C, hard at work on the mower. And yeah baby, that's one of our sixty year old peony bushes!
Don't know what these are but the crazy bushes in front of our house exploded into these for about two weeks. They are all gone now, but weren't they lovely?
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Room to Roam
C, hard at work on the mower. And yeah baby, that's one of our sixty year old peony bushes!Don't know what these are but the crazy bushes in front of our house exploded into these for about two weeks. They are all gone now, but weren't they lovely?
Pops of Sunny Yellow
The outside of our house overwhelms me a little bit. The yard is huge, and parts of it are a tad wild and unruly. I don't know what most of the plants are, and although I have lots of ideas and vision, I just don't know where exactly to begin.
So, to get started on sprucing up the exterior, I decided to address a smaller area, something that is small enough for me to feel I can wrap my head around - the entry! Technically our house does have a 'front door', but nobody uses it (meaning it's a little sad and neglected). I'll tackle that later. For now, I just wanted to inject a little bit of color into the side entry- enter the pops of sunny yellow! The first step was to refresh this bench I got for $30 on Craigslist.
A few coats of Sunporch Yellow, and voila! Things are looking sunnier already.
Then, I got inspired. Why not refresh the mailbox as well? Our driveway is located in the midst of Fern Gully and my parents have driven right past it each visit thus far. Now we have a landmark - turn by the yellow mailbox!
From this:
The yellow has now taken over! To complete the picture, I added a few sunny pots (still need to plant something in there, but this is a work in progress), and a pillow on our porch swing in this top fabric from ikea:
As C and I walked in the giant blue box, I saw a the perfect yellow and white striped pillow in the store display, with my name all over it. I'm a sucker for anything striped. I didn't want to steal it from it's happy display home, so I kept my eyes open for it throughout the rest of the store, but it was nowhere to be found. I left a patient C at the bottom of the escalator and did a couple more wild laps through the other two levels looking for the darn thing but to no avail. He convinced me to just take the one from the display, where I discovered it wasn't actually for sale - just a floor sample of a pillow and a case made from the fabric you can buy. The checkout guy must have seen the crazy in my eyes, because he rang it up for me in some magical Ikea code anyway, and I left a happy camper!
(Sidenote: While I was running two levels above him, I texted C to tell him I wasn't successful. He texted me back "Why? Did you trip over all that hair you were pulling out on the way to find your pillow?" Made me laugh.)
I think a few plants in white and yellow, and a nice patio umbrella will complete the picture. I have my eye on this one from World Market:
Almost there!
So, to get started on sprucing up the exterior, I decided to address a smaller area, something that is small enough for me to feel I can wrap my head around - the entry! Technically our house does have a 'front door', but nobody uses it (meaning it's a little sad and neglected). I'll tackle that later. For now, I just wanted to inject a little bit of color into the side entry- enter the pops of sunny yellow! The first step was to refresh this bench I got for $30 on Craigslist.
A few coats of Sunporch Yellow, and voila! Things are looking sunnier already.
Then, I got inspired. Why not refresh the mailbox as well? Our driveway is located in the midst of Fern Gully and my parents have driven right past it each visit thus far. Now we have a landmark - turn by the yellow mailbox!From this:
To this!
The yellow has now taken over! To complete the picture, I added a few sunny pots (still need to plant something in there, but this is a work in progress), and a pillow on our porch swing in this top fabric from ikea:
As C and I walked in the giant blue box, I saw a the perfect yellow and white striped pillow in the store display, with my name all over it. I'm a sucker for anything striped. I didn't want to steal it from it's happy display home, so I kept my eyes open for it throughout the rest of the store, but it was nowhere to be found. I left a patient C at the bottom of the escalator and did a couple more wild laps through the other two levels looking for the darn thing but to no avail. He convinced me to just take the one from the display, where I discovered it wasn't actually for sale - just a floor sample of a pillow and a case made from the fabric you can buy. The checkout guy must have seen the crazy in my eyes, because he rang it up for me in some magical Ikea code anyway, and I left a happy camper!
