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I can’t even count the number of times I’ve sat down to write this post. But every time I have, nothing comes to mind. What does one say after such a long absence? I know half of you are thinking that I should talk about my kitchen, and I will, just maybe not in this post. But truth be told, the kitchen is the last thing on my mind lately. It seems the two percent of my brain that isn’t currently dedicated to school just isn’t enough, and is going in a wide array of directions, most of which I cannot keep up with any longer. But we do what we have to do, right? So I try to keep up.
I don’t think I’ve actually told this to anyone, and I’m still not sure why I am, except, you know, all you people (you know who you are) won’t leave me alone about my blogging absence. For me, it comes down to fairness. I write here for pleasure, but I also just write for pleasure. The five manuscripts collecting virtual dust on my hard drive are just as important to me as my measly blog, and since I can’t take time to give them some words, I find it hard to give my measly blog some. It may sound stupid, but that’s the bottom line.
I haven’t come to complete terms with it yet, but I am beginning to realize that I need to write somewhere. And since I can’t dedicate hours upon hours to my fictional characters, I suppose I can dedicate a few hours a week to the real characters in my life. I won’t be here often (not that I ever really was), but on the flip side, I also won’t be elsewhere in the blog world very much.
I signed on to my reader account recently and began going through the hundreds of posts that I’d never gotten around to reading. Eventually, I just bypassed most of them, and will start fresh from now on. I apologize for everything I missed, and really wish I had the time to catch up. I’m working on getting into this new routine, but I’m sure you all will know when I finally find my footing.
Here’s a riddle. What do you get with a fresh out of school robotic husband and a Saturday with nothing interesting to do?
Boy, do I love renovations. And if you think this is bad, then you surely haven’t seen the rest of the house.
You probably thought this day would never come. I wasn’t too sure it would come either. But here we are, seven months after moving into our new house, and I am ready to continue on with the virtual tour.
We already saw the bathroom, which was the room in the most dire need of a remodel when we moved in. Therefore, being completed first on the list.
The other day I finally buckled down and finished off the office. This was a difficult room for various reasons. First, it’s extremely small. Like a twin bed would take up half the room small. Second, the paneling. Oh, the paneling. I despise it. I anticipate the day that I no longer have to look at it.
So, here it is before we moved in.
So, we painted the paneling an off-white, and the trim bright white. My mother and I made a valance for the window and a curtain for the closet. I finally got Derek to put up some shelves, and am rather pleased with how they turned out.
Derek’s beloved Fitzgerald print was the inspiration for this room, but it’s mostly an eclectic mix of things. Some of my dad’s photography is on the shelves and the four elements fiber art next to the door is my mom’s handy work.
There you have it. It’s an improvement at least.
It often staggers me how different it is where we live now compared to where we used to live.
Our first house was a pink bungalow, nestled into square mile after square mile of basically every shape and color of the exact same house. You ask any man, and he would probably say it was beige, but you ask me, it was pink.
Our lot was small, allowing me to keep everything trim and neat. Shoveling the driveway took no more than ten minutes, mowing the lawn took not much more than that. Each of our neighbors were only ten feet away on either side of us.
Our neighborhood was a community, people were constantly sitting on their front porches, walking over to a neighbors house to simply chat. When we first moved in, we were the new kids, everyone was feeling a bit disturbed that there was a married couple in their early twenties moving in across the street, or next door.
But, they came to accept us, and eventually some of the houses around us began to change ownership and we no longer held that title. A city cop lived across the street, an elderly man who only found pleasure in talking to others and sharing his stories next door. It was a quaint neighborhood.
It’s like a completely different world where we are now, and I just haven’t gotten used to it yet. We know none of our neighbors, and with some of the things happening, not sure I want to. I may have to blow some of my steam sooner or later about our neighbors, but now is not the time.
Anyway, I woke up and let the dogs out this morning to find ten deer wandering around the yard and I wasn’t sure it was real for a moment because when the dogs ran out into their pen, the deer simply lifted their heads, steam coming from their noses, and walked over to the fenceline, inches from the dogs.
I was captivated by what was happening, especially when Keiko, the one that goes berzerk whenever a wild animal is around, simply sat down and lifted his nose to the deer’s head. By the time I thought to grab my camera, the scene was over and the deer were just wandering again, chomping at the bare branches of our pear tree.
Yesterday afternoon, there were five of them hanging around for a while, and that had been the first time I’d seen any sign of them other than some footprints since November. I’m hoping that’s a good sign.
