Hi! We are back online, but still in the utter chaos of boxes everywhere. I know it will take awhile to get it all put away and we are just doing it bit by bit as we have free moments. It is tough as we are trying to establish a routine for Finn too. It will be a little while before I get some pictures up, but be patient and stay tuned, they will come eventually.
I am so happy to be here. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this house. I feel like I was always meant to live here. It is so peaceful and quiet. No sirens, no crazy fighting neighbors, no drugs dealers or prostitutes (oh, those Akron days...). Life in the country is good! Our mailman came to the door and introduced himself and welcomed us. Our neighbors are leaving this weekend and told us to check their garden for fresh veg while they were gone. Everyone is so friendly. It is truly idyllic thus far.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Moving Truck is Booked!
Okay, NH friends (and anyone else who wants to make the trip), we have booked our moving truck for Saturday, July 25th (one week from tomorrow) from 8am to 5pm. We are seeking strong, enthusiastic, potentially masochistic individuals who would enjoy spending their Saturday lifting and carrying boxes and large bits of furniture down a steep flight of stairs to load a truck in the morning and subsequently unloading said truck into our new digs in the afternoon. We will fill you with pizza and beer and many thanks. Give us a call if you can lend a hand in the morning or afternoon!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Bathroom Remodel
In the new house, the bathroom could use some work. The shower walls are in need of replacement. Sean and I figured this could be something we could do down the road. But then I saw this article in Country Living magazine. They use corrugated metal as a shower backsplash. I love the idea. What do you think? Could our tiny bathroom pull it off? Is it one of those projects that looks easy in a magazine, but then becomes a nightmare? I don't know about the cutting of it to get the faucet through, etc. Any handy people out there with tips?
Monday, July 13, 2009
Weekend Recap
It was a beautiful weekend in NH after all the rain! We made the most of it. Sean was able to get Friday off and we headed to the house to begin painting. We got 3 rooms primed which was a good start:
On Saturday we headed to the seacoast for the Portsmouth Harbor 5K. We met up with Jon and Kate and Annalise. Jon ran the race with Annalise in the jogging stroller and I ran solo. Sean and Kate cheered us on. I was really pleased with my race. I have finally begun to see some improvement in my running. I did it in 27:32 (8:52/mi pace) and came in 15/50 for my age group. The best part is I felt good throughout the race and in the end felt like I could have pushed it more. I am ready to get serious again and start adding in some speed workouts to try to get back to my pre-pregnancy times. I am looking at a 5k at the end of August and after that, I would like to start upping the mileage, perhaps setting my sights on the Manchester Half Marathon in November. I do think running with the jogging stroller has helped me gain some strength. It is great.
After the race we headed over to Jon and Kate's. Annalise shared her playroom with Finn and they had a good time:
We went to a bbq that afternoon at one of Sean's work friend's house. We met a lot of great people and Finn decided he really liked bocce ball:
On Sunday, we headed back to the house for more painting and Sean mowed the lawn. Sean's friend from work gave us an old mower that he had and it worked great, although 4/5 of an acre is quite a bit of mowing and took about 3 hours!
We got the bedroom painted and I LOVE the color. I'll post pics when all the painting and trim is done. Sean left for NY this morning and will be gone til Thursday, so it is up to Finn and I to pack, pack, pack. Ugh, my least favorite part!
On Saturday we headed to the seacoast for the Portsmouth Harbor 5K. We met up with Jon and Kate and Annalise. Jon ran the race with Annalise in the jogging stroller and I ran solo. Sean and Kate cheered us on. I was really pleased with my race. I have finally begun to see some improvement in my running. I did it in 27:32 (8:52/mi pace) and came in 15/50 for my age group. The best part is I felt good throughout the race and in the end felt like I could have pushed it more. I am ready to get serious again and start adding in some speed workouts to try to get back to my pre-pregnancy times. I am looking at a 5k at the end of August and after that, I would like to start upping the mileage, perhaps setting my sights on the Manchester Half Marathon in November. I do think running with the jogging stroller has helped me gain some strength. It is great.After the race we headed over to Jon and Kate's. Annalise shared her playroom with Finn and they had a good time:
We went to a bbq that afternoon at one of Sean's work friend's house. We met a lot of great people and Finn decided he really liked bocce ball:
On Sunday, we headed back to the house for more painting and Sean mowed the lawn. Sean's friend from work gave us an old mower that he had and it worked great, although 4/5 of an acre is quite a bit of mowing and took about 3 hours!
