The Closer You Are

May 15, 2010.  That's the date this photo was taken. Why am I standing in a beautiful meadow, posing for pictures with my daughter? Because I'm actually standing on 1.25 acres of property we had just purchased in a huge master-planned housing development. I was imagining where our new house would sit. I was dreaming of the home where our family, which had ballooned to six people, would live and grow for the foreseeable future. Exciting times those were. Out in that empty lot.

Eventually that empty lot would be excavated to hold the foundation of the house that Julie and I spent months designing as we scrutinized every little detail, making sure it would be perfect for us. And on that foundation a building would be erected over the course of a year while the six of us lived in a bedroom over the garage of Julie's parents' house. And with the help of our friends and family, we finally moved (almost) all of our earthly possessions into that brand new house and got to the task of settling in and making that marvelous new house our home.

And now... we're moving out.  And on.

Shortly after committing to building that perfect home, our family business started getting pulled into the muck of the financial crisis and economic depression. Our timing was horrible. Luckily we were conservative enough in our finances up to that point that we were able to weather the storm for awhile. Throw in some unbelievably high property taxes (like as high as a second mortgage) and it eventually became too much. We loved our house, but there was no joy in dedicating so much of our shrunken income to our living expenses. So almost exactly two years after moving into the house that took so much planning and patience to obtain, we put it on the market. Downsizing was the only option.

Which leads us to now, almost exactly one year after we listed our house for sale. We're in the final weeks of preparing to hand this house over to another family and move into the next house that we'll call home.

We really did painstakingly design every square inch of this house with us and our children in mind. It really is "our" house. In some ways it feels like we've barely lived here, but in other ways it's hard to imagine anything but this house being our home. Despite all that, though it may be surprising to some, leaving this house isn't that big of a deal. It's just a house. A thing. It sheltered us, but it's just brick and stone and wood and cement. The same stuff of which our next house is made.  I care far more about the lives lived inside the house than the house itself.

Plus this gives me all the more reason to dive into my favorite show on television, This Old House. I can't wait to give Julie my list of projects I want to tackle...

Up

The other night, just before dinner, I looked out the window and saw a hot air balloon being inflated in the field directly across from my house. If you've never had a hot air balloon launch from your neighborhood, let me tell you, it's like awesome. Especially when the house directly across from said hot air balloon is full of kids. The whole thing was made even better by the fact that Darwin kept calling it a "gabloon."

This is the first time there's been any balloon launching around here and it may never happen again, but don't think that I'm not going to hang on to these pictures and use "hot air balloon fly-overs" as a feature if we ever try to sell this place.

Jameson was sent on assignment to snap the first two photos.

I think this was as close as he was willing to get.
The fire blasts were VERY loud.

Fully captivated.

This iPhone camera doesn't do the scene justice.
They were so close that we could clearly see the passengers faces.

They waved to the kids as they flew over which cemented the event as the coolest thing ever.

Natural Beauty

So breathtaking. I can just imagine how gorgeous she'll grow to be in the next few years.

I mean, she's one of the reasons we moved here. She's still so young and dependent on my loving care, but with some hard work, nature's blessing and a little luck, she'll one day be so beautiful, healthy and... green.

And by "she," I mean my lawn. Those little seedlings back there just began to sprout. Aren't they gorgeous!

[Thanks, Curt, for the picture.]

One Small Step for Carpenters, One Giant Leap...

We have cabinets! Mostly!

That's it. I'm ready to move in.

Move That Bus!

It's been six months since we started living in a van down by the river.  In that time, we've made some progress on the new house.  Needless to say, we're more and more excited as each new step is completed.

Tiny Bubbles

We've been living in Julie's parents' house for four months now.  It's not as bad as some people might think, but it's challenging nonetheless.  Really, the challenges of our current living arrangements have nothing to do with my in-laws.  We get along just fine with Julie's parents and we'd be no better off living with my mom and dad.  It's the living-in-someone-else's-house that's so exhausting.  It's like living out of a hotel room, but without the maid service and breakfast buffet.  You never truly feel at home.  I can never find the stuff I'm looking for.  I don't know where things belong.  We operate on different schedules.  We eat different foods.  We watch different TV shows.  And who knew it would be so awkward to stand in the kitchen at 1:00 in the morning wearing just your boxer briefs when your wife's parents walk in?  (At my house pants have always been strictly optional after midnight.  I thought that applied everywhere.)

