If walls could talk ...

Ever since discovering the first Young Reader book about the history of Egypt I've been hooked on history. I'm a history nut geeking out over archeology, old books, books about old stuff, barely legible documents and ancient tomes, recipes and patterns, and more. I'm even a member of a group that recreates the Middle Ages and dabble in calligraphy and illumination, medieval cooking and other assorted medieval crafts.

It wasn't really a long step from that to trying to learn more about the house we're about to make ours in just 19 more days! *keeps fingers crossed*

Fortunately and much to my delight, the main branch of the local library houses a treasure trove of resources for the genealogist and Florida history lover. Up underneath the roof in the Grand Map room is where I can be found when the munchkin participates in one of the awesome kids' programs. For about an hour I get to browse the old city directories for glimpses into our house's past. I have yet to swing by the property appraiser's office to track down the actual past owners but so far I've had too much fun digging around in the old city directories for information on who lived in the Ugly Duckling over the past 95 years.

From what I've gathered so far, our house appears to have been a kind of modest starter home: Few occupants stayed longer than 2 years at a time and most held rather modest Middle-Class jobs. Hubby, of course, is tickled pink that the first ever occupant's name is "Mead". How befitting for a hobby brewer to soon be living in "The Mead House" ... heh.

I've added the Ugly Duckling's genealogy as a separate page to the top navi bar - I'll update it as my research comes along. We're planning on ducking into the library again this afternoon so I might have more to post tomorrow or Friday!
Enjoy!

Update:
Well, so I couldn't wait :o) I added a few more years to our house's genealogy of occupants. I also got the library clerk to show me to the Sanford maps and the prospect of finding a map with our house has me giddy with geeky excitement. Next time I'll bring the camera. Promise!

Hi & Lo

So far, the whole house hunting adventure has been a wild rollercoaster ride. Highs chasing lows, frustration followed by moments of euphoria and excitement replaced by bouts of "wanna-bang-my-head-against-wall" feelings. Here's the latest high and low our house acquisition Gods threw at us:

Hi :o)
Christmas eve we received our own personal house-hunting gift in the mail: the loan approval! Hurray! It looks like we've mastered most if not all of the required paperwork to get our financing ducks in a row.

Infused with renewed enthusiasm and reasonably sure that the in-laws would be able to see the potential hidden in our little dirt Ugly Duckling we drove over to the house for a quick tour the day after Christmas.

Lo:o(
That's when we discovered that the Ugly Duckling had been broken into. Not like there was much to take considering it's empty and has been vacant for more than a year but the thieves made off with the downstairs furnace, both ac compressors and a window unit. They also re-opened the window opening from the small outdoor utility room to the kitchen that had been dry-walled over. You know, I would have been okay if they had taken all window units and left it at that but nooooo ... they had to take the furnace as well. Oh, and the vent cover for the big floor vent inside the house (alright, that was ugly too and slated for replacement but still ...) Grrrr...

We'll drive over later today to make sure the bank's property contractor secured the backdoor of the house as promised and we're going to be armed with our own plywood and screws, just in case. Can't take any chances. This time they just 'took' things, next time they might 'leave' something behind (a squatter or two, human body fluids or God knows what other crafty thing they could come up with).

Now, this is not the Wild West. AC compressors are stolen all over town these days (although I believe it's even more petty than stealing a baby's lollipop - seriously, stealing somebody's ac in Florida??) and fortunately we'd factored in a new hvac system into our reno budget (but would have loved to use that money for something else instead ...). Oh well, here's hoping that this "Lo" will become a "Hi" somehow :o)

Update:
Thanks to the mad communication skillz of our awesome real estate agent the bank is offering us the choice between a replacement furnace-compressor system and a reduction in purchase price. We'll be going for the reduction in purchase price since that gives us the chance to pick the system we want. Phew!

Merry Christmas!

Whiling away the last minutes before the imminent arrival of the family I can't help but muse a bit about the past year.

It's been one heck of an adventure, an eye opening experience and a chance to learn more about myself as well as more about hubby and myself as a couple and as parents. We have gathered more experience, learned many new things, have grown and grown up just a little more. Well, enough to consider settling down with a house that is :o)

We've been through frustration, disappointment and heartbreak, hope, excitement and giddiness on our search for a house that can become our home. If God wills it, we are going to be closing on our Ugly Duckling in just 3 more short weeks. The wait's been so long and yet I wonder where the year went, how summer and then fall and winter just raced us by. The finishing line is near and we're bursting at the seams with energy and love for our Ugly Duckling.

