How quickly things changed in 24 hours. I came home from work last Friday (the 13th, which was a good day save for saying good bye to a co-worker who is relocating overseas), relaxed at home and slept in gloriously late into Saturday. Know that feeling when you wake up and it just 'feels' different? In my bleary just-out-of-bed attempt to wake up I couldn't quite figure out what it was...other than it was super quiet outside. No dull drone of street noise.
Aha! It SNOWED! Where did I miss this on the TV weather forecasts? I suppose I should not have been too shocked - it is January, after all. I don't even know where to start with this one. Other than Snow + Seattle area is a very bad combination. For getting around, that is. Otherwise, it's gorgeous. Exhibit A - the view off my back deck.
We got around 6 inches or so in my area - by the time it was done the faint line markings from the deck in that picture were completely covered over. After hearing news reports and reading countless local-area Facebook posts we had anywhere from around 3 inches to over a foot depending on where you were.
The power stayed on here and my furnace is working. Everything else after that truly is all gravy. Check out my Cold Where It's Supposed to be Cold post from (*gulp* wow time flies) November 2010. Two furnace repairs and a crapped out fridge just a couple months prior to that made it an expensive end of that year...after just starting to get some decent income again following a long unemployed streak. So anyway, here we are in 2012 and I relished my warm townhouse, hot showers and the beautiful snow falling outside.
After a couple of days it got old. Driving in the snow in the Seattle area is a hot topic for sure. In general, it's not a good idea. Seriously...a few inches of snow will literally bring us to our knees. We're hilly. We don't have a ton of snow removal equipment. We're not like other parts of the country who deal with this routinely and life goes on. Around here, it just doesn't. Hell, when a UPS truck gets stuck in your driveway, you know it's bad.
What is it about snow? It brings a huge Hush Hug over everything in its embrace. I stay in my jammies all day and take naps. At noon.
But soon it was time to get back to work. Thankfully this team is all about playing it safe and not trying to be heroes getting into the office. We can all work remotely, although in the type of work we do it's not ideal for long periods of time as I learned.
There was one small problem. The power cord for my work laptop was still in my office! I never bring it home because I never work from home. It still reminds me too much of when I was unemployed, and frankly I'd rather get out of the house and be around people during the day. In my last work assignment my work laptop was the same brand as my home one, so it was easy to just swap out the power cords between the two if I ever did work from home on rare occasion. Not this time, however.
On Monday I was able to squeak by with doing email either from my phone or through my home laptop. But I didn't have full access to the internal resources I depend on to get work done. And I attempted a few times to get the work laptop connected with my home cable modem, but the modem is new and I was unfamiliar with the steps to switch connectivity (I don't use a router). And I watched the battery power indicator slowly sink southward as I chatted with our corporate Helpdesk and all to troubleshoot. No luck.
So I knew Tuesday I needed to get into work somehow to get that power cord. They were predicting heavy snow Tuesday into Wednesday. Turns out the main roads were pretty clear. It's the side streets, sidewalks and driveways that are the problem.
I got into work just fine and was pleasantly surprised to see my officemate there already. Ahhh, human interaction! We had both planned to stay for a few hours, but then got a phone call from her husband around lunch time that it was really starting to snow hard and we better get home. I'm so glad he called, because our office does not have a window and it was snowing much harder up near where my officemate and I live compared to work.
When you're stuck at home snowbound, the cabin fever grips tight. The novelty wears off quickly. So to fight it off, I vowed to get out of the house at least once a day for a walk. And it really helps - and is pretty good exercise too stomping through heavy, wet snow.
Thankfully by Friday the snow turned to rain and everything turned into a big slushfest. Relief was coming! Freedom!
And what a great way to blast back into the routine of life with a wonderful Saturday. My friend L ventured out this way to the suburbs (I joke that he's mentally allergic to them but that's another story). With iPad in hand, he and I walked through the townhouse here and talked about tons of ideas to update my place. I know my place needs work, and I know I need to keep an open mind. We jumped around all over the place with ideas and chitchat. And we agreed on a general plan to start work upstairs here where the bedrooms are and then slowly work our way downstairs.