We got the bedroom painted and I LOVE the color. I'll post pics when all the painting and trim is done. Sean left for NY this morning and will be gone til Thursday, so it is up to Finn and I to pack, pack, pack. Ugh, my least favorite part!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Crazy Cruiser
Ever since he has figured out crawling, Finn has been working on cruising. He loves to pull up on anything and everything and now he can make it all the way around our coffee table. In the following videos, Finn is extra excited and crazy and not very sure-footed. I will try to get better video soon. In the first video, he really wants Sean's computer cord on the couch. The background sound is weird because we were listening to Prairie Home Companion. Poor Finn was clocked by Lily in the second video as he is crawling toward me, but he seems to pull through okay. Enjoy.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
8 Months
In all the excitement of the new house, I forgot to post for Finn's 8 month. It has been a very good month. I am finding this to be the cutest baby stage yet. As you have seen in the videos, Finn is on the move. He is not shy about moving throughout the apartment, especially if I or Lily go into another room. He has a love of anything he shouldn't have and I can't wait to move to the new place and baby-proof properly. He gets very bent out of shape if we take something away from him too. He is really enjoying food these days, but only if he can feed himself. I am obviously trying to poison him with the spoon and he has rightly refused to have anything to do with it, grabbing it and throwing it across the room if necessary. But he is quite proficient at self-feeding so that is what we go with. So far, he has had bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, peaches, pears, prunes, apples, nectarines, cantaloupe, mango, blueberries, green beans, peas, zucchini, eggplant, rice, oats, millet and wheat germ and, of course his beloved cheerios and rice puffs. We are now getting into some proteins. He tried an egg yolk omelet yesterday and loved it and we are going to try some garbanzo beans in a couple of days. If anyone has any great finger food suggestions, let us know!
Finn still has an adorable toothless grin. No signs of teeth whatsoever. I am in no hurry to see them as I love this smile:
He is a pull up master these days. We lowered the mattress once, but may need to do it again:
He is interested in helping us pack (as is Lily):
He is also ever so helpful with laundry and loves it when I flip the basket over so he can stand:
He has also started using the basket as a walking device because it slides across the floor:
So, our days are filled with activity with our 8-month-old big boy and trying to pack and prep the house. We went and bought a ton of paint yesterday and we will be painting like crazy on Sunday. If interested, come on over!
Finn still has an adorable toothless grin. No signs of teeth whatsoever. I am in no hurry to see them as I love this smile:
He is a pull up master these days. We lowered the mattress once, but may need to do it again:
He is interested in helping us pack (as is Lily):
He is also ever so helpful with laundry and loves it when I flip the basket over so he can stand:
He has also started using the basket as a walking device because it slides across the floor:
So, our days are filled with activity with our 8-month-old big boy and trying to pack and prep the house. We went and bought a ton of paint yesterday and we will be painting like crazy on Sunday. If interested, come on over!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Cleaning
We went to the house today to begin cleaning and prepping for paint. It was a beautiful sunny day. I am still on cloud nine over this being our house. We had some visitors and it was so fun to show the place off. Plus, we coaxed them into taking a couple family photos:
We got a lot of cleaning done, although not as much as we had envisioned. I fear Finn is not yet at the age to be put to work and he requires a great deal of attention. But, we will get it done.
Finn enjoyed exploring the new digs. He is funny on the pine floors because he would crawl around and check out all the knots in the wood. He is after me and the camera in this video.
We did actually get him down for a nap after an exhausting day. It only lasted a half hour, but gave me some time with both hands free. He looked so peaceful.
We got a lot of cleaning done, although not as much as we had envisioned. I fear Finn is not yet at the age to be put to work and he requires a great deal of attention. But, we will get it done.
Finn enjoyed exploring the new digs. He is funny on the pine floors because he would crawl around and check out all the knots in the wood. He is after me and the camera in this video.We did actually get him down for a nap after an exhausting day. It only lasted a half hour, but gave me some time with both hands free. He looked so peaceful.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
House Tour
Yesterday we headed over to the house to finally open the door for ourselves. We wanted to go through each room and make a list of what needed to be done prior to moving in. Here is the house tour before we put our touches on it.
The outside:
The right side of the house from the driveway:
The left side of the house and side entrance:
The old dug well surrounded by flowers on the left side of the house:
A view from our yard:
Lily enjoying her new yard:
This is the side door entrance into the kitchen/dining area. We are going to keep the colors in here. I like the yellow against the dark wood beams. We are going to give everything a new coat of paint though.
This will be our bedroom. We are going to paint it a new color. We can't decide between "Lyndhurst Gothic Tan" or "Almond Oil." They are both very similar. It should lighten the room up a bit and will go nicely with the quilt I am finishing for our bed. 
This is the laundry closet. The wall paper has got to go and we will just paint it.
The bathroom needs a new coat of paint. Probably a mauve color similar to what it is now to match the floor. The tub needs new caulking too.
This is the entry from the back addition to the original part of the house:
Here is our living room. I LOVE the fireplace with the old beehive oven. We are going to put a woodstove in.
This is the front entry way. Check out the old lock on the front door.
