Beautiful Beautiful Appliances

Here is the inside of my Fisher & Paykel refrigerator. How Heavenly is this? The freezer is also wonderful, but hard to photograph. This was the biggest splurge, and I am so glad I spent the extra $500. 

Below is the first washer and dryer I have lived with since I lived at my parent's house. The first night I slept at the house, I did four loads of laundry. I was a little excited and stayed up VERY late. If it had been a little bit warmer and I could have set up the couch down there, I would have been happy to just watch my laundry being done. GOOD BYE LAUNDROMAT! HELLO LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY! (that's what I've named them)

This is a Frigidaire oven. When Tanja and I were both looking at appliances and I told her what I was getting, she suggested that I look at the Italian model she was getting as it wasn't much more expensive than the Frigidaire that she was buying. Let's just say Tanja's is over $1,000 MORE than what I am spending. That's all I'll say. This is a pretty basic model, nothing too fancy, but also pretty sturdy, too. 

First Night Home

By complete chance, my parents were in Bar Harbor with a truck load of furniture the day that I signed my mortgage. We were going to put the furniture in storage, but it worked out that we unloaded right into the house. Dad, Ashley, Baby Jovin, and Amber-Rae helped to celebrate by sharing some champagne at the house. It was great! However, there was no heat, hot water, or appliances, so my first night sleeping there was a couple days later. 

CHEERS!

Signing of the Mortgage. . .

These pictures uploaded in the wrong order, and I don't really have the energy to fix it, so . . . Here I am unlocking my door for the VERY FIRST TIME!!

And below is a wonderful welcome home from from the bank that my friend Ashley and her kids did for me:
Here I am at the bank. This is the first of 500,00 signatures that I did. I'm not kidding. I'm pretty sure I signed something giving my body for medical experiments when I die. 
And the first signature up close:

HOUSE. IS. DONE.

Soooo. . . the other day I stopped to take the finished product photos, and the front door was locked, the basement door was locked, and I though CRAP. What am I going to do? So I tried a back window and it was open. So I climbed in. It took some heaving and hoisting, but I did it! The captions for each picture are BELOW the photo.
Here's the living room, taken from the stairs.
The kitchen taken from the alcove all the way across the house.

Um, yeah, the house is done. Just waiting for me to move in. Things will start moving quickly, now that the appraiser has finally gotten his report to the bank, but HOLY COW, it's taken a long time.

This is the finished kitchen. Aren't the cabinets beautiful? This is probably my favorite feature! (I accidentally typed feather. Hopefully, they're more exciting than feathers)

Bathroom! Not much else to say about that. It's a small enough room that I couldn't take a picture of everything together, but the shower is over to the right. It's a nice room.
Stairway! There are some great windows in the stairway. A lot of these pictures have a strong yellow hue to them. I took them on my way home from work, and the sun was setting, and the walls are creamy, so I think the combination (along with a somewhat crappy digital camera) really turn them yellow. Sorry.
These are the stairs looking onto the living room, and the front door to the right.

August pictures being posted in September

Hi Everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted! Here are some pictures taken in August. Captions of what they are below the picture.

This is the kitchen, the counters are in, but no countertop yet. The blank space under the windwo is where the dishwasher will go, and the stove is over to the left. Aren't they pretty cabinets?
More of the kitchen cabinets and my awesome kitchen window.
Wood floors! I have wood floors! This is the landing on the stairs, but it's the place that isn't crowded with tools, so it's the best view of how pretty the floors are. It's possible Roady will have to stay in the basement so he doesn't scratch the floors. Or I'll have to make him wear socks.
This is the bathroom. The cabinets are in the process of being set up. Nice view, though, huh?

August Shmaugust

Hi All--

I'm sure you're all wondering what on earth is going on, and I wish I could shed some light on this. Everyone is still promising that the house will be done at the end of this month, but I can't be sure. I will most definitely keep you all posted, as I am expecting you to help me move! Closing date will be determined shortly as well. Stay tuned!

Wait, what month is it?

Since it has been so busy here, it's been hard to keep track of all of the changes at the house. I am having a hard time keeping my head above water, and now that I realized I actually have to PACK and sort through four years of living in this apartment, I'm getting even more overwhelmed. That's when I stop at the house after work, and think, oh yeah, this is why I'm driving myself MAD. It isn't for no reason. So, friends and family, here is a picture of YOUR bedroom (otherwise known as the guest room):

I was surprised to see sheet rock!! That seems so. . . final. Like, it might really be a house some day. . . The picture below is the living area. I'm taking the pictures from the stairs, so this is pretty much the entire downstairs minus the kitchen. 
And here's the kitchen minus a small portion to the right. I think everything else will come together quickly. I am going to call the housing authority this week to figure out when I can expect to move in/close with the bank, as it may be that July 15th will be my last rent payment EVER. 

