We've moved!

Well, it happened. We moved!

Are we exhausted? Yes.

Are there enough hours in the day? No way.

Am I in love with this house? Absolutely!

Be back soon!

xoxo

Tim

Moving day(s) are here!

Wow! What an amazing couple of weeks this has been for me! I just returned yesterday from New Orleans! I had an amazing trip and have multiple iPhone pictures to share with you! Not only that, but today starts our move into our new house! I'm not sure I'm ready to do this, but we must move onward to bigger and better things! And by better, I mean much better! Since this is set in stone I can finally tell you that our new house was built in 1805 and is absolutely stunningly restored! I can't wait to share it with you, especially after I put my touch into it. 

This will definitely be an interesting couple of weeks, but I am so excited! So...here we go...again! ;)

xoxo

Tim

Where has the time gone??

Well, hello again!! I am terribly sorry for my absence. I'd try to explain, but the whirlwind that has been my life over the past few months, it's not even possible to put into words. Although, when I tell you what has been going on, you may be able to understand what I've been doing.

Now..where to begin? For starters, that home I was so excited to tell you about in the last post is not ours. :( Someone made an offer while we were getting our financing all in order and the offer made the seller so angry that she pulled the house off of the market and rented it out the very next day. So, we said our goodbye to our dream of owning that home (at least for now) and had been looking at houses almost every weekend. Let me tell you, this has been no easy feat. So for the time being, our house search is on hold and we are doing the noble thing (which we were advised to do all along) and saving up a larger down payment so that we can get exactly the house we want the first time around!

I also realized that I never showed you an updated picture of our rental house (other than Christmas) after some changes (cheap and simple) that we made.

The rental house with a freshly painted glossy black door and stained front porch taken last fall.

Along with cleaning up the front, I painted the other two exterior doors the same black, made a walkway with gravel and cobblestones to the driveway and painted much of the interior trim, as well as repainting the entire mudroom.

So far this summer, I've stayed busy as well with work and family visiting. Actually, my brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces are coming up next week, as well! So, I've been cleaning, cooking and playing tour guide quite a bit this summer.

I'll start off in May, when Shaun's parents visited. They came up to celebrate Memorial Day with us, so of course, we had to have some very bizarre weather. In most of the state it rained, but at our house it....

SNOWED!

This picture was taken on May 25th, and we couldn't believe our eyes. While it was most unwelcome and gone by the next afternoon, it was quite beautiful and spectacular to behold!

Here are some pictures to show the rest of of the summer thus far.

A beautiful tree on campus where I work.

Our freshly mown backyard.

Down the street.

At the lake.

At the lake.

A new friend? No. He was kind of angry because I wasn't allowed to share my snacks.

 Nubble Lighthouse, York, Maine.

 York, Maine.

York, Maine.

This is about all the pretty New England life that I've got to experience lately. Don't get me wrong, I'm still incredibly happy to be living here! But this summer has been kicking my butt, and I'm definitely excited to be spending some more quality time with my family.

I think that I've gotten you pretty much up to speed, except for the last bit of news that I'm pretty sad to be writing about. The house that we currently live in (which I mentioned was for sale in my first post about the house) has finally sold. 

Damnit. I knew I made it look too great!

Anyway, so we are on the hunt for a new place to live. We haven't been given a definite move out date, but trying to stay ahead of the game is the only way that I feel I have some control over this situation. I'm a little bummed, except for the house we found. Swoon. 

No details yet. I'm doing my best not to interfere with fate. The new house to rent is not promised to us yet, but we are very hopeful. I should have some details within the week and I DO PROMISE to never be gone that long again!

Here's hoping!

xoxo

Tim

Busy, busier and busiest.

Hello! I do apologize for the absence. We have been running around like crazy here the past few weeks trying to get as much accomplished as possible to make this house feel like our home. This has been no easy feat. 

The previous tenants left the home in a sorry state, and the cleaning woman that was hired to clean up did NOT do her job. Because of all of these factors, we have had to put a quite a bit of blood, sweat (a lot of sweat) and tears (not a lot, but some ;) into making this house feel like home. I am very pleased to say that we are getting there, but we still have a long way to go.

