Lacrosse

My husband loves the game. Not just a little. He has MUCH LOVE for the game. After he finished his MBA, Paul decided that he had too much time on his hands. So he decided that he should coach a local high school team.

He has been loving it. Their first game was tonight. They won -- a resounding victory. Congrats to Paul and team!

Furnished

Yes, the house is furnished. Yes, we have appliances in the kitchen. But more interesting to me right now is what is on the wall. Before the fire, we had two pictures hanging on our kitchen wall. I'm not sure if we had anything else hung on the walls downstairs. Does the bathroom mirror count?

For months and months, I admired a painting. But between this and that, and its heavy price tag, I just kept admiring it in the gallery. And admiring. And admiring. And admiring.

Finally my mom took pity on me and painted for me. I mean, us.

Reveal

We are not quite done yet. I know, it has been less than a year. But the floors have to be refinished and we have opted to wait until after lacrosse season. Since it is our decision, it would be poor form to complain. Floors notwithstanding, I think that it is months beyond time to do the big reveal. Perhaps after all of this time, it isn't really a big reveal, but nonetheless...

The front of the house is now dark gray. The shutters are black. I consider this a vast improvement over the purple with orange shutters. Admittedly though, it is now harder to describe the house to people who are coming for the first time.

The next two are different angles on the kitchen. In the first picture, you can really tell that we opened the kitchen up to the back hall. For those of you who remember the particle board cabinets that we painted white, you will recognize that this is a huge change!

We combined the parlor and the den into a single room. We also changed out the mantles. Ironically, once the walls were removed, we learned that the parlor and the den were originally connected. The mantles were probably original, but we weren't that sad to lose them to smoke damage.

In the dining room, we added a new set of french doors and a "new" vintage light.

The bottom line on all of our changes is that we couldn't be happier . . . unless maybe the house was on a huge lot, had a great big garage and was about 50% larger. But best not to get greedy!

Cheers.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I would love to report that our house is fully restored and better than ever. But alas, Santa is watching and I don't want to land on the naughty list at the last minute.

Instead, I report that we have problems with our floors. They are going to move us out to refinish our floors. Trees just don't make hardwoods like they used to? Two adults and two medium dogs are just really hard on oak? Hard to say...

We had the HVAC problem repaired. Luckily, no fire this time.

And the plumbing system. Let me just say that it is better left undescribed. And you do not want to see the picture. But I have just sent a get you a** to my house now email to the contractor.

Hope you enjoy our holiday card. Maybe next year the house will be finished and we can invite you over.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good plumbing system.

SOOOOOOOO CLOSE

I continue to be a bad blogger. The house is almost done. We are sooo close. I promise to post pictures once it is COMPLETELY done.

But a funny thing sooooo close thing happened today that is not related to the fire. We participated in the Bailey's Finders Keepers event in Fayetteville. This is a high tech scavenger hunt run by the local jewelry store (where I got my engagement ring). First, it is a total blast. This can come as a surprise to no one that I would love something like this. We were ready, worked as a team and got to explore downtown Fayetteville on our bikes (Paul will tell he was pleasantly surprised; I already knew). Well, we got to the end and felt good. And the more people talked, the better we felt. And then a guy that Paul knows from class told us that we did really well. And we were feeling better.

And did I mention that first prize was a $12,000 diamond ring? Nice, right?

And we were hanging out. And they announced 5th place, 4th place. At this point, Paul and I start having the crazy thought that we might have won. We're afraid to say it, but we're both thinking it. But also afraid to think it. I mean, we don't have that kind of luck. We have incredibly blessed lives that involve the kind of luck that involves flat tires, fire trucks, expensive vet bills for the dogs...

3rd place...not us.

2nd place...us! We think that we lost first place by less points that I have fingers on my hand. I'm so excited that we won second, but sad that we were sooooo close. The couple who won was cute and they have 3 little kids and she had a small ring. They totally deserved it and they were thrilled. And we won tickets to a Canes game, which is super fun and unexpected. But still........we were so close to a very pretty ring.

Maybe next time! Have I mentioned that I am already planning how to streamline our process? Type A much?

Important Stuff

At our house, we all have "stuff" and I have "important stuff." Those things that I consider critical. I have several boxes of "important stuff." I didn't know that I had so many important things until the fire. These are the things that I gathered up in five minutes we were allowed into the house after the fire. They stayed in my suitcase at the hotel. That made me worry about their security. When we moved into the condo, my important things were stored safely in the closet. Now that we are moving out, these things are again out in the open. So they have gone back into the suitcase and they will go with me to Greensboro, where they will again be safe.

So what, you may be asking, are these mysteriously important things? Precious jewels? Irreplacable documents? My huge, secret roll of emergency money in case I need to make a get away (like on the movies)? Nope. Silly things that remind me of my memories. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Moving Back In!

Now that we have passed our final inspections, we officially have a Certificate of Occupancy. So the power is back in our name, coming through a meter on the side of the house. No more temp pole in the front yard. Before you ask though, the temp bathroom is still out front. And anyone whose nose gets within 100 yards, knows it.

We have a lot of work to do before them. Oh, you ask...install washer/dryer, finish installing hood, finish installing lights, install new bathroom sink, install the rest of the kitchen countertops, template the bathroom countertop, re-paint, re-install the exterior lights that were improperly installed, finish trim around the windows, install closets, finish exterior paint, and so on and so forth.