The season has officially changed and Rachel's back in school. I am all settled into my new house and I'm more comfortable than I could have imagined. Life is so good!
I took a break from blogging stories about the rest of my travels this summer because I felt like I couldn't top Spain. Also, I want this to be something I enjoy doing and I was feeling burnt out. Why force it? Now, I have plenty of homework to keep me busy, but I still want to spend time describing my experiences. Creating my personal narrative helps me integrate all the new experiences of my life, and it allows me to share it in great detail with those I love.
I'll start with my house. Zach and I found it and signed the lease in June before we left on vacation, so when I arrived back in Olympia on Sept 17, I was able to move right in. Our landlady is an absolute sweetheart and happens to have a daughter my age who is starting the MIT program at U of Washington this year. She knew we didn't have any furniture and managed to find a few free pieces that she had in the house when I arrived, including a dining room table with 6 chairs. It made the house feel like a home right away. The table is round with folding leaves on two sides, two more leaves to set in. It fits right in our kitchen under the window with a view of the front yard. She found an amazing little chair upholstered in orange velvet, a floor lamp, and she left an electric organ of hers, too. It only took me 2 days to empty my storage unit and a couple more to unpack everything. I can barely describe how good it felt to empty out my backpacks and shove them in the very back of the closet! What a change.
When Zach arrived from New Mexico, I felt even more complete. We spent more time that first week gardening than searching for furniture. We have more square footage of yard than house. The back is mostly lawn, with 3 producing blueberry bushes, a cedar tree and a giant laurel hedge. The spot with the best sunlight has been tilled and planted as a veggie garden. When we weeded, we found beets and rainbow chard, mint and oregano. In the front, we have a very old black walnut tree, two pear trees and a lilac bush that's really tree-sized, and there's a dogwood on the neighbor's side of our driveway. The center of the yard is a raised bed in the shape of an eye, with a circle of stones in the middle as the iris and a fountain in the center. The fountain can only be turned on by plugging an extension cord into the front porch, so we don't bother much. The small pool of water underneath attracts plenty of squirrels and cats and blue jays, though. Before school started, we filled the eye with spring bulbs (narcissus, hyacinth, tulips and iris) and a pretty Japanese maple. The next weekend, we bought native plants and scattered them around the rest of the yard, including understory shrubs: red flowering currant, salmonberry, vine maple and oceanspray; ferns: deer, lady and sword; two tiny bleeding hearts, and one Russian sage. We also weeded and cover cropped the veggie garden in the back.
We've been acquiring furniture at a thoughtful rate. After 3 weeks, we have a real bed (I'm not sleeping on the floor anymore!), a dresser and a couple bookshelves. I still want a desk and either another chair or a small sofa to cozy up to the fireplace in. As I unpacked, I realized I had so many beautiful things to decorate a house with (thanks, Mom). In a sense, I feel like I had just been waiting for a house to match me.
The house was originally built in 1934 and the original front walkway and stairs are visible, although the front door is different now. I'm not sure what rooms were added later. All of them have low ceilings and the corners in the kitchen and living room are not right angles (I don't know what else to call them, but they make it look like a cottage somehow). The ceiling in the living room is covered in a white, embossed wallpaper and the walls are painted cream and coral orange colors. The kitchen is black and white tile floor and counter tops, with laminated cupboards and black windowsills. The mudroom has an incredible 60s orange and red vinyl floor. My favorite is the bedroom, because the walls and ceiling are covered with cedar panels and the floor is pine. It has a bay window looking out over the backyard that is perfect for sitting in. The bathroom is incredible in its own right because it has high ceilings and a skylight and a freestanding bath/shower with a view of the backyard, also. All the floors that aren't tile or laminate are wooden. No carpets = no vacuum! There's one more room that could be a 2nd bedroom except that you'd have to walk through the main bedroom to get to the bathroom. It runs the length of the house on the south side and is all windows with a very deep windowsill. It has my old bed so it's a guest bedroom. My tea table fits perfectly, so it's also the tea room and crafting room.
I will post pictures of everything I described, but I want you to imagine it first. I'll write more about the MIT program next.
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