The Neighbors

I met our immediate neighbors the day we closed on the house. Val was off getting her drug test and physical while I hung around the house.

They are both retired for the school district Cooper will be attending. She was a third grade teacher at the school cooper will be attending and he was a superintendent. They have already given us some helpful advice and Val used their names when signing Cooper up for school.

Also, they have a big blackberry bush that they don't eat blackberries so when my parents were here we harvested a bunch of those. They also have apple, pear and pecan trees that they don't pick, so we may be the gleaners of their yard. They have given us some zucchini and squash from their garden as well as zucchini bread.

The day we moved in at least 4 families came over to say hello, including the people who live kind of behind us. They have 3 kids. Two boys on either side of Cooper and a girl I think is 5. Cooper and their boys have become quick friends. He spends a lot of time riding bikes and playing with them.

First Day

So today is Val's first day of work.

So it is my first day alone, all day with both kids.

I hope tonight after the kids go to bed to write about our move from getting our stuff to today.

Moving In

So here is what it looked like having our stuff delivered.

artist depiction

The Movers

So today the movers came, and now I am sitting in a pretty empty house. Tomorrow I need to clean and do paint touch ups.

I had planned on taking pictures to document the moving experience, but I forgot to get out my camera, so enjoy this graphic representation of what happened today.

This is NOT an actual photo.

The View from Here

So here is how our house looks right now.

The packers came today and packed the house from 8:30-3:30.

Greg Jensen came over today and helped me move some stuff around and get stuff together.

It has been a long couple of days. The movers come Friday, so I think I will go to bed early today. In the morning I will move everything that I am going to take with me to the furnace room and start patching holes. Saturday I should be able to do all my touch ups and last minute items and get the car loaded up to head to MO on Sunday.

Late to Bed, Early to Rise

So the post for the next couple of days will be short. I am trying to get ready for the packers that come today. I was up last night doing laundry and getting our phone/internet/cable bundle set up for the new house. We have a phone number now. I will try to get that information out to everyone, otherwise feel free to email me chadmwelchATgmailDOTcom.

I may or may not get to it before I leave MN. Then it will at least be until after Tuesday.

Val is in Illinois with the kids. I hope she is having a wonderful time getting the chance to be alone with the kids for a while.

Home Alone

So I am back in Minnesota. By myself. I will be here cleaning up and overseeing the movers. Then I will go back to Missouri and spend some time there alone painting and getting the house ready. Once the furniture arrives the rest of the family will join me and we will officially be living in MO.

I will write more later, but I have a lot to do and I am really hungry.

First and Last Collide

There are a lot of last and first in our life right now.

One of the first is I ordered the first thing with our new address. I redeemed some Pamper's points. It takes 6-8 weeks, so I feel confident that we will be in our house before it comes.

Today was also a last for us. Our last small group with this group of people. We have been through several small groups, even tried leading a couple, but for the first time in that I really felt like we were connecting and growing through that. In a very short time we have truly grown to love this group of people and we will miss having them as a regular part of our lives.

So here are to the first yet to come and to the last that are quickly coming to an end. To both the joy and sadness that comes with any major change.

Last Days

Today is Valerie's last day of work. I am sure there will be some emotion throughout today for her.

In 1 week is Cooper's last day of school.

It is all so close, yet seems so far away.

2...1...0

In 2 weeks Cooper has his last day of school. Immediately following that we head out of MN for the last time.

In 1 week Valerie has her last day of work. Never to take call again.

House Photos

Don't have time to write a lot right now, but here are some pictures of the house. We will close on the house June 9th.

House Hunting

Here we are in STL.

We left Thursday and got to STL Friday around noon. We went house hunting Friday and most of the day Saturday.

At 9:58 last night we had a contract on a house.

It doesn't have a pool, but it has 1.4 acres and an AWESOME kitchen.

Hopefully we will get some pictures up when we get back to MN.

It is rainy here, but its not snowing!

Happy Mother's Day!

100 Days

So, our house has been on the market for 100 days* today.

We have had some interest in the house and we continue to have showings but an actual bid eludes us to this date. We are still hopeful that as spring finally seems to arrive here in Minnesota that our house will get sold.

The bad news is half the houses in our neighborhood are for sale, the good news is we are still on the low end so I'm not sure how many we are directly competing with.

For those playing along at home here are our stats so far:

# of times this property was included in search results	3814
# of requests for detail pages about this property	398
# of times Showing Time button has been clicked	6
# of Virtual Tours run for this property	27
# of people who currently have this property saved	2

*THE AVERAGE FOR THE TWIN CITIES METRO IS 165