2824 Parkwood Lane

Much like our Fargo home... Looks are deceiving. This "raised ranch" is 2738 sq ft ~ 4+ bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 living rooms, Huge kitchen, dinning area, mud room, walk-in pantry, office area, large storage room with work bench, HUGE unfuninished area in basement, 2 stall garage with wall to wall storage and a huge workshop area, new 25 x 12 deck, and a PERFECT back yard. There is so much roominess I LOVE IT!!

Here are few pictures of our "soon to be" house. Now keep in mind that these pictures were taken during the home inspection, so its not our stuff, choice of wall color or decor. Nor is it our mess. Any its a visual to show the space and layout.

Entering the house from the attached garage is this lovely mudroom/laundry room, that any mother of young kids would envy. Tons of closet space, and durable ceramic tile for all those wet, muddy shoes and gear and the washer right there to toss them in. This room excites me the most!


Brad is relaxing in the upstairs living room that you enter upon coming through the front door. The opposite wall with the big french doors lead you to the deck overlooking the SWEET yard.


The tree line comes up the sides of the yard to give us privacy and containment. When there are leaves on the trees its so thick you feel like you are on the edge of a forest. We're cleverly tucked back in a quiet development, so you rarely see or hear traffic. The homes in this neighborhood are very beautiful, and we've seen lots of kids, during our couple visits- so looking forward to a living in a great neighborhood.


This is the fabuolous master bath :-) The wall color has to go, but the tub can stay! A walk-in closet, shower, toliet (of course) and nice long sink/counter top of the master bath.


I'm super excited to have a kitchen big enough for all of us... and all our stuff. Everyone hangs out in the kitchen, and you are always stepping over kids, toys, and each other. Well not in this baby. There is a spot for everyone and everything. The long counter is an eat at bar and then the dinning area is just off that with a big bay window. Again terrible choice of colors, so with some new counter tops and a little paint, it'll be perfect.

I'm already mentally moving in, and planning paint and furniture placement. I just need a little elbow grease... so watch for details on a painting and a moving party, and we'll see ya then ;-)

We got a house!!

After backing out from the building idea, and placing a long shot offer on a house in September we were exhausted and decided to lay low key for awhile. It was quite discouraging and we had had enough house hunting for a while. As mentioned before the housing market is disgusting out here. Old, outdated homes with no backyards for lots of money~ not of interest. Duluth certainly isn't the on the up and up for new development...I guess building on rock isn't so cheap and easy.
Anyway the house that we made the long shot offer on in September, continued to sit on the market, so just a few weeks ago out of curiousity we had our realtor inquire about it to see if they had changed their minds and would be willing to entertain our offer again. They came back with a rock bottom price that was almost $50,000 less than their original listing price... and only $8,000 more than our offer. So we went for it! Throw in all appliances (inc washer/dryer), play structure and window treatments and we've made up the difference. After a week long scuffle of paper between their lender and relocation we are good to go and signed the purchase agreement last Friday, locking in on a 5.125% interest rate :-)

The sellers are in a tough spot on this deal. The husband was relocated to Minneapolis for work (already living there), and with the financial loss on the sale of their home they were working with a relocation company to help with the process. Now I'm not sure how relocation company's work and what help they give to recoup the costs, but I do know they got in our way, and drug out the process to getting a purchase agreement signed. Part of the issue is that we are buying the home for $23,000 LESS than what they paid for it in 2006. So as a seller they have to bring a big wad of cash to the closing table. YIKES-crappy for them... But Sooooo good for us ;-) We were good on our end... just waiting for them to get their crap together.
We set Feb 3rd as a closing day (moving in day) as we are still tied to our townhouse lease until April 30th. Unless our unit gets re-rented before April we will be paying rent and a mortgage. That would really suck- so If you know anyone looking for housing in Duluth PLEASE send them my way. Thankfully we have the ability to close and move in earlier should we find re-renters.
Its a great house, with lots of space (2738 sq ft) and a gorgeous back yard. I'll post some pix and more specific next time.
FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY is all I've got to say in closing.

Rockin N' Rolling

Gosh he just can't get any closer to taking off and gettin' on the go than this. He gets on his hands and knees and rocks and rocks and rocks... almost like he's trying to build enough momentum so he can shoot out of the gates and sprint to the other side of the room.
You can see here the determination and sigh of frustration.

What started as backward scooting has turned into backwards crawling, and now he's gone to taking 1 or 2 strides forward before throwing in the towel and resorting to the good ol' barrel roll. Its exciting to see him on the brink of a new milestone, but I'm not quite on top of the child proofing thing, yet. So I've got some work ahead of me this week.

All I want for Christmas is my 2 Front Teeth...

...Nope its not the big boys... But the little man. We are talking the first round here... He's got bulging top gums with little pearly whites trying to poke through. A swipe in there today finds one of them just breaking the surface and faintly sharp to the touch. I'm torn with the excitement of sprouting new teeth and sadness of saying goodbye to his toothless grin. Its just one more thing that proves he's growing up too fast.

We knew something was up this past weekend, as he just wasn't his happy self. And no wonder with these kinda choppers making their way- I'd be crabby too!

Moving Uplander

There was no time better than now to Move on Up and upgrade the ol' Mini van. The thermostat was slow to heat, the brakes were worn from age and the sloping hills of Duluth, and the power window was starting to slip off the track. So instead of pumping the money into repairs, we choose to put it toward a down payment of a new van- with 100,000 mile warranty. What we got was a silver Chevrolet Uplander (see picture). Its rated pretty highly and has all the other things that are important... that's Brad's department- I just care about how it drives and what it looks like. The first thing the boys noticed was that they have their own little speakers in the back by their seats. The old van had the speakers in the far back, which was usually blocked by luggage or the stroller. So now they get to hear their tunes loud and clear.
Its funny how you just get used to things... Not only the way a new vehicle rides smoother, or heats faster. But how much more firm the seat cushions are, and how sensitive good brakes are. A little getting used to, but there's no complaining here. I've never been so excited about Mini-Van!!

Our Little Thanksgiving

Like previously noted we celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving at home, just the 5 of us. We were pretty traditional...watched the Macy's parade, hung out in jammies most of the day, and I browsed the flyers throughout the day for a total of 4+ hours- carefully making my 4 am shopping plans. But really overall we just enjoyed the day together without any interruptions. Dylan and Riley provided the lovely center pieces~ that they made at their school. And they were excellent helpers with setting the table.

Brotherly Love

I've been trying to get a cute picture of the 3 boys to put on desk at work, and needless to say its a little difficult. I can't seem to get all 3 looking at the camera, with anything but a goofy face, or at least their whole face showing. There's always a hand or head in front of someone, or they are horsing around and not paying attention to my photo shoot. So although I didn't get that PERFECT picture of my crew, it captured their true brotherly love.