My New Nephew! April 30, 2013

How did an entire month go by before I even posted one picture of my adorable new nephew on here?  That must be a major aunt misdemeanor or something.  A definite faux pas!

Rhys Carson was quite the jokester – arriving 10 days late on April 1st!  My wonderful sister patiently awaited his arrival and did an amazing job at the hospital with the help of Daddy Scott.  Big brother Hayes is proud of his baby brother and loves to help with diaper changes.

I was lucky enough to get to spend 5 whole days with them (and yet never changed one diaper!)  It was wonderful to spend the special time with my sister, to get to play with Hayes without the distraction of my own kids, and to hold Rhys as much as he would let me (when he wasn’t voraciously eating!)  But I know you all don’t really care about what we did or how awesome the baby smell is when you’ve missed it for so many years…  So I’ll just finish the post with pictures.

Those tiny fingers, adorable button nose, and the awesome baby smell.

This big boy caused much laughter (and much frustration… as most almost 3-year-olds with a new baby brother do…)

It was great to spend time with my mom and sissy too! A beautiful afternoon at a winery? Yes please!

Can’t wait to hold Rhys again soon!

Next time I see him, he’ll be a totally different baby, I’m sure!

 

 

 

 

It’s Official! April 20, 2013

After getting out of the homeowner game for almost 10 months, we’re finally back in it.  We’re back to having debt and weekly projects, and it’s a wonderful feeling!

We are beyond excited about our new home.  We can’t wait to make many memories there with our family, old friends, and new friends.  Having purchased the home from the original owners (and builders), we acquired all the original blueprints, maintenance records,  and even pictures of the home being built.  It’s quite a well-kept place.  We could tell it was very difficult for the mother and daughter to let go of a place in which they had so many memories, but I hope the knowledge of a new young family taking it over gives them some sort of peace that we will continue to love and cherish the house as much as they did.

First things first, though.  We’re not moving for another 5 weeks, and there is much to do to get it ready.  We know we won’t be able to do it all, so our only priorities before we move in are to have Mason and Cooper’s rooms completely done and ready for them as well as update the kitchen a bit with new appliances, countertops and floor.  It is certainly not a small task, especially with all the wallpaper that we need to remove first, but we’re excited to get our hands dirty again and personalize the space.  Like I’ve said before, that kind of thing is our hobby.

I am not going to inundate you with too many photos as there will be before and after posts for each room, but here is a sneak peek of what we’re getting into.

First up – the kitchen! Original cabinets built by the owner.

Wallpaper galore! And yes, we’re keeping the rotary phone.

The living room gets amazing light! Can’t wait to put a Christmas tree in there this winter!

Dining room has the least offensive wallpaper. Our table will fit perfectly.

Just one side of our master bedroom. It also gets amazing light. We have no clue what we’ll do with this room yet.

This is just one of the cool vintage lights in the house.

The basement is paneled, and they left us some decorative wood pieces and these chairs. We’ll keep one of them – can you guess which?

Welcome to our home! We can’t wait to have you visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Countdown to Homeownership April 6, 2013

I feel it’s time to share the big news…  well at least one piece of big news.  I thought maybe I’d do this on April Fool’s Day and trick you into believing something outlandish like we were getting a puppy or moving to Kansas or buying a boat.  But we’ve been waiting for all the contingencies to clear before we said anything in fear of jinxing the whole process.  You can probably tell from the title, but….  We’re buying a house!!!

I chronicled our house hunt in a recent blog and expressed my concern that there was not enough inventory for all the buyers out there.  So when a new property came on the market that actually looked decent, I quickly jumped on the phone to set up an appointment.  Turns out that house had mold and had been vacant for 3 years so it would need a total gut rehab.  While appealing, it wasn’t going to be the right fit for us.  BUT…  the agent mentioned another house he was putting on the market as well.  Without seeing a picture and only knowing the stats, I set up an appointment for the next day.  I went to see it on a Friday afternoon.  I brought Jeremy and the kids back Saturday afternoon.  We all fell in love with it – kids included.  We put an offer in Saturday night and found out Sunday evening that the house was ours.  We were in a state of shock, excitement, and anxiousness.  Now everything else had to fall into place.

