Grr! My Back!

Alright, two days of packing down and a weekend shot to hell. What fun. We went over to Kristen's brother's new house yesterday as well. At the very least we have someone that can share our misery.

The garage is quickly becoming the base-of-moving-operations. Although I'm locking the garage door, half of me wishes that someone would come and steal all of our crap so we have less to move. Moving is like file compression... The redundant and useless stuff gets thrown out. I'm just hoping that when we get everything over to the new house, we're not all pixelated.

On the way back from Kristen's brother's place, we stopped at Cabella's in Owatonna for me to spend the gift card I received from Kristen's folks for my Master's graduation. Aside from being a frickin' natural history museum, that store is just overwhelming. I need an advisor to assist me in best spending my gift card. If anyone has any great ideas, let me know...

We received the results of our radon test today. We're just a little higher than the EPA recommends. I have this image in my mind from the movie Airplane! where the gauge is reading 'A Little Hot'.

So, it looks like we'll have to look into radon mitigation and how much that'll cost us... This makes me wonder about our 100-year-old house in Granton and what the radon readings were like there. As one of Kristen's professors was fond of saying, we live a 'frail and transitory existence and ye knoweth not when the man with the sickle cometh to take you away.' (Doug Heidenreich) However bad the radon is, it won't suck as much as our toxic black mold.

Kristen and I bought some moving supplies from the Depot two nights ago. We'll probably spend the better part of this weekend packing things up. According to our realtor, we're still on-schedule to close by the 10th of March. We'll probably move all of the big stuff on the 18th.

Time to get to work...

Unconditional Acceptance-A Contract It Is

It's official-the bank has deemed us worthy enough to loan money to us at a substantial profit. Bless their hearts. But in all seriousness, we've had a wonderful experience with our loan officer, Wanda. So closing day is March 10, at a place and time to be determined. The next few weeks will be filled with packing and commitments to paint colors.

The photos above are in our kitchen. We want to paint the kitchen Sweet Chamomile (Behr paint) and painting the cabinets white. We'll be redoing the countertops eventually in blue. A wedding gift from Monica and Karen has inspired our decor.

The master bedroom is currently pale pink. We're going to be painting the bedroom Glacial Tint (Behr) with other blue accents.

In other news, Axel, the wonder dog, weighed in today at a hefty 7.7 pounds. He is five weeks old today, and will be joining our household madness on Sunday the 19th, once the move is complete. After going to Dawn's house on Sunday, we've decided to get him his own tent. Check it out.

Don't worry, we'll stop short of the doggie outfits. Here's Axel chewing on a toy. Not as cute as Andrew Knoff, but as close as we're going to get for quite some time.

Puppydom

I think I can now be a little more official regarding our future puppy. It's looking like we're going to be able to buy one of our friend Dawn's labrador puppies...

Dawn is probably our first official 'St. Peter' friend (besides the folks at Kristen's work that are contractually obligated to hang with us). And, actually, Dawn's family has long-time ties with Kristen's family on her Dad's side (small world, huh?). Dawn's dog, Lizzy had a litter of seven pups, three yellows, three chocolates and one black a little more than 5 weeks ago. Our little man, 'Axel' is the puppy on in the picture on the right with the pink nose. Dawn has been keeping a complete record of the growth of the puppies on her blog -- and, I have to admit, kind of inspired me to start ours.

We're supposed to find out the official, official, final, final word from the bank tomorrow. As it seems things have gone smoothly thus far, I am cautiously optimistic about the remainder of the process. We're still hoping that the closing can take place on or around March 10th. Puppy as soon as we can get the house set to sleep in and puppy-ready. I'm going to try to appreciate our urine-free days between now and then.

(At left: Mike, circa 1986 with beagle-mutt puppy from one Denny Jakobi and family)

Ace is the Place for the Helpful Hardware Swansons

We spent the first of our $1,000 St. Peter bucks at the hardware store yesterday. They had the 'everything you fit in a bag is 20%' off sale. We managed to fit over $200 worth of house crap into the bag before we decided that enough was enough. All of the stuff will either assist in moving or in our work on the new place. There will be plenty more to buy.

Some of the materials list: digital thermostat, painters tape, sand paper, painting accessories, carpenter's level, insulation foam, wood glue, cable snake and much, much more... We also took a trip down to Mankato and picked out a new bed that will arrive shortly after we move in. The mattress we're currently sleeping on is literally older than we are.

Kristen also got a great new hair cut. She can't decide if she likes it better straight or curly... I think it looks great both ways, but she wasn't sure if I was being honest or just trying to be a gentlemanly husband. It looks nice, dammit.

At church today, the pastor correctly identified us at communion, and then, as we were 'going in peace', congratulated us on our medallion success. I think if there is such a thing as being 'famous' in St. Peter, we're it. Unlike Gary Colemen, we'll be sure to reinvest the proceeds of our fame -- probably in a dishwasher.

Our House and Our Dog

I thought I might start keeping this blog as a record of Kristen's and my adventures in purchasing, repairing and living in our new house. We're also hoping to get a puppy soon after we move in (on or around March 10)... And it might also be cool to watch our puppy grow and become a part of the family. That's why I thought the name 'Housetraining in St. Peter' was appropriate.

Our (future) house is in St. Peter, MN where Kristen, and I just moved a few months ago. We're currently living in an apartment with a terrible mold problem (ah, the spores!) and hope to be out very soon after we close. The new house belonged to the mother-in-law of the dentist downtown (she's moving into assisted living). It is in wonderful shape, so they must have looked after her pretty well. The basement is unfinished (and that project will certainly be a large part of this blog). The first order of business, however, will be chopping down those awful arbor vitaes in front of the house. Can you tell the house has a front door?

Kristen and I are both very excited about moving, if not to have a place of our own, more to be able to get a dog. I've been busying myself with searching for a dog for the last month (more on that when it become a sure-thing). I've also made a pest of myself at the local lumber yard, Home Depot and Menards asking about the characteristics of various types of fencing.

It will be an adventure, that is for sure. Hopefully the blog will help us to look back on the challenges and laugh -- and to look back on our successes and gloat!