OUR house!

We bought a house!!! Wow! It's an incredible feeling.

I mean, being desperate to be a homeowners seems like we've been brainwashed by our material culture. And maybe we have been. But for a handy guy and a creative lady, renting just wasn't cutting it anymore.

We moved in with Brian's parents, Phil and Gion, in August 2010, and we started house-hunting in January. We got a hold of realtor Jolene Horn, who we have several connections with. We went to school with her daughter, a couple of friends (friend couple) had bought a house with her help a few months earlier, and Jolene and her husband Glenn (also a realtor) go to Parkfield Music Festival with my parents. We really enjoyed working with Jolene (and Glenn as the process went on). She is easy to talk to, responds quickly to all my emails and calls, and she's relentless when dealing with all the different parties you deal with in the home-buying process. We were grateful we went with Jolene, especially when the offer was accepted on our home, and it became as complicated a purchase as is imaginable.

It felt like we jumped right into serious house hunting. I believe it was about a month after we started looking at properties that we put our first offer on a house in Paso Robles. It was a cute little house. Not too little actually. It was 3 bedroom, 2 bath, plenty of space for us, and a studio for me. It was basically move in ready. We were a little concerned about living in Paso. We ideally wanted to be in Atascadero. It was also a little north of downtown, which can be a little sketchy in parts. And the yard was small, very small.

We were outbid on that one.

A little while later we found a cute little house in Atascadero, Cayucos Avenue. Little was the key descriptor for this place. 2 bedroom, 1 bath, small living space and tiny kitchen. But the neighborhood was nice, and there was enough land that we could imagine adding on eventually.

We were outbid on that one too. 

BUT bidding on the Cayucos house was the best thing that we could have done because the agent for that house found out about us. A little family with a baby. Father's a special education teacher. Mother stays at home and is an oil painter. Who wouldn't want to help find this awesome family a house!?!

He gave us a tip on a bank-owned home he was selling on Santa Lucia Road. It had been listed quite a bit above our price limit, but the agent knew our pre-approval amount, so . . . 

We put an offer on it, and it was accepted!! 

Then the real work started. 

More meeting with our awesome loan advisor Kay Otis, lots and lots of paperwork at the Academe Real Estate office. We even had to do work on the house BEFORE we closed so we could get our USDA loan (all approved by the bank owner). Luckily my dad's cousin Bob, a contractor, came down to help. And a handful of amazing family members and friends came over to tear down the death trap of a deck that needed to come down for financing.

After the work was done, and the appraisal was complete, it seemed like we waited and waited for financing news and title company news (the escrow was actually pretty fast, but it just seems like you're waiting and waiting). 

Jolene fought to get us a new water heater, which is incredible since it was bank-owned! . . . hint, there was a warranty involved. 

More waiting, more signing.

On April 11th, we had the house re-keyed because that's what the bank wanted. 

That night a traveling notary came around to sign our escrow papers. 

Then we waited and waited (I know, we waited days, not months. It wasn't a short sale!). 

Thursday morning we found out our loan had been financed. Yay!

Jolene told me to get all the utilities set up in our name. 

And Friday at 4:30, it was getting late!, Jolene called (30 seconds after she found out) and said the sale had been recorded. Phewf (!!), it was done. 

Ok, now I'm going to talk about OUR HOUSE! 

The "specs" are amazing considering the other houses on the market in our price range which are usually 2 bedrooms/ 1 bathroom on not much land. 

OUR house has 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths, enough for me to have a STUDIO and an extra bathroom for, you know, why everyone wants more than one bathroom. 

It was built in the early 1960s. 

It's about 1400 square feet total, more than either of the other houses we bid on. 

And it's on over a HALF ACRE with beautiful oak trees and a creek. You look at it and think "this is a great place for kids to have adventures!!" 

Before you start thinking, "they lucked out! What a steal!" . . . 

We have A LOT of work to do. There's some water damage in the half bath. The kitchen is awkward and not too functional, so we're planning a nearly complete kitchen reno (we'll keep the floors). We'll need to build a new patio or deck. In not too long the carpets will have to be replaced, the carport may need to be replaced. It's a fixer upper, but that's how we knew we'd get into the market. 

