Project Home(owner) – the “before” tour

So it is official, I have the keys to my new home. Yay!

I love when other people document their creative and decorating process, and so I am going to do the same.  Over the next months I will update the blog and show “before”, “during” and “after” pictures as I go along.  Taking pictures of an empty space is a challenge but I needed to get some before shots completed before I move all my things in.   So, here is my attempt at the “before” tour.

The living room:

The kitchen:

The entry way:

The bathroom:

The workroom:

The master bedroom:

I know it all looks pretty plain at this point but it is a great canvas and a space I am excited to fill.  I move my stuff in Saturday so I have basically spent every night this week hanging out at the empty place, cleaning, patching walls, and painting.  I have never painted walls before and had a very ambitious plan to paint the accent wall (hallway and kitchen wall), bathroom, and spare bedroom this week but when I finally got in and gave the walls another look I realized that I don’t yet know what (if anything at all) I want to do with most of the walls so I am leaving them as is for now.  The exception to this is the spare bedroom.  Or as I will be calling it, the workroom.  Yes, this is my craft/office/storage/creative space.  And I am painting it yellow. Stay tuned…

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News

Last time I wrote I promised news.  Now I am aware that from time to time I have promised things on this blog and didn’t deliver.  This is not one of those times.

So you ready for it?  My news…

I am buying a house!

Actually a condo, but I hate the word condo (for some reason it feels like a very cheesy 80′s word to me.)  I don’t like the word apartment either because that word=renting in my mind.  And I will be a renter no longer.  So if you have a great word I should call my place please let me know.

This whole buying a (insert great word for property I am buying) is a pretty big deal to me.  I know, many of you have already done the ‘buy the house’ thing but it is new for me and I can’t help but be terrified and at the same time very impressed over my grown-up self.

Sure, there is the chance that this doesn’t happen.  I don’t close for 2 weeks and something could go wrong.  (Please don’t go wrong.)  But it feels like it is going to happen and so I feel relatively safe making this announcement.  Plus I am just so excited I can’t stand holding it in any longer.  In fact my reasons for being excited are so many I feel an itemized list coming on…

Reasons I am excited for my upcoming move/purchase:

1. My new neighborhood: the Avenues.  I love the history and charming homes, the proximity to downtown and yet the feel of a neighborhood.
2. Hatch Family Chocolates.  My new place is within two blocks to my favorite chocolate shop in all of SLC.  Say we are hanging out at my place one night watching Gilmore Girls on DVD.  I could turn to you and say “Hey, you want 1000-calorie-but-best-I-have-ever-tasted hot chocolate right now?”  You would say: “Um, yeah!”  And then we would go and be back with said deliciousness in like 10 minutes.  I am not saying the close proximity of Hatch’s is good for my healthy diet but I am certain it is good for my soul.  In fact, I am contemplating a change jar which will serve as my slush fund for Hatch’s and nothing else.  Am I a little too much of a superfan?
3. Decorating.  Really it is just another creative outlet that I am tapping into.  I watched my sister Kara have so much fun making her “flat” (her chosen word) hers by searching for deals, painting, and finding accents that has made her place truly envy worthy.  These things take time though (and money) and so I will have to pace myself but I am having fun so far with visions of what it could be.
4. I get to be with my stuff again. For the past 5 months, 95% of my things have been in storage.  I miss my stuff.
5. My new commute. Remember my 1-hour-each-way commute to Loveland from Denver?  Now my commute will be 5 minutes by car, 20 by foot.  Yeah, I could walk to work if I wanted.  And then walk downtown on the weekends, you know, for fun.
6. Finally, the apartment itself which was found pretty quickly. I did a lot of research and looking online but on the first night of looking in person I found it.  It was the last place we went to and I am pretty sure my real estate agent knew what he was doing saving it for last.  I love it.  Hardwood floors, french doors opening to a “balcony”, open kitchen and living room space, awesome views of the mountains and valley.  It is not a huge place (about 900 square feet: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath) but it is perfect for me.  I promise to take lots of pictures as soon as I can.  It is going to be awesome.

Don’t get me wrong though.  I will miss my roommies Mom and Dad and the fun times we’ve had living under the same roof.  I’ll miss having disposable income.  I’ll miss…um, I think those are the only two negatives.  My tentative move in date is Halloween.  I am totally dressing up as a homeowner this year.

P.S. All this house stuff has really put a damper on my other creative pursuits.  I haven’t been knitting.  Or sewing.  I know I will get back to it but for now my mind is otherwise occupied.  I will post pictures soon though of what I have been able to accomplish this summer.

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Catching up

Not posting for a while is kind of like taking too long to email a friend back (of which I have way to much experience with.)  You keep meaning to write but every day/week/month you wait, all the things you have to cover just grow exponentially.  The more you have to write, the harder it is to find the time to write until you either never write or you break down, skip all the fun details, say “life has been busy”, and start from scratch.  I am trying to fight the urge to do either one of these things.

I really do have stuff I want to share. The summer was crazy….I moved!, started a new job!, went to China!, sewed 3 skirts + 3 shirts+ 1 dress!, started a new fitness plan!, became roommates housemates with my parents!, frogged and casted on again for the carp!, watched the 1st season of Big Bang Theory on DVD! (okay, so maybe I did have some time to blog.)  Anyway, crazy times for me.  When I move to another city I feel a little like I am hitting the reset button on my life.  It is kind of an awesome/strange feeling.  I like fresh starts for the same reason I like new year’s and birthdays.  I like taking stock, making changes, and the promise of the unknown.  But it takes a little time for me to feel comfortable in my skin, to settle.  And even though this time I moved to a familiar place, I still felt unease that for me only calms with time. I miss my apartment and my supermarket and my neighborhood and my restaurants.  But most of all, as my dear friend Shelley would say, I miss my people.  (My Denver people that is, thankfully, I do have Salt Lake people that I don’t have to miss any longer.)

All this to say that thanks to this angst-y adjustment time, I have gotten out of the blogging habit.  But, things are changing.  Pieces are falling into place and it is starting to feel normal that I live here again.  And of course…it is October.  I LOVE October.  Good things happen in October.  So maybe it is my calming down life or the magical month of October that is bringing my blogging mojo back but either way, here I am, and I will be back soon with some fun news and maybe a peek at what little knitting I have gotten done.

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