Monday, July 18, 2011

Live Free or Die...New Hampshire

Pete and I just got back from a fabulously relaxing vacation in New Hampshire.  I got to meet Grandma and Grandpa Casarotto as well as Aunt Susie--or as Kady and Brent would call her "The Goooooooooood Aunt Susie"

We flew through Newark, NJ, on our way to Manchester NH...and for those that dont know...Newark is located literally across the river from New York City...so we got to see the New York Skyline AND I even saw the Statue of liberty...granted I took a picture from the plane so it is not the clearest picture but by golly you can tell it is the statue of liberty! We got there on Saturday and our relaxing vacation trip began.  We went to several places that Pete has visited several times throughout his childhood.  One being The Dam Ice Cream Shop---Great ice cream in a beautiful location! Can you guess why it is called "The Dam Ice Cream Shop" haha..yep...its located on a dam...a small one but it is still a dam.  The next day we traveled all over New Hampshire...we went to Mount Washington, Glen Ellis Falls --- gorgeous waterfall, Jackson, New Hampshire...where we waded in the water...the kids swam, Conway, NH ... and overall it was a great day.  We also ventured over to Maine on our vacation...it was only about 2 1/2 hours-3 hours from Grandma and Grandpas house...We got to see a little of Portland, Maine, but we mainly stayed at Popham Beach---it was huge...gorgeous beach right on the ocean...we spent the entire day there--funniest part of the day is when a Seagull tried to take our bag of pretzels away! Dont worry the bag was closed and they didn't succeed...the pretzels came home with us :-) We also went to Castle in the Clouds--it is a home that was built high upon on of the peaks in New Hampshire and it is a gorgeous house/castle with breathtaking views of the area...it was great! I definately got to see why so many people say New Hampshire is one of the most gorgeous places to visit!  I could talk all day about my trip...but instead I will let you see some of the amazing pictures we took while there:

Here is the statue of liberty from the plane---muggy...but you can tell what it is!

View from The Dam Ice Cream Shop


Glen Ellis Falls

Popham Beach, Maine


White Lake State Park -- Very relaxing...gorgeous beach area


The Casarotto Women at the Castle of the Clouds


Some Family photos:



New Hampshire was absolutely relaxing and I can not wait til we go back!


Monday, May 9, 2011

Pictures Pictures Pictures

Here are some picures from the last 4 months.

Basement before pics:
































Basement after pictures
















That was the largest project...more pictures to come soon!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

4 months later....

Well we have officially been homeowners for 4 months now and we are loving every moment of being homeowners :-) I love decorating the house and moving furniture places and rearranging and hanging photos.  We got everything painted that we wanted painted and almost everything is put away :-)

We have added to our family since moving in.  At the end of February/beginning of March we adopted a dog, Patch.  He is a White German Shorthair Pointer and he is so much fun! He has ALOT of energy.  He is 3 years old and is potty trained (big plus for us!) So now we are a family of 3...Pete, Patch, and I.  Here is a photo of Lil 65lb Pup :-)

I have a ton of before and after pictures that I will put in another blog...maybe I will just do another blog entry of nothing but pictures :-) We'll see. 

We have already experienced some of the "joys" of being homeowners.  About a month and a half after we moved in we noticed that our hot water kept going out...and of course it would happen when we both actually had to get ready and look decent for some reason (Being that I work from home you can imagine how many times I actually get up and do my hair! haha) Well after freaking out that we may have to purchase a new water heater to replace the only 2 year old water heater we have we called the warranty company and they suggested we go buy a $7 part and see if that fixes the problem before going to buy a new water heater...so we did and POOF it is fixed! woo hoo!! So we got lucky and we haven't had a problem since with the water heater.

Another joy of being a homeowner is yard work...now neither Pete or I mind doing yardwork...he enjoys being outside and working on the yard and I enjoy being outside and getting a tan while doing so.  We both enjoy mowing the yard and trying to make it look nice....now if you have seen our front yard you are probably laughing about the previous comment...our front yard looks completely and utterly DEAD...the previous owners put in "Bermuda Grass" and bermuda grass is not common around here because of the weather but it saves alot of money on watering because bermuda grass only comes in like 4 months out of the year...the rest of the time it looks "dead" so I'm pretty sure in the fall we will be prepping the yard for new grass (I leave that to Pete since he is the Trugreen man!) We also have done a TON of spring cleaning outside and around the house.  The previous owners did not trash the inside of the house...however...they did leave the outside looking a mess!! They left random junk in the garage and around the house and we have cleaned up almost 98% off all the junk...there are a few odds and ends we are still working on cleaning up but it is coming along well.

