Saving Water

I snagged this free barrel from work before I quit and it's been sitting on the side of the house for a month. We've had some cooler weather and not so busy weekends so the hubster helped me out and hooked it up! 

It took some wandering around Lowes to find the right parts and cost about $50, but after 2 moderate rainfalls it was full. Probably should have done this 2 years ago and at the beginning of planting season. 

It would nice if it was another row of cinder blocks high but we were worried about the 450 lbs tipping when it was full.  I can still fit a watering can under the spout, it's just not super easy. I also got a soaker hose that can reach the herb/veggie garden. That will be the best option I think. 

Should be perfect for next summer!

Summertime

Summertime means a lot of things, unfortunately not summer vacation and a break from school/work, but this summer I am loving having my hubby around. It is the first summer we've spent together (minus a few weeks here and there) since 2008. That seems crazy, but it's true. I'm thankful we get to spend this summer together.

So far, summertime has meant a garden. I've never had much of a green thumb (unlike my mother and father), but my little garden has done pretty well. My tomato plants are literally 10 ft tall. The have surpassed the railing by the door! My first success was a yellow squash. Although, it has been my only squash because the plant got too heavy and broke. Oops. Glenn and I like to say that this year is a learning year. That is definitely true. Basil has been a huge success. I don't know what to do with all the basil. The cilantro, not so much. That went to seed almost immediately. The mint has also been a big success. Lots of mojitos!

Before the unbearable heat rolled in, we had several bonfires. I can't get enough of that smell. I just love having a patio and fire pit now. I missed it so much in Japan.

Garage sale-ing! I love a good garage sale. A few weekends ago, some friends and I hit up several garage sales and thrift stores in the area. I love a good deal. I walked away with a few books ($3.25), a bucket of buttons ($1), a 3-tiered fruit stand ($5), 35' metal tape measure ($1), c-clamp ($1), wire metal basket ($1) and a peg-hook thing for the closet ($3).

I'm sure I could have found several more things, but we ran out of time in the day. Glenn promised me we could go again in a few weeks as long as he got brunch out of the deal. I think I can handle that. :)

Relaxing! It's been nice to have visitors come see us in Virginia and just take it easy the rest of the time.

I think Stella likes having Glenn home too. And sleeping. I love my tiny puppy.

Happy summer! Can you believe it's almost August? I love summer and all the fun things to do, but I'm even more excited for the fall. Bring on the leaves and boots.

A Good Idea

Shortly after Glenn and I moved in, we switched out the old thermostat with a new programmable thermostat. I am SO glad that I thought to take a picture of the wires before I unhooked them because maybe if you hook it up wrong and then have the coldest day of the whole year, you will wake up to a 50 degree house the one night you have overnight guest. Apparently, that little white wire turns on the auxillary heat. I'm just saying, that might happen and then your sad little puppy will look like this. 

I'm hitting a wall...

All of our things showed up yesterday and mostly one piece! The only major casualty so far is a metal sculpture and our queen box spring. Well the box
Spring isn't a casualty but it won't fit up the stair case in to the master bedroom. The double fit so we are sleeping on that for now. The kitchen is almost done. Remember all those Japanese dishes I bought? Wow, I bought a lot.

The living room is coming along minus a mounting bracket for the tv.

This mess is going to stay a mess for a bit.

Unpacking is fun. For a little while.

Early Christmas

So if my earlier post seemed premature, that's because I forgot to mention that TOMORROW is CLOSING day! Also, happy birthday to my big brother, Adam! Woo. I'm off to the bank to get a giant certified check to bring along in the morning.

Our final walk through is this afternoon, but if that all wasn't enough. Our shipments arrive on FRIDAY!

Yes, shipmentS. All THREE shipments will arrive on Friday. I'm really hoping that they don't show up in J style all at 7:45 am. I'm hoping that they stagger throughout the day. We are expecting our 7000 pounds of household goods (HHG) last seen Oct 7; our 800 pounds of unaccompanied baggage last seen Oct 26 and our Storage shipment last seen September 2008!

It's definitely going to be a early Christmas this year. I can't wait!

Bedroom Ideas

Glenn and I have spent a few afternoons over the last couple weeks going to furniture stores. I know! Amazing. Glenn even voluntarily watches HGTV. I guess the home-buying bug has gotten to him now too since it is our own home. Whatever it is, I'm enjoying it!

