Masterpiece Theatre

Now that the living room is starting to take shape, I figured it was time to invite you in for a story by the hearth. You see, our charming little house came with quite a history, and we'd like to share some of that history with you. What follows is an excerpt from what Andy and I affectionately call "the Book," written by local historian, Ruth Lincoln Kaye. So relax, pull up a chair, and grab a glass of scotch. No ascots or smoking robes required.

This little gem of a house was built between 1852 and 1854. Originally two rooms over two, with fireplaces in the living room and front bedroom, it has changed very little except for addition of a back wing between 1902 and 1907.

It is of a style that architectural historians fondly term "vernacular," meaning peculiar to the time and place, a local style. Some local historians wept buckets at the destruction of a similar house in 1989 in the 100 block of Franklin Street. It bore remarkable similarity to the house at 702 S. Fairfax, yet could not be saved.

In 1972 the house on Fairfax was placed on the Alexandria Map of Historical Significance in the category, "should be retained," and thus has protection from drastic change.

In the beginning, and well into the 20th century, the house was inhabited largely by people of blue collar background: an Irish shopkeeper (who built the house), carpenter, fisherman, gunner, son of a grocery store owner, meat cutter, and so on. Now with the emerging of the Southern sector of town as a prime place to live, these houses are being snapped up by young professionals who enjoy the ambiance and the antiquity of the neighborhood.

It seems impossible, but in 1859 the house was sold at public auction for a paltry $205. Again in 1884 in went for a mere $125. Things began to pick up, though, as anyone in the market of selling or buying can tell you. Now, beautifully restored in keeping with its character, 702 S. Fairfax Street is, to reiterate, a real gem.

To be continued...

Top Ten Reasons I'm Glad Andy is a Part of My LIfe

In the spirit of David Letterman and Andy's 27th birthday, I give you the top ten reasons that I'm glad (thrilled, really) that Andy is a part of my life (in no particular order):

Without him, I’d likely still be a pathetic PC user trying desperately to get my computer to stop crashing.

Someone has to get up to feed the cats in the morning.

He looks GREAT in a suit.

He’s the only man I’ve ever met who can do shaggy hair and long, scruffy beard and still look cute.

The man reads books about things like Middle Eastern military history for fun.

I get to ignore recipes that call for onions, or mushrooms, or tomatoes, or potatoes, or artichokes, or peas, or watermelon…

He watches trashy/girly TV shows that I like such as Grey’s Anatomy and I Love New York 2 without complaining.

He shares my enthusiasm for purchasing and caring for an exorbitantly expensive, crooked house based on what amounts to an irrational love of history.

Like me, he preaches the gospel according to Maynard James Keenan.

And finally, after almost 5 years (2 cats, 1 wedding and an old house), he's still my favorite person.

Happy 27th Birthday, Andy!

Curtain Call

When my parents first built their house, they spent so much time, money and effort building the actual house, that a few items were put "on hold" in their eagerness to move in. I can remember, for example, that my parents' bedroom was without a carpet -- plywood -- for the first few months (?) that we lived there. I don't remember this, but my mother has told me that another missing piece of the new house was the living room curtains. She said, for at least a few months, they were forced to tape blankets over the windows to conserve energy and preserve privacy. Now, we've laughed about those early months on several occasions, but NEVER would I have imagined that history would repeat itself with my first house.

Sure enough, after two months of hemorrhaging money as new homeowners, one thing we have yet to spend on is new living room curtains. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but regardless of the reason, Andy and I have been living with our bare windows for over a month now. This has become a problem for two reasons: one, no one wants to live in a fishbowl and two, our darling 100+ year old windows leak heat like an old tea kettle. Given this weekend's temperature plunge and my unwillingness to share my television preferences with the neighborhood, I finally gave in and decided to tape my accidental extra set of dining room curtains over the living room windows.


Classy, I know. Laugh if you want, but we've noticed a significant difference in the 36 hours or so since we put these suckers up. Donations now being accepted to the "Home Ownership Has Turned Us Into a Pathetic Lot Foundation;" tax deductible, of course.

Time for a Change

Given that we're no longer denizens of the House of Payne, I figured it was time to revamp the blog a bit to fit this new chapter in our lives. Please bear with us as we play around with it...

:o)

It's all about the Hamiltons...

For those of you who aren't an alumnus or alumna of a certain college from upstate New York and therefore aren't subject to their constant emails, let me enlighten you.  Tomorrow is the 251st (or 253rd) birthday of the greatest, and some would say the best looking, of the Founding Fathers: Alexander Hamilton.  

Al Ham's (as he's fondly known by my classmates) accomplishments include:

-Delegate for New York to the Continental Congress

-Co-author of The Federalist Papers (written along with John Jay and James Madison)

-First Secretary of the Treasury

-Inspector General of the Army

-Showing that he's a true gentleman by firing into the air during the duel with Aaron Burr (Burr, being a man without principles, mortally wounded Hamilton)

-Being the star of his very own commercial (sorta) that can be viewed here: Al Ham commercial

So, from someone who was also born in the greatest month of the year, Happy Birthday Al Ham!

