Home

We're home.
And have been for over a month now! Summer life has been anything but lazy. Our house (we still can't believe it's our house!!) was on the market for over two years and the sellers were forced to do a short sale. Ultimately that means a lot of delayed maintenance. Landscaping, gutters, trees, cleaning... it's a lot. There's an infinitely long to-do list as we continue to settle in. On top of cleaning up the house and yard, we still have unpacking and decorating to do. There's a shrinking mountain of boxes and furniture in the garage, homey details are popping up, and regular maintenance eats up hours each weekend. On top of the move and adjusting to home-ownership I'm nannying nearly full time for a 10-year-old girl and planning for my second year of full-time teaching. I'm moving from 6th grade math to 5th grade social studies and language arts, and school starts again in 3 weeks!! The summer has been exhausting, but we love this house.
Matilda is also in love. She has a HUGE yard to patrol, a BBQ and picnic tables to summit, one orange tabby cat to torment, dozens of neighborhood dogs to greet as they walk past, and hundreds of squirrels, bugs, rabbits, and birds to watch. We had our first real gathering on Saturday to celebrate Dylan's birthday. More on that later, but it forced us to get a few things in order. We finally found fabric we loved (Dwell Studio "Botany Floral") for curtains and cut panels for the four windows in our living room. We also bought and hung curtain rods, and moved some boxes and clutter to the basement and garage. It was wonderful to have the space to comfortably entertain a dozen friends.

I have the day off and there's tons to do-- I'm hosting a small teacher gathering Sunday and want to hang some curtains and pictures in the dining room! More updates and photos soon!

Quick Update

A dozen blog drafts never completed-- documenting Thanksgiving, Christmas, redecorating, and more. I'm still working through rarely finishing what I begin; a habit that's plagued me since second grade. Working on that.

So, a quick update. The biggest news? Dylan and I have been house hunting for a few months. It's been quite the journey figuring out what we need and want right now. We thought this was our dream house, made an offer in October, but it wasn't accepted. And it's a blessing. After exploring huge farmhouses near Marysville, 2 bedroom cape cods in Clintonville, and cheap fix-me-ups in shadier parts, we fell in love with a house on Garden Road in Beechwold a few weeks ago. Our offer was accepted by the seller, but it's short sale which basically means the bank is taking a loss to avoid foreclosure, so not only does the seller have to accept our offer, but the bank and any other parties who might be entitled to money ALSO have to accept it. It could be months before we know anything. In the mean time we're dreaming about a fenced 0.29 acre yard, two car attached garage, 1.5 bathrooms, and wood-burning fireplace. Also having too much fun playing with Ikea's Kitchen Planner website and daydreaming an Ikea kitchen remodel:



More to come!