The new home deets

Hi there! Been a few weeks since I've posted, we're still getting settled in at the rental. We had an icky week in there with Galileo picking up a nasty stomach bug, truly the worst he's ever had and what could not have been worse timing with having no doggy door! We had to take the poor dude out almost every hour, including through the night, for several days. Needless to say, he was hurting and Rob and I were super sleep deprived. It was pretty gnarly, but the Warrenskis are back in business!

We went last weekend to our new home sales center and signed all the official contract paperwork, we're in business there, too! They had some of the standard features to show us this time, too. Other than the icky linoleum-like vinyl flooring for the bathrooms, we're really excited about everything they showed us. Sorry, this post may be a bit boring and TMI for most people, but I figured for the house-nerdy like us, and our parents, it might be fun to see it come together. We swung by the site first, nothing happening yet, but there's some big equipment sitting out, all good signs! Oh, and how cool is this: in the next few weeks, we're going to get our own hard hats!!!

We do seem to have a squatter, maybe we should charge him rent?
Here we're checking standards out, looking good so far!
Here's the appliances: we're excited that stainless steel comes standard, it'll be nice to use our option upgrade bucks on something else.
Here's the lighting fixtures, everything is done in that rubbed bronze finish that we LOVE and had upgraded our last home to anyway...kinda cool we've got our own style right out of the gate!
The chandeliers in the hallway, dining room, and stairways are GORGEOUS and again something we would have picked out, fun!


Bathroom fixtures and faucets, same thing.
This is kinda hard to see, but these are the dark cabinets that will be in the kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry room, it's laying on the tile options that we love and the vinyl options (on top) that are wah wah. The carpet's pretty weak sauce, too - super thin, I'm sure we'll have to upgrade that as well.
It's all happening!!!

The Big Move!!!

It's official, we moved!!! Last weekend on Friday, we started taking trips over to the rental place in La Jolla. Considering we rented a fully furnished place (down to the forks and knives, etc), you'd think we'd barely had to bring anything with us! Well, you must not know us very well because we still had to take almost 5 trips with the 4Runner for pete's sake! We kept saying this was going to be the year of Zen living, but I guess Zen living still means bringing a ton o' crap with us. Isn't Rob looking so overjoyed? This was our first load on Thursday night, I think we're both realizing just how arduous of a process this move will be.
Friday I took another load over, Friday night we did another together. G certainly couldn't be bothered about the whole thing. While the chaos ensued around him, he just took it easy. No, no, Galileo, don't get up.
Saturday the movers came and they were the greatest. They went to work right away and it was insanity. Here Rob helps break down the pull out couch.

No, really, Galileo. We got this one, you just enjoy yourself.
Our movers ruled - they got our whole place packed up in about 3 1/2 hours!
From there, they were driving to put all our stuff into storage pods...kinda nice not to have any responsibility for our stuff at this point. It's going to be like Christmas once we unpack it all in the winter!
Rob had to scrub down our BBQ for a ride in our 4Runner, not a fun job.

I'm sure he didn't need a hand. You just enjoy yourself, little man.

We literally had to kick Galileo off the couch when it came time for them to wrap it up in their saran wrap stuff, he wasn't having it! He and I took another load over the rental, with dog as my copilot, there can be no wrong in the world. Poor little guy's world has been rocked, it was a tough few days, but I think he's totally adjusted to his new digs now. Plus we're spoiling him rotten with lots and lots of walks each day.

I actually had a tougher time saying goodbye to our house than I thought I would. It started to hit me just how many great memories we'd had in that place - it was truly our little love nest and our security, and we'd poured so much of our heart and souls into the place. It was sad to say goodbye, I bawled for a solid hour prior to closing the door one last time.
I'm thinking this car window we saw on the way was pretty telling (it says: Warrens #1)!

And now came the process of unpacking in the rental, which actually wasn't such a bad gig! We got a 2nd wave of energy (read: sleep deprivation plus some seriously strong coffee) I think we were both motivated to no longer be surrounded by boxes - our lives for the last 1.5 months have been pretty chaotic and it was nice to be unpacked and settled. For now. We LOVE our little rental, though, it's tiny but nice.Here's our back patio:
The pool at the rental is legit - it's great fun there and we've already relaxed and enjoyed the non-packing, non-moving, non-house selling portion of our year in style:
We got zero space in the tiny rental for guests, but come on over! You could always sleep in a pool cabana. :)

Seriously, though, it's been a very stressful month. The last 2 weeks have been particularly awful, we lost $10,000 off our sale price when a 2nd appraisal came in under what our buyer was willing to pay - apparently banks are really nervous and cautious right now. But even worse was our buyer turned evil at the last minute and pulled all sorts of squirrely moves at the 11th hour; our agent, HIS agent, and we were thrilled to be done with him by the end. I am so sad our sweet little place isn't going to a nicer person, but so be it. Rob wants our little house to haunt him but I'm just hoping he'll see the light and be a nicer person...he certainly was pretty icky towards us. But, it's all good. We've both experienced such a peace leaving our place and moving on, plus it doesn't hurt that our rental is such a fun little place.

Happy Warrens, once again!

Nawlins part trois, enough food already!

Our last full day in New Orleans, we really packed it in. We started off the morning for Jazz Brunch at Commander's Palace and it was spectacular. The food was fantastic (are you sensing a theme here?). I had something called Shrimp Tasso and crab and eggs, Rob had Egg Couchon de Lait, which basically means "You'd sell your soul to eat this dish" in french. It was really fun to have the jazz musicians during brunch as well, a very cool experience through and through.

And, of course, one more bloody mary! It wasn't so great, though..but I guess anything would pale in comparison to the food.

After Commander's Palace we were stuffed, so we walked more through the Garden District.Ann Rice's House: And, wonders upon wonders, we ended up at a Bloody Mary bar! Igor's, a total hole in the wall, but AMAZING bloody mary, #7 didn't disappoint!

And then, more Bourbon street goodness! Rob tried a "Hand Grenade" at the Tropical Isle, crazy strong, but apparently, a Nawlins rite of passage:I got to know the Hand Grenade mascot pretty intimately:Pat O'Briens had amazing bloody mary's (#8 for those playing along at home) and hurricane's:

That night we went to Galatoire's for dinner, some of the best food I've ever had (again). It was very old-school.Our waiter was amazing, he spent so much time with us and gave us some great recommendations. Rob had Oysters Rockafeller:

and I had the most fantastically creamy, fatty - get thee to a gym - rockin' meal called Shrimp Marginuay. Seriously delicious!

And then, more live music!

Some of the best gumbo jazz I'd ever seen, although of course it pales in comparison to Evil Aunty T. :) These guys were great!

And our last morning, we had an amazing breakfast at the Old Coffee Pot...and guess what I had? Bloody Mary #9 (technically swiped from Rob but it still counts). What a fantastic trip all in all. We needed some relaxation and non-house obsession time, it was perfect!