Our New Home!

We bought a house!

Brent and I have been looking on and off again for the last year, knowing that we loved our Lakehouse, but that we've both been anxious to own again. It's been the best way to house-hunt, in that it's such a seller's market right now, with great interest rates, but we didn't have to move if we didn't find the right thing. Well, we found it!

We've also been talking a lot about the possibility of income property, so we kept that in the back of our minds as we looked. We looked all over a couple of the smaller cities around here, knowing that they have some good neighborhoods and some not as good ones. We sure didn't expect to find our home just a few blocks away on the same street!

It's got really good bones, with great character and old, wide, rich woodwork. The basement is tall enough for my 6'3" husband, and is by far the best basement of homes we've seen in our price range. The home is totally liveable for us right away, and will also be improved by some of the work we'd like to do.

Here's a little tour for you! There are some pictures from the realtor's website, and others that I took in order to remember specific things before we move in at the end of May.

The current owners just put on all new siding and trim this past fall, but they did forget to paint the door red, which will happen soon after we take over!

You can see some of the character with the arched entryway, and you might also notice that there are coved ceilings -which I love! The front windows are all new as well. The wall they have their TV on and the one right next to it should be big enough for our piano and TV -exact arrangement to be determined. Standing at the front door you can see the arch to the dining room. The living room opens to the dining room, which opens to the kitchen. It's not the same as a square-shaped open concept room, but that's pretty hard to find in a character home. Standing in the kitchen I'll still feel like I know what's going on in other rooms. That door in the dining room leads to the 3-season porch. There will be plenty of room for my hutches! (I measured!) This picture also shows the door on the left that leads to what will be our office, and through the kitchen you can see the master straight ahead, and then the bathroom is on the right and the guest room on the left. Looking back at the living room. The kitchen. It's totally functional now, and we'll definitely be making some changes. The kitchen re-do can't happen first, but when it does I might make this a wall of pantry cupboards.... We'll see.... There's this half-wall separating the dining room and kitchen, and it bugs me. They raised the counters from the main counter, and since it hangs over on both sides there ends up being wasted space. We'll see what happens with this... The master bedroom. The closet is deep and organized in what seems will be a helpful configuration. This room was added on at some point so the two windows don't have the same great woodwork. I snapped this picture so I could remember just how much space there would be for our dressers. The guestroom will have enough space for a bed and dresser, but probably not much more than that. This is one room that will proabably stay that color, though, as it's one I like. We will also use this room as our office/library, but the white walls will go. This helps show the perspective that it's just off the dining room. I love our new porch! I am excited to get back to reading a good book a lot more often. Here is our first project. We'll focus on the upstairs apartment so that we can get it rented right away. At first I thought I'd quickly paint the cabinets, but now we're thinking we might just start fresh. I'm hoping to document our progress much better than I've been documenting life lately so you can see just what decisions we make. We've been watching a lot of Income Property on HGTV!! The space for a table and chairs. Here's a hallway leading to a back door only used for a fire escape. There's a 'butler's pantry' on the side with lots more space. Here is the master bedroom, which is really quite large. It actually has a sitting area as well. The photographer took this shot from the farthest corner and you can see the closet door on the left and the living room door on the right. It's really two rooms separated with that opening, but there's only one closet so we'll market this as one room. This is the living room and looking ahead is that bedroom you just saw. The other half of the living room, which leads to the kitchen and bathroom. The door frame on the left is for the second bedroom. The second bedroom with original wood floors. I can hardly wait to rip out the awful carpet in the rest of the apartment and see what we've got underneath. The bathroom. The yellow and white sponge painting will quickly be gone. It has a nice counter space, but I'm not certain what to do about the mirror height. Let's just say it would work for my mom, but not for my dad! Right now there's a medicine cabinet to the left of the toilet which allows people taller than my mom to look in a mirror standing up. I'll need to think about this one a while.... There's a nice shower behind the door. There you have it! I'm sure I'll take "before" pictures in an empty house the day we close, but we're hoping to start making some good progress right away on some of the changes we're invisioning.

Anyone want to come help??!!

