it's over & we're home :)

we've officially moved into the new house. 

all of our possessions are here.... not sure where, but here. 

the POD is outside & still full.

so goodbye for now. because...

the direct tv guy is here & drilling holes in my walls. blah!

the kids are home from school today & are driving me batty.

and i'm pirating the internet from a neighbor, 

because i can't get mine to work. shhhhh!

more soon. probably when i'm feeling more settled.

until then, enjoy a few photos of some new home purchases...

i orderd these stools for the kitchen

and i ordered this light for the dining room...

hope you had a wonderful labor day weekend!

xoxo- erin

are you kidding me??

another crazy week.

yesterday we received the news that our house buyers

 wanted to close TODAY.

huh?

thanks for the advanced notice!

we're guessing it was some misunderstanding

between the buyers and their attorney.

you know, seeing as we never received a formal request

to close TWO weeks early. 

so, now, because we're nice....

we're scrambling to close today at 3.

we'll see.

either way the new owners won't be able to take possesion

until we have time to move out.

oh and have somewhere to move!  

minor detail.

we don't take possession of our new house for a week.

we will know sometime later this morning if it all can come together today.

our attorney needs a few more items in order to close.

i'll keep you posted :)

on another note...

isn't this playroom super-duper?

 i have no idea where i found it, but i've been drooling ever since.

take care friends!

xoxo. erin

guess what!

no i'm not going to say "chicken butt" but my 7 year old would have :)

anyway. back to civil adult conversation.

things have been a little nutty around these parts, in addition to our house going under contract, the kids going back to school, and a quick mini vacay... we bought a mailbox!

luckily for us, it also comes with a HOUSE. yay for dan.... it's on a golf course. yay for me.... it has the space we need and it's chuck full of fun home improvement projects! i see a lot of wall paper removal and painting in my near future.

now we're just praying that all goes smoothly. praying both our house sale and our new purchase goes off without a hitch! the thought of something going wrong has me up at night... when will i learn that worrying never does me any good!!??

happy tuesday friends! xoxo- erin

our backyard

with the house on the market and hopefully selling soon...fingers crossed....i'm starting to get a little sentimental about this place. lately my obsession has been with our backyard.

for years is was essentially unusable. very hilly with lots of trees making lots of shade... so we had the hardest time growing grass. frankly, it was icky. but now.... after a lot of hard work, it's beautiful and it will be missed.

our deck with my herb pots, fire pit and pathway to the playset

another view from the deck with our patio furniture

a view of our hammock and super crazy trees

the flat grassy area where the kids run through the sprinklers or we play lawn games

from the outside looking in

the playset that took my husband 3 full days to put together

more crazy trees

another deck shot... fire pit, herb pot, grill

it's clearly not the greatest backyard in the history of backyards, but it has served us well and we love it. trust me it's a far cry from where we started!

a little bit of this & a little bit of that

nothing to major to report these days. mother's day was nice. forgot the camera... so no photos. bummer.

it's raining and i'm uninspired. here's a few tid-bits from the house of skoots and cuddles....

the good thing about having your house on the market is

i always have a reason to buy fresh flowers...

the bad thing about having your house on the market is 

you clean your house and leave for 3 hours for a 

 realtor caravan (open house for realtors only) and nobody shows. 

ugh! notice there aren't any business cards next to my sign!!!

check out the adorable bracelet my family gave me on mother's day

aren't they the cutest?

 that's "love, reilly, cooper, max and dan"

coop the loop gave me this geranium. also adorable.

the pot says "mom, your love is planted in my heart." ahhhh!

i planted my flower boxes.

i'm a little worried about the weather. fingers crossed we don't get frost!

i love max's t-shirt! i got it at h&m kids. great clothes and even better prices!!!

i also posted this photo, because max is so darn cute!
this is his post-nap, crazy hair, pink cheeked, glassy eyes look.

finally, doesn't reilly look cute in her giants uniform?

all her games have been FREEZING and WINDY. praying for some warmer weather!

mls photos

we received photos back from the photographer, so our home is officially live in the mls! yay!

here are the new photos....

now i just need to keep the house nice and clean and ready to show. which is a little daunting with 3 kids, a dog, a cat and 2 frogs! fingers crossed that we sell quickly, as i doubt i can do this for the long haul!

i was warned

i was warned by my darling husband.

do NOT look at real estate listings before our current house is sold. 

did i listen? 

NOPE.

and now i have a house crush.
not only have i driven past it... i had my realtor take me through it!

i'm a dumb, dumb girl.

so. it kills me to say this, but dan was right.

ok, so it's out there. i love a house.

in the area we live, there are very few older homes, 

so i have to settle with something that's been built in the last few decades.

bummer.

aside from it being fairly new, this house has tons of potential.

it's a clean slate. 

all the walls are freshly painted white.

new neutral carpets and hardwoods.

it's on a cul-de-sac.

3 car garage. yay!

a separate first floor den. double yay!

a nicely finished basement.

so if i can't get my 100+ year old home, why not get all the modern amenities.
right?

oh- and it's in our price range (whew!)

here are some photos (all courtesy of remax)

front of the house on a quiet cul-de-sac

oh- the next-door neighbors had a "welcome home" baby sign & a playset... so there's kids!!!!

front entry 

(dining room to the left, living room to the right, family room straight ahead and the office ahead and to the right)

family room (it's quite a bit larger than it looks)

kitchen (with a horrible light fixture and a wine fridge in the island)

private den overlooking private backyard

basement... plenty of room for a recreation area and playroom

backyard and deck

like a said.

a clean slate.

tons of DIY projects... yay!

for sale

a traditional 4 bed, 3 bath home in the northwest suburbs of chicago.

yep... we've done it! and oh boy am i pooped!

today we had a photographer in to take photos and tomorrow or wednesday we'll be in the mls.... waiting for the future owners of our lovely home to find their new home.

while the photographer was here, i took some shots of my own. they're not the greatest photos, but they'll give you an idea what i've been up to. more photos to come later.

interested?? ha!

windows

in case you haven't heard.

i HATE washing windows.

i DOUBLE HATE washing windows

when a toddler is crawling around on top of your feet.

i TRIPLE HATE washing windows

when a toddler is crawling around on top of your feet

and starts chewing on the flowers on your flip flops.

i QUADRUPLE HATE washing windows

when a toddler is crawling around on top of your feet

and starts chewing on the flowers on your flip flops.

then the toddler grabs your windex and runs for the hills.

this is where i found him. little sneaky sneaker!

his usual hiding space. 

i've found him here with hershey kisses, dan's blackberry, my keys....

really any no no items in the house.

ok now back to getting this d@*% house on the market. 

bye now!