For the last few months when I looked out at our property, all I could see was the mess that needed to be tended to, the hours and hours of labor it would take to make it suitable. I’ve changed my standards, and what was suitable at the old house no longer applies to this one. I may not live in the country, but in my eyes it’s close enough, and the image of a perfectly manicured, cookie cutter, suburb home is slowly fading with nature taking its place, and there is nothing I love more than nature.
I honestly don’t know where to start. If feels like so much has been going on, but in reality, there hasn’t been much going on at all. There seems to be a cloud over my head blocking all the ideas from coming in. I just don’t know what to write about.
There is the house. Which, is crawling slowly down that line of items to accomplish. But, being the obsessive perfectionist that I am, I am unwilling to start sharing pictures until every last detail is seen to. It’s mainly just minor things now, window coverings, pictures on the walls, some organizing. But, hopefully soon enough.
There is the cooking. I’ve been doing quite a bit of that. I’ve tried some new recipes, and even took some pictures. I did manage to draft a story about my first encounter with the broiler, which I then forgot to finish and post. Maybe I should get around to that.
There is school. In January, I will be going back to start some classes that I need to take prior to the Nursing program. I am looking forward to going back even more now that my sister has been accepted into the 2009 program. She was originally accepted for 2010, but got bumped up. It’ll be fun going through it with her.
Change. That’s what’s happening. I am not the best at dealing with change. It’s great living in the new house, close to my family. But, suddenly I find myself with more free time than I’ve had in a very long time, and I am lucky if I get to spend one hour of that time with my husband each week. I find myself responsible for all the things that he used to manage around the house. I am having a hard time thinking about school, and the fact that I am actually going back to complete a degree (who would have thought THAT could ever happen??). The next few years are going to be difficult, and I am not ready to face them yet. But, knowing me, will I ever truly be ready? I’m not complaining, I suppose I should just face the fact that our lives are really moving on this time, that we’ve finally decided what we wanted out of them. I was so used to our lives the way they’ve been the last five years, that I can’t imagine it any other way. Not yet, atleast. It’ll come to me eventually.
I just realized that last paragraph was pretty heavy. I try to keep it pretty light here, without talking about things like that, but that’s what is on my mind at the moment. I hope you don’t mind.
Here I am, staying true to my word. The first room I am going to show you is the bathroom. Our itty bitty bathroom. While I would have loved to do a complete makeover, we didn’t. Someday we plan to put an addition on this house, and I don’t know just how the layout is going to be yet. So, we’ve decided not to change some things that may just be totally changed five or ten years from now. I mean, if this isn’t going to be a bathroom at that time, why would we waste money on something like tile, that will just have to be thrown out when the major remodel comes. Right? Anyway, here is the bathroom. It’s not anything fancy, but it’s cute now.
Before:
I didn’t like anything about the bathroom. It was so dark in there. The red walls, the glare from the glass shower door, and the dark wood. I couldn’t stand it. Neither of us could stand comfortably under the existing showerhead, so it had to go.
After:
We painted the walls an off-white, replaced all those dark fixtures with new white ones, took out the glass door, and it made a world of difference. We also switched out the showerhead and tub faucet, you just can’t see them in the pictures. It turned out better than I expected it to. I am still not a huge fan of the tile, but it works in there.
None of the other rooms are picture worthy yet, but I will share them as soon as they are. Hopefully that doesn’t take me all winter….
I suppose I can say that my little hiatus is over. You know that thing called life, well that seemed to get in the way. That can happen sometimes. Every time I sat down to write something, nothing came out right. I wish I could say that we decided to take a vacation, go somewhere exotic, but that wasn’t the case. Exactly the opposite, in fact. Unless you consider a small brick ranch in constant disarray to be exotic. Which, when I put it that way, seems possible. I am SO not used to having things so disorganized. Moving, remodeling, school, it all seemed to happen at once.
Things are finally starting to slow down and we are settling, quite comfortably, into our new house. It sure feels like we’ve lived there longer than a month. My husband’s impatience pushed everything along, not quite smoothly, but pushed it nonetheless. We’ve got almost everything accomplished that we set out to accomplish in the beginning. There are just a few finishing touches to take care of, and we are set for now. I plan to start posting before and after pictures sometime soon, but I am not making any promises. I seem to be pretty bad with the whole posting thing lately anyway.
Autumn is officially here. Can I just say that I am very happy about it. I love everything about fall, and look forward to it every year. I take that back, I am not looking forward to raking an acre full of leaves all by myself. When we were younger, I enjoyed it most of the time, because it was a family affair. It was time spent outside with the family, and it was always fun. Now, Derek is extremely busy, and I am stuck with all the chores for myself. In the end, I probably will enjoy it though. Just being outside in the fall makes me happy.