Oh boy. That means my 3rd bedroom - the Room of Crap - is in the hotseat first. And that's actually a great idea as it is very underutilized space save for a large bookcase and random stuff on the floor that needs to get boxed up into storage or thrown out. And I get to think about paint colors too, for it's still Insane Asylum White like the rest of this place was when I first bought it. Oh, the possibilities! L wants to convert it to my home office and have the home office where I am now become a guest bedroom, as this room is larger and can hold a queen-sized bed. Interesting idea!
Later I headed out (Out! After not driving for 5 days!) to meet friends for our annual Chinese New Year dinner at China Clipper in Woodinville. They have wonderful, pretty close to authentic Northern Chinese cuisine. We had a blast at dinner and then headed over to J's house for board games and laughter. Know when you laugh so hard that tears stream down your face?
Fantastic.
Alrighty. This week's picture makes me cringe, but we're gonna go there anyway. Good incentive to fix this, right? This and so much more.
This is an actual wall in one of my bathrooms here in the townhouse. It's a small wall where the door is. And yeah, awhile back I thought it would be fun to paint it purple. Shitty paint job (I think my plan was to go back and do another coat with a roller like you're supposed to) but obviously I haven't.
Oh dear. I have done all of the painting here in the house myself and trust me it's nicely done (and finished)...everywhere except here. And this same purple, believe it or not, is on the inside of my front door. It's a beautiful, semi-glossy blue violet. Ralph Lauren Canyon Iris to be exact. This shot does NOT do it justice.
I remember the plan now. The plan was to paint this wall purple, to motivate me into getting rid of the God-awful (original 1980) countertop that clashes horribly with it (you can see a tiny bit of it in the lower right corner of the picture). That countertop actually clashes with life, period. And I was going to get rid of the scary dark brown door (and the others on the top floor here) and replace them with white ones like I did downstairs. I shudder thinking I made those "plans" probably two years ago or more when I was unemployed. Didn't have much disposable income, but I sure had time. But not enough time to finish as you can see. What's hilarious about this is that I have 4 sets of door hardware picked out for the upstairs - nice brushed nickel - all ready to rock, but sitting dormant in their boxes. In the hallway. And no new doors yet. Typical me...I zoom right in on accessories and mentally space out on the "big" stuff.
2012 marks the 10-year anniversary of the townhome purchase. Not beating myself up here...I HAVE done a lot to update this place. New back deck, custom wood window treatments, major appliances like the fridge, washer/dryer, stove and microwave (I'm on my second fridge; see my Refrigerator Drama post for the lovely story on that), some light fixtures and painting projects I actually finished. But it needs so much more. I am the queen of Lists, and I have always had a wishlist of things I want to do here on the fridge - decorating, new cabinets, ripping out carpet, countertops, flooring...
...but, knowing myself well, sometimes I just get overwhelmed. I forget how to prioritize, I see tons of stuff I want to do on my list (and think how much it's all going to cost) and then nothing gets done. What's the tipping point for a list to turn from inspiring to intimidating? Hmmm.
Well, it's time. Time to get moving and get this place in decent shape and out of the lingering early 1980s funk. A friend has offered to help me out with some of these projects and he's going to take a look and see what he can fix and give me some advice about things in here in general too.
Now, where did I put that IKEA catalogue...?
This November I will celebrate nine years here in my townhome. Yes, it was Thanksgiving weekend 2002 and I won't ever forget the adrenaline rushes, from waiting on offer respones to the inspection...and the hugeass cashiers checks in my hot little hands. Sweating it a bit as a first-time home buyer...doing this on my own, with no husband or boyfriend. And being in a dual residency position for a few weeks, as the last days of my apartment lease overlapped with when I closed on the place here. I remember thinking oh, this is perfect, I'll have time to paint or whatever before the furniture gets moved in.
Yeah, right. Turns out I had to go out of town on business for a week, very last minute, and I got home literally at midnight the day of the big move. My pre-move time was focused on packing up endless boxes and making multiple trips to Goodwill. My Mom, bless her heart, offered to help me put shelf paper in all of the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and drawers because there was NONE. Gross. So, after some good scrubdowns and seemingly endless cuttings of shelf paper, we did it. Between the kitchen cupboards and cabinets, plus 3 bathrooms (a powder room, full bath, plus a separate large master open vanity), there was a LOT of surface area to cover.