Since we have approximately 500 more square feet than we've ever had in the past in our new master bedroom, I've been looking for inspiration and ideas. It's difficult to decide where to start! Rugs? Curtains? Bedding? Since I spent a bunch of money on new rugs before we left Japan at a rug auction (in hopes that we would have wood floors, which we do! Phew!) I plan on basing some of the rooms around those. We'll need one more I think for the living room, but that's a whole other post.

I'm thinking a blue/tan/white/brown color scheme of some sort. Here are a few pics I found...

I love the bed in this room an the addition of the aqua blue. Our bathroom has limited storage so I'm thinking about buying this guy off of craigslist and painting it that color, but I've got to get back in the house to measure the space to make sure it fits. China cabinet in the bathroom? Why not. White bedding is not going to work though. We've got a puppy dog that loves to sleep in/on our bed.

 This bedding could work though. Or something similar since it's not available.

 This color scheme is similar to the first. I like the paisley bedding. That would hide Stella hair. I like the mix of texture and pattern too.

A storage bench at the end of the bed would be a good idea. I know IKEA still sells these curtains too. Blue lamps with white shades would be easy to do with a can of spray paint.

From what I remember when I bought the rug during the first week of October. This is similar in color to it. Starburst mirrors are all the rage now too. Perhaps I'll have to DIY for our bedroom.

The New House

We are still waiting to close, but here are a few of the pictures I keep staring at, trying to figure out where all our furniture will go. Hopefully I'll have a few 'in progress' pictures in the next couple weeks. Enjoy!

House Update

Our appraisal came in today and it is higher than what we paid for the house! That means the loan can go through. One more box checked off! We actually called the lender yesterday and asked if we could move the closing date up and they are working on it! We are hoping to get out of this hotel by next week and in to our house. I'm so excited, but don't want to get my hopes up. Even if we can't close next week, the 16th isn't too far away.

The appraisal report was interesting to read with the other comparables in the area. It also included more exact square footage numbers than the MLS. Glenn and I both laughed when we saw that the master bedroom is ~750 square feet. Our entire APARTMENT in Japan was only ~800 square feet. I think we might need to buy a little more furniture!

The report also included a floor plan which a few people were asking about.

Glenn checks in to work on Thursday. He got off the ship in September! I don't know if he remembers what it's like to go to work. I know I don't. Until then we are just relaxing and running a few errands. It's frustrating to just wait and wait knowing that we have loads of things to do once we get in the house. Like unpacking. I can't wait to get the rest of my clothes and things back. Our express packout arrived a few weeks ago and our big HHG/furniture shipment arrived on November 22nd. That is almost 3 weeks ahead of schedule, but since we don't have a house, it is sitting in storage somewhere in Virginia. Hopefully it is in the same place as our storage shipment. We have a couple crates full of things that I haven't seen in 3+ years. Now that will be a Christmas surprise as well!

House Update

We put an offer on House #10! The seller has since countered and we accepted. On Friday we had the house inspection and found several things that need to be fixed including old termite damage. We are waiting for his response in a few days. The house needs some work, but things we are hoping to do ourselves. We're also hoping to "rent" the house before closing so we can accept our shipments and get out of hotels! Still TBD at this point. Here is a picture for now!

Househunting Day 2

A much more successful afternoon! Yay! I am feeling optimistic in fact.

We spent the morning setting up a PO box at the post office so that we can start to receive our own mail. Currently it is being sent to my parents as well as a friend's house in town. I suppose that is this evening's project. We also stopped by a few apartments to see what kind of short term leases are available. We have until Monday before we have to be out of this place and it sounds like USAA is taking about 45 days to close on a house/approve a loan. I was hoping to be "home" by Christmas, but that might not happen. Finding a short term lease is harder than I expected surprisingly. The shortest lease we could find is 2 months, but 3 or 6 months was much more common.

We met Jill after lunch and had 7 houses to look at....

House 5: A cute townhouse in my favorite neighborhood, but overlooking the highway entrance ramp, not so lovely. Decent size and storage. Even a cute little yard. It has potential. Nothing we love or hate. But a very sweet house.

