Deal Island

My friend Lynne & I decided we deserved a girls' weekend away. We spent hours researching vacation rentals until finally she found this one and booked it for a weekend in mid-September. The price was right, and Lynne said it was not far from Annapolis, maybe 90 minutes away. She invited her friends Lisa and Trish, researched the area and made plans for us to hit the bars, and even got us invited to a catered party. The night before we left, she Googled the directions and discovered it wasn't in Deal, Maryland after all. It was in Deal Island, Maryland... three and a half hours away!

Obviously we had to go anyway, though we were disappointed that the place was at the end of nowhere, not even close to the parties and clubs we had imagined. When we got there, the cottage wasn't quite what the photos led us to believe, either! It was way smaller than it looked in the internet pictures. But we figured, what the heck, we'll only be here 2 days anyway. How big a space do we really need?

We asked Arby, the caretaker and guru of the island, where the swinging hot spots were, and he directed us to Lucky's, the local general store/bar. We made friends with the bartender there, who looked like Britney Spears might look in 10 years, and a couple of the 3 or 4 locals who popped in, and told them the story of how we ended up there. Before we knew it, the whole town had heard of us and was coming by to meet us. When we showed up the next night, because there truly was nothing else to do anywhere remotely close by, the whole town was there. Strangers were coming up and asking us, "So are you the Lost Girls? I heard about you!" It was so funny. The locals were friendly and real sweet. One of the crab men got us a whole basket of crabs for free, and I swear we didn't pay for one drink the whole time we were there.

We joked for a long time about being the Lost Girls of Deal Island, and Lisa & Trish actually talked about going back again, ha ha. But next time I get the chance for a girls' weekend away, I'm saving up and renting a beach house somewhere near civilization!

Housewarming

We waited till after school started so everyone would be back from vacations, and to give us plenty of time to get the house set up as much as possible. The party was lots of fun; the weather was perfect, and everyone enjoyed mingling on the deck. We cooked out under the carport so as not to take up space on the deck, which was a great idea. Everyone's kids played in the woods, and only came up for more soda, and when we made them come eat. They found a rope swing that I didn't even know was there, and cleared out an area to swing in. One of our friends went to test the solidity of the lean-to, and when he shook it, it fell down! Better that way than while someone's kid was sitting under it!

More Beach ...

We can't get enough of Wrightsville Beach... It was awesome having Jesse and Colleen there with us this year. The plan is to get us all together, Jill & Jeremy and their kids too, in the next couple years. Get a big beach house and all spend a fun and relaxing week on the beach!

Here we see Colleen and Jesse getting ready to do some boogie boarding; Marla, Charles and Jesse taking a break from the waves; and Bailey, Kip and Colleen playing in the surf. What a fun time!

Jenga!

Nobody else wanted to play Jenga, so it was just Lon, Bailey, Kip and me... We played until I finally lost a game, ha ha. Lon didn't like any of the pictures I took of him, so here's Bailey and Kip, and me.

Summer Vacation 2009

Here we are once again at Marla's in Wilmington, NC. This year we were joined by her son Jesse and his wife Colleen, who has a 3-month-old baby bump! We spent several absolutely perfect days at Wrightsville Beach, and one at Topsail Beach. We've never had this many days of gorgeous weather in a row, and totally cool water conditions too. It's going to be really hard to wait another whole year to do this again!

Ouch!

Our friends Susie & Eric came over last night with their two daughters. Haleigh is Kip's age and Delaney is 2 years older. They used to live across from us in the townhouses in Manassas, but moved to a house locally several years ago. Anyway, they brought pizza and we showed them our new house. Kip took the girls down to his camp, and Delaney stepped on a plank with nails pointed up (of course). A nail went right through her flip-flop, and probably at least an inch into her foot! She hobbled back up to the house and we sat her on the edge of the tub and cleaned & peroxided her foot, then bandaged it up. I hope she'll be okay! She didn't want to leave though, so she lounged on the couch while the men watched Orioles baseball and the other women hung out at the dining room table with the fruit tray and cheeses & crackers (and wine).

Here is Delaney after the injury, Eric & Lon watching the game, and Susie and Haleigh at the table. You can tell by the guys' expressions that the O's lost...