(Sidenote: While I was running two levels above him, I texted C to tell him I wasn't successful. He texted me back "Why? Did you trip over all that hair you were pulling out on the way to find your pillow?" Made me laugh.)
I think a few plants in white and yellow, and a nice patio umbrella will complete the picture. I have my eye on this one from World Market:
Almost there!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Project #1: Operation Bedroom Door
As soon as we moved in, we knew we wanted to switch things up enough just to make the farmhouse feel like our own. I love walking through the rooms and picturing C's aunts as young girls, whispering secrets in their bedroom, which is now our guestroom, or his mother giving voice lessons at the piano in her music room, with baby Chris in his nearby play-pen, in what is now our bedroom. And I love putting a new spin on the old. Right away, we decided to make the "great room" our living room. It previously was a more formal sitting area. Then, we opted to move the left-behind baby grand piano into the former tv room, making that the new music room. That left the old music room/office to become our master bedroom! We like this arrangement because the room is larger than the three tiny sleeping rooms upstairs, it stays much cooler, and both of the bathrooms are on the first floor, so no sleepy tumbles down the stairs in the middle of the night!
Our new master bedroom has high ceilings and huge windows which pour in beautiful sunlight, but it had no doors since it was never used as a bedroom before. Actually, when the house belonged to C's grandparents, it was their formal dining room (our current dining room served as their master bedroom). There is an extra wide doorway separating it from our music room, and a regular size doorway into the back hallway. For a temporary fix, we stopped by Pier 1 and picked up this plantation style room divider for the wider doorway.
It matches our bedroom perfectly, and complements the dark piano in the connecting music room. We have some ideas for a more permanent solution (more on that later), but for now this is perfect. We are the only two in the house so privacy isn't really as issue. The smaller doorway made our bedroom visible from the kitchen and living room, so we felt a real door was necessary. Luckily, back when we moved in C had been poking around the basement, and found an original door (albeit in very sad shape), down in the potato cellar. Yes, we have a potato cellar! It's scary and dark and dank and if I never go in there in my life I'm okay with that. Here's what the door looked like upon discovery:
We think the black comes from some renters before my mother and father-in-law bought the house. How lovely! C and Mike worked for hours scraping off the multiple layers of paint and sanding the door to its original state:
The three of us worked all day and into the night on this one silly door. Finding the right hardware proved impossible, but C was able to modify parts we did have with new parts and you can't even tell the difference. We found a good option for the door handle, and primed and painted two bright, shiny coats of paint.
As we giddily went to hang our beautiful (better looking than all the others in the house) door in it's new resting place, we were startled to find that it was TOO BIG for the door frame. Gah! My dad would be appalled that no - we didn't measure it to begin with. We were blinded with our excitement at finding an original door in the basement! It was meant to be!
So, we remeasure, sawed, sanded and hacked our way through the perfect door until it fit. We broke every rule in restoring a historic element of a home I'm sure, but hey - it worked!
Chris learning his lesson.
(Bye!)
Our new master bedroom has high ceilings and huge windows which pour in beautiful sunlight, but it had no doors since it was never used as a bedroom before. Actually, when the house belonged to C's grandparents, it was their formal dining room (our current dining room served as their master bedroom). There is an extra wide doorway separating it from our music room, and a regular size doorway into the back hallway. For a temporary fix, we stopped by Pier 1 and picked up this plantation style room divider for the wider doorway.
It matches our bedroom perfectly, and complements the dark piano in the connecting music room. We have some ideas for a more permanent solution (more on that later), but for now this is perfect. We are the only two in the house so privacy isn't really as issue. The smaller doorway made our bedroom visible from the kitchen and living room, so we felt a real door was necessary. Luckily, back when we moved in C had been poking around the basement, and found an original door (albeit in very sad shape), down in the potato cellar. Yes, we have a potato cellar! It's scary and dark and dank and if I never go in there in my life I'm okay with that. Here's what the door looked like upon discovery:
We think the black comes from some renters before my mother and father-in-law bought the house. How lovely! C and Mike worked for hours scraping off the multiple layers of paint and sanding the door to its original state:
The three of us worked all day and into the night on this one silly door. Finding the right hardware proved impossible, but C was able to modify parts we did have with new parts and you can't even tell the difference. We found a good option for the door handle, and primed and painted two bright, shiny coats of paint.As we giddily went to hang our beautiful (better looking than all the others in the house) door in it's new resting place, we were startled to find that it was TOO BIG for the door frame. Gah! My dad would be appalled that no - we didn't measure it to begin with. We were blinded with our excitement at finding an original door in the basement! It was meant to be!
