Let the painting begin...

We closed on the house on Wednesday so we are now home owners (Yippee!!!). Now the hard work begins. I spent Wed-Fri cleaning the house and getting ready for the weekend of painting. David spent Wed-Fri working very long hours because he had two deadlines. As soon as he got off work on Friday we picked up a pizza and headed to the new house and enjoyed eating dinner on our new deck. Yesterday and today has been spent cleaning and painting. The previous owner lived in the house for 30 years and was a smoker. It is a really strong smell but luckily it really seems to be limited to the first level of the house (living and kitchen/dining area). I did my research on how to rid a house of smoke so yesterday we washed the walls, ceiling and trim with a vinegar, water and baking soda solution. We went through nearly two jugs of vinegar in an area that is no bigger than 500 sq. feet. After all the cleaning we put two coats of primer on the wall, ceiling and trim. This should block the nicotine from seeping back out through the paint (gross, huh?!). As I write this, David is at the new house finishing up the priming in the living room. This afternoon we took a break to go to the paint store to pick out the color for the living and dining room. We went to buy samples and test them in the room and we already had an idea of what we wanted. That didn't help. After a long time of looking and debating we picked some out and then somehow David talked me into just skipping the whole testing process and buying a color. I think I was just tired of looking and caved in. I love and hate that David has an opinion on decorating. It's great when I want to go out shopping and browse around for hours b/c he likes it too but lord, he is as adamant as I am in what he wants and it's so hard to come to a decision. I forgot to mention that David's mom Pat took the train up from NC on Tuesday. Pat has been a tremendous hep by watching Henry. I could not have gotten a quarter of the things done and I am so grateful for her help. she is really enjoying her time with Henry but he is a handful. Henry is doing ok. He hasn't caught up with his sleep since last weekend when we flew to Chicago and back and he has been fighting me at nap time and bedtime. So, once we get in the house I am going to unpack at a leisurely pace and just focus on getting Henry back on track. Pictures of the new house to come soon. The place looks great with that awful Williamsburg blue trim gone. As David said this morning "I am sure this color looked good...in the 1700's"

My Cousin Todd

David and I have had some exciting news to share the past few weeks with our house and his job promotion but unfortunately some terribly sad news has hit our family. My cousin Todd at the age of 42 passed away last Tuesday. He was rushed to the hospital last Saturday and here I am back in my kitchen on Sunday after getting back from the funeral. It still doesn't seem real even though I cried my eyes out for a week and flew to Chicago for the funeral. I actually hadn't seen Todd in 18 years. That fact makes me so terribly sad. Todd's mom, my Auntie Jo, had a 60th b-day party about 5 years ago and for some reason I didn't go. I was living in Boston and I believe I didn't go because I had a job interview the Tuesday after the party. A job interview! I am sure at the time it seemed important but I really could have gone. I have always regretted it because here it is 5 years later and I have seen some of the family but not all of them. On many occasions I have told David how much he would like Todd and I really wanted them to meet. They both share a love for music and are both drummers. Todd was a funny, goofy, kind and intelligent person and will be sorely missed by his family, friends, co-workers and anyone that ever met him. My thoughts and prayers go out to them.

Obituary

More Good News!

I am happy to report that after a year working as an independent contractor, David accepted an offer as an Associate at the law firm he has been working at since last August. This couldn't have happened at a better time (with the upcoming purchase of the house) and I am so proud of David. David has worked very long hours for the last year and a half and although the hours won't change too much he will now have paid vacation, sick leave and all the other usual benefits that we often take for granted until we don't have them. I am really excited about the vacation because I was wondering if he was ever going to be able to take more than a long weekend since we are getting ready to take on a large house payment. Speaking of the house, our closing date is August 27th and I have scheduled the movers for 8am on Tuesday, September 2nd. The labor day weekend will be spent cleaning and painting before the move. I can't even begin to express how excited I am to move out of our current rental house and into our very own home. The rental property has tested my patience from day one. I think my next blog entry may be the "Top Ten Reasons I am excited about the Move".

