April and Evan and Steve's House

May Day 2009

2009-05-03T17:52:00.002-04:00

It has been over six months since we last posted to this blog about our little house on the hill. The biggest event was the birth of Evan on December 26, 2008. Evan, Mom, and Dad have all settled into a nice rhythm.

We have enjoyed watching everything in the lawn and gardens green and grow throughout the spring, and we have done quite a bit to help Mother Nature. The work outside has been all about cleaning up after what were probably years of neglect. As it has warmed up, we have been planting in the refreshed garden beds, work that is ongoing.

Earlier in the spring, we had to rake and seed much of the front lawn. We had significant work done on the septic system shortly after the snow melted off the lawn, and as a result we were left with a dirt yard. The grass is starting to grow in as the weather improves.

In the next couple of weeks we hope to finish the planting. That will probably mark the end of the outdoor projects for now. Much work remains to be done on our old house, both inside and out, just like any 70 year-old home. All will happen in good time.

October

2008-10-23T14:51:00.003-04:00

It's October, there is frost on the pumpkins, and the leaves are changing and falling. Things continue to roll along at our home in Bedford Hills. The gas pipeline is complete, and gas in running in the house. Everything is running on natural gas except for the heat. We hope to have the new gas boiler installed in the next couple of weeks.

The pictures show the outdoor improvements that have happened in the recent past. We had to level the dirt and plant new grass in the front lawn, because most of the lawn was destroyed by the installation of the gas line. (Photo 1) We put up a small fence to keep out the neighbors' dogs, and we had some of the trees along the fence replaced because they did not make it through the summer. (Photo 2) We planted bushes along the fence at the back of the property that we hope will grow up to be a privacy screen for the back yard. (Photo 3) And we bought some new furniture for the patio so that we can sit and enjoy all the new foliage. (Photo 4) The trees and bushes are small and the lawn still has some bare patches, but we are looking forward to seeing everything grow tall and green.

Recent projects not pictured include the completion of the garage and work on pipe insulation in the basement. Upcoming projects are completing the basement organization and pipe insulation and some minor remodeling of the sun room in order to turn it into an office. The new family member is scheduled to arrive in two months, and we want to have the house ready when he comes.

September Morn

2008-09-10T14:41:00.002-04:00

Almost two months later, the gas company still has not come to finish installing the natural gas pipe, but at least the grass is growing in nicely. As the end of summer nears, we are finishing up the yard projects so that we can return to all the indoor projects. Plenty of work has to be done in the next 3-1/2 months. We are looking forward to the end of December. More updates on the house will be forthcoming.

July Updates

2008-07-16T20:03:00.002-04:00

We have been busy working on the yard and have again neglected the blog. It is hard to believe it is already over two months since the last post. Very slowly but surely, we are getting a natural gas line put in. Eventually we hope to make the switch from oil heat to gas. Because of the patio in front of the house, among other things, we have had to do a lot of the preliminary work ourselves. That work mostly involved a 2' by 2' trench almost 50' long from the house and around the patio. Eventually the workers from the gas company are going to come and run the line the rest of the way to the street.

While we had the yard dug up and had some extra soil, we extended the terrace on the south side of the house to make the relatively flat area next to the house larger. That terrace is all the bare soil and wall of rocks in the pictures. The grass is planted, and hopefully we can coax it to grow in the hot summer weather.

The lilies seem to be enjoying the summer weather, probably all the recent rain more than the current heat. The bulbs we planted in one of the new flower beds have grown into sturdy plants, some over 3' tall. The flowers pictured were cut from those plants.

With the current wave of yard work complete, it's back to the garage. We're going to start putting up the new drywall to cover the new insulation. We can't close the walls yet because the plumbers still need to get to the gas lines going through the kitchen. Depending on the gas company, hopefully the plumbers will be able to do the gas work inside the house by the end of August.

May Flowers

2008-05-09T13:12:00.002-04:00

Now that planting season has arrived in Bedford Hills, we have taken the work outside. We rebuilt planting beds in the front and back of the house. Those beds now hold several different types of perennials as well as a dozen raspberry plants. We also planted a couple of sour cherry trees. We look forward to a summer of pies and fresh fruit by 2010. The trees that were planted last fall also seem to be doing well. The ornamental cherry trees, in the foreground in the photo, are especially beautiful at the moment.

After we finish the early season work in the yard, upcoming projects include a new laundry drain, getting natural gas run to the house, new insulation in a few places, and some renovation of the garage interior. It will be a busy summer!

Early Visitors

2008-03-12T19:37:00.002-04:00

We had some special guests on our patio Monday morning enjoying the sunshine. Apparently our bird feeders attract more than songbirds.

Happy 2008!

2008-02-17T13:01:00.002-05:00

Happy Presidents' Day, Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Groundhog Day, Happy New Year, etc. We have been away from the house blog for a while. We have not been doing much work on the house because of the winter holidays as well as our winter vacations, most recently a fabulous week in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. That is us on the slopes of Whistler in the picture.

In the next few weeks we hope to do some more work finishing the living room and dining room.

We also have been eagerly looking at the new flower, plant, and tree catalogs, and we are looking forward to planting all sorts of new flora when the weather warms and the ground softens.

We will post new pictures as the house and property continue to shape up. Happy 2008!

The Circle of (Tree) Life

2007-10-25T14:01:00.001-04:00

We have had a tree-filled week in Bedford Hills. Last Thursday, the men from the nursery planted twelve new trees along our property line. Some of the new trees are pictured, both before and after planting. And this week, we started splitting the logs from the trees that were cut down in the spring. We will use that wood to help heat the house this winter, thus completing the trees' circle of life. Pictured are the logs before we split them, plus a picture of April in action. Next week we hope to finish splitting the firewood and continue working on the yard in preparation for winter.