14th Birthday

Kip turned 14, and he didn't want any kind of party or special day... I was a little disappointed, and maybe just a tad concerned at first. But we settled for having a friend over to spend the night. Lon took off work yesterday, and he & Kip went to the mall, where he bought a new PS2 game, Dirge of Cerberus. Then they went to the movies and saw Ice Age 3 - Dawn of the Dinosaurs. This morning I gave him my gift, the hair straightener he's been wanting! Lon thought it was a gag gift, but no, I don't spend that much on a joke. Here are before and after pictures. Did I ever mention he hates his curls?!
Before we picked up his friend Anthony, we drove to the Guitar Center in Fairfax and finally bought the guitar Kip has waited for so patiently. It wasn't a birthday present though; Lon had promised it to him if he brought his grades up to A's. Kip's final report card for 8th grade was all A's except for one B+! So he got his new Epiphone G400 SG and all the accessories, which he paid for himself: a hard case, floor stand, and glass slide with which to play "Free Bird". He can't wait till his next guitar lesson!

Cleaning off the roof

The first big thunderstorm in our new house had Niagara Falls coming off the carport roof. So Lon & Kip had to get up there and clean off the roof, find out where the gutter covers failed, and snake out a downspout. It's great when your child is old enough and big enough to help with adult chores. I think he kind of had fun, walking on the roof...

Moved in!

The house is finally ours, and we're 90% moved in. Moving day was the day from HELL. It took Marla, Kip, Lon and me, plus the two men I hired, twelve hours to load the truck up, drive two exits west on the highway, and unload. Even then, there was still stuff on the truck, but we were so exhausted, we had to get up the next morning and finish up so I could take the UHaul back in time to avoid being charged for a second day. We never even got to the storage unit...have to do that another day.

Here's a few pictures. Everything is not all the way unpacked yet, and things will be moved around and re-arranged. But we're not living out of boxes any more! Looking from the breakfast room through the kitchen to the dining room. The living room needs a centerpiece for the mantel, and I have just the thing -- if I can only find which box it's in... Kip & I cleaned out his camp, and he's looking forward to having his friends over to hang out. Meanwhile, Lon & I are almost ready to have our friends over to hang out on the deck. Blizzard is happy to be able to chase deer right from the back door!

For Sale, Part 4

I need to record all this somewhere, and this seems to be a good outlet. Sorry it's going to be long-winded, , and no pictures.
Since the last post about the house, where closing was set for Friday, June 19th, a lot has happened. First, the appraisal on our TH came back $5000 lower than our selling price. Our buyer's lender will only finance up to the appraisal price, so we had to lower our price. Second, in all the mountain of papers we had to go through and sign, somehow Lon & I neglected to lock in our rate, and it went up enough to make our monthly payment beyond our means. We all were devastated! That was already our house, in our minds! So we wiped our tears and started looking again, half-heartedly. Then John & Vicki went around to everyone involved and got them all to kick in a little here and a little there, and by golly, we'll be able to swing it after all! YAY!! Closing was moved to Tuesday, June 23rd.
Marla had originally planned to come help us move, and then take Kip back to NC with her on Saturday, but when things changed, we decided she could come on Monday and take Kip on Wednesday. I got on the phone and re-scheduled the UHaul, the mover helpers, all the utilities being turned off at the TH and turned on at the new house...
Then Verizon calls and tells me that the "bundle" of services I had ordered won't work because they don't provide high-speed internet at the new address. Sigh. I call Comcast, and they don't either. Try Cox Cable. I call Cox, they don't service Prince William County at all. That's Verizon and Comcast. Ha ha ha! (crazy laugh) Now I start googling satellite companies and getting rates and information. The other possibility is an "air card" through AT&T. We decide to wait and see what the neighbors use and how they feel about it. Can I go a week or more with no internet at home?! Gasp! Pant! Sweat! (Yes, I am addicted... mostly to Facebook.)
Monday came and we got a phone call from our realtors, Vicki & John. Our buyer's lenders again. Something about some paperwork... blah blah blah... closing will be delayed till Wednesday or Thursday. Okay, I need to know which day! I can't schedule anything for "maybe this day or that day". So they set it for Thursday. This was a problem for Lon, since his office was moving to a new building at the end of the week and he needed to be there! I assured him that if I could pull off that surprise party for him, and take care of scheduling and rescheduling this whole move, then I could certainly direct a couple of guys to load up some furniture & boxes, and then unload them at the destination. Go to work and feel confident that all is well.
All wasn't well. Wednesday we get another call. Seems that someone at the lender's office dropped the ball. Paperwork still isn't completed, signed off on, reviewed, whatever... They need 3 days. Friday, Monday, Tuesday. Closing will be Wednesday, July 1st at the earliest. In fact, they aren't real sure about that, but it can't be any later than Thursday, July 2nd, because that's when our contract on the house runs out! The owner can then decide whether to wait on us or not. Most likely he will, since he won't want to start all over again, putting the place back on the market, but it's entirely up to him. Well, let's make it for Thursday then, the last possible day. I get back on the phone and call everyone again: the movers, UHaul, Verizon, NOVEC, Washington Gas, PWCSA, Dominion Power, Direct TV... did I forget anyone? I hope not, or else something might get shut off before we want it to, and it had better not be the air-conditioning!
Now, if closing does go off as scheduled this time, we'll be trying to get everything moved on Thursday, unpack the essentials on Friday, and then leave it all half done so we can meet family & friends in WV for the rest of what was supposed to be a long holiday weekend! Plus, Marla will be bringing Kip back on Wednesday, and at some point he has to pack for Boy Scout camp, to which we have to drive him on Sunday. Is this crazy, or what?! My stomach is all in knots. Lon & I have been hearing horror stories from everyone about nightmare experiences like ours, and even worse than ours. I wouldn't wish this stress on my worst enemy, if I had one!

