First Halloween in Our New Home

This was our first Halloween in our new home and we were excited about carving pumpkins and handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Since we live just a few blocks down from an elementary school, we expected to have many kids...we were right. I bought two large candy bags from Costco and we kept track of how many kids visited our door...we were close to 100!

Clark carving his pumpkin

Clark doing the icky part

Clark carving his pumpkin

Andi carving her pumpkin

Andrea showing off her pumpkin

Our house decorated for the fall and Halloween

Our front porch decorated with leaves and our pumpkins

Our front porch and doorstep

No, a 6-year-old child did not carve this pumpkin, Clark did (a 28-year-old)!

Our First Home

Clark and I had hoped to buy our first home, but we didn't anticipate it happening so fast! We had only been searching for potential homes for about a month and looked at some houses, but none seemed to be exactly what we wanted. Our realtor, George Pilant, was so patient with us and really helped make this first experience a memorable and positive one. It can be really stressful putting in an offer, having the home inspection, finding financing, and waiting for the close date. George explained all the stuff we didn't understand. If anyone needs a realtor, we recommend George - he is the best! He has many years of experience and truly listened to our needs and got us the best deal possible.

Anyway, we found a house in the North end of Tacoma. It's a 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bathroom house, about 1600 square feet. The house is over 100 years old, which is great because it has such charm and character. It has great built-ins in the dining room and a classic Craftsman/Bungalow style house. We have fenced backyard with a back deck and even a small front porch! Unfortunately, we don't have a garage or a basement, so storage is an issue...but at least it will force us not to keep a bunch of stuff that we don't need or use! Our upstairs has a lot of potential with the large bedroom and half bathroom, with room to expand to a full bathroom. We have two walk in closets and a room off our bedroom...great for a reading/sitting room, office, or perhaps in the future...great for a nursery?

The kitchen and downstairs bathroom were recently rennovated prior to when we moved in. So we have new kitchen cabinets, floors, and appliances. We had to buy a new washer and dryer, so we went with an energy efficient front loading set and we have been SO pleased with our purchase! When we moved from DC, we sold all of our furniture on Craig's List so we are really starting from scratch, which is stressful on the one hand because it's so expensive to buy EVERYTHING all at once, but it's kind of exciting on the other hand because we get to pick out NEW stuff! We found a great deal on a living room set, dining room set, and kitchen table set. In our spare bedroom we have some basic IKEA nightstands and dresser and haven't yet fully furnished our office or upstairs bedroom. Again, a work in progress!

We do have some plans to rennovate and make upgrades, but will have to be phased in over several years as we are saving for our wedding. Here are our projects, in order of when we hope to accomplish them:

1) Yard - pressure wash and stain deck and fence, plant flowers, bushes, and landscape front and back yard.

2) Upstairs Bathroom - expand our half bath to a full bath to make our upstairs a "master suite."

3) Garage - build a one-car garage with extra room for storage. This may include moving our shed to another place in our backyard and possibly expanding our deck.

4) Dining Room - put french doors leading out to sideyard and expanded deck. Make one of our built-ins into a wine rack.

The view of our home from the street - 1228 N. Fife Street

Our front porch - Clark was happy it was painted crimson

Our living room

Our front door

New tile in downstairs bathroom

New tile backsplash in kitchen

Kitchen

Built-in china hutch in dining room

View of dining room from living room

Old-fashioned doorknobs

Back door and back deck

View of backyard from back door

Shed in backyard

Huge side yard - potential to make wrap around deck and french doors off of dining room

Clark on moving day - such a trooper that he moved ALL boxes by himself! Of course I paid him back the favor by unpacking ALL the boxes by myself!

Clark moving the last few boxes!

Boxes filled the dining room

Sadly, we lived out of boxes for TOO long!

Doing our first load of dishes in our NEW dishwasher! Having a dishwasher definitely made us feel special...we didn't have one living in our apartment in DC, so it was really challenging after cooking!

I am SO excited about my huge pantry!

Cooking our first dinner the night we moved in - baked salmon!

Cooking for the first time on the stove!

Our new energy efficient front-loading washer and dryer! Again, we didn't have our own washer and dryer living in DC, so we feel SO special and lucky that we have this convenience!

Andrea cutting our grass for the first time with our brand new lawnmower - Thanks Dad!

