Flashback Friday - Edgewood Ave SE

This week is a "before and after" flashback. I am posting pictures of what our last house looked like just before we bought it in 2003 and what it looked like right before we sold it in March.

The living room was a blah beige color with a southwestern-themed cornice:

We painted the room and gave away the cornice.

The kitchen complete with pink shade, Pepto Bismol colored walls (do you sense a theme?), and gold knobs:

We painted the kitchen a deep red (5 coats!), replaced the window treatment, and spray painted the knobs brushed nickel.

The three season room which could really only be used for one or two seasons:

Our finished four season room. We removed the slider between the kitchen and the room. We took out one of the sliders in the room and replaced it with two windows, added one additional window, and insulated. We put in new carpet and a custom designed (by us!) iron railing.

The upstairs bath complete with wallpaper border, pink shade, pinkish fixtures, and linoleum:

We gutted the bathroom in January 2007. We put in a new tile floor, shower, toilet, sink, countertop, tile backsplash, window treatment and light fixture.

The master bedroom with blah beige walls, ugly wallpaper border and mini blinds:

We painted the room and put Roman shades on the windows.

Nathan and Andrew's bedroom with white walls, train wallpaper and red chair rail:

We took off the wallpaper, painted the room blue, and put up a white chair rail.

The nursery with teddy bear wallpaper border and balloon window treatment:


We took off the border and painted a sun, moon, and stars stencil border. We painted above the chair rail a light green color and got rid of the balloons.
The family room downstairs:

The only thing we did downstairs was get a new window treatment. We also discovered that Easy Off oven cleaner will clean fireplace glass with ease.

I don't have a "before" picture of the downstairs bathroom. We painted it the same blue as the boys' bedroom (leftover paint) and put up a small shelf.

Our New Home

Here are a few pictures of our new home before we moved in. It is a 4 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath with lots and lots of room for the boys to grow.

I'll post more pictures once we are settled. Pictures of boxes aren't that exciting!




This picture is taken from the eating area off the family room. Elbert is holding Evan near the hallway to the front door. The stairs to the 2nd floor are in that hall.
This is taken from the kitchen. The eating area is the tiled portion. The family room has the 14 foot window overlooking the backyard. There is a fireplace on the right that you can't see in the picture. The dining room is to the left. The door to the deck is off the eating area.


This is the view out the picture window.

This is taken from the landing upstairs. We love the skylight and hexagonal light. It is very bright and cheery...especially with the morning sun streaming in. We have 3 bedrooms upstairs along with 2 baths (master + boys' bathroom). We have one bedroom in the basement along with a full bath. For now, we're keeping all the kids on the same floor as us.

Saying Goodbye to Our Old House

I haven't been blogging regularly in April. On April 8th, we sold our beloved Edgewood home and bought a new house about 15 minutes away. It was a bittersweet day. We were sad to sell our first home...the only home our 3 boys have ever known. But, we were excited to embark on a new adventure in a much larger home.

We moved the majority our things to our new home and spent our first night there on Thursday, April 9th. Elbert and I spent Friday morning moving the remaining miscellaneous things and cleaning. We brought the boys through our empty house after lunch on Friday.

Nathan was very emotional. He sobbed and then wailed through every room. He waved goodbye while tears were streaming down his face. It was very sad to see him so upset. He made us emotional, too. He had already seen the new house and was very excited about it, but he was still mourning the loss of our old house.

Here are a few pictures of us saying goodbye.


Nathan was just starting to get sad.


You can't see (or hear) the crying in the picture. We miss our porch. We worked really hard on that room and enjoyed it so much!


Mid-cry...

Evan was sad, too... Not really. He just didn't like being told "no".

A Preschooler's Understanding of Star Wars

Nathan has been fascinated with Star Wars lately. The last two weeks at school, he has chosen a Star Wars book from the library. Andrew has been watching and listening (somewhat).

Andrew told me this morning: "I'm going to be Dark Vader and you're going to be Anakin Skywalker. I'm going to have the mask of Dark Vader and the light saver of Dark Vader."

Not Your Normal Milestone

Some people get excited for their baby's first steps, first words, first sentence, etc. I am excited today because Evan learned to blow his nose! Elbert was blowing his nose this morning, and Evan was watching. Evan immediately began blowing his nose (sans tissue). Once we realized what he was doing, we got him to blow his nose into a tissue. Another exciting milestone!