RC Willey Showroom

Sometimes I feel a little guilty about how many new things we bought when moving into our new house. So I have a few pieces of information to preface this post with:

-David and I spent $15 dollars on a TV stand from DI when we got married. That is all. Every other piece of furniture we either already had or was given to us for free. Our couches, bed, and stools - all gifts. The couches were headed to the DI when David's High Councilor over his ward (Brother Krogue) in the Bishopric heard that we didn't have couches and he dropped them off at our apartment. Our bed was my parents old mattress. The stools were wedding presents. We later picked up a coffee table that someone was giving away for free.

-Also given to us as gifts: Our TV (we used a small 12" one that my parents had in their basement for the first 6 months until David graduated and asked for a TV), our Wii (my graduation present), our lamp, and our dresser for our bedroom.

-We didn't have a table for the first 6 months (at least, probably more like 8-10 months) that we were married... until someone in my parents ward heard about it and gave us an extra one they had. For free. (Honestly, when we went to pick it up - we were shocked at how beautiful it was. I love the ivory, the windsor chairs, and the gentle curves along the edge of the tabletop.)

-We have been married for almost 4 years and have never owned a washer and dryer. I think that I went to a laundromat 3, maybe 4, times. The rest of the time we have depended on our parents to let us come home and do our laundry at their houses. (Yes, our baby is 9 months old. It is possible to have a baby and no washer and dryer.)

The point of this preface is to remind you that David and I have spent practically NO money on furnishing our home. A couple of walmart bookcases, a $2.50 end table, some flowers from the dollar store. We have saved, and saved, and saved. We are both pretty frugal by nature - and the fact that we were using a couch whose stuffing was falling out the back and whose buttons were hanging by threads, or that our entertainment center was cheapo plywood and kind of a funny shape, didn't bother us at all. We were just happy and loved our little home.

However, as we were preparing to move into our home we looked at the amount of money that we had saved up and we decided that we wanted to buy a few new things for our new house. Obviously - a washer and dryer were at the top of the list. Also, a refrigerator was a must as the house didn't come with one. We'd been promising ourselves for years that our first big purchase was going to be a new bed, because our old one was just... well... old. And anyone who has ever slept in a really old bed, knows that really old = really bad. (Not that we weren't SO grateful to my parents who gave it to us, because we are SO grateful. We would have been sleeping on the floor if it wasn't for them.) Thankfully, we had saved up enough money that after carefully budgeting it all out - we still had enough to buy some new couches for our family room and maybe a sofa for our living room.

We spend hours and hours and days and days shopping around at pretty much every furniture place in the Salt Lake Valley/Utah County. We started in September and got some good things over Labor day. We continued to shop over Thanksgiving and all during Christmas at all sorts of different stores. However, when all was said and done - we ended up buying everything at RC Willey. They were so good to work with us! They put the items on hold at the sale price, but were fine to hold on to them for 6 months or 3 months or however long it was until we were going to get into our house. And then, they would deliver them all together instead of paying for delivery at 7 different places. We were really pleased with their service and spent a lot of time there picking out our washer, dryer, and refrigerator. Due to a killer sale on their room groups - we actually were able to get a whole set for both the family room and the living room. We got an awesome bed that came with a Kindle Fire HD, which picked up a few weeks later and then immediately sold for $175 on KSL. (We saw it as another $175 discount on the bed, although it was a little sad to see it go.) I even convinced David to get up with me on Black Friday to buy a chaise lounge as a doorbuster! Moral of the story - we loved RC Willey, got some great deals, and couldn't wait for it to all get delivered!

As I mentioned in my previous post. Most everyone who helped us move left pretty soon after we started moving. But David's parents, his sister Amy, and my sister Melissa stuck around until RC Willey got there because they wanted to see all of our furniture. We waited, and waited, and waited - and then finally they arrived!

Melissa gave me grief about taking this picture. Something about my compulsion to document every moment in my life. Harumph. I was just really excited, okay? When I opened the door the guy said "Hello, we're here to deliver.... shuffled all of his tickets around... uh... a whole house of stuff. Does that sound right?" Yes, Mr. RC Willey man, yes it does.

Soon after I took this picture, I set down my camera and followed the RC Willey guys around like a little puppy. I helped put the couch cushions on - because even though they were planning to do it, I couldn't make myself wait for them - I had to do it right then. Our couches, tables, and bed went in pretty easily. (The one guy brought the whole box springs in by himself. He just stretched out his arms, grabbed it on either side, then brought it into the house and up the stairs. I should have taken a picture. It was impressive!) The washer and dryer went up the stairs and were installed in a matter of 15 minutes or so. The refrigerator took quite a bit longer to get into place. I guess McArthur didn't plan super well for getting a refrigerator into the kitchen past the massive island. But, alls well that ends well. The fridge is now in place and has since been fully stocked with food. (Yay!)