Our house was bought as an investment property by a group of individuals, so this house was not meant to be extremely beautiful, but nice enough to keep tenants happy. Well, as a person who loves the homes that I choose to live in, this was not good enough for me. ;) We have been doing our best to put our touch into the house without spending too much money. (We don't want to pay to fix up someone else's property, especially when it's on the market!) Simple things like painting (except for the mediocre and ugly wallpaper that covers the walls of many rooms), hanging our artwork and such on the walls, and most of all...CLEANING. 

I am so happy that I am finally starting to see some progress of the work we're putting in and that the house is starting to feel like a place that we want to be. However, there are still many things on our 

To Do List that still need to be accomplished.

Right now, a big project that we are working on is a bit of additional outdoor living space. On the rear of the house is a lean-to. It was probably built to house wood for a wood stove or as a place to store outdoor equipment, tools, etc. I decided it would be great to use it as somewhat of a porch, since the only other place outside is our front porch, and it doesn't have nearly as beautiful and peaceful of a view that the back of the house has. Because the lean-to is just two posts and a roof, we needed a base so that we could put a couple of wicker chairs out there and a small table. My first thought was stone pavers, but the cost for the space we needed was not something that I was wanting to spend. We would need too many pavers, and like I said, we are not investing too much money or time into someone else's property. So while we were at Lowes, an employee told us about river pebbles that were on sale for less than $3 a bag! So for less than $50, we have a solution for our porch.

17 bags later and we have a simple and inexpensive solution for our lean-to porch.

This is only one of many items on our To Do List, but it is important to us to have a space in the backyard, close to the house, so we can enjoy the beautiful nature that we are surrounded by. I can't even begin to describe how excited I already am for autumn here!

As far as the house goes, this is all I can share now, but I do have something else that may entertain you. While painting trim in the downstairs bath the other day, I heard what sounded like thunder outside. It was a gorgeous day so I knew that wasn't the issue. Upon investigating the sound, I found THREE horses in our yard!

Needless to say, ZERO horses showed up in our yard in Huntington.

 I guess this is something that can happen when you live in the country! :)

I made some phone calls and our neighbors came and got them around 15 minutes later, but not before I had a chance to snap a few photos!

I hope you found this as funny as I did!

Here's a picture I snapped this afternoon that looks like summer to me! Enjoy the rest of your week and I hope to come back to you with some progress!

xoxo

Tim

A sneak preview.

I'm still very much in the process of unpacking, but even more so cleaning. 

These old houses really can hold their dirt, and ours is no exception!

In the meantime, I wanted to give you a sneak peek into our new home. Not a lot, as the inside is still a MESS, but just enough to hold you over until I can share some of the rooms inside. I want you to keep in mind that this is only a rental house, so all of the fixtures and finishes are not my choices, so I am doing my best with what I have to work with. Good bones, but some not so great design choices. 

Our rental home.

Our house was built in 1845 in a very small town in central New Hampshire. This home is almost double the size of our previous rental home, and we feel so lucky to be living here. Notice the granite foundation...swoon. We feel so lucky that our first "home" in New England is an antique home! This home was not our first choice when deciding to move here, but has become a wonderful substitute since the home that we really wanted was taken off of the rental market.

I do have to say that my heart dropped when the realtor told us that they had just cut down the row of maples that lined the front of our property to make way for larger power lines to accommodate the ski resort at the end of our road, but our property still has plenty of beauty to offer.

A granite bench that sets on our property.

This bench sits to the right of the property (if you are looking at the house from the street view in the first photo) and I cannot wait to sit here in the fall and look at the trees surrounding the property. Whoever placed this bench in this exact spot knew exactly what they were doing. This location provides a gorgeous view of the cleared property.

Our home sits on three acres but only about one acre of that is cleared. The rest is wooded area and provides a great backdrop when I'm looking through the windows about the kitchen sink.

