dudes i’m gonna put sage green sheer curtains in a bedroom with mint green walls and i will not be taking any questions
but if you have any opinions about holdbacks i’d like to hear them
in which there are house pics!
so the longer i live here the more i dig this place, it’s awesome
i have prisms in the kitchen and living room windows, so i’m getting rainbows TWICE A DAY which is just the absolute best:
and i never would have decided to have a red living room, but there was a red accent wall and i just went with it and it’s the BEST:
it’ll be fucking amazing at christmas time, i’ll tell you what.
here’s dinner from the other night:
and the little rose bush out front is ORANGE, i love it so much:
there’s a pink one in the side yard:
i got a laundry thing, it’s amazing:
there’s still an empty drawer in the kitchen, that’s how much storage space the place has, and there’s still tons of space in the bathroom cupboards and drawers. the office closet is stuffed, and the guest room closet is a third full, but mostly of half-empty boxes i will eventually consolidate. the guest room’s curtains and rug are ordered, but we still need to get a bed, dresser, and night stand.
i’ve got pictures up on the walls! not a lot, but having rented nearly all my adult life i just never got into the habit of hanging things (why bother when you’re going to move in a year or two) so even just putting up a cork board over my desk was SUPER exciting! i even pulled out the old cardboard tubes and took my prints out to measure them; HOLY FUCK FRAMES ARE EXPENSIVE! but since we’ve gotten cash gifts from a few of our relatives, i’ll probably just splurge and get some art on the dang walls, too!
sitting on the patio is a joy because you can hear the creek gurgle, and also the chimes when there’s breeze. we’re not doing much landscaping because we want to see what’s here and what’s what (they just cut everything to the ground for the sale, so it’s interesting to see what things are turning out to be: half are roses and the other half are massive brambles from hell!)
put in a few pansies and two tomato plants, but that’s about it for gardening this year, i think.
the place has excellent cross breeze so i’ve had the front and back doors open most of the past month. the fridge and stove (which came with the place) both work fine. we’ve had an electrician in to bid on some work but it’ll be months before we can use the clothes dryer.
there’s really no place for a dishwasher, but there’s just two of us and i can deal. dishwashers do a shitty job anyway, really, and i’ve grown to like doing dishes when my hands are cold.
listen, there are like nine ceiling lamps in this house so i bought some fancy fan pull pendants. don’t judge me. can’t wait ’til they get here!
i love this house, i love the window in the bath, i love the cross breeze, i love the covered patio and the weird-ass workshop/shed thing and the chain link fence and the gates. i love the creak of the hardwood floors and the layout and the light and all of it. could not be more pleased!
In which we bought the house across the street and moved into it.
Look at this adorable kitchen!
I thought I’d hate the yellow, but it’s growing on me. Looks cute with my blue stuff.
Still hate the pink living room and hallway, though! Have a painter coming Tuesday morning to give us a quote for painting over the pink.
The kitchen is mostly together, and the bedroom and office are unpacked. Still need to connect the washer & dryer, and the guest room is half full of boxes. Plus it needs furniture.
We love this house!
In which I’ve had a BONE GRAFT!
Friday I went to the endodontist and had a bone graft. Local only, no sedation. I’ve had four (wisdom) teeth extracted and two root canals, and I’m not dental procedure-averse, but this surgery was pretty rough.
He numbed me thoroughly, so nothing hurt, but one is still aware of what’s being done. It’s stressful knowing the doctor’s taking a scalpel to your gums! And having a tooth root cleaned under the gumline with a sonic is dismal. Don’t even get me started on the sutures, ye GODS.
I got three prescriptions: an antibiotic, some generic Vicodin, and a twice-daily rinse.
Apparently my wisdom tooth extraction left a pocket of bacteria that have destroyed some of my jaw bone, so this procedure cleared out the area, removed calculus from the tooth’s root, and added cadaver bone as a sort of scaffold for my own bone cells to use.
The first 48 hours post-surgery were a little rough because of swelling, but not particularly painful. I made a batch of gruel of brown rice and chora dal (it came out really good!) and drank a lot of cool water. Ice pack on the face for 20 minutes each hour. Slept on the opposite side. Napped.
Today’s day five, and it feels fine. I made the mistake of looking in there, though, and it looks gross and the suture ends are sort of wound around my teeth in a weird but ultimately probably very clever way.
I go in next Tuesday to get my stitches out!
