Down Below

It's time to go back in time…. to June 2010. Though I am afraid events may get fuzzy as this was quite a while ago, but I am going to do my best to remember it all and try to do it in the proper order.

I should point out (because I believe I've failed to mention this before) that Dave had NEVER been inside the house until the day before the closing. He'd walked the property and peeked in the windows, but he'd never set foot inside the house. It really didn't matter what was on the inside as we were tearing the whole thing down anyway, but how weird to buy something so big that you've never really seen. The day before the closing we decided to do the customary walk-though. Usually, it is done to make sure everything is there that is supposed to be there, like dishwashers, stoves, lighting… things like that. For us, it was to make sure that nothing new was there that we didn't want, like a dead animal or a big pile of stuff that somehow, inexplicably appeared. So this was Dave's first time in the house. It was fun to walk through with him and see his reaction to all the things I'd been telling him about. Rotted wood growing mushrooms, cracked walls, bowing ceilings, warped floors, moldy everything, and the best of the best… the master bathroom shower completely enclosed with mirror. Oh what fun!

Dave then decided to explore the basement to, again, make sure there was nothing unexpected or rotting under there. If there was, it would be the real estate agent's responsibility to remove it… after the closing the next day it would be ours. So, Dave pried open the bulkhead, dug out his flashlight and ventured down the rickety steps. The agent and I stayed outside. From within the cramped, dirt-floored underground space, Dave called out, "I'm taking some pictures now, because I'M NEVER COMING DOWN HERE AGAIN!!!!"

In the basement - which is really a small dug out space under the house with no real walls - he saw what was holding up the house. Tree stumps.

The support beams had been rotted away and eaten so severely by termites that the previous owner, Mr. D., "fixed" the problem, by stuffing tree stumps under the house to hold it up.

As a regular person, I could see the many flaws of the house and understood that it was beyond repair. I knew enough to know that some new drywall and a few coats of paint would never fix the rot that was occurring to the frame of the house. But after Dave, an architect with considerable knowledge of structural integrity, saw what was going on in the basement, he was afraid the entire house could collapse at any second and wanted out of that basement as fast as possible. In fact, from that point on he didn't allow the kids to go up to the second floor anymore or allow anyone to jump too vigorously or sneeze too loudly. He was AFRAID.

It was ours the following day. And it didn't fall down for another six months. By the power of a large-clawed backhoe. Too bad a jump, sneeze or a breeze didn't do the job. It would have cost us a lot less money.

Chill Out

Lots of my friends have wine refrigerators. I love them. I love looking at them. Opening them. Seeing the wine all stacked up, perfectly chilled and ready for drinking. I love that right along side the wine and the champagne lives the Stella Artois, the diet Coke, and the kid's juice boxes. It all seems so sophisticated and so family-oriented at the same time. Unapologetic and real.

Last Christmas, Dave's sister Allison gave us a gift certificate from the Wine Enthusiast. YEAH!! We thought about spending it on actual wine, but we knew we wanted a wine fridge in the new kitchen and thought it would be most wise to use the gift towards that purchase. Well, we also thought that 2011 would be The Year of the House and that we could purchase the fridge and install it directly into the new kitchen.

Turns out that was not the case, and the gift certificate was set to expire on December 21, 2011. So, without a moment to spare, on December 21st, Dave ordered the N'Finity 50-bottle wine refrigerator. It was delivered a few days ago.

We are now the proud owners of a brand-spankin'-new wine refrigerator. For the new house.

Which for the time being will reside in the back corner of the kitchen in our old house. Plugged in and cooling off some red, some white, some beer, some juice boxes and lots of champagne because I am now declaring this year to be 2012 :: The Year of the House!!

Everybody better watch out if I have to declare that again in 2013… WATCH THE FUCK* OUT!!

*Swearing per request of DSmoov.

Teaser

Oh.

Yeah.

Right.

I have a blog.

A blog about designing and building our new house. A blog about the process of dealing with the architect and making decisions and pounding nails. The problem is there is nothing to write about when nothing is happening. There seems to be a stall in the action around here. Every once in a while I hear talk of a product like spray foam insulation, but other than that… nothing. I'm hoping the architect finds his groove again, because we really need to get this thing going. I NEED the new house. Staring all day at the multiple cardboard models that reside in the dining room is truly just a tease*. Although the teeny, little paper guy standing on the front porch is pretty cute.

*A little tease for you too.

A weed less ordinary?

Every few weeks I like to go over to the Adelaide property to walk around and see what's growing. Monday night after dinner the weather was beautiful, so we took the kids outside to play for a bit before bed. I decided to put on my rubber rain boots and walk over and see what was up while Dave pushed Simone on the tricycle and Tate ran around. The rubber rain boots are essential for a walk on the property — in the spring it was always muddy, but now there is so much growth that I need them to protect my legs from thorns, sticks and bugs.

It's very green over there right now. Most of the dirt is covered with weeds and foliage, so when there are flowers they pop out very clearly. As expected the orange daylilies were blooming all over the property – in the front, the back, along the fences – everywhere. A great surprise were the sunflowers that are growing. I counted five of them randomly scattered about. They are going to be gorgeous when they bloom. I missed the irises in the back – they had already flowered and died. But, the peach tree!! Oh… the peach tree!! It looked green and healthy, and its limbs were filled with fruit! Last year there were four scragily-looking peach trees that bore no fruit, but we took down three of them and only left the one for some privacy and shade. Well, whatever we did made this little tree super happy and it's just fruiting like mad. Problem is the limbs are all really high. But I guess I'll figure out how to get the fruit down later when it's ripe.

