An Ode to Helen

I have now come to terms with the fact that my camera is gone forever:-( While I had uploaded MOST of the pictures that were on it, the ones I didn't manage to capture were the "before" photos of the house. I had literally photographed almost every square inch of the house to remember its original state and properly document the house prior to renovations. Well, those are gone. The only other ones I'm devastated to have lost were the pics of our family by the SOLD sign on closing day and also the pictures of Gloria first eating cereal (or rather first spitting and vomiting up cereal;-) So unfortunately, I don't have proper pictures of the homes original state, but we did manage to dig up the MLS photos from the listing.

Helen was the sweet woman that owned this home before us. She was 93 years old when she sold it to us...which makes her 30 years old when she bought it (just like Jeff...of course I'm still a baby at 29). When we first came to see this house on a routine evening of house hunting, we were absolutely blown away by the condition of the house. It was impeccable. It was so clean, so well maintained, absolute pristine condition. As Jeff and I have been cleaning and unpacking, we are yet to find a room that was actually in NEED of a cleaning. I haven't seen a single cobweb since we set foot in here. So a special thank you to 93 year old Helen who took better care of this house than my 29 year old body is capable of. From the lawn and flowers to the perfectly lined cabinets...how do you do it?

Here are the MLS photos of the house, perfectly suited for Miss Helen with all of her treasures properly displayed.






The house seems to be getting worse before it gets better after tearing all of the carpet out and exposing some of the hidden charm. Hopefully we can improve its condition and pay homage to Helen in the meantime. Didn't she have beautiful taste? We actually asked her if we could buy several pieces of her fabulous vintage furniture collection. But, alas, they were already promised to her 1-year old great, great granddaughter. Can't compete with that!