with their first baby due in November. The moment that I saw she was pregnant, it brought back all the memories of this house. They sounded a lot like us when we were buying this house...they knew they wanted to be in Lowell, and there weren't many choices - the same position we were in. This was our first house, and we put a lot of our time into it. Well, Eric did. Not that I didn't help out, but he deserves all the credit for all the renovations around here - totally remodeled bathroom, ceramic tile, decks, new siding, new roof, and many other things.

This is where we brought Scout to after we got her. She spent 6 months with us in the apartment, and then she got lots more room here. She loved the backyard, especially after Eric put in the huge fence for her. Shortly after we moved in, we got our 2nd dog, Duke. He was such a good puppy, and we were heartbroken that he passed away at 6 months old. This is where we celebrated when all of our nephews and neice were born. And where we got our 3rd dog, good ole' Moose.

This is where we spent two long years wishing to become parents. We were finally blessed with Dane. This is where we got up in the wee hours of the night to change, rock, and feed him. This is where we were shocked to find out that I was pregnant with Abel when Dane was only 6 months old.

And who can forget, December 25, 2006? This is where we left in the early hours of Christmas morning, thinking that we were going to have Abel at the hospital, only to be sent home to "precipitously deliver" (that's what my chart says) our little Christmas present.

And where we lost our dear Scout.

My memories certainly aren't limited to those I mentioned. But, now it's time for us to move on and make memories in our new house. And, for another family to make memories of their own at 1120 E. Main Street. I can only hope for them that they make memories here that are as great as mine. And, I hope that she doesn't get sent home from the hospital with a baby still in her belly. She doesn't know our story of Abel's birth - that's a story that would freak out any first-time mother-to-be.

We close on the Plainwell house on Friday, and have that night and Saturday to move. Our internet will be shut off Friday, and we probably won't have it back up until next week. So, goodbye for now. I'll post more from my new location on Pinnacle Court.

Signatures please.....

Finally, finally, finally!! We are closing on the house in Lowell Wednesday at 4 pm. We were beginning to think that we would never see this day! We are scheduled to close on the Plainwell house Friday at 10am. We get possession at close, and we have Friday night and Saturday to move, the buyers are getting the house on Sunday. All of our appliances are getting delivered on Saturday too. It is going to be a very busy week for us, but we are so excited.

More later!

Happy 3rd Birthday to our Blonde Bomber!

It's hard to believe that our firstborn is already 3 years old! We did not have a party for him, because our house is so crazy right now. We will have one for him once we get into the new house.

For the past few weeks, he's been saying that he wanted a "big yellow Transformer" for his birthday. I have no idea where he got that. He got a little transformer from McDonald's a while back, and he loves playing with that. I sent Eric on the hunt for the yellow one that Dane wanted, and he found it. Dane was very excited when he got it! It's a little complex for him at the moment, so Eric and I end up "transforming" it for him, but I'm sure he'll get it in no time.

He also got a Hot Wheels Big Wheel. I saw in a Target ad that they had the old school Big Wheels, so I sent Eric to get one. I have such good memories of those..tying my brother's Big Wheel to our Powder Puff's and racing around the neighborhood. Anyway, they didn't have any, so Eric got the Hot Wheels version, which is basically the same, except this one has some cool graphic stickers (which Abel will probably try to tear off in the next couple of weeks). Dane probably likes this one better anyway, since he is so into his Hot Wheels cars right now. I didn't get any pictures of him on it yet, but I'm sure I will soon. He now has a brand new driveway to ride it in!He blew out all the candles himself!
Abel was trying to get up or down, I don't remember which. He is such a monkey that he is constantly hanging or climbing on something.
Kevin, Cami, and Bridget came over and we had Mexican food for dinner and then some yummy cake!

Grand Rapids Children's Museum

I have been so busy lately, on the phone constantly trying to get everything in order for the old house and the new, that I feel like the kids haven't gotten very much of my attention. I have been trying to just get out of the house and take them to the park, playground, or whatever we feel like doing.

A few weeks ago, we went to the Grand Rapids Children't Museum. The boys had such a wonderful time just running around and playing with all the toys and exhibits. They had my full attention, and I enjoyed not having to worry about the laundry, dishes, or the many phone calls that need to be made.

Here are some cool pictures I got of the boys.

