Kate's Point of View

I am not a big planner. I think about lots of stuff I want to do but I don’t set up many goals for myself. Truly. I am driven and think people perceive me as very goal-oriented. Alas, no. Wonder Boy and I share this trait and I’m not sure how healthy it is. There is one goal on which we agree, though. We know the area of town we want to move to and we know the style of house we want to buy. In fact, we know the very house. It’s extravagant, big, expensive and completely unnecessary for only two people. And yet, we love it. And loosely, our plan has been to save our butts off and move in about 3 years.

So the other day when Wonder Boy called me at work practically jumping out of his skin with excitement to tell me that the house was for sale, time stopped a little bit. It isn’t time yet. Our bathrooms aren’t done yet (even though the project  started on early January and is becoming the bane if my existence). And more house… am I ready for more house?

But it’s the dream. And for dreams, you work a little harder. So Wonder Boy got pre-approved for a home loan. He scheduled a home tour for us. We worked out budgets where we could (barely) afford the house.

And when we saw it, it was beautiful. It was mid-century splendor. The chairs I’ve been collecting like a sick hoarder every time I go to an auction or garage sale? They would look beautiful and fit in perfectly with the style of the home. The yard was huge and sunny so we could garden. The street was quiet and almost, dare I say it, suburban, but you could still walk to restaurants and a movie theater.

We both tried to be so cool as we walked through the house, asking insightful questions to the realtor and acting like the house was totally within our means. And we got home and talked about it. And while not perfect, we could both see ourselves in the house. The dream house. So we walked through the math once more. And it was tight but it was doable. Make the leap? Go for it? Then we stumbled upon the property taxes which were substantial and suddenly the house was completely out of our reach.

Our dream house will be someone else’s house.

But, now we have a goal. Our new goal is to save our behinds off and buy a house like the one we just saw. My chairs need a place to shine.

I’ve spoken before of why I love living by a university (here and here). I like watching students beginning their evenings at midnight, thinking nothing of bathing in a kiddie pool and sporting ridiculous fashions (which I think try to emulate). Most of all, I love being around things I think are hilarious but which they don’t realize are funny.

This morning, in front of our neighbor’s house, was this car, guaranteed to be a student’s:

Note that the lights are resting on baking sheets. And affixed with chicken wire.

I love it.

I am an admitted control freak. I like order. I like neatness. I don’t care much if things are clean or not, within reason, but things need to be organized. It’s what makes Wonder Boy and I a good pair. I organize; he cleans. Rehabbing any part of a house leads to both a mess and clutter. The horror!

We have cleared out our master bedroom so that our upstairs bathroom can be worked on. Most of the stuff went into my office. Our bed and both of us went into Wonder Boy’s office. The sleeping room is pretty neat so that we don’t go insane. My room is not neat and its driving me insane.

Things have gotten so bad that I’m not even being organized now.

I am attempting to notice small, pretty things around the house. Trying. Maybe I can fool myself?

When the bathrooms are done, there is an amazing amount of work that I will put into organizing everything. Everything. My closet will be organized by color, my shelves will have neat stack of carefully folder clothing arranged by what I am most likely to wear and furniture will be arranged just so. I can’t wait!

The bathroom project is moving along. It seems like its going slow, but I know that its just because some parts of the project aren’t as dramatic as others. And because I am so impatient. I want to be able to walk barefoot upstairs again. I want to be able to shower at home instead of at the YMCA.

An update:

If you follow many blogs, go back to their beginning and read every post, follow them religiously on rss feeds and feel friends with people you’ve never met, you’re probably familiar with the concept of a 365 project. To execute this, you take pictures of something every day for a while year. For instance, if I was building a house, I would take pictures of that house every day to show the progress of its construction. If I had a child, I could take pictures of him or her every day to document growth over one year.

Another common topic on blogs is 100 lists, sort of a variation on a bucket list. I have been working on my 100 list and when it’s done I’ll post it here. It’s just taking forever to come up with 100 things! One item on my list is to do a 365. I’m not building a house and don’t have kids so I am keeping my theme more broad.

For the next year I will attempt to take a picture of my house every day. I can’t promise I’ll post one every day, but I’ll try to represent all of the days through pictures. When I’m on vacation, I’ll capture my temporary home. I told you my theme was broad.

Over the next few weeks there will be some changes taking place. We’re redoing both of our bathrooms so I am watching the destruction of rooms and waiting, waiting, waiting for the rebuilding of those rooms. I have pictures that cover the span of a few days starting with day one of demo.

Day 0, Before Shots of the Bathroom (So noted because it was Wonder Boy who actually took the pictures)