Okay, enough of my talking - lets get to the good stuff... the "After the RC Willey guys finally finished delivering everything" pictures: 

These are my favorite. Its a little hard to tell but they are a gorgeous, almost shiny, grey. The lamps are kind of a silver-plated glass, and the tables are a rich dark wood. The pillows are so pretty, they have dark magenta-ish and varying shades of grey modern-flowers. Love, love, love! You may notice that the couches in the family room look a little similar to these - but, uh, it's just a coincidence. 

 Okay, you caught me. It's not a coincidence. Haha. When we were at the store we both fell in love with this blue couch and love seat. Like, head over heels. They were perfect. The perfect color, the perfect casualness, the perfect material, and the perfect comfiness. The fact that they were in a super-affordable room group and came with coffee table, side tables, pillows, and lamps made it pretty much irresistible. We decided pretty much then and there that those were the couches for us. Then suddenly I saw a nearby room group that made my heart go pitter-patter. The grey and pink and did I mention the grey? It took us a few minutes to realize that they were actually the same couches, just different styles. Feeling silly, we asked several people's advice and then decided just to put both of them on hold. Our thinking was that if we found something that we liked better, we could always just cancel one of the sets. But that way if we found a more formal set somewhere else we could cancel the grey or if we found a less formal set we liked better we could cancel the blue. We liked to keep both options open. We looked and looked but seriously could not find a single other couch set that we liked even nearly as well. So we just bought them both! (Because we love them. David loves the blue the most, and I adore the grey- but we are both 100 % pleased with the choice to buy both of them because we love them!

Also, note the super awesome brown chaise lounge in the left corner. Seriously the favorite seat in the house. So comfortable. If we are anywhere in the area its pretty much guaranteed that one of us is sitting on it (if not both of us). Oh, and the rug is from Rugs US. We got it for 65% off and it is darling (although it is a tiny bit scratchy. I'm hoping that wears off.)

I have to be honest. The only item that we purchased that I am a little disappointed about is our fridge. We decided to go with the Satina instead of the true stainless steel for fingerprint/magnetic reasons. I think it was probably the right choice (especially when price is factored in) but I can't help but wish that the finish didn't look SO different than our other stainless steel appliances. It's not that big of a deal, and I'm sure that we will get used to it... but I'm slightly bummed about it.  Also, it didn't come with a top shelf/butter tray. There is an area there - but no tray to slip in. I'm going to have to call them I guess. Regardless, a fridge! Yay. Our favorite thing about this fridge is that in the freezer the ice is completely in the door - so it opens up a ton of space in the freezer. (And little yuckies can't fall into the area where the ice is dispensed.)

Apparently I forgot to take a picture of the bed before we put a sheet on it. I really should go and take it off and post a picture of the pretty pattern on the pillowtop. But the mattress is much deeper than our last one and getting the sheet on was really hard. Let me just say that we love this bed! It's firm and soft at the same time and thinking about it makes me want to go curl up and take a nap on it. 

And last, but definitely not least. Our washer and dryer. Hallelujah! Shout out to Cal and Sue for letting us use their washer and dryer for our 4 years of marriage. (And to my parents as well.) But honestly, the thing that I am singlemost excited about in this house is to have my very. own. laundry. room. I am fighting the urge to stand up and dance about it even now. *couldn't resist - did a little dance - now I'm back* I have big plans for this little room, and I can't wait to get started. Actually, we started last weekend. My dad is helping me make/making me a wooden laundry pedestal where I can put baskets in the underneath. Oh, I have so many plans for this room! After a ridiculously exciting trip to the store to get laundry supplies I've even done my first two loads. And I'm not joking about it being exciting. I was like a kid in a candy store. "Oh, I want that detergent... ooh ooh and this fabric softener... oh and definitely some of this special whitening bleach." I refrained from buying all of the available laundry products.. but just barely. Too exciting. 

And what does Lydia think of all our new belongings? 

I think she loves them! Almost as much as her mama does. 

(Yes, I just posted a picture of my reflection in my brand new washer, ka-chow!)

We are thrilled about all of our new furniture. It seems so strange to have things so new - but at the same time, these items are perfect for us. We are just loving our house and everything in it. Lydia has done great adjusting and has even slept a couple of good nine hour stretches over the past couple of nights. (Now I need to work on getting to bed earlier so that I can still have more than a 5 hour stretch.)