View from the Deck

The weather here in the Appleton area has generally been much more mild than other places I've lived in the Midwest. It isn't Sunny Southern California and the ocean, but still a nice view!

We have pretty sunsets....

and last week just about all of our snow melted and you could see grass all around. You might even notice that the lake had lost all of the ice, except for just a few feet at the shoreline.

We really like the view from our deck! Here it is on either Friday or Saturday this past weekend.

Then Sunday came.

And we got more snow. Again.


I heard we got about 10 inches.

It's pretty. But it needs to melt.

Valentine's Weekend in Door County

Brent surprised me with a trip to Door County! He actually had some work to do there, but instead of going on some random Tuesday, alone, we went up together on Friday after work and got to stay in this wonderful Bed & Breakfast! We stayed at The Chanticleer, which I saw on a website as rated the best in Door County. I loved it! They have cabins, a guest house, and we stayed in the restored barn. It was beautiful! Each of the rooms have a different theme. They were tastefully done, with huge rooms, private bathrooms, and a double-sized whirlpool tub in each room! There was a wonderful continental breakfast delivered to our door the next morning, and if it had been just a little warmer, we could've eaten out on our own private balcony. We opted to stay inside by the working fireplace instead. :) I'm looking forward to heading back there again someday!

Brent did a couple hours worth of work on Saturday, but we had the rest of the day to tour around. Brent said that I could plan that time, so I opted for Sister Bay. When I've spent time in Door County in the past, that's one little town we tend to just drive through. There are so many things you can see or do, we always have to choose our time wisely. I knew Sister Bay has a Scandinavian history, so I thought it would help me feel like home! We had a great lunch, and a fun time in a few little shops.

We were able to do a few other fun things, but then headed towards my favorite park in Door County: Cave Point County Park. It's become my favorite spot! My friends that I usually travel there with will most likely recognize the little tiny cove that we usually take pictures around. Check out what it looks like with an almost-frozen Lake Michigan! Pretty strange, and unique, and oddly beautiful!

It had been really nice and warm during the day -I could wear just my sweater without my winter coat on, until we got towards later afternoon and right on the lake. Then, it seemed really cold all of a sudden!

I've had a number of pictures taken on this little ledge, but this time I couldn't, or wouldn't, sit down on it and dangle my legs over the side. That snow looked too cold!

We couldn't get into the "hole-in-the-rock" that my friend, LaVonne, and I have taken pictures in before. I didn't dare walk on the snow/ice/water that we inbetween those stages every few feet!

We had a great weekend, and I was so glad I got to go along with Brent, even if he worked a little bit! It was way better than him telling me later he had spent a day there without me! :)

Thanks for the fun, Sweetie! Happy Valentine's Day!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We've had a great Christmas, and this year it's lasting us quite a while. We've had Micaela here with us the last few days and we've had a great time! We are bringing her back today, but wanted to share this family picture with you first.

Peace!

Peace to you! We've been enjoying a number of Christmas celebrations around here in the past week! Brent and I were invited to Christmas parties on Friday night, Saturday night, and this afternoon. They were all lots of fun and a great blessing!

We agreed to bring desserts (or candies or treats, whatever you prefer to call them!) so we spent Thursday making the following items. It was nice to make big batches and bring similar plates to each event. I did make a Fudge Truffle Cheesecake for this afternoon's family festival at church, but didn't get a great picture.

Brent's helped get together a quartet at church that sang at today's festival. I thought I was hitting "record" on our new camera (which I LOVE!) to get a video, but I guess I still have a lot to learn about it. You'll just have to pretend that you can hear how great they sounded!

Here are a few more pictures of our Christmas tree, taken on my NEW camera! Have I mentioned yet how much I love it?


Yes, that's yours truly, and yes, I'm wearing my Vikings jacket. It takes a lot of guts to wear Vikings gear here in Packerland, but I'm brave enough to stand my ground! It's been quite the year to have to do that! Earlier on the night of this picture, I convinced Brent to take me to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Vikings game that moved unexpectedly to Detroit. Interesting!

There's a little picture of our Christmas season so far. Have a blessed Christmas week!

