Symbols, Scares, and Satisfaction

"Well, we officially moved...(long pause)... a month ago," she said, embarrassed that she hasn't blogged sooner than this. 

We knew it was time to leave Kenosha, when, on our final day there, our plaid pennant was holding on by a thread.

The move was a lot of work, and the arrival was an emotional roller coaster to beat the band. We knew that we were close to the airport, but we discovered that the airplanes have much more of a presence than we had originally thought. On the dozen occasions that we looked at the house before purchasing it, we had seen a few airplanes... but never like this. These metal birds come in low and fast on a day with south facing winds. No picture yet, but it looks an awful lot like an airplane going DIRECTLY over our house. That first, south wind day, we were terrified. How could we not have seen the airplanes on a day with south facing wind? How could we be so stupid? How will we ever sell this house? No one will ever love it. I was prepared to think of it as a flip. I mean to tell you, we were TERRIFIED! 

That very first night in the house, March 24th, our dear friends Kara and Josh, (who brought us a lovely basket of veggies and presents, thank you so much!) stayed with us. The three of us had bought tickets to see Andrew Bird at the Riverside Theatre, and while it's nuts to go to a concert the night day you move into a house I figured it was serendipitous and in keeping with the bird symbolism. A wonderful concert it was. And while we never really ate anything, we came home and slept with a vengeance.

I figured it was the exhaustion. But now that we have been here for one month the sleep continues to be amazing. A good house to sleep in. You can't ask for much better. Also, as it turns out, "the airplanes aren't even a bother." This was how our neighbor put it, and she is absolutely correct. We've gotten COMPLETELY used to the planes.

 In the past month we have done quite a bit of unpacking, but haven't REALLY started digging into the renovations. Honestly, I have been feeling surprisingly unmotivated. Maybe it's the knowledge that we have as many years as we want to work on the house. Maybe it's because we are tired. Maybe I feel the pressure of us owning the house, and feeling that we must do it 'right' the first time. Whatever the reason, I've been sauntering around the house, looking and making small gestures and taking bad photographs (really considering a better camera). I've been searching for that spark of inspiration.

We painted the faux brick wall in the kitchen to add some light and brightness...

We started destruction in the downstairs bathroom...

The old sink, note the walls are hideous, floors too... really the whole thing is hideous.

We had to install shutoff valves to remove the sink. Who installs a sink without shutoff valves?!?

We discovered the hideous wood panelling was covering a lot of old tile adhesive.
And the downstairs laundry shoot!!!

We scored a free pedestal sink, it was sitting on the road. It will good in there.

We installed GFCI outlets in the kitchen...

mmmm.... non electicut-y.

We liberated the stuffed goose from the basement...

We unpacked and hung art...

living room (with a new TV, we are bad, but no cable, just internet and dvd's)

above the door in our dining room
From left: Sensitive New Age Guy, Monster the II, and Iron Skull Head

We've done lots of other things as well; installed a new washer/dryer, painted my basement studio  wood paneling white, removed lots of weird stuff from the garage, discovered that if you plug your computer into a dimmer outlet your computer makes a strange humming noise and taking it to the apple store isn't necessary all you need to do is plug it in a normal outlet, learned to cook on an electric stove, and we've made about a million trips to the Home Depot. 

And yet, I still haven't been motivated or inspired. Unable to work on the house for a full day. Unable to blog about it. Unable to feign enthusiasm... There was something that was making the house un-functional, but what? What is it?

This past Saturday Ben and I decided to make three pieces of 'semi-temporary' 2x4 furniture. One workbench for my studio, and two countertops to accompany this kitchen countertop we had already made...

Countertop next to stove. Seriously, you need a place to chop stuff.

As Ben was installing the 'Worlds Tiniest Semi-Temporary Countertop' we had the other countertop sitting in the middle of the kitchen. We built it for a wall, but as it was pretending to be a Kitchen Island, we realized that OF COURSE we needed it to be an Island. 

New countertop, now Island in the foreground,
and the 'Worlds Tiniest Semi-Temporary Countertop'
 is seen shoved between the stove and wall.

The new Island, has LITERALLY made the entire house function. Suddenly everything makes sense. I am motivated and excited. I can hardly sit still long enough to type this out. I am so relieved and happy. We have chosen a beautiful and wonderful house. Now featuring functionality... 

In the beginning...

Here is our little house. Ben and I will be the official owners in five days. We can hardly believe that we will finally be home owners. It's something we've talked and dreamed about in the eight years we've been together (five of those married years).

The 'Garden of Eden' House

We call it the 'Garden of Eden' house because it's on Eden Street and it has the 

biggest fenced in back yard of all the houses we looked at.

Fenced in back yard with loads of potential.

Now we aren't church going folk, and in fact, not so long ago I may have been turned off by the idea of living in a house that we could nickname the 'Garden of Eden'. However, last summer I wrote a song on the ukulele called 'Eve in Eden'. The song offers an alternative to the traditional Adam and Eve story, maintaining that Eve actually invented clothing and shelter because she was rather uncomfortable living nude in the garden environment (as soon as I have a good recording I'll post it).

Point is, we were comfortable living in the 'Garden of Eden' despite our religious beliefs, and of all the houses we'd looked at it was the house with the most character, the most potential, and the fewest poorly executed 'updates'. But one must always look for a sign...

...enter the taxidermic Goose in the flight position.

Me stroking the neck of the Taxidermic Snow Goose in the basement.
Worst picture ever... better one soon to come.

 We found this little guy in the basement of the house. Now, here is another instance where I may have felt differently a few years ago about a stuffed Goose. But since then, several things have happened. 

1. I have lived with a stuffed Mahi Mahi (caught by Ben's great grandfather Hampton). 'The Mahi Mahi' has been a member of the family for four years now and have grown to love him. 

Here is 'The Mahi Mahi' installed above our back door
as if he is hunting the carved wooden fish, 'Fishy Guy'.

2. I have begun to identify myself as a Tundra Swan in flight. You see one day Ben and I were driving along, towing Ben's 1972 VW Beetle 'Bob', and we'd just decided that Ben would use 'Bob' as his commuter car instead of us buying a new fancy car. It was a wonderful feeling. A flock of migrating mallards caught my eye, and I was so surprised to see right behind them a Tundra Swan in flight. Swans in the lake are alright, but a swan in flight is a truly amazing thing. They have a 10' wing span and weigh 16 pounds! Slow and powerful strokes keep them in the air. It is an uncanny combination of majesty and comedy. Something that I feel within myself at all times.

Here is a stock photograph of a Tundra Swan or Whistling Swan in flight.

Upon feasting my eyes on the swan, my good mood transformed into a feeling of euphoria. Since that moment, I have become quite interested in birds-in-flight. Finding that Goose in the flight position in the basement of this potential new house was, as you can now see, a good omen. "The only way it could get better," we thought, "is if we could actually have the Goose." And I'm happy to report that during negotiations, this document (which I have cropped and edited for privacy purposes) is now on file as a part of our purchase. I do so hope that a genealogist gets a good chuckle from it one day.  

The official Amendment Offer which includes the stuffed goose with the sale of the house.

I have decided to keep a blog about our little house. We have much work to do on it, and I want to keep track of the improvements, and share this sure to be adventure with my family who live a bit farther away then I'd like them to.