Thanksgiving at our house....

Sure why not? We just moved in and havent finished unpacking, but I would love too! lol! I think I may be crazy but I am really excited!! Thanksgiving at our new house with our combined families for the first time!!

Sad and Happy!!

We get to move in!!!!!! But that means grandma and pa are gone to OR. :( I will post before pics here soon...they are slightly scary...and I am thinking "what have we gotten ourselves into???"

Living with the FIL

I am so very fortunate that my future in laws ROCK! Since we did not expect my place to sell so quickly we had not set up to close until mid November on our house...to give us time to sell...lol! Anyway, Warren's parents graciously have let us stay with them until we can move into our house, which will still be occupied for about two weeks after we close;? Oh well...it is comfortable and I do not have to cook! It is like a mini vacation...kind of nice:) However, our living space is less than desirable due to trying to piling all of our stuff into their basement where our bedroom is...

Mother of the bride dress

My mom works on the north slope oil fields. She works a four and two schedule. For all who are not familiar with this common slang of oil field schedule...this means she works four weeks on and then has two weeks off. They have schedules like this since you have to fly in and out of the North Slope. So while she was home we went shopping for her dress...she has lost a lot of weight and is looking amazing!!! Here is her dress...I will post pictures of her at our first fitting:)

ahhh selling

OK so I went over all the offers and one was over full price. So I took accepted that one. Well, everything was going great! The inspection had come back and there was NOTHING wrong. My agent said it was the cleanest inspection she had EVER seen. Not one thing mentioned! A day later my buyer backs out?!?! What? He said he wasn't comfortable with the crime rate in the area...uh you probably should have checked that prior to going into contact and paying for an inspection? Idiot!

Luckily the other couple with the full price offer had not found anything and was still very interested! So we let them know our other buyer fell through and gave them the chance to place another offer. They did plus had lower our input of closing cost. woo hoo! Even better! Also I have to have it said that we listed my place way above what we should have because we were expecting to have to bargain the price back and forth...I NEVER EXPECTED ANYONE TO OFFER A FULL PRICE! I bough the place about 10k under the appraised price at that time. I have put about 5k into the place, however considering the comps for the area we are sitting on about 15k of equity. Yet, Warren thought my upgrades made it the best property in the area and insisted we list it above the recommended price by our agent, So we did...So we are very very excited to be getting A LOT of extra $$ out of the condo that can be used for the wedding! YAY! OK back on track, so everything is going great and the appraiser pulled comp from other areas in relatively close proximity due to mine being the nicest he had ever seen in the area:) Now we are due to close on/or before the 30th of this month!! Woo Hoo huge house here we come!!! oh yeah and then we can get back to wedding stuff since all of our stuff is packed right now!

We have three offers!!!!

It has only been four days since the property was officially placed on the market...and tomorrow I get to go over three offers! Two are full price!!!

To sell or not to sell...

So we received a phone call from Warren's parents asking us if we may be interested in purchasing Warren's grandparents home. His grandparents decided they wanted to move prior to this years snow fall (well any major snow fall since we have already had some snow:(...we are in Alaska) After discussing our options and the fact that we had just decided to wait to purchase a home until after the wedding. We decided that the deal we are getting far surpasses any "complications" this could cause with the wedding. A wedding is just one day...a great house can last forever.

The house is in a great neighborhood. Has a large lot for int he city (8200 sq. feet to be exact) and the living sq. footage is far more than we ever expected to get with our first home (2600 sq. foot to be exact) However, it is very outdated. Warrens grandparents have lived there since it was built in 1964 and in my opinion haven't changed much of anything;) OK I may be exaggerating but it is REALLY outdated!

So what do we do with my condo? We had previously discussed renting because the area of town I purchased in a few years ago is finally being more developed and I think it will eventually raise the value of the condo. However, at this time it is not considered the best neighborhood. I purchased as a full time college student only working part time...so my options and budget were very limited, but this condo has worked great for me! So after looking at our finances and also considering we had just begun remolding certain areas of the condo (since we were going to stay at least a year or so) We would have to EXTREMELY speed up the remodel and then rush to sell. I was concerned with the market the way it is that we would not be able to sell and come out ahead. So we met with a agent to discuss our options and to see if we should sell or rent the unit.

The agent assured us that the property would sell but that it may be 30-60 days due to the market. Also during this time we had gone to be pre-approved for the house. Our mortgage consultant said if we sold we would be able to put less down. So with all of the reason to sell we said OK...but with he permanent fund being released this week we wanted to get it on the market now!

So the remolded was rushed to finish...luckily we had just finished the master bedroom and painting the living room, but the bath and spare room needed paint and little fixes from personalization we had done. But with lots of family help we did and got it on the market in less than a week. Above are some photos from the realtor.

I decided crazy.....

I found my TTD dress!! I won it off ebay and got it in less than a week!!! Love it and it is very similar to my actual dress! Yeah!!!

DIY Dress...or am I crazy??

So in my search to find a TTD dress I stumbles onto the following blog:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=245247.0

and followed up with the instruction blog:

http://rowena.typepad.com/rostitchery/infinity-dress.html

So I think I could do it with the help of my friend who has some sewing experience, I have none! When I told Warren last night that I was thinking on making my own dress he laughed and said just spend the $150 on the dress you found. I asked if he thought I could do it and his reply was, "I am sure you would make something that could slightly resemble a dress, but a dress that you would LOVE...NEVER!" and then he chuckled and said, "you make a dress?!? You must have lost your mind."

Here is my dilemma...I have been challenge! He thinks I can't do it and that makes me want to do it even more! Also I think this is an awesome idea and if the long version comes out great then I could make a shorter version in a fun color and have a multitude of dresses and only have to bring two garments on the trip! I think it is a great idea! So I am going to attempted a DIY TTD...Maybe I have lost my mind?!?!

Disclaimer:

I figured since I am now using this like my bio I should place the normal Knottie disclaimer: If I used any of your pictures and/or ideas please le tme know I and I will properly credit you!