Race to the finish

We are really striving to work our commanded six days a week! After a few months of relaxing Sundays with tennis, leisurely yard work, and miscellaneous activities around the house, we are back at it full force. The house goes on the real estate MLS officially at the end of this week, and I have to get the dining room floors laid.

Jeff is presenting at a conference in San Diego this week, so it's a good thing I decided not to accompany him this trip. He'll be gone about four days, which should be plenty of time to get underlayment, flooring, and trim in place (plus some other odds and ends around the house). He'll be back just in time to help move the furniture back in!

We got the old carpet and padding out together Sunday morning before he had to pack for his trip. Jeff snapped this lovely picture in progress.

The history...

So I promised more details on the reason for selling and our new opportunity. It all started with some friends of ours from ballroom dancing (the same couple I've mentioned before who owns the berry farm in the next town over). We got to know them well and would invite them over for dinner on occasion. One such meal a few months ago put the whole thing in motion.

Our friends mentioned that they had been swamped lately because his aunt had died and he had inherited a bunch of land and an old farmhouse in his town. I know the town well (only 2500 people) because my riding stable is there, and there are barely any older houses in the area (believe me, I notice these things ;-). I immediately asked what house, and to my amazement, our friends described the one house I regularly looked longingly at on my way to the stables! By the time dinner was over, the wheels in my head were turning and I had the whole renovation planned out (without ever having seen the inside, mind you).

It's a very good thing I married my sensible, conservative, stable Jeff. While I was dreaming, he was calculating. By the time we got in to see the house a few weeks later, it almost wouldn't have mattered what the insides looked like to me. The chance to live in this friendly small town, half a mile from my riding stable, thirty seconds to the highway to cut Jeff's work commute by 40%, in a neat old house with some land was all it took. So the waterstained wallpaper, cracked walls, damaged floors, leaky windows, piles of possessions and trash, oddly configured kitchen and bath, and random boats and cars in the yard went right over my head. I saw heart pine floors, original woodwork, weighted sash windows, lath and plaster, high ceilings, and lots of potential. I must not be the only crazy one because Jeff was soon on board as well (although I think he likes the huge shop building and view of thirty plus acres, ponds, and trees more than the house).

I haven't blogging as much lately because we've been busy the last two months taking measurements, getting estimates, and putting together a plan. The inspection was last Friday, and although the list of problems is as long as my arm, it's all manageable. We are "under contract" (contingent on the sale of our current house) to purchase the 2200 sq ft 1925 brick bungalow farmhouse with 30 x 40 metal shop on one acre with a 15 year mortgage. We will likely have the option to buy more acreage later, but it's all we wanted to pay at the moment (and we'll have our hands full anyway).

Stay tuned for the next installment, with pictures!

Moving on...

What does one do when the house has been remodeled, updated, beautified, and completed? Why, sell it, of course! (Or at least try, given this uncertain economic and housing climate.)

We have had our purchase offer accepted on a dream property. Perhaps it is more like someone else's nightmare, but we are very excited about it!

We have a unique opportunity to simultaneously downsize, get great loan terms, maximize our location, and renovate another old house. We have discussed all of those desirable goals in the past, and this complete package just sort of fell into our laps. If it's really an open door, then we know things will work out with our current home. If not, then we probably have our answer!

So, to that end, we have been wrapping up all the finish details here at home. We've interviewed a few realtors and selected a great team to represent us. It should be an interesting process, regardless of the results! More on the new opportunity later...

The first time we met (again)

...or, A second chance to make a first impression!

While snuggled up Friday night, Jeff pointed out that Saturday, February 19th is the 11th anniversary of our first meeting. Well, it's actually the date I remember meeting him (and I wouldn't even know the date if it weren't for Jeff recalling it). We had apparently met briefly over two years earlier in a group outing, but I have no recollection of it. Our meeting that is, not the activity. I can remember just about everyone else there and the events of the day, but not meeting Jeff! He assures me he was there and that we met, so it certainly wasn't a case of "love at first sight" (or infatuation at first sight, as the case usually is). Good thing God gave us a second chance a little later on.

A date oh so many years ago!

Going Green

Now that we have a string of sunny days, we are finally getting to a few outdoor house projects. One item I have been wanting to accomplish almost since we moved in is the removal of the ivy all over the back windows.

While that sounds simple, it isn't so much over the windows as IN the windows. We have our own little greenhouse going, as the ivy climbing on the exterior brick worked its way between the two panes of glass forming our large immovable picture window. It is happily thriving in a warm moist environment, while simultaneously darkening the room and fogging the panes (due to plant transpiration at the stomata, as I've learned in my Master Gardener class ;-).

Since the window frame had been painted over, it took Jeff some time to loosen all the screws. But manage it he did, and we wrestled the large outer pane to the ground, removed the ivy, and thoroughly cleaned the many layers of glass. Let there be light!

Superbowl!

Jeff and I enjoyed the Superbowl at a friend's house, after subtly hinting a few weeks prior that she might like to host us (given how infrequently we watch TV, we only have a small model and old rabbit-ear antenna)! The food was tasty, the companionship very enjoyable, the commercials quite entertaining, and the football surprisingly tolerable. All in all, something for everyone!

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(Jeff took the group photo, then proceeded to
take a self-portrait so I could include him!)

Strike up the Band

Jeff took me to another dance this past Saturday evening! It was a semi-formal, so it was another fun occasion to dress up. We enjoyed a fantastic buffet dinner, great conversation with our table-mates, and three plus hours of live music and dancing. Since we have just completed beginner and intermediate level Samba lessons, we even got out on the floor for several of those numbers. Our repertoire now includes waltz, foxtrot, tango, rumba, cha cha, samba, single swing, triple swing, and west coast swing. We can merengue, too, but neither of us particular enjoys marching around the floor with halting twisty-turning moves, so we generally use those songs as breathers!

