Fall Yard Cleanup

It's truly amazing just how many leaves you can rake up in a lot that's only 0.1 acre.  I suspect that the hedges around the edge of our back "yard" form a nice leaf-catcher.

Here's the product of two Sundays' worth of raking and bagging:

12 bags full!

It's kind of funny how we do this every year in this part of the country, and we're just accustomed to having to do it.  And interesting to feel obliged to do your part in a neighborhood!  I have fond memories of jumping in piles of leaves as a kid, and I'm glad we'll have enough yard and no shortage of leaves for our kids to jump in.

Here's a shot of the front of the house, post raking:

And now you all know that we're Friends of the Woburn Public Library!

A Beautiful Autumn Saturday

It's just a gorgeous fall day.  We walked around the back pond at Horn Pond, which is less than 1/2 mile from our house.  The community gardens have been put to bed, the leaves are changing and falling, the sun is out, and there's a brisk chill in the air.  The geese and swans are still in town, though.

Food Adventures: Burritos!

This morning, after breakfast, we did a burrito assembly line.

We've talked about making batches of burritos before, and we recently made a couple extra burritos after having taco night leftovers.  We've both made and frozen batches of burritos in the past and thought it would be a great way to stock the freezer for work lunches.  Last night was Date Night, and this week we had dinner at Market Basket and then went grocery shopping.  I know, very hip, eh?!  But it was lots of fun.  There's a prepared foods counter and grill separate from the deli -- I got a tasty turkey and muenster sandwich, and Ben got a cheeseburger.  We shared some mozzarella sticks, mmm.  And we sat at the little café tables, eating our dinner and stabilizing our blood sugar before braving the hordes of people searching for grocery deals at MAHket Basket.

A nice surprise was watching the Veteran's Day college basketball game ESPN was broadcasting from the USS Carl Vinson.  I'm not usually a fan of basketball, but it's pretty cool to watch a game being played on an aircraft carrier, with the president in attendance!

So this morning, after eating our own breakfast burritos, we started up the burrito line and made about 12 to freeze.

Make sure you heat them up first -- makes it easier to roll them. Just 30 seconds will do.

Chop chop!

I could do this in my sleep!

:)

Here's how we do it:

Don't fill them too full, or they'll go everywhere when you start to roll.

Fold up from the bottom and squeeze that bottom tortilla flap over the filling. Then fold in the sides, and finish up rolling.

Tada! Ready to wrap in foil.

Labeled and ready to store in the empty tortilla bags. (Some have chicken and rice and some have egg. All of them are delicious.)

"It's like 12 meals at Chipotle!" --Ben

The cleanup crew awaits...

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true...

It's looking like a lovely fall day. Probably a good day to take out the air conditioner.

Probably also a good day for raking and sweeping leaves.

We love burritos!

And that's it for Burrito Saturday -- time to go play outside!

Before and After: The Study

I'm sorry it's been so long since our inaugural post! This fall has been pretty hectic at 16 Morse. We've kept working on the house, slowly but surely, and finally have something major to show for it as of today: the study renovation is done!

Here's what the study looked like on one of our first walkthroughs:

View entering the study from the dining room. Lots of dark wood paneling, only one window. We were pleasantly surprised by the nice light it gets later in the day, though (it's a west-facing window).

The laminate flooring continues in here from the living and dining rooms, which is nice. So is the old wood trim. But it's still very dark in here.

We decided that this would be the study, which would be my "office" and where we'll put the household files as well. We also knew immediately upon viewing this room that we'd need to paint it. We decided to use the same paint we got for the living room -- a nice pale coffee color called "Tightrope." Subtle yet classy, neutral yet warm!

It was hard to paint while storing some boxes in the study, so we ended up pushing things against two walls while painting the other two first. That method worked pretty well, but made it take longer. Here are some halfway shots:

Window wall and long wall are done, including trim. And random pipe to nowhere.

One more wall to go!

Cords to the cable modem and router that I kept tripping over, and the one wall left. The last wall, on the right, is the one we decided not to paint.

We decided not to paint the last wall.  Well, I decided -- it's a different type of paneling and it didn't take to being sanded well at all. (We sanded first so that the paint wouldn't slip or peel off the paneling -- great tip from Gayle and Frank!) And since I was doing the last of the painting, it helped it be done faster. :) That's the wall to the dining room, and we'd like to do something else with it in the not terribly distant future anyways, so there you go.