No new pictures to post but check out some videos I have posted to You Tube. Sorry about the other video that are now gone.

Videos

Link with pictures

I found this link which has pictures of the house we are currently in the process of buying. These pictures show the front of the house as well as the big deck which we are going to LOVE!

Click here for pictures

Our new favorite local hangout...

Below is a link to some pictures I took at the Long Branch Nature Center just a couple miles from our house. I discovered it about a week and a half ago and we have been 3 times since. David and Henry love walking around in the stream and throwing rocks. I should have had David take a picture of me. I am sitting in a comfy portable chair reading the newspaper. It was pure bliss.

Click here for pictures

Good News

We have had an exciting week around here. Last Monday around Noon I got a call from our real estate agent saying that the contract on a house we were interested in had fallen through. I had seen the house the previous Tuesday and wanted David to see it but his work week was hectic and next thing we knew the house had three contracts. (I'm not sure why we didn't just make an offer since the last house we bid on had 18 offers! hee hee. We spent the weekend looking at other houses but we were disappointed we missed out on that house. So, when I got the call on Monday that all three contracts fell through (the other two people who made offers but weren't the winning bid had already made offers on other houses) I was thrilled. David went to see the house Monday afternoon and we made an offer. We found out on Monday night at 8:45pm that our offer was accepted! On Thursday we had the house inspected and now we are dealing with the fun stuff (negotiating repairs after seeing the inspection report and settling the financing). I am hesitant to get too excited b/c I know things can fall apart even at this stage. Below are some pictures I took when I was in the house during the inspection. Consider them "before" pictures. The house is a 1950's rambler and most of the house was updated in the 1980's as you can see from the bathroom and kitchen. We will be painting the entire house and changing out lighting immediately but we will have to live with the kitchen cabinets for awhile. We will hopefully be able to purchase new appliances first and then later we will do a major remodel. Needless to say, we are VERY excited. It is a nice house with a beautiful backyard that house lots of space to put our personal touch on it. I am really excited about planting flowers and trees.

Oh, little more about the location of the house. It is in Vienna Woods which is about 5 miles from Arlington (where we currently live). We were really set on staying in Arlington until I "discovered" this neighborhood in Vienna called Vienna Woods. Vienna Woods is a mid century neighborhood with 50's ramblers and split levels. Most of the neighborhood has sidewalks and there are two private pool and tennis clubs in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is walking distance or very short drive to shopping including an awesome Whole Foods and a really cool coffee shop/music venue. Also, Vienna Woods is very close to the Vienna subway station.
It also is still close enough to the places we go in Arlington (parks, shopping, etc)

PS. Sorry i didn't take pictures of the front of the house. More pictures to later!
Pictures of the house


Pictures of Henry at Meadow Lane Park

4th of July fun

We had a great week around here. My mom (Henry's Nanny) flew in last Saturday and stayed the whole week. On Monday she came with us to Henry's Itsy Bitsy yoga class. On Tuesday we had playgroup at our house and mom got to witness the mayhem of playgroup. The rest of the week we mostly played in the yard and ran errands in anticipation of the 4th of July weekend. We really had a great 4th. We actually just stayed home and made veggie dogs, baked beans and cole slaw--good ole 4th of July fare. David slept in to catch up on some much needed sleep after working a grueling two week schedule working on some projects at work. The whole morning we spent outside while Henry played with a new pool his "Nanny" bought him. He loved the pool which was a small blow up pool with a little sprinkler water feature and slide. Before Henry went down for a nap we made a "Flag cake" with strawberries and blueberries. Henry and David really enjoyed putting it together. Henry placed most of the strawberries on the cake and David placed the blueberries. Some neighbors shot off some fireworks across the street from our house and Henry did not like them. He actually clung to me and David and kept telling us "I just don't like them." We decided not to make the trip into DC to see the big fireworks and instead we just watched them on the tv which he really liked ( :

Here are some pictures from the week