Unreserved

Photographic evidence that we are insane

Thursday, August 30th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Finally I have pictures of the big white money pit to share with you! I have pictures of the inside, too, but I don’t have the patience to upload them tonight.
First is the official front from the street:

But this side is the “real” front. The house is older than the neighborhood, of course. Much older. I love telling people it was built in 1810 and they do sort of a double take and say, “Eighteen? Not nineteen?”
Yep. Mr. Unreserved found a penny in the yard from 1847. I can’t quit thinking how cool that is. I like to think of all the people who have called this place home before us. I like the fact that this house was standing when Beethoven was alive.

This is the front from the back yard. It’s a great yard – the girls and Zoe have a ton of fun out there, and I can’t wait to put a garden in next summer.

This is the side of the house I see most often, as it’s the side that faces the garage/driveway. The deck is falling off. The paint is falling off. There is vermiculite falling out of the walls. We’ve got work to do.

Let this be a warning to all you overly optimistic dreamers – be careful what you wish for!

The girls and I are off to the mountains this weekend. Poor Mr. Unreserved has to work, but will join us later. Anna’s looking forward to it, and I know Claire will enjoy all the dirt there is to get into. The girl is a dirt magnet!

Like pea soup

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The weather makes me feel like I’m living in a big, steamy bowl of pea soup right now. Not that I’ve ever lived in a bowl of soup, but this is how I imagine it would feel.

Ironically, looking at my last post from July 16th, I’m doing the same thing I was that evening – being stood up by the gutter people. Fool me once etc? Only sort of. After being stood up those several Mondays ago, the next evening they called to reschedule with nary an excuse or an apology for missing the previous appointment, short of “we didn’t make it.” No kidding. (incidentally, why doesn’t apology have two “p”s? it’s words like that that make me bad at spelling) Mr. Unreserved simply told them, “No.”

Well, they called again yesterday and for some reason that I can’t fathom, he allowed them to set up an appointment for tonight. Claims he, “I just want to see what their price is – I have no intention of using them after this.” Well I had no intention of spending my evening being stood up by gutter assholes again. (Gutter Assholes would make a great band name)

Meanwhile, we have a shiny new toilet upstairs that only leans to the right about 15 degrees but flushes marvelously. Also the flooring is in less danger of rotting out completely, which is nice because I don’t care for toilets in the middle of the kitchen. We’ve got a very pretty ceiling fan in the living room, which is starting to really feel like a living room. This would all be much more interesting if I had pictures, but that involves finding the camera, downloading, uploading, etc., which is way too much loading for me this evening. Down with loading! Also, I am happily writing this post from the living room as I’ve managed to reconfigure the wireless router by using my now standard “monkey with it until it decides to start working again” technique.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . .
I spun approximately 800yds of lace weight mohair for a shawl that is marinating in my head. It’s very pretty. You’ll have to take my word for it. Also I finished a wool/cotton sock from yarn I picked up at MSWF. I bought the yarn because summer is too hot to be wearing pure wool socks. You know what? August is too hot to be wearing any socks, even if they’re a wool/cotton blend. (never mind the fact that I also only have one sock yet)

I have a stash closet in my bedroom. It used to be a kitchen closet in the old house, but wonder of wonders, here we have adequate kitchen storage without co-opting Ikea bedroom furniture for the purpose of stashing sippy cups.

I think I’m in the mood to do a little dyeing this evening. I acquired 4oz of merino/soy silk and a sampler dye kit for this year’s Christmas grab bag project. I can blog about this one because I’m 100% certain the recipient doesn’t read this blog. Stay tuned!