So, hopefully this time I can say I am back, and actually mean it. I am not going to commit publicly to anything, but I promise I will try my hardest to post more often. Apparently, the three people that read my blog really miss hearing from me. Who would have thought?
There was a small hiccup in the closing process yesterday, and after sitting in a 6 by 6 room with four other people for 5 hours, we had to call it a day.
However, I just got word that the house is officially ours. So, the fun part begins. I will try to keep everyone updated as much as possible!
In less than two weeks, we will be closing on the new house. Here I am, looking around my house at everything that is still not packed up. I just don’t know where to start. Every single time I look at something and decide I can pack it up, I then convince myself that I will need it sometime within the next two weeks.
It really snuck up on me. The last couple of weeks, I kept thinking there was plenty of time to get everything done. Then reality kicked in, and I realized there isn’t much time at all. [Insert freak out here]
Everyone keeps on telling me that I can no longer be emotionally attached to this house. It will never be the same again, and I do realize that. If it were being sold, it wouldn’t be so hard. But, this house is one we will still own in the years to come. And it will change. I’ve faced that, but as I look around, memories pop in and out of my head from the past three years. This is where Derek and I started our life together (in a marriage sense), and there was so much that happened here. I am not a big fan of change, I prefer simplicity and order. In the end, I realize that the new house will provide so many new memories, and it will be the place we raise a family someday. It’s not like we could have stayed where we were our entire lives, anyway.
I’ve been thinking about the situation at the new house, with the previous owners living so close. I honestly don’t think they will bother us, but they must have the same feelings I am having. This is a house where they raised a family (turns out, I graduated from high school with one of their daughters), remodeled a number of times, and I am sure that place is full of memories. Oh well, life goes on.
So, I’ve been spending a lot of time packing things up, and coming across things that I had forgotten about. I started packing up the storage room downstairs, the one that I cleaned out a while back. I ended up taking pictures of the collages and will finally throw them out.
I sent out Christmas cards the first year we moved in, and had planned to do the same each year since, which never happened. After Christmas the first year, I stocked up on cards when they all went on super clearance. Well, stocked up is an understatement, I’ve got loads of them! Looks like I will have to pick up the tradition again of sending them out. Or atleast give them to someone who will!
I just need to mention the clothes for a minute. I’ve never realized just how big my wardrobe is. Every single closet in my house has clothes of mine in it. The sad thing is that I don’t wear half of them, and probably don’t even fit into a quarter of them. I made the mistake of putting on a few pounds years ago, and getting rid of all my clothes, only to lose the weight again. I haven’t gotten rid of much since then. I really need an overhaul on my closet, and now just might be the time to do it. We’ll have to see about that. I have to admit, I’ve got a husband that is quite a picky dresser, and can compete fairly with me on the clothes front. I won’t even mention the shoes and coats. What couple really needs two closets devoted mainly to shoes and coats?
I will be so relieved when this move is over. Of course, then I am faced with the task of doing something I couldn’t even do in a span of three years, in a house larger than the one we are moving into; finding a good spot for everything.
We had a home inspection done yesterday on the new house. Everything turned out alright, just a few minor issues that need to be addressed. That’s what husband’s are for, right?
It got a very good report, and I still like this house more and more each time I see it. The fact that the previous owners live two doors down is a little odd, though. That’s right, last night a woman came over while the inspection was going on. Her and her husband had lived there for 22 years, and this past February, lost the house. Her parents live two doors down, which is where they are currently living. While I feel for them, and I am sorry for their luck, it was a bit on the strange side. Especially when you could tell she really missed the house. She was very willing to share any information about what they had done over the years, and even gave me some old photos from the kitchen remodel.
After I had shared some changes that we wanted to make to the house, I kept my mouth shut. She was very against the fact that we wanted to put up a fence, and suggested that we use an invisible fence. I will not let anything hold me back, but I do completely understand why she is feeling this way. First, she grew up two houses down, and her best girlfriend lived in the house we are buying. The house between those two, and the one on the other side of our house are still owned by the same people that owned them 30 years ago. So, her and her husband bought this house, and made it theirs for 22 years. So, hello, there are some changes going on around here for the first time in a long time, and I can see where that would make it hard.
The way she talked about the house and all the things they changed over the years really proved that there is still some feeling there. Hey, if I were in her position, I would probably be the same way. Which is why I probably wouldn’t have ever gone over there in the first place. I am glad she did, we found out many things we wouldn’t have otherwise. But, if it was that difficult, she really shouldn’t have. Obviously, she wasn’t rude or spiteful to me in any way. She was wonderful about the whole thing, which made me feel even worse. It also made me wonder. She didn’t seem like the type of person to bother us or look over our shoulders at everything we do, but will she?
