Once Upon A Time...

Once upon a time there were two married bloggers who got very, very busy and turned into terrible, horrible, no good, very bad bloggers...

Clearly you've figured out that story is about us. We haven't forgotten about our blog at all, we just can't seem to find enough time to sit down and share our exciting news with you all (no, we are not pregnant, calm down). Between school ending, two vacations, multiple jobs and snuggly kitten cats, we don't even have five spare minutes (okay, fine, maybe we have five, but we need more)! But, we're back from the good ole southern lowcountry and pinky promise to update this week. Stay tuned.

You Can Get Anything You Want At Annabelle's Restaurant

As should be obvious to everyone, we are trying to buy a house, and thus trying to save money. It's one of the reasons we started this blog in the first place (even though I am a bad blogger and have been neglecting our creation of late). As part of this search for our own home, we've been spending a LOT of time looking at properties. Sometimes this happens on a weeknight, and by the time we're done it's almost 9pm and the concept of cooking dinner is a nightmare - even more so than it is for me generally.

This confluence of events, and a handy-dandy Groupon, led us to Annabelle's in Hyde Park last month. This is a relatively new place as they just opened in 2010 and that newness is evident as soon as you walk in. The whole building is clean, modern, updated and open, providing a very welcoming atmosphere for a meal. They have ample seating both in the sizable bar area and in the rest of the restaurant, with TV's interspersed throughout the venue (which was key for us me this particular night, as I was able to catch the end of a Bruins playoff game while we ate).

The food here was very good as well. They advertise themselves as serving "traditional New England fare" but they have something for everyone, along with some interesting twists. Basically, they have a standard American dining menu, with everything from sandwiches to seafood and many cultural foods as well. Hard to not find something to eat when you dine here and more options are a plus in my book (though not necessarily going to get the Restaurant Impossible seal of approval, with their penchant for one page menus).

Sweet & Spicy!

About those "twists" on the menu.  One of the specials was Chicken & Waffles the southern-style staple. Liking both chicken and waffles, and never having had them together before, I obviously took the plunge. I was not disappointed. A delicious, flaky Belgian waffle was topped with crispy, succulent fried chicken with sides of maple syrup and hot sauce. While putting all these things together in one bite may sound odd, the flavors and textures all melded really well together. I'm sold on chicken and waffles and may need to explore other southern creation. My only beef is that one of my pieces of fried chicken was essentially just batter and bones though, which was disappointing.

Kendra got the wild salmon with jasmine rice and baby spinach over greens with a vinaigrette sauce, but in typical fashion subbed in rice pilaf for jasmine rice and added a side of asparagus. I had the leftover rice pilaf and it had excellent flavor, which was a nice surprise. The vegetables and salmon seemed to be good as well, as they didn't last long on the plate. Also of note, they bring delicious fresh baked bread before your meal, which melts in your mouth [not pictured due to the speed with which we devoured it]. It was like the peasant loaf of Joe's American Bar & Grill but we didn't share it amongst friends.

Now, given our Groupon, which was worth $35, we ended up paying about $7 bucks for the whole meal including tip. Not buying beverages goes a long way to keeping costs down. All in in, it was a nice dinner out at a new place that we'll likely go to again sometime. If you ever find yourself in Hyde Park, we'd recommend checking out Annabelle's - IF you can score a coupon. No sense paying full price for anything.

House Hunting Hoopla

Daylight savings weekend seems to be the unofficial start to spring, and in that spirit we went to our first open houses on Sunday. The weather was nice, despite the recent dump of snow, and it seemed a lot of people had the same idea we did. Some even had the same routes planned. We saw a range of houses: some without finished walls (or any walls at all for that matter) and some that were so updated they looked like an IKEA showroom in Dubai (if you saw the house this would make more sense). Because of all of this grown up "fun" we've been having, I thought I'd share our reflections on the home buying process thus far.

1. Every bank assumes you can't actually afford a house, have the worst credit on the planet, and are up to your eyeballs in debt.

We've talked with 3 banks so far and the conversations always start off the same. Here are a few highlights:

• "Your debt ratio can only be 41%."
• "Unfortunately you need good credit in order to qualify."      (Hey now, we have excellent credit!)
• "You're a teacher? So you make what? 30K?"
• "That'll put your monthly mortgage payments around $1800." (We pay $1640 in rent and it goes up to $1795 on 6/1)

After we establish that we are actually competent, rationale adults things proceed much smoother from there. But it's not over yet so I kind of want to make a T-shirt online with our financial stats. Thoughts?

2. People have terrible, crazy taste. I mean terrrrrrible. 

This one, let's be honest, is no surprise to anyone. But it is staggering how much junk people accumulate and how little people "design" their homes. Has no one been watching HGTV? You've got to stage, buddy! I can't imagine myself living in your house with a picture of your round, hairy, shirtless man circa 1984 on the dresser. It's March: your penguin Christmas decorations are distracting me!

3. Houses priced correctly sell FASTER than you can schedule a tour. (Literally!)

I've been saving houses we like on Redfin for open houses or future tours. Every day I log on I have to delete at least 1 house that now has a sale pending, just days after appearing on the market. How did they even get their paperwork together that quickly? Does everyone have a fairy downpaymentmother? Is there anywhere I can find one? 

Overall, it was exciting and overwhelming to look at houses, but we saw one we liked which was encouraging (we'll see how long our luck holds out). This is all just in time really, because our neighbor's "performances" are reallllly getting old.

Anyone have an entertaining house hunting stories of their own?