The Bemilie Blog

I am amazed at everything that has happened so far this year (month… what ever). Ben and I finally closed on the house and with a lot of help this past weekend we got most everything moved over from the apartment. We still have a few little things left over there, and need to clean it, but we don’t have to turn in the keys until the end of the month. We’ve been sleeping at our new home since Sunday night and I already think that for what ever reason I’m sleeping better. Even though I’m getting the same amount of sleep, I feel better rested in the morning.

We had a plumber out on Monday to fix all of these weird little things the previous owner had managed to over look or screw up and was discovered in the home inspection. Like the standing water under the house because of a clogged sump pump… I came home from getting a load from the apartment and saw water gushing from a pipe in front of our house in to the gutter. A very good thing. The plumber said he thought they pumped out near 400 gallons from under the house! Now that the pump is fixed though, we shouldn’t have that issue any more.

I am very much looking forward to getting a garden started come spring. I am already researching planting techniques and all sorts of other fun stuff. The yard is pretty much a blank slate so anything I do will be a nice change. I’m thinking of putting in quite few rose bushes, some rhododendrons, maybe a hydrangea or two… I need to start drawing out the plans. I really shouldn’t put anything in the ground until late March at the earliest because of the late growing season around here.

So the word is out, we are in fact moving in to our home by the end of this month (a bit later than we expected due to bank delays). Once we knew for sure that we would be moving in to the house we started scoping out prices on refrigerators, clothes washers and dryers. There was a pretty amazing sale going on at Sears for the end of the year, so we checked out what they had to offer. The sale was a “tiered” sale event for appliances – buy one get 10% off, two 15% off, three 20% off of the entire purchase. On top of that the washer we purchased had a lot of rebates on it including a tax rebate for being energy efficient and conserving water (being a front load washer it only uses 15 gallons of water a load instead of the 40 used by a top load). We ended up getting all Kenmore appliances and we are quite excited to get moved in and start using them. We plan to get all moved and settled in by the end of January because that’s when our apartment lease is up.

On the job front, Ben is still enjoying his work a Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon as a web programmer and IT support. He loves the familiarity and the new challenges every day. Emilie is enjoying her position at Insight Schools corporate office where she has been working as a receptionist and administrative assistant since early October. The work is challenging and rewarding.