Professor Chaos & General Disarray

We’ve moved!  Well, mostly.

Last year, moving into the loft was a traumatic experience for me and I did not enjoy it. Maybe it was the combination of moving all of our stuff on a busy street, up too many stairs, to an open loft where there was stuff piled everywhere and there was nowhere to get away from it all.

This time, I was pleasantly surprised and the moving experience was 100 times better. I highly recommend moving only 4 blocks away, having your parents help, and hiring a nice, young man fresh out of college who majored in music and needs money. He was a lifesaver. More specifically, he saved my life and did all my heavy lifting.

{Uh oh, I think I’m about to get long-winded…}

I read something this past year about figuring out what your ‘thing’ is. I wish I could remember where I read it so I could do it more justice but I’ll do my best (it might have been about how introverts tend to have a 'thing'). Your ‘thing’ is the element in your life you are most opinionated about; the thing that, when threatened, can cause you to get really upset. After reading it, I really took some time to think about what my ‘thing’ is and I decided it was my home. I tend to be easy-going, and I don’t exercise expressing my opinion very often, but when it comes to my home I invest a lot, take a lot of pride in it, and I can be pretty opinionated. I have a vision and everything has a spot- don’t touch it. That’s where the other part comes in: when you mess with my home I can get very upset. I may not tell you to your face but I will most likely journal about you.

Please, I don’t want to scare you all from coming to visit. Please come visit! (Do I sound desperate? Yes? Good.)  If I have scared you at all, it should be for Brian. I love that man to death but he cannot for the life of him put things in the same place twice. He’s also talented at breaking all the kitschy vintage drinking glasses I find at the thrift store. {insert eye twitch here}

It took moving to the loft for me to realize how much renting is not for me and maybe part of the reason I never mentally settled into the loft is because the loft was getting in the way of my ‘thing’. The new house is a mess, I can’t find anything, I have not established a routine, and there are boxes everywhere but I already feel so much more content and settled and happy than I ever did in the loft. Buying this house has been very important to me and I’ve felt so energized this week as we have gotten familiar with it and have worked to make it our home.

I can’t really continue writing without a big thank you to Brian. I wouldn’t be able to love owning a home as much as I do if it weren’t for him. He’s the primary catalyst who helps me to have my ‘thing’ (and he goes along with my vision, i.e. he doesn’t demand we have a dartboard in the living room) and I’m so thankful. He may be messy but he’s a keeper.

ANYWHO, I’m excited and really want to write about what we’ve been up to. This might be boring for you but that’s why blogs are great. You can leave at any time and I won’t know or feel offended. Aren’t you glad you don’t have to sit with me, smiling and nodding until your head falls off?

We spent Sunday figuring out the best way to arrange the furniture in the living room/dining room. I knew it was going to be a tricky room because of the fireplace and all the windows. I started off determined not to put furniture in front of the windows for two reasons:

1.       Rooms tend to feel more open when the windows are unobstructed

2.       Furniture in front of windows rarely looks good from the outside looking in

After shuffling the furniture around into 15 different configurations, it became apparent we would need to put furniture in front of the windows. I waved my white flag in defeat and it ended up being the magical solution to everything and it doesn’t look bad from the outside. Next time, I’m going to start with the option I don’t want and save myself the energy and near breakdown into tears (in my defense, it was lunch time and my grumpy feelings are heightened when I’m hungry).

On Monday, we ended up spending too much time installing the light fixtures I picked out. One was from IKEA so…that’s probably why. After much research and grumbling, we finally got the IKEA light done and when we started the other fixture Brian said, “I love America”. Yes, thank you, America for directions with words and pieces that fit traditional lighting hardware.

 I find such joy in the small details of a house that those light fixtures alone have made me want to squeal with delight. As much as I only want to spend my time on the little decorative pieces, we still have a lot of work to do. We’ll spend this week getting the last of our stuff out of the loft and then we will say our good-byes to true, gritty, downtown living.

Good-bye pot smoking tattoo boys, DJ Latino (& your Friday night beats), drunken people yelling obscenities at 2am, loud trucks, airbrakes, and motorcycles! It’s been real. See ya!

Long before we started the house hunt, we booked a camping trip to Lake Irwin (near Crested Butte) for the Labor Day weekend and we head out on Friday. We’re really looking forward to getting away and recharging before we continue the laborious process of settling in (unpacking, putting carpet in the basement… painting the guestroom… painting the bathrooms… painting the master bedroom… painting the kitchen…AAAH! THE PAINTING!  IT NEVER ENDS!)

An acquaintance said that her Hispanic father-in-law names his houses and his last house was named Hasta Aqui.  She said it translates to Up until here and I kind of like that. Another option I like is Nix Besser. I got that off of my bottle of SNAP (gingersnap liquor) and it’s Pennsylvania Dutch for None Better. I’ll have to see if naming my house is something that will stick since I’ve never really been one to name my inanimate objects, but I think either would be fitting as Brian and I consider this our forever home and I plan on dying in this house (preferably a while from now, painlessly, in my sleep).

Ciao for today!

P.S. I really intended to include pictures in this post but, remember when I said I couldn’t find anything? I actually wrote this post on Tuesday and was waiting to publish it until I had pictures. That is until I realized it could be a year before that happens. We also don’t have internet yet (and I'm starting to realize it might be a year before that happens) and inserting pictures is too hard for me to handle right now without a computer.

P.P.S. Seriously, why is it so hard for companies to transfer internet? We always have the worst time whenever we move. There's gotta be a better way. It's not like the internet is a new technology at this point. If Century Link is reading this, FIND A BETTER WAY. Rant over.