House: Finale!

The long-awaited (for some) post about all things HOUSE! (Beware: excessive length.) Last Thursday was closing day, and we couldn't have been more excited. We met at the title company that afternoon, with their representative, our loan officer Brother Sly, and our real estate agent Cole. (Now that I think about it, we should have gotten a picture of everyone. Alas.) The paperwork wasn't quite as bad as I had been told to expect, though it was certainly extensive, and often redundant. Still, our companions made it a good time, and it was sure a happy moment when we were done!

Friday morning we finished packing up our kitchen, and went to the RC Willey Outlet to buy our fridge, which we had scoped out earlier in the week. Then we waited eagerly for our keys. We got word from Brother Sly that our loan was in the clear, and soon thereafter, heard from Cole that we could get into the house. We buzzed right on over, and officially took possession of our house.What a happy day!

That evening we took over a few boxes, mostly books and kitchen things. Moving Day was officially set for Saturday. But of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend the first night in our house! So we borrowed my parents van to haul over our mattress, and, as Shaylee would say, we slept at the house in all its empty glory. :)

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to prepare for the move. We were fortunate to have many excellent helpers. We had Cole and Michael, friends, for the first hour (more on that in a moment), our home teacher Mike, James's brothers Daniel and Patrick, and his wife Shaylee, and my awesome parents. We are SO grateful to each of them!

My dad came over at 9am to help James remove a railing from our back deck. Our house is a split entry, which makes moving in large items difficult. So we had determined to take our larger items in through the back--either the back door into our basement, or up the stairs onto our deck and in through the patio door. We also decided to remove the aforementioned railing to facilitate the larger items--especially the piano. 

A few months ago, my mother informed me that at whatever point James and I bought a house and settled down for an extended period of time, we could have "my" piano--their upright grand, which my mother had apparently always considered to be mine. (I am the only member of my immediate family who plays.) Though initially reluctant to deprive my parents of their piano, James and I ultimately could not resist, and took them up on their kind and generous offering.

The first hour of our move was therefore consumed with moving the piano and a few other items from my parents house. For this purpose, I had enlisted some extra aid (aka Cole and Michael, who could only be there for that first hour). James and I rented a moving truck from Timp Rentals, which was a great decision. (Loading ramp for the win!) Upon arriving at the house, we got the other things inside, and then the guys tackled the piano.

It actually wasn't as hard as James and I had feared, though still plenty difficult. We are just grateful we had all the help that we did! Having all these buff guys to lift and maneuver made the process much easier than it could have been. It was a happy moment to get the piano into place.

After that, we went to our apartment to load up our (immense amount of) stuff, then back to the house to unload, which was easier by far. I hate packing, but rather enjoy unpacking. We fed everybody pizza in thanks for their help. After everything was unloaded, everyone but my parents departed with our thanks, while we stayed to unpack, organize, clean, etc, starting with picking up and installing our new refrigerator!

This was one of only a few major purchases we had to make for our new home. I have been lucky enough to collect a lot of furniture and things over the years of my apartment living, without ever having purchased much. For example, our couch and our dryer (I think? or was it the washer?) I inherited from an apartment I lived in over in Lindon. The washer (or dryer?) was a hand-me-down from my cousin Hollie, as was our little entertainment center and rocking chair. The kitchen table was from my parents, although the kitchen chairs were inherited from an old roommate who got married and didn't need them anymore. Our bed was a wedding gift from my parents. We have been very lucky! Besides the fridge, our "major" purchases have included a second couch for downstairs (purchased inexpensively off KSL.com), a new kitchen sink, and a new headboard for our bed. We do still need to purchase a lawn mower. And that will be about it!

Honorable mention goes to my parents, who stayed all day long to help us get settled into the house. (Although they claim it was partially to avoid a bachelor party my brother was hosting at their house. They have been an incredible aid to us throughout the move.

