Reveal #3: the Dining Room

 

BEFORE: The dining room was just white, no wallpaper (hallelujah!) but plenty of holes to patch. Ms. Purcell liked to adorn her walls well.

 

This was what it looked like when we closed on the house.

 

and Now: Nicely painted in a color called "Ivory". It does look yellowish in some light though. We actually tossed (freecycled) the brass candelabra light fixture the first week we were in the house and traded it for a less formal but more functional ceiling fan.

 

There's not much else to say about the space except that we love it.

Reveal #2- Eden's Room

 

BEFORE: Eden's room was pretty much like Calista's room when we bought our house- schlepped from top to bottom with wallpaper. Only her room's was pink, not flowery. Just right for a baby girl, right? No, thank you. (Furnishings did not come with the house, but the loverly drapes did.)
"I can't believe it looked like that!" says Eden.

 

We're still wondering what was previously ignited in our heat vents to leave the nasty black smoke marks up the walls. They were in every room I think.

 

TADA! The color of the room is called "Funky Yellow" and it is indeed funky. Its green by artificial light and yellow by natural light. I think it goes nicely with girly pink things.

 

Eden still enjoys sleeping in mommy & daddy's room at night, but we think she'll love this space like Calista loves her room as she gets older.
Once again, we credit is due to the many hands to helped us finish painting this room before Eden was born: Elders, Matt, Dad, Mom, and Amy G. Thanks!

The rocker/glider was a FreeCycle score. Jerry picked it up the day Eden was born. :) I wish it were white... but that's a project for later.


"MUCH better, mommy & daddy!"

Reveal #1- Calista's Room

We've been in our home now for almost three months. Its about time we showed off some of the progress we've made it making it our own, inhabitable, clean(ish) space. We're not HGTV, but all our sweat has brought something to be proud of.

 

BEFORE: This is the bedroom we selected for Calista's. It was coated with loverly flowery wallpaper from floor to ceiling- including the ceiling. Oh, and when the removal had begun, we found layer #2 underneath. It just had to go.
Lots of scraping and 2 layers of primer and 2 layers of paint later, it's a cheery terracotta/ salmony orange. Calista loves it.

 

The bed is also the fruits of our labors. Pottery barn? Nooooo. I found it at a thrift store in Maryland (I miss you, Value Village!) as we anticipated Calista moving into a big girl bed. It was dark brown but had a great classic style I knew would be cute in a little girl's room, once painted white. Voila. After she fell out of the bed twice the first night, we put up the rail and told her to keep her head on the pillow. Now she's good as gold.

 

It's really nice for her to have her own space for her toys and books now.

 

The closet is her dresser for now. We're on the hunt for her dresser still.
And the painting continues...

Our house- in the middle of NJ

The last house update I put on here was good news- our offer on Mill St was accepted! Then we waited... and waited... it was a "short" sale, you know. Then came the bad news. We found out about 3 weeks ago that the owner of Mill was not going to loose his house after all, his family was helping him to stay in it, so he canceled our contract. We were SOOOO close to the bank's approval and then this news came from out of nowhere.
Meanwhile, Jerry is slaving away on his dissertation. The day after he turned it in to his committee, we whisked ourselves away to NJ to see just a few more houses. It just wouldn't be right to buy a house without seeing at least 100 you don't want to buy, right? We had about 4 that we were considering, but we narrowed it down and offered on Byrd Ave in Bloomfield.
After waiting for the seller's attorney to coordinate with the seller and the seller's Realtor and all get together in the nursing home (where the owner is living) at the same time, we got good news again. We've done the inspection, our mortgage is coming along, and we will be calling it home in about a month.
We are looking forward to having space for guests- so if you want to see NYC sometime, let us know! We'd love to have you! Just give us a few months to get the guest room/ bathroom into a decent state. :S
Enjoy the pics! Its very... 1958. Just think of the fun we'll have with the "before" and the "after" pics (to come over the next 5 years).

The Phone Call

We waited with anticipation for a phone call regarding our offer on the house in Bloomfield on Thursday. We expected to hear if the seller accepted our offer on Wednesday evening, which became Thursday morning, which became Thursday evening. The call came, and went like this:

- Hi, its Nancy (not in her normal cheery voice)
- Hey Nancy.
- I just called to let you know that we didn't get the house.
- Really? awww.
- Yeah, I guess when you're up against that many offers...
- How many were there?
- There were a total of six.

and so on...

I decided not to call Jerry right away and tell him, since I was just getting in the car to pick him up. My head was spinning with what we would do next. I guess we'd go up there again once we saw a few more interesting new listings... or try a low offer on one of our runner up (but more expensive) homes.

Sitting at the stoplight at Rt 1 & 410, my phone rings again.

- Hi! Its Nancy. (This time, her usual, cheery voice)
- Hey nancy. (perplexed)
- OK- First you're going to laugh, then you're going to say, huh? then you're going to laugh again.
- (me, laughing) OK?
- We got the house!!
- Huh??
- Patrick (the seller's realtor) just called me again.

... the first phone call was meant for the other Nancy at the same real estate office, but Patrick didn't catch that. He called our Nancy twice- once to say sorry, no go, then again to say, congrats, you got it!

We're just glad we didn't get the phone calls in the opposite order. And that our Nancy is the winning Nancy. :) Hurray!

So what now? We wait for the bank. Its a short sale, aka, take all the time in the world sale. We're optimistic and we're putting on our patient pants for the next several weeks. Its just hard to wear the same pants for that long, you know?

House Hunters: New Jersey Edition

It's not front page news anymore, but some of you may not know that Jerry has accepted a job at Montclair State University in New Jersey. We'll be leaving Maryland with mixed feelings this August, probably.
And so we begin the hunt to find a place to live in the very expensive New York City suburbs (of New Jersey). We've made three trips now... and who knows how many more will be needed. I don't know how folks pick a house in a weekend! We did make our first offer on a house (a short sale), and you can check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/pn98gj

Wee looked at the house a couple time, for pictures you can see:
Round 1 Pictures
Round 2 Pictures