PIL Finally Moved In

Yes, they moved in when MIL came home from the hospital after surgery. She was very nice for two days. After that, she was back to her grumpy, psychotic self again. She still drives everyone nuts and eaves dropping on every conversation, and wants to always the center of attention. When she gets tired you better not be around because she will find reasons to throw you out of the house.

Other family member thinks FIL is a lot better looking after moving back in with us. He got his own office to hide every time his wife turned psychotic, and doesn't know reality from imagination.

Well, that's all for now. If you look on the right side back, we are having a very cold weather. Our side of the house is looking better everyday. I do not go crazy with fixing and painting. I only do it when my children lessons permit. Have a great last day of November. I can't wait for warmer temperature and longer sunshine.

Yes, I'm Still Alive :D

I am now live from CHESTNUT RIDGE FARMS. We moved here on October 27, 2013. Today is the very first day I am able to rest and blog about our new place. We call this the in-law suite. Most of the furnitures are our extra or we don't use anymore.

PIL new bedroom set-up...

We knocked-down a wall between two 8x15 bedrooms, now it is 16x15. SIL & her DH painted it yellow with white ceiling and green trim, with blue curtains.

FIL new office (8x15) separate from their bedroom. I was going to paint it light peach but BIL said it will blend in with the white moldings and ceilings. However, I was planning on changing the molding color to light yellow or orange. Oh well, he got it done, and that's all matter.

This their living room. I painted and picked the colors to have a very happy color. It used to be light green & brown. I am happy with the outcome. Very cheerful colors. My SIL (DHs' sis) picked the curtain color. DH made a comment, "my wife picked the very cheerful color and you got that color curtain!" with a smile. True though, she should have picked something with flowers or something. But she helped and that is what we are looking for, "help." We need to look for free coffee & end tables @ craigslist and buy a few cheery paintings to complete the setting.

I'm not going to show the dining/kitchen area yet, because we are still using it. Our big kitchen is not finish yet and our groceries are still inside many shopping bags on the floor. However, I will post a pic of the beginning work in the big kitchen.

Plumber/Electrician Update

Well, he said yesterday that he will be done at the end of the week. Not really sure if he was talking about only the kitchen or the whole house. I guess I need to wait and see.

However, here are the photos update.

Most of the above mess are gone. Floor padding are in place.

Back door and back wall all clean too.

Our new back door with glass, DH bought the door with glass because that is what I wanted to be able to see through the deck and see the woods at the back yard. Our carpenter will put a hole on the door for  a cat door.

The only thing left in the above picture is the plumbing plastic pipe. Our plumber/electrician will move it close to the corner as possible, then DH will box it in and insulated. Water pipe will be push up to the studs along with the waste plastic pipes.

That's all for now, more packing because we only have twenty days left in our house now. The title will be transfer on October 28 to the new owner (our neighbor children). We are so glad that we don't even have to put our house in the market. Our neighbor knew about our move and they decided to buy it instead.

Kitchen at the New House

One side of the kitchen. The door closed by drywall will be going to the pantry.

The other end. One door going to laundry room and the other to a half bath.

The hole on top was used for stove ventilation. I don't think we will use it, because the vent that will fit there is commercial grade, huge, and expensive. The door goes to the back deck. I can't believe they painted the door the same color as the wall. Sometimes when I turn around fast, I can't tell where the door is. Anyway, we will replace it with better looking one with glass to utilize the natural light coming from outside.

This is a bathroom, yes, it's in the kitchen. We will move it to the second picture and make it a half bath only because the house already have four other full bathrooms.

2nd ODS sizing it up. This door goes to the living room. We will remove the top half of the wall infront of him and we will make the doorway into passageway and wider to make living room & kitchen blend.

The kitchen cabinets, sink, and sink faucet is being order this week. They said it will take about ten days to arrived. So hopefully drywall will be up, tile floor replaced, and electricity in place before they get deliver. Crossing my fingers.

Slowly & Hopefully Surely

Today the plumbing/electrician is suppose to get back to us to when he will be able to do the plumbing and electricity at the house. This week is going to 4th week and this is the reason why the progress is very slow.

