a perfect fit

When we first moved here, it was with the hopes of renting for at least the first year, and then eventually buying. A few months ago, we started casually looking. We knew the market had been going down, and was falling fast from it's bubble peak of 2006, and wanted to see what was possible. Everyone was saying, "you should definitely buy - what a great time!" So we would head out to open houses that were in areas that interested us. And we became pretty frustrated. And depressed. Even though prices had dropped, the market still felt well over priced. The properties that were within our price range were not any where near my "want-range". Some where downright yucky. So we basically decided we were going to be renters for a while, and have started to look more at the rental market (which also seems to be falling...) - if we find a rental that is really great, we'll move - if not, we'll stay where we are for now. But I still have Redfin set up to send me emails whenever there is a new listing within our price-range in my favorite neighborhood. And yesterday I got an e-mail that floored me. The home above, in our price range, literally across the street from the elementary school (one of the best in the area, the reason I love the neighborhood), 2 blocks from the chapel, 1/2 a block from the community center with a huge outdoor pool, and large playground, large fenced yard, garage, finished basement, gas heating, gas range, open kitchen leading to deck, 4 beds, 3 1/2 baths, with a potentail 5th bedroom downstairs, large master bath with sperate shower and bath, his and hers closets (walk in!!!), large master bed with vaulted ceilings, sky lights... the list just goes on. It seemed to be a perfect fit. So, we went and saw it. Us and the rest of the world. When we walked through it was buisier than most open houses that we attended. There were at least 4 other groups of people there at the same time. It was labeled a fixer upper, so we of course wanted to see what that meant. It was filthy. But nothing majorly wrong with it. In talking to the agent, it's a Freddie Mac foreclosure, which has been vaccant for 8 months. So sad. The crazy part is it sold in 2007 for over 200K more than it was listed for today. And it had been a rental. And it had been abandoned, and just "trashed-out" today. When we got there all that was left were the crumbs and stains. But the home still had much more going for it that anything else that we had looked at. Curious story, and it makes me so glad that we did not move here sometime during the bubble. What a crazy time.
There are already 3 contracts in, and I'm sure many more are going to be put in over the weekend. I have started to hear about foreclosure deals that are getting into bidding wars similar to the bubble era, and it sounds like this is one of them. So, I think we'll pass and remain in our wait and watch mode. But it has begun to give me hope - maybe this is the beginning of the trickle that will start the flood of foreclosures that may make property values realistic. Not necessarily a situation that I would ever hope for, but an outcome that makes this area a little more livable.

I miss thailand

One of my frequent diversions in Thailand was finding bad english, on stationary or t-shirts or anywhere. If any of my Thailand pals have found their way onto the blog, just remember the "Emotiom" poem. Ah, good times.

Recently the boys got a monster truck at a garage sale, with a gem of bad english on the back. Let me know if you have any interpretation.

The Nursery is Finished

I know some people who try and get the nursery all ready before the baby arrives. I'm just glad I got it done before her first birthday. The nursery bedding (and coordinating accessories) were a generous hand-me-down. I had kind of planned on a pink/brown/green nursery, but when I was given this cute nursery set it turned into pink/green/purple.

Here's the view from Olivia's door:

and from the other side of the room:

The dresser was a garage sale find - $25 for dovetailed drawers. And it's the perfect height to double as a changing table. So far we just updated the hardware and we are thinking of painting it someday...

And my personal favorite part of the room, Olivia of course!:

Chair makeover take II

If you'll remember, a while back I recovered the arms and seat of my glider. Well, since then we moved across the country and took very little with us. When we arrived in Maryland we proceeded to replace much of our furniture that we left behind using craigslist. This proved to be pretty rewarding (good furniture for much less then we could have purchased it for new) but stressful (trying to drive all over the place picking stuff up with a newborn and 2 kids in tow, and trying to do it as quickly as possible because we literally had no where to sit or put our clothes...) But in the end I think I'm really glad we did it. One of my favorite finds was my glider replacement. After nursing Olivia in a folding chair for a couple weeks, I found one. For $75 I got a dutailier swivel glider and ottoman. The one problem was that the previous owner had recovered it (or paid someone else to do it) and it was in light blue, which showed a lot of wear and dirt. I knew I could recover it, and it was a bargain at $75, so I got it. Here's the before:

I had already covered the ottoman when I took this picture, but you get the idea. The arms were actually useless the way they had been done, and provided no padding. Well, 8 months later I finally got around to finishing the recovering job:

I really like how it turned out - and it was actually really easy to do. I covered the ottoman right away, because that seemed the simplest. Then I fixed the arm rests, because I really wanted some padding there. About 2 months later I finally did the seat cushion, and then for some reason I waited another 4 or 5 months or so to do the seat back. But now I really love how it looks. I actually found a small kid-size chair at a yard sale for $2 that I also recovered (forgot to take a before shot...), and I did it to match the glider. So for about $100 I got a custom rocking chair with a matching kids chair. This is why I love sewing and craigslist and garage sales.

Confusion

In church, I somehow got thinking about "a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife..." I also use the word "cleave" at work in a chemistry context, where it has a very different meaning. So I looked it up in the dictionary. Low and behold, "cleave" has two meanings, each the exact opposite of the other.

cleave¹

1. To split with or as if with a sharp instrument.
2. To make or accomplish by or as if by cutting: cleave a path through the ice.
3. To pierce or penetrate: The wings cleaved the foggy air.
4. Chemistry. To split (a complex molecule) into simpler molecules.

cleave²

1. To adhere, cling, or stick fast.
2. To be faithful: cleave to one's principles.

Are there any other English words with opposite meanings? I'm pretty baffled by how this one arose.