For now though, we get to take a break, get to spend time with our loved ones, get to slow down and kick up our feet as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our savior. I probably won't post anything for a week or so but I'll certainly be back in time for New Years! Until then ...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

SOS - Save our Stockings!

This year - since we'll be staying home rather than traveling all over the globe to visit our far-flung family - we got to pull out the entire Christmas Decor Stash from the storage corner on the back porch. We got to rifle through all the ornaments and ribbons to see which ones to use for our ginormous tree and christmasify our whole house, inside and out with the added whimsy of school and cub scout craft projects. The only casualties we suffered: our stockings. I guess squirrels need to get the stuffing for their nests from -somewhere- and they can hardly shop at one of those big boxy convenience stores, right?

Oh well ... while I didn't find enough time to whip up handmade presents this year (I know, shame on me *hangs head*) I MADE some time yesterday for this little last-minute project:

Make your $1 Stockings look like a Million bucks

(... well, alright, maybe $10)

I grabbed these classic stockings from one of those Dollar Stores. I like the color scheme (despite my classy monochromatic Christmas tree upbringings, I'm a big fan of the whole red and green and homemade variety) and the price can't be beat. It just looks a tad unfinished. It needs a cuff! ... so go and check your fabric stash. I wanted to keep it simple and went with some left over canvas I had kicking around ...

Cut a piece of fabric long enough to wrap around your stocking plus an inch extra seam allowance and as wide as you prefer your cuff. Snip off the little hanger on the inside of your stocking and set it aside for later.

Turn the stocking inside out, pin your cuff into place (or not, pinning is optional. I usually skip this part on most projects) and sew into place. I used a simple running stitch because it's not like it will get worn. Hem the cuff by simply folding it over twice to enclose the raw edge.

Turn your stocking right side out and fold the cuff down. Take the little hanger that you snipped off earlier and pin it to the back of the stocking on the inside, then catch it in a running stitch along the entire upper edge of the stocking.

This gives the upper edge of your stocking a much crisper look and keeps the cuff from rolling up too.

I left hubby's stocking like that but needed a girly extra for mine so we can keep them apart. I chopped off a band of drop cloth and wrangled it into a flower shape securing the folds with hot glue throughout the process. A dap of hotglue to the back of the flower to stick it to the stocking and voila! All done!

Now we're set for Santa! God knows where he puts stuff when there're no stockings *shudders*

Arborlicious

You know why I want a picket fence?

That's why :o)

[picture found at Decorfortheoutdoors.com

[picture found at YHhomeimprovement.com]

[picture found at woodworkersworkshop.com]

'nuff said :o)

And the lamb fell in love with the lion ...

... and got herself a clawfoot tub for long luxurious "up-to-your-neck-in-bubbles" soaks.
Heh ...

One of the many things I adore in our historic rental apartment that we've been living in for the past 6 years is the clawfoot tub in the only bathroom. It's charming, it's quirky and it's simply perfect for a nice bath on a cold winter afternoon. It also has a shower rig and a wrap-around shower curtain for quick showers and is as versatile as it gets. I'm loving it! I also love the original penny tile with its baby-blue border design despite its cracks and discolored grout. I don't love the original farmhouse sink with the two faucets (one for hot and the other for cold water) and it'd be awesome if we had at least another half bath but for the past couple of years it's worked as well as it could. Did I mention that I love the clawfoot tub?

The Ugly Duckling has currently 2 full baths and an upstairs kitchen. None of them, however, have a clawfoot tub ... *sigh* Our grand plans have us chopping the downstairs full bath into a half bath to create space for a laundry area in the mudroom and turning the upstairs kitchen into a fancy master bath. WITH a clawfoot tub! Not like that would surprise you after my confessions above, n'est-ce pas?

So while we continue the waiting game for the closing date and the begin of our renovations I get to design budget-busting looks on polyvore and browse idea books on Houzz for inspiration. Wanna see?

traditional bathroom design by san francisco architect Doma Architects, Inc.