If, God forfend, I ever have to do this shit again, I’m getting sedation. Root canals are fine, but having my gums sliced and flapped over while fully awake is a bit too much for me.
in which THIS IS GETTING PRETTY EXCITING, GUYS
went over and loitered awhile this afternoon during the scope and inspection, and IT’S SUCH A GREAT HOUSE
the double closets in the master bedroom, the en suite, the storage in the laundry room, the covered patio, the fun open area between kitchen and living room that isn’t really a dining area but would totally work on the rare occasion we might host Thanksgiving or Christmas as a large dining room…
there’s a linen closet and a coat closet, and the smallest room will make an ideal guest bedroom, and behold the awesome built-in cabinets in the main bathroom:
look at all that space! all the towels can live IN THE BATHROOM so the linen closet can just hold bedding! and the drawers in the china cabinet can hold table linens! insanely well thought-out!
i even love a lot of the hardware and finish in the kitchen and bathrooms, they’re not merely retro, they’re original, i love this shit:
the back yard is generous without being huge, there’s already a concrete pad for a rotating laundry tree, and the creek (ok, irrigation ditch) runs along side for coolness and gurgle
the kitchen is adorable, plenty of cupboards and counter space. there’s room for a bigger stove if we upgrade. i love the weird little china cabinet, but i think i’ll paint it
~+~+~
so the back story is that we rented a great little house three Christmases ago, and we love this street because it dead-ends at an irrigation ditch, on the other side of which was an apple orchard which is even now being turned into a vineyard
no. through. traffic. lovely! big open spaces, just very nice
it’s a few blocks from the Freewater end of Main street, which may very easily be an up-and-coming area with the growth of the Rocks District wine industry and become charming and walkable
it’s just a great location, and the same builder built the house we’re in and the house across the street… which just went on the market, because the occupant passed away last fall
so we called the agent the day the sign went up in the yard, and found ourselves suddenly tryna buy a house even though we were in no way prepared
weirdly, it’s working out: we got pre-approved, we were eligible for a no-down USDA loan, and everything seems to be… happening?!
one of my aunts is even gifting us our closing costs, because she just… felt like it (!!!)
christ we’re lucky, it’s wonderful
~+~+~
the patio is covered and protected on three sides, but there’s air flow because there’s a breezeway that is also the walkway between the carport and the back door. it’s awesome. we could live out there: grill, patio furniture, windchimes, it’ll just be wonderful, just have to put in some greenery on the other side of the yard so we’re not staring into the rear neighbor’s sliding glass door
there’s a weird thing the builder seemed to do a lot (at least three of the houses on this street have these), and it’s roofed and sided like a garage, and it’s at the end of the carport, but it’s really just a workshop where you’d keep tools and repair things. probably a quarter the size of a one-car garage. we’ll probably use it as combo garden shed/bicycle parking. the lawn mower and weed whacker will either live in there too, or in the shed in the back yard.
~+~+~
haven’t yet received the results of the inspection and scope, but as far as i know there’s nothing terribly wrong with the place, the biggest issue so far is the shower/bath plumbing: it leaks when the shower’s turned on and has to be repaired. an access panel will have to be installed in the master bedroom closet to get to the pipes, but it won’t be terrible.
furnace is relatively new, water heater’s old but seems healthy enough. stove hood fan needs to be replaced. no idea about the roof yet.
this is fucking bonkers, but i’m very excited — hanging out in the house for a couple hours today made me realize that i freakin’ love it and hope this all works out!
in which there’s an observation
nobody else could have played greg house because the character is a complete, irredeemable fucking asshole as written, and the show only worked because laurie’s intrinsically as soft as a lop-eared bunny yet obviously brutally intelligent
the show never would have gotten a second season, or possibly even past the pilot, if they’d cast literally any other actor in the role, because house is SUCH a total dick no viewer would have warmed to him without that inherent compassion
you notice on re-watch that laurie almost always plays house against the script, making him gentler and more internal than the plot suggests through the character’s actions and behavior
(yes, i’m watching ‘house’ in the middle of the night again, it’s a pandemic, wtf do you want from me)
for the record, both laurie and house (even though the former is probably passive-aggressive af and the latter’s a drug-addicted sociopath) could totally get it, i’m not gonna lie, and furthermore this is based entirely on closeups of those eyes and the scene where house is seen chopping up a line like a true partier lol
~+~+~
in news unrelated to ‘house’, i’ve been having actual hot flashes lately, like genuine full-fledged ones, and HA HA HA they really DO SUCK, and also The Dread returned a week ago and i’ve had two or three utterly shitty episodes, so if you’re thinking of developing a panic and/or anxiety disorder may i suggest you absolutely really just DON’T
did some very gentle isometrics the other evening — because i was reading a book about menopause that told me all about muscle loss (muscle mass peaks in your 30’s and then it’s all down hill from there) and how to maintain bone density — and fucked up my left knee for the next three days, and it’s still tender and weak, goddamn it
fucked up my right arm while sleeping last week, too, and it remains sore, but at least i can still wrangle throughout the day multiple 20-pound wheels of cheese at work like i’m supposed to
keep resolving to bike more but then i don’t like the weather so i don’t, need to just make myself ride anyway, keep my quads from dissolving
aging while female is serious business, bitches, i swear i never realized how robust i’d always felt until i got this old and menopausaly, it’s a fucking racket
~+~+~
I MADE VEGGIE PULAO, DAL MAKHANI, AND TOMATO & ONION RAITA TODAY and it was yummy, and i also did a ton of laundry because the bedroom smelled like sweaty socks
paid the bills, did the dishes, and mended a favorite dress and a favorite tunic today as well, felt so productive!
