Would you be my, could you be my, won't you be my neighbor?

Ben has an announcement to share:

We would love to buy all of the things that Ben mentioned, but most of all the house. So, that it is what we will buy. There is a little bonus that will make Ben (and me) happy - more on that later.

We had until April 7th to get a house under contract, or we needed to find an apartment. The other choice was to lose the buyer on our house. The options seemed slim, but we found a house in time. Not just a house to settle for, but one we really like.

As Ben mentioned, it is a brick house. It is a 3 bedroom Cape Cod style house on 2.5 acres in Horseheads. There are 2 full bathrooms - one with a bathtub and no shower (upstairs), and one with a shower and no bathtub (downstairs). The house was originally built in 1939 and many updates have been done in the last 5 years. The most notable update is the kitchen and dining area - Holly will be in her glory.

There is a space for me as well. A 90 year old 2 story barn that has been converted into a 2 car garage. As I have told Holly, garages come in two sizes - too small and almost big enough. This one qualifies as almost big enough. Not large by barn standards, but moving in the right direction.

As it turns out, our neighbor will be someone I taught with my first year teaching. His grandfather and uncles built the house we are buying.

I will let the pictures do the rest of the speaking:

Satellite picture of the property

The Neighborhood

Out front

Kitchen (model for purposes of scale)

Dining area

Ooooh... built ins

Living Room

Downstairs bathroom

Lower bedroom

Upstairs bathroom

I didn't get any pictures of the upstairs bedrooms : (


The Hot Rod Shop

And now, the aforementioned bonus. This was in their backyard. We asked if it could stay. They said yes. I don't know if it runs, but Ben will like it if he just gets to climb in and pretend to drive it (at least for a little while). I hope I can get it to run - it would be perfect for running in the field. This is a gem from Allis-Chalmers, vintage late 60's or early 70's. It is the precursor to the modern ATV. I will be learning more with hopes of getting it operable. If you want to know more, google "Terra Tiger."

What Ben's been up to lately...

Ben's imagination is astounding to me. Having never raised a child before, I had no idea that a 2.5 year old could be so inventive. He will regularly hold out an empty hand and say, "Here Mommy, here's one star for you." The star is usually green. He also likes to give hearts, squares, circles, and Kubotas.

He was playing with his blocks a couple weeks ago and made this:

He then informed Andy and I that it is a "Dinosaur with a green horn." Then he made this:

That's a baby dinosaur, of course!

He's trying to learn to ride his tricycle. He has two. The "blue tricycle" he can pedal down the driveway (but not really on flat surfaces -- can't quite push all the way around). The "red tricycle" he can't touch the pedals all the way around, but he tries.

He was playing with a box today, so Andy got inventive. We might have to make a robot costume for Ben for next Halloween following this episode. He was adorable, dancing around in his box. It had contained a new pitcher -- I told Andy we should have taught him, "I'm a little teapot!"
And now check out some of Ben's photography... He took these himself, with some guidance from Andy. Not too bad, although not exactly the most flattering as far as his subject is concerned. :)

A Play-Date with the Strongs and the McNaughtons

Saturday night our friends Sara and Todd invited us and the McNaughtons over for a little evening of fun. They did this, despite the chaos that their kitchen was in (a total remodel, by my estimate). Their lovely daughter Katerina (1.5) was overwhelmed with not only Ben to flirt with, but Michael (a month older than Katerina) too! Poor Ben with his competition. We all got to spend some quality time with baby Lorelei, the latest addition to the Strong family, who is going on 2 months old. Those poor Strong girls -- surrounded by boys everywhere they look! We got some adorable photos of the three older kids, who played very well together. Take a look!

Ben is thinking, "How is it that I, the tractor king, am the only one without a tractor?!?!"

This was a big deal -- Katerina has never climbed in my lap voluntarily before! She and Ben really enjoyed reading together.

"And they call it puppy love..."

House Woes (continued...)

The search for the perfect (or at least passable) house continues. Our last extension ran out last week, and luckily we were granted another one, though April 7th. The woman who is buying our house says this is it -- when time's up, if we don't have a house under contract, we either get an apt. and get out, or else she walks. We're thankful she extended again, but so very discouraged about our prospects.

Take yesterday, for example. We looked at a beautiful house, completely updated inside, totally finishable basement... On a major road with traffic flying by. So that's a no go. We drove past a house in the Heights that we thought we'd consider, and were less than enthusiastic with the prospects. There is another house in the Elmira Heights district we might take a look at, right down the road from my father-in-law's, but that is on a road that's busier than we'd like (although slower, and not as busy as 352, where we looked yesterday). A house just came on the market today on East Franklin St. in Horseheads. There aren't any photos online, but the description sounds fantastic. So we'll take a look at that one. I would really like to be in a new house before I enter the third trimester and am completely useless when packing/unpacking!!! Well, all we can do is wait and hope for the best.

Here we are!

Inspired by friends, I've decided to create a blog for us that focuses on the family, one that everyone can easily access and get some regular updates! Myspace is great, but not everyone has an account, so I thought this was an improvement. I must give my friend Sara all the credit for the idea. So here we can have a little piece of the World Wide Web for the Campbell family: Andy, Holly, Ben, baby-to-be-named, and of course in memory of our little Jake. Feel free to visit often!