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...