Catching Up -- All Framed In

We put a reservation in to hold the townhouse in Massachusetts about February 1st ... and then made a trip up to Massachusetts over Valentine's Day weekend to put in the formal offer and make selections. One nice thing about choosing this unit is that it was already framed in, but didn't have the cabinetry, tiles, countertops, etc. already in place.

We drove up and met everyone at the townhouse on Friday and then went over to the model in West Boylston to make selections and draw up an offer. Again, Claire was a God-send and SO much help. We were really blessed to have her on our team!

With the paperwork done, we were able to enjoy Saturday to ourselves. Mostly we just drove around trying to find where things were. We decided since it was Valentine's Day we would drive to Natick Mall where there is a PF Changs to see if we could get in for dinner. Wow ... what we learned is to NEVER take Rt. 9 to go any long distance (we later learned that Natick Mall is right off Exit 13 from the Turnpike ... MUCH easier and faster!)

Of course, about all that trip did was convince me that I would never be able to drive in Massachusetts. And we ended up having dinner at a TGIFridays that was busier than busy and not very good. Let's just say it was where all the couples with kids that didn't have babysitters but wanted to get out for Valentine's Day went. Not much fun ...

Anyway, we were able to get some pictures of the place while it was just framed in and before any real work got started in completing it for us.

Let the slide show begin:

Dave's office building at Dow Chemical

The garage ... hoping we can fit two cars in here!

View of front entry from the kitchen.

View of living room and dining area from front foyer.

View of dining area and kitchen from living room

View of windows in master bedroom

View of master bathroom

View of landing coming up the stairs to the loft

View of upstairs foyer/loft from back bedroom

View of loft ... there will be a railing across the opening!

View of the front upstairs bedroom/office

View of the back upstairs bedroom

View of living room from loft

Dave in upstairs back bedroom

View from the loft

Stairs leading into the basement

The 10' ceilings that Dave is so in love with!

Dave checking out the bulkhead

Well, that's it for now. More pictures on the way showing the progress we saw when we came for future visits! I just remember we kept saying to each other that we can't believe we're really doing this. LOL.

Catching Up -- Househunting in Massachusetts

As I continue on my blog catch-up project, I'm moving to the week after Daniel and Meghan came to visit ... we scheduled a 4 day weekend (woo hoo! Homer would be happy for us!) to head up to Massachusetts and start househunting. I already had Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and the bank graciously allowed me to take the Friday and Saturday before off as well. Very sweet.

We left on Friday morning and arrived at the Embassy Suites sometime in the afternoon (same place we stayed in August ... it's so nice there! Little did we know it would soon become our home-away-from-home.) We had just purchased a Garmin GPS to help with the househunting and I had a great time playing with it for six hours while we drove. I should have realized that twisting in my seat to search for all the places we were planning to visit was going to pull muscles in my back, but that would have been too easy. Sigh.

We met Claire (the realtor assigned to us by the relocation company) at her office and off we went! Claire had taken the list of potential properties we had sent her and mapped out two full days of househunting for us. Each day's househunting was nicely bound into a packet with property descriptions and pictures for each house we were visiting. Very efficient. That's our Claire! Since she had a lot better idea where we were going than we did, we put her in the front seat next to the GPS and off we went.

Well, let's just say after 2 full days of looking at just about every townhouse that wasn't designated for "active adults over 55" within a 45 minute commute of Dave's work campus, we had it pretty well narrowed down. We decided we really liked one of the townhouses we saw over in Afra Terrace in West Boylston but knew we weren't crazy about the idea of having to wait 4 months for the builder to start and finish it.

He had another development over in Holden that was really in the beginning stages ... in fact, none of the 5 units that were up were completed. A couple were models, but they still lacked carpeting etc. While we were hesitant to build (or in our case, go with a place that was just framed in ...) in a very undeveloped location (I mean, there are mounds of dirt everywhere and a huge dumpster out front because of the building) we did like what we saw of the area and felt that the layout of the townhouse was just what we were looking for.

So -- we took a deep breath and decided this was it. Within a couple weeks we had put a reservation on it and planned our next trip up to make selections and seal the deal ... here's what would soon become our home sweet home!

And there was a really nice treat waiting for us when we got home ... Thank you Bree!

Catching Up -- Daniel and Meghan Visit

Christmas passed by us in a blur with everyone sick and so much happening in our lives. In hindsight, thank goodness Dan and Meg didn't come up for the holiday because it would have been a wasted trip!

Thankfully, Meghan had decided that the best gift she could give Daniel was a trip home so they made plans to come for the weekend of January 9th -- perfect since it was also Bree's birthday weekend.

