History of Houses

Well, once again, it's been too long...can we just say packing, cleaning, moving, unpacking, cleaning, setting up house, unpacking, and more unpacking, and leave it at that?!? It has been insane! But, coming along very nicely!

Even though, it has been crazy here, I have to say that I just haven't been motivated enough to blog. Every time I sat down to write, I would start, get no further than a couple of sentences, and then quit. But, perhaps this 'writer's block' is about over!...we'll see how far I get today :)

First off, I am loving this house! Sure, it's still not perfect and has a few projects that have to be done, and there are a few more boxes that still need to be unpacked...(we have a ton of stuff!), but it's really charming and feeling more and more like home. This feeling has been missing since, gee, I don't even know, since we got married? maybe? How can that be, you ask? Well, let's just say we have lived in some pretty terrible places...

The first being a craphole in southern Oregon that was the dirtiest apartment I have ever stepped foot in. We moved down there right after our honeymoon, and me, being head over heels in love, though it was just great when we saw it. Just so you know, when I first saw it, I was moving boxes, my boxes in it. My in-laws were living down there and had chosen a place for us, little did they know, it was not the uptown part of town. In fact, it was the dump! My family helped move us down and I remember not realizing the reality of it all, mainly the fact that I was no longer going to be able to see them whenever I liked (they lived 3 hours away), and that they were leaving me down there. Or, I guess I was leaving them. This sunk in when they pulled away and I was not in the car with them, but instead standing outside the shabby apartment wondering why I was not in the car with them.

The next morning was when I realized what a junkie place we lived. I looked in the bathtub. Cockroach. Need I say more? How about, I cried for 3 months until I told DH that I was moving, and he could come with me or not, I didn't care at that point, but I couldn't live with cockroaches for one more day. He came with me that day and found a new apartment. And, it was a beautiful apartment, too. No cockroaches, I asked the lady before we put our money down. We stayed there for about a year or so. I then got a teaching job up where my family lived, so back up north we headed, much to my happiness! Yes, I might have pushed a little harder for that job than was needed, but, it worked!

And, that leads to the next place we lived. A house in the country. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, with a massive tub in the master bathroom. Sat on, oh I don't know, maybe 5 acres. Sounds beautiful, right? And, it would have been if all the things in the house had been ours! Yep, you guessed it, a family needed someone to housesit and it just worked out. Unfortunately, it was a mess. They packed up the essentials, not planning on staying in Nevada or wherever they were, so we had their stuff and our stuff crammed together, which makes it very difficult to move again. And, added to that bonus, it was freezing during the winter, which in Oregon is about 8 months long! Not so homelike.

The next place we moved was really nice. 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. Sat on 7 acres. Felt like the country, but was only 1 minute to the grocery store. But, it was way too big and way way too expensive to heat. Hello to 66 degree house when it is only 30 degrees outside. We wore a lot of layers! And, I freaked out anytime anything spilled and just couldn't relax.

So, this house is perfect! Sure, it's really small, but by golly, it is going to be warm this winter! Can't wait! I can relax if something spills or a little girl pees on the floor after a bath. I can just clean it up and move on! Yea! :)

Kind of a long post, but considering I haven't post in forever, that can be expected, right? :)
Stay tuned, because I am going to get some of these before and after pictures up, and some more blogging!