It's the kind of place where some people (the lock smith) roll their eyes thinking we'd buy such a turd. But when others with building experience look at it (the inspector, my cousin the contractor), they think it has a lot of potential. We think so. 

The house is quite close to the street. It's on more than a half acre, and they had to build the house with just a little strip of lawn in between it and a busy street!?! . . . guess the street wasn't so busy in the 60s. But we're planning on planting more (native) bushes to hopefully cancel out some of the street noise. 

There's a big yard, but it's not too functional. It slopes down to the creek and past it. Our property actually goes to the street on the other side of the hill. Mostly we'll just admire the view and weed whack. But there is a side yard for planting. 

We've met a few of our neighbors. They're all really excited to see the house occupied since it's been vacant for 3 or 4 YEARS!! One set of neighbors is actually the daughter and son-in-law of the people who used to live there, so we've received some great information from them. It should be a nice neighborhood to live in. 

Brian and Phil (and Gion) have been working in the house over Brian's spring break, and we plan to work even more over Brian's summer vacation, so we don't actually plan on moving in until late summer.

One more thing: if you try to Google map-it (if you have the address. I'm keeping it off blogger for obvious reasons.), It doesn't really work. You need to go up the hill a little more, toward Navarette.

We're so excited about our new house!!

Now for some pictures! 

Kitchen (before)

Love the built-ins (studio to left, kitchen to right)

Everett and I in the living room (door behind goes to bedrooms)

hall bath (near bedrooms)

hallway (left door, our room. right door, Everett's room.
Bathroom off left edge)

11 Month Blog (it's Brian's birthday!)

(another late blog . . . sorry)

Happy April 15th!! This is a very exciting day for us. It's Brian's 28th birthday! Everett is 11 months old. Brian's two week SPRING BREAK starts today! And we got final confirmation that we're homeowners! Yay!! . . . more on that in another blog.

Developmentally, this hasn't been the most action-packed month. He's basically doing all the same stuff. He's just getting better at it.

He's not walking yet, just pulling himself up on stuff and "cruising." But he's much more stable now and stronger. Just today he was pushing the chair with his booster seat attached to it around the kitchen, and I said, "he couldn't do that a couple weeks ago!"

He's started crawling behind the couch and playing back there. It's pretty funny.

He blows me away with his motor skills. He can make a basket in his basketball hoop. He can place a rod into a toy with a hole in it. He can place toys like caps on other toys, and he can pick up little pieces of food and put them in his mouth so well!

Speaking of food, he's eating a lot. I think he's getting pickier. If you give him a choice of food items, he'll usually have a preference. Today he was eating sweet potatoes, kidney beans, and chicken, and the kidney beans were the clear favorite, followed by chicken, and he didn't want anything to do with the sweet potatoes toward the end of the meal.

If he sees his food on a plate out-of-reach, he'll point to what he wants and squeal.

He may be eating better because he's getting his MOLARS!! One on his top right and one on his bottom right have broken through, and the same teeth on the left side are just below the surface. I'm really happy these teeth coming in haven't seemed to affect him much. Besides being a bit more drooly, he hasn't been upset or sleeping poorly (ok, this week he's woken up once a night, but he's gone back to sleep with a little belly rub from his daddy).

He just gets more and more aware. He totally understands what "daddy" means. You say "daddy," and he looks right at Brian. He's almost as good with "grandma" and "grandpa," but I'm not so sure if he understands "mommy." I think I don't say it enough. (;

He's started understanding that you shake your head to mean "no." Too bad, I kind of like when he shakes his head when he's excited. But he's certainly catching on.

He's a big fan of dogs, deer, the moon, and con trails (the above picture he was watching a hawk).

Brian swears he said "up" the other day, and I swear he said "off" today. Or at least as close as he can get to those words.

He's been talking more to himself. You'll catch him quietly vocalizing while he's playing. I'm sure it's very deep stuff.

He makes this "ant face" look a lot still, when he's being silly or when he's sleepy. He's also started doing FISH FACE!! It's so cute. He'll do it when he's eating and sometimes when he's just playing.

