Making the House a Home

For our two years in London we experienced the joy of renting. Weekends were not spent fixing things around the house or spending hours at the home center. (Let me interject that Brad Pitt and his kids were at the home center in our borough over Easter weekend. We left too soon!) We spent our weekends in the city seeing all we could see.

Fast forward to today, and we are in full homeowner mode. 

The first thing anyone should do upon moving into a new abode is clean the place, obviously. Upon first look, the place looked it would just need an easy scrub of the bathrooms, kitchen, and a cleaning of the carpets. However, that was not the case. We quickly learned that a deep clean had not happened at our abode in quite some time. Please enjoy a few examples.

Exhibit A - behind the oven knobs - Those had never been cleaned prior to my discovery. The insides of the kitchen cabinets were not much better. So many bleach wipes were consumed before any of our belongings touched those surfaces. I was also very thankful for the Bed Bath & Beyond coupons to buy copious amounts of shelf liner.    

Exhibit B - the master bathroom flooring (the cleaned portion is the top left) - This required a hands and knees scrub with a firm bristled brush.  And multiple refreshes of the soapy water bucket. In the three months we've lived here the floor still looks as good as the top squares.  Consider this your PSA against wearing shoes in the house.

The fireplace was not much better. According to the technician, it had been many, many years since it's last clean. The gas supply line entered the fireplace box through a hole that was not properly taped, and enough bugs had found their way in that an entomologist would think it was Christmas. Thankfully it checked out fine and all he had to do was vacuum out the box and a squeegee the glass.

Once the house was clean, we started with projects to make it our own. Matt installed a closet organizer in the master closet to replace the inefficient one we inherited. Check out Matt's fancy new drill. 

The inherited water heater was nearing the end of its life, and no one wants to figure that out in a cold shower. We had a tankless water heater installed, and so far it's been great with no conflicts between two hot water uses at the same time. Every attempt is made to not have showers and the dishwasher run at the same time, but no one complained when it has happened.  

The main living area of our house was painted yellow, not a pretty yellow. It actually hurt your eyes on a sunny day. The color ran from the living room into the entry, up the stairs, and down the hall.  Over the years many nail holes were patched, which were unsightly. Based on the size of the project we immediately knew that a professional would have to remedy this color fail. Our painter was phenomenal; he patched every hole and even sanded down the bad drywall joints up the stairwell. The new color is not a dramatic change, but I'll take boring beige over blinding yellow any day.    

Our neighborhood is hilly, and our back yard slopes to a dry creek bed. When it rains the water runs from the two side downspouts & from the driveway along the side of the house dragging the land along. A drainage system was in place from one of the previous owners, but it was blocked and useless. Matt had an irrigation contractor out to remedy the drainage by connecting the downspouts to a pipe that empties into the creek bed. We eagerly await a rain storm to see if the land stays put. If it's a good fix, Matt will start landscaping.

What's up next?  We have some short & long term projects that will keep us busy. Nothing is pressing so we can take our time and make smart decisions based on how want to use the spaces. The master bathroom and kitchen are high on the list, but those are big budget items that need saving and planning. Until that time I'll continue pining over bathrooms and kitchens on Instagram.

Hey Honey, I Bought Us House, Without You

There's a great story about our house that Matt loves to tell. 

He bought the house without me.  

To some that's no big deal, but to most to whom the story is told it's complete lunacy. 

In the fall of 2015 Matt spent more time back in American than he did in London. It only made sense that he use those trips to scout for a future hometown. We had decided that the mid-Atlantic was our first choice due to the desirable weather and the minimal time zone difference to Europe. The internets was a huge help to narrow our city choices based on our desired house criteria & budget. The more we looked, the more Raleigh seemed like the place for us. 

So Matt added a weekend detour to Raleigh on one of his trips to the US to look at houses. We found a great real estate agent to take him around. They started at some of the houses we saw online and soon found that those houses looked better in pictures. So they regrouped and scoured the listings for a second day of touring. Matt fired up FaceTime and took me on tour of the newest listings. Some views were short (or nonexistent) as he knew immediately that a house was not the right fit.

