We are homeowners! We signed the paperwork on John’s 35th birthday (May 27th — happy birthday, my darling!) and got the keys the next day. It’s amazing having our own place. Amazing.

It’s a gorgeous 3 bedroom 2 bath home in an established older neighborhood in central Fairbanks. It has a lovely fenced backyard, and I have three beautiful lilac trees (two white, one purple) and a couple spruce on the property. There are two bedrooms upstairs, a guest bathroom, the living room, and the kitchen/dining area.

The basement is fully finished, and it houses the third bedroom, master bath, laundry area, and second living room. The larger bedroom upstairs is our main sleeping quarters, and the second bedroom is for the kids. The “master bedroom” downstairs is going to be used as the playroom. The second living room is going to serve double duty as John’s office and my crafting corner. The kitchen makes me insanely happy, with its solid surface countertop and stainless steel five-star energy-rated appliances. Actually, the whole house makes me insanely happy. I love our house.

We picked out a living room set (dark chocolate leather reclining matching sofa and loveseat) that should be in stock in about six weeks, and I picked out a lovely dark chocolate rocker/recliner for my crafting corner. The old leather loveseat we have now is going into the playroom. I decided that I’m going to stain all of my existing accessories (end tables, coffee table, tv stand, kids’ chairs, dining chairs) a cherry/mahogany/dark chocolate color. The walls will eventually change from the cafe au lait tan they are now to something more… vibrant. I’m thinking a citrus-y yellow in the living room, a key lime green accent wall in the kitchen, maybe a warm brick red accent wall in the living room. The bedroom right now is a pale sky blue with brown trim, and while I like that there is color, I’m going to change that too, though am undecided as to what it will become. For John’s sake, I will leave my craft corner/his office the cafe au lait tan it is, but the playroom is going to be bold. There might be four different colors (one for each wall), one main bold color with accent pieces painted directly onto the walls, or anything in between. I want it colorful though. A lifetime in rentals with white walls has always gone against my nature. I may even take up painting again to be able to change up the accents for each of my rooms. I’ve missed painting.

I haven’t been much help, I fear, in the moving process. Packing and toting have been difficult for me, what with being 37+ weeks pregnant. John has mostly been left to his own devices for packing the old place and lugging it all over here. Wildfires closed the road to the mine last week, so John was able to get more done since he had to stay home for the week. I did help by managing to get rid of a lot more items (for trash or donations) than I expected to be willing to let go of, and will continue to do so as more of our stuff makes its way over here. Maybe all that will have to wait until after baby comes.

Speaking of baby, I’m 37+ weeks pregnant, officially due June 25th yet I fully expect to deliver before then. We’re having a little boy, whose name has yet to be determined. I’ll be attempting a VBA2C and am quite excited to be done being pregnant. I’m actually “done” now, but apparently this little guy isn’t ready to be on the outside yet. Care to venture a guess as to when he’ll be here? Weight? Height? Maybe I’ll do a giveaway for whomever posits the closest guess!

We got internet and cable hooked up today, and that has helped quite a bit with entertaining not only me but the kids as well since the boy has been less than thrilled about John being back at work today. Yay for internet! I’ll have pictures of the house up eventually, I promise!