Alternative to Holiday Cards

Since my husband and I started our family, I’ve been pretty good about sending out our holiday cards every December. I take the time to write a message on each card and my older son writes his name on each one. He also helps me with stamping and licking the envelopes. It’s so fun and so sweet and I love sending out cards. It’s not a burden or a time suck; I really love doing it. But here’s what I don’t love… after the holidays come and go, I’m an ass and rarely send out thank you cards. We have SO much to be thankful for and SO many wonderful people in our lives that I hang my head low whenever I think about not sending thank you cards. Then one day last month a super slick idea popped into my head- Kate! Send the freaking cards in January! It can be a Hope You Have a Happy New Year and/or Thanks for Being an Awesome card! I can send them thanks and postal service hugs and wish them well! Holy smokies, I think this is awesome.

So look for our card in January. While you're waiting patiently, you can reminisce over our card from December 2012, before our little guy became our big guy and I was 6 months pregnant. 

Eichler: before & after photos

Before we go, I'd love to show a few before & after photos of the place.

 


 


 


 


 


 


 

My very capable husband and brother repairing water and fire damage (from 1969) in the master bathroom. I got out of much of that because I was 8 months pregnant. 

 

I couldn't find a "before" photo for the master. It had carpet. My husband spent his paternity leave installing the bamboo floors in our master bedroom. We also added insulation in the walls, smoothed out the textured walls, got rid of the trim at the top and used different baseboards. We redid the glass and closets. It's our favorite room in the house. 

The landscape renovation was long- 6 months for the construction. Much of that time we did NOT HAVE A FENCE. Living in a glass house with a brand new baby is not at all PRIVATE without a fence- hi workers! hi neighbors! where's the dog?!

While we're proud to have done all of the interior work ourselves (my husband, my brother, my husband's parents, and me), we were happy to outsource the exterior. Landscape Architect, Chris Jepson at Gamboni Landscape Architect, Contractor was All-Points Construction, and painting and some siding repair was done by Mike Moody Painting. We had a few panels of siding replaced by Scot Nicholls. 

We're Selling our Eichler

We weren't planning to move. We weren't looking to buy a new house. We'd only been looking for a small weekend cabin, but I'm completely addicted to Redfin and real estate so I always look at everything. I probably spend more time on Redfin than social media. 

So, I was just looking around on a Friday night (cuz I'm an old MOM now and don't go out on Friday nights), and I found an amazing house. Mid-century modern and on an acre of land! It looked perfect so I showed it to Chris. It checked ALL the boxes for our future home, but we weren't sure we were ready for the next house! We haven't even finished our sweet and amazing Eichler. I was taking the boys to Georgia that next Sunday morning, and Saturday was booked solid. Chris went to the open house on Sunday while we were stuck in Las Vegas (not awesome). He said the house was a winner! He was in love with the house and I was stuck in Vegas. Offers were due just a few days later. We did some hemming and hawing and decided to AT LEAST just give it try! We didn't think we'd be the highest bidder, so I wrote a letter and they picked us :) We were shocked, scared, excited, and all the other range of emotions. There was some back and forth and more hemming and hawing, but we decided to really & for reals just go for it. We had to put the Eichler up for sale to get some $$$ for the down payment. That was a hard decision! It wasn't done, we JUST built an awesome play structure, we LOVE the neighborhood and our friends in the community. Honestly, we were perfectly happy here. It went under contract in about a week. I hope the new owners love it & the community as much as we do. 

But the new house is stunning! I finally got to see it after returning from a 2 week trip to Athens. The property is perfect... gentle hillside with lots of trees, more space and room to grow, great light and windows, and more. We think it'll be a better investment, a better commute for Chris, better schools, and a better place for the boys to grow up. 

I've never posted "finished" photos of our Eichler because we never thought it was done. We're leaving some loose ends, but it'll give the new owners some fun projects. Here are a few photos that I took for the real estate agent. Who wants to take bets on how quickly they'll paint over the pink gate & door?!?!?

Rainbow Birthday Party

A Rainbows and Planes TRIPLE birthday party!!! Sara puts on the best triple birthday parties every year. Her husband, son, and daughter's birthdays all fall right around the same time so she does one big she-bang. Her daughter wanted rainbows and her son requested planes (and her husband just went with the flow!) Everything was so sweet and so well done! There were crafts... rainbow bead necklaces, construction paper rainbows, painting your own airplanes, and a RAD watercolor spray bottle FUN TIME out back! Here are a few photos from the very beautiful and colorful day!

Rainbows in the windows

She made rainbow cloud wands!

Rainbow party hats and dishes full of rainbow goodness for the necklace-making. 

Even Rainbow FOOD

Watercolors stuck to a white sheet. Just add water and you've got the funnest party idea EVER!

OH MY I loved these little construction paper rainbows

Play the Rainbow!

Veggies in every color

See the jelly beans?! They were arranged by color! Eat the red, pink, and orange first and you'll discover the yellow, greens, and blues below! Genius idea and execution by the birthday girl. 

Everything was ship-shape and styled to perfection!

Necklace beads

The sweetest little favor bags! 

Aren't I waiting so patiently?!

Happy Birthday!!

For real, y'all. This is serious. 

YUM!

Let's do it again!