Next Task

Tiff and I got a chance to take care of some tasks around the house today that were little but felt great to see done. It's funny when you realize the list of small things you keep in your head of things to do without even realizing it. For me, one of those things has been to touch up the paint I did last year in spots it has chopped. While not huge, it left me feeling so good once I had crossed it of the list in my head. I may not even be able to tell you a few hours later all the tiny spots I hit, but I know I saw them daily before.

I like crossing things off that list.

Spare Room

I just finished making the bed in our guest bedroom for the first time. This home ownership thing is definitely taking some getting used to. I am very excited to bed able to have friends and family stay with us, but is still seems odd to have a bed in my home that isn't just for me. Perhaps its the many years of hand to mouth living with no room for extravagance that has me feeling unfamiliar with extra. I don't really know. I do know I am grateful for this. Just surprised at the adjustment curve.

Little Boxes...

As I was walking the dogs this morning through my little developing neighborhood, I kept taking note of how my neighbor's yards were coming along. We all have moved into this area within the last year or so and thus are roughly all getting our yards installed at the same time. I am particularly proud of our yard. It is less about it being the next Versailles an more about the fact we have never managed a landscaping endeavor. Even the simple aspect of a drip line was new (and still a mystery to me).




 What struck me as an appeal to this all new world we have here is the idea we get to truly establish how it will look. Tiff and I look at trees that we are determining their size at age 20 now. That is an odd perspective for career apartment kids! I am terribly pleased with out few trees, grass, and rocks. Tiff has some brilliant ideas for down the road too. Who knows, the sprinkler system may actually make sense to me by then.

Tree

We bought a tree today for the backyard. I am a novice when it comes to actually planting trees as it appears. Until talking to the very nice woman at the nursery, I truly believed you chose well, dug a hole, inserted tree, and watered. No there's a lengthy process to remember and I still don't quite get the drip line thing either. I once was pretty stoked to get a yard to mess around with but any more it feels like the class I missed. Slowly but surely we seem to be getting there though.

MIA to DEN

Today was te return home day. It felt good to get out and run 5 miles this morning,  but Miami sunshine can be pretty humbling. I won't lie, the water fountain I found on my course was a near religious experience. Not long after my Dunkin Donuts cafe con leche, we departed again for Denver. It felt so good to get home and to my own home no less. Tiff picked me up with Maggie & Estes and I could not have felt more welcomed and loved. Today was a good day.

Painting Zen

This may or may not last as the new color we have in our kitchen. There seems to be some debate on the effectiveness vs the effort to repaint right away. I am getting fairly adept at some very clean painting and appreciate the zen sort of place I get to go when working. I also appreciate that to me a job has to be completely cleaned up by the end of the day to be done. Every last brush has to be put away before I let myself sit down. For better or worse, that's me.

DIY or Professionally

With a new house there seems to be new projects that have never before been on my list. Things like landscaping are now tasks I must debate on Do It Yourself or hire someone. There is a familiar nagging desire to do it all myself because I want to know I can. However, the scope and number of things needed are significant enough, I know I will get to do quite a bit regardless.

Projects

I have a lengthy list of projects for the new house. It is daunting to say the least. I am attempting to whittle off a couple at a time. Today's project, finish painting the stairwell and be done with the ladder on the stairs routine.

Here's hoping to knock off that from the list.

Conflicted

So, I have been spending a lot of time considering the concept of want less, do more. It's a beautifully simple notion that truly appeals to me. Now that being said, I just moved into a new home. The list of needs and wants have radically increased. Things I never thought about, like ant stakes and wheel baraoughs are suddenly holding sway. Hell, I got a charge last night when I ordered a lawn mower. It's hard, because when the wallet opens a little I always fear it won't stop. It's always all or nothing, and balance is a silly pipe dream. While I know that isn't true, the fear is enough.

I am walking that fine line trying to take it easy and do the most important thing next. It is throwing my theory into some challenging practice to be sure.

