One week left at Winifred Manor

So, we did a thing. We sold our house. We capped off nine and half years of love, updates and hard work with two-months of craziness. The last 60 days included getting out house on the market in 48-hours, staging everything with two busy toddlers under foot, and selling it 72-hours later after over twenty showings and multiple offers. We close in exactly one week and I am feeling all the feelings: sadness, excitement, anxiety, exhaustion, gratitude.

I used to joke that we would never move. Never. Like, seriously, never. Last summer, our long awaited dream of updating the exterior was complete after 4-months of Nick's hard work and 9-years of my vision. Our house had never looked more beautiful. Some days when I would pull up to the house after work I would have to pause and take in how great it finally looked. As it was completed, I should have known that finishing this project was the next step toward moving. It was the last bit of sweat equity the house needed to truly show off all we had put in over the past decade.

As we finish the mad dash of packing up our things (why do we own so much stuff?), our house isn't quite feeling like our home anymore. It is bittersweet, but it is also good. Because this home is going to house another family- one more in a long 115 years of families who have created memories, raised families and felt the comfort and protection of a solid, foundation and a roof over their head.

This last week is a transition week. It is a time to remember the excitement of two, very young adults, nearly a decade ago, getting the key for the first time and walking into the home where they would create a family. It is also a time to think of a new family continuing their story in this home, and bringing new babies into the house too, feeling that same love and excitement that we felt.

It is bittersweet, but it is also life; taking something precious, holding on to it but also letting it evolve and grow into something new that can be shared with others.

Thank you, Winifred.

Nine months in, nine months out

Dear Baby,

Nine months ago I could never imagined how much smilier, sillier and sweeter life could be. Nine months ago I was 40-weeks pregnant. I decided it was time to document my swollen belly one more time because you were due any day. 24 hours later daddy would be driving us to the hospital where you took your sweet old time making your debut another 24 hours later.

40 weeks pregnant, 4-days old and nine months old

And now look at you! You are a little tiny human. A real person. You have your likes and dislikes, and more personality than you could imagine being contained in one little baby. You are a ravenous eater and love your meat and potatoes. You turn everything into a musical instrument and sing and groove along to the music you make. You always smile, even when you are sad. You are barely a baby anymore, but you will always be my baby.

You have grown so much in nine months and I have too. My heart has grown bigger than I thought possible. I have said "I love you," more in these nine months than I have my entire life.

For 18 full months I have known you, nine months in and nine months out. And in knowing you, I know myself so much better. I know myself as a mom now, and it is hard to remember that life existed before you.

Love, Mom

"And baby makes 3..." Our Favorite Home Addition yet!

A year ago we were anxiously awaiting to see if our family would be growing. After two years of having high hopes that would be dashed each month with every negative test, we were beyond nervous. And then on August 1st, 2014 we got the call that we were finally pregnant! And thus began our favorite home improvement project to date: M's Nursery.

After over five years of living here we had never touched the small office that was right outside our bedroom. The 8x8 space with no closet is an original space to our 1903 home; complete with all four walls being made of lathe and plaster and a gas light fixture still protruding from the wall prior to the home having electricity. We never had a reason to fix the room up, so the walls were cracked, the carpet was a disaster and the character needed to be revived. It clearly needed to be made into a nursery!

I wanted a nursery that was clean, bright and functional. We chose a gray color scheme with yellow accents and chevron patterns. I fell in love with the idea of a book theme and thought that owls would be the perfect, wise little animal to pair with it!

We started by painting the walls gray, and by "we" I mean my sister flew in from Idaho and painted it for us. To make the room feel bigger we broke up the wall with chair rail near the top and painted the ceiling a bright sunflower yellow.

And then the floors came up and the hideous carpet was no more. We ripped up the old carpet to find plywood. We then ripped up the plywood to find salvageable fir floors from when the house was first built! One weekend of sanding and a few days of adding a clear coat and SHAZAAM! The nursery we had been wanting to build for years was starting to take shape. Nick really enjoyed the project and was able to rent the equipment from a local place for around $300, which included a tutorial of how to not mess it up. And not mess it up, he did! It turned out stunning!

The refinished floors turned out beautiful!

Once the floors, walls and ceiling was complete the challenging and fun part came: equipping a functional nursery when you only have an 8'x8' space to do so.