So, we remeasure, sawed, sanded and hacked our way through the perfect door until it fit. We broke every rule in restoring a historic element of a home I'm sure, but hey - it worked!
Chris learning his lesson.
(Bye!)The Ah-ha! Moment
I'll just write this post for the sake of keeping a record of the major moment when C and I knew we had to buy his childhood home. We had initially moved in, and agreed that we would give it three months as renters. We'd either find something else to purchase in that time, and/or know if we wanted to live in the farmhouse for good. And we felt productive - knowing we were getting to sample a house, so to speak.
From the moment we moved in, it felt peaceful. Something we have needed and longed for during the previous months of indecision and instability. I knew as I was unpacking that it wasn't going to be temporary, but neither of us declared that at first. It felt like home. We loved the space, the quiet, the convenience, the history, the stories...We explored the dog park, walked the neighborhood, got our hands dirty in the yard. Then one day as we pulled into the driveway (past that pesky For Sale sign), we saw a number of cars - a very nice Lexus, a landscape designer's company car, and a construction company vehicle. They were all outside, walking the yard. We rolled down our windows and apologized - the realtor hadn't told us there would be a showing, and did they need to get into the house? They quickly answered they weren't there to see the house, just the property, and asked if they could come back again with another contractor? We nodded like little bobble-heads, rolled up our windows and faced each other. "We're buying it," Chris said. "I know," I answered.
It was that simple - faced with the prospect of someone tearing it down to put up another giant, generic McMansion, we knew staying there was the right thing to do. So, we will put our best efforts into the house, and hope that our improvements will be enough to make the next buyer see the charm and sweetness in this little house, so that someday when we move on, we can drive by with our kids and point out the house where their childhood memories live as well.
From the moment we moved in, it felt peaceful. Something we have needed and longed for during the previous months of indecision and instability. I knew as I was unpacking that it wasn't going to be temporary, but neither of us declared that at first. It felt like home. We loved the space, the quiet, the convenience, the history, the stories...We explored the dog park, walked the neighborhood, got our hands dirty in the yard. Then one day as we pulled into the driveway (past that pesky For Sale sign), we saw a number of cars - a very nice Lexus, a landscape designer's company car, and a construction company vehicle. They were all outside, walking the yard. We rolled down our windows and apologized - the realtor hadn't told us there would be a showing, and did they need to get into the house? They quickly answered they weren't there to see the house, just the property, and asked if they could come back again with another contractor? We nodded like little bobble-heads, rolled up our windows and faced each other. "We're buying it," Chris said. "I know," I answered.
It was that simple - faced with the prospect of someone tearing it down to put up another giant, generic McMansion, we knew staying there was the right thing to do. So, we will put our best efforts into the house, and hope that our improvements will be enough to make the next buyer see the charm and sweetness in this little house, so that someday when we move on, we can drive by with our kids and point out the house where their childhood memories live as well.
Sold!
I sheepishly admit it - I forgot I had a blog. Okay, that's a lie. I remembered, and I mentally 'wrote' many many posts since my last one. But I've been busy! I peeked at my last post and was surprised to see that it was from when we moved into the house - as renters! To spare you the lengthy post, here's the summary:
- We bought the house!
- I know! I can't believe it either!
- We filed the offer cancellation papers for the bungalow about two weeks after we moved into the farmhouse.
- We closed on our house on Good Friday, April 2nd, 2010.
- I told my husband and GG that the three of us need to stay away from any real-estate based decisions now for a very long, long time.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Mission Move: Completed.
