1st, 2nd and 3rd Winter Storm

We just about 2.5ft of snow last week over 3 days. We all loved the winter wonderland. Check out some pictures



http://picasaweb.google.com/jlhoepf/Winter20082009#

Ice Storm December 2008

Friday morning we woke up to no power and lots of icy trees. It sounded like lumberjacks were cutting trees and dropping them to the ground. We went 48 hours with no power and 60 more without cable/Internet/phone. We were lucky enough to stay at my parents who have a generator to run the "vital organs" of the house. Here are few pictures...

And a little water in the basement

Christmas Decorations

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we have a lot to give thanks for. In addition to the usual things like being healthy and having each other and great family and friends we were able to buy our dream house. We couldn't be happier with life in Kensington and were very grateful to host our family for our 1st Holiday in our house. Thanks to Dennis, Rob and Gram Costa for making the trip up to celebrate. Thanks to Carolyn and Scott for joining us and bringing Sampson over to play with Jett. Thank you to my parents who brought over most of the meal and especially mom for cooking and cleaning it since I was without the use of my right hand. Thank you to all of our other family and friends who were not at the table but have supported us throughout our journey. Finally thanks to Jeff for being Jeff! Thursday was great!

Friday was a down day and we hosted more guests on Saturday and Sunday. Amanda was in town from Mexico so to celebrate and to show our house to some friends we hosted a brunch on Saturday. Sunday the LaCamera's came for some burgers and football. Overall it was a fantastic way to kickoff the holiday season.

"Nothing runs like a Deere"

Sunday was Christmas in Kensington thanks to my mom who brought over and helped plant a ton of stuff and to Dennis who dropped off a John Deere. Jett was also pumped to play with his friends, Max, Sampson and OZ. Check out the pictures of our new landscaping with post lamp (Thanks Uncle Dan) and tractor.

Now Jett is ready to help cut the grass in the spring.

Moving Day Photos - THANKS SCOTT and CAROLYN!!!

April - October

The beginning...






6 months later...




and another family photo on the front porch




There are a couple more in the album. Check back for moving day photos and room photos.

We're In!!!

Happy birthday to me! 9/29 we signed papers and all last week moved into our new house. We love it! We are still working on moving things in and getting settled but otherwise all is well. Part of that getting settled will be taking some final pictures and getting them posted. We are on hold waiting for a new power cable so we can charge the laptop and get the computer running. Check back later for more photos.

Only the weekend to go!

I never announced a closing date on the website because it was always changing (7/31, 8/29, 9/23). Yesterday I finally got the HUD from the attorney and we are officially closing Monday 9/29 ( my 29th birthday)! Not the 1st time I have moved on my birthday, my parents moved from Strawberry Lake Rd to Spicer Rd on my actual birthday in 1979. Besides the moving and unpacking I think my birthday will fantastic this year, aside from the moving and unpacking. Finally I am looking forward to by birthday just as much as I was when turning 16 or 21. What a change up until about 2 weeks ago I was admit I wasn't celebrating this year. More pictures once we move in!

Meeting the neighbors

This afternoon Mike and Kirsten on Lot 1 hosted a neighborhood cookout to get to know each other. There are 8 homes on the circle, 3 young families with kids, 2 newlyweds and one getting married in a few weeks, a more mature couple, who hugged me when we met and a single gentleman and his mother. Everyone is very nice and come from all other the country as far as Orange County and Chicago to just a few miles down the road in Amesbury. We really think we are going to enjoy it over there...once we get to live there.

Kitchen, baths and hardwood floors!

The house is starting to show it's details. Here are pictures of the kitchen and baths plus one of the paint in the master. Check out all the pictures in the album on the right.

Congratulations Amy and Chris!

Can't wait to see you in Petoskey next month. I am excited to help you plan the big day!

Colors!

Saturday was a fun day, even for Jeff. We left Chester around 9:30 to meet the painter at the house, we got there to find all our kitchen cabinets are in and thank goodness we still like them. Next we headed to see Kim at White Street Paint we brought the computer so we could show her pictures of the house and our furniture to help us pick paint. The downstairs was easy, very neutral in the kitchen and family room kind of like coffee with cream and "fresh brew" for the 1/2 bath. The dining room is "dinner party" red and for now living room will remain white. Our master bedroom wasn't so easy so we left the store with many samples to try. We headed toward Salem to stop in Pottery Barn hoping they would have the coffee and end table at the store so we wouldn't have to pay for the shipping but no luck and couldn't get out of the mall fast enough. It was only noon at this point so why not continue the adventure. Quick lunch and 93N to Bedford and Martin's house of fabrics. What a fun store, we spent at least an hour looking for duvet covers, and window treatment fabric. Just as we were ready to leave on the clearance table we found the perfect drape material. Well I thought so, but it took the $2.79/yrd price to convince Jeff). Last stop, Homegoods, for one more bedroom piece. Many of you might think Jeff didn't enjoy himself but his feminine side came out and we had fun. I get to go back with Mom for the family room drapes and some stuff for her house on Friday, the whole store is 30% right now. By the time we got home dinner was just about ready. You'll have to come visit in a few months to see the final product!

