Lilacs,

One of the things I loved most about our (last) house in Cbus were the lilacs. I had planted lilacs under every window on the first floor. In spring, the fragrance was intoxicating (and probably overwhelming if you're not into lilacs). It was with great dismay that I realized I would probably never be able to sustain a lilac bush here in Toledo. Too much shade. No place I could really put it to even give it enough sun.

So imagine my delight, when today, my birthday, I discovered that the gangly, overgrown bush by the entrance of the house was indeed, a lilac bush. I'm guessing that the previous owners pruned it back at the incorrect time two years ago, resulting in no blooms last year. This year, there are about 6-7 tufts of lilacs. Clearly, the lack of full sun is influencing the bloom, but hell, I'll take whatever I can get. I sacrificed a few sprigs so I could make the kitchen smell like lilacs.

Living in a war zone....

Today, we completely moved out of our kitchen.

For the next 8 weeks, our existing kitchen will be gutted, re-vamped, a bathroom moved and the bloody awful swooshes that have haunted me for the past year will go away.

On Saturday, we had a Demolition party to celebrate the demise. We gave the kids markers and full permission to write on the floor, on the cabinets, (on each other), along with hammers and one very evil sledgehammer.

After only one handle of rum (god bless the sailors that pre-partied before they came to our house!) the fondly named Beam-Me-Up light was taken down, a countertop was blown away, the pantry was forcibly removed, as was a section of cupboards.

On Sunday we finished the emptying of the kitchen. The dining room has become our new kitchen, complete with the new beautiful cherry hardwood floor that Mr. H finished last week. We have a toaster oven, a portable stove, a microwave and a crockpot. Dishes will be done in the bathroom. The fridge is moving into the entry way hall (which I'm kind of excited about because it means going for a late-night snack is just steps away from our first floor master).

As thrilled as I am that we are getting kitchen redone, walking through the kitchen makes me a little weepy. It's not sealed off yet, so it feels like a war zone. There is no light (since the beam-me-up light is gone), there are holes punched in various areas of the walls, the cupboard doors have all been taken off. Nothing is in it, except for our stove, Lizzie (which is staying).

Although we have lived in three apartments and two houses over the 12 years we have been together, I think this is our first home. This is the first residence we have had to work on. The house feels like us, and I feel like this level of deconstruction mirrors somehow something within myself. I feel like crying every time I walk by it.

Tomorrow, the kitchen will be sealed off and true demolition will begin. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this project will be done by Christmas.

I guess we are in Kansas now, Toto.

The family piled into the family sedan on Thursday to head back to our dear hometown of C-bus (well, it's my hometown at least. But we lived there for 12 years, so I consider it Mr. H's hometown since adulthood). It was the student recognition ceremony, and all the students who had presented something or were awarded a grant had their name read and then got to eat cheese and sip fruit punch. I won a dissertation award, quite shocking, and I was very humbled by the honor.

Anyway, there was an unspoken tension going down there this weekend. While we have been in this rust belt community for about 10 months now, I still considered C-bus "home" and, not to sound snobby, but in some ways superior to our current location.

And there were definitely things I miss about C-bus. It feels clean and new. There are a plethora of the cute and yuppie (for lack of a better word) markets, stores, bakeries, wine shops, restaurants, etc. It is, for the most part, a very educated city, and because of the many high-tech and white collar jobs, there is an air of civilized living. But my god I forgot how much you have to drive to get to all those places. Friday morning, we drove around for over 4 hours, and only ran 5 errands. There was no place we could ride a bike to, even if we wanted to. I went to a yarn store, hoping for something cool and interesting, but realized that everything they had there, I could find at home.

We did get to do some favorite things. Croissiants at La Chatalane at the Saturday Farmers Market. I wanted to get some strawberries for jam, but they weren't there, unfortunately. The Whole Foods there is ginormous, much bigger than the Ann Arbor one, and carries some very specific items that we can't seem to get up here otherwise. We feasted yesterday on candied salmon, our favorite Spanish goat cheese and stocked up on our Indian frozen dinners. I also bought close to 15 pounds of chocolate.

By the end of the weekend, C-bus started to feel like an old boyfriend I had idealized after I had broken up with him. You know, the guy who you clearly broke up with for a reason, but over the years you forgot those reasons, and you spend days pining over all the good points. But then you run into him again, and realize, eh, he's not that great.

No sleep....

Mr. H is out of town again, which I have become accustomed to, even in this new house. I have a security system and two of the most paranoid dogs ever.

