House Made

After 8 years together, 7 of which we’ve been married (Ask any of our amazing friends and family who were at the awesome Sonoma wine country party that was our wedding.), and 4 of which we’ve spent restoring a house we own together, the state of California has made our commitment official and legal.

We got married today. Go us!

Beth here.

We’re stalled on progress on beadboard in the bathroom while we wait for an edge guide for the router. Whenever I get frustrated about slowed projects, I find it helpful to review the blog and see everything we’ve done on the house — it’s like an interactive scrapbook. While things may seem like they’re going at a snail’s pace for me at the moment, it can be gratifying to see what we’ve accomplished in the past (especially considering I started out with little or no tool knowledge — Merideth was already a pro). Now if I could only get the folks at Home Depot to not talk to us like our husbands sent us for a part (note that the Ace employees NEVER do this).

If you’d care for an unreasonably long review….
We started with a sweet little Pueblo/Spanish-style bungalow that someone had covered in green siding. We cannot know why people do what they do. We can only shake our heads and try to fix it.

First up after gleefully ripping off the siding was stucco (seen here and here), which thankfully was NOT done by us, although selecting the main color was probably the most trying task of our relationship. (Merideth and I discovered in the process that we physically see color differently. I tend to see more green in colors while she sees more red. Clearly mine is the correct vision despite the fact that she’s a designer.) When the stucco was done, we put in a new front door, which was Merideth’s eBay find of the decade — $200!

The windows. Dear lord, the windows. We decided to restore all of the wooden windows on the front of the house (the bedrooms got Milgard for soundproofing and safety), and oh my goodness did it take forever. Read about it here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. (Sadly, I didn’t even direct you to the posts where we only whine about how we’re still working on the windows or how we no longer want to work on the windows.) But now they’re done! They’re DONE!

After the window work came trim (the lion’s share of which was done by Merideth), which was a sucky job made more fun by being able to freak out our neighbors with the color.

Merideth went to work on the Porch Project (Phase I) and stripped the porch poles (making for some fun double entendre).  It took longer than expected (of course), but it was all worth it, as the porch ceiling looks great and the posts are the most striking accents on the house.

We evened out the front concrete steps that had been torqued by the roots of a now-gone tree, which worked well despite its ugliness, and most importantly made it possible to tile over the stairs. Pretty.

The front yard started out as a field of oxalis (hateful clover), but we terraced it and planted a California-native, drought-tolerant garden that defies the sun. Defies it!

In the back yard, Merideth cleaned and stained the pergola. I detailed our lawn-seeding/HGTV frustrations in what was our most controversial post ever. Who knew about the rabid Lisa LaPorta fans out there? Eventually, it turned out beautifully (well, most of it — we’re still working on parts). Currently, Merideth is stuccoing the garden walls.

We extended the fence to hide the trash. Still works like a champ.

We lost our fear of electricity (although we still have a healthy respect), and installed new lighting in many, many places, moved switches, and generally played with our power.

In the bathroom, Merideth secured her title as The Awesomest with her first carpentry project of building a new medicine cabinet door. The bathroom grout plagued me for years with its brown ways. I finally fixed it with some grout paint.

I installed an Insinkerator, earning the respect of people the world over for my impressive cleaning solution collection.

All in all, I’m proud of our triumphs with this house. And just reminding myself about our successes gives me inspiration for more. Come back soon for our upcoming notes on bathroom beadboard, dining room wainscotting and painting concrete. More likely you’ll just read our complaints about stalled projects or the weather. We’ll try to intersperse whining with pictures of Dixie and The Boy (not Chico and The Man).

Big Island us

I feel sooo out of touch. Work has been insane and I haven’t been able to check up on what all our house-bloggin’ friends have been doing. You’re all going to break up with me, aren’t you? Virtual divorce for not holding up my end of the relationship?

Anyway, I was catching up with Greg over at Petch House and I saw that we were tagged with the “5 Things.” Oooh. 5 things you don’t know about us. Ok, so here goes.

1. My brother-in-law knew, and announced, that Beth and I would end up together before anyone, including B & I, knew it. Beth and I were just friends. We hung out a lot both solo and with other friends but that was the extent. Then one weekend while camping my sister asked if anything was up between us. I replied in the negative and my sister said that’s what she thought but that B-i-l thought otherwise. He said something to the effect of “I don’t know, M. has a way with the girls.” Turns out it wasn’t my way but B’s way. She made her intentions clear later that weekend and the rest is history.
2. I love, love, love old movies especially anything featuring Katherine Hepburn, the greatest actress of all time or Paul Newman, the sexiest man to ever not run away with me. Beth loves crappy teen movies and I mean luuuuurrrrves them. Cutting Edge just arrived in our mailbox today. Yes. Cutting. Edge.
3. Beth is freakishly strong but had never picked up a power tool before we bought the casa. I am freakishly un-strong and was nicknamed “Noodle” by my high school volleyball team because of my skinny arms.
4. Neither of us has any career-based ambition. We both prefer quality-of-life to corporate life and have made conscious decisions not to climb the ladder despite quite a few really attractive offers. While some may consider this apparent lack of ambition a flaw, we find truth in that great cliched adage: “Nobody’s last words were ever ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.’”
5. We both give excellent presents.

