Last Call

Good Friday, fifteen years ago we moved into our house. We got home from our closing and moved right in. Our friends and family helped us celebrate Easter in our new home.  It was a beautiful weekend, much like today was,  and we spent lots of time on our new, bare, deck. Back then our recycle bin was not covered, we made an impression on the neighbors with our overflowing bin of champagne, beer, and wine bottles.  Welcome to the neighborhood!

Hard to imagine that the stretch of time between the move and now is 15 years.  I vowed that day to never move again.  I hated the back and unpacking of trucks loads, unpacking boxes, and everything that comes with moving.  This would be the third move in as many years. We had a few friends helping, but when a man walking down our street offered to help us for cash I did not hesitate to say “hell yea”.  The guys were a bit leery, but turned out to be a great decision.  He carried in most of the heavy stuff, up to the 2nd and third floor.  He really just wanted to earn some cash, and I gladly handed some over for his hard work.

When we moved back to the area, we moved into an apartment that my sister found us.  I think we moved in without ever seeing it.  We were married in June of the previous year, when we got back to Hoboken from our honeymoon there was a New York to Chicago job transfer in the mail for my husband. We moved to Chicago that fall, a paid move which was even worse, the movers wrapped and packed everything.  I mean everything, pens, garbage cans.  It was great on the front-end, but unpacking was a royal pain and made for a lot of garbage with all the packing materials.  A few months back and we decided to start looking for houses, figuring it would take about 6 months.  Well, we bought a house that first day out!  We saw a few good options, a few bad options, decided to keep looking.  Then ran across a house that was for sale by owner that was having an open house.  The rest is history, we made an offer that night.  Thank goodness we did, prices jumped astronomically over the next six months.

We’ve improved a lot of things during our years, both inside and outside. We opened up our kitchen and replaced the cold tile with hardwood to tie into the rest of the house. By far, my favorite place in the house.

We took out a useless fake fireplace to gain more wall space.  It all started with a couch.

Landscaping is a never-ending project, out backyard has had a lot of makeovers. We finally employed experts to get it to the way we wanted it to look.

Last year we got a/c installed.  Just in time for the IRS to cancel the energy tax deduction, boo!  Oh well, at least my sanity was saved, the hum of the window units literally drove me insane every summer.

Our latest project has been a long time coming.  I have been talking about it and trying to plan it out for at least a few years.  Decision paralysis set in and I kept delaying it.   The project…

Converting the bar into a home office.  My husband built the bar, and the Hackett pub has served as well over the years, but lately it has become one big junk drawer.  It is time to re-purpose it to something we will put to a lot better use. The room is small and I want it to serve a few purposes, so it has been tricky to plan out the space.  I am to the point where I just need the room empty to make my final decision. Tonight we toast one last drink. After last call and lights out, it is demolition time. Sad to see it go, but excited for a new room.

Our house turns 100 this year so there is no end in sight for the projects. It has been fun to transform this old house into our dream home.