Nesting: Settling into the new home
Wow, I got everything on my shopping list and to-do list this morning except work on the welcome letter and syllabus (which I can do this afternoon/evening), AND I cleared out a TON of old, old pine needles and weeds from the south side of the house. Today's organic basket was pretty disappointing as to vegetables; there are a half dozen tomatoes on the vine and a head of celery, but everything else is fruit: grapes, blueberries, mangoes, kiwi, oranges, apples, and some really terrific plums. No more peaches, alas. I ordered the assorted wraps, and the herb ones are quite yummy. I had to go to the grocery for veggies and stuff, but I'm pretty well stocked up on everything now.
The house is nearly settled into now, and I've found a home for most everything. I'm still waiting for the shelf tops (the holes of which I will likely have to redrill), so I haven't unpacked all the statuary and stuff yet. I have a small altar set up on top of the white bookcase in the kitchen, though I haven't yet found my kitchen deities -- other than the Penates. Once I have everyone unpacked and installed, I'll do more of a house blessing. Everything else in the house has pretty much found its place. I'm still waiting for the shower organizer and silverware drawer organizer I ordered from Kohls because I had a birthday credit. Geez they take a long time! It took nearly a week for them just to fulfill the order, and another 7-10 days for FedEx, apparently. I'm sticking with Amazon from now on.
Coming up with efficient use of small-home space has been challenging. I'm still trying to decide how to arrange the main room and especially what I want to do with the TV. I have 42" and 20" TVs, and I don't need both, but they're both only about a year old, so I'm hesitant to give either up right now. Of course, i don't have cable, but it is nice to have a good-sized TV for streaming and DVDs. Right now I have the chair in the northeast corner and the TV across from it, kind of in the middle of the room, and I realize it blocks the view into the bathroom when I have the window open, which is a good thing. I might consider a small screen/room divider at some point. The daybed is in the northwest corner under the swamp cooler on the wall opposite the front room. It's very difficult to move, so that's where it's staying. My kitchen table seems too big now, and I was looking at wall-mounted drop tables from IKEA. Surfaces in my house tend to accumulate stuff, so I'd rather minimize them and have more junk-free space, so it's something to think about later.
The room I'm liking the best is the front room. There are four big windows on three sides, so it's cooler, sunnier (though probably colder in the winter), and feels a bit like the porch it once was. I've found rugs to cover most of the concrete floor (except for where the bookshelves stand), so it's quite cozy. I wound up with eight of the foldable, stackable bookshelves. The four that are stacked will have toppers, as will the two on the north end of the room, though I'm going to leave the two on the west side open at the top. I still need to shift some books later today I think. I got a little drop-leaf table from Target for my laptop; again minimizing horizontal surface space, which just accumulates stuff. If I keep the leaves dropped except when I'm using it, the only thing on it is the laptop, which can easily be put away. The south side of the room has a couple of white cube storage units with a bunch of red and cream canvas bins. I'm still working on organizing them, too, but to a large degree, I don't have to -- just stash stuff in a bin and shove it in a cube. I like this. :)
Clean-up of the outdoor space is coming along slowly, but I've been focusing more on the indoors. So far I've managed to pull a lot of weeds, including some of the biggest, baddest thistles, and I've trimmed back the pyracantha enough to give the roses a bit more room. I still need to trim off some of the ground-level branches, but I'd rather do it sometime when I can wear my old leather jacket. (It's very grabby!) Last week I pulled a lot of the looser weeds in back of the house, though there is a LOT of crabgrass and other junk growing like... well, like weeds, what with all the rain we've been getting. So far I'm managing with the borrowed rake, weeder, and pruners, and I did finally find my work gloves. I have a bottle of Round-Up, but I hope to avoid using it as long as the rain continues and the ground is soft enough to pull weeds.
I found a great dentist and had a very thorough check-up yesterday. My teeth and gums are in great shape, though I'll have to watch a crack in one of my molars. I'll probably have to have that fixed sometime in the coming year for about $500. *sigh* The search for a doctor continues. I went to one last week, but had a very poor first impression and decided to keep looking. Searches for a nice laundromat and places for inexpensive haircuts and pedicures continue. I went to the local UU church last week and I really like it; I think I may wind up becoming a member. They have English country dancing every other week on Sunday evenings, Buddhist meditation on Wednesdays, and a drum circle on full moons. Like most UU congregations, the median age seems somewhat elderly, but that could because of summer, too. I look forward to learning more about it and meeting more people there.
