Archive for October, 2010
Where, Oh Where
First, we’ll share Clara’s new favorite song because it’s semi on topic. I don’t know what possessed Sherry to start singing the chorus of “Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego” to her the other day, but when she realized she was making up most of the words for lack of actual knowledge of the song she googled the lyrics so she could sing it correctly. Lo and behold, watching (and singing along) is now Clara’s favorite pastime ever (although we all could do without the gratuitous beatbox solo in the middle):
But back to the actual topic at hand. Where our new house will be located. Sherry and I quickly realized that the number one question we had to answer to keep our house hunt somewhat focused was “Where do we want to live?” Sure, we love the area that we’re in now, but with no work commute to factor in (one of the perks of working 8 feet from where we sleep) we were excited by the freedom to live pretty much anywhere we wanted. We even asked ourselves if staying in Richmond was our best move. Maybe we should go elsewhere in Virginia? Or elsewhere in the United States? Or even elsewhere in the world?
As adventurous as that sounded, we quickly realized that we definitely want to stay right here in good ol’ RVA (translation: Richmond, Virginia for any non locals). We love this city for its mix of urban and the great outdoors, its low cost of living, and its proximity to many members of our family. Plus it sure simplifies our hunt if we’re not trying to decipher a new town along the way. Plainly stated, we think Richmond rocks (much like these guys who made a rap about it):
This is turning into quite the musical post, eh? Anyway, while we have plenty on our housing wish list, our priority numero uno when it comes to location is schools. Sure Clara’s still a few years off from that and we know better than to assume that we won’t find ourselves moving again before she hits kindergarten (never say never) but we’d hate to put a time limit on our next house from the get go. Especially knowing my wife’s propensity to get attached. What the whole school district parameter means around here is that we decided to nix any homes within the Richmond city limits since the schools are said to be not-so-hot after elementary school (which we confirmed by checking out ratings on sites like greatschools.org and talking to friends and family members who have kiddos in our area). Ruling out Richmond city homes was a total bummer because ‘hoods like Forest Hill, The Fan, and Bellevue basically ooze charm left and right. Many lucky lads and ladies live there but they have the means to send their kiddos to prestigious private schools and we just don’t think we’ll be able to make that commitment while considering where to live – so eliminating the areas without high ranked public schools was the best choice for us. Even though many of the houses and neighborhoods there are a DIYers dream.
Our next priority after Clara & future bean(s) education is proximity to family. Right now my sister lives about five minutes away (and my parents are talking about moving nearby in May). Sure, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we landed in a spot only 30-ish minutes away from Emily, but we do think we’d miss the ease of popping over on a whim, swinging by to let out each other’s dogs, or even borrowing her SUV to haul craigslist and thrift store finds. So that means outskirt areas like Hanover County’s Mechanicsville, Henrico’s Short Pump, and even Chesterfield’s Swift Creek regions sadly got the boot from our consideration list. They’re certainly lovely, but they’re not the perfect fit for our little “family parameter” goal.
Once we effectively limited our search radius to 5-to-10 miles of our current house, the “old house filter” came into play. Since we prefer not to live in a newer-than-the-’50s-or-’60s house, we were able to eliminate a lot of the traditionally suburban developments that have popped up in Chesterfield County (where we currently live) and nearby Henrico (just a hop over the river from us).
And while Henrico’s West End neighborhoods boast lots of charming old capes with a pseudo-city feel, their smaller lots and tendency for on-street parking made us realize how much we liked our current neighborhood set up (with tons of privacy and expansive green lawns).
Which brings us right back to Bon Air.
Yep, it appeared that after all of that geographic soul-searching and (apparently pretend) adventurous spirit we decided that we’d love to end up right where we started in our current wooded, old, private, and scenic stomping ground (that’s still just 10 minutes from downtown Richmond). It has some of the greatest schools in the state, it’s close to family, and it’s packed with old homes on lots of lush land that need some serious love.
And it’s not like we’ll end up on the same street or anything because Bon Air is actually quite a large area, so we can move into different neighborhoods within Bon Air (and can’t wait to start exploring other developments). Oh yeah and it has a water tower. Idyllic, right?
We know, it’s a bit of an anticlimactic ending. But we’re glad we went through the exercise of exploring our options (literally, we spent a few weeks on field trips through various counties and neighborhoods every other day while Clara snuck in her early evening nap in the backseat). And all that recent road neighborhood tripping definitely makes us more confident and excited by our decision to stay nearby. Now if only the perfect house would reveal itself. We promise to share our actual house hunting adventures as those arise. And while we’re on the subject, have any of you made much more exciting huge cross-country or international moves? If so, how exotic of you. We still remember the thrill of loading up my mom’s minivan and moving from NYC to Richmond nearly five years ago. Has anyone else cast a wide net and ended up right back where you started like we did this time around?
Psst- We announced our big winner for this week’s contest at the end of Monday’s original contest post. Click here to see if it’s you.
Photo of The Fan from here, new construction photo from here, Bon Air watertower image from here.
Hanging With Nate Dog
This post might be filed under the annoying “teaser” category but we can’t tell you anything other than to cryptically announce that you might want to watch The Nate Show next Monday (the 25th) or DVR it if you’re fancy like that because… we’re going to be on it!!!
It’s a syndicated show, so we don’t know what channel or time it’s on in your area (in fact it doesn’t even air in Richmond, which is the bane of our existence) but if you hit up thenateshow.com you can use their station finder feature for more info. We’ve always been huge fans of Nate and his work (check out this post and this post of yore all about his mad skillz). So we can’t wait to check out Monday’s episode (and unzip our lips about it after it airs).