But I certainly can't complain.  I'm grateful that Julie's parents put up with us.  I'm relieved that they don't seem to mind grape juice stains.  I'm happy the kids have a great place to live.  And I'm absolutely excited about the new house that will await us at the end of this extended stay.  As is usually the case, our "problems" aren't problems at all.  They're really just the evidence of the truly fortunate lives we live.

And living in someone else's house even has it's benefits.  Just ask Jameson how awesome a bubble bath is when you fire up those fancy bathtub jets.

Inglourious Childrens

The latest 'round here:

• Today the boys were playing with Legos. Which they turned into guns. Naturally. Amelia joined in. Naturally. They chased each other all over the house, each making their own unique "pew pew" sounds.
  
  I got the strange feeling that I was watching a scene from a Tarantino film when I realized Amelia was mowing people down with her Lego Glock... all while clutching her blanket wrapped baby doll. She's a great multitasker.



• When Jameson serves a meal, he says, "Dig up!" And when leaping from high places he says, "Jumpronimo!"



• You know those hopping marsupials found throughout Australia? Truman insists they're called "bangaroos."



• Mr. Darwin is huge. And he officially thinks he's one of the big kids now. He's almost got the crawling thing down, but it's tough with all that weight. OK, maybe he's not crawling. It's more... lunging and faceplanting. Repeatedly. But it gets him where he wants to go.



• Independent Woman. That's Amelia's official title. She potty trained herself last week. Literally. Julie and I hadn't even begun the potty training process yet so Amelia took it upon herself. One day she just decided she would only use the toilet for doing her business. She walked in. Took her pants and diaper off. Tinkled. Wiped. Got dressed. Washed her hands. It's unbelievable. If only everything was this easy.



• Amelia pretty much refuses help for anything. In the mornings she wakes up, climbs out of her crib and then announces to everyone (with her hands up in the air), "Maya awake!" She then proceeds to go to the bathroom, brush her teeth, pick out her clothes and then dress herself. Sometimes I think she's an adult trapped in a two year old's body.



• Speaking of Independent Woman, Amelia has also stopped calling me dad, dadda or daddy. She now addresses me only as James. And it's usually along the lines of "James, leave me alone," or "James, stay right there," or "James, I do it."



• Deep down, Amelia is still very much Daddy's little girl.



• We are slowly inching our way towards having our own home again. We've closed on our construction loan and are having our pre-construction meeting with the builder next week. We're loving the house plans, but it seems so, so, so far away at this point...



• Darwin is about to get kicked out of our bed. We've let all of our children co-sleep with us as long as it was practical. Darwin has reached the unpractical stage. He stretches out all over, hogs the blankets and likes to wake us up with early morning eye gouges. And he always forgets to turn off the TV when he's done watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Sorry, buddy, but it's time to go.



• If we weren't busy enough with the four year old, the twin two year olds, the nine month old, the living with the in-laws, the building a new house, the starting school this year, and whatever else... Julie and I are also working on starting a new business. 'Cause that's how we roll.



• My dentist has "found Jesus" and I have a cavity. Not sure if those facts are somehow related. Maybe it just means I have holey teeth! (Thank you. I'll be here all week. Be sure to tip your waitress.)

Third Time's a Charm

We've got the land. Now we need to sell the house.

If there's going to be a house here...


...there's a lot of this to do here.

Peter Rabbit

I spied this cute little bunny in our backyard, taking refuge from the rain. The rodent was just waiting for a break in the storm so he could go munch on the plants in the beds around the house.

