A friend of my husband drew this picture for him the other day and he put it on the refrigerator using my magnets.
Homer Simpson humor and vintage glass magnets. That's kind of my husband and me in a nutshell.
I was glad to have something to laugh about because...
Oops, they did it again.
Two more wrong cabinets arrived yesterday!
I was starting to get a little crabby about this, I must admit. But OfficeMax is trying very hard to figure out the problem, and at this point it's just getting kind of funny. Now, if I ever do get the right cabinets, I'll appreciate them even more, and if I don't...
Well, it's just back to the drawing board.
Meanwhile, I can't do any new projects (perhaps you've noticed a lack of new projects getting done around here) because the art and craft supplies meant to be unpacked into these cabinets have been stored away in boxes for three months, and I can't get to them.
I didn't realize how much I need to create, and I can't believe how much I miss my stuff!
You might be wondering why my supplies are packed away.
Last fall, while I was recuperating from the bronchitis that kept me from blogging, my husband and I were presented with the opportunity to have a new home built in a great new neighborhood east of Boise. Now, we love our 103 year-old North End cottage, but we were seduced by the idea of living in a brand new home. A home with a three year homeowner's warranty, where the 18 year-old furnace doesn't conk out on the coldest day of the year and the windows all open and close, where there are automatic sprinklers and the landscape is maintained for you, where the kitchen has a gas range and granite counters and a huge walk-in pantry, where there's an open floor plan, a ground floor craft room, a man cave and...
Well, you get the picture. Pure seduction.
So that's what I was doing instead of blogging all fall. I was organizing our twenty-five year-old household, packing-up, and preparing our cottage to go on the market while we would live in an apartment and have a new house built.
Thank heavens the builder was delayed getting the new subdivision platted and recorded.
Because one day, as I was sitting in my old (non open floor plan) family room daydreaming about my soon to be new (open floor plan) family room, my eye fell on the bottom of the wall in front of me.
Specifically, on this moulding:
The moulding my husband made and installed and I painted twenty-five years ago.
And I was transported back to the time, with our baby daughters playing next to us in their play pen, as we tore off the rickety small back rooms of our old house, dug a new foundation by hand, poured the footings, framed the new two story 1,200 square foot addition, worked side by side with the drywallers, electricians, plumbers, carpet layers, cabinet installers, plasterers, and on and on until the last piece of moulding was in place and painted and the plastic tarp was finally torn down between the old and new. Our home was complete.
We built this house with our own hands.
Our daughters tumbled over the furniture in the loft while watching Sesame Street, painted on their easels in the play room, slammed the doors to their bedrooms, put on prom makeup in the bathroom, sat with boyfriends on the family room sofa and celebrated their college graduations in the dining room.
We raised our family in this house.
As I gazed at the moulding, the past flooded over me and I could hear the echo of my babies playing as I wallpapered their new nurseries.
And as the tears started streaming down my face, I knew I couldn't leave this house.
The funny thing is, my husband felt the same way. When we talked it all out, we realized that being empty nesters with new needs doesn't mean we have to leave our beloved old house behind to have what we want. We'll just hunker down and rebuild it again, this time for the two of us. It will take longer than before because we're a bit older and a bit slower.
But there's no hurry.
So, the first thing I'm working on is moving my studio to the ground floor so I don't have to lug my heavy projects and supplies up and down the stairs anymore. No more paint brushes dripping down the stairs to the sink for cleaning. I've primed and painted my new space, and now I'm ready for decorating. But until I get those huge new storage cabinets in place and see the scale I have to work with, I'm on hold.
And all my supplies continue to sit packed away in boxes out of reach where I can't get to them.
And I was getting a little crabby.
So I'm glad for the humor in Homer and my husband today.
And glad I get to go through this new adventure with him.
Thanks for stopping by my blog today, and thanks for hanging in there while I was on hiatus figuring out life and getting it together.
A special thank you to all my sweet blogging friends who encourage me, make me laugh, and always make me feel welcome here.