Old Windows

I've realized, even in the relatively short time that we've lived here, that there are unexpected moments of beauty in such an old house. The wood floors, for example, though they may be crooked, and squeak and groan more often than not, each board is different. There are knots and imperfections in just about every slat of pine in our house; such imperfections are so rare in more modern homes (and by "modern," I mean 20th century and beyond!) but that is what makes them interesting and beautiful.

The windows as well. Sure, the old single-paned glass is about as inefficient as plastic sheeting, but like the floors, every pane is unique.


Like so many other things, we are made more interesting by the way life shapes us. Like the glass in these old windows, we are changed and enhanced by our history. Sure, we have more problems (cold, creaky and prone to groaning... and don't get me started on the house issues!) but we develop a whole new perspective on the world, and consequently, the whole world develops a new perspective on us.

Awww, s@#t

Andy and I had our first homeownership rude awakening (literally) last night when we were getting ready for bed. I noticed that the paint on the wall above the fireplace was looking a little strange and sure enough... we had water dripping down the walls. We quickly put two and two together and realized that something must've happened when we had a contractor come in to reline our chimneys. Andy didn't waste any time getting on the horn to that contractor, but at 11:40 at night with two more hours of pounding rain predicted, we knew we were in for a fretful night.

Needless to say, what began as a gag Christmas gift from my parents only served to fuel our nightmares. Who could forget the first night that Tom Hanks and Shelley Long spent in the house with water pouring onto the floors in buckets?! (In truth, trading jokes and scenes from that movie helped us put our issue in perspective.)
After about 24 hours, we're feeling a little better about the whole situation. We had the contractor come out this morning and we're going to negotiate money off the work we just had completed on the chimney. AND this problem will be alleviated for good by the new roof that is scheduled to go on this week... but wow. For a while there we really hated being homeowners.

Home for the Holidays

Due to the chaos surrounding our move to the new house (finally!) this past weekend, Andy and I spent a quiet and relaxing Christmas day watching seasonally appropriate movies and trying quite successfully to avoid the mountains of boxes that we have piled everywhere. The day's biggest milestone was not the arrival of some long-awaited gift from Santa, but our long-awaited first fire in our newly relined fireplace! We'd love to share pictures, but we can't remember where we packed the camera!

Just kidding...


Though it feels like a mess, there are signs that we're making progress such as the new dining room curtains that I managed to install today while Andy was at work:


Thank you to everyone who wished us well/happy holidays... the folks at 702 S. Fairfax Street appreciate and return the sentiments!

... Really Ties the Room Together

Now that we've spent good money to have our floors cleaned up, we thought the best thing to do would be to spend even more money to cover them up...




They're beautiful rugs... it's a shame that they too will be hidden under even more expensive stuff (aka furniture). We're discovering that homeownership is expensive in multiple layers.

Hope these colors go well with Nala/Athena fur.

Pretty Floors

After sorting through a great deal of advice concerning our hardwood floors (the oldest of which, antique heart of pine, is estimated to date to the mid 19th Century), Andy and determined that it was best for the house to give the floors some TLC and clean them up a bit. Though much of the wood is "original," one refinishing expert estimate that we've got at least 10 different ages of wood floor in our house. Given our desire to put real effort into preserving the historical integrity, we consulted (and eventually hired) the very same company that does the floors for such prestigious spots as the White House, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. The company lived up to it's billing. The floors look amazing.

Before...

And after...

Small Victories

Andy and I spent the day today taking care of various odd jobs at the new house. By far our proudest achievement for the day is the installation of a new-fangled dimmer switch for the dining room. Aided by the advice of our dads, Mike and Peter (whose advice was "Monkey see, monkey do," and "Make sure you turn off the electricity," respectively), we only met with few challenges. This is hopefully one of many successes as we learn the ropes of homeownership.

Behold... the advent of modernization to our old house:

Dining in Style

Sneak Peak

Sold our soul... to Lowes?

Hmm... we've only officially been homeowners for about a week, and we've already leveraged our first two children and our next cat to pay for every assorted home maintenance/repair item under the sun. Couple that with the start of an ambitious initiative to paint nearly half the walls in our house, and you've got a recipe for a home ownership reality check. Luckily, Andy and I were guided through some of our early chores/handyman lessons by our folks, who were visiting for Thanksgiving. The good news is that none of these doses (some very strong!) of reality have dulled our enthusiasm for and genuine love of our new house.