Feeling Like Home

The one thing that has always made a new place start to feel like home has been throwing some paint on the walls. Until now, that was always a bitter sweet proposition in that the apartment would have to be painted white again before I moved. This is more an investment, to be sure. I have also never lived in a place where I was on a 30' ladder trying desperately not to spill. Thusly my face met the paint roller once.

Oh My Yard

I have always loved plants. In my tiny studio in Chicago I had among my foliage a couple Blue Spruce saplings and a small tray of grass I would trim by scissors once a week.

It is beyond exciting to imagine what can actually grow in a yard. I can not wait to plant some actual trees! It was even fun mowing the lawn last week. Who would have guessed?

I Need What?

Here's an age old debate for me. I am often prone to determining I need stuff. Usually it's just a heavy case of want. Conversely, I tend to put off the needs way too long. Well the wild thing with the new dwelling situation is that those lists have gone  a little crazy. I am still striving towards the "want less, do more" idea. However here, I truly don't know what are needs. I know we needed window coverings as I have never known before and my decorative front lawn was up to my dog's belly till Scott let me borrow his lawn mower last Sunday. It feels destructive to keep buying things, but yet there are new "needs."

It has been a busy, eventful past couple days. I would have preferred to have written a bit more on all that, however time and ability were not on my side. When I am stuck posting from my phone, blogs such as yesterdays are my inclination. Regardless, all seems to be fitting into place quickly on the new home front and I am excited to begin defending the obvious in my new home.

I just wanted to say thank you for the patience over the last few days and as always for taking some valuable time to check in to see what random blather I have decided to talk about today.

Closed

We bought a house today! I can not express in words right now the excitement and gratitude I feel tonight. The old, crappy mantra of, "guys like me don't..." just took another hit. Good night all from our humble apartment full of boxes.

The House at the End of the Week

So begins the week I can say I started as an apartment dweller and ended as a home owner. So far, with the packing, it doesn't seem all that different yet. It has been nice to have had 14 months without the cardboard invasion, despite not being entirely happy about this particular apartment. Not sure when the difference on this move will kick in. When does an entire house start to feel like home?

Home Stretch

We had our first walk through on our house this morning. It staggers my mind that we are looking at what will soon be our new home. We did what is commonly referred to as the blue tape walk today where we go through with our building superintendent and put little tape marks where we need fixes. It felt similar to all the many apartment  condition sheets I have filled out so as to get my deposit back after. What isn't quite registering yet though is that there is no deposit to await and we will not be out looking for a potential better deal next year when our rent goes up. This is as long as we want it.

That will take some time to sink in.

Racing to the Unknown

Everyday feels that much closer to moving into our house. Everyday also still feel like an eternity till the big change too. I know I have mentioned it, but when I pause to consider it, I am counting the days till stepping off the known. It will be different and exciting and full of new challenges to be sure, but how unusual it is to be racing full speed towards such a goal.

By the by, today was the 22 day I have been out to run and if all holds well, we will be moving in on my 3 month date of quitting smoking.

Going Native

One of the coolest parts of our new house is how much effort our builder is putting into being green. The house is ridiculously insulated and sealed and there is even an electric car charging station in the garage. This eye for detail made it all the more curious to discover that our front yard, which is being provided will feature the ecological nightmare, Kentucky Blue Grass. It has become much more widely understood over the last few years how much water this type of grass requires out here (or most  places besides Kentucky). We are excited to design are more natural backyard, incoporating natural species and to an extent, some xeriscaping. Personally, I an excited to use Legacy Buffalo or Colorado Blue for our backyard. We'll see how it goes.

Getting it Done

The house is reaching the critical final few weeks. We have begun to pack and all is moving along swimmingly. With so much time to think about it all, I must admit a simple thought can occasionally just knock me on my ass. That thought is, "holy crap, we're buying a house!" It seems completely surreal, but in a little less than a month, Tiff and I will finally have one of those milestones of adulthood to savor, home ownership. It floors me and I could not be more grateful, for the steps that led to this moment still seem a tad mysterious.

Happy Friday