Yikes

The last few months have been a whirlwind! The Navy offered Glenn a job he couldn't refuse so instead of getting out of the Navy, we are in for at least 5 (more likely 10) more years and we are moving to California. Next week!

We put the house on the market as soon as we found out he got the job (March 1) and we got an offer 10 days later. We listed it by owner which was a whole different ball game, but it saved us a few thousand bucks. Not really that hard, but we were also lucky to live in an area with a lot of military and houses in good neighborhoods sell quick. Oddly though, we didn't sell to a military family. Full price and not a lot of contingencies. We were happy! 

The movers come on Monday so the last few weeks have been sorting, organizing and packing. To top it off, we're I'm having a yard sale tomorrow to get rid of the last few things that we won't be needing.

Glenn left today so that he could drive to California in time for a few exercises and events with his new job.

My mom flies in on Monday in the middle of the chaos to help (thank you!) with the kids and drive to Minnesota with me. We'll be there for a couple weeks and then drive the rest of the way with Glenn when he gets back from the ship. Not even sure where April has gone to this point.

We plan on living on base in Point Mugu. We will be an hour or so north of LA, near Malibu/Santa Barbara. I've heard it is beautiful and I am looking forward to exploring the west coast, but moving, and moving with kids is a ton of work. 

I'm excited, but so sad to leave Norfolk. We have some amazing friends here. Many of whom I hope follow us to Mugu (muh-goo)!

I hope to see our midwest friends & family while we are back in Minnesota for a bit, but I hate goodbyes. Luckily with the Navy, it is "see you later".

Rubber Ducky!

For the opening of the newly remodeled art museum in downtown Norfolk, the Chrysler Center brought in the world famous 4-story rubber duck to downtown. Some people thought it was silly (I only thought the $22 replicas were silly) but a certain one-year old thought it was pretty awesome. There were some tears shed when it was time to leave! We still had to run the rest of the way home though!

Rollerskating Party

 

 When we got to the rollerskating rink, we were behind a few 7 year olds who were attending their friend's birthday party. Gift bag and tissue paper in tow.

We were doing the same. Except Cara is 32. And awesome.

No skates in Lincoln's size.

But they did in Isabel's size!

I don't think I have been rollerskating since I was 12 or so, but you don't forget it! The only thing that could have made it better was if the Skate Dojo served beer. They should work on that. It was a fun Saturday afternoon. I didn't even know that skating rinks still existed!

Wine Fest 2013

Last year I was pregnant at wine fest, but didn't know it yet. This year Gizelle was big and pregnant, she knew it. It wasn't as warm and sunny as last year, but that was probably better since we brought Lincoln too. We just back that stroller right up to the tasting tables. Why not?

Mr. and Mrs. Unibomber joined us. :) Love the Oeschleins!

 Lincoln as a big hit with the ladies. While I was in the restroom, groups of ladies would swarm Glenn, so I'm told. He didn't seem too upset by it.

 It was a fun day enjoying Norfolk and our friends!

Norfolk Bot Gardens

Yesterday was another lovely 70 degree day and Lincoln and I spent as much of the day outside as we could!

We went to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens with a friend and enjoyed a long walk through the azaleas. I can't wait til next spring when Lincoln can enjoy the awesome children's park.

Peanut Fest

Glenn's mom is originally from the next town over so when he was a kid, he came to visit often. An annual stop was the Suffolk Peanut Festival.

We decided to make a visit last weekend to eat some peanuts, tour some Winnebagos and check out the peanut butter carving contest. It was a beautiful day to relax and enjoy all the rednecks. Well, and be one too! If only I wasn't pregnant, we could have gone on the monster truck ride!

Best Friends

My two best friends from high school were in town last weekend! It was so much fun! We relaxed, ate, went shopping and just hung out. We even looked through our old Mayo High School year books. I miss them already! I can't wait to see you in September!

Mom & Dad Visit Norfolk

We've been busy around here! I've got so many things to blog and tell you about. A few little projects, a few big projects and lots of visitors.

Let's back track a bit. For the 4th of July and the weekend after, my parents came to visit. It is there second trip to Virginia, their first being in 2008 when we lived here before. It was there first visit to our new house though. I had to work a few half days while they were here, but Glenn had a 4 1/2 day weekend so he kept them busy entertained!

We spent the actual 4th with our friends, Chris and Gizelle, and her family. We had some some bbq and then headed downtown to watch the fireworks at town point park. There was a breeze by the water so we got a little reprieve from the crazy heatwave we had that weekend. We were having flashback to their trip to Japan last July when it was equally as hot.

We watched a lot of Wimbledon tennis, checked out the zoo (have I mentioned we can hear the elephants from our backyard in the evening and at night? Must be dinner time. The zoo is crazy close to our house.)

We mostly just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. Oh, I suppose I did have one house project on my Daddy-Do list. He and Glenn installed a utility sink in the basement. I can't wait to wash my paint brushes in this guy instead of the kitchen sink!

Thank you for the house-warming present, Mom and Dad! Also, thanks for the plumbing lesson. Glenn is feeling confident to tackle the installation of a double vanity in the master bedroom now! That will be wonderful to have in the future!

It was nice to have them in town for a bit. I can't wait for them to come back in the fall when it won't be so hot and we can see more of the area. Miss you!

We missed you!

Last month was the Norfolk wine festival...always a wonderfully drunken good time. Last time we lived here, I missed it because I was studying for my LEED AP exam for work. Bad planning on my part. I did get to pick up Glenn and then escort him home as he puked out the side of my newish car, but that's a whole other story.

This year's festival was beautiful weather and made all the more fun by the return (to us and Norfolk) of our friends, Chris and Gizelle. We hadn't seen eachother since July 2010 until the beginning of this year.

I love having them so close! We missed you!

Also, side note, doesn't my hubby look gooooood in this pic? Yeah, I thought so too.

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.

The road trip begins...

Our trip to Virginia started this morning!

Stick Furniture

So now what? Many of our friends and family back in the States wonder what in the world we do now since we don't leave Japan for 3 weeks. Oh, did I tell you? Our tickets are booked and confirmed! We leave Japan on October 27th and arrive in MSP at 6:30 pm via Seattle! 

Our house only looked like this for about an hour.

And by this... I mean including the second bedroom that now looks like an episode of "Hoarders". That, a closet of clothes and a couple cabinets in the kitchen are all we have left with us until our Unaccompanied Baggage move (max 800 lbs) on Oct. 25.

The Navy's delivery company came shortly after the movers left to deliver our "stick furniture". It now looks like we live in a hotel, but it will work for 3 weeks. We're tossing all the carpet which is why it still remains in our apartment.

I also started repainting the house back to a whiti-ish color. Soon...it will be like we never lived here at all. At least that's what the Navy is hoping for. We rehung the mini-blinds, removed our curtains and pictures. The last steps are to repaint and then clean, clean, clean!

See you in December!

I've haven't been posting the last couple days because we've been busy sorting, organizing and getting ready for the movers!

90% of our worldly possessions left in 6 wooden crates on Thursday and Friday. Bound for "Virginia". The actual address will be determined once we get there. The scheduled arrival date is 60 days from now. The first week of December. 

Once all the prep work was done...we mostly just sat around and watched them work and played Scrabble our iTouches.

And for those of you who were wondering. The massive table fit in the crate as well and 3 Japanese men were able to carry it down the stairs. It was pretty impressive!

Farewell, things! I'll see you in a couple months.

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!