Home Updates

Now that we have lived here for a month and settled in a little more, I thought I ought to share some newer photos of our home. It's still exciting to be living here, and with the fresh coat of paint it looks even better. A few rooms got quite a face lift--just compare the old orange kitchen and bathroom to the new pics below!

The counters and flooring have a definite yellow tone, but that orange paint made them unbearably so. I wasn't sure about this ivory at first, but it really neutralizes the yellow. The color also looks deeper in the photo than in person.

There is space for a small table or island in front of the windows, so I'll keep my eyes open. We also would like to rig up or buy some kind of pot rack next to the stove.

The bedroom (well, the whole apartment) is still a work in progress, but we did get a bed! It's the Malm from Ikea. We got awesome new sheets from Garnet Hill, but we have yet to replace the comforter. The walls were repainted the same color.

The bath went from rouge to gray-blue. The light quality feels much better.

The living room, with furniture (thanks to Nomes and Howard). This rug is really beautiful and colorful. We spend most of our home time in here now. It makes me excited to get furniture into the other rooms to begin using the whole house. :)

That's all for now...my gears are going, imagining what else I will do with the space. I finally got some graph paper to do some layouts. We're excited to visit Brimfield this weekend and hopefully bring home a few special finds. More on that next week.

Happy September, all.

Another Year Golden

cute cake and photo by kiki la ru

Here's wishing my mother a beautiful birthday!
We are enjoying gorgeous weather this weekend in your honor.
Sending my love.

Late Summer

Pardon me again for the lack of posts. When things get a little busy I also seem to become lost for words. Last I left you, we had spent a lovely summer day exploring the city and were awaiting furniture. Well, it's here!...Alas, I have no photos yet to share (a boring text blog...again, sorry).

I know, I should have thought to get a photo before the painter came in and everything got covered in dust and tarps, but I think it leads to a better reveal this way. Besides, we weren't inclined to clean things up until he needed to get to the walls. You see, we ended up with a lot more stuff than we had originally realized and it all had to go somewhere.

The day the moving truck came up, I had a lovely time getting to know Naomi's Pop and was glad to have someone to direct the movers. They rolled out two lovely carpets and brought in seating for the whole living room! Woot! They also brought in a LOT of books (Nome's pop is a smart guy!) We stocked up a bookshelf with as many impressive looking books ;) as it would hold and the rest had to be moved to the basement. Perhaps once we get through all the Einstein and Bertrand Russell and engineering textbooks we'll swap some out.

What else is new....

Nathan signed up for zipcar, and we exercised our new vehicular freedom by going to Ikea! After much deliberation, we settled on the Malm bedframe in a medium brown, and so far it seems like a great fit in our bedroom. (Again, photos to follow.) We resisted the urge to furnish our apartment in Ikea, and I will instead painstakingly choose solid pieces from shops, craigslist and antique markets over time. Oy vey.

Nathan and the rest of the crew are working toward an approaching milestone, which means lots of long days. So far there have been ups and downs it seems. Stress is high, but I know he'll get it done.

We ho-hummed about paint colors for a while but decided on mostly off-whites. We are keeping the cool blue and blue-violet tones in the bedrooms, the bath is going from hot pink to blue-grey, and the sunroom/craftroom is going green. The kitchen went from yellow-orange to a creamy off white. A fresh coat of paint really spiffs things up!

The temperature dropped into the 60s this week and it rained for 3 days. We quickly swapped out tanktops for sweaters, and everyone's complaining about shoes that won't dry. Students are showing up around the universities, and coworkers are talking about taking weekend trips to the country. It was feeling like Fall, and then a few more 90-some degree days snuck up on us. blegh. I think Hurricane Earl may be greeting us this weekend, which could be interesting. Remember when I said I needed galoshes? It's true!

I hope all's been well in your world. Goodbye August, Hello September.

xo

The Freedom Trail

Yesterday on our mutual day off, Nathan and I found ourselves without much of a plan. Of course immediate thoughts of spare time turn towards the house. We originally thought Sunday might be reserved for an Ikea trip, but we're still waiting for our zipcar registration to go through. Also, as luck would have it, we found out Naomi's dad has a storage unit in Rhode Island that he needs to liquidate. To our mutual benefit, he is sending us a truck full of furniture! I know, unbelievable good fortune.

