18 September 2011
They Call It Second-Hand Holes...
18/09/11 14:59
Our impression of the house has changed the longer we’ve lived in it. When we first arrived to move in there was nothing in the rooms and it seemed huge. Then we moved in and every room was full. We had to tiptoe around trying to keep from knocking stacks of boxes over. The garage was full of furniture and even more boxes. The place was just packed. We were sure that there was no way we would ever be able to fit everything in. The thing was though, everything was in the middle of the rooms because the closets were empty. The furniture we brought in was empty. The workshop was empty. The potting shed was empty. In the last week we’ve gotten stuff in the closets. The tables and cabinets have been filled. Stuff is hanging on the walls. We've taken a couple dozen boxes of cut-down cardboard to recycling. The house is now looking more and more homey, (or is that homely?) It’s starting to feel like our house.
There is however, something a bit strange about the pictures on the walls. They are not aligned, they are not coordinated, some of them almost don’t even fit in the spaces. This is because we’re smart. On our to-do list is “paint every room”, which will include patching the previous owners picture hanger holes. We figured there’s no reason to poke more holes in the walls when we’re going to pull everything down for painting anyway. And in all likelihood the furniture will also be moving before we’re completely settled. So, we used the previous owners picture hanger holes. Unfortunately they didn’t have the same size and shape pictures as we have, meaning that things don’t fit terribly well. It’s kind of a shotgun scatter of pictures on each wall, which is fine with us. We’re just glad to get them out of storage. Some of these pictures have not seen the light of day since we left Minnesota. Even though the house is just 100 square feet larger than the Rutherford House it has a lot more wall space so it looks like we'll be able to get most everything up.
And speaking of painting I’ve noticed the previous owners had some, ahem, interesting ideas about wall colours. Most of the rooms are various shades of green or tan, which is not bad but I can’t say I’m particularly fond of the shades they chose. Then there’s the downstairs bedroom, where it’s clear that somebody was really into sponge effects. This particular room has a base of flat white, a beigey/slightly pinkish institutional shade sponged over about 80% of the wall. Then there is a poo coloured shade spotted here and there randomly. More than anything else the room screams “Out Of Control Asylum”. It will be the second thing we paint. The first to get the roller treatment though, will be the garage. It’s a single car garage with finished walls and whose primary light source is a 40 watt motion sensor light next to the door. Inexplicably they painted it a deep green to amplify the cold dark cave feel. There’s a bunch of paint cans in the workshop, and likely any one of those colours will be brighter than what’s on the walls now. Even if it doesn’t come out very pretty, it will be a good primer base for whatever colour we end up using in there.
But man does not live by decorating alone, so I've been taking the telescope out. This is easy to do because I can leave it set up on the deck all the time. The covered part protects the ‘scope from the rain and it’s ready to go at a moments notice. The skies are better than they were at any of our houses in Minnesota. It's dark enough that I can even make out the Milky Way. I think I’ve done more astronomy this week than I did in nearly four years at the Rutherford House. Jupiter, Mars, Orion, the moon, various double stars, Sirius have all been spectacular and it’s been very nice to visit with them again. Then there was the evening I was out looking at the stars and noticed a really large cruise ship sailing up Georges Strait. With the telescope I could make out individual windows and people on the deck. That was a lot of fun too, but perhaps for the wrong reason.
Doug & Marsha
There are these huge flowers blooming in front of the house. No idea what they are.
This is my telescope NOT getting wet in the rain.
The dining room, which is the most decorated. I suspect the walls were painted so as to not show stains from thrown strained peas.
There is however, something a bit strange about the pictures on the walls. They are not aligned, they are not coordinated, some of them almost don’t even fit in the spaces. This is because we’re smart. On our to-do list is “paint every room”, which will include patching the previous owners picture hanger holes. We figured there’s no reason to poke more holes in the walls when we’re going to pull everything down for painting anyway. And in all likelihood the furniture will also be moving before we’re completely settled. So, we used the previous owners picture hanger holes. Unfortunately they didn’t have the same size and shape pictures as we have, meaning that things don’t fit terribly well. It’s kind of a shotgun scatter of pictures on each wall, which is fine with us. We’re just glad to get them out of storage. Some of these pictures have not seen the light of day since we left Minnesota. Even though the house is just 100 square feet larger than the Rutherford House it has a lot more wall space so it looks like we'll be able to get most everything up.
And speaking of painting I’ve noticed the previous owners had some, ahem, interesting ideas about wall colours. Most of the rooms are various shades of green or tan, which is not bad but I can’t say I’m particularly fond of the shades they chose. Then there’s the downstairs bedroom, where it’s clear that somebody was really into sponge effects. This particular room has a base of flat white, a beigey/slightly pinkish institutional shade sponged over about 80% of the wall. Then there is a poo coloured shade spotted here and there randomly. More than anything else the room screams “Out Of Control Asylum”. It will be the second thing we paint. The first to get the roller treatment though, will be the garage. It’s a single car garage with finished walls and whose primary light source is a 40 watt motion sensor light next to the door. Inexplicably they painted it a deep green to amplify the cold dark cave feel. There’s a bunch of paint cans in the workshop, and likely any one of those colours will be brighter than what’s on the walls now. Even if it doesn’t come out very pretty, it will be a good primer base for whatever colour we end up using in there.
But man does not live by decorating alone, so I've been taking the telescope out. This is easy to do because I can leave it set up on the deck all the time. The covered part protects the ‘scope from the rain and it’s ready to go at a moments notice. The skies are better than they were at any of our houses in Minnesota. It's dark enough that I can even make out the Milky Way. I think I’ve done more astronomy this week than I did in nearly four years at the Rutherford House. Jupiter, Mars, Orion, the moon, various double stars, Sirius have all been spectacular and it’s been very nice to visit with them again. Then there was the evening I was out looking at the stars and noticed a really large cruise ship sailing up Georges Strait. With the telescope I could make out individual windows and people on the deck. That was a lot of fun too, but perhaps for the wrong reason.
Doug & Marsha
There are these huge flowers blooming in front of the house. No idea what they are.
This is my telescope NOT getting wet in the rain.
The dining room, which is the most decorated. I suspect the walls were painted so as to not show stains from thrown strained peas.