Lovely long weekend

The pictures in this post are from a neat little place we found near one of the towns we are looking to live in in Boston.  (what a run on sentence that was).  It is called Kimball Farms, and we were so excited because it has awesome ice cream just like the place near our current house.

I love three day weekends.

For us, lately, 3 day weekends mean just another day to work around the house. Getting our house ready for the market and for summer all at once.

This weekend has been busy from beginning to end. Saturday was full of activities for the kids, and then spending the entire day outdoors. The kids loved it - they played until the sun went down. Mat and I worked our butts off. We sanded the whole front porch to get it ready for staining. And we got the rest of the mulching done and general cleanup.

Sunday, Mat and I left bright and early for a repeat trip to Boston. We have three houses on our short list that we wanted to take another look at, and really talk about what we thought of these homes. We had our uber-fabulous babysitter, Carly, come and spend the day with the kids, and then our friend Susan Thomas after her to just watch the kids for the last hour before we got home. We cannot thank them enough for helping us out yesterday.

Mat and I were gone for about 9 1/2 hours yesterday. The trip up and back is 1 1/2 hours each way, but the rest of the time we were there with the houses and then driving from the neighborhoods to Mat's work. It is a huge decision, so we want to make sure it is just right.

We have found our favorite house. So - we will probably be making a bid soon, and see what happens. Not holding our breath, but hopeful none the same. We will share when we can!

Last night, when we returned from our long day, Mat and I spent a few hours putting the first coat of stain on the front porch. It was a big job, but it looks so great. It was really worth it. We are excited to add a little more "curb appeal" to our house before it goes on the market.

We went to bed last night sore, tired, but happy. We saw great houses. We got a lot of projects done on the house and we knew we STILL had a whole day to devote to the house before returning to work.

This morning, we woke up to rain. But, most of our projects we had are indoor projects anyway, so that was okay. And the kids have been doing well entertaining themselves today so we could get some work done.

I spent the day putting everything back into our attic space because during the house inspection everything had to be away from the walls. That was a 2 hour project putting it back! And aggravating knowing it will be coming back out again soon when we move.

And we cleaned. And Mat put the baseboards on in the basement playroom (yay). And we started a second coat on the porch between rain storms, but had to stop. We put the screens into the windows so we could get fresh air into the house. We cleaned all the windows. You name it - we did it inside today.

I am really proud of us. We are tired. And hot. But we are very nearly DONE. And from now on, it will just be regular cleaning to keep the house ready for showing. The last two projects we want to do are simple ones - power wash the back patio and clean out the gutters. It feels good to be almost done. This was a rough winter, and our spring has been so wet, that it seems late to be getting these things done. But they are going to be done in time for the house to be officially listed, and that is a huge plus.

Tomorrow, we drag ourselves back to work. But a four day work week isn't so bad.