The end of an era

Tonight is the last night our two kids will share a room*.  G is going to grandma & grandpa's house for the week while the construction begins.  M will be home with us as she knows not to play with leftover power tools and eat debris from the floor.

I think M will be excited to have her own room back.  She continually talks about how she wants to decorate and rearrange her room.  However, we think G will have a hard time.  He likes to call out to M in the morning when he wakes up.  He might be a little lonely without her.

Our contractor, Mr. D., said that he'd only need 3-4 days to construct the wall.  The only caveat in this situation is the hardwood floors.  We are not certain of the time line associated with the floors as we have no clue what they look like underneath.

The snowball has gotten a bit bigger as we realized that the new door for the bedroom will not match the other doors down the hall.  Mr. D. will ensure that the three bedroom, hall closet, bedroom closets, and bathroom doors all match.

*I say the last night if all goes according to plan.  They may spend a few more days together at the end of the week depending on how construction progresses.

The decision is......

To stay.  After a lot of number crunching and an honest pro/con list for staying or leaving, staying in our current residence is the most prudent financial decision at this time.  That's not to say that things will not be happening at our house in, oh say, the next week!

We have committed to a contractor that can start next week.  We've talked about this as a possibility for so long, I now have some anxiety that it's finally coming to fruition.  The contractor, we'll call him Mr. D., asked us a lot of great questions: How big do we want the closets to be?, Do we need additional outlets in the rooms?, and the biggest question of all - What kind of flooring do you want in the bedroom? Well that question started a snowball.

The original hardwood floors are under the carpet in our bedroom.  We would like to salvage them and restore them back to their original glory.  When we replaced the pink carpet (yes, pink) with a beautiful, creamy frieze we were appalled at how previous owners used huge nails to probably remove squeaks from the floor.  At the time we made mention that it was a shame to ruin the floors like that.  Now, we that we want hardwood floors in the bedroom, we really cringe.  The decision to restore hardwood floors is not just for the bedroom.  Since we tend to be a go big or go home kind of family, the decision has been made to restore the hardwood in the whole house.  See the snowball getting bigger?

The final cost for the floors is slightly unknown at this point.  They will refinish what they can (for a decent per square foot price) and replace what is beyond its life (for a little more per square foot).  We also have an interesting situation with the status of the visible hardwood in the hallway in the kitchen.  The hallway planks run the length of the hallway in a north/south fashion, which makes complete sense.  When the flooring was installed, the kitchen was laid at the opposite east/west direction.  We're not sure on the logic for that.  Now that we want to expose and refinish the living room, which completes the circle from kitchen through the hallway we need to remedy this.  Mr. D. thinks that the kitchen could possibly be carefully taken up and turned the proper direction.  If it can't be properly taken up and turned we will have to replace it with new, but once we commit we're ready for that expense.  Snowball

To make the snowball just a bit bigger, and since work has to be done on the floor anyway, we are going to have a pocket door removed that's between the kitchen and living room.  It won't help us move our table into the kitchen, but it will give the feeling of more space.  Then maybe we can find a great bookshelf that will get my cookbooks off the floor of the hallway closet.  I'm getting ahead of myself, let's see how the whole thing turns out before I go finding a bookshelf.  That's a whole other snowball.

Snow-MG

Winter finally showed us what she's got - all 20 inches.  Blizzard of 2011 was hyped since late last week and the weather folks did not disappoint.  School was canceled for Wednesday by 1:00 on Tuesday.  The big snow started flying at student dismissal and I was happy to walk out with the kids.  Matt picked up M and I grabbed G so we were all home by 4:00.  The wind was horrendous by nightfall and we were happy to hunker down.

We went to bed seeing lightning through the blinds and the snow pelting the windows.  The kids slept until almost 8:00 and that's when we caught our first glimpse of what the blizzard left behind.

One whole panel of the garage is hiding. That was the low part of the driveway drift.

Mickey Mouse almost didn't make it.

We watched a little bit of the news coverage and shook our heads at the crazy totals.  The official measurement at the airport was at almost 20 inches at that moment.  There was still a significant lake effect snow happening so that total was sure to increase.

Matt and M bundled up to start shoveling around 10:30.  He started with a path to the garage and then along the front of the garage.  After about 30 minutes he realized that shoveling the whole driveway was an insurmountable task.  We made the decision to kindly ask our next-door neighbors, the ones we like, to borrow their behemoth snow blower.  They were more than gracious to hand it over.  Matt had the drive cleared in just over an hour.  We have debated for several years whether or not to buy one of these.  The snow we get is not usually so bad that we can't just shovel it real quick.  When these big snows happen we really wish we had one.  The return on investment is hard to quantify since it might be absolutely needed once or twice a year.

