I present this house tour to all of you, but it is especially for my friend Angela who requested MORE PICTURES and for my aunt Lin who requested MORE PICTURES from my mom. Since Angela is a close friend who helped us move and my aunt owns the house with my mom and is letting us live here – it is my pleasure to fulfill your requests.
You will notice that the house is in a spectacular state of dishevelment like a mistress of leisure who has just woken up after a bacchanalian night of questionable taste. Reality, she sets in with the sunrise. Behold: THE MAD CHAOS.
I was resisting showing any more house pictures because I wanted to wait until I had everything arranged and looking nice. Since I work 30 hours a week, try to keep food on the stove, and have my kid to take care of, the shopping to do, and all those hideous chores like getting my California license and getting Max registered for school – this is going to take a while.
(I need to mention that this old cabinet, which I love, is disgustingly dirty and peeling and needs to be sanded and repainted but I’m nearly passing out at the thought of all that work. You can’t see the grime in this picture. I suppose you should be spared some horrors.)
So here’s what I thought this morning: why not take pictures of the house en déshabillé so that pictures taken later when the house is put together will make for stunning contrast?
This is a wonderful house. We love it. Even so, it has many awkward spaces. So good luck shui-ing its feng. Let’s just say it’s all going to end up a little quirky, like us.
At some point this space will be filled with quilting projects and copies of all the novels that I’ve published. Shut up. I have an invisible friend for an agent so I’m ALL SET FOR SUCCESS.
We don’t actually have a dining room table. We’re going to have to use our round metal patio table for a while. My dream is to commission my friend Jim to make us a table and chairs. Or at least a table. His work is gorgeous. That’s my end-game with this room.
We don’t eat meals at the table very often anyway. We’re unconventional like that.
No more words are necessary here.
If I had money and my mom and aunt’s permission I would redo this kitchen with new cabinets, a much better stove, and new flooring. But it’s not so bad as it is. At least I have a gas stove again! (At least until all the natural gas runs out.)
I got a little sloppy with my captioning. This bathroom is so much nicer than any bathroom we’ve had for 6 years.
I think a cute shower curtain and maybe a matching cute curtain would be nice.
The colors on the walls and ceiling don’t show up really well in my pics but they’re very soothing and pretty. The floor is carpeted in a plum-ish color. Cat vomit shows up spectacularly well on it as do chewed up corn cobs.
Le mess. Sigh.
If I had been redoing this house I would have chosen reproduction fixtures to go with the vintage of the house but my mom and aunt, in their infinite wisdom, opted for lights with fans in almost every room. I’ve not been sad about that even once. I think this is a particularly nice fixture for being modern.
There you have it. These are all the rooms in the downstairs “unit”.* Next up I’ll give you an excessively candid tour of the upstairs “unit” and then, if my mom will give me permission, I will give you a tour of the back “unit”.
*The house is divided into three legal rental units but the upstairs and downstairs units are easily convertible by the unlocking of the French doors. The back unit is a little more separate and that’s the space my mom chose for herself.
It is so awesomely cool that you would share your new house pics with us. I especially love the captions of “crap” and “OMG!”. Not to mention the “Big Fat Lie” caption in the kitchen. Too funny.
All the crap is eating me alive! Last night some progress was made in my office. Got my big project table up, Philip built the unbuilt shelf, and my friend Chelsea unpacked several boxes of fabric and put it on the shelf. Yay! The laundry situation is killing me though. I’m glad you enjoyed the tour!
Ah, progress is so good. Actually, the house looks beautiful, airy and full of light. All that undone stuff will get done. So nice to have help with it. Are you allowed to hang clothes outside?
I don’t know if I’m allowed or not but I definitely want to build a laundry line – we have that really long driveway (reeeeeeeeeally long) and it gets tons of sunshine all day so I want to build a line there and I thought I could put up a lattice fence to hide the line from people walking by on the street. I could even grow something pretty (like jasmine) on it. The back yard is nice and private but almost all shade and I think too many spiders would enjoy my laundry if it was right underneath the oak tree.
Hysterical tour…the kitchen…soo funny…and after last night, it has improved. It didn’t look like that last night. Thanks for not showing that creepy dressmaking thing. What happened to Bob?
I loved the pics! thank you for letting me peek into the house again even en deshabille. Looking forward to seeing the upstairs (my apt) and the back too. BTW my friend Mary Ellen is enjoying the dining room table if you’re wondering where it got to! And when the temps get up in the 90s you’ll be happy for the ceiling fans. I am looking forward to seeing the place all dude-ed up and set to rights. What about a pic of the neat stove you got and does it really work? I’m so happy to see you settled and enjoying the place.
Aunt Lin
OHMYGOD I couldn’t love those captioned photos more. Plus I love the chaos, everything is so interesting. And totally get-over-able because you just moved in. Who will judge that. I wish my house was clean and tidy and organized but sadly I’m overwhelmed. What I do miss is being young and energetic where I could just get up and kick some ass around the house. Anyway it looks like a lovely home. I love the office space. Have super outdated cabinets and avocado green countertops I think the kitchen looks pretty good. It looks like a happy sunny spot. Keep cool. When the weather is cooler I’m going to come up for a visit. I hope that sounds fun.
p.s.. that’s pamkitty me.. just wanted to comment freely so left my link off. xo
Aunt Lin! So glad you enjoyed the tour! It’s already improved – we got a lot of unpacking done and we made the dining room into the living room and the living room into the dining room yesterday – it just works better that way. Lots of sweat and cursing. The stove is in the driveway and I’m going to go out there and take pictures now. The problem with it is that it’s bigger than the one that’s there so in order for it to fit we’ll have to remove the end cabinets. Much thinking must go into how we will do it so that it looks nice and all that since we can’t replace all the cabinets right now. I’m hoping that when we have it all duded up you’ll come for a visit. You haven’t been for so long and it would be wonderful to see you here! Oh – and it’s been in the 90’s and those fans have been much in use – so I’ve been thanking you and mom for installing so many of them.
Pam – I knew it was you! Avocado countertops? That kitchen color is coming back into fashion now. At our last house we had an avocado colored toilet and I swear that everyone who saw it (who wasn’t me) was so excited and envious over it. I can’t wait for you to come visit!!!!!!!!
Okay so how did you make the arrows for the captions?
What a hoot….this is what I believe can happen in most peoples house at sometime or another. I’m kproud of you for doing this. It makes me happy. I personally use the FlyLady for cleaning inspiration. Her site is wonderful. I’m getting ready to go and make your vanilla pears. I love canning especially when my daughter and I’ve just picked the pears myself at a friends farm. I had so many pears this year, I cannot wait to try your recipe.
That’s what this theme uses for bullet points. It’s possible I can change it to look different but this is the default bullet point on the Bee Crafty wordpress theme.
I’m glad you enjoyed this post! I tried flylady for a while years ago and found it completely overwhelming. In the end I just have to set my own rhythms and prompts. But moving into a place is usually chaotic. It’s much better now! We’re almost completely settled in so I’ll be doing another house tour soon. I hope you like the vanilla pears – that’s one of my favorite canning recipes. I haven’t made them in a while but I sure would like to do them again this year. Pears from friends’ farms = THE BEST.