Nursery room bookshelves with M's library of stories. Photo: By Rebecca Studios

In place of a bookshelf we used BEKVÄM spice racks from IKEA to hold her library of books! At $3.99 each, simple assembly and a little paint they were perfect! 

M in her crib with her handmade artwork above. Photo credit: By Rebecca Studios

Because of the size of the room we opted for a mini crib. We loved the style of the DaVinci Annabelle and the fact that it will convert into a twin bed when M is older. The room has no closet so we purchased an extra large dresser- but one not too large for the space.

A lot of people find changing tables rarely used, but for us it was essential for added storage and to have one place to always change her because we are using cloth diapers. M's grandma found this at a thrift store and grandpa painted it up and added baskets which have added so much functionality to the room.

The changing station and storage center. Photo credit: By Rebecca Studios

Even though it was a bit bulky, we chose an armchair rocker and ottoman. I really wanted something that would grow with her and I imagine reading to her in the rocker as a toddler and cozying up on cold winter nights.

Rocking M in the arm chair, four days old. Photo credit: By Rebecca Studios

Last but not least, I wanted to do something special for M. I spent the last few weeks of my pregnancy painting for her. I am thrilled with the final result. The other day when she was waking up, I saw her looking up at them contentedly and it made my heart so happy!

Hand painted artwork for our baby girl. Photo Credit: By Rebecca Studios

There was something so therapeutic about preparing her nursery with tiny little touches to make it extra special. The "Read" canvas has actual pages from a storybook decoupaged onto it. And painting the owls for our wise little girl was my favorite art project to date.

It all came together beautifully. The late nights nursing M, rocking her to bed and reading her stories have been one of the highlights of our first few months with her. After waiting for her for so long it felt so good to create such a magical and beautiful little space that is just for her.

Our family.

Our completed, owl and book themed, tiny nursery. Photo credit: By Rebecca Studios

Happy 5 Year Houseaversary!

After a  long hiatus in the blogosphere, we're back!

Today marks the 5th Houseaversary of Winifred Manor! What an adventure it has been! We can't wait to see what the next five years have in store for us. Here is a chronicle of the projects, upgrades and rennovations we have done:

2009

• Painted walls and trim:
• The living room
• dining room
• kitchen
• entryway
• upstairs hallway
• bedroom
• back bedroom 
• downstairs bedroom (goodbye scary mural!)
• Evicted 6 mice
• Replaced the moues former home (an ancient gas stove) with a brand new stove
• Purchased an energy efficient furnace
• Fixed the toilet and broke Nick's father's back in the process 
• Sold the old shed
• Took down the box elder tree
• excavated the future driveway
• Started the garden
• Got rid of the pea gravel pit and old concrete

2010

• Adopted two yard cats that we found behind our shed
• Built a retaining wall around the driveway
• Re-vented the laundry room and rearranged the washer dryer
• Poured concrete and asphalt for our driveway
• Built a front deck
• Expanded the vegetable garden and moved all the wrought iron
• Upgraded the office
• New back door

2011

• Got married!
• Repainted the upstairs bathroom and added new fixtures
• Re-landscaped the front garden
• Brickwork on front garden sidewalk
• Upgraded our living room furniture
• Stairs to the driveway
• Added heat to the kitchen

2012

• New flooring in the entry way
• New brick patio in the front corner of the lawn
• Landscaped the front corner of the lawn
• Painted and upgraded the mud room
• More gardening!

2013

• Re-mulched EVERYTHING
• Finished the creepy basement and installed a home theater system
• Carpet for the basement
• Celebrated Winifred Manor's 110th birthday
• Got rid of the chain link rusty fence and replaced the front with a no-maintenance, white picket fence
• Re-landscaped the side garden
• Built a cedar planter box for our bean and pea garden
• Upgraded our bedroom furniture
• MORE GARDENING!!!

There is so much more in store! Perhaps we will finally hang the door that goes from the guest bathroom to the guest room?

Our next plans include:

• gutters
• a garage
• tearing up the old sidewalk and laying brick
• Upgrading the kitchen, DIY style 

Thanks for following our homeowner journey!

Farmer's Market Finds

From April-October we walk to the West Side Farmer's Market and the St. Paul Farmers Market (well, except for the weekend we were feeling lazy and drove) every weekend.  We change our entire meal-planning and grocery shopping to include fresh veggies as the staple of our food.  It is healthy and fun because each weekend is a different adventure! 