Summertime

This summer has flown bye! We had a nice long weekend over the 4th with some good weather and time on the boat. We celebrated Jeff's 28th birthday, thank you Carolyn for the cake. And at the end of the month Amy and Chris visited from CO so we took some vacation time with them too. While they were here we went to the lake and tried not to get rained on, took Chris for some lobster in Kittery, showed him Boston and Hampstead and then the great North woods of NH. We drove up to North Conway hoping to see Mt. Washington and to also go kart. We were 0-2, our only saving grace was that the New England Ski Museum was open. All in all I think we all enjoyed their trip "home".

As for the house...

...It has been a bumpy, or should I say washed out, road over in Hudson Heights. Because of some political and weather delays the crew was shutdown for the month of July. They finally started work again Aug 2nd and we have been on a role since. We have siding on 3/4 of the house and the inside is almost ready for the kitchen. There is trim and doors up and we will be picking paint soon. I told them I want nothing more for my birthday than living in my own house. We have added to the album and hopefully as the weeks go on we will see more and more changes and finishing touches.

JUNE

It has been a while since we last posted and I would love to say a lot of progress has happened at the house but I can't. Personally our lives have been very busy. The biggest decision we had to make this month was what to do with our floors. Something I thought would be a no-brainer turned into a 2 week process, wood or tile in the kitchen. We went back and forth a few times and then we stopped at the Tsepas's house last weekend for brownie sundaes and looked through their kitchen design book. Wood wins (which also was the less expensive option). We got that settled yesterday. In other house news the drywall is up but we are still lacking siding and a farmers porch. We are suppose to close July 31 but we'll see. I guess that means more time at 'the farm' in Chester. Enjoy the new pictures.

"Builder Bob" checking the drywall to make sure it is the right stuff!

Week 1 in Chester

So far so good, the 1st week living in Chester went well and we are pretty settled in. The days are long we leave for work at 5am and usually don't get home until after 6:30 but dinner is usually waiting for us. Jeff and I are able to commute together he drives into Boston then I take the car and drive up to Lynn then we do the reverse on the way home. It is about 140 miles total but by using one car we are saving on gas and keeping each other company, since it is short term so we can handle it. We joked the other night that living here is almost like staying at an all-inclusive resort, my mom reminded us not to get too used to it.

They are making progress on the house, I was hoping to see siding today but not so, maybe next weekend. Here are a few pictures we took today and more added to the Album link.

Saying good-bye to Malden

I didn’t get emotional about moving out of Malden until late Sunday night, we were tired and the house was empty and finally it hit me we were moving. I gave Carole a card and watching her read it I couldn’t hold back the tears. But there wasn’t too much time to be emotional and I moved on to cleaning. A little later I sat in our empty bedroom and thought some more about it and that is when it hit me how much that little house means. As much as I complained about the size, living in the city and noise of the neighbors, I think ½ the reason we put off preparing for the move in advance was the emotional/denial that it was actually time.
We found the empty lot in Malden after months of open houses, houses that were priced over 400k that needed at least 20k in work. It was early 2005 and the market was still crazy. Finally I came across the house plans on MLS and we checked out and liked the neighborhood. It was a townhouse, which we weren’t too psyched about but it was brand new, in a nice neighborhood, and affordable. We signed an offer in February and went off on vacation. Now the part that makes it so special, when we returned home from our cruise we went to see the progress of our new house. The house wasn’t totally what we expected but it didn’t matter because right in the framed kitchen Jeff got down on one knee and proposed! This really was the house we were going to start our life together in. Fast-forward 3 years and it was like déjà vu, we signed an offer on a house (Kensington), and went on a cruise with friends but this his time the big event when got home was to move.When we moved in we didn’t think the 3-5 years we planned to be there would fly by like it did. Lots of memories were shared in the short time but the highlights of course were the engagement, making a great new friend, Carole, our wedding and bringing home our pup, Jett. Jett only lived there for a year but he is going to miss Carole the most, she was a great dog nanny/walker. The good news is we are closing one chapter and starting the next, building our dream home. I hope that in 29 years we still talk about Malden the way my parents remember their house on Strawberry Lake Rd. Every time we drive by it is always a remember when…