House Update

Not coming to see our house isn't good enough anymore. We've pretty much gotten used to the fact that no one wants to come see our house. The Non-Buyers out there have had to step up their game a little bit. Last Thursday, we had a viewing scheduled. These were going to be the first people to actually see our house since we listed it. We were excited. We called for back up. We cleaned the house from top to bottom. We rearranged our schedules and made special babysitting arrangements. We went to bed late and got up early to make sure everything was perfect. It was like we were getting ready for prom with the slight hope we might get lucky.

And then they cancelled on us a couple hours before the showing.

Bravo, Mr. and Mrs. Non-Buyer. Bravo. You really got us that time.

At least we had a clean house. For a couple of days.

House Update

Offer Accepted... Now What?

Good news: our offer on the house we want was accepted by the seller. Now we just need to sell our house... FAST. I don't know if that's possible in this market, but we'll hope for the best. Thanks to everyone for the crossed fingers, prayers and sacrificial chickens. We may need to move on to sacrificial goats for this next phase.

House Update

We put an offer on a house today. Unfortunately, we had to put a contingency in the contract because we haven't even put our current house on the market yet, let alone sold it. We made a good offer, just a few thousand less than the asking price. The house is for sale by a woman who apparently just got done with a nasty divorce and needs to downsize. We've concluded that the home is priced drastically below its market value and we get the sense that she wants to be done with the sale ASAP. When I say "below its market value," I mean WAY BELOW. Let me put it this way, this house has almost twice the square footage of every other house we've considered in our price range. Without our house on the market, getting our offer accepted  will be tough, but from what we've seen lately, most buyers are throwing out low ball offers even if a house is priced where it should be to begin with. Hopefully she'll appreciate that we're making a serious offer up front. We'll find out by 5:00 on Wednesday if that's the case. Even if she accepts it, with this being a contingent offer, we need to get our house sold NOW so someone else doesn't swoop in and steal this bargain. Julie won't let me link to the actual listing for you all to check out. If we actually buy the house, she doesn't want all the serial killers in my blog readership to know where we live. I'll at least post a picture, though.

House Hunting, Part Deux

About this time in 2007 we decided we should start looking for a new house. We always knew we'd eventually need something bigger than our current three bedrooms, and with twins on the way that time was coming sooner rather than later. We thought it would be a relatively simple process and hoped to find a new house and sell our current one all before the twins were born. Well, as everyone knows, the market collapsed and we didn't exactly have buyers flocking to our property. After looking and looking for a new house. And looking. And loooooooking. We decided our best option was to build with Beazer in a master planned community in what we considered the ideal location in the Dayton area. We couldn't find an existing home that we were both excited about, so building seemed like the best choice. Plus, building gave us more time to sell our house and save up for the down payment. In addition, Beazer gave us an option in our contract to back out of the purchase if we hadn't sold our home. They in turn had the option to try to sell the house on the open market while it was being built (still giving us the first right of refusal should they receive an offer from someone else). Well, long story short, the contract option allowed us to back out of the sale when Beazer suddenly decided to pull out of Ohio entirely. That was great news for us. Not so for the dozen or so people that had just built houses there on what was supposed to be a 600 acre, 900 home community. Who knows what will happen to it now...

Anyway, we were glad to be out of the whole deal. Wintertime with a two year old and newborn twins is NOT the time to be trying to buy and sell houses. We yanked our house off the market and basically went into hibernation mode concerning real estate. Now that things are beginning to thaw, we're jumping back in the mix with a new strategy (and hopefully better results). We ditched our agent (and the commission expense) and decided to sell our house on our own. We'll funnel that savings into our list price and hopefully speed up the selling process. We haven't listed it yet, but, putting the cart before the horse, we've already been looking at houses for almost a month now. We spend hours and hours every week combing through online listings. Every Sunday we hit the road and try to visit a half dozen or so open houses.