We have a large glassed-in sunroom in which about half of what would normally be a roof is also windows. In the last few weeks, Cyrus has become more and more disturbed by the black dog in the those upper windows that appear to taunt him. If we can't kill the lights, he will bark at that mysterious dog for an hour. Usually we can pet him, and he will come to the realization that it is not an intruder.

When Mr. H is away, the boys become particularly protective. I swear they can sense his absense. So I have also become accustomed to the increase in barking due to their viligence. Between the phantom dog, the deer that roam the backyard and who knows what other wildlife back there, we have many things to be protected from.

Around 1 am last night, Cyrus starts going nuts. I let him express his displeasure for about 15 minutes before I started to get annoyed. I walk out into the sunroom where he has his head tilted up to the sunroof again and scold him for barking at his reflection. Back to bed. Cyrus starts up with the barking again. I tried to ignore him again, but then Cisco joins in the fray. Cisco has this high pitched annoying bark that could shatter glass. Strange, coming from a 60+ pound dog. Again, I walk out to the living room, try to calm them, and go back to bed.

About five minutes later, guess what happens? Now, I'm getting pissed. It's after 2 am, I'm tired, I'm starting to get a little freaked out by the insistent barking. It's really dark, it's raining, Miss Thing is still asleep (I don't know how). I don't want to let them out.

So I stomp out into the sunroom again and almost poop myself when I see the large furry thing moving around my sunroom roof. It's a racoon. A small one, too. Only about two feet from nose to tail. Clearly, the dogs are quite upset by this intrusion. I have never heard the caliber of this bark.

This racoon is not bothered that I am standing about a foot away from it. I turn the light off and on. I wave my hands and jump. The noise thing hasn't bothered it so far. I throw a book at it (at the window, really). This thing does not move. Well, I take it back, it wanders around the roof so it can get a better view.

Because it was not afraid of me or the dogs, I couldn't decide if it was just young and naive or had distemper. Because of the latter, I didn't want to let the dogs out to chase it.

It eventually crawled beyond my sight up the roof. I hope it left. I have fears that there is a racoon den close by.

I went to bed close to 3 am last night. Miss Thing did not awaken during this mess. Mr. H called me bright and early at 7:30 this morning so I will be looking for a nap today at some point...

Home Improvements I

When we bought this house, there were two things that really sold it for us. First, it has just an amazing backyard. I love sitting in this room, looking outside, even in the winter.







Secondly, it had "good bones." Which means we like the layout of the house for the most part, but hated the decorating of the house. It has old carpeting. Lots of wallpaper. Some pretty hideous bathrooms.



For most of the winter, we have ignored it. Miss Thing's room was painted when we first moved in, as was ours (because Mr. H was concerned about his manhood being permanently sucked away due to the heavy pink walls and carpeting). We were also going to do the kitchen this winter, but decided to wait so we could save a little more. We made due with the rest of the house with the occasional spackling and 3 corner tear to the wallpaper. These, we said to ourselves, were to inspire us to get working on the house.


Yesterday, Mr. H had originally planned on working on the boat, but the weather was not quite warm enough. So instead, we through caution to the wind, got the living room primed and stripped wallpaper from the dining room. The dining room should be done by today or tomorrow, and then I get to work on the hallway wallpaper. The carpeting in the dining room is disgusting (especially so after spending the day soaking it with a vinegar solution from wallpaper removal), so we will be ripping up the carpeting and laying down hardwood in some form (I really love the concept of bamboo as a sustainable resource, but damn if it doesn't look funny).


The goal is to have all of this done in time for a graduation party in the late spring/early summer. Or maybe late summer. Since several of our friends are sailers, it's hard to throw a party when the weather is nice enough to go sailing.

I have never removed wallpaper before, but I have heard what a pain in the patootie it is. While it is time consuming, honestly, I didn't think it was that bad. If I could manage to peel the top layer off, getting the glue and backing off was fairly easy with a mixture of boiling hot water and vinegar. I took my time, trying to make sure I could get all the glue off, and trying not to damage the plaster. It appears that they did put a primer down before they papered, and I'm pretty sure that helped a lot. It took me about 5 hours to get through half the room. One wall came off like a dream, but the other ones needed a lot more time and care. I hope to get through the rest tonight. As I sit here and write this, I listen to Mr. H and Miss Thing peeling off wallpaper making happy cathartic noises, much like I did when I would sunburn and then peel the skin off. Quite similar really.


I'll scrape tonight again. Mr. H will sand down the walls and then paint.