WOO HOO! We've moved in!

We have officially moved in over the past weekend.  *HAPPY DANCE!!!!!*  It's a great relief for us all, including our little fur baby, to be in our own home again!  It's a smaller house than our old house, but after staying at the rental for a good year+, we're glad to have more space at the new house.  Check out my Instagram feed for some snippets of our new house!

Even though this is our third house, it's still a daunting task to unpack all of the boxes.  It's just common sense to unpack and organize the daily essentials first and foremost, starting with the bathrooms and kitchen.  Bathrooms/ toiletries are the easiest for me, and I've purchased some organizers to help with that task.  

Then comes the kitchen...  It's all unpacked, and I've shoved (neatly) whatever I can into the cabinets.  As I unpacked and organized, I was reminded that we really have to be efficiently organized in this smaller kitchen.  I tried to look for wire pullout storage to save the Mr. some time and to concentrate on other to-do's around the house, but their sizes don't fit optimally in our cabinets.  Why buy them for $$$ when they don't fit?  Not to mention, the drawer hardwares are only a fraction of the price of those ill-fitting wire pullouts.  

So, you guessed it, the Mr. will need to build the pullouts himself.  Good that he's done it before at our old house for the pantry pullouts.  

And since we're "saving" on the wire pullouts, we splurged on this blind corner storage unit at Lee Valley.  It's great to not have to crawl inside the blind corner to get the rarely used stuff out!

The kitchen is now somewhat organized, but it's still a work in progress.  Most of the appliances have been installed, minus the hood, but we still need the panels to be put on the fridge/ freezer drawers and dishwasher (see Design Board).  For now, at least the kitchen is functional...  we just need time to go grocery shopping!  I'm sure the Mr. can't wait to cook up a feast in his new kitchen!

With all this organizing going on at home, I figured it's also time to post a new to-do list for our new house.  Our projects at the previous house can still be easily accessible on the "Completed Projects" tab above.  

It's all about prioritization with this to-do list.  We still have so much STUFF even after rounds of moving and purging, that storage requirement comes before any improvement on esthetics - trim work and painting.  The order is flexible, and of course, depending on deals and budgets.

We're going by a daily to-do list to get the house in better order each day.  As time goes by, this builder's house will turn into our home, with our personalized touches and DIY projects, much like our previous house.  Remember to check back from time to time on our progress!

Tablesetting for Special Events

Remember my post on this tablesetting for a special event?  I think I might've just tricked you that this post is about just that.  But read on, I've some news to share about that "special event"!

Looking around our house, I've accomplished journalizing most of our home projects to-date.  I've always wanted to start a blog for our home, to share design ideas and journalize all the projects the Mr. has beautifully finished with love.  I just never had time to clean the house and stage it, so that I have a nice setting for some show-ready photos on the blog...  until...

It was time to take the photos to list our house for sale.  Yes, you read that right - we sold the house, and we're moving...  

Let's pick up your jaw from the floor…. That "special event" was in fact our first Open House for the listing.

Let me guess what your first thought was...  "But you guys (referring to the hubby) put so much work into the house!"  

I can tell you, 99% of our friends had the same reaction, actually we'll make that 100%.  You know, we're picky, we wouldn't just pick up and move to a house that we don't love.  Although...  we're moving from this detached to a townhouse...  yup, downsizing. 

No bulging eyes please!  Wow, 2 shockers in a row!  I know!

Well, it's an end unit.  Still incomprehensible?  I don't blame you.  Again, 99% of the people we know wouldn't take this leap.  Everybody wants more space, who doesn't?  And we don't?

I think being a house of 3 (technically 4, if you include our little Miss Nosy) made it much easier with this decision.  As the Mr. put it, he's not attached to the house, and he was the one who did all the work.  Maybe the truth is, he was ready to move on.  Nope, not blaming it on him, because I was the instigator.  

So, "why??"  you would ask.  No, we're not bored with our current house, and not that we're done with the projects we've planned (just take a look at the Honey-Do List...  SO NOT DONE!).  We always thought we would be in this house for at least 10 years.  That's to say, we never intended to move again after just several yrs.   

What triggered our decision to sell?  It was all timing.  If I didn't drive past our new house's site everyday and was totally annoyed by the construction traffic, if I didn't get curious to check out that builder's website of how large the site is (to gauge length of construction time and traffic chaos), if I hadn't browsed through the floor plans of that site and fell in love with the features, if we didn't check with the sales office and found out the site was releasing a new phase in 2 days, if we didn't get the model that we wanted, if we didn't know we could possibly sell our current house at a "good" price and increase our homeowner equity (ie. lowering our mortgage) and other if's...  we wouldn't have made the decision to move.  

And to ensure that we got what we wanted, the Mr. was the first to line up at the site on the day of the opening (at 5a.m.!!).  Yes, it is crazy, but this is not nearly as crazy as some other sites around the city.  When the gate to the new release opened, it was a "you snooze, you lose" situation.  The Mr. sprinted into the sales office, quickly asked for the lots where the model we wanted will be built, and relayed that info to me as I walked in with little man behind the other sprinters, and boom...  right there, in less than a minute, we agreed to buy a house and were headed to sign the purchaser agreement.  I think we were still on cloud nine from the hype as we were signing the agreement.  The Mr. joked that he has never spent so much money in such little time.

I'll miss this scenic drive home.  Our house is at the end of this road.

No worries, I won't be shutting down the blog.  In fact, things will get more interesting as we share our design ideas for the new house.  The Mr. already has a bunch of projects lined up for himself, and he's getting the itch to start!

Whereas, I'm the more sentimental one, and will definitely miss the house...  for the memories that we've built living here.  I was showing little man the videos I took of him playing floor hockey and racing his walker/ car with daddy in our dining room, but he totally denied he ever took up that much space for himself.  Doesn't matter, I still have the evidence to show, and the memories for myself.  

Will also miss this unobstructed view from our master bedroom into the backyard, the forest beyond, and the skyline.  Even more so on a beautiful sunny day like when this photo was taken (turned watercolour using the waterlogue app).

Now, looking around our house, with most of the content boxed up, we just can't wait to move into our new home...  in 9 months (already delayed once due to the dreadful long winter, and hopefully not more).  Meanwhile, we'll be at a rental townhouse, which is all brand new and un-lived in (state of cleanliness!  Thanks to our agent!).  

As I mentioned above, we're downsizing from our current house, about 450 sq. ft. less of usable space.  Being in a smaller house doesn't mean that we can't live big.  We have plans to make our new townhouse just as comfortable as our current spacious detached house.  "Small space, big living" will be our new motto!

With still some rooms left undecorated in our current house, I will be sharing our design ideas for those in next month's "Would've/ Could've" series.  That is, if we would've stayed in our current house, we could've decorated the rooms as such.

Stay tuned, as I'll also be sharing some tips on how to prepare your property for a successful listing and selling later this week!

And I shall return to packing after I've procrastinated long enough writing this post =)