Full Frontal

HA, this is so not what the title implies.  But it's got you reading!

Rather than starting at the beginning, let's start at the front for our house celebration.

Front door that is.

You may have heard me complain about the ugly blue that far too many parts of our house were painted.  Well, it started with the front door.

(Love that reflection of the neighbors house. I'm such a good photographer...)

Here it is from the inside. You'll have to trust me that it was that same blue when we moved in... but I it was one of the first things I painted.  And was long before I realized I should take pictures of evvvvverything.

So, not a lot of light came through those little windows on top.  And the mail slot? Stuffed with insulation.  Oh, and what you can't see, is the giant crack going through it.  Right through - since it was a wood door.  Doesn't do much for heating costs.

So, for my birthday last year, B bought me a new door!  It's Therma-Tru brand, and its the fiber glass option.  Which has quite a few benefits over a wood door - probably even more so over a wood door that was probably 40 years old.  They're low maintenance, energy efficient, resist dents and scratches, etc.  So it's perfect for me. I'm lazy, I don't like to pay for things I don't have to (like extra heat), and have a crazy dog that gets so excited to go outside she jumps on the door.

Pretty awesome difference huh?  It took B's dad probably less than 2 hours to switch them out (because he's awesome).  I feel like it really gave our house a face lift.  It is still currently white (almost a year later), but it is paint-able, if we wanted to do that at some point.  The garage door is white, so it looks just fine to us as is for the time being.  You'll also notice we don't have a storm door.  We plan to get one, we just haven't quite gotten around to it.

Clearly I still need to get rid of the blue on those shutters.  If only I could figure out how to get rid of that scalloped trim stuff up there... so dated.  Ah, the never ending projects.

Quite a bit more light, huh?  I love it.  I can actually see who is knocking on my door!

So there you have it, a little home improvement project that upped the first impression status of our house.  And bonus, it's an energy efficient purchase, that we can write off on our taxes.  Next up in the house celebration: through the front door into the living room.

Happy Birthday M!!!

Today is M's 4th Birthday.  Amazing how fast time goes by.

These were taken the first few days we had her, when we lived in our apartment.

Enjoying the view of her new backyard once we moved into the house.

Adventures in boating

So focused

Awesome picture from daycare

Ice fishing a few weekends ago.

So, if you can't tell, we love her to pieces, and our lives would be incredibly boring without her.  Sometimes she's frustrating and she still mis-behaves.  We can't always go away for the weekend last minute or stay over friends' places on a whim.  But nothing is better after a bad day at work than a little fur-ball wagging her tail uncontrollably because you being home with her, is her favorite thing in the world.

Happy Birthday M, we love you!

Before It Was Ours

Here are the few pictures I could dig up from before we actually moved in.  These are from the home inspection (I apologize for the seriously awful quality.  But it is what it is.)

Creepy cat statue was not included in the sale.

Ugly blue mantel? Of course.

Boring, lame and blurry.  Sorry, it's all I've got at the moment!

Three Years Ago

I had just passed an incredibly important exam for my job - the kind that gives you job security if you pass, and unemployment if you fail.  We had been getting anxious in our apartment, knowing we didn't want to stay there much longer.  Sharing walls was getting old, we wanted more space, we wanted something that was ours.


We had looked at houses at the end of the previous summer, into the fall.  And by houses, I mean like something like 20 - at least.  Some were great but expensive, some were okay but not us, and some were downright scary.  After I got this new job we knew it would be best to wait until I passed the exam.  I passed the test on a Tuesday.


Wednesday my mom forwarded me a new listing from our realtor, saying "You should check this one out!!!"  That is a direct quote, with three exclamation points.  There was no picture.  And the description read as follows:


"CHARMING AND COZY 3 BEDROOM, 2 BATH HOME SITUATED ON BEAUTIFUL LARGE PROFESSIONALLY LANDSCAPED LOT. MASTER BEDROOM WITH CATHEDRAL CEILINGS AND LOTS OF WINDOWS. OPEN FLOOR PLAN, HARDWOOD FLOORS, BUILT-INS, BRICK FIREPLACE, 4 FINISHED ROOMS IN LOWER LEVEL, 3 SEASON PORCH, DECK, 2 CAR ATTACHED GARAGE, 2,500 SQ FT."