Sunday was low key, but on Monday was when we got our new headboard. The headboard that we'd been using actually belongs to my old bed, which we stored at my parents' house when they bought us the new bed for our wedding present. But when we announced we were buying the house, my mother informed me that she would appreciate us taking the bed, so she didn't have to store it anymore. But in order to put together the bed, it required the headboard. So we needed a new headboard. 

We'd been looking for a headboard for a few weeks, but finally found one we liked on Monday morning, via Craigslist. We borrowed my parents van again and drove up to West Valley to get it, only to discover that there was no way in Hades that this thing was going to fit in the van. (It's as tall as I am, with no detachable parts.) So we shoved it in as far as it would go, strapped down the back door, and proceeded cautiously on our way.

We stopped at IKEA on our way home (how I love IKEA!) to pick up a little side table for our family room. I'd been looking on KSL and Craigslist for this as well, but hadn't really seen anything. But when we decided to go up to West Valley for the headboard, James suggested stopping at IKEA. So we looked at their website before we left, and found the perfect little table--for 10 bucks. Can't beat that!

At home that evening we arranged our new headboard to our liking. We'd been looking for something that had shelves/storage space, and this turned out perfectly. We love it!

This week we have kept busy organizing and decorating our house. The last big project came Thursday and Friday, with the advent of our new kitchen sink. 

The original sink was white porcelain, which looked old and outdated, not to mention having several chips in it. The garbage disposal was corroded and leaking, and part of our home inspection had been a recommendation to remove it posthaste. The sprayer was dysfunctional, and the biggest thing was that it was shallow (only 6.5" deep). I convinced James that we needed a new sink.

Thursday night, James and I (mostly James) ripped out the old sink. I was actually pretty impressed with him. Granted, the internet makes home jobs like this a lot easier than they used to be. Without mishap, James removed the garbage disposal, disengaged all the plumbing, and together we removed the sink. Not gonna lie, I found my husband to be pretty legit.

Friday was the big finish--we spent the morning hanging the rest of our decor, setting up the guest bedroom, and later in the afternoon, my father came over to help with the installation of the new sink. 

The new sink is fantastic. We bought the faucet at Costco, and everything else at Home Depot. It is such an improvement over the old sink.

And with that, we were moved in! HUZZAH!!!!!

Now, I suppose, we shall have the part you all were waiting for: the tour of the house! I thought I'd do this in a video, since that will give you a better impression of what our house is actually like. :)

Nationals Recap

Last week James and I went to Chicago for the USA Taekwondo National Championships. The two of us left Monday afternoon and drove straight through--a trip which ended up lasting about 26 hours, due to the awesome traffic in downtown Chicago. Of course, upon arriving we had time for a quick shower before jumping right back into the car to get me to a referee meeting that night at McCormick Place. Needless to say, we were pretty sick of being in the car by the time we finally got to bed that night!

Thursday, July 3rd was the first day of competition. Of our team of 8 (not counting coaches and parents), only Lexi competed that day, in board breaking. I spent the day refereeing, one of my most favorite pursuits. Although I did not get to spend much time in the center, I still learned a lot and met some great people.

On the Fourth of July, I got to be solely an athlete. We had a couple of competitors that day - Cade competed in board breaking and weapons, and Lexi in sparring. We had planned to go out to the Navy Pier that night for fireworks, but never had the chance. The Demonstration Team competition was that night, and despite a 5pm call time, we did not end up competing until about 10:30pm. We watched the tiny bit of fireworks we could see out the window of McCormick Place before setting up for our demo.

Demo Team was, in a word, disappointing. Don't get me wrong, we had a great performance, one of our best. Our energy was great, and though we had a few flubs, we felt great about what we accomplished. But we took last place. Fifth out of five.

We still don't know why. Watching the other teams, it frankly doesn't make sense. We should have placed, at least. We had strong technique, great energy, good team unity. The only thing we can figure is that perhaps we got docked for something. We learned later that we weren't supposed to use a chair in our demonstration--even though I had asked one of the Vice Chairs this question specifically earlier that day, and he said we were fine. It's possible we were deducted for it. We don't know for sure. Maybe the judges just really didn't like our demo. Who knows. It was a huge disappointment for all of us. Still, we feel proud of our performance. We all worked very hard to achieve what we did, and if I do say so myself, we looked great out there.