Memorial Day 2009

While in a lull from the activities of buying & selling a house, we were able to enjoy a long holiday weekend with good friends. Ralph and Mandy brought all 3 girls, and Madison, the youngest, had a great time on our canoe trip. Looks like she's doing the paddling while Ralph & Mandy enjoy the ride! Kip had a blast in his kayak, while Lon & I shared a canoe, and did NOT capsize... (see last Labor Day)

I thought the water would be freezing cold, but it was refreshing, and still high enough from the spring rains and run-off to make tubing abd canoeing fun. Later in the year we'll be bumping our butts on the rocks as we go over the rapids. As usual, everyone had a wonderful, relaxing time, and look forward to the next long weekend in WV.

For Sale, Part 3

Things are moving right along... Our townhouse passed its inspection with flying colors, and last night was the inspection of the new house. The guy says it's great! There are a few little things we should do, like one of the sliding glass doors doesn't latch quite right, and the gutter needs to be cleaned out, and so does the LR fireplace chimney. But everything is sound and functioning as it should. Closing is set for Friday, June 19th, the day after Kip's last day of school, and the day before our 22nd anniversary. Nice anniversary gift to ourselves, right?!

So now we basically just wait some more. I've been planning where the furniture should go, and making lists of things we'll need to buy, and what I should upgrade first. Like the kitchn faucet has to go, and the same with the bathroom faucets. The main bathroom is blue and outdated, but that will have to wait until after I replace the flooring in the kitchen and breakfast room. I have plans for landscaping and gardens, that my friend Lynne and her mom will help me with... This will be a never-ending project, I can see that already! But we're so happy to finally have a "real" house.

Here we have a view of the deck with some planters that I hope the current owner will leave behind; a sign that Lon found behind the shed, that I suspect will end up at the entrance to Kip's camp in the woods; and the inspector checking the chimney. I kept expecting a ton of soot to come crashing down on his head, ha ha. If this were a comedy, that's what would happen!

For Sale, Part 2

By the end of the second day, we'd had more than half a dozen realtors bring clients by to see the TH. Saturday morning we met with our realtors, John & Vicki Hopkins. First we reviewed the three offers we'd already received, and picked the best one to accept. Then we went house-hunting. We looked at 6 or 8 houses, from Warrenton to Nokesville to Manassas to Haymarket to Gainesville. Some we left shaking our heads and asking, "What were they thinking?!" One house had no front. Really. It looked like we pulled up to the rear of the house, but when we walked through the house, there was a definite back door that led out to...nothing! No step, just a drop of 2 or 3 feet to the ground. It had 7 bedrooms and was very big, but the kitchen was tiny! There was an upside-down house, where the main floor was a living room and bedrooms. The four of us ran all over the house going, "Where's the kitchen? I don't see it anywhere! Do you see a kitchen down there? No!" So funny. It was way in the back of the downstairs, around a corner, cut off from everything.