Yea, all caps. I hate that too.  And no pictures? COME ON, how can you even know if you want to look at it?  We had scheduled three houses to look at that weekend, the all-caps-description-house was not one of them.  My parents lived closer, and did a "drive-by" and said we should really go look at it.  A few pictures popped up on the web and although they left quite a bit to be desired, I sent our realator an email, "I hate to be a pain but..." and promptly added the all-caps-description-house to our schedule for Saturday.
That Saturday we looked at a house across town first.  It was cute, and had quite a bit of land, but felt cramped. And had a dirt basement.  We were mostly looking forward to the last two houses of the day, a few towns over, but made our way to the all-caps-description-house.  There was someone else leaving just as we got there.


There was a "please remove your shoes" sign, which I usually take as a good sign.  The hardwood floors were bright, and the bay window in the front provided some serious light in the living room.  The living area was open - as promised in the description.  The kitchen needed some love, but was big and we said things like "oh we could do this and this and it would be great."  We went through the bedrooms, being typical house hunter types commenting "this would make such a great office" and "oh the floors in the bathroom are heated, this is so great." (We're such nerds....)


And then it happened.  Off the main hall there was a pocket door opening to a short hallway.  On the left of the hall was a large bathroom with two seperate sinks and glassed in shower.  To the right, two walk in closets.  And then the ceiling opened up and I stood in awe.  When they said cathedral ceilings, they meant it.  Large windows on three sides.  An incredible amount of space. I wanted it.


We checked out the basement, which was a collection of sectioned off rooms which was a little weird, but we were sure we could do something to make it work.


We agreed that we didn't even want to bother looking at the other two houses.  My parents were with us at the time, but we wanted B's parents to see it too, especially since his dad is in construction and he would be able to help us see how things were structurally.


That night our realtor sent us an email, letting us know there weren't any other offers on it - yet - but that the selling agent was expecting there to be some soon.  Crap.  He then suggested we write a letter to the owners, just letting them know who we are, why we wanted the house, etc - he said we didn't have to, but that's what he did when they put the offer on their house, and he felt like it made a big difference.


Sunday we went back, and after B's dad checked out a crawlspace, and had a good look at the house, we decided we didn't want to wait and risk someone else putting an offer on it.  After going through the formalities of making the offer - including our "Hi, We're B&S and we want your house so please sell it to us" letter (it was much better than that, I promise!) - we headed home to await our fate...


I don't remember how many hours later, but it wasn't many.  We got the call.  There was another offer on the table, but they counter-offered only to us (which we later found out was due to the letter I wrote - boo-yah!).  We had offered listing price and asked for $5,000 in closing costs.  Their counter was $5,000 over list price, but with $5,000 for closing costs.  For whatever reason, they needed to net list price - they were an older couple and moving to Florida.


We took it.


Looking back, hindsight is 20/20 and if we had waited six months, who knows what kind of place we could have gotten for the same amount of dough.  And sometimes its frustrating to think about, especially when houses in the neighborhood get sold for a fraction of the cost.  And then when things like mold appear, or pipes leak, or we try and figure out what the hell this guy buried in the back yard, we wonder why we ever wanted to be homeowners in the first place and B usually starts shouting "That's it, we're selling!"

But, I'd say its finally becoming ours, and B's outbursts are less frequent ;P  So for the next month (i.e. 3 years from when we made our offer, to the 30 days later when we moved in) I'm going to focus on how far we've come, and document all work we've done, right here.  We can consider it part of my New Year's Resolution to be more appreciative of what I have. Now I've just got to find all the pictures that are hiding somewhere...


And don't worry, I'll get around to sharing some more information about my latest crazy commitment to the half marathon soon too.

So I Got Little Crazy...