In any case, the warm sun, cool breeze, distant thunder, and birdsong from right outside my window are all lulling me to a nap. I think I will get back to work later this afternoon. :)
The house is nearly settled into now, and I've found a home for most everything. I'm still waiting for the shelf tops (the holes of which I will likely have to redrill), so I haven't unpacked all the statuary and stuff yet. I have a small altar set up on top of the white bookcase in the kitchen, though I haven't yet found my kitchen deities -- other than the Penates. Once I have everyone unpacked and installed, I'll do more of a house blessing. Everything else in the house has pretty much found its place. I'm still waiting for the shower organizer and silverware drawer organizer I ordered from Kohls because I had a birthday credit. Geez they take a long time! It took nearly a week for them just to fulfill the order, and another 7-10 days for FedEx, apparently. I'm sticking with Amazon from now on.
Coming up with efficient use of small-home space has been challenging. I'm still trying to decide how to arrange the main room and especially what I want to do with the TV. I have 42" and 20" TVs, and I don't need both, but they're both only about a year old, so I'm hesitant to give either up right now. Of course, i don't have cable, but it is nice to have a good-sized TV for streaming and DVDs. Right now I have the chair in the northeast corner and the TV across from it, kind of in the middle of the room, and I realize it blocks the view into the bathroom when I have the window open, which is a good thing. I might consider a small screen/room divider at some point. The daybed is in the northwest corner under the swamp cooler on the wall opposite the front room. It's very difficult to move, so that's where it's staying. My kitchen table seems too big now, and I was looking at wall-mounted drop tables from IKEA. Surfaces in my house tend to accumulate stuff, so I'd rather minimize them and have more junk-free space, so it's something to think about later.
The room I'm liking the best is the front room. There are four big windows on three sides, so it's cooler, sunnier (though probably colder in the winter), and feels a bit like the porch it once was. I've found rugs to cover most of the concrete floor (except for where the bookshelves stand), so it's quite cozy. I wound up with eight of the foldable, stackable bookshelves. The four that are stacked will have toppers, as will the two on the north end of the room, though I'm going to leave the two on the west side open at the top. I still need to shift some books later today I think. I got a little drop-leaf table from Target for my laptop; again minimizing horizontal surface space, which just accumulates stuff. If I keep the leaves dropped except when I'm using it, the only thing on it is the laptop, which can easily be put away. The south side of the room has a couple of white cube storage units with a bunch of red and cream canvas bins. I'm still working on organizing them, too, but to a large degree, I don't have to -- just stash stuff in a bin and shove it in a cube. I like this. :)
Clean-up of the outdoor space is coming along slowly, but I've been focusing more on the indoors. So far I've managed to pull a lot of weeds, including some of the biggest, baddest thistles, and I've trimmed back the pyracantha enough to give the roses a bit more room. I still need to trim off some of the ground-level branches, but I'd rather do it sometime when I can wear my old leather jacket. (It's very grabby!) Last week I pulled a lot of the looser weeds in back of the house, though there is a LOT of crabgrass and other junk growing like... well, like weeds, what with all the rain we've been getting. So far I'm managing with the borrowed rake, weeder, and pruners, and I did finally find my work gloves. I have a bottle of Round-Up, but I hope to avoid using it as long as the rain continues and the ground is soft enough to pull weeds.
I found a great dentist and had a very thorough check-up yesterday. My teeth and gums are in great shape, though I'll have to watch a crack in one of my molars. I'll probably have to have that fixed sometime in the coming year for about $500. *sigh* The search for a doctor continues. I went to one last week, but had a very poor first impression and decided to keep looking. Searches for a nice laundromat and places for inexpensive haircuts and pedicures continue. I went to the local UU church last week and I really like it; I think I may wind up becoming a member. They have English country dancing every other week on Sunday evenings, Buddhist meditation on Wednesdays, and a drum circle on full moons. Like most UU congregations, the median age seems somewhat elderly, but that could because of summer, too. I look forward to learning more about it and meeting more people there.
In any case, the warm sun, cool breeze, distant thunder, and birdsong from right outside my window are all lulling me to a nap. I think I will get back to work later this afternoon. :)