Welcome to our monthly Fly on the Wall, a blog post written in snippets. Marcia, Diane, Sarah and I invite you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes, at our writing desks, and in our worlds. Come on in, buzz around, see what we've been up to. Bet you laugh!
This month's Fly on the Wall is going to be different from how I've written them over the past 14 (wow, has it been 14?) years. Usually my posts are little humorous snippets of family conversations and situations. But this past month (and all the way into next) has seen a huge change around here.
Exciting, (stressful), and exhausting.
Actually, back in 2018, when my youngest son had graduated from college and started his job, he rented an apartment downtown. I completely furnished, stocked, and decorated it in one weekend. I wrote about it here: Home with an H.
And I thought that was exciting and exhausting. Pffft, turns out that was nothing.
One year later, his company sent him to live in Boulder to work at a wholly owned subsidiary, a tech company. A few months ago, they sold that company and were moving some of the employees back here. My son among them.
One week after my last Fly on the Wall post, he bought his first house. Sight unseen. His real estate broker is the owner of a real estate office and a friend of Hubs'. The market is insane, houses were being sold after just a few days on the market. Especially in the trendy areas where PurDude wanted to live.
But his broker (who, weird coincidence, has both the same first and middle name as my son) found a house, viewed it, videoed it, and had PurDude put in an offer that day.
Great location (sort of, only 10 minutes to work but 30 minutes from us), in a historic, iconic, charming, and desirable neighborhood with a walkable lifestyle and close knit community.
A few days later, the offer was accepted pending the outcome of the inspection. But the house is over 100 years old and although the people who owned it before the current owners clearly loved and took care of it, the current (for the past 2 1/2 years) owners obviously did not. His broker took Hubs and I to the house and my comment when I left was that this house is a diamond in the rough.
I could see the beautiful diamond beneath, but oh how apprehensive I was about all that rough.
Everything had to happen at warp speed. The offer was accepted at the end of April, but the sellers had changed the purchase date from end of June (PurDude's choice) to the end of May. Yikes.
The inspection was done and there was a list of items that we felt had to be addressed. We weren't sure that the sellers would take care of the issues, as the owners have moved either out of town or possibly out of the country. If not, they'd have to offer money and we'd (I'd) have a ton more work to do, dealing not just with the changes PurDude wanted to make, but all of the necessary repairs as well.
After the broker sent his repair list to the owners' broker, as I said, we had to wait for their response. I thought it would be immediate but, no. And the wait was excruciating. I kept my cell by my side every minute waiting to hear. Between the stress and the exhaustion, I was just not thinking straight.
I was upstairs in my bedroom reading chair trying to read, got up to go to the kitchen to attempt my favorite stress relief, baking, and grabbed my cell, of course.
It wasn't until I got to the kitchen and started the Blueberry Upside Down Coffee Cake that I realized that my cell was still upstairs. Apparently, I'd brought my water bottle. To the kitchen.
Ugh, it was a long 5 days.
Blueberry Upside Down Coffee Cake
PurDude is very concrete and literal. And I am sarcastic. It makes for an interesting relationship.
When he finally called five days later, I didn't answer the phone with "hello."
Me: It's about time you called, I haven't peed in five days.
He laughed. Laughed!
He may be concrete and literal, but that kid gets me.
Bad news: The owners, as I'd feared, were not going to do anything on our list.
Good news: They offered money for us to do them.
Bad news: We all had three different numbers. PurDude's broker estimated what the list would cost. I had a different number in mind, 50% more than the broker, because there could be unknowns. And then there was the amount the owners offered. Less than both of our numbers.
Good news: He made a counter offer (at my higher number), and, working for us, the sellers were running out of time to meet their closing deadline.
Bad news: They didn't agree to my number.
Good news: They came just barely below it. A deal was made!
Bad news: PurDude would be here for a week before going back to Boulder for 6 weeks. We got as many quotes from 10 different trades and started scheduling out the work. Then PurDude went back to Colorado and the rest was up to me.
We were eating dinner when suddenly I yelled out:
Me: Trades!
Hubs: What?
Me: Trades!
Hubs: Can you use a few more words?
Me: Remember the other day when I was telling you about all the people I'd have to get into the house to get quotes and I couldn't remember the word I wanted to use for those people so I said "professionals?"
Me: Remember the other day when I was telling you about all the people I'd have to get into the house to get quotes and I couldn't remember the word I wanted to use for those people so I said "professionals?"
Hubs: No . . .
Me: So let me get this straight, I couldn't remember the word, but you can't remember the whole conversation?
We're quite a pair, Hubs and I.
I'd seen pictures of the house when it sold in 2023, so I know it had been loved. But in the past 2 1/2 years, all of the boxwoods lining the front of the house were gone. In fact, most of the landscaping was sadly ignored.
Worse, they had not cleaned out the a/c unit, change a filter in the heating unit, cleaned the windows, serviced the fireplace, had shoddy work done in the basement, the carpet was filthy and ripped in one place. So much general upkeep had to be done.
And then there was the scope of work we were doing that were not on the inspection list, but PurDude's vision to make the house his. We were hoping to take down a wall to expand 2 rooms into one. We were ripping up the carpet and hoping the wood floors could be salvaged. He was painting the hallway and master bedroom (which had wallpaper), etc, etc.
And a 6 week timeline before moving day.
PurDude is a type B, wing it kinda guy. I'm a hyper organized type A. So I knew the electrician had to come in first to be sure the trades could safely use the electricity, HVAC next, they'd need the a/c working. Then painting. Contractor needed to let us know if we could take the wall down before the wood floors could be addressed. Then there was the plumber, fireplace, and all the rest.
So how much got done? How much is getting done? Everything going according to plan?
I'll be publishing my July Fly on the Wall right around moving day. Hopefully I'll have an update, and pictures too.
Fingers crossed.
Now click on the links below and see what my friends have to share:
Blueberry Upside Down Coffee Cake
©www.BakingInATornado.com
Ingredients:
2 TBSP sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pint blueberries
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP baking powder
1TBSP powdered French vanilla creamer
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 X 8 baking dish. Mix together 2 TBSP sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon, and dust the baking dish, bottom and sides, with half of this mixture. Set the other half aside.
*Wash the blueberries and pat them dry. Set aside 12 of them for later. Spread the remaining blueberries into the bottom of the baking dish.
*Mix the flour, remaining sugar, salt, baking powder, and powdered creamer in a bowl. Add the milk, vanilla, oil, sour cream, and eggs, mixing until fully incorporated.
*Pour about 2/3 of the batter over the blueberries. Sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon and sugar mixture and, using a toothpick, swirl just into the batter without disturbing the blueberries below.
*Top with the remaining batter. Dot with the reserved blueberries and push them gently into the batter.
*Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, until the center of the top springs back to the touch.
*Cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edges, then a second time pulling in from the sides. Invert onto a serving plate.
*Store leftovers, covered, in the refrigerator.