The original plan was to surprise Daniel with the tickets for Christmas. Since Meghan lasted all of 3 (or was it 2?) days keeping the secret, we decided the best we could hope for in the surprise department was to surprise Bree with their visit.

Well -- we told Josh and Jessica, as well as Danny and Renee, so we could plan on having a family get together that night. Eventually we told Bree when she informed us she was making plans with friends to go out for her birthday. So much for surprises!

They flew in late Friday night and we were so excited to be picking them up at the airport. They had Desmo with them (they charged them $70 to let Desmo fly too!) since he had just had surgery on his legs.

I'm trying to remember what all we did on Saturday, but I know we ended up out at Barnes and Noble where Daniel bought a nook (they had just come out and were really hard to get) and put it up on eBay and sold it by the next day at a great price!

Since it was Bree's birthday, we had the family over for pizza and wings to celebrate and just hang out. Very fun.

Sunday was great ... Meghan and I went to brunch at Simply Crepes at their downtown location in the Bausch & Lomb Public Library. We had a very yummy breakfast surrounded by books and listening to an Eastman student playing the cello.

(images courtesy of http://simplycrepes.com/)

It was such fun -- even though it was freezing out and we arrived early and had to go back and sit in the car to try to keep warm (poor Meghan!!!) 

We visited with Grandma in the afternoon ... which was especially nice. 

AND then -- we got the family together again for dinner. Well -- actually Dad took his daughters-in-love to California Rollin for sushi and I took Josh, Daniel, Bree, and William to Schallers for some good Rochester eats!

Yes -- it was a whole lot of fun and ended way too soon. It was sad to think that this would be Daniel's last visit to our house in Rochester but we know it doesn't mean we can't make memories someplace else!

Daniel and Meghan flew back to Georgia on Monday. Sadly, I had to work but I did get a surprise visit at the bank so I could have another hug goodbye. So sweet!

Let's Get Into the Spirit of Summer!

Guess since I'm not getting around to doing the catch up posting that I wanted to do, I should at least change the background and get our red, white, and blue showing.

I've compiled a catch up list of blog posts I'd like to get to (with pics!) and it's on my calendar to start today. I need to get a move on since I expect to have lots to be blogging about in just the next couple of days (trip to the Cape, R & D going to doggie daycare with Kim ... excitement abounds in the New England Paines household!)

So -- here's our rendition of Old Glory.

Doing The Catch Up Blog Post ...

The past several months have been ... well ... what's the best word? Interesting? Crazy? Exasperating? Probably all of the above. The bottom line is that while I thought about blogging about the various events that happened along the way, I found myself thinking that the posts would be pure negativity and decided against it.

So at this point, I think I'll just try to sum up what our moving experience has been like and then just move on from there.

Need to get my thoughts organized and will start posting the "catch up" stuff today!

Rascal Takes One For The Team ...

Dave has been doing some fix-up-the-house jobs trying to get ready for the next phase of our move -- having inspectors, appraisers, and Realtors in to give us the bottom line.

He's been staining the railings on the staircase and today we had a little mishap that could have been a catastrophe had Rascal not been in just the right place at just the right time.

As Dave moved the tea table that had the staining brush on it, the brush went flying and landed handle first (thankfully) on the carpet. It then fell over -- right onto Rascal's head! It fell from there onto the carpet but most of the stain had landed on poor Rascal. We were able to get the stain out of the carpet but weren't quite so lucky with Rascal's head.

Thank goodness he's going to see Jessie next week!

Minwax Gunstock -- a great look!

Sweet Look Rascal!

The Christmas Bug Strikes Again ...

Late Christmas night, poor Dave was hit by what we had now dubbed "The Christmas Bug". It lasted for a couple days and it was wicked.

Poor Bree was hit as well ... but not nearly as bad. She mostly had body aches and chills. Lucky -- if you can call it that.

Needless to say the plans to get together as a family with Mom on Saturday flew out the window. I felt like I'd been spared since I was still feeling half-way decent. Meanwhile the Country Place Paines were definitely under the weather.

I went to work on Monday but wasn't feeling great. Just a queasy stomach here and there. Still I thought I'd just gotten off with a touch of the bug. Ha!

Later that night I got to experience the gift that everyone else in the family has already enjoyed ... and yuck. It was NOT fun.

Monday night and Tuesday are kind of a blur but I'm feeling better today (Wednesday.) Still -- I didn't go to work and I sensed they weren't too thrilled about that but it hasn't been until this evening that I've actually started to feel somewhat normal. I'll be going in tomorrow and praying that Shannon hasn't come down with this yucky bug ... and there I'll be working on New Year's Eve all alone!

