Up the Hill

…it’s not that I’ve been idle, I swear.

Housey-stuff here seems to happen in spurts: he gets motivated or I get motivated.  Rarely are we on the same motivational page at the same time.

Just after our holiday party, he repaired and rehung the closet doors in our room, the hall, and the foyer.  Nice to have them working– would have been nice to have them working for the party.  But oh well– I am grateful, really.

Before the party, I did some holiday decorating (fun, fun in the new space!)  and then I went into craft-mayhem overload for a craft/art show downtown (the Mad Hat Cash Flow Show), and was stoked to make some money that ended up mostly paying for tea stuff for my mom and aunt. (Whee! they can be checked off the Christmas list!)  

Now it’s all about getting through the holidays, keeping up with dogs and kid and Man, and then making a New Years’s resolution to keep this blog updated with my doings and goings-on!

A recap, and an update:

So there we were, in the blazing heat of summer.  Moving into a new house, moving out of an old house and prepping it for our tenants.  Cleaning, cleaning, painting, painting, carpal tunnel, unpacking, organizing…  and then, finally, a bit of a rest.

Leading to complacency.  Things were mostly alright, right?  I was tired, the house was livable, and… well…  whatev.

Now, I’m starting to get into it again.  My body is in its “bigger” state and I want to get it back to “healthier” –pitching myself into sweaty, lifting, sawing, pruning yard work seemed one way to help toward health (and have a better yard to show for it.)

Add to that, his successful hunting trip led to the addition of a new chest freezer meaning I needed to reorganize the laundry/second kitchen…  The Man got a wild hair up his hiney and decided we (meaning I) needed to clean the upstairs hearth and white spatter on our slate wall from KILZ-ing the floor during week one of living here.  There was the oiling/quad-0 steel-wooling of all the doors and woodwork (except her bathroom) and also the painting lilac and glazing of her bookshelves, plus all the organizing that entailed…

The ongoing office organization project is nearing its end, now we’re focused on the fun and games of trying to keep it tidy after Little Miss Crafty (The Kid, not me) does her “art”.  I plan to put that space to good use, effective relatively immediately, when I start my sew-a-palooza-ing, which means more attempts at tidy-keeping, I’m sure.

Past all that, we’re enjoying the house, the quiet neighborhood, having parties and sleep-overs (The Kid, that is) in the new and improved, larger space… Looking forward to a holiday season of entertaining beginning this evening when my mom comes over to venison Gulyas for her (belated) birthday

So here we are, Up The Hill, where the sun is always shining, kids are always laughing, dogs never bark, and homes clean themselves.  Right?

Notsomuch.

Last month someone went through my car, pulling everything out of the glove box and center console, rifling through receipts (I guess for a credit card number?  A fun little game of identity theft, perhaps?) I learned, last week at a neighborhood book club meeting, that there is a slew of break-ins even up the street from us.  And down the street, a registered sex offender.

Well.

If that wasn’t food for more serious thought, there’s the whole, “ohmygodIneedajob” freak-out I’m dealing with.  Yep-o, a steady paycheck would be awfully nice.  However, now that it’s autumn we have a new batch of activities to get the Kid to: ballet classes, Nutcracker rehearsals, soccer practices, soccer games, girl scouts.  Then there’s the steady, insistent stream of laundry that’s produced, along with the insistent stomachs-needing-food, along with the cleaning of the dishes that the feeding of said stomachs produces…  Not to mention the occasional smelly piles to clean up, due to those stomachs (especially the canine ones).  Add a real job –a day job, a paying job– to that list and I get all freakish and hazy-twitchy.

Surely it’s not that tough.  Surely I have much to be Pollyanna happy-shiny-sunny about.  My windows provide me a bounty of beauty to be all oooooh, aaaaaaah about.  My kid and her artistic, funny ways makes me laugh, and my partner really is a good, supportive guy.  Surely there’s a way for me to make income creatively, without too great a sacrifice.

And yeah.  By the way.  We have arrived.  We’re here, up the hill, where we always wanted to be.

(too bad it’s just as real up here as it was down there…)

So here we are, a little more than a month later.  

Let’s recap all that’s happened from the end of August to the beginning of Septemeber:

We somehow managed to get the old house ready for our renters while delayed in closing, and in the midst of a heat wave. Together The Man and I managed to pack up a 26 foot UHaul (a couple of times) bring crap up the hill and into the house, then I managed to separate what went where, put together the things I could, paint like a mad-woman, clean like a Hungarian, and (with his help, appliance-wise) re-do a kitchen.

It feels like –while there are notable rooms that need much work– for the most part, we’re in, we’re home.  The long weekend saw us finally packing clothes and the last of the master bedroom items, while the week before had me finishing the utility room, scraping fossilized pad leavings off the cement downstairs, hanging some art (finally!!) and mucking about with other detailing foo-foo-ishness.

and so now, without further ado, some “where we came from to where we are now” shots –lots of them…

living room, old house

basement, family room old house

basement office, old house

kitchen, old house

kid's room, old house

an overwhelming garage...

sleeping on a chaise or two...

hydration is key...

...when one has too many boxes and knows not where anything is...

Tank really gets into painting...

...while Bill prefers a snuggle...

...when he's not into a game of "Mystery Date."

Tank enjoys a nap with a view

a friendly Beautiful Angle hygiene reminder

An austere --and clean!-- kitchen

a main bath goes very fairy frou-frou

and rooms for improvement:

a messy kid's space

an office short on organization

just painted the ceiling in the kitchen, and have to show for it:

one pained neck
one broken roller-extender
nearly one gallon of paint gone
two sore hands
one disgruntled self

–seems the paint is not drying in a smooth, all-one-finish kind of way; it appears –right now– that I’ll need another coat.

grrrr…

after yesterday’s little image-fest, I thought it’d probably be useful to put up more “before” and “now” shots, if only so I can have them in one handy reference spot.  I do snap a lot of shots, but I’m bad about doing anything with ‘em.

These will be intended to show a bit about where we are, now.  Some things will get better, art will be hung (one of my projects today, as well as ceiling paint shopping, which will be joined,  hopefully, by some painting, window washing, and cleaning.  My lists always start off with great ambition and eventually settle into reality.)

anyway…

drumroll please…

living room, before

living room, now

living room, from kitchen

entry, before

entry, now

"crazy" room, poetry wall

ceiling, "crazy room"

office, now...

office, view 2

kid's room, before

kid's room

master bedroom

master bedroom

master, view 2

back yard, before

new and improved yard