Fall 2019: I found a house for sale in North Albuquerque Acres that I fell in love with! I had seen the house online and was hoping and praying that it was still available to buy. I called our realtor friend immediately to see the house with Mike as soon as possible. To my happy surprise, Mike liked the house as much as I did. We loved the wood floors, the openness of the home, the two large living areas and master bedroom on the main floor, plus a large game room upstairs. We also liked the fact that there were extra bathrooms, a larger pantry, no lawns to mow, and a much larger garage for all our extra stuff. In addition, there is a covered metal RV awning and a two-story Tuff Shed on the side of the house--plenty of room for our trailer, our kayaks, and all our outdoor things!
We closed on our new home on November 11th, 2019. It was exciting to finally move after 23 years in our Cranbrook Street home, which we loved and updated over the years. We didn't even have to put our house on the market because Jessica and Sebastian decided to buy our Cranbrook home (after much deliberating, prayer, and thought)! It made things so much easier for us and for them; they were able to bring over a lot of their boxes and furniture items before we closed on our new homes.
Our new home is a Mediterranean style house on a .89 acre lot. It is 3,488 sq ft and has 4 bedrooms, 3 and a half baths, lots of storage space, and an open kitchen with a large pantry. The home also has radiant heat, recirculating hot water, A/C, and is located just a block or two north of the city/county division. So we are in the county instead of the city; we pay lower taxes; we share a well with three other homes; we have our own septic tank underground on the side of our house; and we love living "in the country"! We had a large bobcat in our backyard. One day we saw him walking along the top of the wood fence on the south side of our property. We like having a big cat around to keep the rodents away!
Mike and I were so happy when we finally got ALL of our things moved over to our new house and put away. It took a long time and so much work. One reason this move seemed much harder than ever was because we had accumulated a LOT of household things over the past 23 years and because we are so much older and more tired now. We are so grateful that we moved when we did, and we do not want to move again--at least not while we're living in Albuquerque. It took too much out of us! Below are some photos of our new home.
It was fun to see the progress that Jessica and Sebastian made as they gradually moved their furniture and boxes full of belongings into our Cranbrook home while we were still living there. They certainly had their work cut out for them, especially with their own accumulation of household items and four children in tow. Jessica worked long hours with all the cleaning, packing, moving, unpacking, organizing, decorating, etc. of their Settlement Way home on the west side of town. And again, everything was much harder with young children to take care of.
Since they moved into the house, Jess and Seb have done a wonderful job transforming it from our house to THEIR home. It makes me happy to know that they have more space now and that they are adjusting to their new home. Sebastian has his own office, and the kids have wonderful play areas both upstairs in the family room and downstairs in the living room. Hudson and Beau have their own bedrooms and closets now. Jessica let them choose their wall color and helped them pick out their bedding and rugs. She is an awesome mother and homemaker.
Jessica turned our single desk area downstairs in the alcove into a larger homework and art station and are using their big dining table as a big desk; Jess also placed labeled bins with school and art supplies on the built-in shelves on either side of the table. Her priority is Function and Fun!
The dining area was always too crowded whenever we had company in our Cranbrook home. But Jess found a round solid pine dining table (on Craigslist) for the dining room that gives them a lot more space around the table. The table came with two leaves that extends the table to fit 12 people!
The biggest down side for the Dunlap move was Hudson and Beau's sadness about moving. Hudson had an especially hard time with even the thought of moving. He cried often about it, and he threw some temper tantrums too. After the move, Hudson had a difficult time making the transition from his west side school to his new school at Hubert Humphrey Elementary (the same school that our boys, Jacob and Samuel, attended). He was very sad to leave his old life behind, especially his close friends and the home he grew up in.
Hudson had some attitude and behavioral issues in his new class at HHH Elementary for the first couple months, and Jessica had to meet with the school counselor about it. What a difference another month has made! Hudson has made many new friends at school and in their neighborhood. He walks to and from school with Beau in a happy mood, singing and feeling jolly. I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for helping Hudson find his way back to being a happy, thriving boy again.