House 6: This was an interesting house. It was actually a co-op style house where the first floor was a different house and we would occupy the 2nd floor. It even had an unfinished walk-up attic on the 3rd floor that was screaming with potential. I had so many ideas for that space, it would have been fun. It was just under 2000 sq ft not including the huge attic. There were 3 bedrooms and a "library"/office. The house was tucked back in to the woods on a beautiful street. My favorite location thus far. In the end though, we decided being upstairs and having to share a yard with our potentially friendly but perhaps very scary neighbors just wasn't ideal. If we didn't have Stella or planned on having children, I would have jumped at this house.

House 7: This house is in the slightly expanded search area that I originally constrained myself too. After driving around a bit and looking at our budget, I realized that I would have to be a little more flexible. This house was just over 2100 sq ft and was ADORABLE. All 3 full baths were recently renovated and the master bedroom had a huge walk in closet, which is very uncommen in these older homes. This home was built in 1919, but the walk in was part of an addition that included a family room, master bath and sitting/office area. It had a cute backyard and a very large garage/shed. Not big enough for a car, but a work bench and tons of storage. Glenn and I both loved this house, but... of course there is a but... the neighborhood is sketchy. We are within walking distance of ODU and many of the houses in the neighborhood look like college student rentals and therefore, not very well kept. Perfect house and lot, not perfect neighborhood.

House 3: We are back at the sick girl house. It's cute, it's a little quirky. It has a whole-house fan which, I guess since we're from MN, I've never heard of. The kitchen was renovated recently, well half of it was. I'm underwhelmed, so is Glenn.

House 8: This house is in our second favorite neighborhood again. (BTW, I say our, but really it is me. Glenn isn't as set on the neighborhood as I am. He is more about the house. Oh well, this is my blog.) I dub this house the Alice in Wonderland house. Every room is super tiny and I feel like a giant. The house is 1700 sq ft, but somehow feels much smaller. We leave pretty quickly.

House 9: We drive just a few blocks down from the previous two. The house looks nice from the outside and it is 2300 sq ft. It smells funny. I'm not impressed, we don't even go upstairs. Even our realtor says she would leave.

House 10: The listing that says "completely renovated and updated" has me intriuged. It is just over 2000 sq ft with 3 BR and 2 baths. The only picture on the website is of the outside. The listing was kidding, it has brand new walls, floors, windows, bathrooms, kitchen. Everything. It smells much better than the last house. The living room, dining room and kitchen are all open. Perfect for entertaining. We walk through everything, it has a basement, but we're close to the water so I'm guessing it gets water, it would only be used for storage. There are 2 bedrooms and a bath on the main floor. The yard is a blank slate, needs some TLC, but is fenced in. Through what looks like a closet door off of the kitchen, we access the stair way in to a HUGE master bedroom. I think it is the size of our entire kitchen, living room and dining room in Japan combined. This neighborhood is much more of what I've been looking for. There are kids playing, there are young families. When we walk back to our car, a lady across the street says this is the "best neighborhood".

So we love House 7. It is charming, it has great space. But I love House 10 AND the neighborhood. That is where I can picture us living with our little future family.

Did we just find a house? :)

Househunting Day 1

Glenn and I signed up for USAA's Movers' Advantage program. I heart free money. They assigned us a realtor and we've been working with her over email for the last couple months. I told her where I wanted to live and we've been getting listings. I took a look at them and mostly just hoped a few would still be available. We weren't about to buy a house without seeing it first.

We got in to town on Friday night and checked in to our hotel room. We're in a Candlewood Suites for the next week for so. It's cozy studio apartment but Stella's slowly getting used to it and not barking at every single noise at night. Slowly. She's worse than a baby right now. We can't leave her back at the hotel alone and we can't take her in to most of the places we're going. She's got a nice little set up in the back of the car now because we have to leave her there from time to time.

We met with our realtor, Jill, on Saturday morning to check out 4 houses. I sent her a list of 7 and only 4 were still available.

House 1: In a great neighborhood. Beautiful old trees, well manicured lawns. Some kids' bikes. All good signs. $100K below our budget in this neighborhood? Awesome. The house is very cute from the outside. Colonial style, driveway space. We'd been warned that this house needed to be "completely redone". Hmm...wallpaper? New kitchen? Floors? We'll take a look anyway.

OMG.

We spent approximately 10 minutes in the house. Every wall is cracked. The kitchen looks like the original from 1919. The bathroom is only half there. There is a baby grand piano in the front room.