[Alright, so that's not really a clawfoot tub. It's a free-standing tub but it's gorgeous and I love the airy traditional yet fresh look of this bathroom]

traditional bathroom design by architect Coburn Architecture and Interiors

[There you have it, a real clawfoot tub! Fantastic!]

contemporary bathroom design by boston architect LDa Architecture & Interiors

[Here you get a sneaky peek at a clawfoot tub; again, bright and airy and crisp]

traditional bathroom design by portland interior designer Kirstin Havnaer, Hearthstone Interior Design. LLC

[Look, another free-standing tub. And wainscoting. And the fresh airy brightness like in the other pictures. Notice a trend?]

I love how clawfoot tubs don't care if it's a contemporary sleek bathroom with concrete countertops or a frilly frou-frou oldfashioned salle de bain - they fit right in into any kind of setting. Husband and I mix up to a "farmhouse meets NY City loft" kind of style and I'm telling you, the tub dots off our Ts and crosses our Is.

After poking around on the net and playing with polyvore's editor here's what I came up with for a first draft. Mind you, it hasn't been run past the husband for his approval but I think it balances the feminine and the masculine with the contemporary and the historical quite nicely. What do you think?

Master bath by Littleoldhouse

We're digging penny tile and think that using a dark charcoal, almost black penny tile (maybe with a border pattern of white penny tile along the perimeter of the room) will nicely ground all the bright white and light grey we have planned for the walls and ceiling and fixtures. We're torn on either using wallpaper or a monochromatic stencil (creating the pattern through using a glaze rather than a different color) to add a bit of visual interest so stay tuned for further development of this thought. We'd like a vanity from an old dresser with crisp ceramic vessel sinks. And of course a clawfoot tub. Maybe a corner shower. Maybe. We need to take the measurements over at the house and draw it out on the floor. Maybe even use blue tape to lay it out on the floor? Hmm ...

Oh, yes, color! We love the clean, almost austere look of this mood board and since this room gets a LOT of sunlight we'll actually be able to have a live plant or two in this room as well for a pop of color. We're still debating the matter of curtains: airy white Roman shades come to mind.

So, what do you think?

Unveiling upstairs

Here I am, playing catch-up on Thursday evening. I'm tired and there's a little naggy headache sitting right behind my eyes telling me that yes, indeed, the weather changed, thank you very much. The temperatures are now much more to my liking: balmy 70 degrees during the day work just fine for me :o)

Anyways, today was the day of updates: I have the land surveyor's report in my hot little hands and also received a copy of the appraiser who checked out our little old house to see if, from the bank's point of view, it would be worth investing money into. We are golden: purchase price plus renovation costs puts us almost a whooping 30% below the appraised value. Hurray!

Of course, it wouldn't be a house hunting adventure if you didn't hit a SNAFU somewhere along the line. Ours involves a lien, not on the property, but tied to the pre-foreclosure owner, and funny, funny, our city's policies regarding property liens are a bit on the wonky side. I'm sure it'll all work out *keeps fingers crossed* Wish us luck! (Our real estate agent is confident it'll be fine)

Back to the matter at hand: the upstairs floor plan! After you got a first peek at the downstairs, I proudly present to you: the upstairs:


Here it's not so much about the demoing and changing wall configurations but cleaning up, freshening up and converting the upstairs kitchen into the new Master Bathroom. Half the plumbing is already up there which is very convenient. The upstairs bathroom is actually in pretty nice shape except for a bad caulking job around the apartment-style (*sigh*) bath tub and quite serviceable. Hubby and I have been pondering ripping out the tub and turning it into a big honking walk-in shower at some point but that's in the far future. For now we have enough work cut out for us.

For comparison with Monday's Mega List, here's our upstairs plan, step by step:

• salvage hardwood flooring underneath linoleum on landing and upstairs hallway or lay new floors
• refinish stairs
• get proper door for closet to heat pump
• re-caulk tub in upstairs bathroom
• refinish wood floors upstairs
• turn upstairs kitchen into Master bath and walk-in closet by building a wall and creating two rooms out of the existing upstairs kitchen
• update plumbing for future Master bath
• lay tile in Master bath
• install bathroom fixtures
• turn secondary hallway into 2 hall closet (this will make sense once I show you the floor plans)
• paint downstairs, walls and ceilings and trim
• update light fixtures

Is it January yet?

