In the process

Yesterday's post included a picture of a condemned house. This property will either be destroyed or rehabilitated by the Historic Macon Foundation (HMF; the organization that restored our home). HMF recently received a grant for over 700,000 dollars to restore homes in our neighborhood. They currently have three in process (including the one pictured below).



Developments such as these give Craig and I hope that indeed our neighborhood will turn around (after all we've banked a lot of money on that). In the 16 months that we've lived here an additional 14 new homes have been constucted, with nine of those now occupied. Given how close we live to Mercer's campus, there's a risk that many of these homes will be turned into student rentals. At present, only three of the new homes serve that population, but we are working to ensure that future contracts include covenants that the properties need to be owner occupied. It's not that I have anything against the students, but rentals drive the value of our home down (since I don't know how long I can actually stand to live in Macon, we need our house to maintain it's resale value).

But that's enough about the neighborhood. After all my family comes to the site for updates on my kids.

This morning I realized that Julia has her first tooth. It's the bottom left incisor, and it has just broken through the surface. I can feel its mate on the right is not far behind. Since I didn't actually know that she was getting a tooth, I am taking this as a good sign that teething won't be a terrible process. Grace was a really good teether. Only her molars gave her problems. Keep your fingers crossed.