We've been going to Kidz Club at Kennedy Gym from 9 to 12 on Thursdays. I'm doing it to get a free membership (which I have yet to USE!) and to get some socialization for baby. It's been pretty fun so far, and Everett loves to watch the big kids (mostly 2-year-olds) run around and play. I'll get in the pool soon, I swear.

So it's Brian's birthday! He's 28 today. Wife, baby, career, new house. That's pretty good for 28!

What to say about the best husband, father, provider, friend I could ever have asked for on his birthday? Well, "happy birthday. I'm happy you're my age again." That's my usual message on his birthday. Four months being younger than me is TOO LONG! {:

But seriously. It's going to be a great year. I feel very fortunate to be sharing these new adventures of parenthood, homeownership, and residing in the town we grew up in (!?!) with a handy guy who is a great daddy, has a lot of energy, and has the same amount of healthy skepticism in the wonders of the central coast as I do (plus a great appreciation for it).

On a petty note, I'm happy to be designing renovation projects and picking out paint colors with a person whose aesthetic sensibilities are so close to my own that he picked out an engagement ring so perfect for me I could never have picked it out for myself. He has great taste.

I love you Brian, and I think we're both going to enjoy your 28th year!

Ten Month Blog

Ten month bl-ahhhhhh-gh! 

This month's post really snuck up on me since I've been pretty consumed with creating my art blog (at www.casdelcisneros.com), making my Twitter and Facebook pages (@casdelcisneros and facebook.com/casdelcisneros respectively), and trying to buy a house! . . . more about that when (if) it's finalized. 

Another month has passed with our wonderful baby boy. Things don't change as quickly now as they did in the early months, but he's still growing and changing so much.

He's becoming more aware every day. It's more obvious that he understands what we're saying and that he knows what he means when he signs . . . even though his signs sometimes get interchanged. 

Some days are better than others with the signing. Some days he's perfect and other days they are all mixed up. But his "milk" is always better with his left hand, which makes us wonder "lefty?" Brian would be very happy about that. {: 

He's clapping now and uses it to do "more." 

He shakes his head (with a big smile on his face) when he's excited or happy. It definitely doesn't mean "no" to him. 

We thought he was fast last month, but this month he's crawling FAST! Blink for one moment and he crawls from the fireplace to the front door! He's also standing even more than last month, free-standing more than last month, and he can walk around using the walker the Hunters are loaning us with adorable proficiency. 

He also loves to walk with his highchair in the locked position (it still kind of scooches along). I know the owner's manual probably warns against this use, but he thinks it's FUN!

He has learned to crawl around the grass like a champ. Before he was hesitant to move much on the prickly substance, but he's getting used to it. 

He's been getting better and better at turning around before he gets off the couch or bed, goes out the door or even crawls from the grass to the mulch (so cute!). But today (!!) he turned around and crawled off the couch backward, and I only had my hand over him in case something happened. 

He's been doing this adorable "excited face." When he sees someone he likes (everyone he knows), he smiles, gets kind of rigid, shakes, and sometimes shakes he's arms too. It's hard to describe but super cute.

He loves birds, and lights, and will reach for lights to get you to turn them on. He also reaches toward the smoke alarm, but only Grandpa Phil turns it on for him.

He's been playing with cars more. Grandma Gion bought him a firetruck, and he wheels it around. Sometimes he even makes "car motor noises." How did he learn that?!

His hair is growing so fast he needs another haircut soon, maybe this week.

He's wearing 12 month clothes very comfortably now. He can wear 18 month shirts too, but 18 month pants are too long. Does this child, who's in the 90th percentile in height, have a long waist and shorter legs like his mama and Grandpa George? Probably.

He's still been sleeping really well! It's so so so nice.

Our late blooming eater has acquired quite an appetite. He's happy to eat at lunch and dinner, and sometimes even breakfast. He much prefers savory and sour foods to sweet. He likes beans, lentils, (rice) spaghetti, eggs, chicken, yogurt, oranges, and even lemon!

The weather's been mixed this month, but there have been enough good days to get in some fun events.

Morro Bay.

Cambria.

And the zoo with the Hunters!

We start Kidz Club at Kennedy this Thursday (thanks to a friend's hook-up!), which should be fun! Get a little socialization and a little gym-time.

