The Newest Addition

Meet the newest addition to our family - Heisenberg!

Heisenberg is a rescue pup that was being fostered by a local company who holds adoption events every weekend in hopes to find forever homes for their foster dogs as well as local shelter dogs.  

Ever since Gypsy's passing I have wanted  to adopt another dog but with preparing for the move Chris and I thought it would be best to hold off.  Now that we're settled into our house we thought it would be a great time to give a second chance to another dog.  We happened upon the adoption event this past weekend while out picking up supplies for a holiday wreath and fell in love with this dog.  It didn't take much more than a walk across the street with him to know that he would fit in so well with our family.

Chris came up with the name Heisenberg based on the main character from Breaking Bad which is starting to sink in with our little dog (he was given another name between the time he was rescued from the sheltered and while he was being fostered but didn't respond to that name when we were checking him out so we figured it wouldn't hurt to change it up).  

He is a 1 year old dachshund/rat terrier mix who loves to fetch (still getting used to the drop part so that we can throw it again), give kisses and cuddle up as close to people as possible.  We lucked out as it seems that he was potty trained either at his original home or at his foster home (or we've just lucked out this past weekend with no accidents in the house) and he seems to really enjoy his new surroundings. 

Have you brought home a new pet lately?  

Tales From Online Shopping

We've finally added some more pieces to our master bedroom, and it comes with a story.

Reading a clock on the floor from the bed got old pretty quickly, so we set out one Saturday to all of the local furniture stores in search of a couple of nightstands and a new dresser.  Unfortunately, 4 stores down and we were nowhere closer than when we started.  We decided to throw in the towel and turn back to the same place that we ordered our headboard - Wayfair.com.

I searched through the selection in our price range and ended up with 5 nightstand options that I showed Chris who made the final decision.

I love that the fabric that covers the drawers coordinates with the bed, and the darker wood adds a little something different than the lighter pieces we already had in the room.

We also picked up a couple of acrylic lamps at Target so Chris (who goes to sleep after me) wouldn't have to turn off the light at the door and walk to the bed in the dark anymore.

The nightstand purchase was an easy one with no issues, the stands came in one piece and the only thing we had to do was screw on the knobs on the front.  On the other hand, the dresser was another story.

We ordered the dresser in the same transaction as the nightstands, but knew in advance that it would require some assembly.  When it was delivered, the delivery man made a joke as he wheeled it up the drive commenting on the weight of the box.  That weekend, Chris dragged it into our bedroom and got to work pulling out the pieces to the puzzle. He called me in to our room with some bad news, there were scratches and dings to many of the pieces and one of the legs was broken in half.

I went straight to my laptop to look up the number for Wayfair's customer service and connected with a very nice guy who quickly put me at ease.  He told me that they wanted their customers to be completely satisfied and without hesitation put in another order for the same dresser at no cost.  He told me we could do whatever we wanted with the pieces to the first dresser as it would be a waste for them to get it back because they would not sell it to another customer.

I was ready to pack it up and send it to the dump, but my husband is ever the resourceful one and was sure that he could repair the broken leg with a dowel and some wood glue.  By the end of the day he had fixed the leg and assembled the dresser which is set up in the nursery (pictures to come once we actually decorate the nursery after finding out if baby is a girl or boy).

Three days later and the second dresser arrived with no issues.  This one was assembled in a shorter amount of time since Chris had already been through the process once.

Have you had any good customer experiences with online shopping?

Good Bye Pool!

We are so glad to be rid of this thing!

If you followed our home buying journey then you probably remember how the above ground pool on the property almost cost us the deal.  The issue was that above ground pools are not permitted per our HOA rules.  I have no clue how the original owner was able to have this installed, but it caused a little bit of panic on my part before closing when it was identified that the title company and mortgage company would have issues with an exception to the HOA rules. Thankfully we were able to sign a document at closing indicating that we would not hold the title company responsible for the pool and that we would be removing it.

I reached out to our city to see if a permit was required to remove the above ground pool and the answer was nope.  We just had to make sure that the water was drained down the street and not to any of our neighbors' yards.  After researching and contacting a couple of demolition companies, we accepted the bid for one and now that thing is GONE!

We had the company also remove the wood deck as we would like to have this as a nice grassy area for kids to run around on.  The rest of the yard is filled with trees and bushes so there is not as much open area back there.

While the company was breaking down the pool, the foreman asked if I knew that there was a leak in the pool.  I didn't, but that's just another great reason for getting rid of it!  All this time that my dad was filling the pool with water, the water was leaking into the area above the ground/below the pool.

Lucky for us, the water was gone in a day or two...of course during the storms in the weeks since it has filled up and evaporated a couple of times over. We will probably work with the same company to fill and level out the area with dirt, and then work with our landscaper to plant grass.

I don't want to press our luck, but I believe this removal marks the end of our large, out of pocket house expenses for the time being.  Now to fill that void with buying baby items!

Did it seem like you had a lot of out of pocket expenses in the months right after buying your home?