Speaking of happy, it surprises me how happy Mike has been since our move. He LOVES our new San Diego Avenue home and wants to live there for the rest of our lives. I know that I was inspired to find our home. When people ask me how I found the house, I tell them that "the Lord put it into our hands." I truly believe that's what happened.
Mike and I enjoyed getting the inside of our house updated. We had some carpet replaced before we moved in; we painted the rooms; and Mike tore out everything in the kitchen for a total remodel, including the cabinets, the soffits, and the flooring! We hired the best flooring guy (Marco Ramirez); the best electrician (Steve Schmutz); the best plumber and gas guy (Sammy); the best cabinet makers (Mike and Jennifer Park); and the best granite guy (Salvador at Granite Connections) for the kitchen remodel. Below are the professional photos that were taken for the sale of the home.
The house was staged perfectly for buyers to adore. The kitchen looked especially beautiful, but those cement floors were terrible and the cabinets were cheaply made and outdated. We wanted custom maple cabinets that reached the ceiling; a lighter colored and more sparkly granite; and high end appliances. Basically, we wanted a kitchen like the one we designed for our Cranbrook home; we wanted the kitchen to look more modern and to be more functional.
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Pre-demo photos of the gorgeous but outdated kitchen. That rough cement flooring had to go, and so did the soffits, and all those brown oak cabinets and valances. We planned to gut out the whole kitchen as soon as possible.
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| Photos of the cozy family room with fireplace and picture windows |
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Dining/living room with engineered
hardwood floors and lots of natural light
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Master bathroom with walk-in shower and large Jacuzzi tub
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Master bedroom photos
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| Spacious game room upstairs |
The kitchen remodel turned out beautiful! The granite slabs we had picked out at Granite Connections looks gorgeous in our kitchen. The Park's did an amazing job building our custom maple cabinets and drawers. Dwight's Glass and Mirror did an excellent job cutting the "melted ice" glass for the cabinets. And Mike did a wonderful job installing LED lights inside the glassed cabinets and under the cabinets, which made a huge difference.
When we sit in our family room, we like to look over at the kitchen just to admire it.There's plenty of space around the island, even with the 48" Wolf stove. We also purchased a Pro Series Sub-Zero refrigerator, an Asko dishwasher, a Sharp drawer-style microwave, and a Kitchen-aid trash compactor from Builders Source (where we had purchased all of our Cranbrook home kitchen appliances).
We currently have two contractors working on the outside of our house: Albert Gonzales and his guys are converting the back patio pergola into a covered patio that will look like part of the house. The conversion more than doubles our covered patio space! Albert did the tear down and the new construction of our Cranbrook back patio and balcony a few years ago. He also replaced the flooring on the smaller balcony off of the master bedroom. We were so impressed with his work and his cleanliness that we wanted to hire him again.
The other contractor is Bill Estrada, whom we hired to repair and to replace our roof. He removed the red cement tiles and the old underlayment and installed a synthetic material for the new underlayment. Next, he will be installing a new "natural copper" colored metal roof that will last at least 40 years. His brother makes seamless rain gutters, so we will most like hire him to install matching gutters in both the front and back of our house.
I met with yet another contractor, Luis Sanchez, who will be removing the gravel from our semi circular driveway and replacing it with a partially colored concrete driveway. He's also going to build flagstone retaining walls on either side of both driveways (like our corner neighbors have); add a cement pad to our RV awning; and add a sidewalk from the RV pad to the shed. The dirt areas around the property will be covered with a weed barrier and the gravel rocks from our driveway.
Our next and hopefully final project will be to update all our bathrooms with maple cabinet door and drawer fronts with matching veneers. Mike already pulled out the old counter tops and sinks in two of our bathrooms, and our granite guys installed new sinks and granite counter tops. We used the extra granite piece from our kitchen remodel, so the expense was minimal. The Park's will be doing the work on the bathrooms and also replacing drawer glides in the master bath.
The idea is to make our home as maintenance free as possible inside and out! We aren't getting any younger, and Mike will be retiring from Sandia in a couple years.