"What do you think this room is used for?"
It had a whole in the floor, windows on 3 sides and a sink in the corner. Nothing else.

"Where does this go to?"
I open a door to what appears to be a pantry off of the kitchen, lined with shelves but with 4 ft. ceilings. Glenn dubs it the "murder room". Don't worry, the house had 2 murder rooms.

We're adventurous but lack the $200,000 it would take to even start fixing this house.

House 2: Also in a great neighborhood. It has great curb appeal and it appears to have been updated recently.  I'm optimistic. Anything is better after house 1. We walk in to a recently painted and large living room and dining room with at least 10 ft ceilings. New central heat and air. I'm a little excited. We go through a kitchen with new granite counter tops to the backyard. Here we notice that the back of the house is unpainted. So is the side which is also missing a great deal of the siding. The two parts that don't show from the street. This house is now the "lipstick house". They did a little work to make it look nice, but I'm just too afraid of what they didn't want to fix up and covered up instead. This house is also a shortsale so who knows how long it might take to actually get in to the house. We're here, our Unaccompanied Baggage (express shipment from Japan) is in town, in storage, we want to move in soon.

House 3: Well, we didn't get to see house 3 because the woman who is renting it is sick and won't let us inside. Ok....

House 4: This house is in my favorite neighborhood so far. A very cute, renovated house. I love it from the outside and the pictures I've seen. I'm hoping the 1423 square feet feels bigger than I think it is. It doesn't. I like the house a lot, but I just know that we'll grow out of it too quickly. Also, who renovates 2 bathrooms and puts in 2 showers? We'd have to reduce the already tiny closet in the master bedroom to add a bathtub to bathe dogs/children. We don't have any kids yet, but we're on shore duty now. That's the plan.

So I'm a little bummed. Not that I thought we'd find our dream home on Day 1, but wouldn't that have been awesome? We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around our favorite neighborhoods and checking out a few that I wasn't familiar with. I sent a new list to Jill and we'll get started again on Monday.

In the mean time, we're hunting down and furnished, pet-friendly, short-term-lease-possible apartment. We're hoping we can find a month-to-month rental that doesn't cost us a ton. If it didn't cost us $90/night to stay here (10 days is all the Navy will pay for), I'd just stay here. Free laundry, a gym down the hall? Yes, please. Ok, maybe the 200 square feet might get old.

So much room for activities!

The moving process has begun! The movers come in just over a week and I've been prepping and getting the house ready. When moving from overseas back to the states, we have two separate moves (as opposed to three when moving from the states to Japan). Our first one is about 3 weeks before our departure and then second is just a day or two before.

The first shipment is our Household Goods (HHG) which will include all of our furniture, beds and the majority of everything else. The second is our Unaccompanied Baggage (UB) and is limited to 800 pounds and will include essentials we need for the 3 weeks, most of our clothes, etc. The Navy will loan us "stick furniture" for the 3 weeks so that we can stay in our house. Our things should all arrive during the first week of December. Yes, it takes 2 months for our HHG to arrive in Virginia!

My world is now consumed with blue tape (UB things) and non-blue tape (everything else). In order to help organize these things and separate them for the ease of the movers sake, I am clearing out one room so that it only contains UB things. So the bed had to go to the other room!

"We'll have so much more room for activities!" Anyone? Name that movie?

 The blue tape continues and after the movers come, the painting and cleaning starts!

New Furniture!

Shortly before my BFF Gizelle left Atsugi, I joked that her house was turning in to a furniture show room. Well... my house is getting closer to that as well. Last weekend was the last Camp Zama bazaar that I was able to attend before we PSC (move) out of here. Sad!

I went without Glenn, my friend Kristy and a purse full of yen- a bad, but good combination! I hadn't planned on buying any furniture, but this piece was at a super low price (much lower than most of the furniture that I've bought- this is piece #6 btw). I have no idea where I will use it in our future house, but I liked how versatile it was/could be. It could be used as a pantry or linen "closet" or even a TV center if I take out the drawers in the middle cabinet. See how I convinced myself???

In Japan, it is called a tansu (chest of drawers) and was designed to hold kimonos. The center cabinet has drawers that slide out and are the size that kimono folds in to. The piece is actually 3 separate cabinets so it makes moving and carrying it much easier. For now, it will live in the corner of the living room until we move.