Which leads us to tonight's blog. I had in my head the idea that I would be blogging today about how impossible it is to find the house. I can't imagine how many houses we've looked at in the last twelve months. Sixty? Seventy? Over one hundred? I wouldn't doubt it. But in all our looking, we've never found a house where we've walked in and thought, "this is it." We've found a handful of houses that we thought were "it," but we always seemed to have to talk ourselves into thinking it. In the end, usually after "sleeping on it," we never convinced ourselves to the point that we'd actually make an offer. It can actually get quite depressing. Never finding a house we both really liked is what led to signing the contract with Beazer originally. And it's actually how we ended up in this house when we built it in 2004. In fact, we often lament that our fantasy solution would be to add a bedroom to this house and move the whole thing further north, closer to Julie's work and both our families. We love this house, but apparently we were never going to find something comparable in the right location.

So tonight's blog was supposed to be a question to all of you out here on the internets. Is it possible to find the "perfect" house? There has always been a deal breaking flaw with every house we research. No yard. No privacy. Bedrooms too small. No basement. Poltergeists. No office. Kitchen too small. Bad smells. Poor construction. Weird looking neighbors. Water leaks. Power lines. I could go on. We're we being too picky? Probably. I thought maybe our dream home just existed out of our price range, but even that wasn't true. I looked out of our price range and still no dream house, just more disappointments but with more square footage and bigger price tags. So does the house exist? All indications were that it didn't.

Until today.

Almost on a whim we decided to look at a house at the very top of our price range. It's listed at a price significantly higher than anything else we've considered to date. Up until now, it seemed like a lower price house was our best option because then we could invest more money in making it our "ideal" house. We were wrong. Our best option is the house we saw today. Unlike every other house we've ever looked at, we walked to our car today with both of us saying, "we have to buy this house." This is it.

So now we have to find a way to buy it. We've got to get pre-approved again. We have to get the house inspected. We have to get our house sold. We have to come up with the 20% down. And, of course, we have to get the owners to accept our offer. Things aren't exactly in the bag.

We're not even close to the finish line, but at least we've finally found a house we really, really want. So keep your fingers crossed for us. Say a little prayer. Sacrifice a chicken. Whatever it takes.

I'll keep you posted.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is: We sold our house.

The bad news is:  We sold the wrong one.

Huh???

For those that don't know, for the last several months we've been having a house built by Beazer in a new development in Centerville. We had a contingency in our contract that said we would not close on this new house unless we had sold our current house. This also meant that after the initial ninety days of the contract, Beazer had the option to put the house we were building on the market if we hadn't closed yet. If they got an offer, we would get a first right of refusal, meaning we could commit to buying the house ourselves before Beazer would accept the offer they received on the market.

Well Beazer called today. Once they got the drywall up, they listed the house for sale and already received an offer. With our current home nowhere close to being sold, we had to let them take the offer they received. Apparently we had designed a pretty sweet house. It's on almost an acre, in Centerville's school district and in a potentially great development. We're very disappointed to see it go, but it's for the better. Getting our current house sold has been hanging over our heads since the twins were born and it didn't seem like we were making any progress. This will give us time to ride out the housing downturn a little, save more for a down payment and take our time looking for another house. But it's still disappointing. Sigh.

House Building

Whether we're ready or not, construction has begun on the new house. Too bad we've only had three people come see our current house that has been on the market for 5 months.

Here's the progress:

A Whole Week as Mr. Mom and No Major Incidents!

OK, maybe one incident. And I wouldn't really call it an incident. More of a funny, little happening that should in no way be used to judge my parenting skills.

I let Jameson lock me out of the house this morning.

And, as adept as he is at locking the door, he is significantly lacking in the unlocking skill set.