Thank you RC Willey! 

(Contact us, and we may even be willing to do a commercial for you. "Hi, we're the Peadens and everything we've ever purchased for our home has come from RC Willey." Haha, only kidding... sort of.)

All moved in!

We absolutely love our new house. Love, love, love it! We are all moved in and soaking up the newness of the house and are filled with excitement for this next big adventure. I wanted to post this sooner - but our internet didn't get set up until Monday and then, joy of all joys, our router decided that it didn't want to work. No matter that it was working fine two weeks ago when we moved, oh no. So last night we made a trip to Best Buy to pick up a new router. I finally feel connected to the world again! (Which is silly because I still had my iPad which connects to 3G internet on its own AND my cell phone - but I still felt antsy about being able to get this blog post up.) 

We actually got the keys to the house on Friday evening, but decided to just wait and make the big move on Saturday morning. So bright and early, we showed up at our house and got things ready for the big move. We laid plastic down on the carpet in the entry, hall, and corner of the family room. We picked up the moving truck from McArthur and then headed to our storage shed to meet up with our awesome moving crew. (I'm going to say this now, because I feel really bad about it - but I got NO pictures of the moving process. That means that I have no photo documentation of all of the wonderful people who came to help us move. I thought about it several times, but I just wasn't sure where my camera was and by the time I found it - the majority of our helpers were already gone. So, for those of you who came and helped us - but didn't get your picture taken. I'm sorry. We are SO SO SO grateful for your help and honestly couldn't have done it without you. Yes I mean you Coopers, Newbolds, Griffins, and Renchers. Thank you.) 

Everyone showed up and made quick work of packing up all of our belongings from the storage shed and into the moving truck and the giant truck that the Coopers arrived in. (Thank you again!) I was amazed at how quickly everything went in. Then we all drove over to the house and started moving everything to the right rooms. We had an "inside crew" and an "outside crew". The outside people brought everything into the kitchen, and then the inside crew moved it to the room where it belonged. There were over 20 people moving boxes from one place to another, but it actually went very smoothly. Most of our boxes and items were labeled - there were just a few things that I wasn't sure where to put. (I'm looking at you cedar chest.) 

When the first big move was just about finished, a team went back over to finish getting the couches and a few other things from the storage shed and I headed to Little Ceasars to get pizza. (I really believe that is a rule somewhere: You help someone move - you get pizza.) By the time I got back, they had moved the couches into the basement. I'll be honest - I didn't think that they were going to fit and had told David that he was crazy for thinking that our big couch was going to fit down those stairs. Apparently, this group of people is much more moving-savvy than I am because they fit them down the stairs with hardly any problem at all. I'm so impressed! 

After everyone dug into the pizza, we looked around our house and could hardly believe that it was ours. It had been so long since we had seen our stuff (okay, an exaggeration, it was only two weeks) that I kept looking at things and saying - oh my, look how pretty! -oh, look, I love that! It was just so fun to see all of our belongings in this house that we had been dreaming about for so long. It's amazing how quickly we felt at home. I thought that it might be weird for a while to be living here - but from that very first day it felt like home to us. It fits us perfectly and I feel like we are meant to be here. After pretty much everyone left I was able to snap some pictures of all of the rooms with their newly introduced boxes:

(Bear with me, there are a lot - feel free to skim them and continue reading below.)  

It was nice to be able to take a little break for a minute. 

Sorry, SO dark. The lighting in some of these pictures is terrible - but I am a believer in keeping photos even if they aren't perfect. They are life.  

We finally said goodbye to my dad after he helped us fix a mirror that had broken in the move. (I'm doing my very best to keep my superstitions at bay. No bad luck for us, please?) We had two mirrors that were fairly similar in size but the mirror part broke in the one with the frame that we liked the best - so my dad took apart the second mirror, scraped out an opening in the back of the frame, and got it all ready for us to hang in out new house. He is amazing and I'm so grateful for him! 

Lydia was in heaven, exploring all over the place. I was worried that she would have a hard time adjusting - but from the get-go she was all over and loving her new home. 

My sister Melissa showed up (she had to work that morning) to help start putting things away. 

But mostly, we just sat around  and rested until RC Willey came to deliver all of our furniture. 

This is where I was going to load all of the pictures of what our house looked like after RC Willey showed up - But I decided that these 30 pictures are probably enough for one post. I'll post again later with the pictures of our fridge, washer, dryer, bed, couches, end/coffee tables, and lamps. 

