Condo’s To Consider

To follow up to my post here, where I talked about our moving to Ohio, I thought I’d show you some of the condos we’ve been looking at.  Springboro is the area of Ohio we will be looking in and there is a lovely community called Settlers Walk that contains single family homes as well as condos.

These are what the condo’s look like and they come in 3 bdrm/2bath or 2bdrm/2bath; two car garage; and sunroom.   Some of them have a study/office {the one we chose does} as well as quite a bit of storage.  We went with a 2 bedroom unit, which is 1790 square feet.  About half of the square footage on my current home.

I love that they look just like a house!  

The area has shopping very close by, medical offices, YMCA, community pools, lakes, playgrounds, and many other amenities within walking distance.

These pictures are from various condos that are on the market there.  This is the study/office.

They don’t all have white cabinets.  I’ve seen a couple of different cabinet finishes, as well as this white.  Mine has creamy white cabinets!

The master bedroom in one unit.  Not a very exciting picture, but it’s a good size room with the master bathroom and large walk-in closet.

Master bathroom.  To the right is the linen closet and the open doorway right next to that is a pocket door which is where the toilet and shower are.  Straight ahead is the huge walk-in closet.

Living room/den open to kitchen and a dining area.   The sunroom is off of here to the left.

View of utility room with bonus storage room at the end.  That storage room is what I would make into my craft/sewing room!  Very excited about that!

Once we actually get into ours, I will take pictures of it and the details that stood out to us.  I’ll need “before” pictures anyway!

I’d love to hear from anyone who lives in or near Springboro.  I don’t know anything about Ohio having lived in New York my whole life!

Bonus ~ there is a Hobby Lobby in the area!  We don’t have Hobby Lobby in New York and I will finally get to visit one in person.  I’m very excited about that and I’m sure I will be like a kid in a candy store on my first visit there!

Kathy

My Exciting News!

I gave my two week notice at the day job today! Woo-Hoo! If you follow my blog, you might remember my mentioning that our house went on the market back in March so that we could downsize.  We had planned to stay in the area.  At that time, we had plenty of time to sell and, if we didn’t, we would just take it off the market and wait.  Things have changed and it looks like we will be moving out of New York. 

Yes, Ohio!  Housing prices so affordable compared to Long Island that I can’t believe it.  My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter will be moving with us!  They could actually afford to buy a house in Ohio, where they could not hope to do so for many years on Long Island.  It’s an opportunity that just cannot be passed up.

We should be there and in our respective homes by September.  It is a very exciting time, but I’m also feeling a bit of anxiety and stress over it. 

I will be sharing some of the condos we’ve been looking at in my next post.  We are actually pretty much set on where and what we want, so our trip there to look at places in person went fairly quickly and smoothly.  I’m sure I’ll get dozens of blog posts out of this move, so I hope you’ll join me on this new journey in our lives!

Please keep your fingers crossed and/or say a prayer that the move goes smoothly! 

Kathy

A Little French Book

I’m doing this post on my little French book for Linda at Nina’s Nest.  Linda had posted about some French books she had and I had mentioned to her that I had a French grammar book I purchased from eBay several years ago.  I actually purchased it when my daughter was taking French in high school thinking she might like it.  {It is still in my possession, so there’s your answer}.

This book has a copyright of 1917.  There were loose slips of paper in the book and at least one is dated 1963. 

I wonder if these were study notes.  There is also a page with flower petals that were pressed within the pages of this book.

And notes made in pencil throughout the book on various random pages. 

A couple of names pop up here and there, like this address sticker and across from that, in pencil, is someone else’s name written in.  Some of the scraps have names on them, too. 

I don’t speak one iota of French but I love the color on the cover of this book and I love looking at the pages and wondering who used this book.  And the ultimate question ~ did they, in fact, learn French from this little grammar book?

I think that, until I have to pack it up, it will stay right here on my Frenchy dresser.

Linking up with

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Kathy

Cradle And All

Upon clearing out the attic so we could go through everything and sort it as “keep”, “donate” or “yard sale”, I came across this little doll cradle I had gotten for my daughter when she was really little.  It was unfinished and at the time I just stained it.  I’m sure I made a little comforter and pillow for it, but I haven’t seen it yet.

To make it more up-to-date for my granddaughter, I sprayed it with some Heirloom White.  I probably should have sanded and primed it first because it soaked up the first coat like it was nothing!  That’s a mark in the “pro” column for chalk paint!

I decided to give it a little more detail so I added these wood embellishments that I got from Michaels.  One to the foot of the cradle and one on each side.

Next step will be to make some little bedding for it.  I’m in the process of looking through all the fabric I have here to see what strikes me as “the perfect fabric” for this project.  I keep going back to this one.

Linking up to

Time Travel Thursday at The Brambleberry Cottage

Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch To Yours

Kathy

Topiary ~ Fought Me Every Step Of The Way!

You might remember when I showed these pots of faux geraniums {was it two Summers ago?}. I used two for my gazebo and had a third just hanging around feeling unloved.

Being inspired by Kathy at Kate’s Place, I tore the third one apart and remade it into a topiary!  I had the large moss ball, some moss, some left over boxwood garland, a dowel already painted brown {I couldn’t believe that luck} and some craft paint to paint the pot.

I started with a brown craft paint and added a green that I had.  That made it look almost like a metal pot.  That wasn’t the look I was going for, so I painted more brown and threw some white into the mix. 

Then the boxwood I had was a garland and was not sitting right on the moss ball.  I wound up going to Michael’s to see if they had boxwood that was non-garland and they didn’t, so I wound up purchasing some ivy bunches.   Trying to remember how I had to twist up some real ivy I had {a long time ago} on a round topiary frame, I tried to keep it relaxed looking.

I put it on my redone chest in the foyer for now.  I will probably have to add more ivy to the bottom part of the moss ball.  You’ll have to check out Kathy’s for a really good topiary make-over!

I did finally find a happy medium putting this together.  Something that I thought would be so quick and easy, just wouldn’t cooperate.   Do you ever have that happen?

Linking up with:

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch

Table Top Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Inspiration Friday At The Picket Fence

 

Kathy