M's new perch

Matt made it to the garage

G trying to figure out how to climb the drift

Matt's first pass on the driveway

We heart this machine.  Thanks, neighbor!

 After the drive was cleared we all took a break for lunch and G's nap.

M went out to play with the neighbor kids and the most glorious thing happened, a phone call to say that school was canceled for a second day!  I'm not quite sure why, but I'll take it!  Another day at home with my babies that are not sick, watching TV and making cookies is a beautiful thing.  Maybe we'll even think about taking showers, maybe.

Next Steps

A contractor that lives in the neighborhood stopped over last Tuesday to give us an idea for the cost of putting up the wall.  He's done several renovations in the neighborhood so he's intimately aware of the inner workings of our house model.  He dropped off his quote by the end of the week and we were pleasantly surprised at the affordability of the project.

One quote does not a project make, so a colleague recommended another contractor that came over tonight.   We should have his quote by the end of the week.  He did say his price would be cheaper if we decide to go forward with it in February rather than March.  Concrete can be poured in March and our wall project is small potatoes compared to a house addition (sniff, sniff).  He should have some time to put together a well thought out quote since there's supposedly a blizzard coming our way tonight!

Real Estate Update

Many, many real estate dreams have been dashed in the past two weeks.  First the renovation was taken off the list as an option.  Now we've met with a realtor - insert wah, wah, waaaaah.

Last Saturday we had one of the more prominent real estate agents in our area visit the house to gather more information.  She was immediately pleased with our front bay window as most in the neighborhood don't have this.  She loved the kitchen, although the hardwood floors could use a little TLC.  The good thing is that she recommended a hardwood deep cleaner that might keep us from having to refinish the floors.  The sun porch and finished basement were super traits of our house as well.  She also liked that our house was not cluttered.  The purging done during Christmas break pays off :)

Then she walked down to the bedrooms.  Our house was built as a three bedroom ranch, but sometime before we moved in the owner knocked down the wall between our two front bedrooms.  We've reaped the benefits of a large bedroom.  She started off by saying that the spaciousness of our bedroom was great, but then her smile immediately left her face.  "You know, I'd have to market this house as a two-bedroom house," she lamented.  We had a sneaky feeling that this would be the case.  After the tour of our house we sat at the table to talk comparables  and nitty-gritty numbers.

The comps in our neighborhood are right around what we paid for the house.  Some comps clearly need a little help to make the house a bit more modern - pink carpets and macrame plant holders scream "my owner is older than 65," while others are similar in style to ours.  Then the talk turned to what we price would sell this house.  The sad thing is that our two-bedroom house would have to list for approximately $40,000 less than if we had a three-bedroom house.  Yikes!  The Realtor said that we've got to think about what is best for our family, but we should seriously think about returning the house back to a three bedroom.  While the addition of a third bedroom will increase the amount we can sell our home, we won't really make any money on it.  This is is a problem because we need money to then buy a new house.

We also talked about the foreclosure market in our area.  Apparently there are many homes in the surrounding suburbs that go on the market in the Spring.  That does not bode well for our house value. 

Just like the renovation option, we have more information so we can make a smart decision.  The game plan for now is to talk to contractors for bids on putting the wall up.  We hope this is not a huge expense since we really need to get a return on our investment. 

Who knows maybe we'll be happy with three bedrooms.  After all this a move may not be in the cards.

More to come...

Cross one off the list

Since my last post the move or renovate debate has continued.  The holidays put a big slow down on the decision since we weren't going to spend the money then.  Now that the doldrums of winter are upon us, we're ready to get talking again.

Remember it took us 5 years to find a bedroom set we liked.  This is a house we're talking about, so I think we are moving at lighting speed.

Matt called the bank yesterday to talk about construction loans.  What steps are necessary in obtaining a construction loan?  He summarized that it was a chicken and egg situation.  You need specific architectural plans drawn up that the bank will use to create an appraisal of the final product.  That appraisal determines your loan amount.  The bank would give us 70% of the appraisal value.  That sounds all well and good, except that we still have a mortgage to subtract from the 70%.  The caveat becomes that we could spend the money with an architect to draw up the plans, but the bank might not give us the money we need to fulfill those plans.  That's a lot of money for a carrot on a stick that we'll never get.

Now that we know a renovation is off the table we are left with move option.  I suppose that's a good idea since we loathe our neighbors and don't need their grossness bringing down our home value.

Should we move within our current neighborhood?  That would keep M at her school and with her friends.

Should we move within our current city?  We love our community and have put down roots with the park district and library.

