Thursday, August 13, 2009

FOR SALE!!











Okay, this is my third post of the day, but it is the one I am most excited about! Our house is finally on the market! It is well overdue since we move in less than a month, but because Michael and I are the worst procrastinators in the world better now than later I guess. Anyone interested? :)
By the way, I ran a poll on the blog about 2 years ago about what color to paint the front door and might I say that the red turned out GREAT!! Thanks everyone for your votes and help. Love it!

I have a dream...

My parents have had a few homes built over the years (around four that I can remember) and would often buy catalogs filled with house plans from many different styles: victorian, florida-spanish style, one-story rambler, craftsman, etc. For as long as I can remember, I would grab one of these catalogs and lie on my stomach and imagine myself walking through the houses, locating great little corners to read books,deciding whether a bathroom was too small to be shared between two bedrooms, and imagining if a back porch was large enough to enjoy in the middle of summer. I love houses. I love the way they make a family complete, they give a sense of safety, peace, and serenity as well as ownership.

Now that we are selling our house I have been thinking about my dream of one day taking a sad dilapadated house and restoring it to something beautiful, charming and warm again. I want to take something that is full of history and make it into something that everyone can enjoy and I would love to take that house, preferably Victorian, and run a bed and breakfast in it. I would love to share it with others and show the pride I have in accomplishing something that was hard, time consuming and inevitiably worth it just to take one house off of my "Oh it would look so beautiful fixed-up" list that I have in my head.

Since we have done so much in the 98-year-old house that we have been living in here in Cincinnati for the past five years, I thought I had had my fill of fixing up a house, but now I know that was only a small taste of what I have been dreaming of.

We have done so much, or atleast I have with the help of a lovely, if not sometimes cranky and unproductive husband. I've not only painted EVERY room in my home (sometimes twice) but I have also installed tile in the kitchen with my mom's help on the floors, countertops and backsplash, (THANKS MOM!!!!) put crown molding up in the living room and dining room, put chair rail in the dining room, painted the floors upstairs, retiled and regrouted the bathroom tile, painted my front door "Posh Red" and a million other little projects that have taken me to Lowe's sometimes three and four times in a day.
My dream is still there in the back of my head and I know there is that pretty victorian house out there just like this one that is waiting for me to show it some TLC. Now the only thing left to do is find it and convince Michael that it is worth the time and money.

Cross Country


Well, Michael leaves today for Utah. He will be taking his car the 24 hour drive to make it in time for his 10-year High School reunion and wow, did I have a fun time packing it up for him. It only took me four hours, a major headach and a messy house to pack his car full of everything we won't be needing until we move to California.

He's going to leave his car at his mom's in Utah and then fly back to Cincinnati so that he can turn around and make the 36 hour drive with me to California in a about three weeks.

So, he'll be gone for a few days enjoying himself and performing his stand-up routine at his reunion (yes, Michael if you didn't know performs stand-comedy a little on the side) and I'll have the lovely task of cleaning out the garage and getting our home ready for an open house on Sunday. I guess him driving roughly 6o hours back and forth across the country makes me feel less abandoned. :)

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Kidney Donation on "The Today Show"



This is a really great story that I wanted to share with everyone who was interested. It was covered on "The Today Show" this morning and it is especially worthwhile because our friend Jordan Brough is one of the features in the story. It tells of how many people are in need of kidney donations to survive and how many strangers reached out and donated because they wanted to help people in need. This is not a simple surgery, by the way, and required 2 hospital days for Jordan and a bit of recovery time, but I'm sure it is someth ing that both he and the woman he donated to will remember for the rest of their lives.

Jordan, you are awesome and such a giver to those in need! You're an inspiration!