Friday and Saturday I was back as a referee. I have to say, it was a lot harder this year, with my team there. In the past, I have gone alone, and have been able to focus entirely upon refereeing. But this year, I kept checking my phone, to see who was fighting or how somebody scored. My five-minute breaks were usually spent dashing over to wherever my team was, to spend those few minutes with my husband and the group. The hardest part was when they all went out without me--to the aquarium, to the Navy Pier. Alas. But I enjoyed refereeing, as I always do, and it was still more enjoyable to have my team to go home to in the evenings.

All in all, our little team of 8 took home 3 medals: Brennon, my student, won the bronze medal in a large sparring division of 28 red belts, which made me very proud. Renee, one of our adult students, took home a bronze in board breaking (it was super fun to watch her with her baby bump--Renee is due in October!). And our friend Kristen won the silver medal in her weapons division, which was very exciting.

And after a loooong drive back to Utah (only 24 hours, but it seemed like much longer!), it feels so good to be home.

Saying farewell to our apartment

We close on our house in 10 days. We are immensely excited! However, I wanted to take some pictures of our apartment before we started packing, so we would have some memories to share of the place. It's a bit of a mess right now, seeing as how we got home this morning from Chicago, but it's still home.

Living room

Entryway - you can see the boxes ready to be packed!

Kitchen

Kitchen

Bathroom & laundry

Office (Husband makes a great addition)

Office - my mess of a desk

Bedroom

This was the first Holley House, and will always be remembered with fondness. We have spent the first six months of our marriage here, and what an important time in our life! We have had good times and bad times in this apartment. It has been truly a lovely place to live, perfect for this first period in our marriage.

That said--time to start packing!!

The House: Part 2

Before all this started, I knew that there was a lot that went into buying a house. But I don't think I ever really realized how much it really involves.

Today we had our home inspection. It was fun to get back into the house. The weird part about being under contract is that it feels like our house, but we don't get to go in and feel the place, if you know what I mean. So it was nice today to walk through our house, even if it was with the inspectors. To our relief, there were no major issues found in our home. A few minor things--some missing rain gutters and loose siding probably being the worst of it.

The biggest thing has been all the paperwork. It's hard to believe all the things our loan processor asks us for. Bank statements, tax returns, W-2's, pay stubs, home insurance, college transcripts, our marriage certificate and a letter explaining my maiden name, a letter explaining exactly what James has been doing for the past five years (apparently missionary service does not count as work experience), and more. It's a little overwhelming at times!

There's also the matter of acquiring the things we will be in need of, once we move in. We do have most things, but moving from an apartment into a house does necessitate a few purchases. We will be buying a refrigerator, so we've been researching our options. We'll need a lawn mower. (A yard! So excited to have a yard!) On Monday we bought a couch. We found it on KSL, and we're very pleased; it's leather, reddish-brown, and has only a few minor stains, no tears or anything. It's awesome. And my parents are awesome for letting us stuff it in their garage for the next few weeks.

We cannot wait to get into our home. That's what it already feels like: home. Of course, we have much to keep us occupied over the next few weeks (NATIONALS!!!) but still, July 18th cannot come fast enough for us!

The Utah Summer Games

This past weekend, James and I competed at the Utah Summer Games, in Cedar City. As a side note, one could potentially argue that mine and James' romance began at the Summer Games a year ago. With and without that, it remains one of my top favorite tournaments, a highlight of my summer each year.

