Nothing To Do

I am having the weirdest feeling right now. After 12 weeks of intense labor (and I'm not kidding about that- staging the house, cleaning the house, selling the house all while being a single mom- along with still working part time, fixing things, and carting the kids around... wow... it has been a lot of work!) I am now staring down a long stretch of not having to do anything.  I don't HAVE to keep the house clean. I don't HAVE to fix anything (well, unless it involves our livelyhood). I don't have to go to work. The kids are not in any activities so I don't have to take them anywhere. It's a very, very odd feeling.

Now, will I just be sitting on my rump from now until "then"? Of course not- I don't do bored. But, knowing that in a few hours I'll be homeless and on the tail end of that is vacation is a feeling I can't describe. I think I might be a little giddy about it. :)


An actual update- Still working with the bank on the Mass. end- but it looks like everything will be a go for us to close next Friday. We will be homeless for just shy of one week. Which, means no mortgage at least.  We close on the house here today and the movers will come load the truck tomorrow. We will clean and get out of here hopefully by tomorrow night (I can't leave the house filthy like the one I'm moving into).  Spend a few days with the in-laws and then on the move.  Keep checking back to find out more about our adventures.

Till then.... xxxoooxxx

PS- if you are a Westerville friend reading this- if you see me- please don't say goodbye- just "see ya later" because you will. Remember- we have family who lives here. We'll be back!! We won't just abandon friends we've had for 8 years!!!

It's really happening

Wow... we only have 7 days left in this house. Almost 8 years to the day we will move out of the house that has meant so much to us.

In the act of full disclosure I have never loved my house. The physical structure. But I love what this house represents. We have watched our kids become young adults in this house. We birthed a child (not physically, but you get what I mean). We have many, many fond memories in this house- hard to believe that we are leaving it.

I wish I could say we were leaving and moving up the street to a bigger house in the same neighborhood, but it's okay that it's not. We are all ready for the new adventure that awaits us! I just can't believe it's happening so soon.

Might finally be official...

...Wow. After lots and lots of consternation and back and forth regarding the inspection (I won't bother anyone with details) we finally signed our S&P today. So, as long as everything goes as planned from here on out we will own our new home in Mass. on May 31st. We'll be homeless for about a half of a week; weird to think of that!  Moving day is June 7th and any time starting June 14th we would love visitors! We have a guest room and plenty of room to spread out- so seriously- plan a visit!!

I am trying to not be sad about leaving- but I'm sad about leaving. We have made wonderful, wonderful friends here and I can't imagine life without them.  It will also be really hard to go to a new place and not know anyone. And, since we won't be in a neighborhood it will be hard to meet people.  I am determined to keep a positive attitude though and think of it as a new adventure. It's also not helpful to mope about- for many reasons- but especially because I don't want the kids to see it and have them act the same way. They are handling this very well and I want (NEED) that to continue. 

To any of my Westerville friends who I might see before I leave- just know that I am not into big goodbyes. I don't transition well. So when I see you and we part, it will be just as if I might run into you again tomorrow.   And, I'm already planning to come to the area in August so I'll see you then!! (Some of you probably as soon as I would anyways with our busy lives).

I'll keep updating as I have updates- but for now... wish us luck!

I finally saw the house!

Everyone has had an opinion on this- the fact that I haven't seen the house and "let" Matt pick the house out.  It really wasn't a big deal. We've been married for 15 years, watched countless hours of HGTV together, have lived in 3 houses... he knows what I like. Besides, there wasn't really much other choice other than waiting until after school was out to even look- and stay in an apartment or something while we did that. For those of you who don't know- houses in Mass (at least that area) are listed on a Monday or Tuesday and have an open house the following Sunday. They then collect offers and decide on one. That is how fast you have to decide if you want to put an offer in! It's crazy. The second time Matt saw the house was inspection day. No "second showings" here!!


We laughed because as we started the house hunt online in Southern NH and Northern Mass almost every house was a Colonial Style. I joked about it constantly- how creative realtors had to get to describe THEIR Colonial.  But, in the end, we got a Cape Cod!! (Pretty much the only other option, other than the split levels from the communities built in the 1970s).  It is considered an "Oversized Cape" because of a huge addition that was put on a few years ago.


The house is very cool. It is very unique and has lots of character.  Anyone who knows me well knows that cookie cutter houses are not interesting to me. I love the quirks of a custom built house- even if I didn't build it. This is no exception.  The floorplan is unique, but has nice flow and the rooms are all very spacious.  There is so much storage that I honestly don't know what I'll even put in all of it! As you'll see in the pictures there are "built ins" (after market- not true) in several rooms. We will actually probably take them down from the family room and master bedroom and move them to the basement and garage. I don't have tons of knick-knacks and they'd end up looking cluttered and junky.  A few bookshelves will be just fine. :)

There is no formal living room or office/den in the house but we'll figure that out as we need to. We'll either put our office in the basement or at one end of our master.