Brightening the Basement

2007-10-18T18:58:00.000-04:00

One of this week's projects was painting the basement. The once scruffy walls are now a lovely shade of yellow. Next for the basement is a new floor, then we can start moving some of our things down there. It is fun and exciting seeing things shape up.

We have also been working on the landscaping. We will put up some pictures of the yard soon.

End of Summer Update

2007-08-30T19:38:00.000-04:00

We have not updated the blog for a while, but we continue to make (slow) progress on the house. It is hard to take pictures that show much of what we have done, but here are a few. The exterior pictures are the first we have taken since we had some trees taken down in the yard. One of the pictures shows the results of the arborist's work, which we will eventually turn into firewood. The big project for July was plastering and painting the upstairs hallway. We put in new skylights with the new roof, and we had to finish the interior around them. The finishing work involved some trial and many errors, but the results are not too bad. Now we are moving on to do some work on the bathroom ceiling, then we are going to paint the basement.

Up on the Roof

2007-06-13T18:25:00.000-04:00

We have had contractors working on the place for the last three Mondays. We now have a new roof, new gutters and leaf guards, as well as a new French drain in the basement to improve drainage when the water table is high. That ends the major projects for now. We will be focusing on the interior painting as well as making the place feel even more like home. If all goes well, our house might be ready for visitors before the end of the summer. Meanwhile, we are enjoying have a new roof over our heads.

Tree Trouble

2007-05-18T21:54:00.000-04:00

We made it through the second major storm of the spring. Unfortunately, part of a tree in our front lawn was not so lucky. A limb of the tree was snapped off by the strong winds and fell onto the power lines going into the house. After about 48 hours, power was restored to the neighborhood, including our house, though the power company has not yet re-attached the wires to the house. They have come out and looked at the problem and promise to fix it soon.

Although dealing with the various utilities has been frustrating, and clearing the remains of the tree was hard work, we consider ourselves fortunate, since many people in our area sustained damage to their homes and cars. Things could have been much worse.

This is just the beginning of our experience with contractors. Next week we are having the roof replaced, and in two weeks they are installing the new drainage system in the basement. By the middle of the summer, it will be like a whole new house (we hope).

One Month Anniversary

2007-04-26T14:49:00.000-04:00

As of today we have lived on Cottage Terrace for one month. The moving-in process has gone slowly, and we have experienced a few headaches gettirng to know our new home, but we are slowly making it our own. Seeing the transformation inside is exciting. So is seeing all the living things wake up in the yard after the long winter. We have all sorts of flowers all over the place, and we are excited thinking about the ways we might make the yard even better. Overall, we are still several months away from a housewarming party, but things are looking up.

Living in the 'burbs

2007-03-31T13:34:00.000-04:00

On Monday, March 26 we made the move to Bedford Hills, and we slept up there for the first time that night. It was a great feeling after the whole process. On Tuesday, we finished up things in Brooklyn and gave back the keys. We will miss the cute restaurants and shops, but we do not miss the dust and noise. We love how quiet it is in our new neighborhood. It is almost like living in the country.

Now the real fun begins as we start to unpack and make the house our own. It will be a long process, and it can be a little overwhelming, but it will be an adventure. Once we start to unpack we will post more updates here with photos of our progress.

Fresh Colors for Spring

2007-03-20T21:20:00.001-04:00

Happy Spring! Spring sprung a little over an hour ago. The temperature is still cold in Bedford Hills, but it is nice and warm on Cottage Terrace. The painter finished yesterday, and the house looks really nice with colors on the walls. Here are a couple of new photos, and there are a few more mixed in with the older shots on the photo page. It's nice seeing the contrast between the old and the new already, and we are just getting started. In less than a week, we will be living in our new home. We are really looking forward to it!

Closed!

2007-03-14T16:12:00.000-04:00

After months of hard work, we finally closed on Fieldwood (the house in Bedford Hills) on Monday. All went smoothly and quickly. We have the keys to our little red (for now) house in the suburbs, and we already moved a few boxes up there. We also hired a painter, so soon we will have some before and after pictures as we start to make the house our own. Meanwhile, the pictures page has quite a few new photos that we took during the walk-through Monday morning.

We want to thank our lawyers and realtors for all their hard work, and thanks also to our friends and family for all of their support and advice. Without all of them, this would not have been possible. Only twelve days until the big move!

Happy Pi Day to all.

Fieldwood

2007-03-06T00:28:00.000-05:00

One week until closing and three weeks until moving, if everything goes according to plan...

We got the property survey over the weekend. Apparently the property is called "Fieldwood." We don't know the story behind that, but maybe we will learn it soon. Now we can call it something other than "Bedford house."

Progress on the Bedford house!

2007-03-03T19:20:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our house blog! We have decided to start a blog to track the progress of our move to the suburbs. We are in the process of buying a house in Bedford Hills, New York, about 42 miles north of Times Square.

On Friday, March 2, the contract of sale was completed on the house. It has been a very long process. We started searching for suburban real estate last October. We looked at this particular house on November 20 and 27. Our offer was accepted at the end of December, and we had the house inspected on January 5. After almost two months of work by our intrepid realtor and lawyers, we finally have a contract. If all goes as planned, we are going to close on the house on Monday, March 12, and move out of Brooklyn on Monday, March 26.

Thanks for checking out our blog. We hope you will continue to follow our adventures as first time home owners. In addition to this blog, we will also continue to post pictures and other information at http://www.stacko.com/bedford/.

Posted above is one of the pictures from that site. Thanks for visiting!