We are hoping to get together with the Twin Oak Paines tomorrow evening to finally give William his gifts and then with any luck we'll head out to see Mo on Friday afternoon.

Now -- the new year is upon us and there is SO much to do! Is it even possible that we'll be ready to have appraisers and inspectors in here any time soon?

Christmas Day 2009!

Since Josh and Jess were still recovering (as were the Hortons) we picked up Mom and paid a short visit to the Twin Oak Paine's house. What fun!

Santa brought William a train table and it was a major hit! He spent the entire day playing with his trains. He did take a few minutes out here and there to open a few more presents, to show us how he can pucker up and give kisses, and to read his favorite new book (Bear Stays Up For Christmas) with GG (Great Grandma Paine.)

Some pics and a video of the day:

William loves his puzzles!

I can't resist a pictures of Cheeks!

So serious!

The Scowl!

Playing with the train table ...

William loves his new book - Bear Stays Up For Christmas

Reading with GG ...

William has learned to pucker up!

The Christmas Bug Hits ...

Low and behold, on or about December 21st the Christmas Bug hit the Twin Oak Paine's house. Poor William! Josh heard him cough and checked on him only to discover he had thrown up all over his crib. A quick clean up and they brought him into bed with them.

Big mistake.

Three sheet changes later William finally had it out of his system ... but our little guy was still so sick! And just before Christmas.

Next up was Josh and then Jessica. I got a call on Wednesday after getting home from work asking if we could take William for the night. We ran up and got him and had a great evening with him. We could tell he still wasn't 100% but he was so much fun.

Unfortunately I had to work Christmas Eve day but Dave and Bree were home so William had lots of fun playing with everyone. Since I didn't get to grocery shop as planned on Wednesday night, Dave and Bree went and brought William with them. In fact, they even stopped by the bank and said hello! A nice treat for me.

Josh picked him up that afternoon and our Christmas Eve plans continued. We went out to see my mom for a bit then picked up Mom (Glennys) to come back to our house for dinner and "It's A Wonderful Life". Josh and Jess had planned to spend the evening with the Horton's but that was cancelled because the Christmas Bug visited their house too. We had a nice evening and ... yay! ... we all slept in!

Stay tuned for Christmas Day!

Next Up ... Jim Brickman

A couple months ago I saw that Jim Brickman was coming to Rochester with his holiday tour. I thought this might be a really special treat for Dave and I to enjoy. We seldom put enough time aside to just sit back and take in the sights and sounds of Christmas and this seemed like a perfect opportunity.


I am so glad I bought the tickets when I did. We had great seats. And the show was fantastic.

Jim played a lot of holiday songs but also included a lot of old favorites. There were several songs from his new "Beautiful World" CD as well.

The show featured several other artists -- Tracy Silverman who played the electric violin (absolutely beautiful but one display of his Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, and Metallica abilities was plenty) as well as vocalist Anne Cochran. Mark Masri (what an incredible tenor) was also part of the show.

While Silverman's violin was beautiful and the vocals were great -- I wish there had been more of just "Jim" playing piano ... without accompliment by others. The songs he played on stage by himself were the best part of the show as far as I'm concerned. There really wasn't a need to devote so much of the concert showcasing the talents of his guests (Silverman in particular.)


All in all it was a wonderful evening. I thoroughly enjoyed the concert and will enjoy listening to his CDs all the more having seen him in person.

Life Has Been A Little Crazy ...

I'm trying to remember how long it's been since I've blogged about life in the Paine household. I guess it was probably around Thanksgiving. Well, a lot has happened since then!

With all that we have going on in trying to clean out the house and get ready to put it on the market, about the last thing we needed was a car accident or sickness.

We got both.

On December 12th, Dave had breakfast with the GOBS guys and then came home for a short reprieve before going to meet the guys from his fantasy golf group up at The Distillery. Fate had other plans.

He was at the Ridge Road West/390S exit ramp and was turning onto Ridge Road when a woman ran the stop light. She hit the car next to Dave broadside (the car in the inside lane) and then that car was pushed into Dave (who was in the center lane.)

While Dave made out the best of all (the others were injured and I'm guessing their cars were totaled) he still had over $3,000 in damages. Dealing with the insurance companies and collision shop took up the majority of his week and of course, we were without a car. No fun for anyone -- especially at Christmas time with so many things to do. As of this writing, the VUE is still in the shop, but maybe, just maybe it will be ready tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath.

Here's a couple pictures of our poor VUE:




She is currently at Brother's Collision Shop on Lake Ave. Did I mention they said possibly tomorrow? Yeah. Thought so.

