Honey, we're home!

Yup... it's December first and we're all moved in.

Sort of.

There is still a ton of stuff in the garage. It's pretty much a huge disaster area. After the carpet was replaced on Monday we pulled most of the large furniture into the house. Now that we've finalized the positions of everything, we just need to strap the tall stuff to the wall and I can start putting things away!

The kitchen was where we started moving stuff in first since we didn't have to wait for carpet there. It looks worse than it actually is! It took almost three days to clean the cupboards and get them all lined with shelf paper. The previous tenants were GRUBBY. I'm talking sticky stuff and greasy stuff and dirty fingerprints everywhere! All the edges of the cabinets were caked with dirt and the stove was so bad that the landlord just replaced the whole thing!

Speaking of cleaning - I've been cleaning and scrubbing for a week straight now, and I'm not even done yet! I hate hate hate cleaning so this has been pretty miserable. Also, I've been using chemical cleaners like Tilex and Clorox wipes and they've just eaten up my hands. They're chapped and red and cracking and itchy and the skin between my fingers has started peeling. Normally I like to use homemade "green" cleaning products but when it comes to other peoples germs, I have a need to kill them DEAD. If that means my lungs are going to ache for a few days from inhaling Tilex fumes, so be it.

I'm on my fifth giant container of Clorox wipes. I am bad for the environment.

We scrubbed the apartment for hours to be sure that they didn't charge us any fees. The move out fees were outrageous - $10 for nonworking light bulbs, $50 for not cleaning under the fridge, $20 for a dirty ceiling fan, etc. Crazy. I have to say though, my husband was a total rock star. He worked his fanny off after I had to stop and take the boy home and put him to bed. He painted the walls in the bedroom by himself. He moved many loads of stuff and did a lot of packing while we slept. He spackled the millions of holes that I left in the walls from photos and shelving. I'm so thankful for him making this so much easier on me than I thought it was going to be! We ended up only being charged the $65 penalty for not having a professional maid service come in to clean, which I personally think is ridiculous because I guarantee you I cleaned that place better than ANY maid service would have done.

Ooh, but here is the best part of the new house:

This is the craft room!!! Okay, technically it's the master bedroom. Fortunately for me, I married a man who agrees with me that it's silly to give up that much real estate to just sleep. It makes more sense to us to have the bigger room be the one we will actually use during the day. Also, this room is on the opposite end of the house from the smaller bedrooms and I'm not comfortable being that far from the boy.

I plan to paint the wall behind the large Expedit shelf a bright, apple-y green. I have some green and white gingham curtains from Bubba's nursery decor that I will hang on that window. The bathroom in this room will be my pink one. I can't be subjecting guests to my tacky pink and Hello Kitty bathroom, haha!

I was going to take photos of the other rooms but my camera battery died. Goodness only knows where the cord to charge it is hiding.