And it finally has…  So let me tell you about it.  (I’m not going to post pictures yet since the only ones available are the listing agent’s, but trust me that you’ll get to see a lot of pictures over the coming months!)  First of all, it is nothing like we ever expected.  It’s a 1 acre lot; the ranch-esque house was custom built in 1960, and it’s a little further out of town than we were looking.  But like I said before, we just needed good bones.  And this house has amazing bones!  The original owners/builders have lived there the entire time and have kept up the home, so it is in great condition with meticulous records of any changes, maintenance or issues.  Jeremy even got the original blue prints to the house from the daughter when we were there for the home inspection!  (We plan to frame them and display them.)  The home has 4 bedrooms and 1.5 baths.  There is a partially finished basement, and tons of storage space.  The yard is huge, but mostly wooded.  (We’ve heard rumors to look out for lots of deer and wild turkeys.)  It still needs a lot of updating since everything is original to 1960, but there is also a vintage charm to the home that appeals to us.  Every wall is covered in wallpaper so we have a lot of work ahead of us.  But we’ll have time to make changes before we move in.

One of the conditions of us getting the house was that we could close in 30 days.  That’s basically been unheard of recently with all the new policies lenders have in doling out mortgages.  But our mortgage broker assured us he could do it.  He’s proved himself right, and we’re set to close in 11 days.  We will then have about 6 weeks to do whatever updating we can before we move in.  Our first goals are the kids’ bedrooms (no more sharing!) and the kitchen.  Everything else, we’ll do over time.  You can expect a lot of before and after posts coming up on the blog this spring and summer.

But first we need to get the keys…  11 days and counting!

Getting Outside April 3, 2013

Can it be true?  Is spring really coming?  This past weekend, it sure seemed like it.  It was a perfectly beautiful weekend to enjoy some time outside and celebrate Easter.  And it was made even better to have Aunt Kristin visiting us.  It’s Wednesday, and I feel like I’m still living off the high of a great weekend.  Between fun adventures, gorgeous weather, good food, and wonderfully behaved children, it was a weekend to remember.

We started off on Friday with a trip to the zoo and the baking of Easter cookies.  Saturday included a drive to the Mystic Aquarium, a rousing game of monkey-in-the-middle outside, and even a swap of neighbor children as Cooper’s friend came to our house and Mason was to their house.  We finished off Saturday watching the first Harry Potter movie with the kids, which they loved.  (I am so excited for them to get old enough to read the books!)  On Easter Sunday we tried to squeeze in every tradition we could…  Finding the hidden Easter baskets, a big pancake breakfast (with failed bunny pancakes), an Easter egg hunt inside the house, dying Easter eggs, and then a big yummy dinner.  In addition to all that, though, we also found time to fly a kite at the local park (so much fun!) and play more monkey-in-the-middle.  (It became quite a fun game!)

There was little stress all weekend.  We enjoyed the time together and didn’t think too much about anything – just let it all flow.  Honestly, those are the best kinds of weekends.  I need to remember that not having every detail planned and not getting stressed when things don’t get done can make for very unexpected and unassuming joy!  Better yet, when you get fresh air and exercise (in the form of playing with your kids), everyone is in a better mood with better attitudes.  I can’t wait for the good weather to be here to stay so we can get outside more!

Now for what you’ve all been patient for…  the pictures…

Mystic Aquarium is awesome (and even better when you have coupons to save on admission.)

The kids did a scavenger hunt around the aquarium. Cooper found this guy.

Then we found the Easter bunny!

The aquarium is an indoor/outdoor facility, which is wonderful on a nice day. This is my favorite picture of the weekend – everyone entranced by the beluga whales.

Family pic with the sea lions!

Easter morning – Mason had a tough time finding her hidden basket, but finally prevailed.

Cooper still needs a little help finding things, but with enough clues, he found his basket too.

The gals… It was so fun to have Kristin here with us for the weekend.

Everyone had to take a turn flying the kite and trying to do tricks. Cooper unknowingly managed to perform some pretty cool kite dives.

But Mason managed the kite for the most part. She loved it! I have a feeling we’ll be doing more kite flying. (and surprisingly we only sang “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” once!)

 

That’s all for today.  We’ve got a lot more adventures ahead of us this spring and summer.  I have some big news to reveal, but we’re waiting for the right time to share.  My hints?  Spring brings new birth, right?  And we’ll be spending some time at Lowe’s this weekend looking for ideas and inspiration.  Stay tuned!