The down and dirty: downstairs floorplan

We had a fantastic holiday weekend, complete with Christmas songs, presents and good company. How was your weekend? I hope you had a great time as well!

Sound the trumpets, hear the heralds cry! Just as promised I present you a first peek at the downstairs floorplan of our Ugly Duckling courtesy of the great software at floorplanner.com

If you look at our list our biggest changes to the downstairs floorplan will happen in the upper right hand corner, namely the mudroom/laundry/bathroom area. The bathtub will go bye-bye and its space be added to the mudroom/laundry area while the full bath is being decimated to a half bath aka powder room (we're not sure if we're going to keep both doors. We figure we'll start with two doors and get rid of one if we feel like it after living with it for a while).
The other big change is opening up the walls to both staircase and livingroom. There're a lot of arches going on: from hallway to livingroom and hallway to smaller hallway, from livingroom to diningroom and from diningroom to kitchen. (It's not like you can close doors if you have a cat. She'd surely take that as an affront.)

For an old house it has a decent amount of closet space downstairs (upstairs not so much). Some time in the future the large window in the kitchen will make the transformation to a French Door opening up to a deck in the backyard. First things first, though. First I need a -kitchen- :o)

Here're the things that need to be done before we get to move in furniture downstairs

• update/repair plumbing in entire house
• update/repair electricity in entire house
• update/replace hvac system
• repair damaged trim/molding where necessary in entire house
• make roof repairs as needed
• scrub entire house to within an inch of its life
• turn downstairs full bath into half bath
• take space from downstairs bath and add to mudroom for laundry space
• tile downstairs half bath
• tile mudroom/laundry room
• demo kitchen
• salvage hardwood floors underneath linoleum or lay tile
• install kitchen cabinets
• install appliances
• open wall to staircase (remember, the Ugly Duckling is currently chopped up into a downstairs and an upstairs apartment) to create a single-family home
• open wall between entry hall and living room
• refinish all downstairs wood floors
• paint downstairs: fireplace, walls and ceilings and trim
• update light fixtures

Trust me when I tell you I'm already wielding drywall saw and paint roller in my head at night ...

We have a winner!

Husband and I have been busy playing with Polyvore creating mood boards in order to help us visualize possible designs and color schemes for our rooms.
For the most past we're incorporating our old furniture pieces and are using window treatments and wall colors as new ingredients to freshen up the look (after all, we have no reason to expect for unlimited funds to magically appear that will afford us all new furniture - even though that would be nice). Frankly, the biggest selling point for home ownership is the freedom to paint everything your way. My favorite room in our rental is the den and it is painted a lovely shade of "swine". Flesh-colored walls, seriously? I'm starting to believe it is probably the best-selling Ooops-paint on the market. I can't wait to get my hands on buckets of paint and a roller :o)

So, anyways, before I take care of a few errands and household chores and then run off to volunteer at our son's school I thought I'd post the more or less finalized design for our hallway that hubby and I have come up with.

Hallway - yellow/grey by Littleoldhouse on Polyvore.com

Since the entry hall stretches over two stories we decided to go for a fresh neutral color and chose a light grey against the crisp white of some fun batten and board. We both really love the bright happy yellow of the classic patterned fabric for our window treatments and the warmth of the aged brown of both hardwood floors and the big travel trunk. It will find a new place of honor in our entry hall and get to house our scarves, hats, umbrellas and gloves in its many drawers rather than being relegated to serving as the base for our Guinea pig cage (yes, sad but true. Practicality made me do it!).

Since we're both big NYC fans we really dig the artwork but might trade it for a similar shot from Jacksonville. Jacksonville has a great number of bridges that lend itself well for architectural shots and we've seen some really really cool artsy shots taken at the harbor with cranes and other industrial equipment. Another option is go the historic route and choose some vintage postcard designs or city maps instead.