So believe it or not, Dave drove the VUE home. I couldn't believe it. I was waiting for him to call me back (he called and said he'd been in an accident, was going to try to get out of the car, would call me back -- then didn't) and finally told Bree to stay by the phone while I drove up there to meet him.

Imagine my surprise to get a call from Bree saying he was home. Geez.

Anyway, we had originally planned to meet Josh and Jess at Toys R Us to pick up some gifts for William. Believe me, it's a blast to let him loose in a toy store and that's a "gift" to us! Since there was nothing we could do about the car (Dave called the insurance company and not much can happen on a weekend) we hopped in my car and kept the date. Afterwards we headed to Sticky Lips for BBQ. It was so much fun! The food was great and I think nothing could have salvaged Dave's rattled nerves quite as much as sitting across from William and watching him eat!

So ... that was December 12th. So much more has happened but I think I'll make it another post!

Mom's 85th Birthday!!

We had a nice breakfast this morning (well, this afternoon) with mom. She's 85 today!

We made Belgian waffles and topped them with strawberries and whipped cream. YUM! And then had chocolate cake. Talk about having a little bit of sugar ... yikes!

But it was all good. We enjoyed watching William play and entertain us as he showed us that he can find the letter "O", pick out the "owl" from amongst the pictures on the page and that he can actually say "owl" now! He's so advanced for his age :)

Can't believe I didn't take a picture of Dave and Mom together. That was my intention. I just got busy. But here are a couple pictures from the day ...

Daisy trying to give Grandma a birthday present.

Mommy whispering to William to go and tickle Daisy.

It's like looking at the past and the future at the same time.

Irresistible.

Playing with the See and Say ... fun!

P.S. Thanks for doing the egg run Bree! Couldn't have done waffles without you :)

No Pictures ... BUT ...

I'm kicking myself (ouch!) that I didn't think to bring my camera with me yesterday morning when I met Marilyn, Fay, and Jill for breakfast at the Hilton Diner. Talk about going back to happy times with some good friends ...

Fay was in town for the holiday and her 30th class reunion so we snagged her and made her get up early and meet us. Even though the waitress couldn't seem to get her order right (well, that first omelet was most certainly right. Unfortunately someone else got it who probably DID want mushrooms and peppers. The second attempt wasn't too difficult to maneuver was it? Picking the mushrooms and peppers out?) And at least the pie could be put in a box ...

Anyway, we had fun chatting for a few hours. We were so glad that Jill could get herself ready and to the diner lickety split after both Marilyn and I forgot to call her with the details. Oops. Sorry about the mix-up Jill!!

So after hearing all about what's been happening in Fay's life (she is very happy these days!) Marilyn dropped me off and I proceeded to accomplish a whole lot of nothing before going to Marilyn and Bill's house last night for snacks, Taboo, and Scrabble. After lots of laughs, too many snacks, and not enough sleep --

I am now getting ready for birthday waffle time. Still don't know if Josh and Jess will be joining us but hopefully we'll be able to celebrate Mom's birthday with a few of us here. We'd love to see William today.

I am planning on a full afternoon of laundry, shopping, and filling up garbage cans. Hopefully some cleaning will also get done. We had the piano tuned the other day and it sounds wonderful. Now we just have to figure out the best place to list it.

Enough of this for now. Maybe there will be some birthday pictures to post later :)

Let's Watch Football and Eat Chili ...

It totally amazes me (and everyone else I suspect) how the Bills can shoot themselves in the foot (feet?) week after week. Today was no exception as they managed to let Jacksonville score with only about a minute left in the fourth quarter.

Despite a less than exciting football game, we had lots of fun watching William play with his blocks and trucks. He munched on animal crackers and teddy grahams and even had a bowl of chili!

It's been a busy weekend ... I had to work Saturday until 1:00 and then came home to help with the window washing. We worked on it some more this morning and have the whole downstairs done. Last night we went to Lowes and looked into countertops and options for tub replacement. We picked up stain samples in hopes of getting the railings in the foyer taken care of. It won't be long before we're painting. I made arrangements to have the piano tuned so we can sell that ... all these little (and BIG) things to do!

Here are a few sweet pictures of William from today:

Playing the piano ... banging on those keys is so much fun!

Cheeks reading "That's Not My Snowman" ...

It's fun to climb on the table and knock all the blocks down!

Playing with the wooden car Poppy made for Josh 28 years ago.

Aunt Bree shared her Teddy Grahams and William was SO happy!

We bought Will's sweatshirt the day Josh graduated from Bonaventure!
I am certainly going to miss hanging with the family on Sunday afternoons when we move to Massachusetts!