we’re gonna walk through the house across the street tomorrow, hoping to buy it, i am dying to see the weird built-in china cabinet i saw on zillow
in which it’s a random brain dump! because that’s what blogs are FOR!
– my sleep schedule is WHACKED, with various levels of exhaustion and insomnia, i’m either sluggish af when i should be awake or wide awake when i should be deep in a REM cycle. was a few minutes late to work every day this week, boo
– it’s been 112 days since my last period, so in another 253 days (if i don’t bleed) i’m officially menopausal!
– i can’t regulate my body temp for shit when at rest (i’m fine at work, still), so i keep a pile of items next to me when i’m studying, reading, or watching movies: a pair of wool socks, a sweater, another sweater, and a shawl, and all these items come off and go on in a never-ending shuffle, plus when i get hot i get SO HOT it feels like prickles all over my skin, which is like a hot flash but also not like a hot flash
– 34,000 americans died of covid over the past 28 days; the government is weakly recommending boosters but is otherwise doing nothing. THIRTY-FOUR THOUSAND PEOPLE DIED IN 28 DAYS, nobody’s doing anything of note, it’s literally fucking insane
– two of my co-workers are traveling for christmas, and no one is still in a bubble as far as i can tell. if anybody brings back covid i’ll be PISSED OFF
– i had an egg this morning and then didn’t eat again all day, so was starving when i got home. made myself a burrito out of various orphaned items from fridge and freezer and IT WAS AMAZING. so yeah, i do recommend you try putting a chopped-up tamale in a burrito with rice and beans, lettuce and tomato and onion, salsa and cheese guac, it totally works!
– i couldn’t finish the awesome burrito; ate a little over half and gave up: i can’t finish anything these days. i remember ordering and eating (!!!), a decade ago, entire mexican platters and it just seems impossible now, like, where did it even FIT lol
– yesterday someone asked if my nose ring “was a snowflake?” (my mask was low, oops) and it made me super happy because it DOES look like a snowflake and i’ve worn this thing three winters in a row without anybody noticing! yay!
– i watched die hard last night because it’s christmas movie season. hadn’t seen it in so long it was like seeing it for the first time (save the stills used in memes). fun!
– seriously considering (once my dental work is paid for, UGH) getting myself a Real Bike next year, maybe an e-bike, something with assist for longer trips? they’re expensive [well, expensive compared to $100 walmart bikes, but cheap compared to cars, of course] but the weather’s SO mild out here it’s always possible to ride, and maybe i could get a true step-through because (a) i wear long skirts more often than not and (b) i’m old, so getting on my bike is rough on the hip muscles when i’m tired after 6+ hours standing on concrete floors at work hauling 20-pound wheels of cheese, crates full of milk, and loaded delivery coolers
– speaking of which, some areas of the creamery are clean rooms, so i keep a pair of crocs at work. i wash and sanitize them at the end of every shift, and those shoes never leave the building, so this way i don’t have to put on slippers ten times a day to walk briefly into the creamery or the cave. the other day i took them off to wash them, and then walked around in my sock feet emptying all 7 trash bins, and HOLY SHIT IT HURT! age-related collagen loss is a bitch, i can feel the bones of my feet in ways that i never could have imagined twenty years ago, when the flesh on the heels and balls of my feet was so thick and plump. omfg those bouncy shoes are a BLESSING, i kid you not. bouncy and sanitizeable!
– my better half got a new job, he’s at whitman college now! likes his new pay rate. wants to buy a house. we’ve been looking, but goddamn the market is blown. reesty shacks are like a quarter of a million dollars?! insane.