Then he walked into our current house, and there was a complete change in his attitude. It had everything our family needed, and oh my goodness a whole lot more. He summed it up by saying this was the house for us; no other house came close to this one. He was going to write an offer straight away.

My reaction?  If you think it's the one, then go ahead. I'll admit that I wasn't the most invested in the home finding process.  I was still in the anger stage of the grieving process.

The negotiations were quite straightforward. We made an offer, they accepted. Done. Matt bought a house that I had not seen with my own eyes, in a city I'd never visited. I was OK with that. Why? We've experienced a lot in the last two years, and the abode was never an issue. As long as my husband and kiddos are with me, we can make it a home.

The most anxiety occurred for the home inspection.  

Matt: "You are coming to Raleigh for the inspection, find a sitter for the kids."

Me: "WHAT?!"

Matt: "Yes, you are going to Raleigh.  You need to see the house before the deal goes through."

Me: "WHAT?!"

I agreed that I wanted to see the house, but goodness sakes finding someone to watch our kids for a minimum of two nights was asking a lot of someone. It's one thing when you go into the city for the night, but it is a whole new situation when we travel across the ocean!

It was not difficult at all to find places for the Kiddos to stay as we made some really awesome friends in London. Each stayed with a different family, and they were beyond happy for a weeknight sleepover. Once the Kiddos were set, we booked my flights. Get a load of this itinerary - I left Thursday morning for a Friday morning inspection and caught a return flight on Friday night that arrived back in London on Saturday morning. 

You know how this story ended. The kids had a great time with their friends and our inspection went just as expected. Matt closed on the house a few weeks later on another of his trips back to the US.  

I didn't have to go back for that.  Whew.

A4 Update - February 2016

February can be drab, but we have some incredible sunrises & sunsets.

The kids had two days off this month due to inclement weather. One day was from another ice storm, and the second was for a horrendous tornado outbreak in the Mid-Atlantic states. Wake County schools announced a three-hour early release at 10:30am on the day of the tornadoes. Everyone was nervous as a day of decision to release students early is not an easy task for a school district to undertake.  

Matt traveled a ton in February.  This time all in the USA.

The family went to a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game, and it was a ton of fun! The audience was engaged during the whole game. We even saw the Stanley Cup at the ceremony celebrating the ten year anniversary of the Hurricanes Championship.  

Holly started volunteering at Youngest Kiddo's school. She is starting in the library and hopes to get into the classroom soon.  

Speaking of Youngest Kiddo, he needed new shoes. Apparently his size 13 trainers no longer fit his size 3 feet!  Going for parents of the year on that one. 

We continue to make the house our own. Matt installed a new Elfa organizer in the master closet, which is phenomenal. The painter started at the end of the month to bring the house out of the mid-1990's. The electrician made sure all the proper outlets were GFCI connected. The fireplace technician cleaned up the unit to remove about 20 years of dust and insects. 

To round out the month, the laborious task of furniture shopping is in full force. Ugh.  

The highlight of the end of the month was an excursion to one of the many nature preserves in Raleigh. This town is full of parks. The kids loved jumping over the fallen trees and throwing rocks in the lake.  

The warmer weather is moving in, we've already had a few 70 degree days.  

A4 Update - January 2016

Today is my first chance to open Blogger to write a blog post. It's been a super busy month!

The family rang in 2016 with a sleep over at our college friends' house. Time with friends was just what we needed after the busy holidays with family.  

We arrived in Raleigh on 4 January. The flight from Chicago was comically short. Without any furniture at the new house, we spent the first week in a corporate apartment.    

Our container arrived on 15 January, and we promptly slept in our new digs. Happy to say that by the end of the month almost all of the boxes were empty (the photo above is only about 1/3 of the boxes).  The only boxes left are those that await a home on yet to be purchased shelves.    

The return to reality happened fast when we bought two cars. Public transportation just isn't the same as London. ;)

I thought enrolling the children in school would be a piece of cake compared to London, but I was mistaken. Look for a post about that soon, but so far both kids are happy with school, whew.

Maybe that's because they hardly attended school once they enrolled. They started on a Wednesday and promptly had an early release day that Friday. Then the next week brought Martin Luther King Jr. day, an institute day, and 2 1/2 days off due to a huge ice storm! All told they went to school 8 days in January. No need to call the truant officer, it's all good now.  

