Friday, July 31, 2009

a minute to take it all in

My neighbor below is burning nag champa and it's floating up from her open window into ours. It's reminding me of the year I lived with the other andrea, the blue one, in that tiny dorm room. I like that. It's ridiculous that she lives in this city and I haven't yet seen her. Why don't I make time for these things?

Today Zach and I brought a pizza and our picnic blanket to the big park by our new house for dinner. We watched some dogs chase frisbees and some babies chase dogs.

Around 7:30, just before dusk, tons of seemingly little drunk birds started flying out from the top of the field house and fluttering about over the open field. After a while of watching, we were pretty sure they're not birds, but little bats, rather, coming out to catch their nightly bug dinners. Just like all those bats that fly out from under the bridge in Austin, TX in that huge spectacle every night. But much fewer.

Have I ever mentioned how much I like bats?

^v^

I bet they do this every evening. I can't wait to go back and watch for them.

I also noticed the clock tower (which you can hear from our new place when the windows are open) strikes every quarter hour. I am very excited about this. I can't wait to lay in bed half awake in the mornings and let the clock remind me that the day is ticking away. As long as I've lived in the city I've wanted to be by one of these clock towers.

But now, back in our little apartment, it's a quarter to midnight and we've laid out the aerobed to do a "camping night" in our living room. It's fun. Our house is trashed. It's an effort to pull out and purge the things we don't need before moving. Sleeping on a mattress in the middle of the living room floor kind of just goes with the chaos that is currently home.

redecorating

New wallpaper. Fun.

Man I'm so happy it's Friday. Weekends are so very important right now.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

"someday we'll have our own"

We're still not out of atty review and the deal is pending some deck estimates and negotiation and ....sigh.. I hope I'm not jinxing us, but today we took our first official visit to Menards as pending homeowners. So exciting! I cannot wait to put this pretty door on the exit off the back! What color should we paint it?



I do think I might get a little over excited about doors. But honestly, I think a house can be great but if it has an ugly door, forget it. For so long I have wanted a pretty door on my house. I will be so happy to just put that door up and hang out on the couch and look at it for weeks. No other improvements will be necessary to make me happy.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Life is kind of off the hook right now. It'd take a lot of writing to lay it all out, and I've really not been in the mood, to tell you the truth. But here's one big thing:

We've bought a place!! We're still in Attorney's review & need to go through the inspection this week, and so we're not out of the woods just yet but we've bought a place!!!

We don't move until October 15, which is going to feel like eons, but we did this intentionally so that we can focus our attentions on some other, more important life matters over the upcoming weeks & months.

I'm fighting the buyer's remorse but honestly it isn't as bad as I'd expect it to be. After scouring the real estate listings & dragging our patient realtor around for eleven months, we're both very sure of this place. Let me tell you how weird it is to stand in the middle of someone else's bedroom and look at your dude and your realtor and "just know"... and know that they "just know" as well. This is it!

Let me tell you how good it feels to see Zach do a little dance about the back deck. Let me tell you how good it feels to know I'm not going into this alone.

This morning I was sorting files on my computer and found our list of must haves & nice to haves that we'd made out last November:

A LIST:
2 bedroom or possibility to convert to 2 bd
Parking
Sunlight
At least one bedroom big enough to able to walk around the bed (i.e 10ft or bigger)
Laundry or potential for laundry in unit


B LIST:
Little outdoor space
Trees outside
1.5 bath
Decent sized bathroom

& I guess the only thing we gave up is the trees.

Here's a picture of one end of that deck:






My own place to grow tomatoes!!!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Adding to my things to do before I die. Why I forgot about this I'm not sure:
Own a piano. A real, organic, non-portable piano. In a detached home.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

So excited to go back to Michigan next weekend and play on a ski doo. We-heeeewww!
Spent the morning sewing. = bliss.
Dog does not like fireworks. Worse than last year.