Goodbye Surrey Lane

Our first house. 

You've been a place of escape for 6 great years. You sheltered, shielded and gave us a place to grow our family.  We will remember you fondly. 

We met your new owners today at closing and they are perfect in every way.  I know that you will be loved under their care.  We'll give you some time to get acquainted with them.  It may be too painful for us to drive by the neighborhood because we'll miss you, but know that we are your distant admirers.  And we'll be back in the fall to visit when we pick up McCord's Maple. 

So long, old friend.

Moving

We did it with lots of help from my parents.  And we're exhausted! 

Here are a few before photos my mother-in-law took followed by some shots of the inside after a coat of paint (but before we unloaded all the billions of boxes we brought)!

Living/Dining area



Playroom



Standing in Playroom looking at Kitchen

Master BR and sitting area

Laundry

Guest Room



McCord's Room




Sewing Room

 
After photos:



Living/Dining Room

Downstairs hall

Love this cedar closet!

Guest Room

McCord's Room



Peanut Butter Toes

Those last few months when our house was on the market were tricky.  How to keep it clean with a crawling, sticky, dirty little boy who likes to leave piles of chaos everywhere?!  I found myself constantly cleaning up and cringing when Mc would pull things out of the kitchen cabinets and leave them strewn across the downstairs (or splash in the dog bowl, or pull all of the records and CDs off of the shelf, or ..., or... or......).  And that's not the kind of mom I want to be.  Instead, I want to encourage his curiosity and let him explore, play, learn, and discover.  So a couple of weeks ago, we went outside and played with peanut butter.  Our intention was to make one of those bird feeders you probably made as a kid - you know the kind, with a pine cone, peanut butter, and bird seed - and we eventually got our mission accomplished, but it was the playing with peanut butter that McCord enjoyed so much and what made me feel like I restored my sense of motherhood.

Our birds like Peter Pan peanut butter.
We found this pine cone a couple of months ago when we vacationed at Mansfield Plantation.

Here we are getting excited about peanut butter - Rocky of course wanted to be a part of this project!

And how peanut butter ended up on his toes, I'll never know!

We hung the feeder right outside our kitchen window.

 It took our birds about 2 weeks to find it, but when they discovered it, the feeder became quite the hangout.  We learned that the little birds preferred it over the regular feeder.  We had Carolina Chickadees, Tit mouses, and Wrens.  What a joy it was to watch these birds.  McCord - as busy as this little guy is - would immediately quiet down and get real still when watching the birds.  He enjoyed watching so much, I would pull his highchair in front of the window so he could sit and watch while he ate. 

Update on our house:

We've been packing!  The official move date is IN TWO DAYS.  The washer, dryer, and fridge are coming tomorrow, and we've already had Terminix and a maid out.  Bo's been taking loads of boxes to the house every night. The painters came yesterday and did the first coat of paint on the walls, and I can't wait to show you the before and afters.  Pictures soon, promise!

Best House Ever

Today when Monkey and I were thrifting at the Habitat ReStore (aka: procrastinating packing), I found this great Richard Scarry book and had to splurge the $.50 since we'll be moving into our new house next weekend!  Thought Mc needed a new (used) book to celebrate the good news!

If you read the last post about our house hunting experience, we decided to go with Option 2 - the 1940s fixer-upper that was up for auction.  We love the age of the house and the neighborhood, but let's be honest - it needs a ton of work.  We're excited to make it what we want. 

Here's a picture I took tonight as we drove by the house for the hundredth time!

This time we were excited to see this sign in the front yard.

Here's how it all went down:

After viewing the house several times, we called our contractor (whom we trust immensely) who did some renovations for us on Surrey Lane.  He reviewed the inspection the owner had completed and reported on what needed to be fixed.  We knew the house was a fixer-upper, but wanted to make sure that it had good bones and was worth the investment.  With his report, we decided to go ahead and place a pre-auction bid knowing that both bathrooms would need to be renovated right away.  The house also lacks attic storage and a fence, so building a garage and working on the yard are both on the to-do list.  We know we'll also eventually renovate the kitchen.  Taking all of this into consideration, we placed a super-low bid (offer) on the house - not sure if anyone else was planning on placing a bid.  We'd been told that if satisfied with a bid, the owner would cancel the auction all together, and the house would go under contract instead.  Part of our offer included the request to rent the house from the owner while we are waiting on the closing of our present house - we have to move out of Surrey Lane before June 30th, so we need to find a place to live and store our possessions stat.  After a weekend of negotiating, we are so excited to say that we are under contract!  The owner has been a dream to work with - already having the house professionally cleaned and having an extra key made for us to access the house as soon as this week.  We plan to start taking boxes over daily and move in officially next Saturday.  We can't wait!



Don't forget to pack the baby!

Here's my proud husband after cleaning out the pantry - this was an amazing undertaking.  I think the pantry fought back, but in the end, my husband was the champ!



Here are a couple of sneak peek photos of the "bones."

Standing in the foyer looking upstairs into the laundry room

Downstairs bath - this will be the first bath to be renovated

Master BR - notice that you have to be super short to get into the closets.  Just kidding, there's a regular size closet in the MB, but the small nooks will be fun hideouts for Mc.

Upstairs bath - notice moisture damage on ceiling - one of many things to change in here.

