Secret Passageways (Or Lack Thereof)

Every house has it's quirks. You know, the odd things you may not notice at first sight. The new house is no exception.

As we toured the inside of our soon-to-be home, we kept trying to find the upstairs window with the stickers still on the glass. We wandered from room to room...until finally we discovered that there was no such window, at least on the inside of the house. Apparently someone had the bright idea to build a "dummy" dormer window onto the roof...completely inaccessible from inside the house or the attic.

Well, if you know me at all, you'll understand that a couple random stickers left as an eyesore on the front of my house was not something I was going to be able to tolerate for long. This intolerance soon led my hubby, saw in hand, to carve out a section of wall in the attic so he could access this forgotten place...and earn my deepest gratitude.

What We've Been Up To

Dear Blog,

I feel I must apologize for my neglect and blatant disregard this past month. You see, something came up. And not just a small something...quite a large one, as a matter of fact. Well, let me back up...

It all started about 36 days ago. It was a typical Friday. The kids were playing, Ian was working around the house, and I was out running errands. Yup, typical. Then...we bought a house. Just like that. We had seen the house online, called our realtor, and drove over to see it (all in a matter of an hour) the night before. It was a pretty good deal so we put in an offer the next morning. To our surprise, we heard back within a few hours. It was ours.

I believe I might have said a not-so-nice word at that moment. Why? Well, because (among several loss-of-comfort-zone-type issues) we still had to sell our current home. (I know, right?)

Long story short (and believe me, you don't want to hear the long version), I frantically scoured my house so we could list it the following Monday. We got a call on Tuesday. A couple came to look at it Wednesday. And we had an offer by Thursday. A good offer.

Sold.

Within a short 4 weeks we bought a house, sold a house, packed up and moved a house, and we are now sitting amidst a huge pile of boxes and lacking the energy to do anything about it.

I hate moving.

Someday, hopefully sooner than later, I look forward to feeling at home. In the meantime I will miss my little house, my amazing friends and neighbors, my ward, and my life as it was. (I might also cry a little...I sure liked my comfort zone. It was comfortable.)

But, and this is the point I'd like to make, my dear blog...I will also try to be better about touching base with you from time to time. (There are a couple grandparents who will appreciate it as well, I'm sure.) So, unless I find myself buried by an avalanche of cardboard (it could happen) I'll be here. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

Amy & Family

Before and After

We've been in our house for 9 years. We've finished, painted, and even re-painted most of the rooms over the years. For the past 9 years, however, we've allowed our unfinished laundry/bathroom to exist as a storage dump for the plethora of our (okay, my) stuff. It was ugly.

No...really ugly.

The reason for the lengthy disregard of it's potential as a loo? Well...our builder "accidentally" put our furnace, ducting, etc., etc., in the WRONG PLACE. When we contacted the builder (several years ago) they responded with a less-than-enthusiastic "oops" and left us on our own. The prospect of literally digging up ALL of the plumbing and re-configuring the layout was overly-daunting. And so it sat.

Until. (Insert lively, big-band-type music...)

And suddenly we have a whole new room. With a shower! Joy. Curtis was so excited about it that he was happily the first to use the new commode. (And then promptly continued to ignore all of my potty-training efforts.)

During the process of finishing the room we encountered only one small dilemma. Curtis + wet cement = catastrophe.