The During

Work continues on the remodel at our new house. Our friend Ian has done the bulk of the serious work, we found a guy on craigslist for the hardwood floors (they did a great job), and we've hired a couple of other friends for this and that.

So the walls are torn down, the floors have been replaced, a kitchen island is in place, and all the downstairs moulding is new. We also have two new windows in our master bedroom (it was a bit of a cave before), the wallpaper border in Grace's room has been removed, and tile is laid and grouted in the entryway. The kitchen cabinets are midway through the process -- they've been sanded and we'll paint them this week, we hope, along with painting the entire downstairs (living/dining/kitchen/entry) and two bedrooms (Grace's and ours). Once all of this is done, we'll have a cleaning party (more info to come) and have the carpets upstairs cleaned. Whew.

Here are some photos of the house taken during the last week.

Nine Months

When you get to be an adult -- not when you turn 18, but when you're firmly planted in the grownup category and cashiers refer to you as sir or ma'am -- time seems to fly by, and the space of nine months is nothing. Consider, on the other hand, what it looks like to a kid, or in this case, our kid.

Grace, 18 months ago

Grace, 9 months ago

Grace, yesterday

Teeth and Tulips

It's been too long since we blogged, though, in our defense, we've had the craziest last two weeks probably since we got married. Things have calmed a little this week. Really a little. I mean, when you're packing up one house, remodeling and preparing to move into another, some craziness is bound to remain. More info on the house move and photos of the remodel work in progress to come.

In the meantime, Grace has been doing great. A bit of a cough for about a week, but that's gone now. She's gobbling up mushy food of all kinds and gumming everything she can get her hands on. The middle lower teeth are both in, and two on the upper left are poking through. She is sitting up, teasing Vic with "dada" kinds of sounds (we're pretty sure she has no idea she's calling his name), and trying desperately to crawl. The playpen stands ready to hem her in once she's mobile.





We took a trip up to the tulip festival on Sunday. The weather was overcast but warm, and the drive was relaxing, with the Peanut napping all the way up.

am I not supposed to eat these?

The Before

Well, it looks like (if everything goes as it should) we have ourselves a house. It's been a really long process and we'll wait to celebrate until we have the keys in our hands.

It may be a good time to buy a house in terms of home prices and interest rates, but it's not a good time if you want to do it quickly. Because so many homeowners owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth, any offer you make has to be approved not only by them but by their bank. The banks have thousands of such cases crossing their desk these days and, of course, want to get as much for each home as they can. So it can take months to get an answer. Out of the probably 100 homes we saw over the past six months, I would guess that 80-90% were in this situation. The home we're buying is bank-owned -- they just wanted to get it off their hands quickly, so they priced it competitively and got back to us with an answer quickly.

Although the closing date will be sometime in mid-April, we'll wait until early to mid-May to move in. There are a few things we'd like to do in the house, and it would be great to have them done before moving in. So here are some "before" photos, taken the day of the inspection. We'll post the "after" photos once the work is done.

(And for those who only read this blog for photos of Grace, don't worry. She's in one of the pictures. Sort of.)

Melinda

the front

the backyard

it has a fireplace, something we've missed having

the living room and entry

the kitchen pantry -- we'll be taking this out to create a more open feel

the living/dining room -- the arch and half-wall will be taken out

the garage -- we're excited to have one of these

A Few of the Cute Parts

Grace's toes

Grace's cowlicks

Grace's eyes

Something for Nothing?

Well, not exactly, but pretty close. Call it getting something for doing something you would have done anyway.

I recently discovered swagbucks.com, an internet search engine that gives you free stuff to use their site. Yes, you have to give them some basic info about you, but I haven't received a single junk email as a result of signing up. I have, however, received a $5 Starbucks card for using them, and my grande hot cocoa was sweeter because it was free.

As a die-hard Google fan, I was skeptical. Imagine my joy when I discovered that Google and Ask.com are the underlying search engines; ie, you'll get the same results as if you search on Google. Vic gets a kick out of hearing me say that instead of googling something, I swagbucksed it.

So it's simple. You sign up, use swagbucks.com whenever you're searching for anything on the internet, earn a point from time to time, and redeem your points for free stuff. Nice, huh? Wanna sign up? Go here.

Melinda

(A little disclaimer: When you earn a swagbuck, I get a free swagbuck, up to 100 total, which means that I'm not completely unbiased -- seems only fair to admit it. Seriously, though, it's really cool and I would have told you all about it anyway.)

Peanut Pictures

Happy March! Wow, can you believe how quickly this winter is passing? Not that anyone around here is particularly upset about that. We're teaching Grace to soak up each sunny moment, and reminding ourselves to be thankful for the rain that helps things grow.

Speaking of things growing, our little peanut continues to do that. Here are her latest glamour shots...

Melinda