The Strawberry House

My Dad does not like to visit us anymore because I always put him to work when he comes.... kidding... about not wanting to come.. not kidding about always putting him to work.

I mentioned before that my parents drove all the way from California to help us out.

We arrived into town on a Saturday afternoon and Sean had to go to work on Monday. There was no way that I would put a dent in anything by myself since the boys, well Miles, needs so much of my time. My parents arrived on Tuesday afternoon. My mom got out of the car and went right into work mode. I made her take a break, not that she wanted to sit down since they had been in the car for 3 days... I gave them the tour, they relaxed a bit and my mom and I went to work on the kitchen.

That was the biggest project and it ran into the next day.

This is a view of the back porch. It is great to sit out there and be able to watch Braeden play.
Here is a view of the backyard. We are on almost an acre. We were debating on whether or not to get a riding mower or continue to have Lois mow. (She mowed for the owners.) We dislike the idea of paying for mowing but the cost of the mower for the amount of time that we would use it (think loooong winter), it just works out better for her to continue for the time that we will be in Iowa. I do miss yard work though, so I put on my gloves and pulled weeds last night.
Another project that my mom and I tackled were Braeden and Miles' bedrooms. Before we left NY, I purchased Toy Story bedding for Braeden's new room. I'm not a fan of "character" items for the home, or clothing, but Braeden is in love with Toy Story that I wanted to do something special for him for the new house. His walls were white and we painted them Corn Husk Green. They came out great. I loved the color so much that I painted the sitting room that color (photo of that later).
My mom found a website with very reasonable pricing for the wall decals. Buzz and Woody are about 4 feet tall and Buzz glows in the dark. Braeden's dresser, I painted when he was a baby. My plan is to paint it electric blue and add some decals. I have not decided yet what to do for window coverings. They will have to be some sort of valance since his bed it so close to both windows.
The look on Braeden's face when he walked in and saw Buzz and Woody... it was priceless.
Mile's room. His room was brown and we painted it a light grey. The floors are the original wood floors when the house was built in 1909. My mom and I sat with flat screwdrivers and nails and scraped all of the years of dirt and caked in gunk out of the cracks. (We joked that we should be in a mental institution.) It took a couple of washings with Murphy's Oil Soap and the floor looked great.

I bought a wall quote that says "Every child is a story yet to be told". I need to find something decoration wise. The color is a lot lighter than I thought it was going to be. It looks so plain. Not sure what I want to do in here yet.... and I'm not liking the layout of the room... ugh.


The Town

Strawberry Point is home to the World's Largest Strawberry. This is a photo of downtown taken from one corner. We have one intersection with a stop sign.

A view from the north side of downtown.
This next one is the Franklin Hotel, built in 1902. http://www.franklin-hotel.net/about.php It is said to have a ghost.
We are enjoying our time here in Iowa so far. Strawberry Point is definitely a small town. Everybody waves and says hello. It is hard for me because I usually don't make eye contact with people as I am walking down the street. Everyone here does.


I have been trying to get out of the house. I have taken the boys in the stroller to go downtown to the post office, the little grocery store and the pharmacy. The pharmacy has an old fashioned soda fountain... one day we will have to go in and have a Vanilla Coke or a Root Beer Float.


We have made a few trips to the park.
Toilet? No toilet. Whatcha gonna do.
Strawberry Point has a small grocery store that has necessities. Not a place though to do a full grocery trip. The gas station is also a Subway, a coffee shop and a Gun and Ammo shop. I saw the other day that they have a sign for fresh corn.. so you can get that there too.



My first trip to the gas station.. I pulled up to the pump and saw that there was not a swiper for the debit card. I had to think back to when I was about 5 and remember if I could pump first, then go in and pay?... do I have the take the kids in with me?? Everyone in that gas station knew everyone by name. When someone walked in the door it was "Hello so and so". I felt so out of place.



The grocery store, Fareway, is in Manchester, a 20 mile drive. It is definately not a Wegmans..the entire store is the size of Wegmans produce department. It is very old fashioned. The employees wear white shirts with black bow ties, the meat is cut right where you can see it (they don't sell packaged meat) and there is an employee in every isle to help you. The cashier removes everything from your cart and they even take it to your car and unload it for you. Do I tip? I still don't know, I feel stupid asking. Manchester also has Walmart, a very small one and an awesome pool. I plan on making the pool trip weekly.



Independence, 38 miles away has a small Super Walmart.



Waterloo is 58 miles away. CIVILIZATION! Target, Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, Hobby Lobby.. you name it. I headed there yesterday just for a haircut and a trip to the BIG Super Walmart. It ends up being about a 5 hour trip and makes for a long day.



Now that we are pretty settled in, the things planned for the rest of the summer are... some more painting, the fair, visiting other towns for summer festivals, hiking and biking. Just outside of Strawberry Point is Backbone State Park.



Family update: Miles began crawling today. Time to put up some baby gates!