It's Closing Day!

When we first put the offer in on the house the sellers hadn't yet started looking for a new place. They were hoping to find something right away and if that were to happen, we'd close the end of February. Otherwise, we'd close the end of March. The sellers were all excited that first weekend because they had found several houses online that they were sure they'd fall in love with and we'd be all set. Then they actually saw them. And more. And some more after that. By the first week in February we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn't be moving in until April Fool's Day. But then, on February 9, we got a phone call - they had found a place to live and we could close on February 28!

Since that day we've been counting the minutes until the place is ours. Planning furniture, redecorating, painting, landscaping in our dreams. Around 4pm ET it will be official, and then the work starts for real. Tote that barge! Lift that bale! I can't wait!

What do two people do in an eight room house?

Oh, finally. A simple question I can answer. I'm terrible at those meme things and find my way giving up halfway through.

Eight rooms. One's a kitchen. Easy. One's a living room. Simple. One's a master bedroom. Piece of cake. Let's see. One's an office, one's a studio and one's a guest bedroom. Whew. That's six. TV Room/Den. No problem. Seven. Hmmmm ...


What do you think? This would look nice in our *big game* room :-)

The Waterbed Is Frozen

For a year and a half, our waterbed went unslept in for the most part. That's because it was still set up in the bedroom of our old house in Temple. When we'd go back to the house - to mow the lawn, to meet with a contractor, or as a stopover, we'd sleep on the waterbed. We had no place to go - all our other stuff was in storage - so there was no rush on getting it moved. Until the second week in December - a week before closing - Steve went to meet the movers who were taking the last bit of stuff from the basement along with the waterbed - and found the oil furnace dead as a doornail and frozen pipes. And a frozen waterbed.

Needless to say we couldn't move the bed frozen, and weren't going to have another opportunity to get back down to the house to move it before the house was sold, so we just gave it to the guy buying the house. Not just the waterbed, but our beautiful Brown Street Bed. A lovely four-poster, painted pine.

Fast forward two months - we find ourselves about to move into our new house - an 1887 Victorian "cottage" - without a bed. Oh, we have a very nice mattress and box spring we bought a while ago to replace the one in the furnished condo we've been renting, but that's just on a metal frame. We need a real bed. We started searching and were unable to mutually agree on anything - if we found something we liked, it was discontinued. Or we'd have to drive 300 miles to pick it up ourselves. So we finally headed down to our favorite little furniture store yesterday. Not only do I love pretty much everything in the entire store, but their lead decorator is absolutely awesome and knows exactly which catalog to open at just the rght moment. Out comes a catalog from a small custom shop that's about 20 minutes from where the new house is - Cherry Pond Designs. This stuff is absolutely gorgeous. Made to order. Hand rubbed.


It's the Andover, if you're trying to find it on their site. There's another company that's a fairly small shop producing made-to-order furniture down in West Virginia - Gat Creek. We're ordering a nightstand from them, and will eventually add more case goods.

It'll take a whie for the bed to arrive, so in the meantime we'll have to be happy with the knowledge that neighbors are building our bed just for us.

I'm Alive ...

Once again I've managed to let weeks go by without writing. Not that anyone's really all that interested, but here's the exciting things that have been happening in my life since the holidays.

The Day Job: While I typically do very little travelling, I managed to spend back-to-back weeks in relatively warm places. First a few days in Simi Valley (north of Los Angeles) CA, followed by a few days in Tampa, FL. Never made it above 60 degrees in either place, but there was some sun. Hey, I was on business and spent the vast majority of both trips in meeting rooms, so what did it matter?

The Restaurant: It's ski season. Our busiest season is actually during the summer when people come up for a week or more at a time to go hiking and fishing and camping and all sorts of other outdoor activities in the White Mountains. In the winter, they come up for the day, for long weekends, and for school vacation. This week is school vacation week in MA/CT/RI and a smattering of towns in the northern NE states (that's ME/NH/VT for those not from these parts :-). That means the entire town is booked solid - groceries fly off the shelves, restaurants are booked for the entire week in advance, and you can't pull out onto the roadway because of the line of cars coming from/going to the ski area. And that's good for business.

Home: The most exciting news is that we'll be closing on our new house next Tuesday! You've all seen the pictures, right? The movers come on Wednesday, and Thursday I'll be busy setting up my new home office and studio. That's two separate rooms. One for work, one for play. The plan is for me to work from home on Mondays and Fridays (unless it's one of those Monday holiday weekends) and every other Saturday I get a whole day off. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays I'm in my restaurant office so I can still help with drinks. If I train Karina to make drinks I can stay home on Thursdays as well.

Needless to say the possibility of having an actual day off is just too wonderful for words. It's been eons since I've had a day off - if I'm not working at my day job, I'm working in the restaurant. When I'm working at my day job, I'm still working at the restaurant. Maybe - just maybe - I might actually get to go visit some friends! My heart be still. Being able to work from home will let me concentrate on just one job and hopefully get more accomplished - that possibility is exciting as well. I might even find a few moments to be able to spend in the studio :-)