Our New House: virtual tour part 1

Oh, hello! Welcome to our new home. Due to a minor title problem, we haven't been able to close yet (the closing was scheduled for yesterday), but that should be sorted out soon. Thanks to these MLS photos, both you and I can pretend that we're actually there! Come on in, won't you?

The front door opens into the new addition with the original 1900 brick house to your right. Straight ahead is the kitchen, which is easily the most gorgeous room in the entire house. I hope those stainless steel appliances are still there when we move in!

Looking back from the kitchen you can see the main entry and the big, wide, new staircase. Given the way everything is wired, this wall is probably where our TV will have to go for now. Hardwood floors throughout this level. Also, more recessed lighting.

That brick section was originally part of an exterior wall on the old house. I LOVE how the renovation left this exposed. They really preserved the history of the building while updating the style of the space into something modern.

Come on upstairs and you can see how they built the new portions of the house. Nothing fancy, just practical, usable space. The bank put in new carpet up here. Every wall was painted this same color. We have five bedrooms and two bathrooms all on the upper level, including a master bed and bath suite.

The guest bath sits in the "old wing" of the second storey and preserves the feel of that era. The clawfoot tub is much smaller (and dirtier) in person than it looks! Washer and dryer hookups are situated along the right wall.

The cavernous master bedroom comes with a walk-in closet that could almost fit our current bedroom by itself. Not for real, but still. It's gigantic. French doors walk out to the backyard. The master bath was inexplicably not pictured in the MLS listing. Maybe I'll share photos of that room some other time.

On the opposite side of the house are the original stairs and an arched stone doorway which I'm guessing was in another exterior wall. The floor looks like all original hardwood on this side of the ground level.

A view from inside the doorway. The left door goes to what will probably become our dining room. The other door leads outside. The doorknob is just one of many pieces of hardware that were removed when the previous owner moved out.

Finally, here's a shot of two more rooms in the first floor's old wing. Well, that concludes our tour for now. I hope you enjoyed looking at our new house! Next I'll post some photos of the exterior and the rest of the property. Hopefully, in a little while, I can show you what it looks like when we're all unpacked and moved in!

Craftstravaganza Complete

EPIC LOOT

The Craftstravaganza is over! We had over 3,000 people through the doors including our family and many good friends who came to help and shop. My brother Kevin brought his girlfriend Annie, and they were our super-volunteers who stayed the whole day. It was the first year for her and for others, like my new coworker Amanda, and new sister-in-law's-husband Jared.

You can see the loot we acquired above. There's a honeypot, yarn, dish towels, baby dress, dog collar, necklace, and mushroom lawn ornaments. On top of all that, Abigail gave me a bag of fresh-picked morels from Door County. I used them in some delicious omelettes on the morning after the show.

Photo of me lounging in my Junk Drawers*

But what's most exciting are the underwears. Cricket Syndicate first sold me on the idea of handmade briefs and I have built up quite a collection over the past five years. I bought four pairs from our new vendor Junk Drawers and I think they might be my new favorite! I rate them ten out of ten fluffly clouds on the comfort scale and a triple RAWR on the sexiness chart (this is dangerously close to the level of hotness that results in actual pants on fire). Anyway, I'm wearing a pair right now with a tiger on it, thanks for reading!

*OK, no, not really

At last the story can be told

Whew! I've been keeping secrets for a long time. Now I can finally talk about some things that have been going on. Buckle up, because we've got a lot of ground to cover.

Both my readers will surely recall that we put our house back on the market this year after failing to sell it (twice) in 2009. Well, we thought about living there for a few more years, but that changed as soon as we found our dream house in the country. It was a foreclosure and we didn't want to miss this opportunity, so we negotiated with the bank for a couple of weeks and then signed a deal to buy it. Which was very exciting, but also terrifying, because our offer was non-contingent and we still had to sell our house in St. Paul!

I don't want to jinx anything, but I feel like we're at the point where I can finally share all of this. We officially passed the appraisal (which is what screwed us over the last time) so it looks like we will definitely be able to sell our city house. Also, as of today, we cleared the FHA inspection on the new place! Country roads, take me home.

Scoot

Tokyo biker, originally uploaded by manganite

I've been circling the question of what to do about my motorcycle, while not riding it all along, for a couple of years now. My emotions clouded my judgment. When it comes to stuff, and whether to keep it or toss it, there's only one criterion that matters. I asked myself, "Does this make my life better?" The short answer is "no."

My father-in-law was a bit disappointed, and that was holding me back. Then I remembered that I don't have to live the way other people expect me to. I'm happy because (as one of my Twitter followees likes to say:) I do what I want, not what I think you want me to do. So I sold the bike.

The new owner is a lady my age, and it will be her first bike. Thanks to my girlish figure, she was able to fit into almost all my riding gear, and so I was able to get some extra cash for that too. As her dad rode the bike away, I felt at peace with the decision. Plus my wallet was a little heavier, and that doesn't hurt!

Imperfect Archivist

I'm under no illusions about my audience for this blog; I know that its primary reader is myself. That's true now but especially in the future. So my goal is to keep a history of fatherhood that is both worthy of re-reading and as comprehensive as possible.

Ideally I would like to chronicle every aspect of Natalie's life. A post for each new word, first step, and precious moment. Natalie will do something adorable and I'll think, "that needs to go on the blog right away," but real life is rarely that convenient.

So I do the best I can, capturing snippets of information with minutes of stolen time, snapshots of a young girl's development. Here she is doing the "gigga gigga" dance. It is her interpretation of "Hold Still (Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Go)" from Yo Gabba Gabba... the cutest thing of all time of the day.

We All Scream

iceblingtruck, originally uploaded by don gelato a.k.a iceblingking

My latest craze is making ice cream. I could eat ice cream every day, and it's fun to make, so there's no lack of motivation to keep churning it out. The first batch of French vanilla was a revelation. So rich and creamy.

I tried this Fresh Mint Ice Cream Recipe which sounded interesting because it involved making crème fraîche, which is a fancy sour cream. The crème fraîche came out alright but I couldn't see how a sour cream base was going to make a delicious, sweet, ice cream. As it turned out, it didn't. It was just a frozen, mint-flavored, sour cream blob.

My two recent successes were Rocky Road + Irish Whiskey. I could double the batch for the latter recipe and still easily fit into our KitchenAid ice cream maker. I am in love with that thing. It may be the best appliance we've ever bought.

A True Minnesotan

Now that we're having great Spring weather, Natalie wants to spend every waking minute outside. Chasing bubbles, making chalk drawings on the patio furniture, stomping the strawberry plants; there's no end of fun activities. When we bring her inside she cries, "out!" "Shoe!" (as in, "put back on my").

At the end of the day, she has dirty hands and scraped knees, and I'm proud to see her making the most of it. It's a joy to watch her explore her world.