Tortoise-Like Progression

Our remaining house projects (inside and out) are coming along slow and steady now, and after the pace of last year, that's fine by me. We live here now and that's just like a big sigh...ahhhhhh!

The outside retaining wall was completed, grass is now growing, and mulch was laid down on our northern slope.

Hopefully all this will hold our little spot of the planet in place. We're now searching for a more permanent fence and gate so that Zippy can regain his private reign over the backyard.

More coats of paint, window treatments, mirrors, shelves, hooks, furniture... you name it- we're doing it inside the house. But in our own way, which of course means finding things we can reuse as well as family labor practices.

Here are just a few of my favorite recent projects:

Jamey adds his genius design and carpentry skills to our bathroom mirror (also from the floorboards of our old house).

Sadly, Jamey had to leave before the mirror was completed and so it took a couple more weeks for Anthony to finish it.

Add in my bucket-handle-for-a-towel-holder and we're now calling this bathroom done.

My dad spent some time picking out and arranging just the right NY apple branches for us to hang our coats on.

We've learned over the past several years that the secret to living in small spaces with a lot of fun gear is organization.

Our basement project is just beginning.

The porch swing was given to us by our neighbor.

We painted it and restrung the rope. Natalie enjoys her choice of rocking devices.

Just like with anything, there's always something else that can be done, but at this time nothing feels as necessary, and so we're moving along at our new improved (slower) pace.

-J

Realizations

We haven't felt the need to blog lately because, well, the house building is pretty uneventful right now. We're mostly just getting settled and waiting for some key professional landscaping ingredients. However, inside we have realized a couple of things:

a. Despite being 20 feet wide, there's a lot of open space in the house. Or maybe it's just that we don't have very much furniture. This is proving to be a positive in Natalie's book- especially as she learns to walk with her little car back and forth and back and forth and back and forth (and back and forth). Plus we have plenty of room for a tent and tunnel in our living room- and isn't that just every child's dream? Twenty feet wide is proving to be plenty big so far.

...and back and forth

b. Our shiny new house makes the furniture we do have look ugly.

Like maybe it came from the streets of Boston on "big trash day" or the "as is" section of Ikea or something. We've been taking what we have and all the little things we saved and trying to give it all a place in our new life. We certainly don't *need* new stuff, we're living comfortably and fine with what we have. Paint can do wonders. Fabric can be reused. Hardware is available on something your husband called trash three days ago.

No, I'm not going to show you a picture of our ugly furniture.

I'm going with these cute window treatments instead.

My mother was intrigued by the challenge of creating roman shades for Natalie's room by taking apart old venetian blinds from our last house to use as parts.

c. We're too afraid to commit to hanging pictures and other things that require holes in our pretty new walls. Heck, we're too afraid to commit to buying floor mats for the front door and that certainly doesn't require holes. I think this drove my parents crazy last week during their visit. How many times did we hear, "You know, you should really put something to hang towels on in the bathroom." or "You really should get a mat for the front door." After rushing to commit and decide so much in the past year we have now slowed down considerably. Yes we know things like this can be changed, but knowing us, once we've committed $12.99 to a floor mat, it's not going to be changed until it literally falls apart. Therein lies the fear of commitment.

Note the artwork resting on the repainted shelf in the background.

Feel free to come over and vote where you think it should be hung.

-J