domicile

Charming home, in charming neighbourhood

Being just a wee bit on the nosey side, we went through an open house across the street today. The house is described as:

"Charming home in charming neighbourhood. Large kitchen. 3 bedrooms. Spotless and clean. Roof 3 years old. Fully fenced yard. Garage with gardening shed. Basement has recreation room with wet bar and separate entrance.Potential to place a suite in house. Washer and dryer upstairs, washer and dryer downstairs and a beer fridge."

And all of that is true. And in many ways, being as it doesn't have "Evil, Kill, Die, Die, Die" carved into the windows (one of the houses I looked at only days before this one fell in our laps did) it is indeed charming and lovely. But here's the thing (and please understand that I am so very well aware of the position of priviledge from which I speak being a homeowner) for the very nearly half a million dollars they are charging for this place do you really need to tell me about the beer fridge in the basement? For half a million does it come with a magic beer fridge that automatically refills itself with lovely microbrews daily? Because I think that would be appropriate. Because yes the house is charming, but it is still in need of plenty of work, and it is still a very wee house.

After our nosey house tour we stood out on the lawn and chatted with the lady who lives next door. She's an older gal, though not nearly as old as the 99 year old whose house we now have, or the gal who passed away putting the place across the street on the market. As I talk to more and more people on our block it seems that our block is largely inhabitted by old gals, most of them have survived their husbands at this point, and none of them seem to be able to quite wrap their heads around the housing prices. I can't blame them, neither can I, and we probably paid easily four or five times what they did for their houses (actually make that ten times) and we didn't come close to paying $500K. While I know how very lucky we are, I can't help but fight off this sinking feeling of doom when I see the price of housing in this town (or this corner of the world for that matter). As I say, I know how very priviledged we are and I know the circumstances that got us here. I also know that we're walking pretty close to the line in terms of handling our monthly expenses and really just managed to swing this. And, after every conversation I have with one of these gals over the veggie garden or rose bushes about how things are changing in this neighbourhood I think about how there is no way these gals could afford to live in this neighbourhood were they out on the housing market right now. And yet, they are so much a part of this neighbourhood and one of the things I love about it. I worry about our ability to have mixed populations in urban centres with prices going the way they are. When these gals are all gone, who will move in? I've still got a good few decades before I join their ranks afterall. And I think about how we're heading screeching for a brickwall in terms of housing low income folks in this town as the threshold for low income gets higher and higher relative to the cost of living. I'm not sure what the solution is, or if there really is one. I'm sure others have seen similar trends in this same town even and had similar concerns in the past, and I can only  hope there is some kind of cyclical nature to these kinds of things.

A House of Their Own

With a short lull in the bathroom project while we wait for flooring, I've been thinking about taking some of the wood scraps in the basement and building a birdhouse. Cally's post and photo about hers kind of sold me on the deal.

I've had this project on my mind for a while, but keep stalling on two points:

1. Is it totally sadistic to attract birds to your yard when you have a cat? Now Pluto wears a bell and hasn't caught a bird in, what I'd venture to say has been at least 9 years, but still? Is that just awful?

2. I don't just want a bunch of starlings to move in. Now I've found a link for plans for attracting and housing different kinds of birds, but frankly I'm not much of a bird-o-phile (yes, I do know that there is an official term for bird watchers) and I don't really know what my options 'round these parts are. So, anyone know what kinds of little feathered friends I might attract here in Vancouver, that will stand a fighting chance against a senior feline? Feel free to leave info in the comments or to email me at ourdomicile at gmail.

Meanwhile, I'll think about important things link colour.

Marmoleum Time

  marmoleum and cork samples 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

Marmoleum, or as I now like to call it Mighty Marm (thanks Calliope!), is the final piece of our bathroom to be installed. And, as it turns out, while Mighty Marm is truly the fabulous washable, watersafe, flooring alternative of both the past and future (Marmoleum has been produced more or less the same way for 100 years) it also takes a long time to get. Bummer.