Travels and Adventures in DC and East Coast - 2005 and 2006

While we lived in DC, we were fortunate enough to be able to travel and do some amazing sight seeing. Below are some pictures and highlights of our adventures for the years we lived in DC.

Washington State Society Annual Potlatch Dinner in DC (May 2005)

Some of our friends had an "80's Prom" themed party, so we dressed up for the occassion. In case you cannot tell, I am wearing a purple polka dot and black velvet dress and Clark is matching with a black button-up shirt, purple tie, and black denim pants with sequins - WOWZA, we need to keep these outfits for Halloween maybe!
(May 2005)

We definitely would be Prom King and Queen in 1987...except for the fact that Clark was 9 years old and Andrea was 7 years old!

Trip to Philadelphia, PA - in front of Independence Hall, where the Founding Fathers met to draft the U.S. Constitution (October 2005)

Wine Tasting at Jefferson Vineyards just outside Monticello, VA (October 2005)

At Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson (October 2005)

For Clark's birthday, I surprised him by arranging to have some of his best friends and brother come out to DC! I told him I was taking him on a weekend getaway skiing and despite the fact that neither one of us skiis, he bought it! Clark is SO gullible! So, you can imagine his surprise when he walked into our local restaurant after work to find his brother and three of his college buddies! We went to Atlantic City, NJ for the weekend hoping to win a fortune at the casinos...we didn't win anything, but some of this other friends were more fortunate and did win! Here is a picture of Clark with Mike Short, Graham Mather, Bryant Bullamore, and Dustin Armstrong the night we surprised him!
(December 2005)

In front of the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City (December 2005)

We flew to San Diego to surprise Clark's brother, Graham, for his brithday. Here is us on the beach in sunny San Diego, CA
(April 2006)

At the tulip fields in Carlsbad, CA (April 2006)

At Coronado, CA (April 2006)

Washington State Society Annual Potlatch Dinner in DC (May 2006)

Virginia Beach, VA (Memorial Day Weekend, May 2006)

East Coast Beaches and the Atlantic Ocean are cool, but I still think the West Coast RULES and the Pacific Ocean is better :)

Rockefeller Plaza in NYC (July 2006)

Times Square in NYC (July 2006)

For my brother's birthday, my parents bought him a plane ticket to come visit me in DC for a week. It was Bryan's first trip to the East Coast, so we just had to take the 4 hour bus ride up to NYC so he could see the sights! My birthday present to him was tickets to the Subway Series Baseball Game - New York Yankees vs. New York Mets @ Yankee Stadium (July 2006)

Central Park in NYC (July 2006)

At the top of the Empire State Building (July 2006)

Living on the East Coast, flights across the country to go home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays gets spendy, so decided to have Thanksgiving in NYC in 2006...it was a great trip. We saw the Gonzaga Bulldogs (from Spokane, WA) play in Madison Square Garden and beat the #1 ranked North Carolina Tarheels, saw the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in person, and went shopping in NYC on "black Friday"

Here we are at Times Square where we managed to squeeze our way into the front row right behind the guard rail for the parade. It helped that it absolutely POURED down rain, so the crowds weren't as heavy, but hey, we are from the Pacific NW and rain doesn't scare us at all!(November 2006)

Home for the holidays. Here's Nana with her grandchildren - Sydney, Andrea, Bryan, Jordan
(December 2006)

Mom and Andi

Clark and Andi

Clark had been asking (okay BEGGING) for an Xbox 360 for months and I kept saying NO, but it was really a ploy so I could buy it for him for Christmas! I bought him some sweaters and shirts for Christmas and Clark thought he had opened up all of his presents...you could tell he was a little disappointed, but he was such a trooper trying to keep a positive smile and never once complained. The last gift left to open was for him and here he is opening it up!
(December 2006)

Clark in disbelief that "Santa" got his letter and wish list!

Look at Clark and how happy and proud he is of his new toy! Just like a kid at 7 years old! I guess some you never really grow out of some things :)

Clark playing his first game on his Xbox 360...he is in heaven!

While in Portland, we met up with some friends from DC who were in town. Here is Clark with his work colleague and friend, Travis Lumpkin.

Travis decided to sing a little kareoke

Travis is rocking it

New Year's Eve at a fancy-smancy party in DC (December 2006)