Matt traveled back to Europe for meetings in Dublin & Warsaw to finish up pursuits he started before we left. Hopefully his travel back to Europe isn't a trend.

Holly's parents spent a week at the house helping with a few home improvement projects. Dad was brave to climb the extension ladder to wash the windows that seem to be 100 feet off the ground. Mom used her sewing skills to make Oldest Kiddo a Greek dress from a bed sheet for class. They also kindly returned the items we stored in their basement whilst in London. The Kitchen Aid mixer has returned, and it already made cookies & muffins.  I sure missed that machine.  

The home improvement projects don't stop. Some are to fit the way we live such as replacing the grossly inefficient master closet organizer.  Others are imperative such as the bathroom sink that leaks into the cabinet below.  That's the joy of home ownership, right?

The weather in NC is absolutely gorgeous, aside from the ice storm a week ago.  We had lunch on the deck the other day when the temperature was 72F.  Not a bad thing for January.

Stay tuned to see what February holds. We need to get out and about in Raleigh to enjoy our new home town!

A4 Update - December 2015

While the London expat adventure is officially over, it does not mean the adventure stops.  The theme of December was Leaving London.

Holly sold many household electronic items that could not come back to America.  Happy to know that someone in London is enjoying our alarm clock & blender.    

Both kid had Christmas shows at school, which are always interesting.

We attended several going away events with our much loved friends.  

The week of December 14 we had the pleasure of spending time with movers, a professional cleaning team, and the landlord checkout clerk.  Happy to report that the checkout clerk was pleased with the condition of The Manor.  

Our final flight out of Heathrow was after lunch on Friday 18 December amid many tears from the whole family.  

The tears dried up as the strong sunshine of Aruba hit our pasty skin for four days in the sun.

Christmas was spent among our family & friends.

That's a wrap on 2015!

What's New With You?

      We bought a house.         

In America.

The expat adventure is almost over, folks.  Our two-year contract went by fast, but we jammed a lot into it.  Our official leave window is mid-December, so there's just over one month to finish off the must see in London list. 

Just to keep things interesting, we decided not to move back to Chicago.  The multiple years of Polar Vortex (Polar Vortices?) ensured that we could find more suitable climate.  Matt's job put no geographical requirements upon his return to America, so we had 50 states from which to choose.

We decided our next city should have:
        * no (or virtually no) snow
        * East Coast timezone to keep work calls back to Europe not too inconvenient
        * low cost of living (almost anywhere is lower than London)
        * easy access to other major cities
        * did I mention no snow?

When we looked at the map, and by that I mean Youngest Kiddo's Ravensburger puzzle, we quickly came to a decision: North Carolina.  More specifically, Raleigh.  From our research, Raleigh seemed to tick all the boxes for our family.  Even more, just a short distance from Raleigh is the Atlantic Ocean in one direction and the Appalachian Mountains in the opposite.  You better believe I'm all over Instagram scouting for places to eat and visit.  I'm always open to your suggestions for what to see & do in our new hometown.  Leave your favorites in the comments below!

How are we all feeling about the move?  That's for another time, but for now we have a list of things to accomplish and see before we go.  Our expat adventure will soon morph into a repatriation adventure, and I sure hope you will follow along with all the fun!

Not For The Squeamish

Back in the fall there was a story in the papers about an increase in the number of gigantic spiders seen around London.  The kids and I came across many of these spiders on our walks to school and even in our own backyard as you can see in the photo below.  Isn't that an impressive web?

Once I read the stories about the spiders, I was on the hunt for spider repellent.  All I could find in the shops was non-harmful deterrent spray.  What?!  I didn't want to deter the arachnids, I wanted them d-e-a-d.  Full stop.  Yes, yes spiders are a part of the food chain, and extermination of this species would have a devastating impact on the world.  But for goodness sakes look at the size of them!

So, I bought the all-natural spray and immediately sprayed every window opening or vent the little buggers could possibly use to gain entry to The Manor.  I felt better knowing that the spiders would walk on by our house for another that was not protected.

I was wrong.