Back from the missing. . .

Hello! Sorry for the delay between posts! As most of you know, I am covering for my supervisor while she is out on maternity leave, and my first week in this new role has been, um, interesting. . . . I have not been able to go out to the house much, or even THINK about going out to the house. However, last weekend brought me this:

And pictured below is a pipe where I imagine my sink will be. And all that grey stuff is, in fact, insulation. It is impressively packed, so I am not worried about getting cold!

And pictured below is my backyard. Sort of. 

At least I'll be warm and be able to eat toast!

Hi Internet, sorry for the hiatus. Not much had been going on with the house, and I just didn't have much time to check in. However, I stopped by last night after work, and the house looks fully insulated! Very tightly packed, I might add. No pictures for you right now, but I'll try to get some up shortly. 

Also, at the beginning of the month I celebrated my 27th birthday, and my sisters got me a beautiful Cuisinart toaster oven/broiler. The box says that I can bake cupcakes, but so far I've only made toast. Thanks, sisters! All these nice things are making me feel more and more like a grown up. . . 

A bathtub, A door, and some stuff I don't know about. . .

For those of you that don't know, I live in a very old apartment building. It has a lot of charm, hardwood floors, big windows, two-prong outlets only, and a big claw foot bathtub. But no shower. Just a bath. So I've been taking a bath every morning for about three years. The novelty has worn off. So, imagine my excitement when I walked into the house last weekend, and found this sitting in my living room:

I don't know when the plan to install it will happen, but just seeing a real shower brings joy to my heart.

And then below, I have no idea what this stuff is-- probably the septic? But it looks very important, and it's behind my house. 

Unfortunately, I have NO IDEA how to flip this photo around, but LOOK! I have a DOOR!! 
AND WINDOWS!!!!!!!
I am anticipating a lot of questions about the door and windows, and because I don't actually know anything about them, I thought this tag would be helpful. Again, sorry I couldn't flip it so that you can read it properly, but I'm just not that clever. 
I have a meeting at MDI Housing Authority with the Director, Terry, and I'm hoping I'll get some answers to some questions they didn't know in November. I'll also be signing some fancy paperwork (not bank paperwork), so that will be exciting, too. Things are happening quickly, people!

More pictures, but nothing new. . .

Well, because not much has changed since the last batch of photographs, I will upload some of the photos that didn't make the cut the last time. I do have shingles on my roof now, but that doesn't exactly call out photo-op, so my backyard will have to do. Well, back pile of dirt if we're going to be honest. Eventually I would like a back porch and some flowers and vegetables (right Michelle, Tracey, Aunt Daryl, Mom, and all my other gardening aficionados?), and maybe a lawn. 

A lot of people have asked about Roady, and right now, I'm thinking that there probably won't be a fenced in portion of the yard. I would like there to be railings on the porch so that he can hang out without being tied up, and then maybe a lead in the yard so that he can be outside with me. 

I'm not sure how well you can tell how big this is, but for those of you that have been to my parent's house, I would say that this is about as big as their backyard. 

And this is a close-up of my bedroom. Not much else to say about that, honestly.

And here are my neighbors! There is now a house behind that pile of dirt, and that is my closest neighbor. If you look to the right of the photograph, you'll see a road, and that is the curve of our little cul-de-sac. My house is on the elbow of that. Maybe next time I go down, I'll take a picture of the circle from higher up the hill looking down on the houses. Any other requests?

It's a REAL house. Like, for real.

Um, yeah, so I have a HOUSE!!! I wanted to see how the foundation was coming along, so on my way home from work I stopped by, and there it was in all it's glory! I scrambled in for a better look, and I must admit, 22 x 22 is smaller than I imagined it to be.


This is obviously the front of the house. If you look closely, you can see the outside entrance to the basement on the left side.


