And It's Not Even Halloween...

Could someone please tell the weather makers that it's too early for 2 inches of snow?! Here's hoping that this is just a fluke and not the beginning of a long and early winter season. Brrrrr......

Below are photos of my house and car on Monday morning when I left for work:

New Home Glow

Buying a new home (or an old 1924 one like I did) is a bit like getting a new puppy. It is such a wonderful day the day you get the puppy and you make big plans for how you're going to walk it everyday and train it perfectly and feed it the best food. You throw all your effort into the puppy and every spare moment is spent consumed with the puppy and the new happiness it has brought into your life. As time goes on, you still do your best to exercise it and groom it and teach it new tricks and commands, but you get busy. And before you know it, you have a middle-aged dog who has taken over half of the couch and is looking at you like, 'Could we talk about my diet and exercise regime because I have some concerns.'

Eric and I have thrown ourselves into our new house and we love it. Our social calendar is filled with trips to Home Depot and building shelves and unpacking boxes. We've made a master list of all the things we hope to do to the house in the short-term and we have some big ideas for the long-term. Our dinner discussions are filled with what needs to be fixed and what are dreams for the house are. And we are happy.

But it is funny to me to talk to those who have owned homes for a long time - especially those who have owned the same home for a long time. They are like the older dog owners who shake their heads at the new puppy owners. They say, 'Yeah, I said I was going to do that to my house too, but it's been 20 years and it's still on my to-do list,' or 'You don't have to do everything at once - it doesn't have to be perfect.' Well to them I say, 'Don't rain on my parade.'

I love working with my hands and putting the love and care into something I own. It makes me happy to make plans and have dreams and to finally be carving out a small place in the world for my family. And I'm so glad that I get to spend so much time with Eric doing it. So let me have my enthusiasm and my big ideas. We'll probably slow down eventually, but I'm in no rush to do it.

And yes, Harper, I promise I will use some of that new enthusiasm to take you on more walks. So quit looking at me like that...

Happy Bunnies

I came across this AMAZING video today and just had to share it here. (thanks Dooce!) The song is beautiful, the animation is amazing, and who doesn't just LOVE bunnies? (I'm raising my hand right now.) Also, if you can believe it, this is just a video made by a fan of the song, not a video put out by the musicians. Some dude spent a ton of time doing this for the love of the music, which is really inspiring. So, here's to a happy bunny tune:

P.S. And a happy, happy birthday to a fabulous mom. :)

P.P.S. If you're interested in more great, new music, check out this site: NPR's All Song's Considered 'Best Music of 2009 (So Far)'.

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

Swans a Swimming

Since the bathroom picture on the last post didn't quite capture the beautiful elegance of our shower screen swans, I thought I'd post a better one for your enjoyment:

And can't you just picture this happening the next time Eric takes a bath...

And for those of you playing 'Where's Harper', here's a larger photo:

Before and During

My life pretty much revolves around our new house these days. (I'm sure this is a big surprise to most of you.) My schedule usually goes like this:

1. wake up

2. stumble around the house looking for an outfit because I have no clue where anything is

3. go to work

4. do some boring work stuff

5. drive home and try to remember where we live (I ended up at our old apartment by accident last week)

6. eat some junky fast food because cooking would require me to spend valuable time not working on the house

7. work on the house

8. have Eric pry me away from whatever I'm working on (I get in the zone, okay?)

9. shower after first checking the bath tub for scary bugs

10. go to bed

Things are coming along, albeit slowly. Eric and I have taken to saying at least twice a night: "Everything always takes longer than you think it's going to." But slowly, the house is coming together and seeing the results of all our hard work is heartening. I'm no where near putting pictures of these results online, however, but here are a few befores and durings for you to feast on. (And a special thanks to Biggie and Mom for driving up a couple weeks ago to help out!)

Our living room - notice the lace curtains. This room has been painted and is pretty close to being complete.

The Dining Room - more lace curtains.

The kitchen - oh boy, what can I say? This will be replaced at some point, but for now, we've spiced up the cabinets a bit and bleached EVERYTHING.

The Bathroom - I'm not sure if you can tell from this photo, but there are swans on that glass. Yup. Swans.

Our Bedroom - This room was sanded by Biggie and then painted bright blue. We haven't managed to get to the green room or the purple room yet, but it's sort of nice to be able to refer to the rooms this way, so we might just leave them for a bit.

Mom glossing our kitchen cabinets.

Eric and Biggie working on the bedroom

Me painting the horrible kitchen cabinets.

Eric - he's a taping machine.

Can you spot Harper in this one? He's doing what he does best - looking mopey and lying around.