Crisis Averted

We found out that the house we liked is under contract. I guess I'm relieved? It would have been a ton of work.

And where do you even rent a backhoe?

The whole situation did help us resolve a few things. We know the neighborhood we want to live in, so we will just wait for the right house to come on the market. And we will be ready to move fast when it does--the house we liked was under contract in three weeks! (And we felt like it was a little overpriced. We may need to adjust our thinking there.)

Other updates:

My cleaning plan has failed miserably. I did manage to attend to the daily tasks I had listed (making the bed, doing the dishes, etc.). Of course I had already been doing that stuff. And I'm on top of the bathrooms and kitchen. But I'm not sure why I find it so impossible to dust this house! Obviously I need to have people over to spur me to some action.

I've been running! Last time I was out I managed 1.75 miles. The ankle is holding up. It is twingy occasionally but I think I am just going to have to chalk that up to getting older. I'm going to try to get to 2 miles, then stick with that, maybe indefinitely. It's better to be able to go a short distance than to not do anything at all (which is how I spent the month of July, and it was torture).

My sister has been decluttering her house using the Marie Kondo's method. (The Wall Street Journal calls Kondo "stern and enchanted, like a fairy godmother for socks.")

As far as I understand it (and that's not far at all), the Kondo method involves gathering all of the items in a category, say clothing, and culling ruthlessly based on whether or not the item "sparks joy." When I mentioned the method to my husband, he commented that if we were to get rid of all the things in our house that don't "spark joy," we would have no furniture. This unfortunately is true.

Off to look at Joyce's Hodgepodge questions. See you tomorrow!

House Hunters

Not the TV show.

I've mentioned before that we live in a big house built back in 1920. We have loved living here but it's going to be far too big for us when our nest is empty next fall. So we have begun to look...just to get a feel for what's out there. My wish list includes the following (and clearly I will have to compromise at least a little):

• Newer
• Lots of light
• Open floor plan
• Three bedrooms
• Two and a half baths, including master bath
• Large master closet
• Large kitchen, island nice but negotiable
• One dining area
• One living area
• Small, easy to maintain yard

This is what I'm thinking! Source

My husband's wish list is smaller:

• Three-car garage

Source

We've pretty much agreed that a newer townhouse would probably suit us just fine. The three-car garage...may have to go.

So we're out looking Sunday, and we are in one of the prettiest neighborhoods in our town. All older houses and big leafy trees. And we come upon this house:

It's on a quiet street and in a great location (walkable to a bunch of stuff). It seems solidly built. It's modestly sized. And we are in love. We go home and check realtor.com. Can I tell you a little about this house that we seem to have fallen for?

• It is the right square footage
• Older than current house
• Not open floor plan
• Five (tiny) bedrooms (two are in attic)
• One bath
• Smallish kitchen
• Large yard with pool
• Tons of flower beds, trees, garden

And to top it all off:

• No garage

Can you see where this is going?

Yes. Now we're discussing a gut renovation complete with building a detached three car garage. I even caught my husband watching a YouTube DIY video on how to fill in a pool. (Which evidently involves renting a backhoe? Tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this sounds like a bad idea.)

Of course we have yet to see the inside of this house. I don't know if I should be hoping it is perfect for a reno...or if it is completely unworkable.

Finally

Ahhhhhh.

Fall feels like it's finally here, and not a moment too soon. I am not a summer person (must be the Scandanavian in me). If I had to rank the months in order of preference, October comes first, and December is way before July and August. I love snow—even shoveling—and I have no trouble with bundling up to stay warm. Fleece, down, wool sweaters, boots—bring it on. Whereas I can't really take off enough clothes to stay comfortable in the summer. (Not that anyone would want me to!)

I went running this morning; temps were in the mid-fifties, and it was breezy and a little cloudy. Gorgeous. And we used our down comforter last night!

Speaking of the comforter—I finally bought new bedding, for the first time in probably ten years. In keeping with my goal to remove all color from the house, everything is now white but the bed skirt, which is a light tan linen. I'm looking for the perfect throw pillows to "complete the look"—in a print that incorporates the bright white and tan, and also some slate or grey blue—which has involved hours clicking around etsy, zazzle, etc. I'm working from a picture I found on Pinterest (naturally), and I'm having a hard time duplicating the pillow the designer used. I'm guessing the fabric is super high end, which is why I'm not finding it at Wayfair? Lol.

I was going to do a before and after post, and maybe I still will, but honestly I was so excited when the matelasse and shams arrived that I tore everything off the bed before I could take a picture. And what are the chances I will remake the bed with the old quilt? Yeah...no.

Am I Stuck in 2002?

So I've recently entered the wonderful world of Pinterest. (Check out my boards!)

I literally spent 8 hours yesterday pinning various rooms I liked, and there's clearly a common denominator, which is...I need a new house. Looking over the pictures I found, I'm not even sure whether I was pinning decor or just really big windows, LOL.

We live in a big, old (1920s) house with a circa 1990 addition:

Can you see the bricks? And the laurel?

Anyway, it is in no way a light-filled house. It is also much too big for our family--with one child in college, there are only three of us living in this five-bedroom house and we really only use a few of the rooms. And the addition means that the kitchen is completely an interior room...and dark.

As for the decor...well, see for yourself:

Honestly, I'm not sure my carefully chosen colors (sage green, red, midnight blue, and pale yellow) were ever in style...even in 2002. Is it any wonder that every one of my pins shows an all-white or beige room? I am thinking (hoping?) that repainting in a neutral, and replacing the rug in the top photo above, would go a long way toward calming things down.

And maybe—someday—we will downsize into the 2015 era home of my dreams (which I will not have to redecorate until at least 2023)!

Is the House Getting Away From Me?

Consider, for a moment, your spotless housekeeper. She housekeeps most of the time, apportioning various chores to different days: Tuesday morning is ironing morning. She calls this Not Letting the House Get Away from Her, making it sound a little like a nervous filly.

Peg Bracken, The I Hate to Housekeep Book

A quote from one of my favorite books. Written in the early 1960s, it is a snapshot of that era. Peg is always mixing up a pitcher of martinis (or, much less willingly, mixing up a sal soda solution to deal with a recalcitrant stain).

Now that my job description is basically "housewife," I've been pondering. When I have the urge to clean my own house I generally can satisfy it by picking up a book about housekeeping instead. My shelf contains everything from Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendelson's encyclopedic tome on all aspects of keeping house, to Peg's much more irreverent books.

But lately I am wondering if the house is getting a little out of control. I generally clean when I notice something looks dirty but I am toying with the idea of setting chores for each day of the week instead. This is my plan and please, no one chime in if it sounds like I'm missing something major:

Daily

Dishes, wipe kitchen counters

Clean some part of shower while I'm in there
Make the bed

Swish and swipe bathrooms if necessary

Tidy 

Weekly

Sunday—laundry

Monday—finish laundry and wash/change sheets

Tuesday—kitchen/dining area, including mopping floors

Wednesday—vacuum and dust mop rest of wood floors

Thursday—dust, take out trash

Friday—bathrooms

Rarely (being honest here)

Wet mop wood floors

Clean walls, woodwork

Theoretically this system should leave the house at least as clean as when I had a team that came once every two weeks, but that hardly seems likely, somehow.

Off to clean the kitchen (or maybe to read the Housekeeping forum on Mumsnet instead).