1 step forward and 2 steps back...

Warning this post is going to have some major complaining in it...

Since we moved in 6 weeks ago (the date on this post should be 9/13--I don't love how blogger has changed things)--I have been dealing with contractors.  Every time one came out to fix something, another thing would come up.

The first thing we had to do when we moved in was get our kitchen fixed.  Our builder had his drunk uncle install our IKEA kitchen cabinets--seriously he was drunk.  He did almost everything wrong.  We kept asking our builder to fix and he wouldn't.  We finally stopped asking and decided to have an IKEA crew come in and do it themselves so that it was done right.  The IKEA guys said it was the worst job they had ever seen.   They had to spend two whole days fixing what we thought would be a 4 hour job.  Luckily, the IKEA crew was able to fix everything and now the kitchen looks fantastic.

We didn't have gas for the first month.  It was hooked up twice, but both times there was a leak and we had to have it turned off.  Do you know how hard it is to make spaghetti without a stove top!

Mark was unpacking one of our closets and found the carpet wet...there had been a leak somewhere since we moved in.  Five holes in the wall later the plumber finally found the problem.  The builder had nailed the laundry room shelves into one of the pipes.  Luckily we caught it when we did and two weeks later it was finally patched up (thank goodness for our warranty).

We had the electrician come out to fix the motion sensor light.  Within 20 mins of leaving 1/2 the lights in the house were not working.  We had to watch the first BYU game using an extension cord from the garage.

Now before you think we got a bad house--like Mark and I have started to wonder--our house is beautiful and we got it for a great price, so we are dealing with the crap.

On a brighter note...

The kids summer ended with a bang.  First, they had music camp.

 

It went Monday-Thurs.  It took place the first full week we were in our new house, so it was perfect timing, I was able to unpack and deal with contractors without kids underfoot.  Thursday night they put on a concert for us.  Poor Katie got stuck in the back so it was really hard to see her.  Addy was SUPER animated and dancing and singing--so cute.  And Marcus got on stage (unlike a couple other kids) but he sat down,  at one point he saw me and became brave enough to stand up.

 

Right before school started Hannah came down to stay with the kids so Mark and I could escape to NYC for a long weekend for our 7th anniversary.  With all the stress of the house going on we didn't get to plan anything ahead of time and packed 20 mins before we left for the airport.  And Hannah didn't have any gas in the house.  But she and the kids survived and the trip was amazing.

Statue of Liberty in the background.

We stayed at a new European style hotel a short walk from Times Square.  We spent tons of time walking around and of course eating.

We saw one of my mission friends, Heather, and her kids and we met Mark's cousin Berkelee and her husband for lunch, we went and saw the Addam's family broadway, we braved China Town to get a new purse (you actually feel like you are breaking the law when you buy something there now--when everyone started running Mark got a little nervous about getting disbarred.  He warned me that if the police came he was gone, but that he would come bail me out.)  We didn't take a lot of pictures because we were having to much fun to document it and because it is New York and we have seen it all so many times before.

When we got back we closed on the house, but that did not stop the problems from happening, we continued to deal with crap until mid Sept.

Marcus and Addy started preschool the beginning of Sept.  They are going 3 days a week.  (I tried them in separate classrooms for the first couple weeks but I didn't feel like it was going well for Marcus and just had them moved back to the same room.  Hopefully Marcus will start loving preschool again.)  Katie didn't have school that day so we had a special day.  We looked for furniture, got our nails done and went to eat bagels.  Everything was Katie's choice (except for the furniture shopping, she could have done without that).

Katie requested one of these pictures that we take ourselves.  She thinks it is so cool.

So the last big "thing" we have had to deal with since moving in is Katie's school.  One of the reasons we chose (and stuck it out with) this house is because there is a great school 5 houses down the street.  Our school district is not the greatest and the closer to the city you get, the harder it is to find a good public school.  This school accepts kids based on a lottery, which we applied for, but we had to apply with our old address and after some appeals still did not get in.  We looked at some other options, the local public school, private schools, charter schools, etc.  But long story short we want all the kids in this school and because we now live in what they consider the priority zone we should get in.  The other problem we were facing is that it is hard to get into the school in any grade other than kindergarten.  So we found a transitional kindergarten M-F in the mornings for Katie and will apply to this school next year with Katie as a kindergartener.  I may or may not push for them to move Katie into first grade after she gets in, but that is a whole other blog post.  I was very upset and negative about the school issue in the beginning, but it has turned out to be the greatest thing.  Katie's school is in the city, one block from Mark's work.  She rides to work with him and he walks her to school every morning.   A few times he has needed to go in a few mins early, so Katie hangs out in his office until it is time to take her to school, Katie has Mark's secretary print out Hello Kitty pictures for her to color and has free reign of his tape and stapler.  Both Mark and Katie are in heaven.  It takes me a little longer for me to grab the kids since I pick up from two schools, but it is not too bad.  And at least my little 5 year old is not in school from 9am-4pm every day.

 

First day of TK

All in all, we love the house and the move.  We love our neighborhood.  Mark is only 5 mins from work (15 mins door to door) so he has been around more. Our house is super cute and we are now done with contractors (fingers crossed) and we are enjoying the decorating and shopping aspects that come with a new house. 

Up next - the yard.