Last Wednesday we finally made it back to the Dunes for Pasta Night! Taite has been dreaming of going back there since we were there a couple years ago (that's an estimation for when we were there, but it's been a LONG time!). I believe it lived up to his expectations! The Pasta bar allows you to pick your meat (shrimp, chicken, etc. ~ I can't remember everything they had), your veggies (broccoli, shredded carrots, onions, etc), extras (capers, Parmesan, etc.), your noodles (penne, bow tie, fettuccine, etc.) and your sauce (marinara, Alfredo, wine sauce). You have to be VERY careful or you could blow up after eating everything you picked out because I don't care what it is ~ it all tastes good! This dinner was a sort of celebration (besides fulfilling Taite's dream :D) because we had finally figured out the house thing!!! That morning we had revisited and visited some yet again the houses we were interested in. Some were an adamant NO and some we tried to envision how we would utilize things and how we would finish the basement. . . and the winner is:
The New Construction Walk-out Rambler
This is pretty much turning out to be our dream home that we couldn't afford to build the first time. This one will cost a little more, but fits our needs now and future the best (in fact, Chris worked the numbers ~ you KNOW he did ~ and he came up with the same price per square foot we'd pay over here when we built our house ~ I think. . . now that I type that it sounds too good) but the upper level is all that will be finished when we move in and it's close to the total square foot of our whole current house! On Thursday when we were there, we picked out the faucets, door handles, and carpet. On Friday we picked out the appliances and ordered them and met with the bank to get started on the underwriting of our mortgage app ~ we LOCKED at 4.25%!!!
Here is the floor plan of the house. I color coded it to help you distinguish where the rooms start and stop because these things are kind of hard to read sometimes. The baths and laundry have tile, the bedrooms have carpet and the rest is hardwood. There is plenty of room for people so please come and visit when we are settled in!!! The island/bar has seating on 3 sides and I'm thinking I can fit 7-8 bar stools around it!
We came home on Saturday and I have to say, that is much less stressful traveling on a non-business day! I hate trying to stay connected to the internet using Chris' phone while answering mine because the business line is rolled to it. We are all ready for the move to be over so we don't have to keep making the long trip. Since this house is bigger and we are spending more money (we were thinking that some of our options would be smaller houses and we could get them for cheaper) we will be using all the furniture we currently have. That is why the one room we are using as a sitting room and it's going to have a TV with the Wii in it. We need a place to use our entertainment system so for the time being that will be it's home! In the living room, it's set up kind of like we have now with the TV above the fireplace except in this house, there are big cut-outs on either side of the fireplace ~ Chris isn't sure what we'll put in there, but I can think of some ways to fill them :D I didn't take any inside pictures because it is still being worked on. In fact, the builder had kind of gotten it to a point that the buyer could customize it a little bit and that's where he stopped. Now he assures us he'll have no trouble meeting our July 30th close date. On a separate note, most things we are finding out will cost less in SD ~ auto insurance, health insurance (we have a rep who's been trying to get us to switch and he said the rate is much cheaper in Iowa and SD, except when you are with Medica, which is who we have ~ no rate change, just change your address! Of course!!)
As sad as we are to be leaving some things behind (my grandma cries every time we see her and Chris cries every time he looks at the shed ~ just kidding) I cannot tell you how excited I am to have access to a biking path right near our house or we can go for walks after supper when we've ate too much without worrying about dust or vehicles driving by too fast. . . ahh, I can't wait!
Speaking of things we won't miss. . . stray dogs. This little guy showed up at our house and we thought he had been dropped off and he followed us around and we had a hard time keeping him out of the house! Chris finally called enough numbers and threw the 'u' word out there and a rescue person came and picked him up. She was sure he could be a neighbor's dog so she checked as she left. . . she should've kept driving. After waiting an excessive amount of time, the door was answered and the kid asked her if the dog bit her. He was not aggressive at all the whole time he was here and he played with the boys and Baby and really fit right in (NO we could not keep him ~ Bray asked many times). Chris said when he went to check and see if the dog was neutered, and he lifted his tail too high, he snapped at him, but didn't bite him. This leads us to believe he's being abused and was thrilled that we were treating him kindly. . . breaks your heart!
After the long day yesterday (took a van load full of donations to Goodwill ~ yes, with all the seats out and the back was full and then the dog situation) we were finally able to enjoy the new fire pit. The boys kept reminding us that we had promised and indeed we had. We were just waiting for the perfect night! LOL There wasn't hardly any wind and the sunset was a beautiful pink, which I was not able to capture with my camera ~ hence the price. Another thing we were not able to take a good picture of is the monster deer that lives around here!! He's back!! We last saw him before hunting season last fall, then hadn't seen him and heard there was a "big one" shot in the area last fall. Well, it was not "THE big one"! Even from our house he looks like he is a cross with a moose his rack is so big!! The only way we could get a picture was to use the binoculars and the video on the camera. Of course tonight he was much closer, but when I got the camera he went into the weeds.
I can't get the video thing to work on here, so I guess you'll just have to take our word for it ~ that or if you request it, I can email you a copy of it!
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