If we had chosen anyone of the many very safe and neutral colours, we apparently would have been able to get it immediately but we chose from a collection that needs to be special ordered so we're waiting 3 to 4 weeks for it. Argh. Once it does come we need to spend one highly coordinated day installing the subfloor, which involves removing the toilet and tub and doing some replumbing again and at that point we'll be removing the cork and actually replumbing the bath drain pipe, and laying the floor then putting all those fixtures back into place. Once that's done it's just baseboard and mouldings back on the walls and were done. Done.

As I lay in the bath this morning admiring our nice smooth clean soft white walls and wood cabinets, I realized that we have achieved what we had hoped for. A much simpler, (eventually once the new floor is in) cleaner bathroom that is still warm and cozy. The only thing is, I have to admit it's a bit spare. So it may be time for some bathroom art. Or maybe even one wall or strip of wallpaper? The wallpaper at Nama Rococo is so lovey (found at design*sponge) that I've actually been considering it. But we'll see. Flooring first. Then we can move onto finer details.

Clothesline Fresh

  first laundry on the line 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

I think I'm fighting off some kind of season-change-evil this week that had me feeling downright ucky yesterday. Ucky enough that I ended up leaving work early to go home and take some pills/drink some fresh carrot/lemon/ginger juice and rest while my body tried to overcome.

As I was cycling down our alley, I saw the welcome Spring site of clothes drying on the line and decided that there was just enough daylight left to get the sheets and pjs washed and hung. Pretty much everything in our house can use a wash/dusting at this point as we try to fight the neverending stream of drywall dust (where does it all come from?) from the bathroom project, and the sheets had yet to be tackled.

They were out on the line by 4:30 and there was enough of a breeze and sunlight left for them to be fresh and dry by 6. Still feeling quite icky, I crawled into bed around 9 in my clean fresh pjs and nestled under the crisp, linefresh cotton sheets. Heaven. There are few things I love as much as sheets fresh from the line. I'm so very happy summer is coming/spring is here.

The Buddy System

For those who haven't been subjected to my "no we do not planned to get married" thesis in person, let me recap: marriage isn't for me. For many, many reasons, most of them having to do (admittedly) with the fact that I'm far to much of a literalist/fatalist and at this point in my experience of life I just haven't come across a definition of marriage that feels like a good fit for me. That's not to say that I'm not thrilled to ecstatic little bits when friends get married and in fact we've even hosted a very happy wedded occasion here in our domicile.

All this to say, that Matthew Baldwin, a man who is my kind of funny, has really nailed this whole marriage thing with his buddy system. Here's an excerpt:
"Yeah, adulthood is a drag sometimes. And that's where the Buddy System comes in. At some point, you may find it useful to Buddy up with another person, someone you will watch over and who will, in turn, watch over you. Like the earlier version of this system you may have used at school or at camp, your Buddy's job will be to make sure you don't get lost. But less a literal "don't get lost in the forest during a dayhike" and more a figurative "don't get so lost working at a crummy job that you forget how much you like gardening." Or, you know, whatever.

So, at some point, feel free to take a Buddy. Or don't: whatever works for you. But iIt's a scary world out there, and sometimes a Buddy is just the thing you need to make it seem a bit more manageable."

Bathroom Reno Update: Part 3

shampoo shelf behind the tub
Originally uploaded by emira.

It's now been 10 days of bathroom reno-ing (a word that I believe the Home and Garden channel has sufficiently placed into the English language) and I must admit I'm done. The bathroom is not done. I am. Thankfully, Martin seems to be an endless font of renovation energy.

At this point, if it were up to me, we'd be living with the cork in the drainpipe, the floors encrusted with drywall dust, and no finished mouldings on any of the walls. I am at that point in a project where you are easily halfway, but it doesn't really matter because the point is to be done the project, not half-way. The primary reasons for undertaking this reno in the first place were to make the bathroom more efficient (built-in shelving/expanded storage) and cleaner/nicer (no grungy half-wall behind the tub). That last one may be obvious, who renovates with a plan to make things more awful? Still, as I try to talk myself into being just fine with having at least achieved new and freshly painted walls, and not minding at all that the sink is on a sheet of plastic in the middle of the livingroom floor, it can be useful to remind myself that the point of all this chaos was to make things better. And while sure, the walls are good. And yes, being able to bathe again is great (!) even if it means changing that cork every once in a while until the plumber comes back. But, using a kitchen chair next to the tub to hold the shampoo and soap is not so lovely. And really, it would be nice to brush our teeth in the bathroom, not at the kitchen sink.