(p.s. that's not us)We did it! With lots of help from my brother-in-law Mike and his good buddy Garrett, and many many back and forth trips, we are all moved out of the ranch and into the farmhouse. I'm actually quite impressed with our moving skills - C and I went from completely living in the ranch to packing, moving, cleaning, and unpacking - in essentially 5 days from start to finish. Of course, I won't go into great detail about the number of boxes in the basement, but what we actually live with is all set up! (Note to self: what IS all that other crap in the boxes in the basement?!)
Anyway - so far so good. It feels very much like 'home' - more so than I thought. We've been enjoying the space, having two bathrooms, early morning coffee with occasional glimpses of deer in the yard, and even the commute hasn't been bad - carpooling rocks. More time with my love in the morning and the evening to catch up on our days, evening if it is while sitting in stop-and-go traffic. We went for a run yesterday after work (thank you Daylight Savings Time!) and found a great, semi-hilly route that should prove challenging. Tonight we are going to take the pups to a nearby dog park and check out the situation there. Purchasing this house is definitely on the table, and GG has been praying for it...we'll see!
One of the things I love the most is how many little anecdotes and stories C has been recalling - it's so cool to be in the space where his memories live.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
From Bungalow to...Farmhouse?
It's hard to keep up, I know.
1. Summer - we sold our house to my mother-in-law. She thought she might like an income generating rental property, and we were ready to move on. She sweetly allowed us to stay until we found our own house with the promise that we would help her find some good tenants when the time came.
2. November - we put our offer in on the 69th street bungalow, knowing short sales can take a while to close. We thought it would be convenient to close sometime after the holidays. Chris' mom decided she didn't want to be a landlady, understandably, as she had found a perfect house for herself, and that was going to be enough to care for. We thought - it can't hurt to put our house on the market now then, as it will probably take a while to sell. Go for it!
3. December - my m.i.l purchased her new little perfect home, and put her farmhouse (minus the farm) up for sale, along with our house, hoping one would sell relatively soon (that's a lot of real estate for one lady to keep under her belt!)
4. January - farmhouse still for sale. Our house still for sale. Still waiting on the bungalow. Tick, tock, tick...
5. Sudden interest in our house - showed it twice, got and accepted the decent offer. Score! This will be perfect! Just in time for us to close on the bungalow.
6. Tick, tock, tick, tock....
7. Times up! We have to move out of our house, the closing is quickly approaching, still no word on a closing date for the bungalow, where to go? The OTHER house in the family that is for sale. Nice.
So - that's the "short" version. And I am excited!
When GG, which I was I will call my mother-in-law from now on because typing that out is getting annoying - first decided to sell the farmhouse, Chris immediately pitched the idea that WE should buy it. I was firmly against moving into my husband's childhood home. I didn't want to live the same life his parents lived, and his grandparents. Too many memories, too much history, too far away, and on and on. And suddenly, unexplainably, I have had a major change of heart. We've been praying for God's will to be done in this entire house situation, from the beginning. And we kept trying to interpret what that might be - but I think I'm learning...it's not a foreign language. His will is apparent, and as Chris always says, usually -if you have peace about something in your heart, you are heading in the right direction. As soon as we put the idea of moving to the farmhouse back on the table, all of the anxiety and question marks in my mind disappeared. It just felt right.
What's so wrong with history and memories? Those walls have seen a lot. His grandparents, who are beloved to me, raised each of their children there when it really was a farm. Chris' father grew up in that house - raised Chris in that house. I'm suddenly feeling the value of all that history - realizing it's something that is hard to come by. Not to mention the space - it's on an enormous lot, by our standards - we are used to living on a postage stamp parcel within the city limits. So maybe we move in and live there for two weeks, or two months, or twenty years. Who knows? The fact is, it's a new option and it feels good.
p.s. I am way more excited about modern farmhouse decor than I am about decorating a bungalow. I already have a folder started on my desktop of inspirational imagery. More to come!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Cue scary, psycho laughter....
Hahaha! Hahahahahah! Hahahahahahahahah! AHHH!!!!!
You can just hear it, can't you? It's me! Laughing at this whole entire house situation! What happened to the good old days when we pulled up to a for-sale sign in front of a cute little house, called the number, met the lovely homeowners selling by owner of course, took a peek, quickly threw in a respectable offer, and BAM. We're in??!!
