Happy Thanksgiving!

May your home be blessed with an abundance of joy, peace, and love from above.

May the warmth of His gifts overwhelm your heart as you reflect upon the many blessings of the One most high.

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

Feedback

For over a year now, we have been working very hard on transforming the outside of our home, front and back. We started last year by replacing the ugly, rotting siding on the house, and painting it a fresh, new color scheme. After that, we were so spent (both physically and financially) that we decided to wait on landscaping and other improvements.

Well, this last Spring, we were finally ready to take it on. We started by ripping out all of the old shrubs, and replacing them with new, lower maintenance plants. Also, as you can see in a previous post, we replaced our deteriorating concrete patio. Over the course of about fifteen months, we can finally say that it's done, and it looks fantastic! We were pretty darn busy during that time, but the final results are amazing...exactly what we had envisioned.

So, last night we were sitting in our living room, when this older lady comes to our front door. She tells us that she lives in the neighborhood and drives by our home everyday. She then goes on to say that she just wanted to stop by and tell us that she thinks we have the best looking house on the entire street. She loves every single thing that we've done and even wants the name/number of the company that replaced our siding. She just went on and on. It was really very sweet.

It was so nice to hear some feedback from one of our neighbors. We really put a lot of work into everything, and it feels good to be told we did a good job. Now we can finally relax and enjoy our hard work.

More Home History

I finally discovered who built my home...well, I at least found the names of both the contractor and the architect. The other day, I found a very old copy of the original building permit dated 11/25/1957. On it is listed a description of the property, the proposed building design, as well as the contractor's name and address, architect's name (no address), and all the legal jargon associated with the parcel.

When I learned the names, I decided to do some research to find a little more information on each man. I couldn't find anything about the architect, and sadly, the only thing I could find on the contractor was his obituary. He actually just passed away in March of this year. However, I did learn that he was a very successful general contractor, land developer, and real estate broker throughout the 1950s and 60s. In fact, he was President of the Northwest Home Builder's Association in 1959 (just one year after my home was built). Pretty neat, I think.

Also included in his obituary was a photo of him which appears to have been taken around the time my home was built...he would have been about 40 years old:

RIP

Yay!

Well,
Our new patio is finally done! The work started 2 weeks ago with tearing out the old patio, but came to a complete halt due to our 'lovely' June weather. I find it ironic that the day after the old patio was ripped out, the rain started pouring. And when I say pouring, I really mean it. It rained for two weeks straight! I really have the worst luck of any human being ever.

It doesn't end there. On top of all the rain, it was frigid outside...one day this week the high was only 47 degrees...Fahrenheit!!! It was so cold, it actually snowed in parts of the region! What was that song...'sometimes the snow comes down in June...' well, that would be this June.

Anyway, the weather finally started to come back to normal just yesterday, and our concrete contractor jumped at the chance to finish the job. It took them most of the day, but it looks soooo good. No more potholes! I have pictures, but not on my computer yet. I'll post them as soon as I get the chance.

I'm probably going to be MIA for the next couple of weeks as we have a new baby on the way...she's coming on Monday, and we're so excited!!! As a matter of fact, I never posted photos of her awesome retro-style nursery. We based the design on nursery photos from a 60s/70s magazine we found. The 'before' and 'after' pics are amazing...



Look at how much brighter it is! We don't have any artwork up yet, but we're continuing to look.

Update

I have very sad news to report. Yesterday morning, I went out on my front porch and noticed three smashed blue robin eggs. My heart broke when I looked up at the wreath and noticed that it had been pulled down on the left side, causing the nest to spill its entire contents. The mother robin was nowhere in sight. So sad.

I'm pretty sure it was my neighbor's cat. That darn thing is always in my yard, and uses a spot right next to my porch as its litter box. I was angry at first, but after a few minutes, I remembered that it was just a cat. It didn't know any better. Still pretty sad, though. We had really come to enjoy our little "pet" robin. Oh well...it's the "circle of life," I guess.

On a lighter note, we will finally be getting our new patio! The crew is coming out on Saturday morning to rip out the old one, and will be pouring the new one beginning Monday. We have waited so long, I'd forgotten all about it.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll post pictures of everything as it happens...oh boy!

New Neighbor

We have this large yellow forsythia wreath hanging right next to our front door. We have always put a wreath up in this spot, and never really thought anything of it. Anyway, a few weeks ago, we noticed that there was this robin spending ridiculous amounts of time out on our front porch. Every time we would step outside, there she would be, watching every move we made. Well, needless to say, a few days later we noticed that there was a perfect little nest built right on top of the wreath! No eggs yet, but the 'mother' is spending a lot of time in there.

I was finally able to snap a few photos of the robin sitting inside her nest today. Too funny...

Neat!

Ever since our first summer in our house, I had been wanting to get a really good fan for our living room. Even though we have central air conditioning, the living room gets very warm on 90 degree days. I mean, it gets very uncomfortable to even sit in there for more than a couple of minutes. I think it has something to do with the way our house faces the hot afternoon sun. Anyway, I heard a while back that Vornado had released some vintage-style fans - replicas of their originals from 50-60 years ago. So, I headed over to their website and found one that I thought would be perfect. It's their classic green, air circulating fan. You know, the kind your grandparents always had running during the summer (at least mine always did). They are kind of pricey, but well worth it!

Now, our living room will be a little more comfortable (and stylish) this summer!