Being a ballroom band, there was none of the more contemporary music we usually like for west coast swing, but we snuck it in a few times when the tempo and rhythm fit. Returning to our table after one such dance, our table-mates clapped and one said it was definitely our dance. I was flattered, but Jeff confessed later to wondering whether it really meant that none of our other dances were any good!

Homework

It's rainy and cold again here (we're even expecting another 1-2 inches of snow tonight). Perfect for wrapping up in a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate and digging into my companion for the next three months, my Master Gardener manual.

I have four chapters to cover before lectures on Thursday, so now is a good time to begin!

Lower Body Workout

Yesterday was a rare sunny, warm(ish) day for once, so I hit the stables for a nice training ride on Flame. Then, it was off to our regular Monday night two hour dance class, which happens to be Samba this month. To get the real movement and feel of the dance, there is much abdominal crunching, hip opening, trunk rotation, and toe/ankle flexion.

I woke this morning with the realization that my abs, inner thighs, and calves had all endured quite a workout. But the best part is, the activities were such fun that I wasn't even aware of how hard I was working. That's my kind of exercise!

Omlettes, anyone?

Have you ever had an egg cracked on your head? Well, I did yesterday evening!

Okay, not a literal egg. More like an imaginary egg. Last night, after pillow-talk and snuggling down to sleep, we somehow came to the moment when Jeff said "Surely I've cracked an egg on your head before?". (I won't even try to explain how it was we arrived at that conversation; it's a rather roundabout tale!) I replied that no, I didn't know what he was talking about. So of course he proceeded to gently thump an oval egg over my crown (with sound effects included) and "run" the resultant imaginary substance down my hair and face.

The egg was not the only thing to crack up; I thought it was hilarious! We had to turn on the bedside lamp so he could show me the technique and I immediately began to practice.

Am I the only one that missed out on this childhood convention? I've done the whole "Criss cross applesauce, Spiders crawling up your back..." rhyme, the numb finger trick, the disjointed thumb imagery, and a handful of other silly games of the same ilk, but this one was new to me! I guess it's never to late to learn and amuse the child within ;-)

Master Gardener Missives

I'm excited to say I just finished my first Master Gardener class! This was the first lecture of a 13 week course to train interns. Then I will have a year to complete my 50 hours of volunteer work in a variety of gardening and horticulture areas. Once that is accomplished, I will become an official Master Gardener!

I have my handbook and my homework all cut out for me. The course will be covering:

• Soil, Nutrition and Plant Physiology
• Plant Pathology and Weed Science
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Container Gardening
• Annual and Perennial Flowers
  
• Ornamentals
• Turf
• Landscape Design

That's a lot of material in less than a semester! I've always been an "A" student, so I aim to ace my tests and stay on top of the coursework. It will also be a lot of fun, as the other interns all seem like a great group of people. I'm really looking forward to learning and "growing" (pun intended)!

Going Gray

I took DaVinci for his yearly vaccinations yesterday. The vet tech commented that he was starting to go a little gray around the muzzle, indicating his true age in spite of his puppy behavior. It got me to look back at more of his early years, and I found these digital scrapbook pages I made of some of his first few months with us.

And one when he's a little older, his (fake ;-) magazine cover shot!

Dinner Diary

I've been busy the last few days working on my CEUs. I have to complete 10 continuing education hours each year to maintain my therapy license, which is up for renewal at the end of this month. It's a bit of a hassle now that I'm not employed in the field, but I think it's important to maintain my option (and ability) to practice, should I ever want or need it.

Anyhow, that has been taking some time, so no interesting pursuits at the moment. I did, however, prepare (and photograph) one of my first really southern food creations: turnip greens! I've cooked Swiss chard and kale before, but always in creative and ethnic dishes, not just a "mess o' greens". A friend gave me some turnip greens, and since we were snowed in most of last week, I relied upon them to fill in as our vegetable serving and round out the Beef Pizzaiola and garlic toast.

Let me just go on record as saying that any vegetable that has to be boiled down for that long and then sauteed in copious amounts of fat and seasoning to have any flavor, really shouldn't get any credit for being a veggie. Not a stand-alone one, anyhow! The dish was tolerable and added some nice color to the plate, but that is about all I can say for it.

I might pursue a collection of tasty (and healthy) recipes for turnip greens down the road, but for now I'll stick to its more exotic cousins in the form of my favorite Greek and Middle Eastern dishes.

Growing up so fast...

Jeff is officially middle-aged today (if you take Psalm 90:10 literally). Thirty five seems so young to us now, though. It doesn't hurt that many of our friends and colleagues are several decades older than we. Quite a few of the professors in Jeff's department are nearing retirement, the majority of our ballroom friends are in their 50's or 60's (and that's being rather generous)! Even DaVinci is getting older. He's eight, which is a bit over the hill for canine life, though I hope he has many good years left.

Speaking of my two favorite boys, I found some old photo montages I made of them several years ago. They haven't changed much!

Big smile now!

A few people have pointed out in the past how many of our photos look the same due to similar poses each time. In large part, this is because Jeff often takes the photo himself; hence, I'm always on his left side, the shot is fairly close-up, and Jeff usually has a rather concentrated half-smile.

So I had to post this picture from last year that I found while searching for something else. We were fascinated with a friend's new camera that has a "smile recognition" feature. Once you press the shutter button, the camera will wait to snap the picture until the subject is smiling. We wondered how it would work with multiple parties in the shot, so we started making faces until one of us suddenly smiled, and bang! You can see the results for yourself ;-)

Lest we leave you scarred, here's a more normal photo to conclude (I guess the smile feature can still function while I'm eating hair).