One last THANK YOU to those who came and helped us. We feel so loved and are so grateful for such a wonderful support group. We can't wait to have a big housewarming party sometime soon! 

House Closing and Valentines Day

Valentines Day - February 14, 2013

What a day. 

I've never really loved Valentines Day. When I was younger, I pretty much despised it. However, I am a proponent of celebrating all things David - and Valentines is just one more opportunity to do that. This Valentines was even more special than most because we were finally able to close on the loan for our house! Can I get a hip-hip-hooray? More details on that in a minute. 

Things actually started the night before, when David presented me with this beautiful pile:

He said that I could open one of the presents that night and I was so excited. I'm not a super patient person, and I have major difficulty waiting to open presents when they are right under my nose and tempting me. So the fact that he was letting me open one the night  before was wonderful! We sat down and he handed me the folded piece of paper - "How do I love you? Let me count the ways." Oh, so sweet! But then I realized that was all. That was what he was talking about when he said I could start opening my presents. Torture! I was so mad. Realizing that he was going to be in big trouble for teasing me like that - he quickly decided to come up with a present for me and after a few minutes of rummaging around in his parents basement returned bearing my favorite ice cream from their freezer. Lucky for him, the Chocolate Bordeaux Cherry was just the thing to keep me from dying over my unopened presents. 

(He really is so sweet and good to me. He surprised me with the new Young House Love book, which I have really wanted but never would have bought for myself. A few other things including notepads and well... a house... made for the perfect Valentines for me. His notes were all so sweet- he knows exactly how to make me feel special.) 

I decided that two could play at the teasing game, so I also let him see his little stack of gifts. Our budget was  teeny-tiny, but I still managed to come up with a few things that I hoped would make him smile. 

(His packages contained a list of reasons that I love him, some dollars for retirement or whatever else he wants to use them for, a valentine stating "No Penalty for Holding", a six-punch pass for a 10 minute back rub, some of his favorite See's chocolates, and a keychain with our picture on it.) 

I mentioned above that I'd never really been a fan of Valentines Day. Commercialism and all that. However, this day has come to be very special for David and I for a completely different reason. On February 14, 2008 - David saw me walking around on campus at Utah State. We ended up crossing paths and chatted for a minute. During this conversation I dramatically revealed that because I had no boyfriend I had been asked to work for friend because I obviously didn't have plans anyway. I was a little disgruntled. David found out when and where I would be working. He then went home, made a pan of brownies with the intent of giving them to me later than evening, and then showed up at the Sci-Tech computer lab where I was working. He never actually made it to sit down at a computer, rather he stood by my desk and talked to me through my whole shift. On the way home I invited him to come and hang out with me and my roommates. He said that he had to run and get something first and he would be right over. (Our apartments were just across the street from each other, Pineview and Old Farm.) He picked up his brownies, came over to my apartment, and we had a great night laughing and playing with my roommates. He asked me out for that weekend and we were pretty much inseparable from there on out. (I can't resist adding that it was almost two years later that I learned that he had actually made the brownies for me. I had thought that some girls must have brought them to him and that he was just regifting them to me. I didn't mind, although, I did think it was funny and felt bad for the poor girls who were obviously trying to win his affection. So silly.)

The moral of this story is that we just happened to meet up on Valentines Day in 2008. We had said hello to each other in our Institute class, and David had even asked me out, but we had never really had a full conversation up to this point. That night, 1828 days ago, was the night that I first started falling in love with Mr. David Scott Peaden. This marks our sixth Valentines together.  It's just so random that not only did we first start dating on Valentines - but we also closed on our house exactly five years later- to the day. Such a coincidence. It almost makes waiting for the extra two weeks to close worth it. Okay, back to the story:

We woke up bright and early. And by that I mean, I had fallen asleep in the room where Lydia was sleeping when I had gotten up to get her in the night so I woke up to David touching my hand. When I realized he was already dressed I jumped up thinking that I was late. Gratefully, I still had time to get all ready before we had to leave at 7:45 to head to our closing. I'm glad that David let me sleep in for a couple of extra minutes because I was tired! We made sure we had all of our papers, kissed our little Lydia goodbye and left her in the care of her Grandma Peaden. 

We headed to Surety Title where the closing was to happen. We were SO excited and kept making jokes about what a great Valentines present this was going to be. There were also some "Hey, I was thinking - lets buy a house today" jokes, and some - "You know, I was thinking maybe we should start looking for a house - hey, that one is for sale, should we stop and walk through it?' jokes. The joke that kept repeating over the whole day was David's when he said "Happy Valentines Day - I'm buying you a house! Guess that means I'm covered for the next 30 years." To which I would always reply - "Yep! But in 30 years I expect a gift to top this one, so you better start thinking." Haha. We are so funny. 