This is going to be Finn's room. We are going to paint it "Emerald 3," basically a soft green. We have talked about painting some monkeys around the room, but that may come later.
So that it the new homestead. We begin deep cleaning on Sunday. Then we are going to start painting and we want to seal the floors. We are having the radon mitigated on the 20th and the 24th is the big moving day. I am so excited!
We met one of our new neighbors, Art, and he was wonderful. He and his wife and a few of his children live behind us. Art has 9 boys and 2 girls and all of the boys are red headed! He has 40 hens and told us to help ourselves to eggs any time. He also has beautiful veggie gardens and said he would bring us some. He was driving his tractor around and hauling out bamboo that was completely overgrown at our property line and he offered to take away ours as well. He also pointed out some wood that he chopped down for the previous owners after the ice storm and said he would help haul it out for firewood. Super nice. He filled my heart with joy. Country living, here we come!
The outside:
The right side of the house from the driveway:
The left side of the house and side entrance:
The old dug well surrounded by flowers on the left side of the house:
A view from our yard:
Lily enjoying her new yard:
This is the side door entrance into the kitchen/dining area. We are going to keep the colors in here. I like the yellow against the dark wood beams. We are going to give everything a new coat of paint though.
This will be our bedroom. We are going to paint it a new color. We can't decide between "Lyndhurst Gothic Tan" or "Almond Oil." They are both very similar. It should lighten the room up a bit and will go nicely with the quilt I am finishing for our bed. 
This is the laundry closet. The wall paper has got to go and we will just paint it.
The bathroom needs a new coat of paint. Probably a mauve color similar to what it is now to match the floor. The tub needs new caulking too.
This is the entry from the back addition to the original part of the house:
Here is our living room. I LOVE the fireplace with the old beehive oven. We are going to put a woodstove in.
This is the front entry way. Check out the old lock on the front door.
This is going to be Finn's room. We are going to paint it "Emerald 3," basically a soft green. We have talked about painting some monkeys around the room, but that may come later.
So that it the new homestead. We begin deep cleaning on Sunday. Then we are going to start painting and we want to seal the floors. We are having the radon mitigated on the 20th and the 24th is the big moving day. I am so excited!
We met one of our new neighbors, Art, and he was wonderful. He and his wife and a few of his children live behind us. Art has 9 boys and 2 girls and all of the boys are red headed! He has 40 hens and told us to help ourselves to eggs any time. He also has beautiful veggie gardens and said he would bring us some. He was driving his tractor around and hauling out bamboo that was completely overgrown at our property line and he offered to take away ours as well. He also pointed out some wood that he chopped down for the previous owners after the ice storm and said he would help haul it out for firewood. Super nice. He filled my heart with joy. Country living, here we come!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Homeownership
We have officially been home owners for 33 hours and it is SWEET!
On Monday, we visited the house for a final walk through. The owners moved out a week ago so it was nice and empty and we could really take it all in. All of the repairs looked great. With all of the furniture out it was obvious that it needs a good deep clean and a coat of paint in all of the rooms prior to our moving in, but that is the fun stuff. There was one funny and strange event on Monday. I was poking around and just checking out every nook and cranny as I envisioned us living there. I peeked behind a large built in hutch in the kitchen. I was noticing it was very dusty and there was an old painting bucket back there. Then, I peered a little harder in the shadows and noticed a shape I had seen before. I slowly pull out a cloth gun case, complete with a .22 shotgun inside! The seller's realtor and our agent and Sean were standing around the kitchen and all were shocked to see me packing. Apparently, the owner's first husband who is deceased must have hid it back there and she never knew. But other than that, it was uneventful and we were just as pleased with the place as the day we first saw it. We had a nice time strolling around the large lawn (mowing is going to be a chore) and checking out all our new plants.
We left from there and drove home to get to the bank so we could get our certified check for closing costs. The bank is 2 blocks from our apartment so we always just walk. Well, we have been dealing with a lot of rain here lately and on Monday there were periodic thunderstorm downpours followed by breaks of sun. We caught one of the breaks and thought we could slip to the bank and back without getting caught in the rain. I was a little nervous as I had Finn in the sling and I couldn't find my umbrella. Well, we got to the bank with no problem. The whole time we were in line, Finn was chatting up a storm and entertaining everyone. When we went to leave, it was a complete deluge outside. The bank was close to closing and we weren't sure if we would be able to wait out the rain. I guess a woman saw us contemplating what to do and she came up and gave us her umbrella! It was such a nice gesture and so wonderful to see such kindness these days. Sean and I were so grateful and we are really hoping we can pay it forward.