One night after I put the kids to bed (and Matt was out of town), I saw something out the corner of my eye.  At first I thought it was a mouse, but after I jumped I saw this nasty beast in the middle of my kitchen.  

Thank the heavens that this bowl was within easy reach to capture this beast.  Once I captured it, I was not sure what to do next.  No way in hell did I plan to squash it.  Blech, that would be a gooey mess.  Instead I grabbed a piece of cardstock which I slid under the bowl.  That did not make it happy.  It started running and jumping off the sides.  Once it calmed down, I called to Oldest Kiddo out of bed for some help.  She opened the front door and I walked into the street and threw the bowl and paper.  I watched it scurry into the storm drain while I gathered my household goods.  

Both kids were now wide awake during this excitement, and they were as thrilled as I that it was gone.  In the end we could all sleep well knowing it was back outside where it belonged.

This is not the only time we've been visited by one of these buggers.  Three in total (that we know of!) have made visits to The Manor.  The last two only made it as far as the conservatory before capture & release back to nature.  Once the blasted rain stops I shall make another round of the all-natural spray.  

A4 Update - September 2014

We said goodbye to summer this month.

• The Kiddos returned to school at the beginning of September.  Oldest Kiddo gets to wear a tie with her uniform.
• Holly visited Buckingham Palace during the summer opening, and it was more spectacular than you could imagine.
• There was a spider invasion in London.  All windows were sprayed several times to discourage their entry into The Manor.  One got in, and I nearly had a heart attack.  
• The Duchess is going to have another baby!!!
• Nana visited for a few weeks.  We saw The Book of Mormon, visited many palaces (we visited all but Kew), went to Paris (!), and revisited the big tourist locations.

A Little Bit of Telly

We do not watch much television at The Manor.  I'm not implying that we watched a lot at The 407, but it was often on for noise whilst in the kitchen or even down the hallway bedrooms.  The layout of The Manor is a big reason that the telly is not turned on very often.  Our television is in the reception room, which is an actual room, with a door, so the sound does not travel far.  

Happy New Year 2014!

What's different about the telly in the UK?

The shows on the BBC do not have commercials.  Our annual TV license covers what would typically be paid by advertisers.  This is good and bad.  Great because you can immerse yourself into a documentary about WWI (which there are many) or salivate over the Great British Bake Off.  The bad is no built in commercial toilet breaks.  Yes, we can pause live TV, but that kind of kills the momentum of the show (yes, this is a first world problem).    

When we watch American shows on non-BBC channels (How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory) they only show half of the commercials. Which leads to my next fact.

BBC coverage of the Polar Vortex in the USA

TV shows do not always end on the hour or half hour.  It is not unusual for a show to start at quarter past or quarter to the hour. 

The Wii does not get much of a workout

The number of documentaries on at any given time is astounding.  The Brits love WWI and love to make documentaries about it.  

The Brits also like the Bake-off and Sew-off type shows.  The Great British Bake-off with Paul Hollywood & Mary Berry (baking celebrity) starts tomorrow.  This was copied in the US with Jeff Foxworthy.  I am quite excited to watch the series.  

This documentary had some action shots

We have several American Channels available to us including: TLC, Discovery, E!, Travel Channel, and Animal Planet.  The Travel Channel is only on from 6pm-10pm, not sure why.  Unfortunately the shows on these channels are not a good representative of what you can watch in the USA.  It makes me sad to think that Brits see the worst of American TV, such as the no talent siblings and their brainless escapades in LA & Miami.

Some of the American shows are dubbed with British voice overs.  I don't know why they do this, but it always makes us laugh.  Do you know the deep voice of the narrator on Myth Busters?  Well he's been replaced with a Brit.

What's the best thing about British telly?

Downton Abbey starts months before the US.  The next season is set to launch in the fall, but no date has been released.  No more waiting until January!

Grand Designs shows how one can spend a few million on their home in mostly classy style.  

Crafty Touring - Touring Tuesday

Whilst my mom is in London, I'm trying to find activities that fit into her crafting hobbies.

She lucked out to be in London for the first Saturday of the month to visit the Sewing Machine Museum.  Whilst not on the top of most tourists' list, it's a pretty fantastic place.  It was a journey to get there from our end of town.  To top if off, it is located near a very immature Underground stop.

