Vintage School Desk

You'll never believe what my friend Lacey found at a yard sale!

Check out this amazing old school house desk she picked up for a mere $6!!!!  What a steal!  Somehow she knew that I was looking for one and snagged it for me.  Thank you Lacey!  I owe you big time!

McCord helped me scrub it down before he got distracted with playing with Rocky and the hose. 

And Wade supervised our work from the back porch.

Right now the desk is being used as a bedside table in the kids' room.  I plan to paint the metal portions of the desk and chair a high gloss fire engine red.  I've been inspired by these photos I found on pinterest.  Many, many thanks Lacey for sharing this great find with me!

McCord is 11 months old!

Dear McCord,

Today you are 11 months old, and your Daddy and I are madly in love with you. 

We are so amazed at how much you've learned this month.  You've amended your crawling style using your left knee to support your weight and you kick the other leg out to the side to push and guide - it's sort of like your rudder.  We think you made this adjustment to protect one of your knees from the hardwood floor.  It's a little awkward, but it works for you and I adore your ingenuity! 

You're pretty good at pulling up now, and you practice this new skill when I'm unloading the dishwasher and folding clothes from the dryer.  When you hear me open up the dishwasher or dryer, you come scooting my way (quickly with that rudder of yours!) to practice your new trick. 

Here are some things you've done recently that we don't want to forget:

• You reach out from the stroller to hold your Daddy's hand when we walk around the block
• I'll never forget one time when you were nursing, you stopped, looked up at me, and leaned in to kiss me on the lips, then went back to eating.  Melt my heart!
• When I brush your hair at night, you like to take the brush from me and brush my hair.
• You've also learned how to pick up two things with one hand!  It was quite a revelation for you when you discovered this and Aiya and I enjoyed watching that light go off in your head.  Now you do it all the time. 

This month we went to feed the ducks...



...and learned that those geese are quite bossy!  We were completely outnumbered - I had to hold you the whole time because I was afraid they were going to run away with you!

• You are on the go!  Your favorite thing right now is to explore all the corners of our house.  You know how to open a cracked door, and it's not unusual to find you contentedly sitting on the floor of the pantry playing with all kinds of items Daddy and I didn't even know we had.  Same goes for my closet!
• You've also discovered all of the door stops in the house and you love to pull the white cap off of each one!
• Most recently, you and Daddy devised a little game with your paci.  He pretends like he's going to put it in his mouth and you take it out of yours and try to fit it in his mouth.  This makes Daddy roar with laughter!  You are quite a funny little fellow.

This is an especially sentimental month for us - this 11th month of your life - because it's the last month we'll be living on Surrey Lane.  The day we brought you home from the hospital, I cried when we turned onto Surrey Lane, because I just knew that we would have so many wonderful memories in this place.  We couldn't wait to get you home.  I still remember walking you through each room and telling you all about the house and how we used each room.  I was so proud to show you your nursery - by far my favorite room in the house - because we assembled it especially for you.  We are so thankful for you and for the ways that you've enriched our life here and forever. 

Here you are standing next to your maple on your 11 month birthday.  My how you and the maple have grown!

McCord, Monkey, Baby, we love you like crazy.

Meet Henley

My sister gave me a bunch of vintage sewing books for Christmas, and I took one look at this chicken bean bag and just knew I had to make her for McCord.  I mean, what child doesn't need a gigantic chicken to bounce around with?!!!

This has definitely been the most involved sewing project I've worked on.  I must be crazy addicted to sewing, because:

• I had to borrow the overhead projector from our church to enlarge the pattern printed in the book over 2,000%.  I remember it was a cold, rainy day much like today, and I had to load Mc up in the stroller with several rolls of craft paper, markers, and painter's tape.  When I projected the pattern onto the wall it took up our entire Sunday School classroom. This of course, was back in the glory days before McCord was a crawler!

• And then, I got stumped on sewing a curved dart that I had never done before, so I had to consult with 2 members of our church who are expert sewers. 
• One of them is 90 years old and lives at Westminster.  You can imagine how silly I felt hauling a gigantic chicken pattern, yards of fabric, and a whole slew of pins into the assisted living facility with a baby on my hip!  Of course I didn't want to fold up the pattern pieces after I'd been to the trouble of enlarging them by hand, so in I walked with chicken head and gusset in tow. My friend at Westminster is a popular lady, and several of her hall mates stopped by to see what we were working on.  So McCord and I, and a bunch of 90 year olds had a grand ol' time trying to figure out this pattern.
• Still stumped, another member allowed me to stop by her house for a sewing "pep talk" and lots of tutelage.  Not only did I leave with an understanding of how to sew a curved dart, but with lots of inspiration for future projects.  I am so thankful to have knowledgeable friends who are willing to help!