Since I have so much free time these days (no wait... that's not right...) and I love running so much (nope... that's not right either...) I decided, WHY NOT sign up for a half marathon!? Seems like the most logical thing to do, right?

Right.

Well, wrong.

But I did it anyway.  *sigh*  The registration fee has been paid, the training plan has been adjusted and printed, and *gasp* the fundraising page has been set up.

I'm not ready to share more than that just this second.  I'm still in shock that I did it.  It might not seem like that big of a deal, but let's take a few things into account here.

1. The longest distance I've run since I started pretending to be a runner (maybe ever) is 6.2 miles (The 10K races I did).  A half marathon is 13.1 miles. (For those of you not versed in race distances, a half is always 13.1, and a full marathon is always 26.2.)
2. This involved a minimum commitment of 12 weeks, to follow the training plan I'm working with.  That's THREE MONTHS people.  Oye.  And since I have a few extra weeks between now and the race, I've built in a few double weeks, since I know myself, and if I don't start right now... well, it won't be pretty.
3. And did I mention what else I have going on in the next few months?  Well, I guess I don't really need to, its mostly more of the same - an insane amount of work, trying to survive grad school in one piece, helping B survive grad school in one piece, keeping this house from looking like a tornado hit it, being a good doggie-mom, and oh yea, keeping a social life. 
4. This fundraising thing... I'm a little nervous about it.  I haven't done much fund raising in my adult life.  Sure, I sold Girl Scout cookies, and whatever crap it is you sell in school fund raisers.  And in college we sold beer beverage "coozies" to raise money for the rugby team.  I don't know what to set my goal at. I don't want to over-do it on Facebook (or here).  Can I increase my goal if things are going well? AH, what is the fundraising etiquette?!  Luckily, there's no minimum amount I have to raise, like some I've seen, so the pressure is off there at least.

I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm thinking I might be crazy.

The Proposal

Not the Sandra and Ryan movie. Although I do love that movie.

No, the proposal when B and S, decided to become B&S.

B asked if I wanted to go ice fishing at his parents lake house for the weekend.  I spent the drive down talking about how this guy at work just got engaged, and how some other woman had called B my husband that day I had to correct her and tell her he was my boyfriend.  He was being kind of quiet, but I didn't think much of it.

Once we trekked across the ice, in New England January temperatures, B suggested we take M outside to run around for a while before bed so that she would sleep better (she's always really hyper when we're down there).  Before we went outside, B asked his dad if the fire pit was on the point.  Which I thought was weird, because its usually right by the house.  We went outside and he loaded up my arms with logs and we took the quick walk down the trail to the point.  There were chairs set out, and it was all a little strange.

I rambled on about something random I'm sure and complained that I was cold, and tried to sit on his lap and get him to hug me.  After about a minute he told me to get up, I was hurting him (gee thanks...).  I sat in the other chair and he stood up.

"What are you doing?"  He reached into his pocket.

"What's wrong with you?"  He started to bend down... and I started laughing.

He then asked me to marry him, I punched him in the shoulder and told him he was a jerk.  And then said yes.

There were no tears - sorry - just an inappropriate amount of laughter from me.  He put the ring on my finger, we hugged, and decided we were way too cold and headed back inside to share the news with his parents.  And you know, where there was actual light so I could see the ring.

It was simple, out of the blue, and completely perfect.

There were three things that made it perfect for me. 1) He asked my parents permission. 2) I had no idea it was coming until seconds before.  3) He picked out the perfect ring.  And not in a materialistic way - but in the its something I would pick for myself way.

Also, please note, that when you are proposed to, you will have not adequately charged your cell phone.  I thought this was just me, but it's happened to two of my friends in the last few months as well.  For me, I got off a call to my parents, one friend, and a couple of text messages.

It's been two years, today, since that cold, amazing Friday night that cemented our future together.  I'm thankful everyday, even on the bad ones, that I get to spend the rest of my life with this man.

Happy Engagement Anniversary B. I love you.

You know it's bad when...

the VP from a different group stops you as you're leaving and says, "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen you leave before. I thought you had a pillow under you desk."