This "just pack it in and deal with it" approach is kind of foreign to me. Generally, I'm the one to initiate tidying up the house and putting everything in order, but at this point I could probably talk myself into being quite ok with living with the state of halfdone that is the bathroom.At least for another month or two. But, while I escaped the reality of the renovation this weekend by working on the garden, Martin kept at it. He's finished all of the cabinets and shelving and installed them. All we need to do now is get a mirror cut for the front of the medicine chest and those pieces are done. And while the list of reasons why I adore him was already long, this tenacity in the face of an exhausting project like this is currently ranking right at the top.

Hide and Seek

  bluebells take over 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

Over the past few weeks, while I've been only half paying attention, my backyard flowerbeds have been totally taken over by bluebells. At first I was fairly pleased to see them full up with lovely green lush growth; however, slowly (but definitely surely) they have become totally overtaken with blue bells. See exhibit A above. As we just bought this house (and garden) last July, I haven't really finished having my way with those beds yet, so I was in some ways ok with leaving the bluebells to do their thing, but they were quite visibly begining to choke out some tulips and I the other day I could see a number of weeds down in amongst them, so this weekend I decided to spend some time thinning them.

Well the bounty of treasures I found in amongst those tenacious bulbs was astounding (to me anyway). Two little lavender plants I had planted last summer, two thyme plants, a bunch of my lily bulbs struggling to get at the light, some poppies and that's just the beginning. In the end, I was pretty merciless and ripped a lot of them out of there, and frankly beginning to curse them after a few hours of trying to reclaim some dirt. While it kind of runs against my gardening instinct to remove and discard such clearly healthy plants, I was in the end pretty satisfied to have some diversity and space back in those beds. (Here's an after shot). I seem to remember being pretty upset with my mom as a kid watching her do the same thing, now I guess I understand. One or two bluebells is fine, but a whole bed overtaken? That's just a bit much.

The Secret Language of Sleep

It's time for a random web personality quiz! Go take Evany's Sleep Test. It's random. It's predictive. It's Friday!

Find your own pose!

Ready, Set, Craft!

Whipup is fostering a 6 week crafting competition called Whiplash that looks like all kinds of fun. There will be a different challenge each week, the general rules being that each Thursday the craft challenge will be posted, with the weekend as the timeframe for making your masterpiece. This week's challenge is pretty broad and somewhat esoteric but kinda fun (changed to be this week's actual challenge, sorry): "Theme - your surly side - please interpret this however you like."

Unless sticking a wine cork in your plumbing counts, I think I'll be sitting this weekend out while we continue work on the bathroom, but I'd love to get in on the action in a week or two. The prizes are some pretty awesome crafty books, to help feed your craft habit. [Thanks to Renee over at The Dirt for the link.]

Put a cork in it

  putting a cork in it 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

"Just stick a cork in it, and wrap it up like a hockey stick!" was the advice of our magic plumber friend. He is coming over on Saturday to replace the trap in this very old piece of pipe in a more professional manner. The absense of this little bit of metal meant no bathing at the domicile. And so, last night, fed up with bathing at friend's places and taking birdbaths at the kitchen sink, we decided to give it a whirl. And the result?!? A nice warm clean tub for each of us. I felt like a satisfied cat when I was done (if cats could be at all satisfied by the prospect of getting really thoroughly wet).

Upon draining out the tub there were some drips, but nothing totally catastrophic. And in fact we may just be crazy and test the old cork method out one or two more times before the weekend. Bathing is just that much fun!

Now all thoughts are on hoping that the trap itself can simply be replaced and that the plumber doesn't need to remove this pipe, which could very well lead to needing to remove the next pipe and so on and so forth until we're looking at a total refit.

With the urgency of the bathtub somewhat taken care of for now, we're back onto more menial tasks. Sanding the mouldings, staining and protecting the new cabinets, and trying to get some flooring before June, who knew the cool Marmoleum colours would take so long?