It should be an AMAZING month! I can't wait to see what he starts doing next!

9 Month Check-Up

Everett and I went to see Dr. Patterson day, and I wanted to fill you all in on the details.

The doc gave Everett an A+ for growth and development. He kept commenting on how sweet Everett is. Well, yeah!

His stats didn't surprise me. He's still tall. 30 inches, which means he's in the 90th percentile. He grew two inches. He's light at 19 pounds 7 ounces, which is the 26th percentile (using the average chart, not the breastfed chart). But he did gain 2 pounds!! His head circumference is still average.

Methinks Everett is taking after his Grandpa George.

Dr. Patterson wants Everett to eat 2 ounces of beef a week, which I found quite amusing. Sure! I'll let Grandpa Phil cook that up. {:

He has to start taking vitamin D.

And he got 3 shots, which was sad, but he only cried right when the needles went in, and stopped right after she was done. }:

Overall a standard visit.

I forgot to mention Dr. Patterson said Everett has the teeth of a 14-month-old. Don't I know it! 

Nine Month Blog!

(this is my first blog to post the day after his birthday. This is what happens when he becomes super mobile and I have to chase him around the house all day).

So I have a 9-month-old today. Whoa! And although that doesn't mean that he's been out as long as he was in (being ten days late), it does seem significant. Nine months!!

He's still our sweet, silly, amazing boy, but this month more than any other, he's impressed us with how smart he is! He's learned to wave when we say "hi" or "bye-bye," he's started signing! His "all done" looks more like a wave with both hands, but he's improving it, and he definitely knows what he's trying to say (just today he did "milk"!!). He can make baskets in his toy basketball hoop. And he's been mimicking is ducky bath, "quack quack quack."

He's so mobile now! Since last month he's perfected his crawl. Now it's on hands and knees and lightening fast! He still pulls himself up on everything, and now he can walk along the side of the couch or transfer himself from, say, the ottoman to the rocking chair. He's also getting good at climbing up the stairs, not so much down. On the 3rd, Gion and I were watching Everett stand holding his toy box. He had a ball in one hand. He let go of the box to hold the ball with both hands. So for about a second he stood on his own, then dropped to his bottom.

But with all these amazing things, the most amazing thing is SLEEPING AGAIN!! Hooray! A few weeks ago, I had pretty much had it with my lack of sleep. Anyone who reads this blog or follows me on Facebook could tell that I was beyond frustrated.

So I did what I do every time something stumps me, I put Brian in charge. That sounds bad, but I think it's a part of every successful partnership. If you're not very good at something, give that task to your partner, who may be better at it than you are.

Brian's always been a very supportive daddy. Of course! We're not the type to separate tasks down gender lines, but sometimes it makes sense. He works full time, and I'm the milk-maker, so jobs get separated.  With sleeping, I was the one getting up most, especially when he started rejecting Brian's comforting. Brian would get up when I asked him to, but he was a passive participant in this sleep thing.

When I put him in charge, he read the same sections of the books I had read, but all of a sudden . . .  we had a plan!

So we started sleep training. It was hard at first. The first night, when he woke up, we let him cry for 5 minutes before Brian went in and comforted him (without picking him up, just rubbing his back). That 5 minutes was an eternity! Brian came back in and we let him cry for 10 minutes. At this point I thought, "this kid will be scarred for life! We'll give him attachment disorder!" Brian went in and rubbed his back. During the slot where we were supposed to give him 15 minutes, he started whining, then fell asleep.

We did a similar thing the next 2 or 3 nights, but I was never so alert as I was the first night, and he cried less. For the last couple weeks, he's maybe woken up once, cried for about a minute, and Brian will comfort him right to sleep.

He's been "waking for the day" around 5:30 or 6:00. At first, I was good and got up to feed him in the office. The last week-ish, I've just brought him into bed with us so I can stay nearly sleeping. When he's done, we get up.

But last night he slept from about 9:00 to about 7:00!! Hallelujah! No waking, no crying. Wonderful!