We were the first to arrive and got started with signing all of the papers. Our Agent arrived a little while later. Honestly, everyone always complains about how many papers there are to sign but it really wasn't too bad. Maybe it's because David and I have been filling out so much Paperwork for Box Home Loans over the last few weeks that it just wasn't much more to add to the pile. We also had attended a home buying seminar where most of the documents were explained, so we knew pretty much what we were going to see. My very favorite paper was the one where you had to sign for each name you have ever been known by. Shantel Peaden, Shantel E Peaden, Shantel Elise Peaden, Shantel Elise Walker, etc.... I don't know why, but I thought it was so fun. I'm glad that we had our agent, TJ, with us because he was awesome at explaining things if we had a question - and I felt much more comfortable with him there making sure everything was the way it was supposed to be. I was surprised that there wasn't a representative from McArthur or Box in attendance, but it all went smoothly and worked out in the end. (I should also note that there was a little survey to complete about our experience with Box Home loans where I spent several minutes writing under the section of "What could we have done better?" After I was finished I asked the lady "They can't not fund our loan after they read this right?" She assured me that the loan would be funded and I happily handed over all of my... suggestions.)

After we closed, we headed to Mountain America to make a wire money transfer for our down payment. It's such a weird feeling to be sending so much money out into the abyss and not even getting anything for it. (At least not immediately.) Hopefully it feels more real once we have the keys and are moving in. 

We finished a little earlier than planned, so we decided to celebrate by stopping to eat some little breakfast sandwiches and hashbrowns. 

We were so excited! We couldn't stop talking about how much we love our house and how wonderful it was going to be to live there. There were still several periodic jokes about closing on our house on Valentines. It's just such a unique day. For someone else it would be cool, but for us, the coincidence that it was on the anniversary of the day we first started dating was just so crazy. 

Unfortunately, David still had to go to work. (Boo to that darn busy season.) So he headed out and after a while Lydia, Sue, and I decided to make sugar cookies to celebrate. Lydia is still too small to really understand anything about Valentines - but I still wanted to do something kind of fun and festive with her. (Want this secret family recipe? You can find it our our food blog: Sugar Cookies.)

Lydia was so funny about the cookies, she just wasn't sure what to think of them. She wanted to be held for much of the time that I was cutting them out and baking them - and so while I did most of that one-handed she just stared at them like she was trying to figure it out. Later when I sat her down to take her picture, she enjoyed sticking her fingers right into the frosting. Luckily I got to her before the frosting made it to her mouth, but she did enjoy a tiny piece of frostingless cookie. It was my present to her. 

 

Speaking of Valentines Gifts for Lydia, David's mom picked up these little socks for her to wear. They are super cute, and you better bet she is still going to wear them after today. 

 I tried to take some pictures of her in her cute red and white outfit for Valentines, and much crying ensued:  

 It may be awful of me, but sometimes I think that she is so cute when she is crying that I can't help but smile. Her little face is just so expressive! Also, she has just recently started making this face when she is mad/sad:

So funny. 

(Although, not as funny when Lydia's Aunt Wendy came to visit and Lydia was not happy about it. I think it's because when I heard the door open I said "Lydia, do you hear that? Who could that be? Who is it?" Which is what I say when David comes home. She was so excited, and when she realized it wasn't her dad she was crestfallen and started crying crying crying. She warmed up after a little big and played with her cousin Aubrey (Who brought Lydia a Valentine with the express instructions that David could eat the candy because Lydia wasn't big enough.) Even after that though, if Wendy would try to talk to Lydia she was start tearing up and want me to hold her because she was so upset. It was so sad but also kind of funny. Poor Wendy! I'm sure next time Lydia will give her lots of loves to make up for it.)

Finally, Grandma came over and started making funny noises behind the camera and we got a few good shots: 

 

 We did a pretty simple dinner of Hawaiian Haystacks. Lydia loved the crushed pineapple and rice/gravy. Our pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to eat small pieces of table food and said that we don't have to wait between introducing new foods. Hallelujah! We have been loving this new food freedom - Lydia especially has been enjoying the transition. 

Overall it was a fantastic Valentines Day. We made the biggest purchase of our life, we celebrated our sixth Valentines day, and mostly we just enjoyed our life together. 

Happy Valentines Day to you!