It's Been a While

Well, it's been a while.  I basically haven't blogged since Julia turned one and now she's almost two.  We have been busy.  First, we moved.  Here's a picture of our new house around Christmas. 

Photo Cred to Joanna Cook from Pinky Promise Photography.

The move came up out of nowhere.  Our house on Brooks Avenue was such an amazing house (more amazing now than I ever even realized), but once Julia turned one and started walking, we really started to feel ourselves outgrowing the space.  The real problems:  no guest room, no play room, nowhere to sit and eat as a family in the kitchen.  When the tree fell on our house in August 2012, we called our fabulous real estate agent, Mary Edna Williams and our mortgage broker, Patrick Smith.  If you are in Raleigh and looking for a house or a mortgage, do yourself a favor and call these two.  Mary Edna talked to us about whether to expand our house or move on, and based on the size and location of our lot, we determined that we would start looking for a different house, but look slowly and look for the right thing.  Patrick ran numbers for us to give us an idea of what we could afford and how an increase or decrease in purchase price would affect our mortgage payments.

ANYWAY, fast forward to September, 2013.  We had been out looking at houses a handful of times, and then Mary Edna sent us a listing for a house that had what we needed, is in the school district that we want, is on a cul-de-sac, and was listed a price that we could afford.  We walked over that night to see it and set up a showing the next day.  We were instantly interested in the house and excited.  We had a few people come by the house and determined that the house would need A LOT of work and not just the obvious cosmetic work.  It was apparent to us that the house needed all new windows, a roof, and new siding on the back wall of the house and the garage. 

Speaking of cosmetic updates, the house was decorated beautifully, but it was just so incredibly dated.   And just so I can show the after photos at a later date, check out some of this late 80s styling and a glimpse (in words) of what we have done (after photos to follow in a couple of months):

Notice the wallpaper borders on the top AND bottom.  Super fancy.  We took down the wallpaper, put up grass cloth above and below the chair rail, replaced the window treatments with simple panels and replaced the light fixture with something more current.

This was actually not that bad, but NO LIGHTING OVERHEAD and Coral is a bit passé.  But look at that space and those windows!  And the built-ins!  We have had the fireplace surround replaced with cream-colored marble tile, put in a drum fixture, lowered the mantle, added a flat screen, put in a smaller rug and painted.

Oh, the carpet.  There were four different kinds of carpet upstairs, which is three too many.  The carpet upstairs has all been replaced.  The master has to wait for a real style update, but we have painted and will soon replace the light fixture.

This was actually great, except for those chili peppers.  I swear, the room looks bigger now that the wallpaper is down, it is painted a neutral color, the bar stools are more narrow and the pendants have been updated.

We were not swayed by all of the needs (though we probably should have been), we just made our offer accordingly.  And we didn't get the house.  We were really upset.  We both moped around and told our real estate agent that we would never find a house that met our needs so well.  We had pretty much decided to buy a tear-down and build.  Then the house went through inspection and I guess the other people learned of all of the things that Quincy, my dad and our contractor friends could see just by looking at it and the buyers rescinded their offer.  SO, we renewed our offer and, SOLD.

We had originally planned to take a vacation just the two of us about a week after our offer was accepted, so we took those days and staged our old house.  It went on the market October 4th and sold that same day in a multiple offer situation. 

Moving with two toddlers at the Holidays was more than I had bargained for.  I was busy at work on top of all of it.  We should have paid for packing, but we didn't, so that all came down on us.  Then there's the fact that we have 22 family members to buy (and wrap!) Christmas presents for, plus teacher gifts, office gifts and Santa. 

Also, I didn't realize how much some of the cosmetic stuff in the house would drive me nuts.  When we moved into our house on Brooks Avenue, it had just been completely re-done.  I didn't appreciate how much goes into a full renovation.  You have to choose everything, down to the grates on the floor.  When decisions are made by committee, they are more difficult, and then you have to actually do the ordering or make the trip to the store, which inevitably ends up being multiple trips to the store.  We are making so much progress, though.  I hope that by Easter we will be in a place where we can just sit back and enjoy it for a while.  We still have a bathroom to re-do, all of the exterior painting and one room downstairs, but it's all in the works.

The kids are growing at an alarming pace.  Here is their Fall 2013 school picture and a picture of each of them from our professional shoot.

Julia is starting to grow the smallest little bit of hair, but she is still pretty bald.  They have really started to play together well, which is a blessing to all of us.  More updates on them to follow!