Exercise
We walked the 2 miles down and 2 miles back from Jay's check-up yesterday (Daniel rode, of course). A donut snack and Biscuitville lunch aren't enough to totally negate the benefits from that, right?

Labels: boys, Mebane

- posted by Lenise @ 8:51 PM |

 
What Now? Nothing
Paul's unenthused, the realtor is uncommunicative. *Sigh*

Labels: Mebane, real estate

- posted by Lenise @ 7:59 PM |

 
What Now?
So we walked around the yellow house, then stopped in at Coldwell Banker. The realtor we had talked with at the blue house was out, but we learned from her colleagues that 1. Yellow house under contract, 2. Blue house coming back on the market.

Never a dull moment, my friends.

Complete set of blue house photos here.

Labels: Mebane, Old Houses, photos, real estate

- posted by Lenise @ 11:59 AM |

 
Is Next?
The realtor listing the blue house mentioned she had expected a yellowish house on Fifth Street to hit the market... I guess this is it!

Labels: Mebane, Old Houses, real estate

- posted by Lenise @ 2:28 PM |

 
Life Goes On



This past Saturday was Sunfest downtown, and the kids' best bike decor award went to none other thean my eldest. He actually needed quite a bit of help ;), but he did choose the theme. Isaac enjoyed participating as well. Let me tell you, diminutive fire trucks are a bit more difficult to decorate than trikes!

Labels: boys, Mebane

- posted by Lenise @ 11:01 PM |

 
That Figures
Somebody with money (or at least more willingness to spend it) made an offer on the house. At least we tried.

Labels: Mebane, Old Houses, real estate

- posted by Lenise @ 10:48 PM |

 
Oh Yeah, I'm Back



It's not likely to work out, but we'll see what happens. We should know by the end of the week.

Labels: Mebane, Old Houses, real estate

- posted by Lenise @ 10:43 PM |

 
Well, Well

I can't say it's a shock, since I noted that it's been up for rent for some months, but The House is back on the market. I would really like to see what has been done to the inside, as they are listing the house at approximately twice what it was ultimately listed at the last time (i.e. what they presumably paid). I can't seriously contemplate using THAT kitchen, now that we've had a dishwasher. I'm not going back! That would mean converting another room to a kitchen, if it hasn't ben done already. Did I mention that I would really love to see what they've done with the place?

Labels: Mebane, Old Houses, real estate

- posted by Lenise @ 8:14 PM |

 
Friday Morning Walk


This past week has been drop-dead gorgeous. We walked to the playground to play (of course!) but also to get some photos with the fall leaves. The slides and the swing were a little wet, but the weather was perfect, so I was surprised we had the playground all to ourselves (aside from the construction outside the fence, that is). The house we almost bought (top photo) has been up for rent for a couple of months now, I believe, if not longer. It was lived in for a while, but it's clearly vacant now. A family that used to go to our church lives in the house next door (as we learned when we dropped by their garage sale this summer). Our kitchen is way, way better than the kitchen in that house. Our bathroom is far cuter than either of the bathrooms in that house, too. An extra 600 square feet and an upstairs bath would be nice, though.

Labels: fall, Mebane, photos

- posted by Lenise @ 10:17 PM |

 
Still Not Writing












For whatever reason, I just don't feel up to it. I have a bad summer cold, I had a very busy workweek last week, and I'm still tired.

We had a good weekend, though, apart from my infirmities, so here are some of the money shots:

Labels: boys, Mebane, photos

- posted by Gary @ 9:04 PM |

 
Real Estate Update
So both of the houses I liked have sold. No big surprise- they were priced to go!

A couple of weeks ago I went to an Open House in Mebane. I can't imagine it'll sell at anything near what it's listed for. It's not really in any better shape than our house, it doesn't seem as big, and the attic space is nowhere near as much as I expected- it's basically a tiny room and a whole lot of kneewalls. The living room is bigger than ours, which would be a big plus, but the front door opens right into it, which eats up a significant amount of space. The kitchen is considerably bigger and nicer-looking, but we could gain a lot of kitchen space here by moving the W/D out. Where to, I'm not 100% sure.

The other house's dining room is now one of the three bedrooms, the staircase to the attic is even narrower than ours (considerably so!), and a number of the "closets" are not enclosed. One story would be nice, and the attic would be very useful for storage, but overall I was underwhelmed. It was fun to see the house, though! I hadn't been to an Open House as an adult, and I probably won't go again soon, just because the open house houses are almost always way out of our conceivable price range. It was a nice diversion of an afternoon, though!

Labels: Mebane, Old Houses, real estate

- posted by Lenise @ 10:23 PM |

 
Sigh
This would make a great home. I'd love to see it!

Labels: Mebane, Old Houses

- posted by Lenise @ 10:51 PM |

 
Falling Behind
Yes, I have fallen way behind on blogging! Last week was a big week around here. We went out Memorial Day afternoon and bought the boys' bunk bed, then went to a nearby restaurant (Ham's in Burlington) where kids' meals were 99 cents (woo hoo!) and include ice cream cups. They also have tremendous potato "chips": about 1/8th inch thick & deep-fried. MMmmmm. With ranch dip. *Sigh*. Then we walked from there to the park across the street, where the big boys rode the carousel and the little train with Paul. Daniel was napping in the stroller, and I was just as happy sitting with him and waving.