We had just finished breakfast and it was about time to leave for my parents' house where Jameson would be spending the day while I was at work. Fall has just begun to set in here and this was one of the first truly chilly mornings of the year. I thought I would do Jameson a favor and go warm up the car. Jameson was catching some Oswald in the living room, distracted and content. I handed him his coat thinking that the struggle to put it on himself would buy me more than the thirty seconds I needed to go start the car. I run out. Start the car. Crank the heat. And run back. My heart sinks when I try to turn the door handle and it doesn't budge. My mind quickly flashes to the keys now sitting in the minivan ignition. I know there isn't a house key on the ring. I always come in through the unlocked garage door -- why did I need a house key? Why? Apparently because two year olds like to lock doors. I get that awful, heart-racing, stomach churning millisecond of panic as I try the door again. Yes, definitely locked. I know the trouble this kid can get in when I'm standing over him -- I don't want to think about what could happen when he has the run of the house. I call to Jameson through the door, "JJ, unlock the door." I listen to the handle rattle briefly. I try again. Still locked. Jameson gives his own assessment, "JJ no can do it." Great. "Try again, JJ. Turn the little button on the handle." More door knob rattling. Still locked. He repeats, "JJ no can do it," this time with a little desperation in his voice. I ask him to try again. He obliges, but now the realization that Dad is stuck outside is sinking in and Jameson is in a full blown cry. But he keeps trying and trying to unlock the door, all the while sobbing, "JJ no can do it." Cute to hear when he's trying to tie his shoes. Heart wrenching to hear when he desperately wants to be rescued by Dad. Why, oh why don't I keep a house key on my keychain? Of all the keys in the world, isn't that the one key I should have???

Oh yeah, my house is for sale and the realtor has my house key secured to my front door in a little lock box to which I know the combination. What a clever way for people without keys to get into my locked house. Brilliant.

Father and son are reunited. Hugs are exchanged. Tears are dried. No harm no foul.

Moral of the story: Kids should not be spoiled with pre-warmed (or cooled) cars. When I was a kid, I went everywhere on cheap vinyl that was cold enough to stick to your tongue or hot enough to give second degree burns and I turned out OK. (Just look at the fine parent I've become.)

Babies, Houses and Robert Goulet

Julie went to the hospital (Miami Valley) this morning with contractions and it seems to be the "real deal" this time. They are working hard to hold off delivery for at least another 48 hours to allow some medication to take affect that will help the babies if they do in fact come early. (We're currently at 32 1/2 weeks.) The twins could be here any time now, but it would be great if they can hold off for another couple weeks. We'll see. More details later.

Of course, we also had our first house showing in months today. Haven't heard from our realtor how it went. We're averaging about one viewing every two months...

Oh and of course we're also supposed to meet with our builder tomorrow because they're ready to start framing our new house. Damn you Murphy and your stupid law!!!

And God bless Robert Goulet.

I'll try to keep you posted.  Peace out.

It's Been Hectic

It's been awhile since the last blog, but with good reason. The pregnancy, the house, the race, the two year old and life in general have kept me extremely busy. Things really got thrown out of whack a couple weeks ago when Julie had to go the hospital because of labor pains. We hadn't even hit the 24-week mark, so it was way, way, way too early for these twins to be arriving. After a night in the hospital, lots of tests and a fair amount of worrying, Julie was dismissed with little more than advice to take it easy. As stressful as it was, I cannot complain one bit about the outcome. Thank God the babies didn't come that day. The good news now is we're now approaching 26 weeks and while less than ideal, early labor would have much different implications than it did the day we went to the hospital. We're not in the clear yet (Julie's being tested for gestational diabetes tomorrow), but I'm growing more and more confident that she's going to make it to at least 37 weeks (full term). It's stressful, but each week seems like another milestone.

On the house front, we've been on the market for over a month and a total of two people have seen our house.  I'd say there's a 5% chance we're moving this year and I'd put the over/under date somewhere in March of 2008.  I'm looking forward to moving, but I can't complain. We've got a nice roof over our heads as is.

The big issue this week is the half-marathon.  My training got derailed during the baby chaos mentioned above.  My race is this Saturday (13.1 miles), but until this past Sunday, I hadn't run in two and a half weeks.  The good news is that I was able to go just over 8 miles Sunday morning pretty comfortably.  The bad news is that 5 miles short of what I've got to do this weekend.  I took Monday and Tuesday off this week and I hope to do some easy running Wednesday and Thursday as my final prep.  If I can complete the race in under 2.5 hours (my original goal) I will be extremely satisfied.  If I just finish the race, I will still consider it a success.  Wish me luck.

