More fun than a barrel of ants

Oh my gosh, the things you can get done without doing much done at all. I was under the weather this weekend and so spent the time lollygagging about. But! Here’s what was accomplished:

1. My lawn got mowed! And will continue to get mowed all summer. I met someone right here on the Interwebs who knew someone who came with a friend and several pieces of serious equipment and yadda yadda yadda, my lawn looks great. It was funny to hear the sound of lawnmowers pertaining to my own home. It’s been a good, long time.

2. The sofa is here! It felt kind of like marrying someone just before they ship off for two months and then kind of forgetting what they looked like or why you committed to them. But it looks awesome and super with the chair. I also have a chair from my Dad’s that I hope will work but we’ll see. I lay around on it, just to test the comfiness, and I give it five Andy Capps for comfort.



Oh, and while I am posting pictures, here’s one of the bedroom chair next to the old and new paint. Nice, right?



3. I tried Peapod for the first time for car-free groceries and it went swimmingly. Or rather, cookingly. Yes, I cooked in my own home, which I had never done before. While at my sink, I waved across at my neighbor, which brings me to

4. I met my neighbor. Well, I had met her husband but he is not a big talker and she is, well, more so. They have two daughters who are either teens or young adults but I am not sure because she kind of said both. Maybe one is a teen and one just graduated from college? Hm. But that’s OK because she made the assumption that I was from Baltimore and had just moved to New York temporarily, and I did not correct her. That’s how wacky sitcoms start, I know.

Anyway, she told me lots of interesting things including:

a. Her husband built my kitchen! Good thing I didn’t insult it. I sure hope she doesn’t read this blog.
b. The guy on the other side of her, who I already described as off-kilter, is nuts and should never be allowed in my home.
c. The nutty guy built my deck – but she said it was solid. One hopes.
d. She grew up on the street, her parents are original owners from the 40’s, and then she bought a house there, too.
e. The people before me, who I thought had been kicked out due to foreclosure, actually moved abroad and I guess the foreclosure happened after it went over a year without selling.

All in all, really interesting.

5. I met the UPS guy, who brought me these:

Something I can honestly tell you I have never purchased in my life. Of course, it was 60 degrees this weekend, so I did not need them just yet.

On the bad side, I have an ant problem to the point where I stupidly left a ziploc with some crumbs on it out for an hour and when I came back there was a SWARM of insects. I called the exterminator but they did not answer. It was a holiday, I guess. But this has to be taken care of, because the cooking prep work is seriously hampered by trying to avoid living creatures whilst doing it.

But something I pondered while relaxing this weekend is why a vacation house seems so much more vacation-like than a stay-cation in your regular home, and I think it’s really that whole “getting away” piece, as obvious as it sounds. Being in different scenery, even if it’s your own bed in your own house, just makes you feel so much further away from your regular life. I really hope that never changes.

Things I am most looking forward to: a shortlist

1. Being able to open my window without smelling incense and/or cigarette smoke.

2. Not tripping over piles of stuff there is no room for.

3. Doing laundry in my pajamas and without running into anyone.

Less than a month now!



By the way, there is now a contact form over there on the left, in case you would like to contact me. Despite #3, I do like people!

In a fog, but in that good way

Man, I am so sorry I did not take pictures this past weekend, and I really meant to do so. The search for the perfect dusty blue-gray for the bedroom was just plodding on and on but there has finally been a breakthrough! Mo painted me eight choices on the walls and none of them were really perfect. I brought three more with me, because I thought that might happen (coughpickycough). One day I was waiting at the bus stop in front of a hardware store when the Benjamin Moore display caught my eye and so two of those three came from there. They had lots of samples, all really dusty, but I got two that I thought might work, one because it looked good and the other because it both looked good and I recognized the name as something I had pinned on my Pinterest board. Who knew Pinterest could have some use other than “look, my board is more full?”

I also stopped in at Restoration Hardware and picked up a sample of Shore. I was shore (har) the final choice would be Shore, not only because I had pinned that as well, but because I have a pair of slippers in Shore (back when RH used to sell things like slippers and board games. Now they are terribly, terribly Serious). I love Shore. But it turned out to be just off enough that it wouldn’t work. So, it looks like the final choice will be… drumroll please….

Baltimore Fog

Nantucket Fog! Which I like to call, “Baltimore Fog.”

(There is no fog in Baltimore, just clouds of humidity).



It is really lovely and matches the other accessories that have already been purchased, like this chair (picture by Mo, and she actually bought this chair when I wasn’t looking because I liked it, but that’s another story),

accent chair



and these curtains, which you can’t see the color on, oh well…

But now it will really be too much to have dusty blue-gray bedding, and so the thinking has shifted to cream on beige. Or beige on cream. There was a lovely one from RH, but it’s too traditional and the room will be more modern. So, maybe this? Or this, which is a little too traditional (and expensive)? Not sure yet.

But hey, now that one room is 50% done, only six more to go! I hope you all can come to my housewarming party in June of 2015.

Anyhoo, I’ll be down Memorial Day weekend so will take some pictures then. Definitely.

How soon is mow?

This is a long stretch for me not being at the house: three weeks. So I am a little antsy. But that’s not to say I’m not doing anything. Specifically, I am still mulling over the grass, which is really weeds with some grass in it right now. I called two places, at polar ends of the spectrum. One’s website used hilarious malapropisms and has been in business “since 2012!” The other advertised the owner’s degrees in agronomy, and only covers the “better” areas of the city (I was shocked that included my zip code but I am not complaining). The first one didn’t call me back. The second, it turns out, doesn’t mow. They just treat. And not only that, they won’t treat until you mow. Their estimate (they visited while I was in NY and then scanned the report and emailed me) outlined the extensive work they felt needed to be done. As I read it, I felt, vaguely, like my lawn was being insulted.

Thus, I have a feeling I will soon be seeing this in my life. If you knew how steep the angle of my front lawn is, you would be laughing even harder than you are right now.