August In Review

How are we here at the end of summer already? 

Not that I'm complaining...

It's been another whirlwind of a month here at Ingleside House, and finally, finally things are starting to slow down in the project department... Which feels amazing.

A peek into my planner will tell you:

+ That I had some sweet coffee dates/lunches with friends...old and new. This introvert craves one-on-one times so much more than parties and socials and meetings. It's the quiet, heart-connecting moments that feed my soul, and with all the chaos that's been going on with home renovations of late, it was especially nice to carve out time to get together with friends more regularly again.

+ We enjoyed visits from family - our grandparents, aunt, and cousins came down to visit from Ohio! It was so much fun to share our new home with them, and catch up on what has been happening in their lives.

+ Had a nice little glamping trip in Patty. Such a needed relaxing weekend...

+ We enjoyed visiting family - headed down to SC to visit my parents, sisters, and nieces, and had a blast celebrating birthdays, getting to know my sister's new home and neighborhood, playing with our sweet nieces, and sneaking in a little downtime.

+ I had my first high school senior photo sessions for the Class of 2018! I love celebrating the milestone of senior year and capturing the essence of who my clients are in this season of life.

+  Finally! Some long awaited furniture pieces have arrived: our dining room table, and two side chairs. The dining room is starting to look like a livable room now and not just a catch-all!

And now here we are on the threshold of fall, and I couldn't be more excited! But August, you've been pretty good to us... Thanks for the memories!

Ingleside Rising

Wow. It's been quite the arduous journey getting to this place. But I'm so grateful to finally be approaching the finish line in the house hunting marathon of 2016/17.

It seems we've found our Ingleside in the City!

The day we first set foot in Ingleside, we had toured two other maaaaajor fixers. Like, woah. Nearly gut jobs! They both had low ceilings and really dark interiors, so I think what hit us most dramatically inside the door of our future home were the bright cheerful windows, and the more-than-adequately high ceilings and doorways for my 6+ foot guy. We looked at each other and smiled before we were even out of the foyer (yes, it has a foy-yay! ;-)). I think even then...we just knew.

Once we started adjusting our course toward looking at existing homes, we planned on finding a house that needed some renovation work so that we could build our own particular style into the place. This house however, had already been reno-ed inside 13 years prior (the exterior is a different story, so there will still be plenty of opportunity to get our hands dirty!). We were a little disappointed in this scenario, but the decisions the owner made were tasteful enough, and not at all extreme or offensive- even though they may not be what we would have chosen ourselves. We started instantly envisioning our life there!

So we thought and prayed about it a. lot. Made an offer that was rejected. Walked away. Thought and prayed about it some more. And eventually came back and made a second offer that was actually accepted. Of course all of that took place over many weeks...such an oversimplification of the agonizing process to spare you six or seven paragraphs ;-)! Ha!

Now here are some bullet points:

What we love:

+ It's old! She'll turn 100 in just a few years! So: CHARACTER.

+ There is a huge wrap around porch *swoon*

+ A guest apartment is already built and ready to go in the basement!

+ There is a fireplace (though, gas... womp-womp)

+ It has the space to potentially have an in-home photography studio(!!) 

+ The floors are original, and delightfully creaky

+ Every room is pretty bright and cheerful

+ Walk up attic

+ Lots of off-street parking

+ Plenty of room and sunlight for gardening (and chickens!)

+ A place for Patty

+ The location is really the ringer: we will be less than a block from a darling village-within-a-city. Living in a small walkable "main street" area has always been a dream of ours...though we usually attached that dream to living in New England. You just never know how your life will piece together, do you? But steps from our front porch are an old renovated movie theatre, several great restaurants, a park, farmer's market, and local greenway trail. We're excited to move right into the heart of a micro-community!

What dreams are coming true:

+ Community, yet space. A busy foot path runs in front of our house-to-be and we love the opportunity that might afford to meet people and socialize, yet we are not in a neighborhood, and therefore have found some "breathing room" in the city.

+ Less outdoor landscaping upkeep. Once we get the outside spruced up and landscaped, we think it will be much less day-to-day doing, and much more day-to-day enjoying! Plus: paved parking! *cue jazz hands* - Our long gravel driveway at Windy Poplars was a HUGE (never-ending) maintenance load for Jesse.

