And I couldn't resist a little picture to giddy us up into 2012!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
CHRISTMAS CARD 2011
Well- we are really behind the curve this year. We got off to a late start due to my trip to Dubai and then we ended up having to reschedule our yearly photo shoot. I considered sending out a New Years card but the thought of addressing all of them after Christmas made me dry heave. So we are going to be really ghetto and just post pics of the kids and send out this blog post. For all of you who cut out your Christmas card pictures and create some sort of collage on a plate and decoupage it, you will have to print ours out yourself. My apologies. So really we just use our card to show off how cute our kids are and how if we tell them we will give them candy they will fake some sort of affection for each other for the camera. So here they are!!!
And I couldn't resist a little picture to giddy us up into 2012!
And I couldn't resist a little picture to giddy us up into 2012!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
hello new house!
Very quickly after we decided to move out of West Seattle to North Ballard area, this house came on the market. We knew hours after it was listed and that was a good thing because we put an offer in the next day and were the second people to do so. This house fit so many of our needs that I tried so hard not to get too attached. We ended up having to pay above listing to get it (yes, in this market!) but I knew it was under priced to begin with and worth every penny.
There are so many things I love about it. The first is the neighborhood. It is in a 1950's development called Olympic Manor. All the homes are 50's and 60's houses and most maintain a lot of original character. So far everyone has been really friendly to us. It is kind of like pleasant-ville, but after the ghetto neighbors we had at the old house, it is very refreshing!
The other thing I love is the house! The layout is so damn smart and functional. Three bedrooms upstairs off in a separate "wing" that you can close off with a pocket door. Big kitchen with eating nook and fantastic view of the water. Basement with tons of room for the kids to go crazy in. And a 4th bedroom in the basement for an office with a bath attached. Two car and deep garage with lots of storage. Nice backyard level with the basement. We have only been here a month and I can really say we feel very lucky to have this house.
What else I love is my commute! It is only 2-3 minutes to the kids new daycare and 35 minutes to my work. That is saving me an hour+ each day. And I feel much less stressed when I get home.
The down side is there is a ton of work to do. The house is not in need of anything too major. While the kitchen is new, the rest of the house is mostly original except some plumbing updates. So it does need a new heater (going from oil to gas), some windows need to be replaced, some doors don't work that great, and other little stuff. But the majority of the work needs to be in decorating! This is good and bad. Good because I love it but bad because needing to decorate an entire house with no time and a limited budget is pretty stressful. So I am trying to take it one room at a time and have to keep telling myself that I have years, possibly decades, to figure it all out.
The Maxwell House
There are so many things I love about it. The first is the neighborhood. It is in a 1950's development called Olympic Manor. All the homes are 50's and 60's houses and most maintain a lot of original character. So far everyone has been really friendly to us. It is kind of like pleasant-ville, but after the ghetto neighbors we had at the old house, it is very refreshing!
The other thing I love is the house! The layout is so damn smart and functional. Three bedrooms upstairs off in a separate "wing" that you can close off with a pocket door. Big kitchen with eating nook and fantastic view of the water. Basement with tons of room for the kids to go crazy in. And a 4th bedroom in the basement for an office with a bath attached. Two car and deep garage with lots of storage. Nice backyard level with the basement. We have only been here a month and I can really say we feel very lucky to have this house.
What else I love is my commute! It is only 2-3 minutes to the kids new daycare and 35 minutes to my work. That is saving me an hour+ each day. And I feel much less stressed when I get home.
The down side is there is a ton of work to do. The house is not in need of anything too major. While the kitchen is new, the rest of the house is mostly original except some plumbing updates. So it does need a new heater (going from oil to gas), some windows need to be replaced, some doors don't work that great, and other little stuff. But the majority of the work needs to be in decorating! This is good and bad. Good because I love it but bad because needing to decorate an entire house with no time and a limited budget is pretty stressful. So I am trying to take it one room at a time and have to keep telling myself that I have years, possibly decades, to figure it all out.
The Maxwell House
Entry area (door is on the right in this picture)
Living room looking toward the back of the house
Living room looking toward the front/side of the house
Dining area off living room (also a view of the water!)
Kitchen that was updated in 1996
Kitchen (eating nook is just around the end of the cabinets)
Master bedroom
Colton's room
Backyard
Basement
Bar with mood lighting!
Office (4th "bedroom" in the basement)
What I will have to post soon are pics of the pink and grey tiled bathroom!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
goodbye to our first house
The last couple months have been crazy for us. After years of debate on when we should move we decided now would be a good time. Our little house was just too small and Burt and I were sick of sleeping in the basement, hiking up our hill, our trashy neighbors, and a 1/2 size dishwasher we had to run twice a day on weekends. So after we got back from our trip to Palm Springs, we decided to go for it. We moved all of us out of the house into my mom's a week before it hit the market to give us time for some last minute fixes, removal of tons of crap and staging. We were shocked when the house sold in just 4 days! A gay couple from Capital Hill fell in love with it and put in a full price offer and payed closing. The catch? We had to be out in 30 days!
Our plan was to stay in West Seattle but after we sold our house the viaduct construction started. It increased my commute time by 15-20 minutes on the drive home and put me to almost and hour and a half some days. And this is only the beginning of years of construction and tear down of the viaduct. So we decided to move North of the city. It was crazy how quickly it happened. Many things had to come into alignment (daycare, new house, dealing with mom's surgery and if we could live at her house, and so on) but they did! After we closed on our West Seattle house we moved back in with my mom for a couple more weeks and moved into our house over 4th of July weekend.
Our plan was to stay in West Seattle but after we sold our house the viaduct construction started. It increased my commute time by 15-20 minutes on the drive home and put me to almost and hour and a half some days. And this is only the beginning of years of construction and tear down of the viaduct. So we decided to move North of the city. It was crazy how quickly it happened. Many things had to come into alignment (daycare, new house, dealing with mom's surgery and if we could live at her house, and so on) but they did! After we closed on our West Seattle house we moved back in with my mom for a couple more weeks and moved into our house over 4th of July weekend.
Looking back I have to say it was short but extremely painful. And with two kids it was even traumatic at times. But everyone was right, it does all work out in the end.
So goodbye old house......
side note.... Burt had to cut the couch in the basement in half to get it out!
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