Casual Fridays

31 days and counting!

OMG I have been so busy with packing and getting ready for the move. On top of school, state test, kids and life in general. We are officially 31 days out and I can barley stand to wait! Even though I feel a little overwhelmed I am still organized. I am to the point where most of the house is packed and I will only have the last minute packing of stuff we are currently using or need. My organization system is working out great! Here are a few new pictures of the house!

Front of the house

Back of the house

Wood floors before the stain

Wood floors after the stain

Title in the shower

Cabinets

Let me repeat.....I can not wait to move in!!!!

Pre-drywall House Pictures - So Important!!!

We just had our pre-drywall walk thru on our house. I can not stress to any future home buyers who are building a home how important it is to take pre-drywall pictures! We did it on our first home and I can't tell you how many times we referenced those pictures to "see" what was behind the wall. However on our first house we did not take enough. So this time thru I took about a 130 pictures!

On our first house we also made another mistake. We took the pictures and then downloaded them. That's it. I did not label what room it was, or make any notes about the pictures. When it came time to look up a picture it took awhile to find the right wall as they all look alike! So this time I took the pictures and then did some editing. Thank goodness for Photoshop! I was able to bright the pictures and then write right on the picture as to what room it was. Here is just a few:

See that big pole??? I know I would more than likely want to hang something on the wall and would hit the pole with my luck!

The house is moving along so fast! I can not wait to get into it! And when I need to "see" what's behind the wall.........I think I will be ready!

Packing Boxes

So now that I have my moving organized system in place, I have started the packing. We started by asking everyone we know for boxes. Thankfully our great friend who runs a restaurant has had his crew saving boxes for us for weeks. My favorite is the boxes his lettuce comes in. They are a great size!

Organizing a Move

I have never moved before......well let me rephrase that. I have never moved 11 years worth of stuff and two kids. When my husband and I moved into our first home we were young, childless and had barely any furniture or stuff! We have begun our first step in the moving process and are trying to go thru and donate or sell items we will not be needing but the rest all has to get packed. I of course need to have some sort of an organization system in place to help me not feel/get so overwhelmed! After searching my favorite site, Pinterest, for some packing/moving ideas I collaborated my organizing system. I loved these ideas from one of my favorite blogs A Bowl Full of Lemons. She borrowed from another favorite organizer of mine, Alejandra, a color coded system to label her boxes. I loved that idea and did the same. Here is my legend.

We have a roof!

They are moving so fast on our new home! I can't wait I am so excited.

They have moved our closing date up twice which is awesome as I can't wait to get into the house but that means less time for me to pack! My packing/moving system is working well so far. I will be posting about that really soon!

Longboat Key, Florida

How fast time flies when your on vacation! My husband and I traveled to Longboat Key in Florida at least once a year. We love it there. We just got back and I think this was the first time we went that it was cooler in Florida then it was here in Chicago!!! We add a short stop in Clearwater this year and the kids had a blast at the pool in the hotel we stayed at. Just a short ride down to LBK and fun in the sun began! The kids swam at the pool or played at the beach everyday! I even got a great family photo of us.

On our return flight home we end up stuck at the airport for over 5 hours due to mechanical issues. The airline was very nice about and even gave us all free round trip tickets for a future flight for our inconvenience.....Florida here we come again!