And now for the finished paint job and organized setup, just finished today:

Tada! It's done!

Desk setup and storage.

Window treatments make things homey. I bought these curtains while living up in Pepperell and never used them!

My old maps from teaching Latin finally get put to use again.

Corkboard salvaged from the old office purge. Maybe it will help us track takeout menus??

It's amazing how finishing one full room can really help you feel like you've accomplished something. Now the printer has a proper home, rather than the dining room table or a chair in the corner. And I've unpacked my iMac and desk (ahhhh) and a bunch of books. Things are coming together!

Our goal is to have the first floor unpacking/organizing/improvements done or nearly done in time for Thanksgiving holiday visitors, and we think that will really motivate us to get even more things done. Watch for more posts soon!

Welcome Home

We are beyond delighted to be posting our first blog entry on our new house blog! We finally closed on the house at the very end of June, after four long months of paperwork and bureaucratic you-know-what. It's been a couple months since then, and we've been distracted by contractors, moving, and starting to settle in.

We thought we'd start with the story of how we found the house.  Ben found it late February/early March on Redfin.com while poking around one snowy afternoon.  It's not far from where Ben has been living with his parents -- actually, it's about 1/2 mile from their house. It was an amazing price for the location, so we drove by on the way to a walk. We didn't get a good look (someone was outside at the house next door and we didn't want to look creepy), so I suggested we drive by again on our way home. This time, we parked and talked to a neighbor cleaning snow off her car. We learned that the house had indeed been on the market for a long time, and we saw the sign in the door indicated it was a HUD REO. When we looked that up back at home and found some additional listings for the property, we learned that this means it's owned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (which happens when they foreclose on someone with an FHA loan).

During the next week, until we could schedule a viewing with our favorite local real estate agent (Carrie Simpson!), I also learned that I could definitely get a mortgage. (I'd never tried before, and it was liberating and scary!) We toured the house with Carrie, Gayle (Ben's mom), and Frank (Ben's step-dad), and fell in love. It was clearly not winterized properly, and though it wasn't trashed, it was a little rough around the edges. It's also a pretty small lot. But we didn't care. It's extremely well sited on the lot and seems well built. Even though the house itself is old and some of the more recent updates are worn, we love how it's designed and what it offers to us in terms of location. We're young and energetic, and believed we were prepared to do the work necessary to get the house and then work on the house itself.

From the beginning of March right through June, we did paperwork, more paperwork, waited, sent more paperwork, etc. etc. etc. The peculiarities of a very old property, a HUD-owned property, and our FHA 203(k) Streamline loan made for a lot of details to sort out. We had a lot of help along the way, and we appreciated it!

At one point, due to just one person using the term "shared driveway" on one document (the appraisal), we had to go through a couple weeks of getting someone authoritative to explain to the bank that it's just not shared (it abuts) and that's why there is no shared driveway agreement to be found in any records for this 161+-year-old house.

And finally, we got word that we were clear to close. We closed on June 29. Ben managed to document the surprisingly fast closing (37 minutes!) for posterity.

Grabbing a quick lunch at the great Irish pub near the closing lawyer's office. I'm nervous!

I sign like crazy and laugh at the hilariously quirky HUD guy (whose name I never got) as Carrie looks on.

Closing is done -- we're officially homeowners!

Toby checks out the mudroom, complete with second row seating from the minivan and Ben's shoes. It's like we already live here!

I wax poetic about the mudroom's kitschy light fixtures.

Celebratory wine and cheese, courtesy of dear friend Caroline and the nearby Whole Foods Market.

Frank stops by to check things out -- he hadn't been inside the house since the first weekend in March, whereas we've been through it several times with contractors and such during the loan process. I'm thinking about whether we want to paint the ceilings or not. We don't. The wood paneling is enough to deal with!

16 Morse, from the street, with apple tree in bloom (early May)

That's all for now. We've got our work cut out for us as the contractors finish up the plumbing/heating work and we finish painting and moving and unpacking and flooring the master bedroom. Our next posts will document the sanding and painting of various dark wood paneling in multiple rooms and other improvements we've made already.

We can't wait to show you our new home! Please comment and share ideas, helpful tips, or whatever else.