Kinda Finished And Not Finished At All [An Update On The House]

We had a battle plan before we moved in. Bathrooms first, then paint, then the next thing, and the next.

Does that ever work for anyone? Because, we've only done this twice now, but somehow--both times--the plan has immediately been scrapped in favor of one simple question: What is making us craziest today and how can we fix it?

In that vein--the bathrooms that were first priority? We bought a few shower curtains and new towels, and they've been bumped to the 3-5 year plan. On the other hand, the backyard fence got done really fast. (Because walking Dame Maggie ten times a day is not a thing that my schedule will accommodate for long.) And then painting the living room and then these bookshelves. (Because how can you unpack your boxes of books if you don't have shelves?) 

And then, because we had painted, I had to take a quick diversion to put some family photos on the walls.  (Because family on the walls=home.)

The carpet is the current thing making everyone nuts, but we had to get onto our Dear Contractor Friend's schedule for the replacing of that, so we've moved on to the kiddos' rooms.

Little Miss's space is almost done. I ordered some art from Etsy that still needs to arrive...and I think a few family photos, perhaps...but she's painted and definitely closest to being officially "finished".  (If that's even a real thing. Which I doubt.)

The Kid's room is the next to-be-painted space. And then art...and shelves for his Legos, because obviously that's of prime importance.

Our room is still kind of in shambles.  I mean, I know this looks nice, but you're not seeing the piles of stuff on the dressers and in laundry baskets strategically out of view. It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but the walls in there are actually dark grey. I want to paint eventually, but I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get around to it for awhile.

(Our nice little "LOVE" photo fit so perfectly over the spot where I was testing paint colors. If that's not a message from the universe that painting in here can wait, I don't know what is.)

And then, there's this space, which is the outer end of the "not finished at all" spectrum. 

The dining room is oddly long. It would be perfect for a farmhouse-style table, but we have sentimental attachment to our old one, so it's staying. 

Instead, I'm thinking about putting a little reading/coffee drinking nook on the far end under the window, but I'm waiting for the universe to deliver up the perfect squarshy chair. (Squarshy=very technical term.)

On the whole, there's still a lot to do--and little by little we are--but getting the bookshelves up and the photos on the wall has made it feel so much more like this is our home now and not just the place where all of our stuff is.  And that is a very cozy feeling...despite the fact that I promised Sweet Husband that I would get the Kid's bedroom prepped for painting today, and must leave you now so that I can follow through.

A Few Of The Things

We're still painting, and there are still an awful lot of boxes in our dining room. But after a season of upheaval, I'm loving the idea of settling into a summer of simple, silly, happy things, even as we continue to unpack and settle in. 

I want to read a book and go through at least four more jugs of bubbles and make grilled pizza and pick the basil that's going crazy in our garden.

A few of the things getting us off to a good start:

The Kid's first summer camp triathlon....

OMG, little kid triathlon is my new favorite thing! The Kid actually did the biathlon, because he's not super confident on his bike yet, but his seriousness about it was all at once hilarious and heartwarming. (See that super-fast transition up there? Very serious.)

Dance parties with the tape deck....

One of the extra "grandma" parts of our grandma house is that it came with it's own wired-in, mounted-to-a-kitchen-cabinet tape deck. We had no tapes when we moved in, but friends have been providing. We have "British Hits of the Sixties" and (as of tonight) a whole basket of one of my high school friend's old mixtapes.

I don't know if it's nostalgia or the surprise of not knowing exactly what song will come next, but it's making it impossible not to have dinner time dance parties.

Some good times behind the camera....

This photo is a favorite from a session I did this spring. (First time really playing with photoshop.  Need more practice, but it was fun.) This weekend I took pictures at the sweetest little wedding, though. It felt so nice to have my camera back in my hands again for a few hours, and it reminded me that the county fair is coming up and I have a title to defend!