The next day was bed day, so we worked on getting some space cleared out for the beds, and then I was sent to WalMart for the mattress protectors, mattress pads, and comforters. The Cars comforters were on sale for less than $30, so I went ahead and bought them. I asked for help getting mattress pads down and the employee I asked was so helpful and nice! I had picked out a pair of cheap ($20) bedspreads and mentioned that I was tempted to pay $40 for the Cars bedspreads, but just didn't want to spend that much. She led me back around the corner to do a price check, just in case, and the rest is history.

Isaac has had much less trouble transitioning to a big boy bed than I expected. Part of it, I think, is that he's not alone, so has less incentive to come downstairs looking for us than Jay did at that point. He's also just older than Jay was when we started trying to move him to the toddler bed. Anyway, one night I ended up leaving him in the crib, but other than that, he's managed to stay more or less in bed all night.

Then there was the bad. Jay closed the van door on a few fingers Friday while I was home working. By the time Paul brought the boys home from the store, Jay was pretty much himself, but we decided better safe than sorry, and so Paul took him to the brand-new urgent care facility here in town. It turned out he was fine, just bruised and a tiny bit scraped up, but they did an x-ray to be sure.

Not the last minor medical emergency we'll have around here, I'm afraid...

Labels: boys, furniture, Mebane

- posted by Lenise @ 8:25 PM |

 
Fame
I'm not sure how much longer it will be up, but the boys and I made the front page of our local paper. We'll miss Mrs. Chrys!!

Labels: Mebane, Singing

- posted by Lenise @ 8:54 AM |

 
Busy, Busy!
We have had a pretty full day, and all these photos were taken by about 1 PM today. This was our favorite library worker's last day (Toddler Time will be continued, but with a different staff member), just when Isaac got up the courage to sit with the other kids and do all the motions and singing! We had lunch at our favorite Mama & boys lunch spot, Pomodoro, with our favorite wonderful waitress (she gets the kitchen guys to cut up the boys' piece of pizza into little bits for me- totally her idea: see why we (I) love her?). Then we tried some more exercises from the Mommy, Teach Me book. They were a little too advanced for Isaac, but Jay had a blast with the turkey baster and water. We'll give Isaac some more practice, as he really liked it, too, he just wasn't getting it yet. Daniel's been a good sport about all the big boy activities, and he's come awfully close to executing a back-to-front roll. Maybe soon!!

Labels: activities, Mebane, photos

- posted by Gary @ 1:34 PM |

 
"It Looks Like It Was Paved By Angels!"






We got a bit of cheap entertainment today- our block was resurfaced! We saw the tar sprayer come by, followed by the rock spreader, followed by the roller (the roller guy was enjoying the attention and kept waving to the boys, who did their best Pope waves in return: who was obliging whom wasn't clear ;) ), and the big dump truck that kept refilling the rock spreader. The dump truck driver gave a tiny honk for the boys! When we left for Toddler Time at the library, the road looked like the fifth photo, and when we returned (we stayed out for lunch- it seemed like a good excuse!), it looked like the fourth. The boys sat in chairs we have out on the porch in prep for the yard sale on Saturday. Daniel was napping. A good time was had by all!

Labels: boys, heavy machinery, Mebane

- posted by Gary @ 2:18 PM |

 
De Ja Vu
This house could make a nice vacation cottage. It's about a block north of the other one I noticed last year, which was subsequently purchased and demolished. The lot is still empty, so there's no telling what will be going up in its place.

Right around the corner from the first house, this house is still on the market- it has been for sale for over a year, and should come down a bit more. They could be the beginning of my Mebane real estate empire.

The house two doors down from us is on the market as well. It looks like it's been spruced up on the inside as well as outside.

The forecast for last Saturday was for thunderstorms, so we still have two houses worth of stuff. Of course, we don't have two houses worth of income. I knew there was something wrong with my cunning plan.

Labels: Mebane, Old Houses, real estate, sickness

- posted by Gary @ 8:05 PM |

 
PLEASE Un-70s Me!!
Well, here's another Mebane property begging for an un-makeover (Click on the "See more images" link). I'll probably be discharged from the hospital on open house day. I'm probably not so hard-core as to go traipseing through the house the day I'm released from the hospital with a newborn, though it is just around the corner, and after all, it's a single-story...

Labels: Mebane, Old Houses, real estate

- posted by Gary @ 8:04 PM |

 
Inquiring Minds Want to Know
For those of you I've driven past the house on the edge of town, the listing has some photos. The square footage is also grossly inaccurate, but this is the same listing realtor who always seems to list the same house with wildly different SF figures on the different MLS systems. Another listing for this house says 1,918 SF.

Labels: Mebane, real estate

- posted by Lenise @ 8:34 PM |

 
And Because I Apparently Don't Know How to Go to Bed
I'd like to share this with all y'all. Just the listing, that is. It's not that much bigger than our house, if the 1,650 sf is correct, but you know it's adorable inside (or could be!)

Labels: Mebane, Old Houses, real estate

- posted by Gary @ 9:25 PM |