1st day at our new house

This past weekend was our busiest weekend in a long time! Sunday was our major moving day, by the end of day (around mid-night Monday morning), we have moved about 80% of belongings to our new house, including our two cats Milo and Mocha. We were both very surprised to find out that we have accumulated so many things during the 12 years living in the condo. We believe we will be continuously busy for another couple of weeks, trying to move out the remaining stuff and clean up the place for showing. This move is extremely hard for us since we are both working full-time in the daytime and have two young girls to take care in the evening; just girls' shower, dinner and homework will consume us two & half hours every night!

The girls are super happy about the new house. Now they both have their own rooms next to each other, they got to pick their color for their room, their own furniture, bed sheets, floor lamps and even their own curtains and curtain rods! They shares a bathroom that has two sinks, they have decorated their bathroom with matching shower curtain, trash bin and floor mat that they picked at Bed Bath & Beyond. We are so happy to see their excitements!

Here are some snap shots of the girls on their 1st day at the new house, also showing a picture of Milo under Erica's new bed getting acquainted with his new environment.

Pre-listing flyer from our realtor

Our realtor Gaye has designed a pre-list "teaser" flyer to be sent out to her database and her contacts today. She hope to get some reactions from the market before the unit is officially posted on the MLS system.

Grand Slamming at Denny's

We started Saturday a little hectic... The cable guy from Time Warner called us at our new house around 8:30 while we were still at our old place. Good thing our new house is only a mile away and we were able to arrive in 3 minutes. Brian the cable guy lives only a block away from our house, spent a little over an hour and hooked up all 7 TV jacks (2 of them have HD box) and 7 digital phone jacks in the house, internet wireless router was also installed and tested. In the middle of all that, I went to the Tri-Valley Cleaning Supply to drop of the carpet cleaning machine. Right after lunch, we went to the Warehouse Discount Center in Moorpark and ordered Helen's favorite stainless steel French door Samsung Fridge. The girls were sitting at family room watching TV while Helen and I were going back and forth moving, by the end of the day, we have moved 70% of the furniture in the living room!

Sunday started a little more relaxing... We went to Denny's for breakfast, after that we were going back and forth moving again for a little. Dropped off the girls at Bright Child to attend classmate's birthday party at 2:30pm while went to lunch and checked out the curtains at Bed Bath and Beyond. By the end of Sunday, the living room of our new house was fully furnished.

Erica's upper braces installation

After couple months of jaw expansion, it's time for Erica to install braces on her upper teeth! Erica has been quite nervous in the past week, she was not too worry about the pain, she was more concern about her look after the orthodontist put on the braces. Mommy said her new look will work perfect for Halloween, Erica decided to be a witch with rainbow color braces!

We had a appointment at 2pm, the procedure went very well. The assistant first polish and dried Erica's teeth, then install braces on her upper teeth, the orthodontist checked and adjusted the placement of the braces, the assistant cured the cement with UV light, finally installed the wires. The whole thing only took about 40 minutes. Erica was very excited about her new braces and can't wait to go back to school and show to her classmates. She is due back for adjustments in 8 weeks, she will wearing braces for the next 18 month!

The work has started...

Saturday started early, I was with Oscar & Mark the tile installers at the Home Depot at 8:15am buying tiles and material. I have negotiated $850 for two of them to do the tiles of 2 bathrooms, the laundry room and a little area at the kitchen wall, they expected to finish the job on Sunday. I was busy trimming the bushes and the tree at the front lawn, while the Direct TV (Satellite TV) guy was installing the dish and two sets of outlets in the house. Helen was busy cleaning the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. After that, we went to the Pacific Sales in Newbury Park to compare prices on the fridge that we want to buy, instead finding any deals on the fridge, we found lots of amazing sales on TVs! We went to Home Depot and ordered 10 gallons of paint in few colors before going back to the new house. Noel the painter came to the house at 5pm to meet and discuss painting details. I was able to negotiate for $1,000, Noel will paint the living room, dining room, kitchen, family room and the master bedroom, it's unbelievable.

I will arrange the cleaning lady to come in and clean the house next week, courtesy of Gaye, she wanted to pay for the house cleaning as part of her closing gift! After painting is done, I will clean the carpet. Some furniture will probably be delivered next Saturday, and I will start to move some existing furniture from our condo next weekend too. The window cleaning guy is super busy, he has jobs till the beginning of November, I guess we will not get our windows and sliders cleaned and screen repaired until mid-November.

We've got the key!

The loan was funded yesterday and the house was recorded under our names this morning! Helen and the girls picked up the keys from Gaye this evening! Busy weeks are ahead of us, we have tile people to put in new tiles in the bathrooms and the laundry room this weekend, painter will come in to paint the rooms, window guy will come to clean the windows, Satellite TV guy will install the dish, cable guy will install cable and new outlets, internet and digital phone, we need to replace the grandma style curtains on all five windows in the living room and dining room, we need to rent a heavy duty machine to clean the carpet, cleaning lady will come and clean the house, furniture will be delivered in the next two weeks, dozens back and forth trips of moving, shopping for household items....

Final walk-through

We should be able to get the keys to our new house on the 7th this coming Friday. The seller has started moving away their furniture yesterday, we had final walk-through with Gaye this morning at 10, everything seems in great condition. We have already ordered some furniture yesterday afternoon for the new house and they should be delivered in a couple of weeks. The girls are very excited about the move and they have already started packing... In the next two weeks, we will be busy scheduling the tile guy to install the tiles for the laundry room, master bathroom, window guy to fix the screens and clean the windows, a cleaning lady to clean the whole house. carpet cleaning, painting, furniture delivery, hook up of utilities and internet/ cable/ satellite TV services and the move. After that we need to fix up & clean up the condo and put it on the market for sale! We hope we will be all settled down by the holiday season!