The house search is OVER!

Thank goodness! We'll be moving in to our new house in Tinton Falls on July 6th. Hopefully the movers are able to deliver our belongings that day too, apparently its the busiest week of the year. We had to buy a washer, dryer, and refrigerator which should conveniently arrive Thursday, day before we move in. Nick had his heart set on a front loading washer so we paid a little extra money and bought the top of the line Maytag. We'll see if it holds up to the raveing reviews we've read about front loaders.

The house is almost finished being completely renovated. The owner gave us the okay to measure inside the house and check on the progress of the work being done. They just sanded and refinished the hardwood floors on Monday. The kitchen countertops just went in (that I chose), and the dishwasher, oven & sink should be done by today. They still need to put tile in the finished basement and do all the lighting fixtures in the house. It's a long process but it's interesting to watch the changes as they take place.

Yesterday we took the kids to Jenkinson's Boardwalk. It's very similar to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Andrew went on a couple kiddie rides and we strolled from one end to the other. The weather was perfect. Temperature in the 70's, overcast, and not too humid. Andrew however was not perfect. I learned a lesson yesterday: Never wake your child up from a nap before they're ready.

Woo hoooo! 6 more days till we have a house and our own beds back!

Overdue for an update!

I figured it's time for an update. I was getting kind of tired of posting about houses and then not getting them, it was getting a little discouraging. The house in Howell that was on 2 acres never called me back.....they showed it to us, we told them we were interested and wanted to proceed, etc then they seemed to drop off the face of the earth. Well, lo and behold I saw it listed in the paper again yesterday and they raised the rent by $500 per month. Dirty rascals! I hope they can't rent it! We then found a house in Brick (about 15 miles South of Nick's work) that we liked
and we called the owner that evening to say we were interested and wanted to give him a deposit. He didn't return my call so I called a second time about 24 hours later. He told me that the air conditioning in the house crapped out so until they get it fixed they aren't renting it out. His story seemed a little bizarre to me and I offered to go ahead and give him a deposit and we could move in when the AC has been repaired, no big deal. He said he'd talk it over with his wife and get back to me. 2 more days go by and he calls to apologize....the AC is fine, there was never a problem. Apparently he has family drama and his relatives are living in the home and don't want to leave but now they're leaving so do we want the house.....ugh, no. Thanks but no thanks. What's up with the flaky people here? So.... on a positive note, I think we did find a place right here in Tinton Falls. I've been checking the classifieds daily and I have gotten to recognize anything new. When I saw the Tinton Falls house I called immediately. It would be most ideal to live in Tinton Falls because that is right where Nick works and where are hotel is as well so we've really gotten to know this area well. I spoke with the homeowner and he said to come on over as he'd be there painting for awhile. I went over to see it and the whole house has been rebuilt, it's brand new. It has 3 bedrooms upstairs and a finished basement. Front yard & backyard, brand new bathroom, brand new kitchen. In fact the kitchen appliances aren't even in yet. I told him right then that I wanted it and I could give him a deposit and sign paperwork although Nick won't be able to see it until Saturday. (Nick is in Michigan until Friday Night) He said he will wait until Saturday and if we want it its ours! He told me he would take the listing out of the classifieds. He also asked if I'd go to Home Depot and choose my first, second, & third choice for laminate for the countertops in the kitchen. I did that right away and brought back the color samples for him, that was a lot of fun. I was hoping he'd ask me to pick out the appliances that I want, too! So, I guess we found a house. Nick still hasn't seen it and won't see it until he's signing paperwork for it and I'm not going to officially acknowledge that we have a place until I sign something. It won't be ready until the first week in July. As for news OTHER than housing. My mom and I took the kids to NYC on Thursday. We drove into Staten Island and then took the Staten Island Ferry to Manhattan. Andrew loved getting on the boat and was enthralled with all the people watching. Lauren was also enjoying the view and the fresh sea air from the stroller. We walked into Battery Park and bought hot dogs from a stand and ate lunch on a shady bench. The weather great and we enjoyed watching a little of the hustle and bustle of the big city. We got back on the ferry and made our way back. It took about an hour each way (Tinton Falls to Staten Island Ferry)

Househunting continued......

