Our Old House

Growing up, I loved having a real tree for the holidays.  In the last few years, my parents have started putting up a fake one.  It is beautiful and always perfect, but it is not a real tree.  You don’t have to turn it to hide the kinda bare side.  You don’t have to tie it to the radiator to ensure that it stands up straight.  You also don’t have to water it or vacuum up the needles.  It is not real and doesn’t smell like it.  In my time away at school and the following years of apartment living, I’ve gone through several fake trees. Some small and some tall, none as beautiful as my mother’s and all within my limited budget (those perfect fake trees are NOT cheap).

I have begged Brandon for years for a real tree.  As with so many things, my requests often mean work for B. He wouldn’t agree to haul an evergreen up (or down) the stairs in our walk-up apartments.  He promised me that when we had a real house, I’d get a real tree.  Technically, we should have had one last year but it was freezing in the house last winter - we weren’t spending enough time in the living room to make it worth the trouble.

This year, Santa came early and brought us the gift of heat (more on that in another post).  So, we’ve been spending a lot of time living in the living room.  And this year, we got to live with a tree… a real one.

It is tall and perfect and bright.  For someone who didn’t seem very interested in real trees, Brandon has quite an eye for these things.  Well done, Mr. Gary.

We pulled it off…

After days of stripping, standing and painting we finally have a recognizable dining room and a living room fit for living.  We had to call a few audibles (choosing to paint cabinets instead of stain, renting a table because our special order was late), but in the end we had ourselves a cocktail party.  It was everything that I wanted.  As usual, there are some finishing touches to be added - many have been since these photos were taken.

Mr. Gary, expressing a shared sentiment

I apologize for leaving you all hanging for so long… I know that you were losing sleep over that random skinny white thing that Brandon found.  I received some pretty good guesses.  I am taking my favorite guess as a suggestion…

A Gummy Bear Boat!

It will be used as such at our next gathering.

Anyway, it appears that my friends, family and associates are much classier people than I ever imagined!  Several people correctly identified this dish as…

AN OLIVE BOAT

Which is great because I absolutely love olives… more than gummy bears!  

Thanks for playing along guys!

All of the wood in our home is original (with the exception of the styrofoam “beams” in the living room and entryway).  It boggles me that for so many years, the windows and doors in this house have been painted over and over again.  We decided that we could not add another coat of paint to the windows in the dining room.

When we first moved in, these windows were cased in weird custom shelving, making it impossible to open them.  A while back, Brandon banged the shelves out - which was nice - but we were still left with three big old windows that would not open.  Remember… all of the windows were painted, nailed, bricked or drywalled shut when we moved in.

I was hopeful that as we removed ages of paint from the woodwork, we would be able to get them open.  This weekend we finally did it… Brandon is my hero!  It wasn’t easy, and my guestimation says that its been at least 20 years since these windows have been opened up.

Wood stripping, in progress… (side note: that ladder is another garbage day find!)

Removing the storm windows outside…

Voila! After a lot of B’s elbow grease…

The breeze and fresh air were SOOO worth it!

Over a month ago, I shared my birthday dreams on this blog.  If you recall, the state of the dining room has been standing between me and my intimate birthday dinner.  We were fortunate to have the help of a couple dear friends this weekend.  After a great drywall job, the room was a clean slate. 

We have done a lot of painting in this house.  This painting is often followed by conversations saying “Hmm… that does that gray look purple to you?”  We never actually sampled colors until now.  We’re glad that we did.

They look a little pukey in the pan, but “Carriage Door” was the winner for the accent wall.

The guys at work…

And so now, seven weeks from my birthday, here we are with some touching up to do and other projects to tend to…

Brandon G.

As you know, I have been very excited about my worms and their wonderful work.  I keep a little bowl for them in fridge to collect all the scraps from cooking and love to feed them. So funny how it really is the little things.

Last week, as I was already running late to work, I found this in the driveway.

I sent Megan and Brandon a frantic text message with a photo of the above scene, with tears in my eyes.  We all already knew who to blame.

Bastards!

B suggested that I scoop the worms back in the bin and fix things up when I got home. This seemed like a good enough idea until I discovered that there were NO worms.  Approximately 300 worms… gone.  Could there have been that many early birds that morning?  Do raccoons eat worms!?

They do.

“Raccoons have the ability to open jars, garbage cans, doors, and even complex locks. The raccoon feeds on plants and animals. They prefer fruit and nuts but will also eat grain, insects, worms, fish, birds, garbage, and even bark when times are tough.”

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/environment/science-environmental/articles/48196.aspx#ixzz1WtbuY8fc

My babies didn’t stand a chance.

When I did finally get things cleaned up, I found two little ones who had survived.  I picked them up (with bare hands, a feat for me!) and put them in some dirt near the bushes.  It was the least I could do after such an ordeal.

The tragedy took the wind out of my sail, but I plan to get things up and going again this week.  I think they’ll need to relocate to the garage.

Are there any composters among you with suggestions for keeping my worms safe?

One of the first “chapter” books that I ever read was Charlotte’s Web.  Mom and I picked it out at the library and we read a little bit every night before bed.  Loved it!  Charlotte was so nice and smart… and talented with her crazy webs.  

I’ve spent a lot of time being grossed out, annoyed or afraid of spiders.  Why couldn’t they just be more like Charlotte… make pretty webs and spin compliments?  The other night I met this young artist in the driveway and she’s giving Charlotte a run for her money.  I secretly hope that she’ll leave me a message on my way to work… “Nice Shoes” or “Have a Good Day!”  No luck yet, but she still impresses us daily.  Much Respect!

Most of the buried “treasure” in this house is nothing to write home about… old uninteresting books, a lonely gym shoe without a mate, a child’s coloring pages about the history of Memorial Day.  Most things that we find either leave us scratching our heads or send us straight to the trash.  This latest find is of the head-scratching variety.

Brandon found it between a wall and an old iron radiator and I had never seen anything quite like it.  No clue what it’s for, but I can’t toss it.  I’m fond of it.  Here are the specs -

• White 
• Ceramic
• 18” long
• 1.5” wide
• Approx. 1” deep
• Kind of heavy

My mom never ceases to amaze me.  I called her the other night to tell her about this find.  After sharing the above description she says, very matter-of-factly, “Yeah, that’s a _______.”  She had never seen one of these things either until her mother gave her one.

So my question is… What do you guys think we found??