Bittersweet Day

Today, we received two pieces of news.  One sad, one exciting. 

My Nonni, who's been in the hospital for about two weeks now, passed away last night.  At 90, her poor body and mind did not wake up from the anesthesia ever and it was time to let her go.  I've been thinking all day of great memories of her.  She used to feed me and my brother toast and coffee - who feeds little kids coffee?  Every time we stayed the weekend with her, the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy (you get the drift) would come visit and leave treats at the fireplace - no matter the season.  She made amazing food - homemade macaroni, rabbit stew, snickerdoodles with cream cheese frosting, chicken cutlets, pastina, stracciatella soup, minestrone soup, biscotti, cialdoni cookies, fried zucchini flowers, and the list goes on.  She used to shout at my Nonno (with a really thick accent), "Oh, Mr. Nardi!".  She used to let us bring snacks to church.  She carried a purse with nothing in it but some tissues and a few dollars.  She sewed my whole 4th grade class bloomers for our Cinco De Mayo festival.  She let me play with her purses and her jewelry.  She used to be a big fan of "The Young and the Restless".  And I could go on.....she's now at rest in a better place and she'll be missed.

 On the happy note, we are finally closing on our new house.  We have an appointment to sign papers tomorrow at 9:30am and we get the keys on Monday!  So, let the construction, cleaning, painting, etc. begin!  We're starting with getting the master bath redone and redoing the walls in the laundry room, painting almost all of the rooms, recarpeting the carpeted areas, getting the (filthy) place cleaned top to bottom, etc.  Here are a few teaser photos - they are from the listing.  The house is NOT in as good of condition as it appears in the photos.  We have our work cut out for us - and it's a race against the baby clock! 

 Here's the outside - I'll have to shoot some new photos in the sunshine and get a bit closer.

 The entry way is bright and opens up into the living room, hallway and stairway.  We're going to get some shutters for that big window and we're also going to be covering up this heinous mustard yellow/green paint.

The kitchen has great bones - and awesome appliances (except the fridge) but it is DIRTY.  Seriously needs a scrub down and a disinfecting.  I love the granite, though and it's a big kitchen with lots of storage.  We'd like to paint the distressed/antique white cabinets a clean white, as well.  We'll see how much we can fit in before baby time. 

Here is a photo of the backyard - Riley's new paradise, but the photo doesn't do it justice.  We'll have two side yards big enough for RV parking/storage and the lawn is a great size, too.  Can't wait to get our patio furniture and bbq set up out here.  Yes, that is a treehouse and this is a serious treehouse.  The walls are finished and painted and there's carpet within.  Could be a fun little retreat for kiddos!

More photos and progress reports to come as we transform this baby into our home sweet home.