We drove down to Cedar City early on Friday morning, joined in our car by the fabulous Ruth Bartholomew, who regaled us with tales of hilarity and woe (but even those were hilarious--that's Ruth!) Our group was a little more scattered this year than it usually is--normally the whole team goes down early on Friday to go hiking before the evening events. But only a few of us went down early this year, so we nixed the hike in favor of extra swimming and play. At 5pm, we went over to the tournament venue to get set up, attend the referee seminar for black belts, and practice with the demonstration team. Then, we all went out to dinner, went swimming at the hotel, and played a few rounds of Werewolf before heading to bed. Well, some of us went to bed. I'm told the young girls on our team stayed up half the night giggling.

Saturday morning we had a walk-through of our demo at 8am, followed by a meeting at 8:30am for all the black belts in attendance. The tournament started at 9am, with the bow-in, national anthem, and announcements. The Demonstration Team competition was the first event, so we got booted out into the hall--Miss Whitnee, our coach, does not allow us to watch other teams perform, firm in her belief that we'll wig ourselves out. So we stayed out in the hall, warming up, meditating, and working away nerves.

Our performance was good, though there were several issues, the most significant being the failure of the sound system--our music cut out a couple of times, sometimes continuing to play, sometimes stopping, both of which threw us off. Lame sauce. Nonetheless, we were proud of our performance, which you can watch here:



The teams were called up for the presentations of medals, and we were in some suspense, particularly because we hadn't been allowed to watch the other teams, and so we had no way to know how we compared. The third place team was announced, and we waited with baited breath until second was announced, and we knew we had won. Hip hip hooray!
After Demonstration Teams came the Poomsae (forms) competition. They started with black belts, and mine was the very first division. I was in a group of five, one of whom was my teammate and student Kristen. I performed Shipjin, and though it was not my best, it was still strong, and I was delighted to receive the gold medal for my division.

James' division was up shortly thereafter, and he too was in a group of five. He performed Keumgang, and did an excellent job. As it turned out, he tied for 2nd, and so he got to perform again, side-by-side with the guy he tied with. He did a great job, and received the unanimous vote from all five judges. James definitely earned his silver medal!!

After Poomsae, I became a referee for the rest of the day. James spent most of the afternoon corner judging; he also got to be a center referee for the first time. (He says he was petrified; I watched most of the match, and he did just fine.) James also competed in weapons, but started his performance with his routine from the demo team, rather than his solo form, and it really messed him up. He was not surprised, but also not upset, when he did not place, and is determined to win in his division at Nationals in two weeks.

We had a great time at the Utah Summer Games. James and I both love to compete, and we especially love being on the demo team together. One of the best parts of our relationship is our mutual love for Taekwondo; it means we always have a lot to talk about and we get to spend a lot of time together that we wouldn't otherwise have. Life is great!

The House: Part 1

So, remember how I said we weren't in a big rush to find a house? Hah!

We started working with our real estate agent, Cole, about a week ago. He started sending us listings right away, so we could pick houses we wanted to take a look at. We found a few that seemed viable, and had Cole set up appointments to tour. This conversation went back-and-forth over several days, and included one of the houses being contracted before we even got to see it.

On Tuesday, I was looking at houses on Zillow. (Really useful site, by the way.) Now, James and I had discussed our price range for our house, and settled on how much we wanted to spend, and how much was our absolute maximum. So, I was looking for house in our range, when I stumbled across a house that I really liked the look of. It met all of our house-hunting criteria (see below), and I loved all the pictures. But it was outside of the want-to-spend range (though still below the absolute-max) so I did nothing with it that day.

Cole had sent us a few more listings, which all seemed okay, but nothing that really said, "Pick me! I'm the one!" On Wednesday, I was on Zillow again looking to see if there was anything new, when again I found this one house. I loved it all over again, and I felt really strongly like we should look at it. So I emailed it to James while he was at school. I acknowledged that it was higher than we had discussed, but told him that I really liked it. He wrote back and said we should definitely take a look. So I sent it to Cole, and he set up an appointment for us the next day.

As we were house-hunting, we had a few hard-and-fast criteria that we were looking for:
-At least 3, no more than 4 bedrooms.
-At least 2 bathrooms.
-Located somewhere between the studio and BYU.
-Price.