Now, if the moth ball smell would go away... I could actually store things in it. I think 2 months in a crate across the ocean will help that... :/

Dirty Pantries

My mom sent me this picture of her fridge this morning. I must say I'm impressed! My mother suffers from Difficultythrowingthingsawayitis and also Icanrarelyseethebackmyfridge Syndrome.

Not to air her dirty pantries, but when I lived there for a short stint before moving to Japan, I cleaned out and organized her pantry. During that time, I threw away a box of cake mix that expired in 1997. We didn't move in to the Minnesota house until 1998. That means, it not only expired a year before, but then it made the journey from Illinois to Minnesota. It's ok though, she has a problem.

It appears though, she has gotten help! Good work, Mom. It's a good thing that your condition is not hereditary or I would have had a hard time living in my 800 sq ft apartment or moving every couple years! Let the purging and cleaning begin! Well...I'm gonna need to see some orders before I get too crazy... Let the orders arrive soon!

Jewelry organizer

I've been wanting to do this for awhile after seeing similar ideas on many blogs. Actually, I wanted to do something that was framed and would be easier to move, but large corkboards are not something that is easy to find around here. So I used cork board tiles instead.

They are hidden behind my bedroom door so 90% of the time it is out of sight, but when I'm looking for something, it is easy to find! Like my two new headbands that I bought with a Christmas giftcard (Thanks Adam & Laura!).

I wore the one with the yellow flower today with my blue scarf and go lots of compliments! Thanks Sunshine and Carousels!

Sorry for the slow posting this week. I'm still licking my wounds from a nasty comment I got over the weekend (don't bother looking, it's been deleted). I'm contemplating taking my blog private because of it. We'll see. I guess that is what happens when you put yourself out there with a blog, but people have to remember, that it is just my thoughts. I'm not writing a book, I'm not publishing things on paper. I'm just documenting my life and thoughts as they come to me. Just me.

How to Import Something into Japan

1. First I bought the table in Bali on August 6th. We had our address worked out and shipping to Japan worked out (only US$165!) Seemed pretty easy. Pay for fumigation as well.

2. Wait and wait for the table to arrive. Email the company to see if they were actually going to ship the table after several months passed. One month delay to due Ramadan.

3. DHL arrives at my house in November. Is my table here? No, just an envelope of paperwork.

4. Stare at the Bill of Lading for a few days, trying to figure out what it is.

5. Call the 'Delivery Agent' list on the paperwork. Wrong number.

6. Stop by Fleet and Family Service Center on base and have a native Japanese speaker call around and find the correct number.

7. Finally give Shimamura-san my email address and wait for an email with arrival notice information.

8. Figure out what a custom clearance agent is.

9. Decide to let Shimamura-san act as my clearance agent.

10. Make a trip to Tokyo to drop off the Bill of Lading paperwork.

11. Receive the Customs Bill. Yell obscenities a few times. Must pay by Japanese bank account wire transfer. Are they SURE it costs this much to import something that costs this much?

12. Gather a ridiculous amount of cash and make a trip to a Japanese friend's house so she can transfer the cash from her account and I can give her cash.

13. In the mean time, contact a shipping company that speaks English and can deliver to Atsugi base. I contacted a company that was also making a delivery the same day for our annual bazaar. I already had the gate access passes for the bazaar so I knew the process.

14. The day of delivery, Glenn and I contacted 6 friends to meet at our house to help unpack the 4 crates.

15. Destroy 4 crates, pack two in to a van, attempt to get the other two up the stairs. This might take awhile.

16. Let the table hang out in the dining room til we get more friends to help us set it up (after we unwrap and wipe it down).

17. Enjoy my beautiful new table! Finally!

My New Table :)

It took almost 4 months for it to arrive and several phone calls and lost in translation moments, but my beautiful table from Bali arrived on Friday.

Our first meal at the new table was "Thanksgiving" dinner that Glenn and I made last night since he will be gone for the actual holiday. It was perfect.

Thanks to the several friends who helped us unpack, carry and lift the very heavy table. Each leg weighs over 100 pounds and the table top is at least 400. It took 4 grown men to lift it on to the legs! The table top is about 11 cm thick as you can tell from my hand and Stella's head.

I love it! Merry Christmas to me! Thanks, baby!