This museum is located on the second floor of an old warehouse-like building.  I think the man in charge of the museum held court with his cigars in his office on the ground floor.  The smell permeated the rooms above filled with oodles of vintage sewing machines.  

We could peek into what looked like a repair shop off to the side of the museum.  I guess the employees like to listen to the oldies while they wait for Ernestine to connect them with a few ringy dingys.  

This is one of many niche museums in London that makes this city so great.

Top Floor - London Manor

It's been a while since I've shared a London Manor post with you.  The main reason for the delay is the final spots in the house are not as ready for prime time as I'd like.  Pictures have not found their final destination in a few rooms or the organization is just not quite right.  

Finally the top floor of the Manor is as done as it's going to be - the master bedroom.  I shared the master bathroom a while ago, and now you can see the rest of the room.  It's what Londoners know as a loft conversion.  Our landlord converted the attic into usable living space by bumping the back wall out and up to a 90-degree angle instead of the peaked roof it was originally.  

It's a long way to the top.......of our house.  We climb two sets of stairs, with the final set up to our room being narrow with a curve for the last three steps.  I've slipped on the curve many times.  That should not surprise many that I'm a klutz.  

Our room is huge.  I think it's the size of our bedroom and Youngest Kiddo's bedroom back at The 407.  More space is great, but it is also a pain in the arse since it's easy for things to pile up and them not be in the way.  For you, dear readers, I cleaned the place up.

We do not have any pictures on the wall because we can't decide what to hang up there.  We will call it the clean lines look.  

Our view out the front is from two Velux windows; these appear to be the standard window people put in their loft conversions.  The back view is from two double hung like windows.  All of the windows in the whole open and have no screens.  I have a hard time with no screens on the windows as birds tend to hang out in our neighborhood, and I'm paranoid that they will get in.  Matt says I'm crazy, but he can be the one to clean up the mess when one gets in.  Gives me the creeps.  

The lighting is provided by recessed halogen can lights and our two side-table lamps.  The wardrobes are courtesy of our IKEA purchase and constructed by Matt.  

There are two sneaky spots in the room.  The first is this little alcove that really has no purpose other than to store things.  Right now it houses our still wrapped bedroom mirror that matches our dresser currently in Youngest Kiddo's room.  Also in there is unhung art work and our shoe stash.  

The second sneaky spot is the leftover attic space.  There's not much square footage, but it can store our luggage and holiday decorations.  I usually have something sitting in front of the little door because it does not always stay shut.  It often creaks open when I'm upstairs by myself.  Creeps me out.  

There you have it - the top of London Manor.  There are two remaining spots of The Manor to show you, but they still need some tweaking before their debut.  

The Heart of the House - London Manor

The continuing tour of London Manor takes us to the heart of our home - the kitchen.  

Our kitchen is one of the nicest that we looked at over many, many house tours.  Some of the other houses had more modern appliances or brighter spaces, but this room fits our family's needs perfectly.  Do you remember all the boxes we had on move in day and the comment, "You must have had a massive kitchen in the states," from the mover?  Well I'm still working on finding a permanent home for several items.  Some super infrequently used items are repacked into boxes and stored in Oldest Kiddo's closet. 

Ours is an open style kitchen/dining room.  At The 407 the dining table was in the living room, and there was not good space for anyone to hang out while I cooked.  Now we are all together and the kids often play Legos or make a craft while I'm cooking.  It's a good slice of togetherness during the day.  I have to use all surfaces and nooks to their maximum because it is lacking in built in storage space.  Those baskets on top of cabinets might look nice, but they also hold a myriad of kitchen tools.  I actually can't tell you what I put in there, so I bet they will go unused until they are packed up when we move back.  

We reused a shelf from The 407 to give us additional storage space.  It houses the microwave and other big items that I had no space to give in the kitchen area.  The big basket on the third shelf holds all of my large baking tools.  I read many blogs that love open shelving in the kitchen, but I'm not sold on the concept.  For now, it prudently uses what we brought with us and serves a purpose.

