Finished Den and Housewarming Party

We wanted to have a housewarming party for a long time but we’d always been embarrassed by the state of the house. We thought that having it before the holidays was perfect timing.

We worked this week to finish a good portion of the den – mostly required painting, installing a new light fixture and trim. This wasn’t difficult but it did take a few late nights to finish.




The light fixture in this room was so dated and disgusting – it smelled like dog urine and was extremely dirty and UGLY!


We also were able to decorate the house for Christmas – it makes me so excited for the holidays!




On Friday we had our house appraisal for our re-finance. We tried going through our current bank first but our first appraiser was using our sale price (which was way below market value) as the basis for finding comparables. She used foreclosures that were nothing like our house and were very far away – of course we appealed the value but they did nothing.

We had to switch banks for the re-finance and now had to get a second appraisal. Fortunately this appraiser was much better and hopefully the house value will be high enough that we can get rid of our mortgage insurance.

Saturday was our housewarming party and to get ready for it, I did a lot of baking. This was the first time I was able to use some of the wedding presents. Let’s just say that I LOVE my Kitchen Aid mixer. I made cookies so quickly – I have a feeling that this won’t be good for my waistline!


The housewarming party was very successful – we had a good stream of people all afternoon and evening. Of course there were some people that were out of town but hopefully they’ll be able to visit soon.

I think the best reaction to the house was from our real estate agent. She remembers it when it smelled bad, looked awful and she was trying to talk us out of it. She still can’t believe that we had this “vision” as she calls it!

On Sunday, we went out for brunch with family to celebrate Chris’ birthday. After a really long week of late nights, we just relaxed the rest of the day.

This next week should be fairly low-key in terms of house work. For Chris’ birthday, he is requesting all week to do whatever he wants (i.e. no projects!). I think that can be accommodated!