Here's the To-Do List for the hallway:

• re-open wall to stair case
• re-create archway to living room
• repair electric (ie repair sockets and switches where necessary)
• repair drywall (from opening walls)
  
• repair and refinish hardwood floors
• repair and paint trim and moldings
• paint walls
• install batten and board
• update light fixture
• move in furniture
• decorate

And while we're at it we might as well

• remove ugly metal awning outside of hallway window
• replace crappy storm door
• replace exterior door lock
• paint exterior door

Pretty straightforward, right? We can do that in a weekend ;o) Right? (Probably not. It's most likely going to take 2 weekends but we can hope, yes?)
I'll be dabbling with Floorplanner.com over the weekend and maybe I can show you Before and After plans on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Flags & Fences

This morning - like every morning, I must admit - I swung by our Ugly Duckling to wave "hello" and blow kisses after dropping off the munchkin at the school bus stop. Our little old house was flanked by a gaggle? flock? murder? pride of little orange flags fluttering merrily in the early morning breeze - the land surveyors had been over to measure the property and by tomorrow we should have the report in hand.

Huzzah for yet another step accomplished!

It was also good to see that the odd angle that the fence makes in the back is NOT the actual property line and that our backyard is indeed rectangular. Heh. It needs a prettier fence though; the chain link is a disgrace, not to mention entirely inappropriate for the historic neighborhood, even though it's grandfathered in and not visible from the street.

Hubby and I have been pondering which kind of fence to put up, especially around the front yard, and we keep going back and forth between black Aluminum fencing or a white picket fence. Let's take a look at some inspiration pictures, shall we?

Here we have aluminum fencing: while picket fencing would be more historically accurate our Historic Preservation Committee does allow this kind of fence which appears to be rather popular. It looks good with most styles of historic houses in Springfield and is definitely more of a security feature than a picket fence.

[Black Aluminum fence with arched gate by perryfencing.com]

[Aluminum Fence style 101 by Fencedirect.com]

Now on to the picket fences! White picket fences are like the heroine in a bodice ripper: pretty, romantic and rather high maintenance. Just ask Tom Sawyer and his friends about keeping up with the paint. Picket fences would be the most accurate choice for our neighborhood from a Restoration point of view and both houses to the left of our Ugly Duckling already sport bright white picket fences in their front yard. I personally have discovered that I favor them slightly more than the Aluminum fences because they appeal to my love for all things country.

[scalloped picket fence by illusionsfence.com]


Victorian picket fence by rippelsfencing.com.au]

It was far easier to find nice photos of picket fencing than of black Aluminum fencing but in all fairness I decided to show off two of each. I'm slightly biased toward picket fencing channeling both my history nut self and the country gal inside of my, hubby is still on the fence (heh ...).

Thoughts? Warnings?

It's the spirit of the season

Since I'm obviously in the mood for making lists I thought I'd add our "Master List of Projects" as well as a time line of events for easy reference to the blog. See? Up there underneath the header of the blog? It says "House Hunting Timeline" and "Ugly Duckling to Pretty Swan" and links to two static pages that I can update quickly without having to wreck my brain for content for an entire blog post.

Just for kicks and giggles :o)

She's making a list and checking it twice ...

The Ugly Ducking was built in 1919 and hasn't seen much love in the past 2 years (and more...).

Abandoned by her last owner in spring 2009, this little old lady has been vacant for more than a year and sat neglected until we came along with enough vision to see the potential in her old but sturdy bones and the charm in her grey facade (we also had a little help from the Ugly Duckling's sister houses to the left who look sharp in apple-green and mandarin-orange).

There is -lots- that needs to be done, from fixing deferred maintenance issues over bringing things to code to giving both the exterior and the interior a facelift, and the Ugly Duckling is not yet move-in ready.For one, she doesn't have a kitchen :o) Not a real one, you know, where the only thing missing are the appliances. Nuh-uh, we need an entire kitchen, top to bottom, because what's in there now needs to go. Far, far away! Where nobody will be able to find it. Ever again. (Yes, it's that bad. It's "I don't take pictures for the parents" bad ... heh)

And you know what? We're so stinkin' excited to start our first foray into home ownership with mega demolition you wouldn't believe it. Yeah baby! That's the good stuff ... ahem, well, maybe we romanticize this renovation idea a bit and we'll see how we feel about it once we're knee-deep in construction but for now it has us all giddy with excitement.