Digging Out; Catching Up; Taking Moments

I write to you today from Little Miss's gymnastics class (which we were 5 minutes late for and haven't attended in over a month). Although I have showered since the last time I painted, I can see four splotches of white paint on my body without even really looking hard. Sweet Husband optimistically left for work this morning hoping that--in the full light of day--the living room ceiling might not require a second coat, but--at some unknown time this afternoon--I'm going to have to dash those dreams. And get some more plastic sheeting. And remember to buy dog food.

But, we are gradually eradicating the "nude bra beige" walls. (Color name courtesy of Sweet Sister.) We cooked dinner at home almost every night this week. And, as I enjoyed my coffee on the couch this morning (on the couch that's in the kitchen temporarily), I noticed that the river birch branches outside the windows make the dining room feel like a bit of a treehouse. That made my heart happy.

A few other things we've been up to lately....

Our summer bucket list has been hung, and we've even crossed off one item since this photo was taken (the "ice cream pizza" pictured at the top of this post, which was the Kid's invention). Amazon says our badminton net and rackets are arriving today, so I suspect that another "cross off" is not far behind.

The Kid went to Cub Scout day camp for a week at the end of May. Signing him up for Scouts was one of the most spur-of-the-moment decisions--and one I was initially a little hesitant about, to tell the truth--but it's been great. I think he's like his Mama in that he likes to do a lot of different things, and Scouts helps feed that. Also, I really like the community service aspect. We could do some of it on our own, of course, but Scouts helps give us some goals and structure.

Little Miss has been more intense than her normal self lately, which I'm chucking up to the crazy amount of change her little three year old brain has had to absorb. Nonetheless, she had a blast on school break with a new babysitter, and has enjoyed the string of doting family popping in and out since the move.

And Dame Maggie is quite pleased that our backyard is now fenced. It's still a bit temporary in one or two places, but the largest swath is finished.

This year's garden is a single raised bed with a few tomato plants and some herbs, but--in the few quiet moments we have--I'm enjoying looking and thinking and dreaming for next year. We have a really pretty space (or we will once just a leetle bit of tree debris is cleared away).

And we even managed a little party. Nothing fancy--just take-out pizza and drinks and bubbles with our close friends--but it made me feel a little more at home.

Gymnastics time is up. Time to head home and think more about where I really want to put the big bookshelf. And whether we can get away with skipping paint on the hall ceiling. (Signs point to yes.) Happy Saturday!

The Power Of Place

The other day I was helping someone brainstorm super powers for a project. I was easily able to think of the super powers of my loved ones--my husband's knack for finding kindred spirits, the way my friend Kim can make beautiful flowers spring from the ground, how my friend Jennifer is so good at building community--but I was having trouble thinking of my own.  Not the super power I would choose, mind you, but the one I already have. Like, if I were a Twilight-style vampire, which of my already-there gifts would be enhanced?

I was up late unpacking boxes when it finally came to me--my super power is a huge sense of place. Being able to feel the emotions and memories that emanate from houses and gardens and small, precious things.

Like, the first time we walked into the dining room at our old house, and my spine tingled with all goodness that I could tell had happened there and all the goodness that I sensed to come.  The love and the food and the conversations and the prayers. 

The deep sense of hard work and the smell of earth and sweat that hit me when I walk into a well-tended garden.

Or the echos that come to mind when I hold my grandmother's gold teething necklace. Her on the farm as a baby. Her fears as her baby sister died. Her joy when she was married. Sitting on her bed next to me as a child, holding out the necklace, and telling me "one day this will be yours".

While this sounds like a beautiful super power--and most of the time it is--this week it has also been downright painful.

As I keep telling Sweet Husband, I'm not doubting our choice to move for a second. I love our new house. I'm enjoying making it ours, and I know that I'm already a better mother here, without every single loose toy boring into my brain because there's no room to escape.

But.

We were so happy at our old house.

It was our tiny, sweet love nest.