Well, those aren't my good old days, but I imagine that's how purchasing a house was before this whole "housing crisis." Maybe I'm fooling myself, but it had to be easier than this, right?
Let's backtrack.
My last post? "Could it be"? Well, it wasn't. Our offer expired on February 17. We drove by the house shortly after for one last hurrah, and decided smugly that we didn't like it there anyway. Pashaw. On to bigger and better and faster-closing houses. Then, the for-sale rental house we live in currently (the house we formerly owned who my dear mother-in-law is now in possession of) received a sooner-than-anticipated accepted offer. Great news for my m.i.l. and we are truly thrilled it happened so quickly, not so great for us - the two extremely picky home shoppers with a 'must-have' list the size of Kentucky, including items that I am pretty sure are mutually exclusive, who now have to find a home, purchase it, pack up, move out and move IN all before the set closing date of March 19. Cue that scary, psycho laughter again....
So C and I were sent scrambling. We went to one house and nearly put an offer in on it, but just couldn't settle on - settling. It didn't feel like the right one. We kept comparing everything we looked at to the bungalow - location, room size, character (or lack of), yard, amount of work needed, and so on. The pro's and con's on the bungalow are fairly matched - it's not the Dream House. But that is not what we are going for with this purchase. We're looking for a house that is a great deal - a house we can fix up and be proud of, that won't hang us out to dry when it comes time to sell it. Somewhere we can grow into for a little while, but not forever. We want to be able to live there and start a family and maybe live on one income, if that's what we decide. So the limitations we've set up are our own, and I'm comfortable with them. Besides, what 20-something semi-urban couple doesn't long for a bungalow at some point in their early homeowner days? (Dreamy sigh).
So we are back to waiting on the 69th Street house. And it's okay. I am happy wherever I get to live with C. We took looking for something else off the table, and breathed a sigh of relief. It is kind of like being back at square one with this house, but it feels good for a lot of reasons. And hopefully, we won't be homeless come March 19.
Let's hope one of these closing dates actually sticks. Until then...
You can just hear it, can't you? It's me! Laughing at this whole entire house situation! What happened to the good old days when we pulled up to a for-sale sign in front of a cute little house, called the number, met the lovely homeowners selling by owner of course, took a peek, quickly threw in a respectable offer, and BAM. We're in??!!
Well, those aren't my good old days, but I imagine that's how purchasing a house was before this whole "housing crisis." Maybe I'm fooling myself, but it had to be easier than this, right?
Let's backtrack.
My last post? "Could it be"? Well, it wasn't. Our offer expired on February 17. We drove by the house shortly after for one last hurrah, and decided smugly that we didn't like it there anyway. Pashaw. On to bigger and better and faster-closing houses. Then, the for-sale rental house we live in currently (the house we formerly owned who my dear mother-in-law is now in possession of) received a sooner-than-anticipated accepted offer. Great news for my m.i.l. and we are truly thrilled it happened so quickly, not so great for us - the two extremely picky home shoppers with a 'must-have' list the size of Kentucky, including items that I am pretty sure are mutually exclusive, who now have to find a home, purchase it, pack up, move out and move IN all before the set closing date of March 19. Cue that scary, psycho laughter again....
So C and I were sent scrambling. We went to one house and nearly put an offer in on it, but just couldn't settle on - settling. It didn't feel like the right one. We kept comparing everything we looked at to the bungalow - location, room size, character (or lack of), yard, amount of work needed, and so on. The pro's and con's on the bungalow are fairly matched - it's not the Dream House. But that is not what we are going for with this purchase. We're looking for a house that is a great deal - a house we can fix up and be proud of, that won't hang us out to dry when it comes time to sell it. Somewhere we can grow into for a little while, but not forever. We want to be able to live there and start a family and maybe live on one income, if that's what we decide. So the limitations we've set up are our own, and I'm comfortable with them. Besides, what 20-something semi-urban couple doesn't long for a bungalow at some point in their early homeowner days? (Dreamy sigh).