Two houses we looked at were immaculate and perfect except they had no basement. We really need more space than they offered. We fell in love with a farmhouse in Nokesville with 7 acres and horse stalls. Lon named it Prather Ha-Ha, after a family friend's place in Maryland. The list price was way more than we planned to pay, and it was a foreclosure with a lot of minor damage. We oohed and ahhed and sighed over it, but decided to keep looking.

The last house they took us to for the day ended up being the one we put an offer on. It's in Gainesville, close to the major roads, but you'd think you were up on a secluded mountain somewhere! It's at the end of a private driveway, and although neighbors are fairly close on either side, you can barely see them through the trees. There are 1.8 acres, most of it wooded, but there's a good-sized back yard overlooked by a deck that runs the length of the house. About 25 yards down a path in the woods, someone built a camp. There is a huge lean-to, a fire pit, footlocker full of supplies, a trash can lashed to a tree, a couple seating areas... A real haven for a teenage boy, and I can picture Kip spending a lot of time there!

The house is more than twice the size of our TH, but the main level rooms are just average size. The MBR has the walk-in closet I dreamed of, and its own bathroom, and one of the 3 sliding glass doors out onto the deck! The other 2 BRs are unremarkable, and the kitchen is not large but there is a pantry, a dining room and a breakfast room. A fireplace in the LR, and one in the large family room in the basement. Another area of the basement is unfinished, for lots and lots of storage space. YAY!

Now we wait, and wait, and wait, for Vicki & John to let us know if the current owners accept our offer. My stomach is in knots.

For Sale

We have finally gotten the house as ready as it will ever be, to sell. Our realtors, John & Vicki Hopkins, have recently started their own company, Imagine Realty Services, and we are their first customer! The sign went up on our lawn last night, and already today someone came by to look at the house! We weren't ready, and I had to rush home from work on my lunch hour (two hours!) to clean and straighten and de-clutter...hiding things under beds, and putting boxes of junk in my car... Can I do this for as long as it takes to sell the house??

We have mixed feelings about this process. Excitement at the prospect of owning and living in a "real" house, with a guest room and a "real" yard and everything. Fear of the unknown, like will we get our asking price? How long before we get a contract on our house? What if we find our dream home but our townhome hasn't sold yet? Or maybe worse, what if our house sells but we can't find the one we want to buy?! This was so much easier 20 years ago when we were first-time buyers and had all the time in the world. Stay tuned for the next chapter of "For Sale"!

Spring Camporee 2009

Kip went camping this past weekend at Camp Snyder in Haymarket, with several other Boy Scout troops from nearby areas. These camporees always have a theme, and this one was building medieval siege engines. Pretty cool! The boys were supplied with logs and poles, and plans. They had to work together to figure out the plans, and lash the poles together securely enough to hold their catapult upright in holes they dug, and fling an object farther than any other troop.

They had to finish building it and setting it up by noon, and the competition was after lunch. Just as they were testing it, a rope broke! Sam and Johnny had to climb up and fix it, and we almost ran out of time. Their practice shots looked good. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay all day, so I didn't get any pictures of the competition itself. However, I was told that they came in second, behind a troop whose machine was already built when they arrived, and had wheels and everything! (Is that allowed?!) Doesn't matter; our guys did a great job!

That night there was a ceremony to announce the scouts who had been elected to the Order of the Arrow, an elite group, by the other members of their troop. Kip says he was surprised to hear his name called, but even more surprised at the huge bolt of lightning that punctuated it! Hope that wasn't some kind of bad omen... Two other boys in his troop were also elected, but they are both a couple years older than Kip, so we're very proud of him.

Weekend at Lynne's

Todd was out of town, so Jody and Cathy and I spent the weekend in Front Royal with Lynne so she wouldn't be lonely. And so the bears wouldn't get her! Lynne and Todd are hunters, and have deer and birds and fish and bears stuffed and mounted and preserved all over the basement! It's like a museum in there, and Jody & I couldn't resist mugging with the bears. This was after a couple drinks, could ya tell? This is why they have ropes in front of the exhibits in a real museum...