Visitors!

Kristi and Craig came for an overnight Independence Day weekend! It was so nice to see them, and the kids had so much fun together. They are all getting so big. Oy.



Furthermore, Craig brought his power tools! Woot! He and Mark broke up the bottom step in front, which was a piece of crumbling concrete. Mark has laid some new concrete for a set of wooden steps. Hmmm...I should take some better pictures of this.

More fun with paint!

How M4's room used to look:

In progress:

New color! M4 picked it out himself.

Nothin' like a little paint to brighten things up (and brighten up a dreary winter). Ahhh...change is good.

Please excuse the crass consumerism...

Per request, here are some pics of the new appliances. Notice the lovely unpainted spot behind the stove where the microwave used to be. Even though I feel like a bloated American consumer, I am LOVING these! And we did support the local economy, so I feel good about that.

Sold...

Well, it really felt real today. We are selling our yellow house, which of course is good news. But it didn't hit me until I went there today and saw the new owner's belongings. (We are letting her move some stuff in early.) I lived in that house as long or longer than any other house in my life, plus it's the only house M3 and M4 have known. We won't be able to chart the passage of time this way anymore:

The funny thing is, they are looking at the house in which they'll probably spend the rest of their days in this town.

Update

Not too much to report at the current time...we're all getting back to our routines of school and work, although Mark doesn't have classes yet.

We had another offer on our house, but it was very low. For the moment we've passed, although we are considering taking a low offer with the knowledge of gaining a good neighbor. It's hard to know what to do. Should we just take the hit financially? Will the next offer be higher? It's not just about the money. Yet I know that among the houses in the price range of ours, ours is definitely one of the nicest despite its drawbacks. Ugh... On the upside, our town is a more steady and stable market than the national market.

I'm thinking of torturing myself by posting comparative temperatures between here and Tucson, where my parents are:

Our town: 8 degrees; Tucson: 40 degrees (well, I guess it's only 8:30 in the morning there)

Wheeeeeeee!

I parked the car in the garage last night!! Because there was a wintry mix forecast for overnight, I shoved the bikes, etc. aside. And lo and behold, this morning at 5:30am when I left to teach yoga, there was no frozen stuff on my windshield, no fogged up windows! Oh it was lovely...

Not so great...

Well, we did receive an offer, but it was a lowball offer. I don't think we'll accept. It may be stupid; I don't know. Where's a Magic 8 Ball when you need one?

Keep your fingers crossed!

Someone looked at our (other) house yesterday and really liked it. I'm not holding my breath or anything, but that's good news! They are bringing a contractor back later this week. Hmmm...

New address

Hey y'all,
The only thing that has changed about our address is this:
1325 is now 1321.
Confusing?

It's official!

We now own two houses. But we'll only be living in one. If you want to come visit, we've got plenty of room! I'll send out new address info soon.

New house

As promised, here are several pics of the new house. I am still having a bit of "what did we get ourselves into?!" remorse, so these photos are to convince myself how awesome the house is.

Front porch

Front of house

Fireplace in living room

Library

Hall off kitchen

Kitchen

Upstairs bath

M4's bedroom

M3's bedroom (the door is to a little porch off her room)

Backyard

Garage (yay!)