New House Pictures . . . Finally

We sold our old house and bought a new one way back in July and we have finally gotten the house together enough that I can post some pictures- yay!

The front.

Before I show you the pictures of everything put together and looking amazing I have to show you what Aven's room looked like before because Ian spent a lot of time turning the awful built-in drawers and cabinets you see below into something beautiful and functional. When we first bought the house we thought the drawers would make great storage, but they were heavy, didn't slide out easily and I hated that there was such a huge part of Aven's room that wasn't usable for her and her mountain of books and toys.

We thought this might be a project for next year, but we came up with a plan and got all worked up about it and decided to dive right in. Here is the space after demolition:

And here is Aven's room now:

We actually found a shelving unit at Ikea that fit almost perfectly in the space. Ian had to do some major pain-in-the-butt finishing work around the top and side of the shelving unit to make it look nice, but now it's a perfect place for books and toys. The other super weird thing about this room is that it contains the only rear portal to the out-of-doors, but that's something we've gotten used to.

Now, without further ado, here are more pictures of our house looking clean and put together:

The master bedroom. Having a true master with a bathroom was Ian's number one desire when we were looking for houses. It wasn't a big deal for me, but now that we have it I totally love it.

The kitchen. Granite counter tops are pretty but they are a pain in the butt to take care of (have you ever prepared a stain removing poultice before?). I wouldn't have picked them, but they came with the house so I'll try to enjoy them while doing my best to keep acids, oils, and fats off of them.

The living room. Look ma, no TV! Oh, the laptop we watch Hulu on counts? Oh well.

The dining room with a big picture window. We don't watch TV while we eat, but we do watch our neighbors and make snarky comments about some of them.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. Maybe I'll take you on a tour of our basement and office sometime, but right now they are still pretty chaotic.

Cast of Characters

I love my neighborhood. Ian and I chose to live in this area specifically because we like the layout, the proximity to places we like to go, and because it has character. One of the things that I love so much about my neighborhood is the contrast. There are a lot of younger people buying up old houses and remodeling them. There are elderly people who are still living in homes they bought a half a century ago. There are also a lot of run down rentals and houses that have been strangely subdivided into multiple apartments. The wide variety of dwellings lends itself quite obviously to a wide variety of people. I love my neighbors and am always entertained by someone on my street. I'm sure that my tendency toward neighbor-watching came straight from my dad who, during my childhood, always had a pair of binoculars at the ready and a clever nickname for everyone within spying distance.

Our neighbor across the street, Mark, who lives in one of the worst examples of do-it-yourself remodeling in existence retired at a fairly young age from the financial industry. He then rode his bike across the United States in celebration and now spends his days tending to the neighborhood stray cats and doing odd things like walking up and down the street while brushing his teeth. Ian and Mark enjoy talking about sci-fi books. The house next door to ours is an ugly rental with an unkempt yard and is occupied by several girls that Ian and I refer to as "The Sexy Coeds". This group of girls gives us the largest variety in our neighbor-watching. My favorite is when they get all glammed up and ride their cruiser bikes a half a block to the coffee shop I can see from my driveway to get an iced mocha latte (or whatever it is they drink) and then ride back ten minutes later. Jesus, another guy across the street is also retired and spends his days working in his yard which reminds me very much of the secret garden. He likes to set up tiny scenes around an old hand-crafted doll house in his front yard. He also invites us over regularly to see new features he's added to his yard such as the river he built in his backyard. Steve a.k.a. Van Guy lives in a van in Jesus's driveway, wears the same clothes everyday and drinks a 36 pack of Natural Light a day. I really wish Van Guy would go live down by the river. He gives me the creeps.

Today a new character entered the scene. He may have just been making a cameo, but with the way Van Guy drinks I'm guessing he's going to be a regular. We were returning home from a walk to the bakery when we saw this:

I do own binoculars, but I prefer my telephoto lens.

A man I have already affectionately named Can Guy. He appeared to be homeless but he had a pretty sweet set-up with a bike that had an attached trailer and he had obviously been busting his butt collecting cans. He told us that he collected $300.00 in cans just on the Fourth of July- pretty impressive. When we arrived home Jesus was bringing out bag after bag of empty beer cans left-over from Van Guy. This guy hit the jackpot. I don't know why he is in the situation he is in, but Van Guy and Can Guy might have the start of a "beautiful" relationship.

Big Decision Time

This April will mark the 5th year of owning our home. Back in 2005 we said that we would only be living here 3 years max and then upgrade to something bigger. We kept putting it off of course until suddenly we had another little human living in the house. She's just starting to get more mobile and we know that our little house just isn't going to do us for much longer. With that in mind we met with a Realtor today to discuss what we should do if we plan on selling. It's a big step deciding to sell a house. I've put my blood sweat and even some tears into this house. Making it nice and cozy inside. Part of me dreads the unknown home improvements I'll have to make on a new house. Especially since we really like living in one of the older parts of town. But another part of me looks forward to a new home with a larger yard for Aven and Grace to play in.

The biggest issue right now is that apparently March and April are the best times to list a house and as it's currently March 1st, we need to decide soon if we are going to do it. I really don't like rushing into big decisions. Even if spontaneous decision usually work out for me, it's still scary to do this quickly.

So what do you all think? Should we go for it? Is it a good time to sell? And who want's to help us move if we do? I promise pizza a beer for all. :)

Our House Gets a Face Lift

After four years in our 1921 brick bungalow we decided that it was finally time for a new paint job. At some point in our home's history somebody did a really half asked job painting over lovely red brick, what a shame. Our only choices were to re-paint or to put on stucco or siding. The least expensive option was painting. This option also leaves the house with the most original feel, I think.


As you can see, the paint was peeling off everywhere. I've actually been embarrassed to have people come to my house because it looks so crappy on the outside.


To save money, Ian decided to do the soffit and fascia himself. He pressure washed and then painted with a fancy new paint sprayer he bought for the job. He worked non-stop for two weekends to get this part done.

After Ian finished the soffit and fascia, the professional painters pressure washed, sanded, and scraped the brick . . .


. . . for this lovely result.