So we are back to waiting on the 69th Street house. And it's okay. I am happy wherever I get to live with C. We took looking for something else off the table, and breathed a sigh of relief. It is kind of like being back at square one with this house, but it feels good for a lot of reasons. And hopefully, we won't be homeless come March 19.
Let's hope one of these closing dates actually sticks. Until then...
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Could it be?
Is it really happening? 22 days after my last post (feels like 2,200) we might have a closing...this coming Monday! I'm not even nervous or excited or anything - not even really thinking about it - because we've been there, done that, and had it all fall apart with one really annoying phone call.
Last week Chris and I came to the conclusion we would wait until the 17th of February, when our offer expires, and if the date came and went we would move on to another house. Then Friday rolled around, and one of the women who works at the bank dealing with our lending called Chris to tell him that our interest rate expired that day, and if we still wanted to house on 69th street we had to pay to extend the rate (Does this sound like a scam or what? The rates are the SAME as when we locked!) But I digress. So Chris called me, and without any hesitation I said - let's forget about it. This house is in rough shape anyway - we can do better. So in turn, he called our real estate agent who by some persuasive magic talked him into just thinking about it before we make any emotional decisions. We've been. Thinking. About. It. Forever. But we did. And concluded, again, that there are no better deals out there right now, and we love a good DIY project. So, $800 later we're locked in (at the same rate - ugh) and tentatively have a closing scheduled for Monday, although we have not received anything officially confirming this.
I vaguely remember all of this runaround from the first time we purchased a home, when three offers prior to the house we got had all fallen through. I found this old email from Chris as I was cleaning out my old emails the other day. It said, "This is what I think of our house buying experience! I love you! -C" Here is the mobile photo he sent...
...and I totally get it.
Last week Chris and I came to the conclusion we would wait until the 17th of February, when our offer expires, and if the date came and went we would move on to another house. Then Friday rolled around, and one of the women who works at the bank dealing with our lending called Chris to tell him that our interest rate expired that day, and if we still wanted to house on 69th street we had to pay to extend the rate (Does this sound like a scam or what? The rates are the SAME as when we locked!) But I digress. So Chris called me, and without any hesitation I said - let's forget about it. This house is in rough shape anyway - we can do better. So in turn, he called our real estate agent who by some persuasive magic talked him into just thinking about it before we make any emotional decisions. We've been. Thinking. About. It. Forever. But we did. And concluded, again, that there are no better deals out there right now, and we love a good DIY project. So, $800 later we're locked in (at the same rate - ugh) and tentatively have a closing scheduled for Monday, although we have not received anything officially confirming this.
I vaguely remember all of this runaround from the first time we purchased a home, when three offers prior to the house we got had all fallen through. I found this old email from Chris as I was cleaning out my old emails the other day. It said, "This is what I think of our house buying experience! I love you! -C" Here is the mobile photo he sent...
...and I totally get it.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Here we go…
Where to begin? The hunt for the perfect "new" old house started almost a year ago, with what seemed like no end in sight...until we found the little bungalow on 69th street. Back and forth we went, weighing this, contemplating that, is it the one? Are you sure? Are you sure? Who can be sure?!
So we placed an offer - in November. And here we are, January 19 - still waiting - um, patiently. Who decided to name it a Short Sale? Nothin' short about it.
Meanwhile, we've made list after list of to-do's, put in mental-order what we'll do first, what we'll save for later, a calendar of our packing/fixing up/moving schedule, and so on. Prayed that if this isn't the one, it will become apparent so we can move on, and move in - to something else.
The inspection was scheduled, rescheduled, and once more - scheduled again, just for good luck - and finally, house inspected! Nothing too scary there - we are prepped and ready for a Fixer Upper - we don't scare easily. And then the closing was scheduled, and rescheduled (note the pattern). Some hoo-ha with the bank and reconciling another loan they just found out about (!!). So in two weeks, they say we'll have another closing date set and can get to moving.
Chris and I are ready to go. Ready for the next step in our life. Ready to move forward, start new projects, meet new neighbors, explore a new town, paint new colors - new adventures. Hopefully, we're in the home stretch.
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