So, here's a...ahem, basic list of things we want to do/will do once we've got the keys:

• update/repair plumbing in entire house


• update/repair electricity in entire house


• update/replace hvac system


• repair damaged trim/molding where necessary in entire house


• make roof repairs as needed


• scrub entire house to within an inch of its life


• turn downstairs full bath into half bath


• take space from downstairs bath and add to mudroom for laundry space


• tile downstairs half bath


• tile mudroom/laundry room


• demo kitchen


• salvage hardwood floors underneath linoleum or lay tile


• install kitchen cabinets


• install appliances


• open wall to staircase (remember, the Ugly Duckling is currently chopped up into a downstairs and an upstairs apartment) to create a single-family home


• open wall between entry hall and living room


• refinish all downstairs wood floors


• paint fireplace brick


• paint downstairs, walls and ceilings and trim


• update light fixtures

Now we're moving on to the upstairs

• refinish stairs


• salvage hardwood flooring underneath linoleum on landing and upstairs hallway or lay new floors


• get proper door for closet to heat pump


• re-caulk tub in upstairs bathroom


• refinish wood floors upstairs


• turn upstairs kitchen into Master bath and walk-in closet by building a wall and creating two rooms out of the existing upstairs kitchen


• update plumbing for future Master bath


• lay tile in Master bath


• install bathroom fixtures


• turn secondary hallway into 2 hall closet (this will make sense once I show you the floor plans)


• paint downstairs, walls and ceilings and trim


• update light fixtures

Outside we'd love to

• install a fence for the front yard


• replace the chain link fence in the back yard with something prettier


• update the landscaping


• paint the window frames white


• paint the gable a pretty creamy-yellow color


• install a deck or patio with a pergola
  

And some time down the line we'd love to

• add batten and board or wainscoting to some rooms (like the dining room, for example)


• rip out the linen closet in the upstairs bath


• move the door of the upstairs bath one wall over (those two steps will make bathroom much bigger)


• replace tub with a big walk-in shower with a glass enclosure


• install all new windows


• paint the entire house a new fresh color


• get rid of the old tank on the right side of the house
  

Are we crazy? Maybe a bit. We realize it's a long to-do list (not to mention these are just the projects I can come up with of the top of my head...heh ) and without the beauty of a streamlined 203k Rehab loan this wouldn't be possible at all but we love the old historic houses in our neighborhood and - knowing how beautiful they are when they are revived and restored - we know it's worth it. No, the Ugly Duckling doesn't have a smidgen of Victorian Grandeur or Greek revival classiness but it's a home with a history in the best neighborhood in the world :o) What's a little construction dust compared to that?

Whaddayawant

You know how they always ask "What are you looking for?" at the beginning of those house hunting shows? That usually starts this looong list of all the things you could possibly cram into a house, from 4 bedrooms over 3 baths to a porch, a patio and a 1-acre yard, a fireplace, hardwood floors, character, charm and, and, and. And while you can cram these things into a house, chances are it can't be crammed into your budget. Not even close. Nuh-uh. Besides, it's a wishlist like the kind you write up for Christmas when you are seven. The kind where you leaf through those glossy toy catalogs and write down every.little.thing. because your parents told you that simply checking off things with a marker does not constitute a wish list. Heh.

Your first draft of the "things we want in our house" list makes your real estate agent twitch and squirm but she takes you out to look at houses anyhow. She knows that after a while of looking at houses and getting a better idea of what's on the market and what fits into your budget you will amend your wish list ... or stop looking.

Hubby and I didn't really start this adventure resolved to buy a house. If you go back to this entry here you know that we began with a crazy idea of having my parents invest in real estate, not us. We were (and really are still) perfectly happy with living in our historical rental. Before the real estate market crashed we were sorely priced out of our own neighborhood. Houses, even fixer-uppers, went for crazy amounts of money that were way out of our price range. Now, things look different, much to our benefit. We made our house hunting adventure difficult by declaring that we

1. wanted to stay in our neighborhood (119 city blocks in an area of approximately 500 acres)
2. wanted a 2-story house (bye-bye darling bungalows, hubby insists on upstairs bedrooms)
3. needed either an extra bedroom or an area with enough wall space for our library (~1900 books and counting)
4. wanted at least 2 bathrooms
5. wanted 4 bedrooms
6. wanted a working fireplace
7. wanted some cool historical features such as original fireplace mantels, Victorian fretwork, etc.
   