Well we are expecting to hear something this weekend whether nay or yay on the house that we filled out paperwork on but we already have our sights set on another house. We found it in the local paper. It's in Howell which is a little further south than we were hoping for but the area is very nice. The house is on 2 acres, 4 bdrm, 2 ba, hot tub and pool, completely enclosed large backyard, lots of grass and trees. We only saw the house from the outside but from what I could see I was sold! We go back tomorrow at 9 am to see the inside. I'm hoping we can just give them a deposit right then and call it a deal. We have until Sunday night to cancel our lease offer on the other house. Nick leaves tomorrow at noon for Michigan so my fingers are crossed that after tomorrow our house search will be done.

I've been finding some great places to take the kids here. I found a really fun park that has a huge playground and also what they call a "sprayground". There are all types and sizes of spouts that either come up from the ground or spray down from above while all the kids run through with their bathing suits on. Andrew got the hang of it fast and he loved it. That will be a great place to go on those hot and humid days.

The 3 houses

We saw 3 houses. The first one was definitely a no from the second we walked in. It was an older home with small rooms, old appliances, etc. The one thing going for it was its big enclosed backyard. The second home was very cute. It's a "cape" style which I'm guessing means Cape Cod. It's bright red on the outside and nice wood on the inside. It has a front and back yard although the back is all moss and there is a large pond that extends across a few houses. The pond is my main concern on that one. Andrew is quite the adventurer so we'd need to figure out some kind of fence. The last house seemed huge but we just didn't like it. The living room floor was tiled the kind of tile you would see in a bathroom or kitchen. Each room was a different color including bright green and light blue. The owner said we could repaint but that's about the last thing I need to worry about. There were too many negatives to consider the last house. We decided to pursue the second house and we filled out some paperwork with the realtor last night. One thing that could be a problem though is this house is for sale. They are expecting to receive an offer on Sunday. I'm not sure why they're trying to rent it out while it's on the market but the realtor seems to think that it will be pulled off the market if it's rented. If they choose to accept our lease we added a clause that we will have first right of refusal to purchase the house during the lease period.
Nick will be leaving for Grand Rapids, Michigan on Sunday and will be there until Friday. His company will be there during the first implant of their cardiac device in the U.S.

Wish us luck!

House search is on!

When we arrived it was very warm, humid, and sunny. We got up yesterday and dressed in preparation for a hot day. About an hour after leaving the sky turned dark and it began pouring. The storm is due to last 48+ hours. It originally was a tropical storm but it was downgraded to just a plain old storm. I guess I should find out what the difference is. We also met with a realtor yesterday and she searched the area and came up with 10 or so available homes for rent. The list quickly got reduced down to 3 houses due to size, area, other factors etc. She gave us directions to see the outside of the homes and told us to call and let her know which we'd like to see in person. The first was in Hazlet, about 10 miles north of Nick's job. The other two are in Ocean Township which is just a few minutes south of his job. I'd like to see the inside of all of them and the agent is working on setting up the appointments for tomorrow night. I wouldn't mind just staying at the Residence Inn. ;-) Not only do they serve a full breakfast but they do dinner too! And we have a "suite attendant" - a fancy term for housekeeper. I won't have a cook and a maid when we find a house.

Oh! We learned something new yesterday (after missing our turn) - they don't do many u-turns or left turns at traffic lights here. Instead, they have "jughandles" in which you veer off to the right and then make a left to turn around. Apparently jughandle is a common term here and used as a verb "Just make a jughandle at Bethany Road"

WE ARE HERE!!

We made it to Tinton Falls, NJ just after 8:30 pm. I'm so happy we're out of the car and here in one piece! We meet with a real estate agent tomorrow to hopefully check out a few rentals in the area. I'll update more tomorrow.

Ohio turnpike - pretty drive!

Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio

We drove around 500 miles again yesterday and managed to cover 4 states. We left Iowa around 10 ish and there was dense fog and it was very cool. We've seen many roadside stops that claim to be the biggest, best, smallest, longest of whatever they're claiming such as "Iowa 80- The World's Largest Truckstop" Just how do they know, anyway? Illinois was greener than I expected and we stopped there for lunch. It was 88 degrees and was veeeeery humid. I guess we'd better get used to humid! We hit pretty heavy traffic in the Chicago area and there were more semi trucks then there were cars. It was difficult to read road signs. I've been taking pictures of all of the states welcome signs and we missed the "Welcome to Indiana". The first city was Gary, Indiana and was not a place you'd wanna stop. Crime is pretty heavy there. We also entered our first "toll road"on the turnpike. Neither of us were really clear how a toll road worked. You take a ticket at the first booth and it has a little chart of how much you'll need to pay to get off at the various exits. There are also "travel centers" that are kind of like rest stops, gas stations, and fast food all rolled in to one. You can only use the travel centers for gas or food or else you'd need to pay the toll upon exiting the freeway and have to get a new ticket upon reentering. We were on the first toll road for 2 hours. There are lots of farms along the roadside with big red farmhouses, just as you'd expect a farm to look. We got to Ohio at dusk and had to go 118 more miles to get to our hotel in Sandusky. Sandusky apparently is a big tourist spot. It's right on Lake Erie and it's the home of Cedar Rapids Theme Park. We got to our hotel after 9 and the kids were beyond ready to get out of the car. We entered the building that our room was in and - no kidding - it was about 120 degrees. We opened our room and the AC had been cranked so it was much cooler. I went to close the curtain and there was a brown smear of who-knows-what on it. The room also hadn't been cleaned too well because the toilet seat was all the way up and there was a lid to some kind of aerosol can on the ground. I told Nick that "we can't stay here, this place is disgusting". "It's only one night, we'll go to sleep and leave first thing in the morning" he told me. Nick went back out to get stuff out of the car and saw a guy running from the parking lot into the bushes. As he was on his way back an RV tried to drive under the underpass entrance and hit our bldg! There were now chunks of concrete falling. That was pretty much the straw that broke the camels back and he was convinced to leave too. We packed up all our stuff, got back in the car. Lauren about lost it getting back in the car and Andrew was too tired to protest. We got to the Marriott in Sandusky after 11:30. It was MUCH better. So now we're all packed up, kids are clean, fed, watered and we're about to get back on the turnpike at 10:45 EST. We've got 50-60 miles left of Ohio, then Pennsylvania, then we'll be in NJ! It's the LAST DAY of driving Wooooohoooooo!

Nebraska/Iowa

Nebraska was different than I thought. I was expecting to see corn fields upon corn fields and boring terrain. It was actually very green with lots of trees right up to the road. There were also lots of swampy ponds which probably explains the turtle that was crossing the road! We also saw tons of deer and something else which could have been a marmot. Our stay at the "entertainment capital" was short and uneventful. We arrived sometime after 9 pm and the onsite restaurant had closed so Nick dropped us off at the hotel and came back with fast food. I'm really looking forward to a real meal, I can't tell you how sick of fast food or fried food I am. So, about the "entertainment" part....this hotel had an indoor pool and an attached tiki bar. I took Andrew swimming and he loved it.

Our plan was to be on the road by 9 am but I guess when you have kids nothing goes according to plan. It was 10:30 that we finally took off. We went through Omaha and Des Moines, Iowa and all the way to Iowa City where we're staying now. Iowa is much like Nebraska but has more hills. Nick pointed out that the rivers here look different in that the trees go right up to the water's edge rather than having a bank. We arrived somewhat early yesterday, around 5. We were starving so we just ate at the restaurant here at the hotel. Only problem was that all the options were fried and greasy. They even fry macaroni & cheese. Andrew ended up having a complete meltdown at the table because the waitress didn't bring him juice when she brought our drinks out. Poor little guy. Nick ended up taking him back to the hotel room before our food was ready so I got it all boxed up and took it back to our room. I think the kids have hit their traveling cut-off point. They're done. I can't blame them, but unfortunately we still have 1000 miles to go. So we're supposed to arrive on Saturday (tomorrow) which means that we need to drive 500 miles today and 500 miles tomorrow. We'll go through Illinois today and maybe Indiana and part of Ohio.