Augusts 2009 - House work

We closed on the house April 28, 2009 and went to work right away on fixing it up. We had 1 month before moving in to do as much work as possible and boy did we work! Here are some pictures of what it looks like now....

The kitchen...

Notice the ugly wall of cabinets is gone! That was the very first thing Ron did after we closed was tear out those cabinets. We also picked out a new stove and refridgerator. That was easy, picking a kitchen color was not so easy. After several attempts we finally stumbled upon "Flower Pot" and we really like it. Notice the beautiful floors? That's thanks to my brother - thanks Steve, you're awesome! Finally, notice the big space in the middle of the floor just waiting for a center island?..... maybe someday......

The bathroom.....

The first picture is the before but it doesn't show how really terrible the room was. Don't ask us why there was a kitchen cupboard in the bathroom but it had to go. These pictures don't show the colors well but I love the colors - brushed nickel hardware, smokey blue walls and the very modern vanity. I wish I had a before picture of the bathroom door. Ron spent a lot of time stripping, scraping, sanding adn staining to restore it and now it looks great!

Living/Dining Room......

We love this open space of living/dining room. We can really relax in our new house and we love it! There is still a lot to do but we are happy to be in our own house!

We have a purchase agreement!

March 10, 2009 Our adventure continues with buying a house. After more than a week of the seller not responding to our acceptance of their offer we finally have a signed purchase agreement as of today! Now we move forward toward closing. The only problem now is that our mortgage lender says they need 30 days to complete the mortgage process but we are supposed to close March 26 per our agreement. Everybody says it should not be an issue because the seller delayed us for so long. I am just praying everybody is right (everybody being our realtor, the realtor for the seller, our mortgage lender and some other people who know real estate sales. Here's hoping they are all right. At this point we are planning the closing to take place April 15th.

I have downloaded some more pics of the house. The first pic is the basement. I really like the wood on the walls. It's a nice family room space, there are several built in storage areas including a built in cedar chest bench. The basement has a laundry corner and the second bath (a 3/4 bath technically since it has a shower stall). I wish I had taken a picture of the paneling in the downstairs bathroom with the deer pictures on it or the saloon style door with the 1/2 moon cut out of it. In this pic you might notice the "watch your head" sign on the heat duct. The ceiling is pretty low down here. My nephew Sam won't be able to stand up fully!

This next pic is standing in the living room looking into the foyer. The last three are taken upstairs. One is taken standing in what will be the spare room looking out at the stairway. The next is the guest room closet. Ben's closet is really deep like this one too. And finally a pic taken standing in Ben's room looking out to the upstairs foyer and into the master bedroom.

HOUSE HUNTING

In January 2009 we decided the time was right to pursue buying our first home. First step - pre-qualification. All went well so next the hunt began. Visiting 8 houses on the first day of our hunt left us overwhelmed and unable to keep the houses straight in our minds. There was one house that stayed in my (Sandi) mind, however. 2817 Wellington Street was a house that I felt had real potential. Unfortunately Ron's reaction was totally opposite. He said he would never - no, no, never, never - buy that house. Well, as the week went on I could not get the house out of my mind. I finally told Ron on Thursday that I needed to see the house again. He sighed and said okay and that he would go with me to take another look. The next Saturday we looked at two more houses before our realtor took us back to 2817 Wellington St. As we walked through the house for a second time Ron saw it very differently. It wasn't as bad as he remembered. Now he saw the potential I saw in it.











We left the property that afternoon thinking "maybe this is the house." We prayed, talked, prayed some more, thought, talked some more, etc. and that evening we called our Realtor to let her know we wanted to make an offer on the house! Just one week after starting the hunt and we were making an offer. It seems so quick but the house just felt right - it feels like home when I am there. It is rough but I can imagine it fixed up and am anxious to get started. So, Monday February 24th we made an offer, 2 days later we heard back that there was a counter offer. We decided to accept the counter offer so now we are expecting to close March 26th! I can't believe how quickly things have gone but we are very excited. We have a home inspection Tuesday, March 3rd and hopefully all will go well. We are looking forward to owning our own house. There will be a lot of work ahead of us but we are excited to roll up our sleeves and get busy!

Uncle Steve teaches Ben to ride the disk!

In July 2007 Steve, Amy, Sam and Dori (my brother and his family) came to Minnesota for a visit. Ben had a great time reconnecting with his cousins who were on furlough from Istanbuhl Turkey. One of the highlights of their visit was camping near Babbitt and spending time on the lake swimming, boating and learning to ride the disk. It has been awhile since I've spent much time in the area I grew up and it brought back a lot of fond memories from my childhood. We spent a lot of time at the lake! -- Sandi --

In January 2007 we travelled to New Orleans with a team from church to help with clean up from Hurricane Katrina. The first full day in New Orleans we went to the French Quater. What an experience! The sights, the sounds, the people. Here we are at Cafe' Du Monde.

The Engblom Family July, 2004

Sandi's family - taken June 2004:

Back row (l-r) Ron, Sandi, Ben, Sam, Steve, Amy

Front row (l-r) Dori, Dave and Mary