Valentine's Day

"you must allow me to tell you how much i ardently admire and love you"

   -mr. darcy,  pride & prejudice

Since we will be moving a few short months, I have let cleaning, organizing and decorating slide.  I threw together a quick vignette for the most romantic day of the year. 

Using my DIY glitter candles leftover from Christmas and one of my all-time favorite quotes from one of the most romantic movies ever, I added in some roses the hubs surprised me with in a small mercury vase I picked up at Marshall's for two smackers.

Question of the day:  What is your favorite romantic movie?  Can we all agree that Colin Firth is the best Mr. Darcy ever?  Talk amongst yourself.

Happy Valentine's Day!
  ME

Work Uniform

I am so ready for the spring.

I am ready to wear cute shoes again.  Cute shoes with skirts.  Anything besides what I have dubbed my "uniform" of late:

Layers.  Lots and lots of layers.

Not only am I wearing a t-shirt and sweatshirt, but I also have on two pairs of pants (yoga pants under the jeans) two pairs of socks and very warm boots.

Alright Mother Nature... bring on the warmth.

Always & Forever,
  ME

Falconhead Cottage

Ok, I've made you wait long enough. 

You want to know which house we picked, right?  Of course you do.

First, lemme tell you about my weekend, Friday was so much...

What?  You don't give a damn about my weekend?  Well fine.  I'll just tell you about the house ;)

To start off with, I totally had a grand plan of taping and editing a little segment ala House Hunters with JEGs and I talking about which house we chose.  But I didn't.  So let's just pretend.

Suzanne Wong:  So which did they choose?  The hot mess of a duplex, the spacious rancher, the charming bungalow or the renovated twin?

JEGs and Lizzie:  We chose...

::images of the house popping up on screen:::
thump thump   thump thump   thump thump
thump thump thump thump thump thump..

(right about now you are thinking, alright Liz.  Let's get on with this)

The renovated twin!!

Say hello to Falconhead Cottage

On paper, this house was nothing we wanted- no garage, seriously lacking in closet space, and we didn't want to be attached to another building.  In fact, when we first drove through the neighborhood JEGs didn't even want to look at the house.  He said, "I don't want  a twin..." but I really loved the neighborhood so I begged him to just take a look. 

Once we walked through we both admitted to loving the place.  We just felt at home, and we really loved the fact that they had recently renovated.  Although I had originally wanted a fixer-upper, it feels good to know that all the major things are done so we can start working on smaller projects.

We looked at the house on a Saturday (the same day my car was rear-ended).  We did one more walk-through the following Thursday and decided to put in an offer at $5,000 below asking with a full sellers assist.  The next night (Friday) our agent called us back with their counter:  asking price with full sellers assist.  We agreed the house was worth it and accepted their counter.

We are technically under contract, and still have a few hurdles to get over, but if all goes well, settlement will be April 7th!

I've got a lot more I can't wait to tell everyone (including some project ideas we have and some a list of things every first-time home buyer should have), but I figured I would at least let you in on which house we picked!

Always & Forever,
  ME

House Hunting: Twin

 With the fourth house on our house hunting tour, JEGs and I were seeing double (get it, it's a twin??  Ba dum cheeee)

The Stats:
Built: 1927
Style: Two Story Twin
Beds/Baths: 3  1/0
Sq Ft: 1,197
Garage: No

We walked into a small, but quaint living room

Say hello to the world's most awkwardly placed fireplace

The kitchen was large and recently renovated (and very bright green)

Hmmm.. those colors look rather familiar, don't they?

Upstairs the original hardwood floors were still intact, and I adored the natural light in master bedroom.

There was a single, full bath upstairs that had been renovated as well

The second bedroom made for a spacious guest room

Kim from NewlyWoodwards-- this room made me think of you ;)

A smaller bedroom was perfect for an office

Who wants a floor plan??  You do?  Good, I have one:

Pros
We found out the current owners had completely gutted the house and renovated everything.  I'm talking besides the obvious flooring, kitchen and bathroom, all the wiring, the heating system, even the roof was under six years old. 

The neighborhood was so charming and I fell in love with it as soon as we drove through (and yes, it even had sidewalks!)

The yard was huge!

Although a fireplace wasn't on my wish list, I am starting to love the idea of having one.

I had my heart set on a fixer-upper, and even though this is renovated, there are still some things that JEGs and I can do to put our stamp on the home.

Full sized basement with Bilco doors- which is another strange thing I've always wanted.  Bilco doors, that is.  They make me feel like I have better protection in a tornado. Because Pennsylvania is riddled with twisters...

Cons
 No garage.  Whomp whomp.

It is at the very tippy top of our price range.

Negative closet space.  My clothes will probably have to go in the guest room closet.  There also isn't a linen closet or a coat closet.  Creativity will be the name of the game.

Can we all agree that is the MOST AWKWARD arrangement of a fireplace?

Only one bathroom and it's upstairs.  I'm not totally against our guest having full access to our are of showering, but I wish we could have something on the same level as the entertaining.

This pretty much concludes our house hunting/crashing.  JEGs and I have a lot to discuss, but I'm curious, what do YOU think we should pick?  The duplex, the rancher, the bungalow or this twin?  C'mon, you know that's your favorite part about House Hunters on HGTV- trying to figure out which house they choose ;)

Always & Forever,
  ME