In addition, there were a few more ephemeral things we hoped to find:
-A private, fenced yard that was well-cared for, and easy to care for. (James wants to only have to mow the lawn. I think I can care for a few flowers/plants, but any more than that, and I will probably kill them.)
-A separate master bathroom (didn't get this one)
-No wood paneling (that nasty stuff from what, the 70's? I know it's simple enough to remove, but I despite the stuff.)
-No weird colors, inside or outside. (Yellow house? No thank you!)
-Nice neighborhood
-In Orem (we were willing to look at Provo and maybe other places, but I always preferred Orem)
-Not a lot of fixing-up needed. We wanted something ready to live in.

So, Thursday. The other houses that we looked at fell into this last category: lots of fixing-up needed. Actually, one house that we looked at (which was in Provo...) was a pretty nice house, with an updated kitchen and a spacious yard, but I felt overwhelmed by how much work it would need to really be livable. Another house we looked at was in a really cute neighborhood in Orem, but the inside had just been trashed. So sad.

When we arrived at the house I'd found on Zillow, I immediately felt at home. While Cole retrieved the keys, James and I explored the yard--and I fell in love. The property has been well-cared for, and it was the perfect balance: a decent size, with a few trees and flowers, but nothing major that needs to be tended. James told me I wasn't allowed to fall in love until we'd been inside! But that wasn't a problem--we loved the inside too. Though there were a few funny little things, they were little, and easily remedied. The house was clean, spacious, obviously well-cared for, and exactly what we wanted. It was like going check-check-check down our list (except the master bath...alas).

Cole advised us that houses like this were not lasting long on the market, and he expected that it would not last another day. He looked it up, and found that there had already been two other offers. That made me a little anxious, because I felt so strongly, even then, that this was home.

We went to look at another house (blech), and then stopped at my mother's house to use her printer. Cole was hoping to find more properties for us to look at. While he worked on the computer, James and I stepped into the other room to speak privately.

We loved the house. We felt like it was right for us, and if that was the case, we didn't want to miss our opportunity by waiting. So we knelt and prayed, then and there. The confirmation was very clear to us both. We stepped back into the office and announced that we wanted to make an offer on the house.

Cole went through all the paperwork with us (my poor mother, with her computer taken over!) and we submitted our offer that afternoon. Then James and I headed to the studio, and the waiting game began.

Have I ever mentioned how much I despise waiting?

We finally heard back on Friday night--a counter-offer. We had offered the listing price, but asked the seller to pay all the closing costs. Their counter-offer was that they would pay half the closing costs. We agreed, and signed that night.

James and I were absolutely jubilant. We kept looking over at each other, and one of us would say, "House!" and we both would grin. So silly, so excited.

Of course, now the games have truly begun. We have so much paperwork to get done, for our mortgage, getting the appraisals and inspections and everything done. We are set to close on July 18th--we needed that time, with everything we have going on in the next few weeks! This weekend we compete at the Utah Summer Games in Cedar City, next week is testing at the studio, then we're off to Chicago for a week and a half for Nationals, and as soon as we get back, we have Leadership Conference. Crazy busy time--and buying a house on top of it all! But we are incredibly excited, and most importantly, we know that it is the right house and the right time. What a blessing!!!

Our newest adventure

I guess it's official: we're house-hunting!

We've started into the process of getting pre-qualified for a home loan (yikes!) and this weekend took the step of getting in touch with one of our good friends who is a real estate agent. We are soon to start actually looking at houses, which seems like a BIG step to me.

We are not in a huge rush, seeing as how we have our apartment until October. But as I've talked to people about home-buying, the more I keep hearing how long it takes, so I feel good about starting now.

James and I are incredibly excited. I will admit that I am a little nervous, seeing as how it's our first time buying a home, and there's so much that goes into it.

Those of you who have been through this before, what advice do you have to share? What should we know as we embark upon this adventure? Please share!