And this is my living-room alcove-- boy am I glad that I spent the extra money on the alcove-- it will really add space to a very. . . . cozy. . . living room. As you can see, it will also add a fair amount of light (this window is Southeast facing).
Here is the upstairs taken from the landing. It's difficult to make out the different rooms in this picture, but we are looking at both the master bedroom (the window to your left) and the guest bedroom (the window to the right). Both rooms are on a corner, so there is a second window for each room. The bathroom is not pictured, but is immediately to my left. The guest room will really only have room for a full size bed, dresser, and bedside table comfortably. You don't need more than that, do you?
And this is my kitchen window! Good morning! This is actually pretty much my entire kitchen. So, yeah, everything is smaller than I expected, but I'm okay with that. I am SO glad I was able to get inside the house today, because it is helping me be more realistic about what furniture will actually FIT inside the house. You all will need to help keep everything in perspective, okay?


So, I was pretty much jumping up and down while inside, and it seemed to hold up pretty good. That's a good sign, right? They are working on the foundation of the house next to mine (that will be out my kitchen window), and to my relief, they have positioned it so that I will still get the morning sun through my window unblocked by my neighbors, and the view outside the window as seen above will remain untouched. Can you say bird feeder?


On another note, a friend has asked for a heads up every time I update my blog. For those of you interested in a reminder, let me know either in the comments section of this post, or by email, and I would be happy to send out an email to more than just her. I'm sure there's a way to do a "notifylist" that isn't manual, but I don't know what that is.

First Purchase!

I found this breadbox at an antique store in Ellsworth (thanks Bethany), and I fell in love as soon as I saw it! I do want my kitchen to have yellow walls, so I'm hoping this will match okay (the rooster has yellow in it. . . ).

Pictures?

Here is a stack of wood that will eventually be walls:

In the background are houses that are almost done. Their foundations went in this fall. I haven't been inside of any of them, but it looks like all the exterior needs is siding and front steps. 

And here is the foundation-- it doesn't look finished, does it?

An Introduction. . .

Hi, Internet. 

I am starting this blog to chronicle my jump into adulthood by buying a house. Here's the start to the story:

Last October I heard about a housing development going up in Bar Harbor that was geared towards middle income folks on Mount Desert Island that could not afford to own property, but were the significant full-time/full-season workforce. MDI/Ellsworth Housing Authority bought 200 acres of land  that had previously been a part of Pooler Farm (a long time ago). The plan was to build 31 "green" houses designed by Coldham and Hartman Architects (who also designed College of the Atlantic's new dorms), who specialize in "cohousing". Basically, we share a small amount of space with the understanding that by pooling resources and building community we'll have less of an impact during the building process, and then of course, the living process. The houses are super energy efficient, insulated with recycled material, are solar panel ready (they come separately), made from sustainably harvested wood, and are just smaller than the normal house. The houses are essentially "kits" that are put together like modular homes, reducing costs in a number of ways. We had a choice of a two-bedroom or three-bedroom home, and then a number of specialized options that we could add on at extra cost. 

I met with the director of the housing authority, and really liked what I saw and learned. I had been looking at other ways to buy a house or even possibly build, but finances were always the limiting factor. This seemed to be the only way I was going to afford a house here on the Island. 

I went to the bank, and it only took a few minutes for them to approve a loan for $168,000. For those of you that are local-- Machias Savings Bank was GREAT to work with, and I really felt like they were going to put in extra work to make sure I got the best deal possible, even if that meant they didn't really make much money on my transaction.  I am hoping that I won't need to use all of that, but the complete tally hasn't been done yet. I did choose a couple of small options (an alcove in the living room being the best one), and I was able to choose the outside color of the house, the wood floors and cabinets, and countertops in the bathroom and kitchen. 

SO. All of this decision making was very exciting and by November I had the plans in my hands, and all we had to do was get through the winter, and they'd start building in the spring. But Spring has lasted a LONG time, so I was convinced they wouldn't be able to get a foundation in until May. I am having a hard time uploading photos today, so those will come soon! I was out at the site today, and my foundation is IN, but looks not done yet. I will keep everyone posted (as is the point of this thing. . . ). Please feel free to add in the comments section what you would like to hear about/see pictures of. Thanks for visiting!

Here in a Rocky Cup

Here in a rocky cup of earth

The simple acorn brought to birth

What has in ages grown to be

A very oak, a mighty tree.

The granite of the rock is split

And crumbled by the girth of it.

Incautious was the rock to feed

The acorn's mouth; unwise indeed

Am I, upon whose stony heart

Fell softly down, sits quietly,

The seed of love's imperial tree

That soon may force my breast apart.

"I fear you not. I have no doubt

My meagre soil shall starve  you out!"

Unless indeed you prove to be

The kernel of a kingly tree; 

Which if you be I am content

To go the way the granite went,

And be myself no more at all,

So you but prosper and grow tall.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay