House fotos and a rant....

More home pictures. we love the open layout. behind the photographer is a wall of northern facing windows.  Believe you me, i will be redoing the fireplace someday soon.

Now. on to the Friday rant....

i know that there are things i can and cannot control in this world. i can't convince my amazing girlfriends that they are incredible mothers, despite the fact that they are. I can't convince my dog that she doesn't have to guard us all the time. and i can't convince the universe that patchouli is not a scent that should be worn in public ever. e.v.e.r.

There are a few things i should be able to convince people of though. So here's a list:

1. all of the above; and
2. that no one, ever, should come into a public bathroom with toenails that look like that haven't been cut since 1983. it is a rude shock to whoever tries to check out your shoes from the next stall, and it puts them in a difficult position to gag and be sick in. Seriously though, toenails should not look like teeth. rotten teeth. teeth that lived through perestroika. teeth that along with cockroaches are the only thing to have survived a nuclear blast.or maybe that's what happened...maybe the toes went through a nuclear blast---i don't actually care. they don't belong free and running wild in a bathroom.

Wednesdays....

Wednesdays are among other things: staff meeting days, veggie box from full circle days, middle of the week depression days, realization that i will be a big girl soon days.

This Wed is really no different. I have busted out the blue handmedown shoes i stole off Heidi years ago, am breaking my feet back into them now that there is not snow to thwart me, and got homeowner's insurance for the new casa. In case there was any doubt, the most important part of that last sentence was finding the blue shoes in their neah-proof hiding spot under the bed.

Yesterday, while sitting around a gorgeous table eating Fish tacos with a bunch of women i barely know, that in a month or two book club could, actually, really, truly, be at our HOUSE. Yes, book club.

If you know me you know i love to have house guests, company, people wandering about at all times. It is a hold over from the Motel-Tansik days in north carolina when one never knew who would appear overnight on the sofa or knock on the door asking for a shower, claiming some tenuous connection to one of us. Poor Courtney and Katie acquired me and then a house guest in a week span when i moved to Seattle and it was like a revolving door non-stop after that---including the infamous 3 month couch stay of one slightly faded version of Quddus.  It truly has been the bane of my stay up here that i am in this beautiful vacation destination with no where to house our friends and family.

Well, by God, that is about to change. There is a guest bedroom and a study and a shit load of floor space---all of which means i cannot wait to suddenly have a house full of people to make tea for and cook for and force to eat attempts at pastries.I have worked out a Neah solution involving cheese and a squueky toy. So bring it on!!!

Yes, i know this is a bad translation. Para mi mami Maria Alicia y Jenny: Hay muchas cosas que hacen en nuestro vida cada miercoles---reuniones para trabajo, comida desde washington, el medio de semana tristeza, y pensando sobre nuestro futuro.  Este miercoles esta lo mismo. Descubri mis zapaztos azules abajo de la cama, mis pies estan dolando por los, y compre seguridad (?) para la casa. Ayer pense que algun dia puedo tener gente en mi casa. Eso es super importante porque mis padres siempre tuvieron gente en la casa---no importe si supieron antes que la gente llegaron o no. En seattle, habia tenido gente en nuestro casa por siempre---y algien para 3 meses. Pero aqui no hemos tendio espacio para eso. En la casa nueva tendremos una cuarto para amigos y tambien un bibioteca que se cambiara a un otro cuarto de dormido tambien. Y tengo planes para la perrita con queso y regalitos. 


Entonces---visitanos!!!

oh George Takei....

i love your facebook post:

house to home

So, all of our new sinks have built in soap/lotion containers. i cannot wait to fill them up....and put yummy soaps out.  Since i don't use pinterest, here's my excited to useness:

 
Yes....i know, you are thinking---oh the deliciousness! And, dear whoever reads this, you are soooooo right. Bring on the hippy dippy hand made ish. Someone, not me, will only use handmade soaps in the shower....so there will forever be yummy smelling things in BOTH (omg, more than one!!) bathrooms.

however, i am always down to hear what products you are using, recommend, smell the best, etc.

T- a couple weeks

The last major hurdle has been crossed---the sellers are making the requested changes/fixes/upgrades, so barring the back door not opening again--closing is in less than a month.  Which means i feel confident showing you small snaps of the interior. :)

This is my new kitchen. The red is gone...we are contemplating shades of blue or green instead. It is a gas range--I am beyond excited. Because we got Adam a nice book reading chair, i get final say on all things kitchen related....which is exciting. i foresee chalkboard paint on the wall between the fridge and the garage.

Our days have been filled with furniture shopping, assessing and reassessing the furniture budget, contemplating the quality of area rugs, which dishes we like/don't like, and debating whether we need the really nice table or if the cheap set will suffice. And in the back of my mind i am still looking for a way to only have handmade ceramics in the house....a la familia Ravines.

The only thing we know for sure is that i (and neah) will not be present when it comes to moving everything out of our apartment. After a near end to a our engagement the last time we tried to pack a moving truck together, we have learned our lesson: Two control freaks cannot pack a truck jointly.  Thus, we will box it all up together, he will pack the truck and i will unpack on the other end. Eeeeee!

home inspections....physical and spiritual

i would like to say that i think we all have this naive idea....but it might have just been me. the idea being that once you find a home, the universe aligns, the stars become perfect constellations that somehow transmit suggestions of colors, design, and lottery ticket numbers so that you can afford the PERFECT library reading chair you found.

brace for bubble bursting. it's bullshit. (like all the b's...i'm working on my alliteration).

i went to our home inspection and really liked the guy who did it. Kevin Jones with Quality Home Inspection in Anchorage----FYI. He was charming, answered all my questions regardless of how silly they were, told me all the things i could do to make the place better, was a total perfectionist, and more or less refused to talk when the seller's agent showed up to watch part of the inspection.

turns out there are three good sized spiders living under the house. good to know. i am sure as hell not going down there. the back door doesn't seem to open anymore. Not sure why, but i think that's a problem. and a few other things that are odds and ends, but need to get fixed. it is this strange limbo place...the post inspection wait. you send your list, coupled with your hopes and dreams, to people you have never met and pray that perhaps they will do the right thing (unlike the laminate they clearly installed themselves) and fix the things on your list---especially since you weren't petty enough to ask for EVERYTHING, just that windows and doors function.

i spend a lot of time reading websites about kids with incurable illness, the blogs of their daily life, pet adoption things, Gol's tear creating letters to her son, Dus's endless speed cyclones in his mind, and generally any heartbreaking, heart-wrenching, heart swelling thing i can.i think i do it to remind myself of the bounties i have each day, how beautiful life can be. i also read a critique of that author i told you about in the last post--someone accused her of being whiny. it made me realize that there is a certain level of honesty that most people are not comfortable with. The parents of those sick kids are---they are honest about their heartbreak, anguish, suffering. The animals are--there's no hiding abandonment or hurt. With Gol it is the purity of the depth of her love for Phix.  but the majority of mere mortals and angels in hiding among us are really uncomfortable being honest about struggles. the reason i like Ms. Lamott's books is the same reason that i read the websites/blogs --- i feel soothed by the honesty they bring, the lack of pretense, the purity of faith and tests and struggle, the ability to admit that there may not be right answers.

that's what i try to conform my writing to---to be honest with all of you about the fact that i clearly have all kinds of fantastic notions about life, but no real answers besides faith in a Creator who seems to bail me out a lot. so, in that vein, i created this fabulous perfect, spider free house--which as it turns out has some issues. Here's to hoping they are willing to fix them rather than lose the sale and send us back to the hunt.

a must read...for realz.

I think a lot about the kind of writer i want to be when i grow up. i know some people who write these brilliant missives as if it miraculously came out of their head all stream of consciousness. granted, i have been accused of writing poetry and an ungodly speed---but i am more literal and less poetic/obtuse/mysterious than some of my writer friends.

My friend Leslie handed me a stack of books when i was over at her house a couple weeks ago for book club. I am about to finish one of them and am now in love with the author and am pretty sure that i must have everything she has ever written RIGHT THIS MINUTE.Anne Lamott, where the hell have you been all my life??

For my friends who struggle with irreverence and faith, which human nature and beauty, with loss and grace....this is a MUST READ: Just read the description if  you don't believe me.
http://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Mercies-Some-Thoughts-Faith/dp/0385496095

i.am.not.kidding. #readitnow

obedience training round 2

I promised some folks a description of our dog classes. It is interesting----last night, the number of folks in the class had decreased---at least, it seemed like that but i think there were only two dogs not there. The first was an Afghan Hound, who's owner too had a long face, tall stature, and quiet demeanor. The second missing dog was an over excited sled dog who was clearly in control of owners who had no idea what to do with it, engaged in pulling competitions around the room, and got dragged around like it was no one's business. The sled dog, in its thrashing, bumped into Neah---who looked horrified at its rude behavior and hid between Adam's legs to prove she knew it was mentally unstable.

The other freak show dog is a jack Russell terrier mix owned by a tall skinny chick in her 20s who lets it get away with murder. It is getting better, but she doesn't exude confidence. I take that back, there is also a springer spaniel with world's largest head that looks crossed with a Bernese but isn't that takes its yuppie mama owner to humiliation each class. this week her significant other/housemate/whatever came to get the dog in the door since last week it dragged her in and pulled her off her chair about 800 times.

There are two boxers...a black male and a brown female. The female is very cute. The male less so.

Neah's closest doggie friend is named Callie and is a husky mix about her age with similar coloring.
The teacher is a late 70s woman with red hair in a 4 inch long buzz cut, who owns a dachshund named speedy. watching this dog sit is funniness, mostly because there's only 1 inch between the ground and its stomach. her praise is always the same "look how smart you are speedy, good for you!!"

Neah's doin great....best dog in the class by far :) She's calming down much faster and minding very well even with the distractions. And we learned that pinch collars are magical things.
Bring on week 3.

Dear Housing Goddess: I apologize.

this is my formal apology for having discounted that you were in fact looking out for our best interests.
I admit that my impatience is unbecoming.

but....eeeeeeeee!  
if all goes to plan....in just over a month, you will all walk up this path when you come to visit our new home: