We live on an arterial street that turns dramatically at our corner and heads up a long hill into a greenbelt. It means that our view is pleasant and that the whole neighborhood is aware of our project, and that people routinely crash their cars into our fence.

Since Morgan has lived here people have probably crashed at least 15-20 times, usually just one-car accidents but at least once smashing into a car heading up the hill. We have erected a big rock to try to stop the fence-smashing, and it works but has meant we’ve had to reposition the rock several times after it gets knocked over. It’s not an easy task.

Last year we placed a second big rock on the corner hoping to protect our water meter from the big trucks that were driving over it and slowly destroying it. This rock is too heavy for us to lift, but was recently dragged across the street in the process of disabling a drunk driver (who for perhaps the first time missed the turn going UP the hill), and now again this past weekend it ended up halfway down the block in another dramatic wipeout.

I heard the crash but didn’t bother to investigate because it was 4am, but the neighbors told us the person got out of their vehicle and ran, only to return because where were they going? They had hit that rock (freshly restored to its place using the truck and straps and crowbars) veered up into the planted area between our fence and the sidewalk up onto the rock wall, flipped, and landed in the street. You can see very clearly by the path of destruction through our mature plantings what happened. There were chunks of metal parts that could only have been pieces of their engine or drive train scattered among the standard auto body parts. I am grateful that they were ok, but nobody ever sticks around to help clean up or fix these messes, nobody comes back to apologize, even the cops seem not to think that the destruction might be having an impact on us. First World Problems.

In this case the water meter box had to be replaced and the meter itself fixed. We had to load up the truck with all of the dead foliage for clean green at the dump and bid farewell to bushes that had been growing for 15 years. The cedar tree Morgan started from a seedling might make it, but it was torn out by the rootball and looks a bit rough.

We find this irritating, but thankfully so far it has not been tragic. I am trying to think of it like we live in a tornado zone and we sometimes have to clean up, accept some damage, and move on. I think I will contact the department of transportation this time, and start whatever process needs to be started to try to slow folks down before someone gets seriously hurt.

In the meantime, Morgan got to use the new leaf blower he got for Christmas and the chainsaw he got for his birthday, so that was fun, and I guess we have some space for new plantings we can play with.

We salvaged some doors from Morgan’s sister and her sweetie (thanks Erica and Ian!), who had themselves salvaged them from somewhere and had them stashed at Monica’s house. A bit of love and care and now we don’t have to look at the stuff in the closet anymore!

The future bathroom also got a door, which is a novelty for us, having lived for almost five years with a deconstructed bathroom and only a curtain for privacy. Truly, we are movin’ on up.

Just a little update here on the progress towards a genuine bathroom with a closing door…

Slowly but surely the downstairs bathroom is taking shape. I mean, the shape is what it is, but the wall and ceiling treatment is nearly done. A deep and lovely purple has been achieved!

Perhaps 2019 can best be summarized by the journey of our boy kitty, Vader. He went missing just a few days into the brand new year, my spider sense immediately going off when he didn’t come home in a downpour, despite the fact that he will adventure even in a downpour.

We did what one does- posts on neighborhood blogs and facebook groups, posters, flyers, late night walks chasing down leads, stakeouts. Many many people were kind enough to call or get in touch- there are a couple of kitties living in the Safeway parking lot down on Rainier, y’all. They aren’t my cat, but they are scrappy and still there.

Weeks went by, and we couldn’t bring ourselves to grieve, and yet there was grief.

Nibble expanded into the hole her brother left. We gave her extra attention to keep her busy, exercise her, soothe our own loss.

Morgan and I were still living separately during the weekdays, coming together on the weekends to be a family and moving apart to hold space for personal growth during the week. Huck stayed put with Nibble in the half-done house as we tag-teamed in and out, forging his way through his freshman year of high school, making new friends, becoming more independent, missing his cat.

Moving day, my attic space at Buphalo’s.

Then it was time for me to move home, to surrender my sweet attic space at Buphalo’s house and bring myself and my stuff back in to integrate into full time family life. As I was leaving my office that Friday afternoon, ready to go start packing my car for the move, I got a text from a stranger- a photo of my emaciated, starving, dehydrated cat, found in the basement of the home he had just helped a friend move into just a couple of blocks away from our house. He had seen my post on a neighborhood blog and remembered it. Seven weeks the cat had survived, alone, eating bugs(?), no water, freezing snowy conditions. A miracle. After a day at the vet getting IV fluids and beginning the slow process of re-feeding him, we brought him home.

Skinny Vader, shaved arms, sunshine.

Angry Nibble. Who the hell is that skinny guy with the shaved arms?

The drama! Nibble had enjoyed being the queen of the house and was not stoked to see this weird version of her brother in her realm. Vader meanwhile was still starving, only allowed to eat a tiny bit of tuna at a time, jumping into the refrigerator when it opened, trying to steal whatever he could from wherever he could. It is fortunate that Morgan was working at home at this time, as there was a lot of hardcore cat-wrangling for a week or two while everyone stabilized.

And stabilize we did. We found new grooves, new patterns and possibilities in our relationships, renewed gratitude and appreciation for each other. We have been relishing each others company even when there are challenges.

Nibble is a couch kitty downstairs.

If you have been reading this blog at all, you know that in 2019 we reached a huge new milestone with our construction and have expanded into our big new space downstairs. Nibble has taken this as her territory, quickly adapting to the arrangement and finding her favorite spots to sleep, while Vader remains content, despite his dominance, to stay largely upstairs where he can receive his cuddles in bed where it’s safe and quiet and strangers never enter.