Here is our find from a few weeks ago!  Fresh cucumbers, garlic, green beans and salt wort (the best salad topping ever!).

It was fun to get creative with our $7 worth of produce!  We made cucumber and greenbean pickles, added some of the cukes and garlic to a homemade gazpacho and made a few tasty salads.
I will post some of my favorite pickling recipes soon!

Soggy Spring

What a wet, wet, wet, cloudy, wet spring we have had.  This gardener, along with every other gardener I am sure, is sick of the soggy, sun-less days.  My garden is also getting increasingly agitated with the weather, and I believe that the seedlings are protesting by just not growing at all.  June gloom has been the theme of the month, and I hope that come July we will see some happy rays of sunshine.

What is curious is that the seedlings I started inside, babying them to become strong enough to withstand Mother Nature's mood swings, are hanging in there but are still not thriving  I have done everything to make them happy, to no avail.  My accidental garden though, is thriving. 

When I say "accidental garden" I do mean that by some random chance, and with no doing of my own, we have discovered a thriving patch of vegetable seedlings that we never planned for or planted.  Our compost pile that we have been using for the past three years finally fell apart- the palettes we used rotted away, so we decided to move the compost into our planter box as a the base for our soil.  We were out of town for a week, and when we came back, we found what looked like gourd plants, everywhere!  Somehow the seeds of the many pumpkin, zucchini and cucumbers that we had thrown into the compost found the perfect home in our compost.  So now we have at least ten mystery gourds in the planter box and another 15 growing in what is left of the compost pile.

We also discovered that our chamomile plant from last year must have dropped seeds too, because we have about 7 or 8 different chamomile seedlings growing as well!  

How is that for irony?  The seedlings I have worked so hard for are barely surviving and the ones I didn't plant, are huge and beautiful.  I guess nature does what it wants sometimes!

White Picket Fence, Part II

Our fence installation is complete!  The rusty fence and fear of getting tetanus from the old fence is no more.  We now have a beautiful, maintenance free fence that actually serves a purpose and fences in the yard now instead of merely separating the sidewalk from our property.

We knew that it would look great to get rid of the old chain-link, but had no idea that it would look as good as it does!  Winifred Manor is on its way!

The garden is looking better than ever, we have done massive clean up of the old junk that seemed to accumulate and soon a fresh shipment of red mulch will be delivered to really make the garden pop.  I think it might be time for a garden party, no?

White Picket Fence

We bought a fence today!  In the next few weeks the old, rusty, chain link monstrosity that has lined our yard will be hauled away and replaced with a beautiful, maintenance-free picket fence.  I know it is cliche but I have always wanted a white picket fence.  We have been wanting to redesign our exterior for a while, but it is never a priority and it is so expensive.  This will be a nice start.

As the fence is getting installed we are going to start stripping the paint on our window sills and repainting with exterior paint.  Not interior paint.  I shouldn't have to be so specific, but apparently no one was specific in the past when they painted our sills and thought that interior paint was sufficient.  It was not.  I don't care if it is lying around- don't ever use interior paint on the window sills.  Because then they peel.  And rot.  And get carpenter ants.  And you will be forced to repaint all your trim, and ain't nobody got time for that, but I guess we will have to make time. 

While we are doing that we are hoping to install new shutters on all the windows.  In a perfect world, depending on how the summer goes, I also want to add fish-scaling to the peek of our home and a gable.  I will upload a sketch of what I hope we can accomplish this year on the exterior.  It isn't the total redesign I want, but that will have to wait until more important projects are done- like that pesky garage.  And replacing the upstairs bathroom.  And dry-walling the entrance to the theater.

Another day, another project.

Seedling Status: Failure

I don't know what the deal is.  I can't keep my seedlings wet to save my life... or their life I guess.  I think our house is way to dry and the lamp we are using is too hot.  They were sprouting so great and suddenly dried up and fried even though I have been diligent with spraying them.  Perhaps the spray bottle isn't getting them enough as well.

Either way, I would say that a quarter of the 98 cells are salvageable.  I added new seeds to most of them to see if I can still have some luck.  With the way our three April blizzards have gone, I am not very optimistic for May, so I think that I still have time.

Luckily there is a plant trade on May 11th at the community garden so hopefully I can get some seed starts there!

sNOOOOOOOw

Snow?  Really?  In April?  Minnesota, c'mon...