Remembering Paris... oh Yeah and our one year anniversary

It seems like just yesterday that Eric and I were strolling along the river Seine, hand in hand, admiring the beauty of Paris and stopping at sidewalks bistros for a glass of wine (mmmmm... Côtes du Rhône) and some delicious French nibbles. A whole year (and 10 days) has gone by since we tied the knot and headed to Paris {with a quick stop in Iceland... more on that later}. So much has happened in such a short time! 

On top of getting married and traveling to Europe, we took the Bean to New York City to visit a friend and have a family adventure and where we informed her, much to her delight, that she was going to be a big sister ("I've waited my whole life to be a big sister!!!"), welcomed little Violet to the world, turned our condo into a investment property and moved to a new place. 

To some it may seem like a lot and to others... not much at all. But whatever it is... big or small... it has been one of the best years of my life. I am so lucky to be able to share it with Eric who is my best friend, soul mate and a wonderful father to both our girls. Even though we celebrated our anniversary with a quiet dinner and enjoyed some much needed grown up time together, I just thought I would share a little post to once again (and a tiny bit belated) wish my husband a happy anniversary. Year one was spectacular – I expect nothing less from every year to come.

The Hunt for Clean Laundry

(or how I found a washer & dryer)

For the last four years, I have shared a laundry facility with my 11 other neighbors. Located one floor down, I have lugged basket after hamper of soiled under and over things - paying through the nose for each precious wash and dry. True, it is more convenient than having to drive it to a laundromat, but it's just not the same as having my own washer and dryer. With this upcoming move, comes a brand spanking new laundry room right off the kitchen. I can not express how besides myself with glee I am. (This has also proven to be a good indicator of my age as I do not remember getting excited about laundry at any other point in my life.)

Step #1: Brand Spanking New Washers and Dryers
Like any excited wash woman, I started looking at washer and dryer sets at the usual locations – Sears, Best Buy, Lowes – and I was surprised to find how much prices had gone up since I had bought my last set a decade ago. A lower end set starts at about $800. Wow! It's so basic that, besides having only 3 wash cycles, I am pretty sure I have to generate my electricity. Plus, I don't want a cheap, low end set meaning anything of reasonable quality was going to cost upwards of a grand. If I'm going to spend that kind of money, then I might as well go with high end, pretty colored sets - but I'm just not ready to do that yet for various reasons.

If you can't afford it - don't buy it.
As I have mentioned, we are renting our new digs as we establish some rental history in the condo we own. It also buys us time to decide where we want to actually purchase a house. Seeing as I have owned and sold two houses and currently own a condo, I would like for the next purchase to be a little more final. Not knowing where we will be living – in say five years – the last thing I want to do is invest in any expensive appliances. And since we are not the kind of folks fooled into taking out 10 year auto loans on used vehicles or those no interest/no payments for 6 months deals, we started talking about alternative options.

Step #2: Craig's List
My friends, Nikki and John, find the most amazing things on Craig's List. Their home has character, charm and comfort – it's what I strive for in ours. I remembered they had found an amazing espresso machine on Craig's List for a fraction of the retail price. I thought this would be a good starting point to finding a used washer and dryer set at a bargain price.

JACKPOT! There were so many listings for seemingly fantastic sets in great working order. My enthusiasm knew no bounds. I emailed a few people who posted and waited for a response. And waited...... and waited....

Nothing. Did they not want to sell these sets? Had they all been scooped up?

I tried again. This time even contacting folks who couldn't bother to upload a photo. In these emails, I asked for a photo (some of the listings that *did* have photos showed sets that must have been 20+ years old - hello Lady Kenmores!). The one response back I did get back couldn't send photos. This didn't feel right. In this day and age of digital - everyone could take and send a quick pic! I started thinking to myself that perhaps this was a warning from the universe - a cosmic red flag, if you will. If I bought a set off of Craig's list and the set failed, there was not recourse for us. There's nothing more sad than an Amber standing in a pile of dirty laundry, holding a detergent bottle and peering into a broken washing machine. Well, ok... maybe there is, but you get my point. This brought me to step 3.

Step #3: Used Appliance Stores (aka My Foray into Rent-A-Center)
When I was living in Austin, I shared a laundry facility with the whole apartment complex. More than once, I found someone else's laundry in my dryer. People were to cheap to pay the .75¢ a dryer and would sneak it in – leaving my clothes damp. I found a rental place that would also offer used, refurbished sets that they would warranty for a fraction of new sets. So I thought to myself perhaps I could find a similar place here. Now Austin is a HUGE college town – so there are many options for rental and used appliances. Manchester... not so much.

I was headed to the liquor store at lunch the other day to pick up boxes when I noticed a Rent-A-Center. Remembering the small shop in Austin, I thought that maybe they might offer the same deals on used washers and dryer.

While they offer used sets for sale – they do not refurbish or service their machines and they do not offer warranties.

Well, that seems like an even WORSE idea then buying blindly fro Craig's List. Without servicing sets and no warranty... geez. Who knows what kind of abuse those machines have been through and how long they will last... or (THE HORROR) what's creeping around inside of them. **shiver**

Step #4: Back to Craig's List
Figuring that it was better to play the odds on a used set through Craig's List, I once again checked the listings. Low and behold what do I find?!?!?!?


