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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Happy Anniversary F&P

Happy 8th Anniversary –The Frog & PenguINN

0409 House photo

It was 8 years ago in early January 2003 that we first saw the house that was to become our permanent home, 2 years later. Although we purchased the house in 2003, we didn’t relocate until 2005.

We were living in NJ and both Grenville and myself were taking college courses. We had decided to move when our courses were done. Thanks to online listings, we would check out homes for sale online and then make the 5+ hour drive to look at some whenever we had a free weekend. We lost count of the trips and the houses we looked at for well over a year.

Ironically, we saw our future home on the last day of a weekend visit – it was a FSBO – for sale by owner. Below is a photo of how it looked when we first saw it on a drive around. Many eastern shore homes here have the same color scheme – white house with black shutters. Makes you wonder if they ever heard of other colors, then we found out that folks here favored white as it was thought to be cooler in hot weather.

Note that the shutters were missing on the second floor windows. (They were around, but just not on the house.)

2003 house front (2)

We called the number that you can’t see on that sign and – talk about timing – got a return call an hour before we were to head back to NJ. Within a half hour, we met the owner and a half hour later had agreed to buy the house – on a handshake. Once back in NJ, the details were handled by phone calls and mail exchanges. We returned to sign the paperwork and complete the purchase in late January 2003 on Lee-Jackson Day.

You are definitely not a native Virginian if you don’t know about this holiday. And, being northern Yankees, we had never heard of it either. After all, our side won the Civil War.

Lee–Jackson Day is a holiday celebrated in the Commonwealth of Virginia to celebrate the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. The original holiday, created in 1889, celebrated Lee's birthday. Jackson's name was added in 1904. Lee–Jackson Day is observed on the Friday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which is the third Monday in January.

From 2003 to 2005, we spent holidays, vacations, and summers, working on the house, until we sold our NJ home and moved in the summer of 2005 and christened it The F&P.

f-p logo (1)

Here’s a view of the house front taken the summer after we moved in. Notice that the front hedges on both sides are gone. They met a chain on the back of Grenville’s pickup truck.

The house is still white, but with all its shutters back in place.

2004 house frontsmr

A few years ago, we changed the colors to ivory with blue shutters and coordinating blue trim.

house front

We enjoy our home and, YES, it features LOTS of frogs and penguins. More about the frogs and penguins in future posts.

F&P collage

If you are ever in the neighborhood, y’all stop on in and “set a spell.” As the sign says . . .

P1030119

17 comments:

martymom said...

Happy Anniversary to both of you, Happy Anniversary to both of you, Happy Anniversary , Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary to both of you. With all our love . . . . . . . . Bob and Marty

Gingerbreadshouse7 said...

You have a beautiful home and I'm sure you know your blessed.
Happy aniversary for a years blogging. Ginny

grammie g said...

Hi Beatrice...What a wonderful story....and I do love your house!!
I also like the colors you painted it ...all it's cute trim and the porch.. very nice!!
Congrats..on your 8th!!

Montanagirl said...

You have a lovely home - and Happy Anniversary!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Marty, Ginny, Grammie G, Mona...Thanks so very much; we DO appreciate the well wishes and comments about our home. The F&P always welcomes visitors,so if you are ever in our neighborhood, drop in. Right Marty?

Carole Barkett said...

Happy Anniversary, you've made some excellent changes, I love the new colors

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary!
You have changed the house to the better! Much better!
I too agreed to buy the cottage by handshake :-) I think they see that as more important than the paperwork to be honest :-)

I think it is eleven years since I bought this cottage and moved here and this year the cottage celebrates its 100th birthday!

I think that almost 70% of all houses and cottages here in the countryside of southern Sweden are red with with corners :-) The red paint was very cheap :-) I think I´ll tell You more in a later blog over at my place :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Country Gal said...

THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR COMMENT AND YOUR INVITE TO YOUR BLOG. I AM NOW A FOLLOWER OF YOUR BLOG, I LOVE IT ,
THE NAME OF YOUR BLOG IS ADORABLE, I HOPE YOU ENJOY OUR BLOGS AS MUCH AS I WILL YOURS.
HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY !

Connie said...

Your home is beautiful, Beatrice. Happy anniversary to you!

Anvilcloud said...

Your landscaping and painting make a HUGE difference. Your hard work sure paid off.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Thanks Carole - it was fun choosing the "new" colors for our house.

Christer, our home was built around 1929 so we have a few years to go to catch up with the 100th anniversary that your cottage will mark this year - having a party? Your comment about most of the houses being red in the Swedish countryside was interesting - most of the homes here are white with black. Look forward to your story.

Thanks Country Girl for the visit and comments. I will be reading some of the earlier posts on your blog too. Do revisit soon.

Thanks Daisy and AC, it's amazing how some new paint colors and yard work can change a home - for the better.

Unknown said...

Amazing how the time flies! A belated Happy anniversary to you and the house! You have done a lot. It looks grand! We bought our home here in MN in 2002 as well and did not move until 2005 after I retired. Jerry made more trips here back and forth to CA when he retired years before me. I will post our story on the blog sometime soon as it has become a local legend how peopel from CA moved to MN!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Pat, time did go by so fast and the house has certaily undergone transformations outside and inside as well. Maybe in future posts I will do a before and after of our kitchen. Certainly would be interesting to read your story and sure the MN folks thought the CA folks were a bift nutty to move from warm to cold and snow.

Elaine said...

I've been doing a bit of catching up on blog reading. Traveling and visiting family makes that difficult, but everyone is at work today, so I have been catching up little by little. Congrats on completing your first year of blogging! I really like the new colors on the PenqInn. It's much more inviting than the white and black.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Thanks Elaine, we really hated that black and white look. We're looking forward to another year (and more) of blogging cause it's been really fun "meeting" nice folks, like you.

Far Side of Fifty said...

Hey, Nice to meet you, your house is lovely..and large..I really envy you the porch..what a great place to gather! Thanks for the comment over on my blog! :)

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Far Side of Fifty and THANKS for the visit and compliments on the F&P. yes, the frong porch is great to sit outdoors in nice weather, before the skeeters come out in summer and hot temps.