I do hope you stick around, because our adventure has just begun. We are in the process of doing a lot of exploring of New England, and even better, we are in the process of searching for an antique home of our very own! Stay with me. I promise I won't let you down.

Our driveway. Come back soon!

Thanks for joining us on this journey!

xoxo

Tim

Perfectly At Home.

We are here in New Hampshire. :)

Doing a post soon. There's a lot of cleaning, unpacking and decorating to do.

Talk to you soon!

xoxo

Tim

Almost there.

So, here we are on July 23rd. If I calculate correctly, we are moving to New Hampshire in 8 days. Excuse me while I squeal like a small child who was just given the best toy in the world. I can't believe it is finally here. The moving truck is scheduled, movers have been hired, boxes are being packed...and all the while, I'm stuck in this strange place in my mind heart, somewhere between sadness, fear and excitement. I cannot believe what a tremendous journey we are about to embark on. I am so thankful we are able to make this huge dream we have had come true. I count my blessings every day. 

 Finnegan's ready. Now if only I could put him to work packing.

The next time I see you, I'll be in New Hampshire. I'm going to go and pack more while Finnegan is going to nap. All of this packing is wearing him out!

Finnegan says we'll see you in New Hampshire!

xoxo

Tim

Packing away memories.

Since the move is less than thirty days away, I’ve started to get somewhat serious about our packing. (Hey, we all have a little procrastinator in us, right? ;) I’ve been going through the things that we will not need before we move so as to make this transition as smooth as possible.

This set of beautiful china was purchased at an estate sale for a ridiculously low price, next to some vintage trasferware that is being packed along with it. In case you're wondering, the china pattern is called Countess and it was made by Syracuse China (Syracuse, NY) in the 1950's and early 1960's.

While going through which items to pack and which ones to leave, you come across several memories in the process. Our current rental home is where we have lived for three years, and it really has become our home. The majority of what we have was acquired while living here, so there have been several memories made. I’m having fun remembering each one as I pack and have myself a little smile and a little laugh as I go through things. 

A closer look at the vintage transferware, which is the new color scheme for our new kitchen.

Also while packing, I looked at a vintage print that my mother gave to me recently. This very print hung in my grandmother's kitchen, in her farmhouse in Southern Ohio, for many years until she passed away. He will be making his way to New England with us and finding a special home in our dining room. I know that every time I look at him, I'll feel like I'm back to being a child, having Sunday dinner around the dining room table, looking at this picture before we pray.

I'm hoping he's praying for a successful move! I know I am! ;)

Before I go to do some more packing, I'd like to share with you this little vignette in our current living room. I think this describes my decorating style pretty accurately. 

The pineapple means hospitality, and looking at this brass lamp covered in pewter, I can see the hospitality! I hope you can too!

xoxo

Tim

And so it begins..

(I got over my writer's block!!! ;)

Wow! Why didn’t I realize that moving the 800+ miles would be so difficult?? I would say that no one warned me, but that wouldn’t be true, now would it? ;)

I’m sad to say that our “dream home” that was a possibility, is no longer an option. :( The owner decided to take it off the rental market and sell it instead. It is my philosophy that I am only meant to do what I’m able to do, so I mourned the loss of a dream for a couple of days, then moved on.

Since then, I have found several options, all of which are beautiful places! For now, the plan is to head to New Hampshire in mid July, look at as many places as possible in one or two days, sign a lease, then head home to pack!

When our current landlord listed our home for rent… that was when the move felt real.

We are really moving.

Boxes have been gathered, packing has begun, and here we go! We still have all of July, but I know that time will go considerably quickly.

Whoever is reading this, (I know you’re out there) thank you. Thank you for starting this journey with me. Until next time, here are some pictures of more New England homes that I photographed while visiting. Enjoy!

xoxo

Tim

Writer's block.

Sorry. 

In the meantime, aren’t these hydrangeas beautiful? I took this photo with my iPhone at the resort where we stayed in Williamsburg this past week. One last trip before our big move!!! :)

Yes, the temperatures were unbearable, but these beauties didn’t seem to mind. Happy weekend!

                                                                                                           xoxo

                                                                                                            Tim