We love being homeowners.  Our mortgage is less then what we paid in rent and with our bills in the house we are still paying less then what we paid in rent and bills at the apartment so that is exciting.  We also love living in Blair.  People ask if we miss living in Omaha and the answer is not really.  We really enjoy Blair and the community :-) We do miss living close to some great people in Omaha but we still get to see almost all of them at least one or twice a week so thats nice :-) We also have some great friends in Blair that live within a 2-3 mile radius of us in all directions so that is great too!

I promise to post more on the blog soon!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

FINALLY HOMEOWNERS!

Yep! You heard me correctly! We are finally homeowners!!! We put in an offer on a short sale home on October 5 and as of Friday, January 14, the home is ours!!! For those of you counting that is about 102 days to close....Let me explain...

If you don't know what a short sale is a short sale is when an owner basically has one option before being foreclosed on...also since it is a short sale it is listed as low as the bank will possibly let it sell for...also since it is a short sale the bank makes ALL the major decisions....

Okay so we put the offer in on October 5....about 2 weeks later we signed some more "offer" paperwork with the sellers real estate agent...the next day the paperwork was shipped off to the "decision" maker...THE BANK....we heard from our Real estate agent the week of Thanksgiving letting us know that the right "person" at the bank had the offer and hopefully we would have a decision soon (Did I mention the current "owners" agreed to the offer but once again since it is a short sale the bank has all the decisions) then we waited some more and waited some more...the week prior to Christmas we got the call...THE BANK APPROVED IT!!! OUR WAITING PAID OFF!!! WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!! So we immediately start talking closing dates with the bank...well apparently, once again, since it is a short sale, the BANK has the final decision on the selling date and it is not negotiable...SOOOOOOO we closed 102 days after we made our initial offer!

We got the keys on Friday morning and immediately went into the house and washed the walls.  Saturday was our paiting partay! :) Kim, Jen, Josh, Tews, Jaydyn and Randy all came over...I will have pictures later...but the basement was BRIGHT orange...so Kim, Jen, Tews, Jaydyn, and I tackled the basement...one coat of primer...lunch break...then first coat of paint :-) While the girls were painting queens (Did I mention that we also primed the bathroom and got it ready for painting?) the guys had their own projects going on....they changed all the door knobs and locks on the front door, back door and even garage door...then the kitchen had a random "L" shape counter that the previous owners had put in...it needed to go! Soooooooooooooooooooo the guys took that counter OUT :-) Then Sunday (today) Pete and I went back to blair and put the 2nd coat of paint on the basement, painted an accent wall in the office, starting priming the bedroom, and then Dad helped Pete Rake the snow off the roof...yep...lots of snow on the roof!   So in the last 48 hours we have completed the basement, the office is 3/4 completed, the bedroom is 2/4 completed, and the bathroom is 1/4 completed....and when I say completed I mean painted :-) Now all the rooms were painted but the previous owner had ALOT of colors that just weren't our style! So we are painting machines!!!

Watch for the before and after pictures which I will post soon!!!

YEA FOR US BEING HOMEOWNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Welcome 2011

2010 was a great year!! I married my best friend, gained an amazing extended family, and was able to go on many trips including Mexico for my sisters wedding, Hawaii for the best honeymoon ever, and of course Arizona to see the family--which is always a GREAT time!!!

We celebrated the Christmas holiday in Marquette, NE, at Grandma and Grandpa Kirby's house...which is always a very relaxing good time.  We spent Christmas day with family and taking walks around the camp and country around grandma and grandpas house.  Here is a picture to show you how awesome and peaceful it is at grandma and grandpas house:



We spent this past weekend at Derek and Martas for Christmas Saturday night and then Grandma and Grandpa Hultgrens house on Sunday.  Always a good time to go to their house and relax and hang out with the awesome family.  Saturday at Derek and Martas I brought the Wii game Michael Jackson: The Experience...here is photo of my mom, sister, sister in law, and I doing the Michael Jackson dance off the tv...it was so much fun! But man it was a crazy workout!




We rang in the new year in Blair at our good friends house, Jen and Josh.  Every year we have a Christmas party and this year we decided that New Years Eve was about the only day that would work for everyone...so it was a Christmas/New Years Eve/Christmas Sweater Party....it was a great time!! We also played "Minute to Win It" almost all of the night...it was SOOOOOOOOOO much fun!! It was a great night full of laughter and great friends.


This is at the beginning of the night posin with the Dana College Blanket :-)

Welcome to 2011!

Who knows what 2011 holds for us but we know it is going to be a fantastic year!!