Vader prefers bed snuggles upstairs.

And there you have it. We are all just trying to find our place in this world, to keep our relationships nourishing and have our boundaries respected. As we look to 2020 and all of the possibilities the year holds, we hope that respect, compassion, and appreciation are what we will see out there (and in here), and will do our best to lean into love as our primary motivator. Wishing you all the best, and a very happy new year.

Click on this picture for a link to a photo roundup for 2019.

Click on this picture for a photo roundup of Huck in 2019.

Gutters! They’re not glamorous but they sure are helpful. We really need a new roof as well, but gutters are something we need to finish the permit and the roof should hold a little longer. Next we need a city-mandated cistern and then we can complete the side sewer/drainage permit for good. In the meantime we no longer have to duck through a curtain of water to get out the front door when it rains, and the door itself will stop being ruined by splashing water.

It’s been several weeks of cleaning, sorting, moving, purging, purchasing, and figuring out what goes where, but we are honing in on the next intermediate resting space of our construction process. We are using our big new downstairs room as our communal living area, at long last!

The weirdness of all the new movement patterns is starting to wear off and we are finding our grooves.

I love our new kitchen, which includes the first dishwasher any of us has ever lived with in our lives.

Nibble loves the new downstairs. Morgan in his “office”.

Morgan has an office for the first time that isn’t just his computer on the metal shop table or our dining room table; it includes places for the printer and the office supplies that otherwise were just stuffed into cupboards where we could find space.

We have brought the sewing machine and serger out of the attic and made a cabinet for the creative projects we used to get into before the house took all of that energy. We will begin to get crafty again as inspiration hits and time permits.

Our design includes some passive solar gain, so on these cold fall days when the sun comes in to hit our big concrete slab it warms up and then releases heat throughout the night. With our new insulation this means that despite literally freezing temperatures outside we have not yet had to turn on the heat and we are warm and cozy.

We have a lot more to do to finish the project and close out the permit, I will save that list for another post. There are just a couple of things down here that need doing to feel like we can settle in for awhile- we need curtains before the leaves drop so we don’t become a fishbowl for the neighborhood, and a bar counter on our peninsula would be pretty cool.

In the meantime we will start getting art up on the walls and have already begun enjoying all of our new space. It feels great!

After five long years, we are moving in to our spacious new first floor!! I have been busy with the huge project of that move, but thought it would be nice to post a few pics of the transition. I will try to write another more detailed post once things have calmed down and gotten more settled. Morgan installing TV and radio- note the furniture dolly coffee table.

Scaffolding as dining table.

The new kitchen!

We scheduled countertop measurements for Tuesday, which means the new kitchen is very close to real. Thresholds are weird, supercharged, a little uncomfortable. Sometimes really uncomfortable. I have been feeling that whiny agitation in my bones this week, preparing to release this old battered workhorse of a kitchen and move into the shiny new one downstairs.

As I prepare today to feed a small throng of teenaged boys for Huck’s belated birthday celebration, it seems right to take a moment to appreciate the thousands of meals this old kitchen has served. And that’s just us! This house was built in 1924, how many families have fed themselves from these cupboards?

There are many things in this kitchen that I won’t miss, it is very much worse for the wear. It suffers from a syndrome wherein one doesn’t bother to fix the busted things because one is building a replacement soon, even though “soon” is maybe 5-10 years from when it started to fail. But as I took these photos today to document the busted drawer, the cabinets that won’t close, the scratches and dings, the permanent grime and the rot, I found myself appreciating what those things meant. Constant use for almost 100 years.

Thank you, kitchen, for your service. You have been a literal lifeline for us, and we honor you. Soon (like in the next 5 years sometime?) you will transform into a bathroom and that toilet will make more sense. ❤️

This week I harvested pears from our two trees. This always stresses me out a little because pears want to be refrigerated for a couple of weeks after harvest before you ripen them at room temperature and where am I supposed to do that? This year my problem was solved by a timely development in the building of our new kitchen. Behold, the brand new fridge!!!!

Today we are going shopping for countertops. Things are getting real!

Speaking of bills, we have had two crazy expensive incidents with water this summer- 1. We returned from a weekend away to find that our toilet had been running the entire time, and 2. We had an earthquake that shook a fitting loose in our irrigation system while we were again away from home for several days. We returned to find a small stream running through the yard 😢.

We were grateful for a week of rainy weather that gave us a bit of time to fix that (Morgan had to psyche himself up to dig that hole), but I dread the upcoming water bill. The first one was bad enough!!!

Anyway, that’s just homeowner blues. Paying that down as I can and trudging onward.

UPDATE: It continues! Our toilet tank is now emptying itself and filling itself constantly which we know is just a simple repair, but still. We have had to resort to turning off the valve every time until we can get to it. AND, the hot tub started leaking significantly. This is most likely from the original leak it came with and an insufficient repair, at least that is what we hope. Again, not super mysterious or unusual except that all of this is water water water water…

From http://www.alunamichaels.com/sacred-messages/

Since water represents the flow of emotions, plumbing issues in a home or a leaky radiator in a car reflect emotional matters. Specifically, the bathroom in a house shows a need for cleansing, release and forgiveness.

Fair enough. Also of general interest: https://www.ancient-symbols.com/water_symbols.html

I am not necessarily a superstitious person, but sometimes (like when the same thing keeps happening over and over and over and OVER) it’s useful to look for whatever else needs attention and throw some work at that too. Noted, universe, noted.