Kent County Youth Fair

Well, all of my postings lately have been about the trials and tribulations of selling our house, and I haven't put any pictures up of the boys, which was my main reason for blogging.

At the beginning of August, the boys and I went to the Kent County Youth Fair. It's not a big fair, mostly 4-H things, animals, etc. The boys enjoyed it, and I decided we had to go to this "small town" fair once more before we moved.

Dane and Abel loved petting the bunnies, as you can see by their faces!

WHAT???? Not closing????

Well, we are once again delayed. We didn't get our final paperwork from the Health Department signed until Thursday (due to the water situation), so the buyers' lender needs 2-3 days to process the loan after that. We are scheduled to close on this house next Wednesday, and the new house Friday.

SERENITY NOW.

We are in the clear!

We finally got all our results back, and we are in the clear! We will close on this house on Friday, and close on the new house next Friday. We are glad that we are done with everything on this house and can finally move on. It's weird to think that we only have a week and a half left here. We will miss Lowell, but NOT the noisy road. We are looking forward to some peace and quiet.

Well, it didn't start peaceful..

After packing up Friday morning, we headed out to go camping. Fifteen minutes into the trip, we got a call that the second water test from the well place came back positive. Ugh! We turned around and headed home. They came and pulled the pump again, blasted air into the well and through the lines, and rechlorinated. The chlorine had a chance to sit all weekend, as we took off right after they left (after a little meltdown from me).

We had a great time once we were there. It was nice to put this out of our minds for a little while. Another sample was taken this morning, so everyone keep good thoughts in their minds for us!!

A Peaceful Weekend

Well, we think we finally have all our issues with the well behind us. The day after we learned we needed a new furnace, the Health Department called and said that they found bacteria in the water sample they took from our house. He assured Eric that this bacteria wasn't harmful, but needed to be taken care of before the Health Department could pass the inspection of our house. He told us to have our well chlorinated, and then he would retest the water.

The next day, some wonderful guys from Seese Well Drilling (seriously, they have been nothing short of wonderful through this whole thing....the guys from Canfield Heating and Plumbing too....) came out and pulled up our well pump from 100 feet down, cleaned it, and filled the well with chlorine. We couldn't use the water for 8 hours, then we had to run the hose for 2 hours to get all the chlorine out. The water from the faucets was nasty for the next two days...fun. The Health Department came out and tested, and called us back after two days with the wonderful news that it still tested positive for bacteria. Starting to get frustrated, I started asking him questions which he didn't know the answers to, only fueling my fire. He wasn't the most "customer service" oriented individual I ever met (who is these days?...that could be a whole other blog....I have run into many in the past month). As I was giving our realtor an update (I thought that should be the other way around...again, a whole other blog..) I told her my frustration with him, and she immediately went to his defense - "you have to understand that he is the only one in the whole county who takes water samples". Sounds tough. I'm sorry he is so "overwhelmed" with his job, but that doesn't mean he can't answer my questions, or direct me to someone who can. And that only fueled our fire towards our realtor.

Anyway, he suggested re-chlorination, and then another test. The well guys came out again, and this time shed some new light on the situation. He informed me that if this test came back positive, we should have them take the sample to another lab and have it tested. He said that 9 times out of 10 when the sample comes back bad twice - it's because the State has done it. We went through the whole chlorination process again, and waited for our test results. Can you guess? Positive.

The Health Department suggested two options: re-chlorinate, or have the well guys do the test and send it to a different lab. At this point, we were frustrated and confused. If one lab says there is bacteria, and another one doesn't, who is right? How would I feel if I were the buyer? What results would I trust? And why is the Health Department telling us to have a different test - do they think something is wrong with theirs? Hmmm...

Eric talked to the well guys, and it was decided that they would come out and take a sample and send it to another lab. They said if this one came back bad, they could take a sample directly from the well, to determine if that was bad, or it was bad somewhere in the house. Well, our realtor wasn't too happy with that - "why don't they just do that all at once and save us some time?". It was coming down to the wire, so getting this done quickly was important. But, this isn't her money we are talking about. The results take less than 24 hours, so we told her that we were going with the recommendations of the well guys, since they knew more about this. Anyway, the next day the sample came back - negative.

