Steve and Maria Frey

Well, today marks 2 momentous events: Ken’s birthday (Happy Birthday Brother-in-law!) and 1 year since we moved to our new state. It’s been a fun and busy 12 months. One thing that we didn’t expect was the amount of visitors we’d get so soon! I hope it doesn’t wear off because we’ve SO enjoyed sharing this new place with many of our friends and family – some of you multiple offenders visitors!

I thought I’d make a list of a few things we’ve discovered or enjoy about living in North Carolina. In no particular order:

• There is a time where you can see life forming, it’s all around; in the trees, in the air, you can hear, smell and see it. They call this Spring. I like Spring.
• Charlotte is in a pretty central location where a 2 hour drive in any direction can take you to some wonderful places to explore. There’s interesting scenery along the way too…2 hours around here is an easy drive.
• There’s snow. It may not be much, but we’ll take it!
• Up here, is a different type of nature that we enjoy exploring. From the mountains and streams, to even our very own backyard!
• We bought a house! We were fortunate enough to buy a house in Charlotte. A piece of the earth that we can love, care for, and open to all.
• We have more types of birds, critters, and insects than we could ever count in our backyard. It makes sitting out on the porch fun to watch and listen to them carry on with their day.
• C-130s routinely land at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport – which means we can see (and HEAR them as they go by) – a year, and Steve still runs outside like a kid chasing an ice cream truck.
• Although the downfall of moving is that we’re farther away from family, the 7-8 hour drive isn’t bad, and one that has been made numerous times already, by us and others!
• They’re opening an NHRA Drag Racing facility in the neighboring city of Concord – Steve’s excited!
• We’ve got some good eats in Charlotte…and a ridiculous amount of grocery stores…really, it has to be unhealthy to have so many grocery stores…it’s easier to get to a different chain store than it is to a gas station around here!
• We’re close to fun stuff like the U.S. National Whitewater Center (now that it’s warming up, you’ll find us there again soon!), nice walking/biking trails on the Greenways, funky art galleries in the Arts District, and LOTS of shopping – just ask mom, it’s even too much for HER to handle at once!

I could go on, and I’m sure Steve has even more items that he would share, but it’s 11:54pm – almost “not the anniversary” anymore. We really have enjoyed and feel blessed to be able to call North Carolina home. We look forward to many more years of many more lists.

Happy day to all!

After living only a month in our new house, we’ve officially be introduced to the downside of owning a home. Yesterday morning I got up to a very wet floor in the dining room, through the hall and bath to the kitchen. We thought we determined the source being a leak in the refrigerator/water line, however last night around 10 or 11pm (when the flood came again) we quickly realized that it was the sewer line and not the fridge, when the toilet decided to become Old Faithful.

I don’t figure anyone cares to see the pictures except the insurance company, so I’ve decided to mark this event with a Haiku. (Thanks to Amanda who has reintroduced me to such poetry.)

Sewer line backup
Into the house it came – twice.
Homeowner joys drowned

I think since we’ve moved into this house (a month on the 28th) we haven’t had time to experience a “real weekend” yet. With family being here to help us move and unpack we’d gotten used to having another set of hands around to help out. Well, the time came where we had to suck it up and Do-It-Ourselves. We took a trip to Home Depot last night to get prepared for the events that would happen today. Steve got himself some man tools for the yard and I picked up a few buckets of paint. After some ridiculous amount of money, we were well on our way to putting some sweat equity into our new pride and joy.

Steve spent most of the day weeding and trimming trees and making loud noises with his gas trimmer. (I think he was playing more than working!) I spent way too long confined in our ventless bathroom with a gallon of paint.

I took some pictures to show the before and after of the paint at least. (We’ve still got other projects in the works for that little room) I didn’t think to put the flash on for the after pictures so it may look like it’s a REALLY bright yellow. But I promise it’s not SpongeBob yellow.

I think we both thought we’d get more accomplished in this DIY Day, but hey, we’re novice homeowners…we’ve got the next 30 years or so to figure it out!

Mom came up for 2 weeks to help us with the overwhelming amount of STUFF we needed to unpack/organize/set up/etc… We each have things that we’re passion about in life, and crazy enough (but lucky for us) this is one of her passions. She says she doesn’t move as fast as she used to, but it would be Christmas before Steve and I were anywhere near the point we’re at now. We truly thank you Mom – not only for the hard work and GOOD FOOD but for the love and patience too.

Since we only painted the 2 rooms, they’re the most complete, but at least stuff is out of boxes and sorted so we can begin to tackle the rest of the house.

Here are some pictures of the undamage that she’s done so far. (Sorry, no pictures of the food, it was too good to let sit long enough for a picture!)

 Update: 4/3/08 – It’s Thursday and I can’t say we’re completely out of the other house yet. Saturday should prove to be the “wrap-up” day. The incentive is that mom has offered to come up for 2 weeks to help us out. She’ll arrive sometime Saturday afternoon, and we’d much rather use her skills and energy on the new house that we own, rather than the old house we rented! Thanks SO much in advance, Mom!! We love you!

Today’s moving day…In fact, right now Steve and his brother Andy are hauling yet another load up 85 to our new house. I, on the other hand am sitting at Starbucks kicking back and enjoying a nice, peaceful, day off work. NOT! I am on a break though. Unfortunately, I was stupid and pushed my body too far in the days leading up to this one, and after a chiropractic appointment this morning, my husband would kill me if I was doing anything that even remotely resembled a thought of anything strenuous. So, there you have it. I’ll Blog. Then, I’ll “gently” go pack up the rest of the house while they’re gone.

In the meantime, I did manage to snap off a few pics. Nothing too exciting, and probably my mother will be the only interested viewer, but I’ll throw them up here anyway. Things are still going well, we’re hoping for a “Completed” report tonight – even if it’s 11:59pm.

By the way, the bright orange things you see in the picture of Steve and Andy lifting the Solid Oak Entertainment Stand are Forearm Forklifts -

The Forearm Forklift® is a pair of lifting straps designed to make moving furniture, appliances, mattresses, dry wall, windows, HVAC units, glass, marble, copy machines and filing cabinets easily.

The other pictures may not look like much either, but it is proof that they successfully moved our 500lb piano. No dropping it!!!! Someday I’ll tell you the story about how the ONE little man showed up to move this beast of a piano (it’s cast iron inside, which is where all the weight comes from) – he of course was no match for the Yamaha, and he dropped it….off the dolly, on it’s back…on the hard, concrete, garage floor. We paid that moving company $650+ to drop- um I mean, move the piano. I bought Steve and Andy a couple of waters…they were good to go. Just goes to show that you don’t always get what you pay for!!