Also, this is off the subject, but are any of you on Pinterest?  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, drop everything you're doing and check it out right now.  Here's a board I started a few weeks ago to stockpile design inspiration.  The rest of my boards are located here.  As you can see, Pinterest is my new favorite thing.  I think you'll like it too. 

Stay tuned in the coming months as we document our progress on the renovations. For sure, this will be a
slow work in progress.

House Hunting

When Bo and I met with our real estate agent (whom we just adore and couldn't be happier with!) we said, "Melissa, we only have one piece of criteria for our house:  We want a good deal."

In fact we want such a good deal - we want to buy a house that has more square footage and a bigger lot than our last house.  And we want to buy it for cheaper than we sold Surrey Lane.  Our agent is so professional, she didn't even bat an eye, and so the house hunt begins.

We've seen lots of wonderful houses in our area.  We've discovered this house makes you feel like you're somewhere in the mountains and that view of the creek is amazing!  This house made us realize how much we love a tri-level floor plan.  And watching the horses graze in the pasture in this backyard was such a relaxing feature.  But for whatever reason, we ruled them all out one by one. 

We've narrowed it down to two houses.  I'll reserve sharing the neighborhoods on the blog for safety's sake.

Here's Option One:

This house is like Surrey Lane on steroids - 5 BR, 3 Baths on .8 acres with a 2 car garage.  It has over 2500 square feet, a ton of storage, and even a tree fort in the backyard.  It's in the county which means cheaper taxes and that I could raise chickens (!).  It was built in 1991 though and hasn't had any updates since then, so we'd have to renovate changing out the flooring and updating the baths and kitchen.  It's also a short sale which means that the owners have been able to keep their house from going into foreclosure by cooperating with the bank.  The bank has agreed to let the owners sell their house short of what is owed on the mortgage.  While this sounds great to a seller (especially in this market!) it can sometimes take short sales 6 months to close since the bank has to approve the negotiated price.  The house has plenty of room to grow.

Here's Option Two:

This house was built the 40s and we just love the charm - hardwoods throughout with large oaks across the .6 acre property. It is about 2500 square feet and has 4 bedrooms 2 baths.  The kitchen has been updated and there is an addition on the back perfect for a playroom.  The bathrooms look like they are in pretty rough condition though and would require a complete renovation pretty soon. The house doesn't have a garage or attic, so you'd have to be pretty creative with storage.  This property is up for auction - not your typical MLS listing.  That means that you can place a pre-auction bid or cast your bid on the steps of the house mid-June with others who'd like a chance to own it.  Sounds odd, doesnt't it?

If the house isn't foreclosed on (like Surrey Lane was prior to our purchase), a short sale, or auction, Bo and I aren't interesed!  How do we find ourselves falling for these crazy neglected properties?!

We met with our realtor today to write up an offer - we'll let you know which one soon - and if we can't reach an agreement on price, Bo and I really need to get serious about finding a rental.  We only have about 20 days left until closing! 

McCord is 11 months old!

Dear McCord,

Today you are 11 months old, and your Daddy and I are madly in love with you. 

We are so amazed at how much you've learned this month.  You've amended your crawling style using your left knee to support your weight and you kick the other leg out to the side to push and guide - it's sort of like your rudder.  We think you made this adjustment to protect one of your knees from the hardwood floor.  It's a little awkward, but it works for you and I adore your ingenuity! 

You're pretty good at pulling up now, and you practice this new skill when I'm unloading the dishwasher and folding clothes from the dryer.  When you hear me open up the dishwasher or dryer, you come scooting my way (quickly with that rudder of yours!) to practice your new trick. 

Here are some things you've done recently that we don't want to forget:

• You reach out from the stroller to hold your Daddy's hand when we walk around the block
• I'll never forget one time when you were nursing, you stopped, looked up at me, and leaned in to kiss me on the lips, then went back to eating.  Melt my heart!
• When I brush your hair at night, you like to take the brush from me and brush my hair.
• You've also learned how to pick up two things with one hand!  It was quite a revelation for you when you discovered this and Aiya and I enjoyed watching that light go off in your head.  Now you do it all the time. 

This month we went to feed the ducks...



...and learned that those geese are quite bossy!  We were completely outnumbered - I had to hold you the whole time because I was afraid they were going to run away with you!

• You are on the go!  Your favorite thing right now is to explore all the corners of our house.  You know how to open a cracked door, and it's not unusual to find you contentedly sitting on the floor of the pantry playing with all kinds of items Daddy and I didn't even know we had.  Same goes for my closet!
• You've also discovered all of the door stops in the house and you love to pull the white cap off of each one!
• Most recently, you and Daddy devised a little game with your paci.  He pretends like he's going to put it in his mouth and you take it out of yours and try to fit it in his mouth.  This makes Daddy roar with laughter!  You are quite a funny little fellow.

This is an especially sentimental month for us - this 11th month of your life - because it's the last month we'll be living on Surrey Lane.  The day we brought you home from the hospital, I cried when we turned onto Surrey Lane, because I just knew that we would have so many wonderful memories in this place.  We couldn't wait to get you home.  I still remember walking you through each room and telling you all about the house and how we used each room.  I was so proud to show you your nursery - by far my favorite room in the house - because we assembled it especially for you.  We are so thankful for you and for the ways that you've enriched our life here and forever. 

Here you are standing next to your maple on your 11 month birthday.  My how you and the maple have grown!

McCord, Monkey, Baby, we love you like crazy.