Now, the question we ask is, was our water fine to begin with? Did we need to spend the money to have it chlorinated twice? No one will ever know. Apparently, the Health Department uses a test that turns the water yellow if there is bacteria in it. Some water will turn yellow even if there is no bacteria in it. You would think if that State knows this (why would they tell us to get it tested somewhere else if they didn't?), they would change their test, or at least let the homeowner know that after the first postive test, they may want to spend the $15 to get it tested somewhere else, before spending $150 to have the well chlorinated. That's the lovely government at work.

They came out and took another sample this morning, so we should have that back tomorrow. We were going to close on this house tomorrow, but now it has been pushed back to next week. So, we are going camping with our Jackson friends this weekend. This has been planned for months now, but we were thinking that we wouldn't be able to go because of the closing. But now, we are outta here!!

Hopefully we won't have to deal with any house issues over the weekend. We have been looking forward to this trip, and are very excited that it worked out for us to go.

Yes Susan, this is the curse of the Jorgensen False Positive....

Quick update...

I have not been very good about keeping up with this lately, but I will try to be better, even if my posts are short. We had a tentative closing date on the Lowell house for this Friday, but I don't think the buyers have completed thier loan process, and we have some issues with our well that we have to take care of - so it will probably be pushed back a week or so.

Everything seems to be going well with the new house. They have not put in the driveway yet, and the listing agent made a "typo" when listing the house, saying that there is a garage door opener, and there really isn't. Other than ironing that out, things are progressing there. We hope to close on August 29 or sooner.

Eric and I are SO ready to be done with all of this. It can really wear on us at times, but we have to stop and remember what we are leaving, and what we are getting. In a month, hopefully this will all be behind us, and we will be enjoying the fall on Pinnacle Court.

The furnace is on - and it's August...

We got our new furnace installed today. We did have to turn in on briefly, now at least we can say that we got some use out of it before we are out of here in 4 weeks!

I took Eric to the airport today - he's headed for St. Louis until Thursday. Dane and Abel are with Nana, Poppy, and Maddox until Thursday too. So, it's just Moose, Reesie, and me!! I got a lot accomplished today - getting things packed and ready for the yard sale. I didn't think I would have that much to sell. But, it seems as though since I know we are having a sale, I am getting rid of things that I probably just would have moved with us, and then decided I didn't want.

After I dropped Eric off, I went to Linen's and Things, JCPenney, Burlington, Target, and a few other places I can't remember. I was looking for shower curtains for the new place. I kind of know what colors I want to do, and I didn't find any shower curtains that really won me over. I think I am being too picky, but I really want to like it. Oh well, I can always get some plastic shower curtains for now until I find what I really want. I don't think I'll be buying a lot to decorate with until I get in and decide what I want.

Boy, this moving thing is a chore.

972 Pinnacle Court

Well, we our on our way to getting into the new house! We've had a couple glitches with our house in Lowell, but I think everything is set now. We have a tentative closing date for the house in Lowell August 15, and then we have to be out by September 1. Our closing date for the new house is the end of August, but hopefully we can do it sooner if everything is ready. They still need to put in a driveway, but everything else is ready. We just ordered our appliances yesterday, and they will be delivered when we get in. Boy, can that add up in a hurry!

We learned that we need a new furnace in our current home. We knew that we needed to have someone come out and hook up our new condensation pump, but when they got here, they discovered a crack on the inside of the furnace. The buyers already had their inspection, and apparently their inspector didn't see that (you could see some black soot on one of the pipes coming out of the furnace, which was caused by water dripping into the crack). We are having the furnace replaced on Tuesday, and the buyers are helping us out with the cost, which we appreciate. I told Eric that we may need to run it a few times before we leave just to say that we got some use out of it! Nevermind that it is August.

Hopefully everything goes well from here. We had the inspection of the new house on Friday, and that went very well. We are very excited to move, and it is all becoming much more real to me now that August is here, and we only have 4 more weeks to live here! We are planning on having a yard sale on Saturday, so I am determined to sell as much as we can. We know what we want to take, and what we will have room for. There will probably be plenty of things that we move that we probably won't want once we get there. The boys are going to Jackson for a few days this week, and Eric will be gone to St. Louis Tuesday - Thursday, so I should be able to get a TON of stuff packed and sorted for the yard sale. I hope that the weather is nice for us, and we get plenty of traffic. Lowell is having their fair this week (ends Saturday), so we should get a ton of traffic from that.

We don't have any pictures yet, and the house is not listed anymore so I can't post a link. We will get some soon, and post when we can!!