8. wanted a big yard
   
9. wanted 1-2 porches, one preferably upstairs
10. wanted at least 2000 sqft
    
11. wanted to spend the same or less per month on our mortgage than what we are currently paying in rent
    

For the past 6 years we have been living in a 1500sqft 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom upstairs apartment with a livingroom/diningroom combo, with a large dead end of our hallway as library and a butler's pantry as main storage, and a lovely 250 sqft front porch. After looking at a dozen houses or so, we began to modify our list in that we

1. really wanted to stay in our neighborhood
2. wanted a livable fixer-upper
   
3. needed wall space for our library
   
4. wanted at least 1.5 bathrooms
5. wanted 3 bedrooms (one of which would be a dedicated guest bedroom)
   
6. wanted a backyard
   
7. wanted a porch
   
8. wanted to spend the same or less per month on our mortgage than what we are currently paying in rent
9. didn't want to deal with short sales (we aren't that patient)
10. didn't want to fix structural issues
    

Point 1 and 8 were the ones putting us in a pickle. Limiting one's search to 119 city blocks -and- a very strict low budget will send you straight to house hunting hell. Luckily, we were hoping for a livable fixer-upper rather than a turn-key house so that helped. The fact that most Springfield houses are spacious and have wood floors and fireplaces did too.

So, how does the Ugly Duckling compare to our List? Let's Take a look

1. wanted to stay in our neighborhood [Score!]
   
2. wanted a livable fixer-upper [Not quite - it'll take a few weeks to bring electric, plumbing and kitchen up to code and up to speed]
   
3. wanted a 2-story house [Score!]
4. needed wall space for our library [Score! We get a whole room]
5. wanted 3 bedrooms (one of which would be a dedicated guest bedroom) [Score! The Ugly Duckling has 3 upstairs and 1 downstairs]
6. wanted a backyard [Score! even though it's not the biggest]
7. wanted a porch [Score!]
8. wanted to spend the same or less per month on our mortgage than what we are currently paying in rent [Score!]
9. didn't want to deal with shortsales [Score! It's bank-owned]
10. didn't want to fix structural issues [Score! Score! Score!]

From an investment point of view, we're playing it probably as safe as you possibly can in an urban neighborhood (the greatest in the world, by the way) although I have to admit in all our soul searching and house hunting this has never been anything we discussed in great detail. We are buying a home for our family. To us, the Ugly Duckling is home first and investment second. Granted, some of the changes we have planned for it will increase its resale value but that is not the reason why we're making them. Right now it meets our needs and wants and if that should change one day we'll have to reconsider and perhaps sell and move on.

Until then, all we want to do is love on this little old house and our neighborhood and be happy :o)

A Christmas Quicky

I admit it: Germans do things differently!
Our Christmas here has become a darling mish-mash of German and American traditions all wrapped into my favorite season of the year (despite the weather):

• We enjoy an Advent wreath with candles and we look forward to each Sunday leading up to Christmas when we get to light first one, then two, then three and finally all candles.

• Finnley is excited that he gets his own home-made Advent calendar every year finding treats every one of those 24 days until Christmas in a small bag every morning.

• On the 5th of December we polish our shoes and place them on the porch so St Nikolaus can come and fill them with treat and small presents if we've been good and with coals in case we have been naughty.

• We serve a hearty Chicken soup for lunch on the 24th (my family's tradition) and pizza for dinner on the same day (hubby's family tradition)

• We give a first round of presents on the evening of the 24th (my family's tradition) and find Santa's bounty underneath the tree in the morning of the 25th (hubby's family tradition)

And since we're staying home this year traveling neither to PA (his family) nor to Germany (my family) we get to bake and craft a lot!

Here at the Gibbons' homestead, Christmas Crafts always start with the Advent wreath. I have long given up keeping a fresh pine wreath alive in this mild weather and use a faux wreath but it looks alright. New white candles, sprays of Ilex and red berries, candy canes for whimsy and green and white ribbon are my staples - nothing beats the classics! I tentatively added a few pine cones but they were too dark, too brown and 'vanished' from sight amidst the dark greenery. Craft paint to the rescue!



A light drizzling of white acrylic paint to simulate snow and voila - much prettier and more visible pine cones! Easy-peasy.



And here they are, in their full glory, as part of our pretty Advent wreath!