So, for nearly 8 months, I was sleep deprived. And I really came to understand the importance of sleep. This coming from a person who always appreciated sleep. I'm an 8 to 9 hour a night sleeper without a baby. Now I REALLY appreciate sleep and what it's like to live without it.

I've been sleeping pretty well for the last 2 weeks, and this is my message: If you have an infant and you are waking up 2, 3 + times a night to comfort and/or feed him/her, and this has been going on for months and months, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!! You are no good when you're tired. You're unproductive, unhappy, and dangerous! I avoided sleep training because the idea of "crying it out" seemed horrible to me, but he's fine crying for 5 minutes and now he can comfort himself back to sleep, and he's probably more rested too!!

I'm sorry we didn't do it earlier.

He still isn't the best solids eater, but we try to sit him down three times a day and see if he'll eat something. He usually will, more at dinner, less at breakfast and lunch. His favorites are probably squash, yams, and yogurt. He's also good with applesauce, pear, banana, peaches, mango, oatmeal, and this week he tried strawberries and watermelon and liked them both.

We're sticking with fruits and veggies right now along with the yogurt and oatmeal. I know a lot of people are sensitive to wheat and dairy, so we're avoiding those for now (besides yogurt).

If you read my earlier post, you'll know we're avoiding avocado. Who knows when he'll get that again!?!

With this new introduction of food, his poop is changing. You know you're a proud parent when you say, "his poop just peeled off the diaper into the toilet!!" and are actually excited!

Because of the solids, we're trying to have him drink a bit of water at every meal. We've been having him drink straight from his plastic dinosaur mug. He's ok at it, but we're wondering if a sippy cup might be more efficient. We bought a container with a straw. It was supposed to be for babies, but it was too hard for even Brian or me to drink from. Design flaw!

Everett got his first haircut on February 7th. I'd wanted to cut his hair at the crown for a while. It was getting so wild, and he still had some long newborn hairs (which our friend Jessi called Who Hairs, so cute!). But Brian wasn't on board until his hair started growing over his ears and making a mullet in the back. It went well. I used the trimmer, and he wasn't too freaked.

The hardest thing for him is still getting his clothes changed, especially when the shirt goes over his head. He HATES that! But changing is taking longer overall because he's such a wiggle! Sometimes it's taking 5x as long as it used to because I basically chase him around his room to get his pants on.

It seems like he has a new facial expression every month, and this month he's been doing what we call "ant face" where he pinches his nose and purses his lips. It's really funny, but it makes me wonder if he has allergies like his parents and grandparents.

It's been so lovely around here, I wanted to post some pictures of him playing outside.

It's been a busy month.

We've been doing a lot of house hunting, and we've made two unsuccessful bids on houses. Both times it's been frustrating, but it's just the reality of the market right now combined with our price limit. We'll find the perfect place eventually!

On January 17th, Brian had the day off for MLK Day, so Phil, Gion, Brian, Everett and I went to Calcareous Winery in the west Paso hills. They have some beautiful land up there, wow! And it was a wonderful day.

On January 21st, we celebrated Rosalina's 1st birthday with her family and friends. Rosa is Everett's closest little friend right now, and her parents (Chris and Janna) are friends we hope we won't have to move too far away from when we finally get a place. Right now they live just a short walk away.

On January 30th, we got a visit from our friend Jennifer Little. It was great catching up! I'm sorry we didn't get any pictures.

On February 5th, we drove down to Arcadia for my Uncle Olin's memorial service. It was lovely and so nice to see family and longtime friends. The best thing about the service (in my opinion) was all the stories people told! Olin impacted the lives of so many people, and he will be missed. It was a crazy trip because we decided to go down and back in one day. More than 8 hours in the car! It was exhausting, but Everett did really well, so I'd say it was a successful trip

February 6th, we celebrated Julie Hunter's birthday. It was fun because it was the first one of these get togethers at the Hunters' where Everett actually played with other kids . . . sort of. He was interested. We also always love to celebrate birthdays with one of our favorite families! Here's Everett with his new little friend Eli.

Also on February 6th, we celebrated Everett's Grandma Gion's birthday. And on February 12th we went over to the Asdel grans for dinner to celebrate Grandpa George's birthday.

It's been a very exciting month. Let's see how he changes in the next 30 days!