The kitchen maker is already schedule, he cannot proceed because of the plumbing and electricity. Ugh, this is turning into a headache. However, the good side is, he is friends with the plumbing/electrician. If this man doesn't call us today, he will need to call him instead to get his butt to the house.

We will see today.

Eta:

Yes, he finally showed up, now the question is...when will he start? Hopefully very soon, or today September 18, 2013. Crossing my fingers.

The Difference

Between somewhat clean and dirty. I said somewhat clean because after a few days of cleaning the top picture, the spiders came back and made some new webs. Yes, these windows are in the second floor and the ceiling is the overhang supported by columns.

This side I haven't finished because my legs cannot handle being so high up in the ladder with nothing to hold on to. Or maybe it was my brain telling me to be scared.

Half of the first floor flooring was mopped. Hard wood floor wasn't very dirty (but need refinishing), but the tiles are. I only change the water twice and the second time was still dirty. No running water to any pipes, and it is very hard to climb up & down 17 steps to basement, turn on the breaker for the water pump and carry the water up to the first floor and climb that same 17 steps and do it all over until the floor is clean. Nope, I didn't do that. I was tired the second time and stopped.

Mushrooms @ the New Property

Don't ask me if they are edible because I don't have any idea. They are located under the trees in our front yard. The trees have thick canopy and I wish I can start cutting them down and re-place with fruit trees. Of course I will leave the maple trees for maple syrup. Lots of huge oaks and pines. I wish we have a saw mill to keep the planks.

Yes, this one is also a mushroom. Almost looks like dry leaf.

Light in color.

Brownish red in color.

Smaller version of the second pic.

These are orange in color.

My children called this umbrella just like the first pic.

This one looks just like the one they sell at a local grocery store.

We are still waiting for the plumber/electrician to call us back for repairs. We can't really do much until he connect the water/plumbing pipes and electricity.

Got the Property Yesterday

Just a quick update here. We close on our bigger property/house yesterday. Whoa! A lot of things needs to get done, 16 minutes away from our house now and need to get the electricity fixed to one meter, I think because the power company is charging me $12 for each 6 meters that is connected to the house. It used to be 5 apartment. The owner pay the 6th meter, however we need to turn on all of it or the electrician need to switch all of it into one...whew, that is gonna be a lot of work. Have to go, I have a lot in my plate right.

Update on the New Property/House

8-2-2013

I don't know if the first floor layout will come out below. This what the first floor will look like after the repairs. We are removing three bedrooms (One big bedroom for my in-laws) in this floor and opening the wall in the main kitchen. (layout working, grab it with a mouse to more around)

We only have 16 days (not counting today) until closing. I was inform by the broker that they cannot allow us to go inside without her. So, measuring and cleaning before the closing date is not possible. This will cut into my children learning start date of the end of August.

Update From my Garden

Our corn finally flowered and one has fruit, even the short ones have flowers. I think they are the ones that been place in the wettest part of the garden.

They are Indian corn. I think this one will be purple, because the flowers are purple. I will be happy if I can get one cob for next year seeds.

I found this swallowtail caterpillar eating my parsley. I should have brought it inside the house for our science project but I killed it. I will look for smaller ones to bring in. Hopefully I can find another.

Yes! They Accepted Our Offer

My husband and I are in the process of moving into our second house. I can't believe they let us wait that long before taking our offer, whew! However, we are glad they didn't haggle about our offer.

We gave them an offer of cash, with no contingency.  Take the cash and give us the property (in the short way). Our schedule closing is on August 19, 2013. We are hoping our lawyer can make it earlier than that, so that we can start repairing, cleaning and painting the house and make it livable.

Then the real fun begins. We have to fix my inlaws house then put it in the market. Moreover, get our house fix and put it in the market. DH and I love our area and town, but we are now a family of nine, and we do not fit in our four bedroom house. We don't want to move in with his parents because their house is full of junk, MIL is very territorial, plus their property taxes is way too expensive for DH and I. If they both kick the bucket, DH and I cannot afford to live there.

So, yea we got the bigger house and property. More updates will be posted here. Utilizing Our Yard will be moving to a bigger "yard" soon. :D

So Far in my Vegetable Garden

7-18-13

 Green bell peppers, the green leaves are gone. Got eaten by deers.