I can remember watching This Old House with my parents on Saturday and Sunday mornings. We used to imagine owning and restoring our very own old house, and would speculate about the joy that comes from bringing a house from disrepair to its former glory. While I wouldn't say the new (old) house is in disrepair, it certainly needs a healthy dose of TLC and Andy and I will have our hands full keeping up with that among the more traditional/expected home maintenance. Throughout this process, I've always remembered how truly lucky/blessed/grateful Andy and I are to have this opportunity. Maybe I should write this sentiment down and put it on the kitchen fridge, so I don't forget it when things get rough. :o)

Firewood

During the home inspection, we found out that the tree in our back patio was a Bradford Pear. For those non-tree experts out there, a Bradford Pear is apparently very lovely for the first 10-15 years. After that, if not pruned properly, it has a tendency to split at large "V's", of which there are usually many. The tree actually rips itself apart at these V's; two sections of bark will grow against each other with enough force that eventually the inside of the tree breaks. Considering that our tree had many very large 'mini-trucks' and had possibly already split in some places in the past, we decided it would be best to remove the tree. So, yesterday we had a tree guy come out and turn the Bradford Pear into firewood. A lot of firewood. There are at least two prime benefits of the large amount of firewood: 1) we won't have to buy firewood for a very long time, even though we have two fireplaces; 2) whether I like it or not, I now have my very own personal trainer for the foreseeable future (ie I get to split all the logs), something Katie is already looking forward to.



A few pictures of the tree, pre-chainsaw.

We were very impressed with the work. The tree was in a very tight space and not one bit fell on something it shouldn't (like our neighbors' brick wall which they'd mentioned about a dozen times in the 30 mins we've actually talked to them).

The finished product. Like I said, it's a lot of firewood.

After the tree was cut down, cut up, stacked, and the branches were turned into mulch, the tree service (Out on a Limb Tree Service) did an amazing job of cleaning up. If you're in the DC metro area and need a tree removed or trimmed, we highly recommend them.

This weekend we'll have the stump removed. We're not sure what we're going to do with this area, but eventually we'd like to plant another tree. Unlike past owners though, we'll put something in that's a little more appropriate for the space.

This Old House

Well, folks we've done it. Andy and I went and got ourselves a house. And not just any house, mind you, but a "historic house," built in 1880. We've got more "charm" (read... crooked floors) than we can shake a stick at, and all we really need is Bob Villa to come and make our vision complete. In his absence, we'll just have to do the best we can on our own.

Many thanks to our good friends Ann and Jan, for making our first celebratory toast in our new house possible...

I tried to get this picture to load correctly, to no avail... Andy is sitting and talking to my mom on the phone while drinking (expensive!) champagne and reading what we now affectionately call "The Book." That is, the history of 702 South Fairfax. More stories to come.

These pictures were taken during the home inspection. Looks a little more cheerful than the empty house we now own. We'll take more pictures with our stuff in it.

To most, this is a small, or modest kitchen. To Andy and me, it is the world (truthfully, it's about twice the size of our current kitchen, and at least 4 times as well appointed... I can't wait to cook in it).
Again, not our furniture, but you get the idea. Master bedroom....

I love that there is a fireplace in the master bedroom... while I concede that realistically, we will likely not use it very often. But just to have the option... man. How many people have the romance of a cracking fire before bed?.... in their own bedroom! I love it.

More info to come...

We're home owners!!

Das Boot

Yes, that is a glass boot filled with beer. Why would any reasonable person drink a beverage out of a boot? you ask. Well, we're clearly not reasonable people. These pictures were taken at our friend Hunter's birthday gathering last weekend. Hunter and Abby (and Stasz, pictured with me above) went to Hamilton with us; they also happen to have an adorable 4 month old baby boy named Liam (who was resting comfortably upstairs when these pictures were taken!).

Now apparently there is a time-honored tradition to follow when one is drinking beer from a boot. Andy will demonstrate:
First, toast your fellow drinkers...

Drink....

Finish with a flick of the glass!

In case you needed proof that marriage hasn't slowed us down.... :o)

Office Shennanigans

Aside from being Halloween, today was our annual all staff meeting at work. According to PerformTech folklore, the founding members of the company -- Emma and Katie -- signed the company into existence on October 31, 1994 and, as they tell it, both were in costume as appropriate for Halloween. Ever after, they have held the annual meeting/costume party on Halloween.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you "Holy Crap," the winner of the award for most creative/original costume:

Good Weekend

Despite an uneven start, I think it's safe to say that Andy and I had a GREAT weekend. Unless you live in a cave, you probably already know that our beloved Red Sox have made it to the World Series for the second time in *gasp* 4 years. I'm still enough of a Sox fan to be apprehensive about our chances, but if the boys keep up the momentum, we could have a classic series in the making.

Oh... AND the Patriots kicked the Dolphins' padded butts up and down the football field on Sunday to remain undefeated. I smell a showdown with Indy...

I would post a picture of Andy and me in Red Sox/Patriots regalia, but we're not nearly this cute.

Wedding Photos

The photos from our wedding are online for public viewing. To see them, click here. You'll have to sign in (don't worry, it's free) and then search for our name. If you need an eventID, use "magoun" (all lower case).

Additionally, our photographer put together a slide show (with sound, so turn your volume on). That can be viewed here.

Hope you enjoy (we certainly did)!