Alicia here. Well, we did it! In less than a month, we managed to sell our home! I wish I had some "before" pictures, but maybe I will find them for a future post. For anyone that has attended one or more of our gatherings, you have watched it change right there with us. (perhaps even following our remodel blog!)We made this house our own. On some levels, we are sad to leave, but we know that this is the right time for us to move on. We moved in together, newly engaged, on December 13, 2007. We move out sometime in September 2014...a family of 4 :)

There is one minor problem with the house selling so fast....we will be homeless for about 6 weeks. Know anyone that has a place for us to rent? 

Here is a look at some pictures our Realtor took...

 I learned something new about myself before we listed the house. I love gardening! I think I did a pretty good job, though you can't see it too well in this picture.

 Just to think that these beautiful hardwoods were once completely covered by glue and carpet makes me cringe! Why cover up something so beautiful?

 The kitchen. We loved designing it. We loved cooking in it. Guests always seemed to gather in it at parties. What I won't miss is constantly running into Phil while both using it.

  To think that the staircase wall was not there once upon a time...Best safety feature we installed! And a perfect location for a clock!

 Wish we had made better use of this 3 season room. But really, in Syracuse, it was more like a 1.5 season room!

 Love our IKEA cabinets!

 One of the things we loved about the house when we bought it was the finished basement. We enjoyed it for a full week before it flooded. It was so much fun to remodel in 2012, we did it again a year later - when I was 36 weeks pregnant. Fun times!

 Our bathroom remodel...more IKEA! Phil and I are just starting to let go of our bitterness that everything we bought to redo this bathroom was 80% off when we went back to IKEA only 3 months later. I am not even sure the bathroom was complete yet when we found this out.

 The girls' rooms. For all those who told us we were crazy to do such bold colors...just wait. We have a whole year to decide what colors will be in the new house!

 When the idea of a new house almost fell through, Phil's first comment was something about redoing the office. SO happy that idea was short lived!

The deck. 

Most guys want a man cave. Not Phil. He wanted a grilling deck.Nothing stopped him from grilling..not even 3 feet of snow!  

Only picture missing is the SOLD sign. When that goes up, I am sure it will be posted here!

Until next time...

Following the rain...

Wasn't expecting too much would get done yesterday, what with the 2" of rain and fall temperatures, but there has been some progress...  And yes, it's so chilly I was wearing a jacket when I took these pictures.

I thought this would be one of the last things, but they appear to have started gift-wrapping parts of it.

They have also begun work on the tunnel to the backyard.  I don't remember being asked about this optional feature, so it must be standard, or perhaps a community upgrade.  I don't know if there will be a toll to go through it, but this is New York, so I'm sure the EZ Pass readers will be going up soon.

Until next time!

End of Day 4

This is what happens when they do construction while I'm at work.  I thought we had requested a darker finish, not this drab concrete-gray, but it's okay... it'll be underground anyway.  But holy cow, it's almost done!

To anyone who's wondering, don't worry; we own an actual camera with an actual zoom.  We're not walking all over a construction zone.

Though with a wet tarp, those dirt piles would be fun to slide down.

I'm also not afraid to stand on top of a car to take pictures.

Standing on top of a truck, however, is a little farther than I'm willing to go.

"Wow!" you must be thinking.  "This guy takes incredible pictures."  Well, no, not always.  Here's one that sucks.

Have a great weekend!

Quick drive-by of the site this morning to see trucks hard at work.  I'm not a builder, so I don't understand exactly what's going on, but it seems like they shouldn't be throwing all that stuff in the hole if they're going to be trying to put a house there.

It's official.  We have a sign.
The lots in Crown Point were being sold by Ryan Homes, but right after we bought, they left the development and took their signs with them.  Call it superstitious, but we didn't have our SOLD sign up, so our lot sign went into the trash with the rest.
Well, what's the point of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house if you can't take a picture in front of the sold sign?!
So, we asked and there was not a sign to be found...
Someone heard our pleas and moved the lot 32 sign (which had a sold sign and remained) to our lot, covering the 3 and hand-writing a 5.  We don't know who did that, but THANK YOU! It gave us a chance to get some pre-groundbreaking pictures.
But the real sign has arrived!
There will be another family picture, just from about 20' in front of the sign instead of huddled around it.

2nd post for today

Because of the sun, today's pictures were taken midday.  Although, the sun was not really much of a factor today.  These pictures were taken before the storms.

Even if my car was parked in the driveway, there'd still be room for the truck since I always park on the right... unlike in parking lots, where I'm completely inept when it comes to parking on the right.

Oh, and why did they have to put those stupid rural sidewalks on a perfectly good street.
Drainage shmainage.

What's behind that dirt pile, you ask?

Only my resourceful wife would think to rent a zipline for pictures.

... or maybe ask one of the friendly helpful construction associates to take some pictures.

At this rate, they should be done by Monday.

Until next time!

Get a band-aid, the ground is broken!

I expected to see a few hundred people with shovels.  It turns out they have machines that dig holes now.  Wow.  What will they think of next??

The basement is a fun place to hang out.

This really resembles our current driveway before we got it fixed up a few summers ago, only this one looks considerably smoother...

Marissa was obsessed with the pink ribbon flags before groundbreaking.  Being the mean parents we are, we wouldn't let her take one.  This is the best picture of the hole I could get without climbing to the roof of the car or renting a helicopter.

One more look at the lot at the end of day 1. We're going to work on getting pictures at the beginning of the day instead, because the sun angle in the evening is most unfortunate.  It'll make for great evening light in the morning room, though - which seems like a bit of a misnomer.

The journey begins

209stonecrest.com is moving.  The new address is 4477southwoodheights.com.

Please make a note of it.

The new sign is coming... I'll share the story when it arrives and the pictures go up, but let's just say for now that this is customer service!

Ground breaks Tuesday.  We'll be posting regular updates here as we go, and we welcome you to join us on our journey.
-Phil, Alicia, Marissa, and Lucy