So, as we await the truck next week, house arrangements are somewhat on hold. With this absolutely free and sunshiney day, we decided to finally take to the Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is quite literally a red line running through the city which passes revolutionary history landmarks. It begins at the State House and ends at the USS Constitution. We agreed that whether or not one takes in the historical sites, it's a great way to see a little bit of the whole city.

This actually wasn't part of the trail, but the facade of the Baptist Temple downtown has caught my eye more than once.

Statue of Ben Franklin in front of the Old City Hall, notable as the first honorary statue dressed in clothing concurrent to the period. This building is also hailed for its reuse, now no longer used for city hall.

We had never explored the North End, Boston's Italian district, and were excited to walk through during one of their festivals. Every weekend of July and August they celebrate the Madonna with a parade and tons of food. You can see that people have pinned dollar bills to the Madonna icon.

At this point, we stopped for a lunch break at one of the many Italian restaurants in the district. It was amazing. We think we'll be going back to the North End for dinner, and hopefully soon.

Towards the end of the Trail you enter Charlestown and see the imposing obelisk of the Bunker Hill Monument.

The view from the top is wonderful (despite the construction).

But the climb up is a challenge. 275 steps is no small feat. Perhaps it's more than coincidence that this is near the end of the trail because going up and down is fairly exhausting. It made me at least less concerned about the large Italian pasta lunch.

We finished up at the USS Constitution, aka Old Ironsides. We didn't stay for the full 1/2 hour tour but wandered around the deck a while. To imagine that huge ship at sea...

It was a full, well spent day. In fact, there's little more I like than just wandering around the city with this fellow. We finished off the day with rootbeer floats at Brigham's (did I tell you we have an ice cream joint just down the street?) and a few episodes of House and a good sleep.

Sharing a tired, quiet moment over lunch, I thought about all the anxieties I've been fixated on lately. We spent so much time thinking about this move, trying to find the 'right' place to live, attempting to put together a semblance of a complete life. Even then at lunch I wondered if we'd gotten to know the city well enough before choosing our spot. Though all in all, those things are not so much a worry. It makes sense on days like this when I find myself in some corner of the world, sitting across a table from Nathan. I think it takes a lot to make me happy, but it doesn't take too much.

The State of Things

the day after.

Well, here we are, a week later. I must report, we are as happy as clams.

Moving day was about as easy as can be, what with all of the pre-packed boxes, no furniture and a little extra woman power (thanks for bringing the big guns, Nomes). I got to the new apartment early to meet up with our mattress delivery. The rest of the morning/early afternoon was spent with my friend Naomi visiting from Seattle and her mama. Since Naomi had enlisted my help in her move (remember?) she was obliged (persuaded) to help us with ours. Nathan picked up a Uhaul van that fit all our possessions and we swiftly made it to the new house where friend Jason also helped us unload. Whilst Naomi and I fulfilled the requisite relocation Target trip, our friend/Jason's wife Erin arrived. We all later celebrated the new house with Chinese for dinner.



Since then, we've been unpacking what we can bit by bit and trying to settle in. It already feels like home, but there is much to do. It's funny to open boxes to rediscover all the little things that made up our home in Washington. It wasn't so long ago that we switched coasts, but it feels like that time is gone. Where will they go in the new house? Do they make sense here?

here, my brother's 15+ year old nfl comforter acts as privacy curtain.

Our to-do and to-buy lists are ever growing. Thus far the work commute has been fine, but we are getting Zipcar for special trips like Ikea and Home Depot and fun excursions. As you can see above and below, next on our list are a bed frame and dining table...the sag in that box tells me we better hop to it. :)

Moving Day

{happy jumping Audrey seemed appropriate}

We're moving today!
I am so excited. More on this later.

Playing House

When my friends and I used to play house as a kid, we never did boring adult things like go mattress shopping (we did much more exciting things like host imaginary dinner parties and deal with family dramas). However, Thursday night, that's exactly what Nathan and I did! We purchased a most awesome mattress and are terribly excited about having it delivered to our new apartment on Friday. Before falling asleep we've been saying..."Oh, we're going to sleep so well next Friday." :) It feels like the first grown-up piece of furnishing we own. It's a queen. What fun.

The next step is finding a platform bed frame, as we opted not for a boxspring, and perhaps some very cuddly sheets. We really like sleeping. If you were buying more luxurious sheets, would you stick to white (like good hotel sheets) or a fun pattern? My thought is white will always be worth the investment. But I do like these....

I can't wait to sleep some more.