Welcome to the first post of my blog. My dear husband and I are moving out of this charming Colonial after 14 years of raising two boys (now in college) and living the suburban lifestyle of PTA volunteering, carpooling to soccer practices and raking leaves (we even cut down many trees over the years) to the empty nest lifestyle in the city. We have purchased the Greek Revival town house that you see pictured here (bad shade of pink, I know) and will soon move in and hunker down for a long period of renovations. Although I look forward to the new adventure, my heart aches to leave behind a house that I have loved (and cursed) over the years as well as dear friends, co-workers and neighbors. I won't miss the yard work nor the snow shoveling nor the septic system, but I will miss long walks in the woods which are just steps across the street. We've thrown out the lawn mower and the roto-tiller as we won't be needing them any longer. 
On the left is a photo of the back yard taken from through the kitchen window. I really can not wait for the day when I can open the door and send our two dogs out instead of having to leash them up and walk them up and down the street in hopes of, well, you know. And yet, the woods. Oh how I will miss the early morning walks with my two lovies, the deer sightings, the sounds of the pileated woodpecker pounding away for his love, the crunch of the leaves (only curse the ones in your yard) and the occasional fox sighting. I'm not sure how the dogs will like city life. More on that later, to be sure.
The standard poodle, Lion, is two years old and the Welsh Terrier, Harvey, is seven.The new yard is full of beautiful plantings which I could never get to grow in the land of oak trees - wisteria vine, crepe myrtle and various other mature trees and shrubs whose names I will come to know.
The interior of the house has amazing bones - eleven foot ceilings on the first floor and nine foot ceilings on the second. There are several fireplaces (and several others covered up by drywall), a front and back staircase and beautifully proportioned rooms. My husband and I started watching This Old House on PBS 25 years ago when we were first married and always dreamed of owning an old fixer upper. I know, careful what you wish for. He is extremely handy and loves (?) having a project. I'm an interior decorator by trade and am good at telling him how I want it to look. He renovated two bathrooms in our current home as well as finished the basement and added moldings and wainscoting to the builder box of a house that we purchased 14 years ago. I'm sure it is because of his handiwork that we were able to sell our house relatively quickly in this horrid real estate market.
We've hired an architect for our new house because Harry Homeowner really can't take on many of the issues on the list, i.e. lack of central air, funky electrical wiring and a total kitchen renovation. So, that is the beginning of the story of the next phase of our lives. In future posts I will have pictures of the interior so you can get the feel of the "before". I hope you will follow along.
