In one week's time

Our nice house, seen here last week in lovely, fine form has turned into this...

Enough blogging! Back to packing...

Tuckpointing Terrors featuring Steve

Four photos of our tuckpointers for the Four days that they were doing the can can on our roof.

One of the things from the buyers home inspection was some tuckpointing work on the stack. 
We assumed this would be an easy fix since we could just hire someone to do it.
Derek made some calls and got this guy, Steve, out within an hour of calling.  And Steve quoted a reasonable price.  Derek told Steve that he had some nice reviews on-line.  Steve liked hearing that.  Derek agreed to have Steve complete the tuckpointing work on our stack/chimney.  Derek told Steve that he would write him a great review for great work!

Day One: Steve worked until dark to get a good start so he could finish up early the following day. As he left he said that he would be back at 7 am the following morning.  Derek said, "great!  g'night Steve!"

Day Two: Steve showed up sometime in the middle of the day.  He worked with his buddy on more tuckpointing stuff....Steve let a stray brick fall over the side of the roof.....and into our neighbors window. 
And then Steve lifted out the flu of the chimney and it fell apart.  cha-ching. cha-ching.  Steve says he has to come back the following day to finish up a few things.  Derek talks with Steve about timing and asks Steve to call if he is going to be late again.

Day Three:  Steve showed up around two after I called Derek asking where in the #$&* dickens Steve was.  Steve admitted to Derek that one of his buddies "fell off the wagon" the night before. Derek has another talk with Steve.

Day Four: Derek (and family's) nerves are shot.  Steve shows up several hours after telling Derek that he will be by in "five minutes."  After several hours, Steve states that he wraps up.  Derek tries to wrap up with Steve.  However, Steve will have to fix the neighbor's broken window the following week. 

Please let this Steve drama be done soon!

Come on in!

Welcome to 5431 Nottingham.  Our first house home!  Where Derek and I started.  Where we Derek learned to be incredibly handy.  Where we painted every wall a bright and bold color upon moving in because....we could!  It was ours!

We came home from our wedding to this house.
Lita joined our family here.
We brought Cole home to this house.

Many memories.

Lots of work.

Tons of love.

We have to bid her adieu.  We have outgrown her.  We must move on...Cole is growing and we need to think about his best interest; school, community, safety.  And, we just need more space.

We hope that she will hold lots of memories and love for the next family who resides in her.

While we are still here, take a look.  We've worked really hard and touched every nook and cranny to make it work for us.  Here, just see....

We have to give most credit to Ed for the front.  He did the landscaping.  We love it.  Derek put a new porch on the spring  before Cole arrived.  The old porch was a concrete slab combined with some brick.  It just didn't make sense.  Derek and Ed spent Memorial weekend of 2007 with a jackhammer.  After getting permits, seeking consult from neighbors and friends, and making plans - Derek set to work.  I think the finished product is perfect for this house.


Here's Cole's room.

This room served as an office before Cole came along.  It was deep pumpkin orange.  Served us well.  However, didn't seem to make any photos!
Then it evolved into a nursery where Cole lay sometimes and stored his toys slept.

 On Cole's second birthday, we transformed his room to hold his big boy bed and growing collection of toys!

He's proud to show it off.


Here's our bedroom.  It was not equipped with a closet when we purchased the house.  Ed built one in for us as our wedding gift, all in a few days that we traveled to Florida for final wedding planning.

Yeah, we made the bed like this all the time....has nothing to do with showing the house.



This is the hallway between the kitchen and bedroom.  It is where I highlighted our family history in black & white snapshots.  (and I did NOT get this idea from watching Tori (Spelling) & Dean's reality TV show)  :)
This is where the closet for the "master" bedroom was originally.  It took up a lot of hall space and was just strange.  We demo'd it very early on.

The bathroom was a huge labor of love on Derek's behalf.  It was one of the last big projects in the house.  And it was by far the biggest.  It was originally 'Pepto Pink' and had walls built out in odd places.  While I went on a college visit with Jamie, Sheri, and Maxine (and the little baby bump that was Cole in the making) Derek and Ed demo'd and rebuilt this....