On Tuesday, we headed to the closing. It was at our realtor's office. It was a whirlwind of paperwork. Sign here. Sign here. Sign here. We did see one paper that stated the house was built in 1790 (the listing sheet had said 1830). Sign here. Initial here. Sign here. And an hour later everyone was shaking our hands and congratulating us and handing us the keys. Whew. It was pure elation, yet so surreal. The hardest part was saying good-bye to our agent, Sandy. Sandy and we have been together for over a year. She has shown us 30+ houses, written up 5 contracts (and broken the bad news as 4 of them fell through) watched me grow through my pregnancy, and then watched Finn grow up from a newborn. We hugged and hugged and assured her we would stop in periodically with Finn and invite her to the house when we got settled. If anyone is ever in the market in NH, I wholeheartedly recommend Sandy.
At this point you would think we would have rushed over to our new home, but unfortunately months ago Sean and I made doctor appointments to establish a family doctor. So, we had to do that in the afternoon. And that was a big day for all of us, but especially Finn. We got him to bed and then had a nice champagne toast to celebrate though. I think we are going to enjoy the holiday this weekend and then on Sunday we are going to go to the house and begin cleaning and paint selection. We aren't planning on the big move until July 24th. This will give us plenty of time to pack and get the house in order. I am so excited to get started, but I am dreading packing. Sean and I are just going to have to do it when Finn goes to bed at night. I am also wondering if this is going to be a stressor on Finn or if he will take the move in stride.
I have had a ton of requests for pictures of the house. I will make sure I take a bunch on Sunday and those will be our "before" pictures and then I will take a lot after we paint and then after we move in. Sean and I hope to throw a big bash after we are settled as well.
On Monday, we visited the house for a final walk through. The owners moved out a week ago so it was nice and empty and we could really take it all in. All of the repairs looked great. With all of the furniture out it was obvious that it needs a good deep clean and a coat of paint in all of the rooms prior to our moving in, but that is the fun stuff. There was one funny and strange event on Monday. I was poking around and just checking out every nook and cranny as I envisioned us living there. I peeked behind a large built in hutch in the kitchen. I was noticing it was very dusty and there was an old painting bucket back there. Then, I peered a little harder in the shadows and noticed a shape I had seen before. I slowly pull out a cloth gun case, complete with a .22 shotgun inside! The seller's realtor and our agent and Sean were standing around the kitchen and all were shocked to see me packing. Apparently, the owner's first husband who is deceased must have hid it back there and she never knew. But other than that, it was uneventful and we were just as pleased with the place as the day we first saw it. We had a nice time strolling around the large lawn (mowing is going to be a chore) and checking out all our new plants.
We left from there and drove home to get to the bank so we could get our certified check for closing costs. The bank is 2 blocks from our apartment so we always just walk. Well, we have been dealing with a lot of rain here lately and on Monday there were periodic thunderstorm downpours followed by breaks of sun. We caught one of the breaks and thought we could slip to the bank and back without getting caught in the rain. I was a little nervous as I had Finn in the sling and I couldn't find my umbrella. Well, we got to the bank with no problem. The whole time we were in line, Finn was chatting up a storm and entertaining everyone. When we went to leave, it was a complete deluge outside. The bank was close to closing and we weren't sure if we would be able to wait out the rain. I guess a woman saw us contemplating what to do and she came up and gave us her umbrella! It was such a nice gesture and so wonderful to see such kindness these days. Sean and I were so grateful and we are really hoping we can pay it forward.
On Tuesday, we headed to the closing. It was at our realtor's office. It was a whirlwind of paperwork. Sign here. Sign here. Sign here. We did see one paper that stated the house was built in 1790 (the listing sheet had said 1830). Sign here. Initial here. Sign here. And an hour later everyone was shaking our hands and congratulating us and handing us the keys. Whew. It was pure elation, yet so surreal. The hardest part was saying good-bye to our agent, Sandy. Sandy and we have been together for over a year. She has shown us 30+ houses, written up 5 contracts (and broken the bad news as 4 of them fell through) watched me grow through my pregnancy, and then watched Finn grow up from a newborn. We hugged and hugged and assured her we would stop in periodically with Finn and invite her to the house when we got settled. If anyone is ever in the market in NH, I wholeheartedly recommend Sandy.
At this point you would think we would have rushed over to our new home, but unfortunately months ago Sean and I made doctor appointments to establish a family doctor. So, we had to do that in the afternoon. And that was a big day for all of us, but especially Finn. We got him to bed and then had a nice champagne toast to celebrate though. I think we are going to enjoy the holiday this weekend and then on Sunday we are going to go to the house and begin cleaning and paint selection. We aren't planning on the big move until July 24th. This will give us plenty of time to pack and get the house in order. I am so excited to get started, but I am dreading packing. Sean and I are just going to have to do it when Finn goes to bed at night. I am also wondering if this is going to be a stressor on Finn or if he will take the move in stride.
I have had a ton of requests for pictures of the house. I will make sure I take a bunch on Sunday and those will be our "before" pictures and then I will take a lot after we paint and then after we move in. Sean and I hope to throw a big bash after we are settled as well.
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