Whirlwind doesn’t even begin to describe it. They called us on a Wednesday, flew us out on a Thursday, and we were rehearsing and taping bright and early on a Friday. Oh and Mrs. Limestone was there too- it was really fun to meet her and her hubs in the flesh!
By 1pm that day we were back on a plane for home (landing just in time for the arrival of The Bowers). It felt kind of like a dream since we were gone for less than 24 hours. We promise more info as soon as we’re permitted to spill the beans. Until then I’ll leave you with this picture of Nate’s iconic designer hair…
… just because I’m weird like that.
Fab Freebie: So Haute In Here
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – scroll down to see who won!***
Who doesn’t love a sale? Especially when it’s to the tune of 50-75% off retail. Well that’s exactly how HauteLook rolls when it comes to creating 48-hour deeply discounted sales on home items (as well as clothing and beauty stuff too). A new sale pops up every morning at 11am EST, but here’s a sampling of what was up for grabs last week:
And one of you is gonna get $100 to spend on HauteLook this week, meaning you could snag items like an $850 graphic rug for just 80 bucks out of your own pocket. Not too shabby…
Here’s how to enter:
- PRIZE: $100 towards anything on HauteLook.
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “I’M HAUTE” and…
- BONUS QUESTION: … tell us about the all-time best deal you’ve ever scored. Was it an incredible sale that landed you a deep discount? Or maybe you bartered your way to something for free?
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, October 20th at 8pm EST
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
- PRIZE SHIPS: The United States
- USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday as an update to this post. That’s right, come right back here Thursday morning for the announcement of our winner. Good luck…
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This giveaway’s random winner is… Valerie J (who’s scored a $4000 Restoration Hardware armoire for only $315 just because the top crown molding was busted). Congrats!
Note: We weren’t paid or perk’d for hosting this giveaway, we just take them on to reward our lovely readers! See our Giveaway FAQs page for more info. Pics from HauteLook.
Closer To Godliness?
If it’s true that cleanliness is next to Godliness, then selling our house is practically turning us into saints. Not that we weren’t teetering on clean freak status before, but I’ve always considered myself more tidy than clean (i.e. clutter’s a no-no, but the tub can go unscrubbed a little longer than I’d like to admit to my mom). But now that we’ve got strangers touring the place it has kicked us into cleaning hyper drive – which I should note is much needed considering that having a newborn all but halted it for a good while this summer.
Yes, that’s me breaking out the ladder to give a good wash to the outside of our sunroom sliders. Goodbye grime, hello sold house! Okay, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but here’s hoping my ladder hopping efforts don’t go unnoticed.
I’ll spare you photos of our other cleaning adventures (polishing all of the stainless steel fixtures, wiping down all of the kitchen cabinets, vacuuming, vacuuming, and more vacuuming…) and instead will subject you to photos of some of the curb appeal-ization that’s been going down ’round here. For example, got mulch?
It took me three separate trips to Lowe’s to get enough of it to spruce up our plant beds (I don’t normally go for the artificial color-boosted mulch, but it was on sale for the same price as the regular stuff and I figured this was one instance where “long lasting color” could do me some good). At least by the end of the day we had a crisper looking yard staring back at us.
Speaking of the yard, I’ve also been in the process of re-growing grass in some spots that the hot weather killed this summer. It’s been going surprisingly well – especially considering that our county is on emergency water restriction due to a long sweltering summer. Now I’m just crossing my fingers that mowing over it as much as I’ve had to (to keep that “maintained yard” look that buyers like) doesn’t harm those wee sprouts too much. Note: we just seeded and waited for rain- no sprinkler or fertilizer usage was required. Thankfully we’ve had our fair share of showers in the past three weeks and we’ve learned that grass really wants to grow in bare dirt. So rain plus grass seed usually equals luck.
And when I’m not mowing, I can usually be found blowing the driveway clear of acorns. We’re in the middle of our annual bombardment, courtesy of the oak trees surrounding our house, so our driveway gets littered with ‘em quite quickly. Just check out the collection I’m working on at the driveway’s back corner where everything gets blown. Methinks the squirrels should hoist me over their shoulders and sing “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow” for this service to them:
As much as keeping the house in ready-for-a-showing shape is exhausting, we have to admit that it is nice to live in an über-tidy house almost 24/7. And we’ve got our fingers crossed that the extra effort will pay off soon when it comes to wooing a buyer. Ok, off to remake the bed…
Bed Burgers
Since the month is half over, I thought I’d update you on how my make-the-bed-everyday-this-month resolution is going. The good news is that I haven’t missed a day. Promise. The bad news is that it usually looks like this in less than an hour thanks to my main man Burger.
Can you really blame him? I guess if I were a dog I wouldn’t let anything stop me from sleeping in under some warm covers either. Well except maybe Pupperoni.
I’d probably be more annoyed if I weren’t so impressed and amused by his sheer determination. In fact, I even caught him in the act:
My favorite part is when he bursts out from over the pillows a la Free Willy. Despite his best efforts to thwart my resolution, I’m still going to keep making the bed each morning this month. And if all goes well, the habit will stick and I may just keep making it once November rolls around. Who knows. I’m crazy like that.
PS: I’m also doing pretty well on my other resolution to drink only water this month (aka: Aquatober). Although I sincerely hope soda misses me as much as I miss it.