They have some stories to tell about that.  I'll leave those alone!  ;)
While Derek finished up plumbing over the course of a few weeks (with the help of Spencer!) we showered in the basement...in the middle of the basement.
The tub was from under the Stahlhuth's porch.  We had it refinished and purchased all of the hardware to match.

The living room.  Yes, we live here.  It's comfortable and lovely. 

The kitchen.  Another big project.  We took it from lots of 'country blue' and oak to this.  The ceiling was a drop, so we added the tin look.  Painted the cabinets.  Added the backsplash.  Updated all of the appliances.  Cooked a lot of good food.

Lets go downstairs....

...or to the man-cave, whatever you prefer to call it.

Here's the office area.

...there is storage around the corner too.  Who wants to show all the uglies though!?!  Let me just tell you, Derek did an amazing job of taking a small space and making it work for organizing all of our stuff....and trying to keep it organized despite me!

The neon and light collection.

A tour of the bar area.

The basement was really odd when we moved in.  It had cardboard walls (yes, cardboard) in each corner, making little awkward rooms.  There was some kind of cheapy drywall covering the ceiling, but the pipes and were below the drywall (?).  We gutted it.  Derek and I did the epoxy floor.  Derek built the bar.  We sprayed the ceiling black...and did not tape anything off....so then we cleaned a lot of black paint.  I sewed curtains for the block windows.  Derek collected lights, tin signs, and memorabilia.  Sissy and Gerald gave us lots of great UGA gear, including a flag that flew with them on the car during a wonderful winning season!

We hosted parties down here.  They were fun...lots of fun!

So that wraps up the inside tour.  Want to go out to the back yard?  Cole does (ALWAYS!)!

Not pictured is the garden area.  We did a lot of gardening considering the garden was approximately 3 feet X 6 feet.  We had lot's of tomatoes, peppers, zuchinni, cucumber, and squash each year!  Not bad for city gardeners, huh?!


So, that wraps it up.  We have less than three weeks left as the owner of this house.  We are in the process of packing things up.  On my part, it's a bittersweet process.  I am so sad when I look around, see our life here, and think about leaving.  On the other hand, when we take our things, we will take our memories, our pride in this home, and these photos.  We will have a new place to make new beginnings (and new babies hopefully! ;)).  We are taking our family and our love.  This place will always be where we began though.

...off to pack.

Oh, and - don't worry, amongst all of the touring and reminiscing - we are still having some fun at 5431 Nottingham!

Hard Work & Good Fortune

Derek's fortune, just minutes after we got the call that there was an offer on our house: 

"Your hard work is about to pay off."

Wow.

and wow!  isn't he good-lookin?!?

Wiggle, Wiggle to Twinkle, Twinkle

We love spending time outside (read: Cole loves to be outside and begs non-stop to be there!). He is quite the ham when he gets to get out and shake out his wiggles...

Cole wiggling his shadow.

being a stinker - with sidewalk chalk all over his face!

melting mom's heart with his pretty eyelashes.

and being a stinker - and needing a haircut!

He ended our outside session with a soulful rendition of Twinkle Twinkle!  He sings this song pretty much all of the time.  Have to say, I have never heard it sung any sweeter!  

He brings me to tears with his sweet little, "beedah, beedah yiyyu staw..."

Chalk & Bubbles

Front Yard Fun: Chalk & Bubbles!!

Eaduh Bunny hide Eaduh Eggs.

Easter ("Eaduh") 2010 began with dyeing Easter Eggs.

On Easter, we found that the Easter bunny had hidden ten eggs in our backyard!

Luckily, Cole is a super egg hunter and found all 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, and 10!

We joined Na & G, JayJay, Gigi, Josh & Courtney at church.  Then we wen to Na & G's house to enjoy some yummy brunch and Jayjay time!  She was only in for the weekend!

I insisted on some family photos...that turned silly!  (remote camera control is funny!)

The Easter bunny hid LOTS of eggs at Na's house too!

We had a great day with great family!  

(now to deal with all of the chocolate that the Easter Bunny left!