Should we move to another state?  We could find a house that is bigger than our current one for less money that might give me the opportunity to try my hand at the stay-at-home-mom gig.  Matt just needs airport proximity to do his job.

We are talking with a Realtor this weekend.  She will show us some area comparables to see what we could possibly get for our house.  We are also interested in what she says we should fix/improve upon before it's market ready.

One item ticked from the list three more to go.  Keep you posted!

Should We Stay Or Should We Go?

Our family is currently in a predicament; the four of us have outgrown our two-bedroom house.  Should we renovate the house we have or move to a bigger place?

Matt and I labor over our big decisions for a long time.  It took us a year to find our living room couch and even longer to find a bedroom set that had just the right design.  We met with an amazing architect team over the summer and became very inspired to design our dream house.  However, further reflection brought to light that a complete home renovation would uproot our family for the better part of half a year.  It seems that we seem set to renovate on week and flip-flop to move the next week.  When faced with such a quandary we have to make a pro/con list. 

What we love about our home
1.  The sun porch - It definitely does not get used as much as it should.  We especially love summer evenings with all the sliding doors open and cold winter mornings when sunlight bathes the room is amazing heat.  It feels surreal to eat breakfast out in the snow!

2.  The bay window -This is the best place for the kids to play once they could stand independently.  Cars and trucks roll effortlessly from one end to the other, a spot to wave hello and goodbye to family and friends, additional seating for entertaining, the spot for Santa's cookie plate.

3.  This is everyone's first house - This is the first house we bought together.  I vividly remember the day we saw and bought this house.  It was very scary and exciting all at the same time.  M & G also know no other house.  We brought them home from the hospital to this house, and I will be sad the day we leave knowing that so many memories were made here.  Holidays, parties, projects, togetherness, bring on the tissue the day we leave this place. 

4.  Our lot - Our house is situated on a curve so we benefit from being the second largest lot on our street.  This provides us with an obnoxious amount of space for a potential expansion.  We could practically build our house again in the backyard and still be within the village guidelines for renovation.   

5.  Location, location, location - We are in the perfect spot to catch the train into the city, walkable to our town's downtown, fast access to the expressway, M's school is in the neighborhood.  We have looked at other neighborhoods in our city, and, in our opinion, none compare with what we have.  There may be one neighborhood that comes close, but it's the one I work in and that's a conflict of interest. 

6.  The master bedroom - Our house was originally built as a three bedroom ranch.  Long ago someone decided to remove the wall between two of the bedrooms to make a large master.  Along with the sun porch, this helped to seal the deal on this house.  We have a four-piece bedroom set along with a dresser for G and other miscellaneous items.  I could not imagine being in a smaller bedroom. 

7.  The whole house fan - The most amazing solution, ever.  This keeps us cool in the summer when we're not quite ready to turn on the air.  It also saves our noses when dinner does not turn out so well and we need to evacuate the smell, fast.  I also have great memories of Matt up on the ladder laying the ugly orange sleeping bag over it for winter insulation.

8.  East/West exposure - No matter the time of year the sun greets us in the kitchen and dining room in the morning and says good night in the living room and master bedroom in the evening.

9.  Our yard - Matt has spent countless hours and dollars on making our yard beautiful.  I have to say that it's the best on the block.  So much thought and care has been put into what plants to buy and how to care for them.  We are also blessed that our house is flanked by two huge oak trees.  They block the sun at the height of the day allowing us to stay cool while others are boiling in their houses. 

10.  The noises - Our house has personality that can be seen, heard, and smelled.  The furnace makes a distinct "thud" when it turns off, the slotted cover on whole house fan has to shake violently before it pops open (I suppose some WD-40 would solve that, but it's been 10 years why change now?), the nails of the squirrels as the jump from the oak trees to the roof over our master bedroom, and the dry, chalky smell of the air conditioning the first few uses of the year.  Finally, the squeaks in the floor.  We have learned where to step in the kids' room so we can still check on them while not waking them.  The front door......  the outlets that pop....... the cracks in the garage.....

What we dislike about our home

1.  The neighbors - I won't go into detail, but they are prime candidates for many, many reality shows.  Super Nanny, for one - 'Nuff said.

What we would like out of a new home
1.  Closer location to downtown of our current city - At our current house we can walk to downtown, but it's a haul.  The kids could ride bikes, but I would guess they would not be making it back unless one of us forged ahead to get the car.  Our downtown has changed a lot, maybe not for the better, since we moved in but there is still a draw.  I'd love to walk to the summer concerts and take the kids to the fountain more often.

2.  Four bedrooms - the kids need their own space and Nana should not have to sleep on the Aero Bed when she comes to visit.