On top of all this, Jameson is the real focus right now.  Since Mom has had to make some lifestyle changes to take care of herself and the twins, it's changed my role with Jameson. The two of us have spent more time than usual together lately and it's been great.  We had to cancel our Labor Day camping plans in the interest of Julie and the twins, but we did get a chance to go up to the campground for a day. To say Jameson and I had an awesome time would be an understatement.  I was having such a great time that I was truly upset to go home that night. Jameson loved it.  We played football, hide-and-seek, tried out our new bike trailer, collected sticks, cooked out, watched a talent show and generally got the most out of our one day at the campground. And after watching all the trouble that the "big boys" could get into, Jameson still hasn't quit talking about Ky-0h (Kyle) and Tent (Trent).  Here are all the pictures from camping.

In the eternity since my last blog the pictures have been building up. Enjoy!

Jameson loves dem suckers.

Quality father-son time catching a movie.  99.9% chance it was "The Incredibles."

Just a couple pictures from the backyard.  Every time we go outside, Jameson begs me to cut the grass.  Once a week is more than enough for me.

This had to be Jameson's favorite part of the day at the campground -- playing catch with dad and cousins Travis and Kyle.

Hide-and-seek isn't Jameson's strong suit since he wants to jump out of his hiding place laughing as soon as he knows you're looking nearby.

Some swing time with Aunt Emmie.

How could he not want to play with the "big boys." I literally had to hold him back.

These bike trailers might possibly be the greatest invention in the history of ever.

And this is just a picture of my wife's latest night stand read. Should I be worried???

The Great Bathroom Blog

Warning:  Some pictures are not for the faint of heart.

This all started back in April when we decided to put tile down in the master bathroom. I have zero experience laying tile, but hey, how hard could it be? (Carpet in the bathroom, by the way, is the worst idea ever.)

This is how the bathroom originally looked.  Pretty blah.  And the carpet had to go.

Julie and Jameson were going to be gone for a few days, so my brother Kip, my cousin Curt and I got to work.  I figured if we were going to tear out the floor, now would be a great time to paint the walls.  I picked out the tile and the paint without Julie.  That was mistake number one.

Actually, mistake number one might have been bringing on Kip and Curt as the hired labor. Just kidding. They were a big help.

The toilet was already removed, but that didn't stop nature from calling. Besides, we needed someone to read up on how to install tile.

This is the wall space behind the mirror. Just in case someone in the future wants to know who the hell botched this job.

The paint color didn't look half bad at this point.  I kind of liked it.

This picture will probably get me in a heap of trouble.  The battery died on the cordless drill, so we switched to the Cuisinart hand mixer to finish making the thinset.  Sorry, honey.  Don't worry, I cleaned it REEEALLY well.

 

I can never resist licking the beaters.

See that blue roll in the background.  That was the flexible underlayment that we put down with thinset.  It's supposedly stronger than traditional backer boards and is easier to cut around corners and such, but I will never use it again.  It's so much harder to get level. Next time I'll use Hardie Backer Board.

We used a laser line to set the tile straight.  One of the few things we did really well was lay the tile straight.  As you can start to see in this picture, the choice of paint color with this tile was potentially going to be a problem.  By the way, this is a natural stone tile, Travertine, that I got on sale at The Tile Store.

Curt was the official "spacer" and "thinset cleaner upper."

I handled the thinset and laying the tile.

Kip was the official cutter.

Unfortunately for Kip, he had to run out to the garage to cut each piece of tile since that was the only place to set up the extremely messy wet saw.  It was particularly a pain when a piece had to be cut more than once. (Remember, Kip, "measure twice, cut once.")

This illustrates two problems: 1) My wife can't resist yanking my shorts down when I'm in a compromised position just so she can show off my crack and 2) The original color of the walls completely washed out the room alongside this color tile.  Of course, we waited until the night before our house showing to do anything about it.

It's alot easier to paint around a toilet when the toilet's not there. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Julie picked out the new color, and I have to admit I was skeptical at first, but as usual, she was right on the money. The pictures don't do it justice, but the walls and tile look great together now.

The color in this picture is a little off, but the room looks great now. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.) If it wasn't my favorite room in the house before, it is now.