Monday, March 4, 2013

A sweet gift and the perfect home

Late last week, we got a very sweet card from the friend who gave a new home to our treadmill.  After we stopped drooling over her absolutely flawless penmanship, we saw the gift inside.


Does she know us or what?  She's such a great girl and said she hoped I could make something delicious.  So when we did our grocery haul yesterday, I got a filet mignon that I'll coat in a peppercorn crust, sear off and finish in the oven tomorrow night.  We also splurged on a bag of dark chocolate peanut butter salted caramel truffles which taste like heaven.  I also ended up grabbing some pesto gouda which is going to be AMAZING in something; I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with it. It took off a good chunk of our bill which we were grateful for.  Even when I think I'm spending less, I still end up with $120-$150 worth of stuff from that place.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned that we're open house junkies.  If we don't have anything planned for a Sunday, we'll go out and about in what I'm hoping will be our future neighborhood and see what's out there.  There have only been two homes that have given us that pit in our stomach that it could be "the one."  One of those was yesterday.  It stinks when we find a place that feels right.  There were a few signs that someone up there was trying to make us think long and hard about phoning the agent to see if they would consider a contingent offer.  They have our exact same bathroom mirror which isn't one of kind but also not common, our specific bamboo blinds and even a little hedgehog painted in the kids room.  (The "hoggie" was our dog's favorite toy, she was buried with it.)  It had room for an 80's arcade and a home gym which are both prerequisites.  The kitchen would need to be gutted because, well, it's ugly but lots of natural light for picture taking.  Sigh.  I know, some people would say "jump on it!"  But unfortunately there is shaky ground at the Mr's work which means making life changing decisions isn't a good idea right now.  The house won't be on the market long.  This particular area is in the city and never suffered the effects of the recession.    But I do make sure I keep the addresses of the places that give us that "willy in the tummy" feeling and when we're ready to sell and make the leap, we'll see if by some planet aligning coincidence they're on the market again.  Something tells me people aren't in their homes as long as we have...almost 17 years.

It was a nice weekend.  I spent some quality time with the Mr and we had fun going shopping.  It was certainly better than last weekend when we almost choked each other from boredom.

What did you do this weekend?  Anything fun?  Boring?  In between?

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17 comments:

  1. Keeping those addresses isn't a bad idea at all. My folks have been in their home 37 years this summer, and we will have been in ours 11 in June and plan on staying a good while. Many people don't seem to have that kind of longevity though. It's possible that this place could have turned over a couple times before your ready.

    I hope everything works out at the Mr.'s work. It's a scary time.

    Nothing exciting here this weekend.

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    1. Wow, that's awesome! I thought we were the only people who have stayed in their home so long. Of course when we initially bought, we said "we'll be here 3 years or so." Uh...yeah. :)

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    2. I have spent the last 4 weekends painting every inch of trim in my house. Very tedious and exhausting and it looks fantastic! Boring but needed to be done and I don't like to pay people to do things I can do myself. My BIL came over and fixed my overhead kitchen light which has been out for oh like 8 months! A good weekend, but up 3!

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  2. She is the best person I could have ever chosen to take the treadmill. I know it's just a treadmill but I got attached to it and am happy it has a great home. It was very nice of her to get us that card though and we did get some yummy stuff!

    I seriously want you to talk to the realtor but yeah, worst timing ever. I guess we'll stick to the plan and hope it all works out in the end...

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    1. Definitely. Love that girl. I know you got attached and we know she will take care of it for sure...better than the alternative. I can't wait to make some of this yummy stuff! Who knows, maybe once we ride the tide with the work stuff, we can see if it's still on the market.

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  3. I hope everything works out for the Mr. It would be nice to feel stable AND be able to buy a nice, new home.

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  4. Pesto gouda? YES PLEASE! That sounds like it was made for a grilled cheese. Sorry about the house--it's the worst when you find THAT house and then for whatever reason, you can't jump on it.

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    1. Oh girl, it is SOOOOO good. Get thee to a Trader Joe's asap. I was going to make a grilled cheese with it but got lazy. Yeah, I figure if it's still available once the storm passes maybe we'll think about pulling the trigger.

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  5. That is so sweet of her and the perfect gift..I love when people give amazing gifts..I remember moving coast to coast and a friend gave me a walmart /target gift card for the starting stash of cleaning agents and stuff...so much more practical than a nordstorm gift card!! hehehe...but still the thought counts but when its so perfect it makes it all the better!!

    houses..i am going nuts..coz we plan to buy in a year or so...i look at every listing in so much detail...i might go crazy:)...

    had a good weekend..learnt basic beading from my mom's friend who wa svisiting..cant wait to make my own!!

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    1. Yeah me too! What a great gift from your friend too. I love practical gifts! Isn't it funny how hooked you can get to Realtor.com or similar sites? Ooh, I wanna see pics when you start making your own stuff!

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  6. Good idea to keep the addresses. Planets have a way of aligning in the most delightful ways!

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    1. That's what I thought. The first one we felt was truly our dream home needed a LOT of remodeling so maybe they'll do the work and we'll benefit!

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  7. Perfect gift for you guys! Pesto gouda sounds good--we'll be in TJ land in a couple weeks when we go for our oldest daughter's surgery so I'll have to check it out! Hope things at Mr.'s work stabilize and that you guys get your dream home some day!

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    1. Oh girl, do yourself a favor and pick some up. It is heaven! I think it's only for St. Patty's Day (though it isn't Irish) so I might pick some extra up to freeze!

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  8. The last time I saw any statistics on it, when I was still a real estate broker, the average time in a home was 7 years. That was before the housing market tanked, but when you consider all those people who are in one home forever, that means there's still some rapid turnover somewhere. By all means, keep those addresses!
    As for fun, we went to see the daVinci machines exhibit. I was a lot happier with our bargain tickets before we had to pay $10 to park, but next time we'll know to park far enough away to both get some exercise and avoid that gouging. The machine models were fantastic! Amazing what he was able to understand so very long ago-centuries ahead of his time.

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    1. Yeah the last I heard was 3-5 so I wonder if that was more when there was the boom and people are staying in their homes longer. Sounds like you had a fun weekend but yeah they really zap you on parking don't they!?

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