Trust me, even moving just 3 miles is a huge pain in the butt. I had to get a new phone number (landline) because I'd moved out of whatever zone or grid they were using. [I was late to the cell phone party, just getting my first in 2001, so I was much more reliant on the landline in those years]. And I now also recall how the cell phone reception in my old apartment was pretty bad - we were perfectly poised in a dead spot. Ugh. Other than that, I adored that old apartment. So much I stayed in it nearly 5 years, and it really didn't motivate me to look for a place of my own. The rent was very reasonable, and the amenities in turn were incredible.
I am probably the 5th or 6th owner in this home. These units were built in 1980, and, as cliche as it sounds, they really don't make 'em like this anymore. These units are true townhome style, not cookie cutter square boxes. Each home has an oversized, 2-car garage. You really, truly don't see large garages in newer condo/townhome construction around here. Maybe a 1 car garage, or a 2 car, tandem style. And STAIRS. Three levels. One of my earliest posts in here was how much I felt grown up when I got stairs of my own. My earliest childhood memories are of my folks' large rambler - we moved to a home with stairs later. To me, as silly as it seems, this meant GROWING UP.
I can only imagine all of the memories jammed in my house from the past 30 years. Lordy, just my short block of nine is chock full. Painting - doing it on my own and schlepping back and forth to the local Home Depot. Countless trips to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Holy crap, now I had THREE bathrooms to furnish, not just one! Updated window treatments. Workin' on that curb appeal. Not to mention the social memories - too countless to list here.
I met the sellers of my place very briefly, and they mentioned that they had 6 ferrets as pets, but replaced all of the carpet and flooring once they moved out. FERRETS? SIX? Faint. Did I really need to know this?
They may have replaced the carpet and flooring, but took the fridge and washer dryer. Not very appealing to a buyer necessarily, BUT it gave me good leverage in negotiating a price. After all, I would need to fork out a few grand to purchase appliances. At least they would be new.
How much updating have I done in here beyond that? Well, not as much as I'd hoped after nearly a decade, but I have a tendency to be overly self-critical. Between a large outside repair assessment (for our entire HOA), and later a large, individual project for me to rip out and redo my back deck, those were large chunks of spending for sure. But so worth it. I have a nearly 400 square foot back deck which is private. I've had a ton of fun painting and playing around with bold colors, plus I just adore the custom wood blinds I've added in the living room and bedrooms. Replaced the microwave and stove too. The fridge now, ahem, twice. [See my 'Refrigerator Drama' post from last fall on that episode].
And yet in this age of super-large kitchens, granite countertops and slate tile flooring, well, I have yet to make any of those updates. Hell, I still have popcorn ceilings which need to be sprayed down and scraped. For real. No floor molding updates either, as I ripped out the yucky brown stuff when I painted. And some old, scary dark brown doors on the upper floor need replacing. I did the downstairs doors but was on the brink of a job change and held off doing the whole house, grr. Now I wish I had. Too funny how I have the doorknob hardware all ready to rock - but no new doors. Yes, the list is long.
So what's the deal with saging? Well, several of my friends have done it and really recommend it. It's cleansing and gets rid of negative energy in a house - moving into a new home is a perfect time to sage.
The sage I purchased is about the size of very small bundle of asparagus. You light it, blow out the flame, and let the rest of the 'torch' smolder. Spring has yet to really, well, spring, around here but it wasn't raining so I decided to do it today and open up all the doors and windows here in the house.
And no, the smoke alarm did not go off, whew.
You're supposed to go clockwise in each room with the sage smoke, saying a blessing meanwhile. Clean, clean clean. All of the bad memories for me in this house BE GONE, plus who knows what else happened prior to me moving in. I know a woman died in here a couple decades ago but honestly that never has really freaked me out. What else happened? Doesn't really matter now - the vibes if any are gone.
Call me cuckoo, but I DID feel better after doing this. And the smell was not overwhelming at all - in fact it was gone after about 30 minutes - all I felt was fresh air after that. Nice.
