Living Room

I promised my family more pictures of the house, and I'm going to see many of them this weekend, so I need to post a few.

The front door, from inside the house.


The Living Room, going around in a circle, for the most part. Obviously, taken at Christmas. Christmas Eve, I think.



It is important to note the cuckoo clock. I bought it in Germany in high school. It never worked. Cousin Tim and friend Josh both tried to fix it at one time or another. Friend A fixed it on Thanksgiving. Friend A wants bragging rights.




That counter is opposite the bookcases in the previous pictures. You can also see that the counter pretty much divides that space from the kitchen. That door hinge on the right side is the coat closet.

More pictures soon, I want to post the kitchen, but it won't photograph well in the dark, and I'm not home much in the light hours right now.

My House, Gingerbread Style

Many of my friends and family have been demanding more house pictures, and they are coming, I promise. But in the meantime, here is a different view of my house.




Yup, that's a scale (we think) model of my house made out of gingerbread. So my friend A, who likes to take on big projects, decided it would be fun to make a gingerbread house. Okay, so do thousands of families. Then he decided that he should make my house out of gingerbread. Okay, a little ambitious, but a cool idea. Then he decided that typical gingerbread sheets were not sufficient, and so he would make bricks out of gingerbread. I pointed out that my house is not brick. This did not seem to matter.

I was actually quite impressed with how it turned out. All the windows and all the doors (4!) are there. Here's the view of the back of the house:



The back roof is a big piece, and we needed some support. But A insisted the entire thing be edible. So he created a support out of the tools we had.



And here are a few shots of it decorated. The decoration does not follow the actual look of the house.





It was pretty much an all-day activity, but we had a good time. And how cool is it to have your house made out of gingerbread?!

Last Night

Not as in the night before this night, but as in my last night in my apartment. Which didn't really hit me until like 15 minutes ago. I've lived here for 3 1/2 years. Not overly nostalgic about it, but it has been my home since I moved to Charlotte. I had some good times here. And some heartbreaking times. Like all homes, I suppose. I think the single thing I am looking forward to most is not sharing walls anymore. And no more parking lot noise.

When I was moving some of my stuff in today, I met the next-door-neighbor on the left side. Or, I should say, re-met. Turns out she works for the library system, too! We met 2 years ago when we both walked in the local Thanksgiving parade for the library. We did the "you look familiar" thing, and I just can't believe it, to tell you the truth. Small world!

I'm off to sleep in my apartment for the last time. Today exhausted me! Don't even want to think how tired I'll be tomorrow! But then, maybe the exhaustion will help, sleeping in a new place will take some getting used to, no matter how excited I am about the house. Good night!

I'm a homeowner!

It's all done and legal and everything! The people who sold the house are very nice, they are moving elsewhere in Charlotte to a bigger house. They've been in the house 13 years, were pregnant with the 2nd of their 3 kids when they moved in. There is a rose bush in the back yard--not likely to live long, given my brown thumbs. When I walked into the lawyer's office, the first thing the woman said to me was, "We left the last of the roses on the mantle for you." And indeed they did! Possibly the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for me!



Saturday is moving day, though I'm sure I'll move in a few things today and tomorrow, and dad was talking about wiping down cabinets and putting in shelf paper, so we may do that tonight.

a head-scratcher

I've begun the packing process. I've found some interesting things: a $20 Target gift card, pictures I'd forgotten about, a whistle/compass combo I thought I'd lost, and many things that are now in the Freecycle pile. But here's the real mystery: a decorative plaque with a saying on it. I have no recollection of the plaque, where it came from, or why I have it. Here's what it says:

May the Light always find you on a dreary day.
When you need to be home, may you find your way.
May you always have courage to take a chance,
And never find frogs in your underpants.
--A Middle-aged Scandinavian

Any guesses on where this came from? Because I am, as you may guess, scratching my head on this one.

House!

So I'm buying a house! This is part of the reason I wanted to resurrect the blog, to have a record somewhere of the process, and future projects, etc. I went under contract a little over a week ago. It's a three bedroom, 2 bathroom, one-story house built in 1984. It's 1571 square feet, it has a gas stove, a wood-burning fireplace, and a deck, though the deck is going to need some work. Here is a picture of the front of the house.



Part of the reason I picked this house is the kitchen. It's big and open and has a gas stove. From this picture you can't see that it's an eat-in kitchen, because the table is behind where the photographer must have been standing. You also can't see the two windows in the kitchen. There are great windows all over the house.



There's a really open floor plan, so the "dining room" flows into the kitchen. Now, I only have one table, and I'm not really the formal dining room type, so for now, at least, there will just be a table in the kitchen, but you can see the space here.



And the living room is at the other end of that dining area. The fireplace is brick but has been painted. I prefer natural brick, so I may try to restore it to that condition at some point, but it looks nice now. I can't believe my Christmas stocking will hang there this December!!!



So that's my house! I'm scheduled to close November 5th. Which will get here very soon, I'm sure. I just managed to scrounge up some boxes yesterday, so I need to get packing!

Return of the Blog

This blog was originally part of a work project. Once that project ended, I didn't keep it up. But I've been thinking about a way to track different things, like craft projects, books, and really anything that struck my fancy. Plus I realized how much I like reading my friends blogs, so I'm going to give this a try again. Stay tuned!