It’s not too interesting. It’s really no Cold War love story a la Greg. But there it is nonetheless. Now you know our secrets.

Thing 1:
I got home from work yesterday to find Beth on the phone with our 5-year-old niece, who had called to tell Aunt Beth alllllll about her very first day ever of school. It was all very thrilling and adorable.

Thing 2:
My sister-in-law and brother-in-law just got official word that they will be making the trip to China to pick up the newest member of the family in October. It’s all very thrilling and adorable.

No work will be commencing at House Made this weekend so don’t bother checking. Why, you ask? Because it’s Gay Pride Weekend and we will be too busy for working!!

Celebrate from your places by grabbing yourself a pretty drink and making catty remarks about the horrible design choices of the poor schlubs who think they have good taste on “Sell This House.”

We’ll see you when we get back. In the mean time, I leave you with this:

Y-M-C-A! It’s fun to stay at the Yyyyyyyyy-M-C-A-ay!

my rosemary on my walls
Originally uploaded by erg1976.

Some of the e-card sites have taken to completely making up holidays. Wednesday, according to Yahoo!’s greeting cards site, was “Just Like Your Mom” day. I already have a head start on this as I already look just like my mom (not kidding — people have been known to gasp and then be confused about how she looks so young after 30 years). We’ve always shared common interests, but I thought I would never be just like my mom because I won’t be, well, a mom. I don’t speak in the “momisms” that have crept into my sisters’ vocabularies when speaking to their children. No “because I said so”s or “we’ll see”s have escaped my lips because I don’t commonly reason with toddlers or teenagers. When someone comments that he/she is bored, I don’t immediately find a task for him/her.

But since becoming a homeowner, “Just Like Your Mom” day is starting to be every day. I’ve been known to be excited about a short rain as it makes weeding so much easier. I love the washing machine to a mildly unreasonable degree. I find little piles of my house papers everywhere that no one can disturb or it might ruin my “system.” Mostly, I’m fond of referring to my garden as “Darwin’s Garden,” a term my mother uses to describe her lack of pampering for any particular plant as if it needs that much love, it will be usurped by the hardier, more independent neighboring plants.

Luckily for me, I do not fear turning into my mother, as she’s an amazing person, but find this progression amusing. I’m hoping my piano skills improve, although I have to admit I’m not looking forward to the loss of all computer skills.

I love you, Mom!

swing
Originally uploaded by merideth.

So this weekend we hung the porch swing that we put together a few weeks ago. Okay, but here’s why it’s so romantical: Beth got this porch swing for me as a Christmas present the first year we were together. On the back, she did this:

Could it be any cuter?!! No. No my friends. It could not. We’ve had it in storage since 2000 because, as we lived in San Francisco in a 1920s converted store, we had no place for a porch swing.

I spent yesterday staining (officially hate oil-based stain) the stand so that it matches the swing. It was just raw pine and this photo does not capture how way better it looks now. (I hadn’t yet trimmed the chains in this photo.)

the beth shirt
Originally uploaded by merideth.

…is BETH!!! And today is her birthday. In celebration, I am wearing this Beth shirt featuring her over-the-shoulder coy glance. So now everyone will know that I CELEBRATE BETH!!

This a.m. when I woke up I told her “happy birthday.” She said, “It doesn’t feel like my birthday,” to which I replied, “That’s what happens when you open all your gifts and cards early.”

Her reply: “Well it really doesn’t feel like my birthday now that I’ve learned a lesson.” Haaahahahahahahaaa! Happy birthday, awesome girl!

wedding
Originally uploaded by merideth.

Yup! Today is our anniverary. We were married three years ago today in Glen Ellen in the lovely Sonoma Valley wine country. It was the best wedding I’ve ever been to with hands-down the best food and most deeelicious cake.

As year three is the year for leather gifts, so we got each other this neat leather vase and a suede finish chair (we faked the leather on that one because we knew the dog and cat would destroy the real thing).

I’m happier than I ever thought possible and look forward to a good 150 more years of bliss with my girl.

Well Day 1 wasn’t documented. And I’m sad about it. Sad.

We found the house. We loved the house. We bought the house. We did a dance of joy at our unbelievable good fortune in grabbing it up before someone else did. But I genuinely thought that our thrill at owning a 1922 bungalow fixer would diminish as the newness of the whole house-procurement experience wore off. I was wrong.

I had no idea we would get so INto our house. I mean, yes, we’ve had an HGTV addiction since the network first went on the air and yes, we’re both creative types, and we have a love for early/mid century accoutrements, but I didnt think that would add up in a way that made our lives house-centric. Yet here we are. Hardcore.

We’ve done a good bit of renovation/restoration already including some basic things like painting. But there is more, oh much more, to come. I want it documented. I want this freakin huge craft project of ours spelled out and illustrated.

I’m aware that, in the end, it may serve as a dire warning of what never to do again.