Hot & Cold

So.

I've got my peeps in my house this week installing central heating and air. I wouldn't need it, except for the tragedy that is my house full of broken radiators.

Apparently the previous owner left the house in late fall last year and didn't tell anyone. When the bank realized it was vacant, they had it winterized...January 30th. And anyone who knows anything about Nebraska winters knows that this was not good for the radiators. So now I have a house full of beautiful but non-functional radiators. It's sad, but there's nothing to be done about it. So I'm paying what seems like a ridiculous amount of money to install central heating and air conditioning (the latter of which the house didn't have before, so I guess this is an improvement). Here's to having heat in my house in time for Christmas! But until then, I guess I just have holes in my floor.

Hey, it's better than a washboard...but slightly more expensive

Yesterday my washer and dryer came to the house. I bought them on sale at Sears the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Kenmore Elite or something like that. The dryer is a steam dryer, which is supposed to be the last word. I guess we'll find out, won't we? Also, the washer requires high efficiency soap, which I doubt you can make using some sort of pinterest DIY process.

In other news, I scooped my back walkway and my dad brought in the small tractor and scooped off my driveway. Good times were had by all.

A Home for the Holidays

Ok. So. I've decided the previous format of my blog wasn't working at all. Mostly because I didn't care enough to update it...ever. So here I was with a perfectly good blog and no idea what to do with it. Then I realized that I spend half my time on stupid Pinterest, which feeds of StumbleUpon, which is basically a function that sends you to random blogs about things like crafts and food and...design. And I love these kinds of blogs because hey, who doesn't?

Then I realized: I just bought a house. And it needs some lovin'. Hey! I could post updates on my home lovin' on my blog and then people would get to see all the fun stuff I am doing with my house and maybe they'll get their own ideas...right? Right.

So I bought this house. This house is beautiful. A little worse for wear perhaps, but beautiful. It was once owned by a former art teacher in my town and he LOVED that house. I mean LOVE in the verb form. The man brought in antiques and woodwork from other old houses and incorporated them into his abode. There is a shelving unit (although those words do NOT do it justice) that came from an old mom and pop store in town. He even found some old woodwork from my family's farm and used it in the house.

The downside is it has been lived in. And by that I mean there are holes in the walls, crayon all over the walls (and some of the woodwork...ouch!), stripped wallpaper, and the like. Oh, and also, it's a foreclosure. That is good in that I got the house for a good price (if I told you how much, you wouldn't believe me). That is bad in that the previous tenant left the house in the fall of 2010 without telling anyone (like oh, say, the bank) and it wasn't winterized until January 30th. This means that the beautiful (I'm talking gorgeous) radiators are all cracked or weakened because they all froze (Thank you, Nebraska winters). Which I didn't know when I put in the offer. Alas, they are not kidding when they tell you about all the nasty surprises that come with home ownership. I am in the (super fun) position of having to install heating and air.

But this house needs me. Yes, I am aware that it is wood and stone and plaster and not human in any way shape or form. But this house needs me. And I need it.

I was once told that we humans are all renovation projects. The older I get, the more I am convinced this is the truth. We are built beautifully (or not) and trashed to varying degrees by the life we all share. So we renovate. We fix a pipe here and there. We paint a wall once in a while. Some of us are extravagant. Some of us are plain. Some of us aren't really sure where we fall in that spectrum. But we are, all of us, renovation projects. And so is this house. Which got me to thinking...maybe we can renovate each other.

Here's to the daring adventure of home ownership.
-B-