What really caught my eye was one plant in the middle of the property with bright pink flowers on top. So bright, you couldn't miss this plant. The second I stepped up to it, I stopped dead in my tracks. Looked long and hard at the leaves and thought, "Nooooo!! It couldn't be?!?!?!?!" "Could it?!?!?!" The leaves looked like this…

Yup. Pot leaves. Marijuana. But flowers? Do pot plants flower? How would I know? The only times I've seen pot up close it was already rolled into a joint, and my only experience with pot plants are from watching endless episodes of Weeds on DVD. I really had no idea what I was looking at. But it was not a total surprise to see a plant that might be marijuana on this property. Mr. D was a known recreational pot smoker. One neighbor upon returning home from work would find Mr. D sitting in their backyard staring at their koi pond and smoking away. Yes, he would just wander into the neighbor's yard and light up… he thought it was no big deal. So, could he have been growing it in his backyard? Hell, yeah!!

I grabbed a leaf and walked to my neighbor's who stopped cold when she saw it and yelled, "No way!?!?!? Of course he was growing it!!! Is that really pot?!?!" I didn't know. So I went home and showed it to Dave. His reaction was the same, but he told me to go inside and google until I had an answer.

Well, in just a few minutes it was clear that I would not be the Nancy Botwin of Barrington. But instead I was growing Cleome the number one plant commonly mistaken for marijuana. My dreams of a crazy and wild summer were squashed by google and a shitty weed that was not weed.

But I've got sunflowers and peaches. Just as fun, right?!?!?!

Anniversary

We've owned 6 Adelaide Ave for one year today. It's also been a year that the regal kitty Matisse has been gone. Here's a quiz...

Question: I'm drinking wine tonight because I'm....

A: celebrating!

B: sad Matisse has been gone a year.

C: shocked an entire year has gone by!!

D: all of the above

A special thank you to Dave.... for buying the great wine tonight; for believing in my crazy plan to buy this nutty house and teeny, little lot; and for designing us an absolutely amazing new home!! I love you!!

Many Empty Calories

UPDATE 6/12: Thanks Maya for the "Looking good!" and ass slap - I did the extra loop today after your motivation!!

Wherever I go and whoever I see, the topic of conversation always turns to "the house". How's it going? Where are you at? When are you going to start building? My stock answers are as follows: It's going good! We are done with design and ready to start construction drawings! We hope to start building soon!

This is usually enough of an answer for most people. But those who know me well, know that there is more there. They hear the stress and see the angst I'm feeling because there is not a slew of people pounding nails on our dirt patch right now. I get the much needed sympathetic look and words of encouragement. And lately I've been getting this… "You are being sooooo patient!"

I started thinking about that. Patient. How am I doing this. Being patient. I've decided it's the cupcakes. I'm eating my stress away.

If there are not cupcakes in the house, there are cookies. And if there are not cookies, there are brownies. But there are rarely brownies, because there are almost ALWAYS cupcakes!! I had convinced myself I was doing it for the kids. Kids love cupcakes, they'll be so happy. But I finally realized, it is really for me. Homemade nutella frosted, buttery good sugar topped from Whole Foods, or Shaw's cheap mini-cupcakes. It's cake and frosting and they are all yummy! The problem is I'm eating them all. I'm less stressed, but stuffing my face with sugar, butter and white flour is playing havoc with the numbers on my scale. In retaliation against my ever-growing waistline, I've started walking to combat the negative effects of my stress-reducing-cupcake-stuffing.

So if you see me out walking and sweating with a determined look on my face, don't ask how the house is coming. Just tell me I'm looking thin and you don't notice the cupcakes on my ass at all. Because I'm going to need all the encouragement I can get to make it back into my skinny jeans. And if you see me at Shaw's buying the cheap mini-cupcakes, make me put them down and then tell me where to go to buy even better mini-cupcakes. Because I still really NEED the cupcakes.

Thanks.

365 Days

Today marks one year ago that we made the offer, counter-offer, received word that our offer was accepted and then signed a purchase and sales agreement. We are in a bit of limbo right now with the house, so I don't have a lot to say on that front, but I couldn't let today go without a shout out.

I'm having mixed emotions about a year gone by. It certainly doesn't feel as if it's been that long. But, if you told me a year ago that we still wouldn't be in construction right now, I'd have slapped you in the face. Hard. Seriously... really hard. You would have cried.

We have finalized the floor plan (it's fan-freakin-tastic!) and are working on windows right now. We are not doing a traditional double-hung centered in the room type thing, but are exploring a much more modern window treatment with lots of glass and interesting placement.

We just need time. Time where Dave can concentrate on our house and not his clients. It will come. I hope that it comes soon.

For now the house lot sits, waiting, and growing some amazing flowers. The tulips came up by the dozens a few weeks ago and had me out there every few days picking armfuls.

Between now and the beginning of construction, I think it's time to pick up where I left off in the story of how this all came to be... I left off here at the closing. And there is still a lot of story to tell.