"LIKE NEW WASHER /DRYER SETS
WHY BUY NEW WHEN I HAVE QUAILITY PREOWNED WASHER/DRYER SETS MANY MAKES AND MODELS SO DON'T BUY FROM SOMEONE THAT CAN'T GUARANTEE WHAT THERE SELLING ALL SETS HAVE A 90 DAY WARRANTY SETS START AT 325.00 TO 400.00 ALL SETS ARE PULLED APART CLEANED AND INSPECTED STACK UNITS FROM 450.00,TO 500.00.DELIVERY AVAILABLE"


THIS I what I was looking for! A (somewhat) local business (that's been around for 30 years) that offered used, but refurbished sets and had a warranty to back their work! PLUS, they deliver. We found a nice Whirlpool set for $400 that if we went to Sears and bought new would cost us well over that! At the level of washer/dryer we were looking at – a couple steps above basic – let's face it, those sets are like cars... they lose value the second you bring them home. Why pay full price? Why get spanked with interest?

People pay mad amounts of money and are willing to pauper themselves for such silly things. How many washers and dryers do you see at friends homes? Do you care what they are? So what if it's used – it's going to clean my clothes just fine and is still better than a laundromat. I can wait until I am in my "final house" before spending money a high end washer and dryer. To me, it just makes financial sense right now.

UPDATE #1:
The set arrived today and was installed and I am impressed. They look brand new and the washer even has a hand wash /delicates cycle. Woot woot!

Welcome Violet Catherine... and New Digs

Violet Catherine has finally arrived! Well, she arrived 11 weeks ago - but this mom has been super busy readjusting to life with a new baby and maintaining the schedule of a 9 1/2 year old!

Ya ya – there is a HUGE gap in this post and my last. One reason is, I was waiting for Violet's arrival before unveiling the name of my new blog as we were keeping her name hush hush. The other reason is, I had forgotten how much work newborns are and didn't get to do a fraction of the things I thought I was going to be able to get done.

In my pink hazy memory, I remember the Bean easing right into a sleep schedule and my easily cleaning the house and preparing meals. Either Mother Nature rose colored the bejeezus out of my memory or I had truly forgotten all the work involved in getting to that infant eutopia. Between feedings every two hours, endless diaper changes and a wee one that adored being held and vocally disapproved of being put into a bassinet for naps – my website did not get updated, my blog sat untouched, photography projects I had envisioned remain on the "creative shelf". Not to mention the fact that these little people need so much stuff!!!!

I knew we wouldn't last long term in our two bedroom condo, but I kept saying to myself "People in Manhattan do it all the time" and "Folks in Europe don't live in as much space as we do". Well, New Yorkers and Europeans are made of much sterner stuff than myself – or maybe they do it because they have no other choice. Maybe it is my post pregnancy/less sleep brain railing against clutter. I don't need a lot of space and I have no problem living modestly, but whatever it is, the small space/larger family dynamic is not working for us.

Ideally, a newborn and an almost ten year old could sleep in the same room. Violet is sleeping through the night – but she goes to bed so much earlier than Bean. That's a downer for Bean if she wants to play in her room or even just read in bed. Not to mention, Bean has school and needs her sleep, so putting her 11 week old sister in the room with her probably wouldn't be conducive to a good night's rest.

And then I started worrying (and my husband, Eric, will tell you worrying is my super power) about small toys. With the first one, it's easy to keep all tiny things that could cause choking out of reach of a curious baby. With the second, now there are tiny toys every where – even when you pick stuff up, Polly Pocket's shoe is lurking just under the sofa skirt and The Littlest Pet Shop babies are peeking out of a partially open closet.

Eric and I had done a lot of creative legwork in terms of using what space we did have wisely. It was about looking at an area and redefining what it's potential was. I admit that I took a lot of  inspiration from the folks over at Ikea and their amazing use of tiny spaces while still looking clean and well designed – and I think we did a mighty fine job of doing just that. We de-cluttered closets, added cabinets to walls, used baskets and bins to organize shelves... but at the end of the day, we were just feeling too cramped. Add to that the sleeping arrangements, it was time to move.

Dealing with a downward market
Condos have been hit hard and ours has not been spared from the drop in the housing market. The property, when we had it appraised, lost almost 50% of it value from when I had purchased it four years before. Yikes! We are not about to hand over cash just to take it off our hands and we refuse to short sale as a first option. After swallowing that bitter pill, we started looking at our condo as an investment property – because really you don't lose money unless you sell low – making our only real option to rent it out.

Next, we had to decide whether to buy a second home or rent a larger apartment. I spoke to our very helpful mortgage broker and found out that we qualified for a mortgage on a second home (yay!) but because we hadn't established a rental history it would be smaller than if it did (boo!). So, we could buy a second home, but it would be small and modest and possibly need some updating. We are all for fixing stuff and making it our own, but we would rather wait and have more options in terms of amenities and location. Plus, we aren't sure where we will be in a few years. Renting gives us time to decide where we want to buy – whether it's in this area or out of state. So, renting it is!

Finding our tiny piece of (rented) heaven
That decided, I haven't lived in  anything I haven't owned for well over 10 years and was shocked to see the limited choices of three bedroom apartments that are out there - avocado bathrooms and dingy carpeting galore! Since I have no desire to live in someone else's filth and I am quite particular about "the look", not to mention the area, of a place - the search took a little while before we found a place that fit all of our requirements - off street parking for two cars, a yard, a nice quiet, safe neighborhood, three bedrooms, updated kitchen and bath, laundry hook ups (more on that later) and hardwood floors (I DESPISE wall to wall carpeting... all the dirt and dust mites... blech!). And we found one! The fact that it has a refinished claw foot tub and beautiful fireplace is just bonus awesome-ness.

Laundry Hook-ups!!!!

This two-family home was just renovated and restored to it's hardwood and Victorian detailed glory! The area is lovely, quiet and ideal for what we were looking for. It's not a huge, over the top space, but perfectly sized for our little family to nest in – and we found fabulous tenants to rent our condo to boot! All the pieces are falling into line nicely (thank you good karma!) and I can't wait to move in and start decorating! I'm thinking it needs some POP of modern to accent it's turn of the century charm. Now to find a washer and dryer set...