A POST FOR THE CURIOUS

This is the living room BEFORE we bought the house

This is what it looks like NOW:

(note: the walls look washed out in my photos,

but they're a light sage green)

Dane's awesome new guitar is going to hang
next to that window (above)

You may recall we spent the summer in transition--
demolishing the kitchen, eating food in the back yard,
doing dishes in the bathtub, living with boxes covering the floor
to the ceiling in the living room... When we finally furnished
this space in September (after three long months)
it felt like a place where we could kick up our feet, read a good book,
and even do a cartwheel (just ask Aubrey).

Here's the view into the living room, which we never
would have had if we hadn't removed a chimney,
taken out a wall, and created a new bar and counter:

I wouldn't say it's quite done, but it sure feels like a great start.

Will post pictures of the new kitchen and the dining room

after I, um, clean it up a little.

REMODEL UPDATE

There's a lot of info I could leave here, but I'll keep it short since I'm going on week six without a kitchen. The tilers are laying slate tiles in the laundry room and kitchen today and tomorrow. Then we have to seal it, which will take another 3 days to fully dry. I might be able to install cabinets before that, but have to make sure nothing gets the floor wet or too dirty.

It's going to look amazing. It's taking a lot of patience.

STILL MOVING - will be back to blogging soon

fyi: Last year on June 15, Mick graduated with his DDS degree. This year on June 15, we'll be fully moved into our very first house as homeowners. Hooray!

note: We're remodeling the kitchen. Yes, I've seen The Money Pit - or was it War of the Roses? Whatever. We'll just keep putting our best foot/feet forward and take on the adventure.

pix: Will post them soon.

ttfn...

BIG NEWS

This might come out of nowhere for some of you, but Mick and I are signing on a house today - and it's supposed to close on FRIDAY!

We've kept things hush-hush since we started looking in January, especially because there can be such drama in the negotiation process, but things seem to be coming around fine and THIS LITTLE BEAUTY will soon be ours:

Workshop out back

Living room - which I plan to have more fun
optimizing than the previous tenant

Dining room

And here's the realtor's write-up:

Warm and inviting 3 bed/1 bath Cape Cod style home with new marmoleum flooring in the kitchen, hardwood floors, spacious and updated bath with custom tile, bay windows, formal dining room, wood shutters, and stone walkway. The .16 acre corner lot with R-2 zoning, private backyard, separate studio/workshop space, deck with arbor and potential for additional unit are additional features. Located close to schools, shopping, farmers' market, parks and bike path!


One final note - our family will LOVE biking and walking all the time in this area. It's in a great, flat location close to town. Additionally, the kids will be able to walk to their elementary school, middle school, high school, and even college if they want to!

Of course, I'll post more pictures after we move in and get settled - and will include other rooms in the house as well as the back yard (which feels like "the secret garden" and has trees and swings and benches and hiding places and good spots to choose from for a hammock).

It's not a Craftsman, but it's cool!

We nabbed a great one-year rental last week, up behind Southern Oregon University (SOU). It's owned by an artist who did the remodel herself, and it was written up in the paper. Go here if you want to check it out: http://www.aliciamannix.com/mailtrib1-05.pdf

Two days after we put down our deposit, the owner/artist asked if we'd like her to leave much of it furnished, which is wonderful and hilarious since just the day before I'd written a huge list of stuff we'd have to buy to furnish the place. Things like extra couch, area rugs, coffee table, guest bed, kitchen table, etc., etc., can now be scratched off my list, and can save us some big bucks for a while.

We also told her (only half-jokingly) we'd be happy to display some of her art that admiring guests might want to buy -- we have no large wall hangings and this house looks good with a few of them -- and she said sure! I hope we get to choose which pieces to display.

Other than loving the house itself, it's in a sweet location: within walking distance to the kids' new school, Walker Elementary, and a grocery store. It's also within biking distance to the Y, where we'll probably get a family membership in August.

While in Ashland last week, at the tail-end of our three-week road trip, the kids attended YMCA Super Soakers camp with their cousins. They loved it. They got to bring squirt guns, go to sprinkler parks and water slides and swimming pools, and do silly camp games. To top it off, they got to come home every afternoon and swim in their cousins' pool.

We're back in Marin City now, but we're looking forward to heading up there again. The only catch is that we move out of the apartment on August 1st, we can't move in to the new place until August 15th, and Mick has new job training for two weeks in Eugene somewhere in there. It should be interesting... Kai and Dana might have a guest house available by then, but whatever the case, with some fancy footwork, I'm sure it'll all work out.

P.S. The house has a great yard with a lawn and trees and low-maintenance landscaping. There's a chance she'll sell the jacuzzi before we move in, but we're still crossing our fingers.