House Shopping

Reid, Elizabeth, and I toured 6 homes with our realtor on Sunday.

The first one was an older home that I had mentally moved my stuff into. Seriously. I knew exactly where I was going to put the Christmas tree...and the TV in the living room. In the pictures with the listing, it was stunning. I had concerns, mentally moving in of course, about how my dining room furniture was going to fit in the octagonal-shaped (yes, octagonal) dining room...and the kitchen looked small. But I was loving the look of the place online. Then we went there on Sunday. The living room, dining room, kitchen, terrace, and back yard did not disappoint. Beautiful. Then we went up stairs. WOW those were some tiny rooms. I was then mentally moving my Christmas tree into our faculty house on West Liberty's campus. Closet space wasn't good, but I don't expect it to be good in an old home. (And I love old homes!) I didn't, however, expect that two of the bedrooms (house has 4 bedrooms) would be so small that you could only fit a twin-sized bed and a small dresser in them. The master bedroom in that house is smaller than what we have in Fairmont. So, we moved on...

Then we were "treated" to a trip down Mike Brady's lane. A house built and last decorated in 1977 and one built in 1910 and last decorated in whatever year wood panelling would have been in fashion. Lots of freshly vacuumed shag carpet to go around both places.

Then we saw our house!

Built in 1915, it oozes charm. Warm and inviting. Stained glass windows in the entry, LR, DR, landing to 2nd floor, and family room. BIG closets (walk-in in the master BR, big one in Elizabeth's room, 3 regular-sized ones in the 3rd floor bedroom). Lots of extra storage in the garage and potential for lots of storage in the basement. There are 5 fireplaces in the house, but at the moment I can only recall where 3 of them are (LR, DR, master BR). The kitchen is sizable, but will need some work (although workable in the interim.) The downside is that there is only one bath, but it is a really, really nice one. There is a clothes chute (3rd floor, 2nd floor, main floor in the kitchen) all helping with the nasty chore of laundry (that neither Reid or I are fans of that task.) The family room is great - not too big, not too small - and just off of the kitchen. It will be the perfect place for Elizabeth to play while I'm in the kitchen. There are built-ins...two small seating areas on either side of the fireplace in the LR (pictured at left)...and two sets of bookcases/displays on either side of the entryway into the DR (pictured below right). There is a wonderful work-bench area for Reid so he can continue his tinkering with golf clubs. (Not that he doesn't already have a great work-bench for that task - he and Papa built one a few years ago.) But, ooh la la there is a rockin' scrapbook area for me!!! (Nice L-shaped built in area in the basement opposite of Reid's work-bench for me to catch up on my scrapbooking!) Coincidentally, it was the least expensive of the 6 homes we toured.

Then the rest of the house shopping was a bit of a blur as we couldn't stop thinking about the possibilities of that house.

We toured two more homes. One of which was very charming on the outside, but rather vanilla on the inside. (When it wasn't vanilla it was bordering on tragic.) The last home was huge, but I would need to either leave bread crumbs or hope my GPS unit could help me find my way around it. Not that I would need to GPS to help me find my way because of the size of the home, but rather the layout. It was like the architect was either mad or drunk...or both.

We put in an offer on Monday. The offer was accepted on Tuesday.

Wow! That was so much faster than what I anticipated it would be to house shop, put in a bid, and have the bid accepted. But what the hell do I know, I've never bought a house before...until now!

They Love You!

Cute E story...as most are...

E has recently been more obsessed with pictures than usual. She'll point to everyone she knows in a picture and say their name. If the picture is out of her reach she'll point and say something like, "That's Daddy on picture. That's Mommy on picture."

Last week as we were coming down the stairs in our house (if you haven't seen the house, you may need to note that one side of the stairway walls is lined with pictures, too many to count jammed on the wall.) A very, very small black & white picture of Grandma Ellen & Grandpa caught her eye (smaller than a wallet-sized pic...more like the small crappy size pictures that you gave out to your lesser friends in school - but those of course who still needed an annual picture of you...)

Elizabeth asked me who was "on" the picture. I told her that it was my Grandma and Grandpa. She replied, "Awwww. They love you."

Funny Stuff...

First of all, if you didn't see the Petraeus Hearings skit on SNL featuring WV "Senator" Bob Byrd, you're missing out. Get it here: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v69956042ckrJHPs

Now, some of Elizabeth's recent funnies:

• Yesterday on the drive to Nana's & Papa's, there were a few birds on the road. One bird waited until my car was very close before it flew away. My little back-seat drive said, "Sheeeew. That was a close call!"
• E is obsessed with Boo-Boos. She wants a bandaid on a freckle. She'll kiss anything that resembles a boo-boo. It's really awfully sweet. Last week, she wanted to kiss the boo-boos on Papa's hand. After several kisses, she gave up and told Nana, "Papa's all boo-boos."
• Last weekend, Reid, Elizabeth, and I went to Grandma & Papi's for Mother's Day. Reid was helping Elizabeth get ready for church when she started jumping around (literally) exclaiming, "I love church! I love church!"
• During Mass she was really quite good. She was on her belly on the kneeler "swimming" (albeit quietly.) When she was sitting on the kneeler, she discovered that she could see her own reflection in the back of the pew. Aunt Anne is so proud.

MEDICAL ALERT: Gem (WV) Chicken Bird Flu Virus UPDATE

This just in:

Anne reports - "Add Anne, Sean, Granddad Wine, Grandma Wine, Aunt Jane, Cousin Clint, and Aunt Cheryl to the "Typhoid Elizabeth Virus" list. She got sick BEFORE she saw the chickens so you can't blame it on them. I think everyone is on the mend now!!!!"

You say tomato (typhoid Elizabeth virus), I say tamato (Gem Chicken Bird Flu Virus)...