Home to two good dogs and one bad one who I loved all the more for it. Six messy ducks and about three dozen chickens, including our darling Tori buried in the backyard.

We hacked the garden out of the wilderness. (That seems over dramatic, but if you'd seen it when we moved in....)

My son spent his first night there, propped in a basket between parents too in awe to sleep. My daughter was born there, in two good pushes three feet from the wall in the front bedroom. Their placentas were both buried under the rosebushes.

It's the first place I grew beets, the last place I hugged my mother-in-law, and the dining room has the most amazing afternoon light no mater what season it is.

Standing in the middle of it all this week, as we did the final work of moving and cleaning, it kept all swirling around me. Parties and Christmases and everything between. Memories so happy that they hurt.

Until tonight, when I told Sweet Husband that I wasn't going back again. I just didn't want to feel it all anymore. He agreed to do the remaining few days of chicken chores by himself. I walked through my garden and my kitchen one last time. Collected eggs and gave the chickens a smile. And then we left a note--wishing the new owners happiness and luck--and locked the door.

Our sweet little house will be happy without us. And I know we'll make a new sense of place at our new house--one that will be deeper and more profound, even, because odds are that we'll be here much longer. But just because it's the right thing--just because it's going to be wonderful eventually--doesn't make it easy right now. And right now, I'm really going to miss her.

Hey There, Friends

Well, that was the longest blogging break I've taken in ever.

It's been a combination of all of the things. Some very good, actually. Others...well, um, you know how when they interview bomb survivors and they all talk about taking a minute after the blast to make sure their arms and legs are still attached? Very metaphorically, a lot like that.

But, obviously, I'm typing so my limbs are good. (Metaphorically and otherwise.) And Little Miss and I had the silliest conversation today, and I found myself really wanting to write it down here:

Little Miss: If you go through the car wash with the windows open, do you die?

Me: No, but you would get very wet.

Little Miss: Brother says you would die.

Me: Your brother is wrong, but I still need you to know that it's a very bad idea.

(Note: She has just recently learned to roll the car windows down by herself, and is experimenting with the feature wildly and often. I'm still wondering if the wiser choice might have been to have answered her initial question "Yes!" and stopped there.)

And also, the kids got new bikes for Easter and we've been taking advantage of the beautiful weather this week to work on learning to ride them.

The Kid is right at that spot where he just needs to get 30 seconds of good balance to get the feel of it and he'll be off. Little Miss is a bit confused at the difference between forward pedaling and backward pedaling (i.e. braking), but she's is extremely motivated to keep trying because her bike has a rainbow basket (!!) and streamers (!!!). By the end of the summer, I fear we'll have two cycling daredevils.

Actually, I don't fear it. I'm heart-glad to envision it.

And for said summer--here's the really good thing I hinted at up top--we'll be living in our new house.

Yes, indeed, we have sold the Hacienda and will (next month) be heading off to adventures at our new place. While we probably will try to come up with something better eventually, in my head I have dubbed it "the Grandma House", and those initial nicknames seem to have a way of sticking.

The name started because, the first time Sweet Husband showed me pictures of the house online, I thought he was joking because parts of it are so dated.

But then he convinced me to go look, and--much as I expected otherwise--it got stuck in my brain, and, worse yet, my heart...until I was the one convincing him that it was the one and losing all chill re: our negotiations to buy it.

In the end, while there are parts that are pretty dated...and while some of the de-granny-fication is going to take us a few years....the old girl has great bones and a lot of potential.  And, in the very best ways, there is something about her that actually reminds me of my grandparents house and all of the good memories I have of visiting them while I was growing up. It feels like it's going to be our home, you know?

Full "before" pictures will be posted in due course, but a teaser for now:

I still don't know if I'm really back-back for writing here a lot. I have too many balls in the air to make promises. But I do know that I have missed it (and you--all the friends I have here) so I'm certainly going to keep trying to pop in at least once a week or so.

Have a nice weekend, all!