+ Living in a home with character and a history

+ Having separate rent-able guest quarters (Who wants to live with us??! We are taking on a long term renter at least for the first year.)

+ Room to entertain, host small groups/workshops, and easy parking for those guests

+ A destination out of town family will actually enjoy visiting (close proximity to so many fun things!)

+ Supports our current businesses well

+ We can have chickens! (Ok, maybe this was MY dream, not so much my husband's ;-))

+ They deliver the mail right to your front door. Might seem like a little insignificant checkbox, but it's always been on my bucket list (after walking an uphill tenth of a mile to get the mail everyday for thirteen years)! Ha!

At this point, we're still in the waiting-to-close stage, answering a million emails a day from realtors, inspectors, lenders, and contractors, and hoping that everything shakes down quickly and without too much drama. But we are so excited to jump into the adventure of making this house our home!!

Moving On...

Those words have a double meaning in our life these days...

The first is a feeble explanation of our path to finding our way back to "normalcy" without our Chester-boy. Is there an acceptable time for grieving the loss of a furry member of your household? I feel the world readily hands you an empathetic handkerchief for maybe a week or ten days, and then your allotted time for pet-grief is over and you are expected to jump back in the saddle and carry on.

But the hole is still there. Still deep. Still smarting. Our life is not the same. Nor will likely ever be, yet, each day we try to slap on a bandaid and pretend that all is well. Yes, we're so grateful to still have our little Caroline, God bless her, but she is not a dog who connects with you. She's not loyal (if you let her lick you as long as she wants, you shoot instantly to the top of her "favorite persons" list...until the next person lets her lick them with abandon...). She's not really attached to either one of us. Sometimes it seems she's more excited for a stranger walking by our door than she is for us to get home from work. She doesn't sense human emotion. She doesn't really care if she pleases you or not. She isn't a cuddler. She isn't a comforter. She isn't obedient. She's just her own dog, doing her own thing, and at best, she's happy to have a roof and some food each day (I guess?) so she can go back to doing her own thing.

She's cute. She's sweet. She isn't Chester.

So moving on also looks like accepting her for who she is, and not being constantly disappointed in what she's not.

I guess it's getting a little easier? It ebbs and flows.

Strangely, when Chesterberry left us, all my words seemed to just dry up without warning. Somehow the part of my heart that he resided in shut down the epicenter of creativity. And once he was gone, there wasn't anything left that wanted to write, make music, dream, take pictures, arrange flowers, to do anything that usually brings me such daily creative joy and fulfillment.

But now that paralysis is starting to slowly lift. Like a spring thaw, I feel the urge to tap into that part of me again. And it helps me feel so much more like myself. I'm grateful.

The other "moving on" in our life is quite literal. As the time frame to build our new home narrowed to a sliver and then sealed itself away within the constraints of our floft lease, we decided to turn our attentions to existing houses that needed renovation work.

We've looked at a fair few now. Some were snatched right out from under us, others needed more imagination than even I could muster (and I've got quite the healthy imagination! ha!), and some were simply the dreaded word: fine. Oh may I never be accused of settling for something that is "fine" in my life.

There is this one though... She spoke to us the minute we walked through the door. But then our practical friends and advisers (and bank account) started drowning out her voice... Inside she's looking mighty fine for her age: just shy of 100. But outside, she's rather an ugly duckling, with mostly ugly duckling neighbors.
Sure, there are lots of interior concessions too: greenish granite I'm not fond of...three separate entrances to the master bathroom(???)...two doors that lead to nowhere...a gas log fireplace (wood burners unite!!)...a huge front porch that needs to be fully redone...oh, and stairs...did I ever mention that stairs and I are arch enemies?

A Pride and Prejudice quote comes to mind: "But all this would be nothing...if you truly loved him(her)..."

Is she practical? No. Is she pretty? Not outside. Is she tiny? Definitely not. Is she an enormous risk that we might end up hugely regretting? Heck yeah. But in a roundabout way she still manages to tick a lot of the boxes on our list. And beyond all that, remember,

she speaks to us.

So.

We'll see where the next week takes us. We have four other homes to look at on Monday, and then we really should make a decision on this old girl. Unless of course someone else has, before we're through with all our characteristic hemmin' and hawin'...

One foot in front of the other...Right?! We're movin' on.