This morning Lucia led Me and Mari on a walk, directing us into the woods for some exploring.
Exploring the Neighborhood
Tubing in the Creek
There is a fairly large creek behind our house that the kids love to play in. I can’t wait to get some kayaks that we can play around with, but in the meantime we are using a tube that is intended to be used for sledding. I tied a rope to it to prevent it from floating away and the kids had a blast today cooling off and enjoying the water.
Tennis
One thing that we like about our new house is that it is close to a really big sports field, with plenty of room for plenty of activities. There are also some tennis and basketball courts that the kids enjoy. Tonight we got the entire family out for some tennis and had a good time.
Exploring the Woods
Today we got out for a walk through the woods behind our house. Andrew had a fun place he had found that he wanted to share with us. The kids had a fun time playing in the sand and throwing rocks in the creek.
Lucia on the Deck
Lucia Likes Cottage Cheese
Lucia is pretty picky about what she eats, but she is always up for some cottage cheese.
. . . and, yes, that is her camera smile.
Family Bike Ride
Today we got out for our first family bike ride from the new house – something I definitely want to do more often. We can hop on the bike trail just 8 houses down the street which is awesome. Today we headed west, stopping at a couple of playgrounds along the way to have some fun.
Big Changes
The blog has been quiet lately because we have had some very big changes in our life! In December Susan and I decided to sell our house on 33rd St and look for a house with woods in the backyard, water access, and bike trail access. By mid-February our house had sold and we found a house that fit our bill! It even had a finished basement, where Susan could run her program.
A week ago today we closed on both houses. We moved in to the new house last Friday and have been working hard at getting everything unpacked and set up. Our new address is 9555 Lincoln Ave, Clive, IA 50325. The house was built in the 70’s and has been very well taken care of. It backs up to the Greenbelt, with a creek right beyond our property line and bike trail access just 8 houses away.
Over the next few weeks I plan on featuring some posts about the new space and the fun we are having!
The Sectional
We closed on the new house earlier today and our first task was to move the sectional that was left from the basement to the family room. Susan and I successfully moved the two smaller pieces, but were defeated when we tried to move the bigger piece.
Nate came over after Neighborhood Sports and we were determined to get the piece out. We took down the railing, took two doors off of their hinges, and took down the hallway light. After over an hour we were about to give up and were preparing to take the couch back downstairs when all of a sudden a corner of it slipped through the door and we were able to force it out.
Dinner With Lucia
Lucia likes to be in on the action, and that includes dinner when she now refuses to sit in her highchair. She sits in between me and Andrew and is pretty much a nightmare. She is often not hungry at dinner so she spends time picking up random pieces of food, either from someone’s plate or from the serving dishes, and trying to feed me or Andrew. She also just likes to move the food around, so she will take food from one place and put it another. Inevitably she puts a spoonful of something in my water and on the floor.
Tonight we were all cracking up when she was trying to feed Andrew a clementine. All of a sudden she started spitting out a huge bite of breakfast sausage that none of us even knew she had in her mouth. Then she produced her fake/social laugh and got back to the business of trying to feed me and Andrew.
The other thing she likes to do is clear the table. If there is any empty dish she will try to pick it up and give it to one of us to put on the counter.
You might be wondering what she is like at lunch. Pretty much the same, but she sits with Susan and Elliot. 🙂
Selling Our House – Under Contract!
As of this morning, our current house and the house we want to buy are under contract. Here is how it went down. This past Wednesday someone came to look at our house a second time. It was Alexis, a college student at Drake, and her dad. She had 6 more years in the pre-pharmacy program at Drake and rather than renting and losing money for 6 years they decided to buy a house that she could live in with some roommates. We received their offer on Thursday. It was good enough for us to accept,which meant that our house was under contract.
I think it is also worth mentioning that at this point we were already under a contingent contract. Some acquaintances of ours had already made an offer on our house, subject to the sale of their house. When the new offer came in they signed-off pretty quickly, indicating that they were releasing their contract.
So now it was time for us to make a move. We had had our eyes on a house, Clive I, for a while. In fact, seeing this house was what spurred me to put our house on the market. We knew they had a contingent offer on that house. We made an offer right away, hoping that their contingent offer would be released. Our Realtor, Sharon, told us that the people with a contingent offer on that house could perform without actually selling their house, so we were not very optimistic. The house was in a weird circumstance and their Realtor was going to meet with the decider at 10:30 on Friday morning.
At 9:05 on Friday morning, when I was getting settled in at guitar lessons, Sharon called and said that she was at another house she wanted us to come see. At 9:35 I picked up Susan, the kids, and Adrienne, who was in town visiting. We all headed over to the house and immediately loved it. It was right down the street from Clive I and it has a finished basement where Susan could operate her program. It had just gone on the market two days ago. We immediately knew we wanted it and made a good offer. By dinnertime we heard back from the buyers with a small counter offer, which we accepted.
Selling Our House
In Mid-December we decided to sell our house and look for something a little different. We spent the last couple of weeks getting everything ready and tomorrow we sign with a Realtor. We contemplated FSBO, but decided we have enough going on and would like some help this time around. We actually had a showing today to a potential FSBO buyer, but they were not interested, so we are back to the Realtor.