Thanksgiving Celebrations

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you each had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! This post will show you some pictures about our weekend, but first a few housekeeping things:

1. Yes, we're still alive!

2. I've had problems getting online with my phone. This means I can sometimes see Facebook, or even blogs, but have had a real hard time uploading any messages or commenting on other people's posts.

3. My computer has been giving me more and more problems even getting started up, until finally Brent just cleared it out and started over from scratch. It's been a big, long, ongoing hassle.

4. I love my new job. I really like my co-workers, my patients, what I actually do, and of course, THE HOURS! I feel normal again -at least as normal as I'll ever be! :)

5. Brent's been back at the appraisal firm and things seem fairly stable.

6. We've gotten much more involved at church and it's been a great way to make friends and have Appleton start to feel like home.

7. I have lots of pictures of all the things we've been doing since (gasp!) my last post in July, but being the chronological person I am, I haven't wanted to go out of order. I finally gave up so I could at least get something online, and I have high hopes for back-tracking. Someday.

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Okay, onto Thanksgiving! In fact, it turns out, this should just be labeled "Entertainment by David". I guess I didn't take a single picture of anything having to do with Thanksgiving!

We went to the Twin Cities during a snow/sleet/rainfall that made our trip an hour and a half longer than normal. We had Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Thursday, and I'm sure my mom will post a picture of that someday. Afterwards, they had agreed to watch David for my sister and brother-in-law so he entertained us for the rest of the night. Here is is with his favorite truck, carting around his other toys to make a "pile of junk" as he called it.
Getting out the Lego blocks, which helped us build a BIG tower.

My mom serenaded us throughout the afternoon.


Brent sat back, watched some football, and probably thought to himself "what did I get myself into marrying into this family?" Actually, he fits right in.

We tried to take a Christmas picture, so here is just one of the many to choose from. I don't know if we'll get around to it or not, but I guess you'll have to watch your mailboxes to see! If we don't mail them out, I'll post the ones I liked even better.

The funny part was, that this little guy REALLY insisted on being included in the picture. It's interesting how sometimes he'll ignore the camera or look away, and other times he gets super goofy. This was a goofy moment!

At least Uncle Brent goes right along with the goofy-ness.

I sure love these two and their big grins!

Early in the evening, he decided to play "bedtime" and brought a big blanket over and some books and put himself to bed on the couch.

Reading "Pajama Time".

Grandpa decided to join in on taking a little nap. I guess the only floor space to be found was in a tube. Hmmm.....

David decided to join Grandpa, and climbed right up.

Goof-ball!

I guess something on the TV caught his attention so he sat right up and stayed awhile.

Then, he got really silly and climbed through the tube to try and join Grandpa on the inside. He got a little stuck at the point you see in the picture and of course by now we were all laughing pretty hard!

After the "tube incident" we decided to build a fort. He was pretty proud of it and made a doorway so I could come in and join him. We read books by flashlight and told stories. It was fun! Don't you just love that goofy grin, too?! (I also have to add the side note that I can't look at that plaid wool blanket and not think of my Grandma. It was hers, I miss her daily, and am reminded of her often with little things like this.)

The next morning, Brent and I did some Black Friday shopping (and found some great deals on things we've been planning on for a while!), then we drove back home during some great weather. On Saturday Brent went hunting with his dad, uncle, and brother-in-law while I stayed home to work on dinner. We had invited his family over for Thanksgiving Dinner Round Two, but after the guys decided to go hunting all day I decided to just think of it as an "Andrews Family Dinner" so it would feel less stressful doing it all alone. It helped! Brent's mom and sister did bring a few things, so that sure helped too. It turns out I didn't take a single picture from our time with them so you'll just have to imagine our fun together.

Today we were able to have a fun afternoon with friends! Stan and Cheryl were in town visiting and it was SO MUCH FUN to reconnect! We go way back, with connections left and right through family, Bethel, and CLBA activities. I'm friends with each of their kids as well so it was fun to hear updates about each of them!

Well, there you have it! A little update on us, and a view of our weekend. Like I said, I'm hoping to backtrack on older pictures, but I guess I should learn not to make promises, and just surprise any of you that might still check this blog! :)