3.  An office for Matt - Now that he works from home a lot more it is important that he can "leave work" at the end of the day.

4.  A dedicated space for my stuff (or crap as Matt calls it) - Currently the dining room table and the counter are the first drop spot for my stuff.  Not too appealing for everyone else.

What we could get out of a new house and the potential pitfalls

1.  We could find a place closer to our downtown

2.  Houses closer to downtown in our price range will absolutely need renovation.

3.  We'd have to rent a house or apartment during the renovation (which we'd have to do for a house renovation)

4.  We could wait forever for a house on the market that is a good starting point for a renovation.

As I said we labor over decisions for a long time.  I have a feeling it's going to still be a while....Stay tuned!

Gutters, check.

There are certain common roles that perpetuate in our household.  I traditionally cook dinner and clean the house, and Matt mows the lawn and takes care of the general outside upkeep.

Since Matt started a new job those roles have been thrown out the window.  He travels a bit during the week and works from home the remaining days.  On days he is home he can do a few loads of laundry or start dinner before I get home with the kids.  Now if I could only train him to fold....... 

On my end today I climbed up on the roof to clean out the gutters.  Typically, this is my job since Matt is not too keen on high places.  I believe the gutters had not been cleaned since last fall so they were pretty gross.  With some help from Matt, on solid ground, we removed a sizable branch from an evergreen that was taking some liberties with our roof.  Despite the stinky mess in the gutter, once they were empty I found being above street level is quite therapeutic.  It provides another vantage point of scenes I stare at everyday.  It's also quite hilarious to see the look people's faces when they drive by and see me on the roof.

All clean!

My private observation tower

 Let the snow fly!

I heart books

Thankfully so does M.  Just recently she can't get enough of books, whether she reads them or I do.  When she chooses to play in her room I will often find her reading on her bed.  I am not certain how much she gets out of the chapter books she reads, but she can give me a decent synopsis of what Ramona or Junie B. are up to.  We are currently on the third Harry Potter book.  I am so surprised by what she remembers from the first two books that help understand what happens in the third book.

Love her!

Dear....

Dear Old Navy,
     Thank you for making clothes that I throw away.  It's good that I can't wear anything too long before it gets a hole in it and I have to retire it.  I would not want my colleagues to think that I liked my clothes enough to wear them for more than one season. 

XOXO,
Holly

Dear Newscasters,
  Thank you for reporting the good, the bad, the ugly in our world.  However, I would appreciate a change in the way you report murders.  It irks me to no end when you say, "he was shot to death."  I would much rather hear you say, "fatally shot."  I think the former sounds as though a third grader wrote your story.

XOXO,
Holly

Dear Amazing Race,
     I love you and am so thankful for you every Sunday night.  My list of places I'd like to travel has grown!  I still like you even if you make me wait until after football overstays its welcome.

XOXO,
Holly

Dear House Gods,
     Please give us some guidance.  Should we move?  Should we renovate?  We just can't decide.

XOXO,
Holly & Matt

Dear Blog Readers,
     Boo!  Do you read me often?  Or is this just therapy for one?  Leave me a comment so I know you are there :)

XOXO,
Holly

It's not a box!

On Friday night, the kids played really well.  They played with the Light Sabers, pillows, and a box.  G took it upon himself to put the box on his head and try to move around the house.  He was so proud of himself when he could move down the hallway.  He even got daring and started going backwards :)

 

Aren't boxes great?

My dancing fool

Matt's cousin got married this past weekend.  M and I were the lone attendees as Matt was sick and G went to my parents' house.

The wedding was beautiful.  I was really excited for the reception because it was at the same place Matt and I used when we got married.  Truthfully my recollection of major events of that evening are slim.  The photos we have help jar my memory, but the day flew by so fast for me.  One song that brought back a great memory was Adam Sandler's Grow Old With You that the bride and groom used when they cut the cake.  Matt and I danced to this very same song before our first "official" dance.  Surprisingly, the groom's brother remembered that we danced to this too.  He's got a good memory if he can recall that from ten years ago when he was probably 11 years old.  I will say it was a fantastic venue, and I'm glad we used it, too!

Shortly after dinner, I realized that weddings are no fun when you are without a partner.  It was great talking with Matt's family during dinner and intermittently once dancing started.  However, his family was well represented, rightfully so as it was one of his family member's wedding, and they wanted to catch up with each other.  I spent a lot of the evening watching M on the dance floor.  All I can say is that girl has some moves.  She danced with cousins and tried to follow along with the group during the Electric Slide.  She finally ended up on stage dancing with her shadow.