There is one spot in the kitchen that I was thrilled to create.  See that ugly curtain to the right of the shelf in the above photo?  Behind it is my broom closet.  The quantity of fabric in the panel allows me to store my hoover (British for vacuum), broom, and mop with nary a thought that anything was behind it.

We purchased a new dining table when we moved in.  Our old one at The 407 was from our college years.  When the kids first started using utensils for their meals, the poor table received many a fork tine scrape or spoon whack.  There are even a few remnants etched in the wood from some raucous Pictionary drawings.  The new one is solid American Walnut, and it is bigger than we initially thought about buying.  However, the larger floor model was significantly cheaper than the smaller size.  The room can handle it & it's beautiful.  We must keep its size in mind when we house hunt the next time.  We will never get rid of this table.  

Our fridge/freezer is small, but with creative organization it works for us.  It is persnickety about temperature.  Food items in the back of it often come out partially frozen.  It also quickly goes from full to empty.  Two days of school lunches and dinners depletes the inventory down to condiments and yogurt.  Yes, I grocery shop two to three times per week.  The freezer is a series of drawers that is the perfect size for us.  I keep a few packages of ground beef (they call it mince here), chicken, and bagels on hand at all times.

Our landlord recently replaced the stovetop because the original one had a faulty burner.  When one cooks with gas, a faulty burner is not a good thing.  The replacement is not much better as it has persnickety temperature settings.  I've found adjusting individual burners to be an exercise in patience.  A millimeter turn of the knob makes big changes.  They are very powerful burners, and even the low-output burner can quickly burn things.  When I need to use more than one burner, the stovetop is quickly cramped quarters.  

It took me a few almost burned meals to realize I have a convection/fan style oven.  I have to adjust the temperature down by about twenty degrees for everything I make.  This is because the fan constantly circulates the heat around the food to make it cook quicker.  At least that's how I understand it.  An 8x10 dish barely fits in the oven.  The handles of the glass dish fit in between the rails of the oven rack frame.

I decided to use the stove hood for travel magnets.  We certainly plan to increase the quantity of the magnets in the next two years.  Now we have to buy a Chicago one when we visit home :)

That's the heart of our manor.  There's just a few spots left to share!

A Peek Inside Domestic Bliss - London Manor

A peek inside our London Manor continues.  This week we will take a little tour with a couple of the mechanicals that keep the manor humming.  Laundry is the job that never ends.  However, we are lucky that our house came with a washer and separate dryer.  Yes, we are lucky.  

The washer is a standard issue front-loading washer.  It does not fit much in the way of my top loader at The 407, but it does a fine job cleaning.  The pièce de résistance is the tumble dryer.  On our home searches very few had dryers, and I did a happy dance when we realized we picked a place that had one.  I can give up a lot of things, but a proper dryer is not one of them.  It is a difficult idea to wrap your brain around if not having a dryer is an extremely foreign concept.  I know, for a fact, that many households do not have dryers at all.  How do they do laundry, you ask?   Those without a dryer have two alternatives: 

• A washer and foldable drying rack - Everything gets hung to air dry.  I like to hang a lot of my clothes to dry, but there are some things that deserve a warm dry.  I certainly think socks and undies deserve a warm tumble as air dried laundry items have a certain crunchy element to them.

Laundry from back in the apartment - never a good spot to put this

• A washer/dryer in the same unit - When the wash cycle ends, it switches into heat mode for the dryer.  We had one of these in our corporate apartment; it was not ideal, but better than nothing.  If you've ever tried drying laundry with a hair dryer you have an idea of the quality.  I ran clothes through a dry cycle then hung them on the foldable rack so I could do more than one load of laundry per day.  

The dryer at our house is not without it's own idiosyncrasy.  This bad boy is known as a condensing dryer.  The vapors do not vent to the outside, they magically condense back into a water tank that has to be emptied every three to four loads.  The condensing reservoir is a little heavy and unwieldily to empty.  I always get the back door open before I remove it so I don't spill all over the floor.  

The reservoir is full

I think it weighs 5kg (about 10 pounds) when full 

I'll use the water for the flowers when we get some

All in all, it's a creature comfort I'm glad is at my house.  Stay tuned for next time; we can explore the kitchen!  Try to not lose sleep whilst you wait.