So... the moment you've all been waiting for- the photos!!

The shed- opposite the garage/house

View from the house down the driveway. Notice the street is not visible. It is a private drive with just one other house.

Side entrance, which is really the main entrance.

Entrance door. The door from the garage to the house meets up with this door in a little mud area/landing of sorts.

View from front yard down drive. The road you see on the right leads to the neighbor's house.

Front yard

Front entrance. It is beautiful and I love the stairs, however, there is no sidewalk to get there. It is a functioning door, but probably doesn't/won't get much use.

Patio from "back" door/laundry room

Four Season room off of Family Room
Also leads to patio.

Eat in area of kitchen. The bay window is to the left of the side entrance when looking at house.

Kitchen- not huge, but big enough and notice the wall of cabinets to the left (pictured below)

wall of cabinets. Plus, to the left is a Butler's Pantry.

View from kitchen down hall to laundry room (ahead) and entrance to house (on right)
Also, to left is a half bath.

Laundry room of my dreams.

More laundry room. We think the book rack must be for shoes.

From other angle. Can you tell I love the laundry?

Dining room from hallway/kitchen area. Notice kitchen desk to left.

Basement door ahead, dining and entrance to left, family room to right.
I do not particularly like the pillars, but they are load bearing.

Great room (as taken from dining room area/pillars)

Sun room. It has radiant floor heat as well as vents for air, so it can be used year round.

Sun room

View from family room into dining room (left) closet (center) and master bed (right)

Master.  See how big it is and almost divided- thinking of putting office area in the foreground area.

Stairs- at main entrance

From top looking down

One of the original bedrooms. It has a twin. There is also a really ugly full bath next to it.

Playroom area outside of addition bedrooms

Other side of that playroom and hallway from addition to rest of upstairs.

Kids' rooms. Both are huge and have interesting roof angles. The one that Amelia will use also has built in bookshelves.

On lightswitches and bowls...

I have lived in my house for 8 years now. Every single day I open the wrong cabinet to get a bowl out. Every.Day.  There are also at least 4 rooms in my house in which I can't figure out the light switch on a double switch.  I am seriously worried about what's going to happen when I move.



And for those of you who are interested- the town we are moving to is Chelmsford, Mass. It is 8 miles south of Nashua, NH.

I found me a pool!

This post is mostly for the JC-ers. You know who you are. And you know I'm DEVASTATED about not being able to hang out with you at the pool. But, I am happy to report that I just did some research and found a non member/public pool. WHEW.  

Let me be clear. I will have no friends there and the iced tea will suck (it's no "the Angela") but at least I don't have to be stuck in my house for 3 straight months with my children. And maybe we can face time. Sound good?

Beantown or Bust!

Well... I guess I have to start somewhere- So... The Hugheses (thanks, Molly O. for clearing that up) are on the move. After 8 years in Westerville (and 16 total in Central Ohio) we are heading to Boston Mass this summer!!

Most of you reading this already know that and want all of the juicy details.  So- as I sit here in my ransacked house (because I might as well try to have a garage sale) I'll tell you what I know.

Our house here is "In Contract". We were on the market around 22 days or so. Most people think that sounds super fast- but it felt like an eternity (especially because many houses around here sold in a few days).  We are set to close on May 24- the day after school ends.  That will make for about the world's longest summer because the kids don't start school in Mass until after Labor Day!!

Anyway- we are also "In Contract" on a house in Mass.  Contingent on our inspection which is next week. It's important to know that I LOVE looking at houses. I oogle over houses. I have been looking for a new house ever since we moved into this house. And. And. And. I did not see our house. Matt went house hunting without me and picked out a house. I completely trust him and in photos it looks awesome. But I didn't get to look at houses! What??!!! I think I might ask the realtor to just let me drive with her someday looking for a house for someone else. Think they'd mind?  One nice thing is that pretty much every house in Mass is a large Colonial. Or a Cape Cod. Which, is what we ended up with. Well, or that we WILL end up with. Fingers crossed!

We are set to close on that house on May 31st. We will be in Disney World from May 29-June 6. Should be interesting to say the least.  And, to all of my Westerville friends who thought they'd have me around until July... I'm bummed. But, it won't be long before I'm back! You all won't be able to get rid of me that easily!!

So, that's my update for now- keep checking in (or subscribe) to find out our progress. And, new house pics after I go there next week!