New House - The Joys and Frustrations

So we've been completely out of commission this past month, but some of you might not know the reason why is because we moved into a new house. When we found out we were pregnant with Baby Girl #2 (yes, we just found out we're having another girl!) we really wanted to look into moving into a bigger house. So, after lots of looking, we bought a rambler in Maple Grove and just moved in at the end of June. It's a 4 bedroom/3ba, with 3 bedrooms on one level (my main concern.) It has more space than we need for now, but we'll hopefully be able to grow into it as the kids get older.

We weren't sure up until June 13 if we were going to close on the new house, as we decided to rent our townhouse rather than sell it in this housing market, and we didn't have renters until June 13. As you can imagine, it was pretty stressful. So, after we had a signed lease, we had just under 2 weeks to pack everything up to prep for our move. Below are some pictures of Camila enjoying herself in the new place.

Camila has been having a lot of fun running around the new house. Since it's a rambler (and more sq ft than our townhouse) she can run and run to her heart's content. Here she is playing with the railing that separates the kitchen from the tv room.

Just a misc picture of her playing on the couch. One of the reasons we wanted to move is to have a yard for Camila (and the new baby) to play in. Camila had a blast playing with the garden hose. As you can see, she is soaking wet. She couldn't get enough of it!

We've had quite a few unexpected, unpleasant surprises after we moved into the new house. First, the garage door broke after just 1 1/2 weeks. Then this weekend Fabricio and my dad got up on the roof to clean the gutters, and noticed that they are about to fall off. The gutters are attached with insufficiently sized screws, and only at random spacing (some are 6 feet apart!) It seems that the previous owner wasn't good about doing things completely. Most things in this house seem to be "half done" or "just good enough". Also, we're dealing with a very strong musty smell in the basement, so we bought a humidifier to tackle that. We're actually considering buying another one, since it's still pretty musty downstairs (and parts of upstairs too.) In addition to that, we have to get the fireplace cleaned and will have the ducts cleaned as well, as the previous owners smoked and we want to make sure that there is no leftover smell. Fortunately Fabricio got a teaching position at Mpls Tech College for 2 nights a week, so the extra income will help cover these unexpected home repair/maintenance costs!