House Hunting in New Jersey: An Offer That Flopped
Ready to hear more about our house hunting adventure in New Jersey? This is a story about an offer that flopped, but the reason the offer flopped is still hard to understand. The first home we made an offer on was a 5 bedroom, 3 bath home. The property is what really sold us on the home. It was on 3.5 acres and a creek ran through the property. It was priced at $380,000. In order to keep all the homes we were looking at straight in our minds, we gave the houses nicknames. This one was the ‘sad house’ because the home looked sad and neglected in the listing.…
House Hunting in New Jersey is Hard
We started house hunting in New Jersey!!!!!!! Yes. That sentence required an overuse of exclamation points. I want you to know how excited I am. I also need to remind myself how excited I am because house hunting in New Jersey is hard. Oy! I was adamantly opposed to living in New Jersey, but now that we’ve been here for a year the state has grown on me. Prior to moving here my negative impression of New Jersey was generated from bad reality TV, the jokes New Yorkers make about New Jersey, and the Newark Airport. That probably wasn’t fair and now that we’ve had a chance to explore this state…
Happy Thrifting: Andover, New Jersey
The fastest way for me to get “alone time” is to ask my family if they want to go hunting for treasure. They know this is code for thrifting and everyone single one of them will say, “no thanks!” Then I pretend to be disappointed while skipping out the door. My latest adventure for the Happy Thrifting series took me to the small town of Andover, New Jersey. Andover is located approximately an hour and fifteen minutes west of New York City. I didn’t get a firm count on the number of antique or thrift shops in the Andover area, but I went into four shops. I’m fairly certain I…
Travel: Washington’s Headquarters and Ford Mansion
When I used to think of New Jersey, I thought of Jersey Shore (the reality tv show, not the actual shore). As it turns out, an over-the-top reality show does not do New Jersey any justice – at least not in the historical sense. New Jersey actually played a very important role in the founding of the United States during the Revolutionary War. Think about where New Jersey is located between New York and Pennsylvania and you’ll have an ‘ah-ha!’ moment like I did. New Jersey was centrally located among the American colonies. It had a decent transportation and provisioning system. It had also developed defense systems that would play an…
Happy Thrifting: America Designs
I have quite the virtual shopping treat for you today! We recently visited the town of Lambertville, New Jersey. Never heard of it? That’s okay. It is a small town (population approx 4,000) located along the Delaware River and right on the border of Pennsylvania. The Travel Channel recently named Lambertville the “Most Charming Small Town” in New Jersey on it’s list of “America’s 50 Most Charming Small Towns.” That’s quite the endorsement, isn’t it? With a recommendation from The Travel Channel and the town’s self-described label as the “Antiques Capital of New Jersey,” we HAD to check it out. The very first store in Lambertville that we ventured into…
Halloween in a Small Rural Area
Happy Halloween! Ready for all those trick-or-treaters? Did you eat your stash of Halloween candy and have to run buy more? Twice. No? Yeah…that didn’t happen to me either. How would you like me to treat you to some pictures of autumn and Halloween in a small, rural area to get you in the mood for tonight’s festivities? “YES!” Oh good. There really was only one correct answer. I’m glad you said that! These are some pictures I took about ten days ago in a small town called Hope, New Jersey. Before you mention it, let me tell you it was still QUITE green then. We had a seemingly endless…
Travel: Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park
I love travel. I love exploring. I love finding FREE things to do while out and about on our adventures. Oh, yes I do! If you are on the East Coast and want to see the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, then I recommend a stop in an unlikely spot – Paterson, New Jersey. Paterson is considered America’s first planned industrial city and the idea for it came from Alexander Hamilton. Yes, THE Alexander Hamilton. Paterson has a pretty important feature for an industrial city – particularly one back in the 1800s – water. The Passaic River runs through Paterson and the energy from the 77-foot high Great Falls…