Memorial Day Weekend

To most the long weekend means an extra day to sleep in and a short week to follow for us it meant moving out of Malden and into Chester/storage. So when we say it was a LONG weekend it really was. It started Thursday afternoon when I took the day off to go home and pack but like most other times I went to pack I found much better things to do. It started with a sushi lunch with Alyson and then a drive down to Weymouth to visit the Cole’s and their newest family member Ellis. I finally made it home at 6:30 to pack. Friday was an early morning, Jeff went off to work and I got up to really get packing knowing he would be home at 10 and I would be in serious trouble if stuff wasn’t done. Soon enough it was noontime and Jeff, my dad and I were in full moving mode. The only glitch was after the 1st trip to storage it was clear we didn’t have enough space. Saturday morning it was my turn to go to work for the morning and Jeff took Jett up to his new house so we could continue to move out with him out of the way. We got a lot out of the house and then the hard part…moving from the 2nd floor storage unit into the new 1st floor drive up. Good news is it only took us 2 hours and we got another month for free bad news is we wasted 2 hours removing everything we did the day before. Sunday we got up and figured we would finish up and be out by 4. We were ambitious around 2pm we realized we would be there a few more hours but managed to get the garage corner and 2nd bedroom cleaned out. We knew Rebecca and Brian (our tenets) were moving stuff in after 3. They came and went, I made a few more trips to storage and Jeff cut a good chunk of his thumb off but finally at 11:05pm we did a final walk thru and rolled out of Malden but not for the last time. Monday while most were out enjoying the holiday at BBQs we settled into our temporary housing (aka my parents house) and went back to Malden. We had one more load in Carole’s basement and a bunch of trash to pick up. Monday we finally said our goodbyes to our 1st house and to Carole. Now the fun part…after all there is a reason we are doing all this! On our way home swung by Kensington to find a house with a level front yard most the electric and plumbing roughed in and both showers in place. I am very excited for all the new space. However after seeing all the stuff we had in our 2-bedroom townhouse after 3 years I am scared to think about what we can accumulate in a house 3x the size. One thing is for sure, next time I am hiring movers!

Update

We've been busy lately and finally made it out to the house today for the 1st time in about 12 days. Over the past two weeks we enjoyed Jennie and Rocco Olean's wedding at Larz Anderson, had a wonderful time in Lakeville last night at Doug and Richelle LaCamera's nuptials and I enjoyed seeing my girlfriends at Laura's bridal shower. Today Jeff assisted his brother Rob while he put in the surround sound wire in our family room and also wired for speakers on the back deck. Thanks to Uncle Brian for the supplies and to Rob for driving up to help us out. I don't have any pictures to share that show the progress of the house but the rough plumbing and electricity are in and the roof is shingled.

This week we will be very busy packing up the townhouse in Malden and moving everything into storage. Saturday night will be our last night as Massholes!

Happy Birthday Dad

My Dad's birthday was Friday which means we celebrated all weekend. It started Friday morning when I picked up Amy from the airport at 5:30am. She flew in on the red eye from Denver to surprise Dad. On Saturday Jeff went to Providence for Rocco's bachelor party and joined the rest of the family in NH for the weekend. Saturday we spent taking the dogs for walks in between rain drops and then had a BBQ dinner and cake to celebrate Dad's birthday.



Sunday Jeff joined us for brunch in NH and we took Amy, along with the rest of the Hoepf's, to check out the new house. They continue to frame the inside and it looks like they will start roughing in the plumbing and electricity soon.

End of an Era

With the big move approaching we had to adjust to the gas prices. Jeff traded in his beloved Yukon for a much more fuel efficient vehicle, a Pontiac G5. The car is very similar to his 1st ride he got when he was 16, a beautiful Chevy Cavalier.

Cruise Vacation

This week celebrated our 2nd anniversary in Cozumel as part of a 5 day cruise. When we returned we headed straight to Kensington to find what really looks like a house. The outside of the main house and family room are up with a roof and the garage is almost there. The inside even had rooms framed. Tomorrow we have part 2 of the kitchen design and will find out how over budget we are. This week was awesome, great vacation, great house progress and great company on the cruise thanks to the Bresson's.

Enjoy the new photos.

Framing has begun

Here are a couple pictures of the front of the house and another with a view of the back yard.





We found a great path in the woods behind the house that Jett is going to love! This is a view from our deck into the woods.
The album is also updated with more pictures, enjoy.

Foundation is in!

Today we headed north to NH to visit my parents and see what we would find in Kensington. At the lot we found a foundation, a ton of mud and even a lake in the back yard. Check out the pictures below.

Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures by hitting the link on the right.

Papers signed

No turning back now...Our tenants signed a lease we signed a purchase and sale agreement. We're really moving to NH, Live Free or Die!

Easter Sunday

Today we joined my Mom and Carolyn in Chester for the day, Dad was flying. After brunch we took Carolyn and Jett over to see the new neighborhood. This picture is taken from the road with our lot in the background. On the right sidebar there is a link with more photos. Enjoy!

Happy Easter!

How it got started

Jeff and I have been house browsing for almost a year now. Last fall we almost bought a nice home in Windham, NH but the timing wasn't right and we stayed put in Malden for the winter. Then early this month on a wet, muddy, rainy weekend we took a drive up Rt. 95 to the small town of Kensington, NH and found a beautiful new development, fantastic houses and the perfect lot available. We were a little unsure if the time was right but knew we had to get all the details before we said no. After two meetings with the builder and real estate agents we had fallen in love but the big question still remained, what about the townhouse in Malden? With the market the way it is or only option was to rent. I posted an ad on craigslist and within 2 days we had a deposit for renters and 2 days after that we signed a P&S on what we are calling our dream home. Wow was that fast! All I have to say is thank goodness we turned around and grabbed a check for the lot deposit that one Sunday.

This is definitely going to be an adventure. In June we will be landlords, roommates to my parents, sister, 3 dogs and 3 cats and building a house all while working full time. Stay tuned...