I've found it difficult to write here lately, and I think it's because this house is a big hungry gobble-monster, and what it likes to eat best is creative energy. So I just don't have much left over to write with. But I'm going to try.
We finished the drywall, and vacuumed up all the dust. The gobble monster doesn't eat dust, but it does make dust. You see.
That was a happy day, the vacuuming one. An even happier day was when we finished painting, just this past week. I belabored the point of choosing a color, as I am wont to do, but I can make fun of myself now because I picked the perfect one! It is a warm, smoky gray with a little lavender and orchid. Pictures are going to look really good on the walls. Cacti in bloom are going to look really good in the deep window wells. My cat, when I get one, is going to like this color. It's going to run right in the door and curl up in a sun spot because it feels so at home.
We have a loft for sleeping. I am pretty sure it is a bad idea to move into a sleeping loft just when you are becoming an arthritic old person, but oh well. There is also the problem of having to pee, because the ladder in the middle of the night is kind of extra discouraging. But oh well again. I have discovered in recent months that there is a lot a person can get used to, and besides, the loft is very cozy and fort-like.
Our insulation and passive solar are working! We have not yet burned a cord of wood, and if the sun is beaming in the windows, the temperature rises fast and there is no need for a fire. Sometimes there is a need to run outside and stick your head in the snow, but that is an okay problem to have, as problems go.
The tent collapsed under the heavy, wet snow that also knocked out our power for a week in December. We were not in the tent (we'd moved into the house), so it seemed quite funny. Important belongings were salvaged, and the rest will wait til spring.
Matt is spending a lot of time in the utility closet, where he has two tanks, an electric panel and a whole bunch of pipes and wires and conundrums. Sometimes he comes out for snacks.
That's just about everything! We have rounded the corner from feral beasts living in the midst of an itchy debris heap to domesticated children sleeping in a pile of sticks with a clean warm blanket. That feels like a milestone.
8 comments:
The floor boards in your sleeping loft are beautiful. Where did they come from? Michael and I have started seriously fantasizing about building our own tiny house. (And by building, I mean having someone else build it for us.) Give us 5 or 6 years. But all on one level because we are SO much older than you!
Yes, all on one level is a Good idea...wish I'd thought of it 4 short years ago when I was much younger than I am now.hmm.
Zoe, is that your bath waiting by the wood stove?
I say there are NO downsides to the beautiful, sunny, cat-awaiting loft-- you and Matt are no strangers to buckets. I say use 'em if you gotta go...
Have been thinking about you and Matt for some time and hoping that you had managed to get into the house before the heavy snows... which you did!! And into a wonderful home at that! I so enjoy - love - how you write about the experience(s)... I don;t believe I have read anything more beautiful about the way the color on the wall will continually bless your life, and the eventual cat's live as well! Just saying high from the South (can't believe your house hasn't sold yet??) after a day of shoveling about a foot of snow (I know you use a broom for a foot of snow in Vermont, but for us it is still a chore...) Sending hugs to you both... and so glad you are staying warm and passive!!!
(not sure why they are using my old website for my identity below... just to make sure... it's bob schweitzer and not a robot by that name :)
Grand idea, Ellen (the tiny house). Tucked amongst the sagebrush? I like that thought. Those loft floorboards are leftover scraps from our shiplap siding... milled locally from the big pine that grows around here.
Yup, that's our leaky bathtub. The tarp is leaky too.
Buckets it is, Cadyn! Maybe an upgrade to chamber pot one day.
The snowy north awaits, Bob - we'll share a glass of wine by the fire when you get here.
I'm just glad you guys are warm and cozy for the winter now. Sending lots of love to you & Matt.
As for night time loft peeing, not a just a few have been rigged with a aptly directed old garden hose and craftily taped funnels which eventually evolved into slightly more discreet yet just as simple boyz and gurls un-plumbed urinals--this is definitely required once over 50.
Be well, Crust
It seems like your having a great time in building wonderful memories on your new home. You are really creative and hardworking, that's why there's no doubt that your new home will look amazingly wonderful in no time. I'm looking forward to see its final look, once everything's done and settled. Thanks for sharing that, Zoe! All the best!
Robyn Harmon @ Hills Moving
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