With advice from wiser sewers, I lined the beanbag with a stiffer fabric I had on hand to keep it from coming un-sewn, so I essentially made the beanbag twice.  Then I added a zipper at the bottom in case it ever needs to be washed. 

Once it was all sewn up, the deflated chicken laid around the house for about a week while I was waiting on the stuffing I ordered online to arrive.  Meanwhile, we get a showing for our house (they always happen at the most convenient times!), so I had to load up Henley in her deflated and very unattractive state, with McCord and Rocky and drive around town for a couple of hours.  I'm pretty sure a deflated, gigantic chicken isn't going to help us sell our house!

Finally, last night my extremely patient husband helped me fill up Henley.  This was quite a comedic endeavor! I'm not sure if it was harder to get the filling inside the chicken or clean up all the million little beads?!!! 

Then this morning, we decided that the Easter bunny would like to give Mc his gift early, so I brought Henley up to the nursery right after he woke up.  Here they are getting acquainted. 

I think they'll be fast friends! 

...and this is the smile I hoped for!



Surrey Lane Before & Afters

Well, it's been a little over a month since we listed our house, and Bo and I are getting a first-hand account of how difficult it is to sell a house in this market.  All this house-selling business has had me reflecting on our life on Surrey Lane and it makes me wonder if any of you know the story behind our house....

In 2005, Bo was transferred to Rock Hill with his job and we began looking for houses.  We were young and naive, and had our hearts set on a 1950s-era house with vintage charm.  However, we quickly realized that the houses in our price range that fit that description would need way-more fixing-up than we could afford.  We must have toured 20 houses before Bo came across Surrey Lane online.  The house had been foreclosed on by previous owners and from what neighbors told us, vacant for about 2 years.  The first time we saw it in person, there was a huge hole in the downstairs ceiling where a pipe had burst in the master bath above causing unrepairable damage to the wood floors.  The wallpaper and light fixtures (see pictures below) were a horrible reminder of what was popular in the 1980s (and why those styles faded quickly).  Despite that it was a far cry from the mid century charm we were hoping for, Bo and I immediately fell in love with Surrey Lane.  It had good bones and we knew that we could make this house our home.  More importantly, we both knew that we'd be happy here. 

Fortunately, my mother-in-law had the foresight to take these before pictures - and it's so fun to look back and see how far we've come.  Many thanks to our parents and a great contractor who've helped us renovate Surrey Lane. 




House exterior before we bought Surrey Lane




House exterior after




Backyard before




Backyard after adding deck in 2009




To the right you can see the nasty remnants of an above ground pool.  After moving in, we  immediately had 4 truckloads of dirt brought in to fill the sunken area




Screen porch after




This is the scene Bo and I walked into the first time we toured Surrey Lane.  We took one look at it and said, "we'll take it!"




Same area after repairing ceiling, new floors, and adding an antique pine mantle that my Dad and Bo installed




When we bought the house, we never used this area - it was intended to be a breakfast room...




...we knocked out a wall and converted it to a dining room




This is the original kitchen




The old kitchen area became a desk/bar area with window converted to exterior door leading to deck




We moved the kitchen from the above location to what used to be the dining room - gaining much needed space!




Master bath before




Master bath after - we got this marble top vanity from Costco and had to rent a truck from Home Depot to bring it home and it took 5 guys to get it up the stairs.  It was quite an adventure!




Guest bath before




Guest bath after - these pictures don't show the floors, but all 3 baths have travertine tiles




Third bedroom before



Nursery after - this is my favorite room in the house!


Bo and I have loved living here and hope that the right buyer will walk through our doors and love this place as much as we have.

Nesting part II

A few pictures of the nursery - 

Nesting

We've been busy!  Here are a few photos of the projects that have kept us preoccupied. 

Bo painted the nursery,

and my mom filled in around the trimwork,

we recarpeted the upstairs,

and Rocky supervised,

Bo & my dad assembled  the travel system (with the aid of a couple of beers),

and Bo put together the crib - this is a super-generous gift from my in-laws!

and then we began working on the Ikea dresser (this took 6 hours and a cooler of beer, marriage counseling optional)

and I worked on the window treatments and a bird mobile (both still need some tweaking)

And here's our new favorite room in the house! 

McCord or Perrin, we can't wait to show you your new home.  We look forward to reading you your favorite books, singing you to sleep, and telling you all about this big, beautiful world that has been waiting for you to arrive.