Tomatoes

Snap peas, eaten by deers too.

Eggplant (deers don't like)

More eggplants

More tomatoes

Update on the Property

Yup, they waited at the last minute to tell me that the owner was still reviewing the sale agreement. Then at the end of July 17, 2013, no answer whether it is yes or no. Today, I got another e-mail from the broker asking for another deadline extension.

She said, they will sign the sale agreement but they need to asked the higher-up before doing so, and I guess that takes another five days?

Here is what I think. I think they have another buyer offering them more than we did, but for some odd reason they cannot get any answer about financing until July 21, 2013. Then they will know if they can get a pre-qualify for a loan, then the broker will get back to and say yes (if the other buyer cannot get financing) or no (if they are qualify), they are using us as safety net just in case.

I hate them.

The Whole Vegetable Garden

I can't wait to get a bigger one. Only three days left to give us an answer to the property below. If they say yes, I will have an acre and a half garden next season. Woohoo!

Pears

7-13-13

They are getting big, even if there are worms living in some of my fruit trees they are thriving. I cut a branch off my Elderberry not too long ago and burned those web worm with DH blow torch. I can't get the ones on apple trees because they are too tall for me.

Putting an Offer for this Property

Utilizing Our Yard might be moving to this property. The one with a mark on it. It is five acres property. When standing at the road, the left side is cleared for a farm, tall grass there right now. I think it is one acre. The front of the house got a lot of trees (not fruit trees), which I think we will replace with fruit trees later on. The driveway is a shape of a lower case "n." The house have a huge fireplace that haven't use in a long time. It was boarded up, but can easily open and fix. The only thing missing is a garage. However, this is three floor building, so there is plenty of space inside.

DH and I are going to the seller's office again to redo the paper works. I'm hoping I can get an appointment for Monday. It's not possible for DH to do it tomorrow because they are behind on their work schedule already.

The building has been empty since 2011. Septic people mentioned that the septic doesn't do well empty. If fixing it will cost a lot of money, we are backing out from this. And more likely staying here where we are now.

By the way, this property is only ten minutes from us. So, I am crossing my fingers. We want bigger house and property that we can afford, and this is it. I will be putting a lot of pictures as soon as our offer get accepted, and the progress of fixing this getting it ready to move into. And fixing our house now to get it in the market. There will be a lot of work.

Whew!

7/2/13

I am falling behind my fruit trees and garden photos. Too much rain is keeping me inside the house. Hopefully I'm able to snap some shots tomorrow before it rain again. You can see the radar map on the right side with scattered thunder storm in my area.

Plums

6/26/13

Hopefully a few of these plums make it. 

Excuse the bug (top left), it's dead now.

Blueberries

6/25/13

They are the early summer blueberries.

Our Elderberry is in Bloom

6/24/13
Our one and only Elderberry have flowers this year.

Vegetables Update

6/20/13
Here are my Indian corns, they are over a foot tall. You can see in between them are my squash.

These are the potatoes. I read somewhere that if you buried/covered the stems with more soil, they are likely to grow more potatoes. I didn't had a chance to do so, because they were already tall when I read the fact.

Here is one of the eggplant. I should have said, "here is one of the eggplant ans what is left of it."Not so bad from last year. As you can see, a flower coming out and three leaves have so much holes from being eaten by flea bugs.

Peaches

6/18/2013
This one is from our oldest peach. I got it from the mail a few years after moving in this house. However DH ran it over a few time with a lawn mower and still grew. It used to be a nectarine, well I bought a nectarine but turned out it is a peach tree.

The other two (smaller once) we bought on the spring of 2011 have some fruits too. I can easily reach them. The fruits already have some marks that something is living in them. So, I picked and throw them under the trees at the end of our property.

I tried adding the pictures I took from them, but somehow blogger kept on flipping it the wrong way. I was able to post a tall pictures with my last post and today I am not allowed. Something screwy. Hoping not much comes down from these bunch.

At my Front Garden

Sage

Chives

Basils

Lavender

Parsley

Peppermint

Strawberry

I have multiple kind of strawberries. A few bunches of chives and parsley. I bought all of these because all of what I started inside the house did not made it. I will not be using any of these, this year but I am looking forward to harvesting some seeds for next year.