– i knit a hat last month but it was too short so i had to pick up the hem, which i did half-assedly, to knit another couple inches so it’ll fit. still in progress, will look like hell
– my potted avocado, which i sprouted from a pit when i moved in with my beloved 8 years ago, seems to have died, and i think this SUCKS, but i’m keeping it inside and not letting it dry out in the hopes that maybe it’ll sprout again in the spring?
– i made cute little PROSCIUTTO-WRAPPED HALLOUMI kits at work: halloumi, prosciutto, a printed recipe, and a custom olive & cornichon mix, all in a little box, and people keep buying them and it pleases me a great deal to think of someone getting one as a gift and really enjoying it
– one aspect of studying in earnest for the CCP next year, which i am half-but-not-fully committed to sitting for because it costs a lot, is that i keep buying CHEESE BOOKS, so now i have a bunch of really cool CHEESE BOOKS in my house
In which I have to spend money on surgery.
Went to the periodontist last week and I need about $3k (initially) worth of surgery, including a bone graft, to help keep my teeth in my head.
Periodontal disease is bullshit. It’s basically bacteria eating your jawbones. Super fun. I used to feel so superior about never having cavities, but now I’d like to trade. A bunch of cavities would be much better than this bullshit!
Can I just fill the Waterpik with, like, something that will keep fucking bacteria out of my sockets?!
CADAVER BONE GRAFT, PEOPLE.
I’m not afraid of the surgery itself, I just don’t want to spend my savings on it and I don’t (think) I have insurance that will help.
And after the surgery, I apparently will want an additional procedure to help me not grind my back teeth out and an “appliance” to wear at night to stop the damage from bruxism.
Honestly wish I knew how long I’m going to live; it would be good information to help one decide how much to spend on keeping one’s teeth in one’s head. If I’m gonna die in a decade, I’ll spend the money on something else. If I’m gonna live ’til 80, well obviously stopping jawbone loss is a good investment.
Oh, he also thinks I’ll lose my most expensive possession, my root canal and crown. There’s bone damage so he thinks it’ll fall out somewhere between 5 and 10 years. So that’s exciting. Not.
in which i stayed an hour late tonight because of reasons
there’s new staff at the creamery (we lost five people in a single week a couple months ago) and they tend to leave their shit all over the work benches even when they’re not using them
“shit” in this context is buckets, scissors, slicers, knives, pens, vac bags, labels, tape, notes, and cheese. all these things have places they belong, and those places are NOT on on a work bench other staff need to use
nothing wastes more time than having to clean both before and after i do a task; workstations should either be actively in use or CLEAN, not abandoned and dirty
anybody starting a task should be able to do so from a fully reset kitchen, every single time, which means everybody needs to fucking clean as they go
when i went to slice and package charcuterie today, i had to clean the fucking slicer first, and then i had to clean & sanitize the bench, and then i had to clean the vac sealer
the number of times i have had to wash the wire cutter and knife and planer and bench and scale before i could even start cutting cheese lately is, well, too fucking many
i do too many dishes and bench resets for other people. like, i DO NOT mind helping out when it’s crazy busy, but this happens every single day now: i have to clean equipment and work areas before i can start to do my own tasks
i had to return an entire cart worth of buckets and molds (at least they were clean, i’m grateful for that!) to the creamery, where they belong (and where they traditionally sit to air-dry), from the kitchen, where they didn’t, just so i could clear enough room on the drying rack to do somebody else’s dishes after they left without doing them
all but one of the morning staff left without finishing their cleaning and dishes, and i staged their overflowing trash for them by the exit to go out but they all just walked past it so i took seven bags out myself tonight
i need to figure out how to communicate “clean as you go” and “take the trash out when you clock out” and “do your fucking dishes so i don’t have to wash equipment before i can work” and “don’t take a break until you’ve cleared your work area” without sounding as annoyed as i actually am
two of them have repeatedly told me they’re “so busy,” but they’re also standing around talking for the bulk of the first two hours of my shift; now, i know you’ve been there for hours already when i arrive, and i don’t mind if you sit down for awhile, please do take a break, but IF YOU FUCKING RESET THE KITCHEN FIRST, MAYBE I CAN ACTUALLY START DOING WHAT I NEED TO DO instead of waiting for a clean workstation and clean equipment or cleaning up after you again
i’m very glad i no longer have to package the hundreds of pounds of curds they do every week, and, as i said, i’m absolutely happy to pitch in WHEN NEEDED, but i don’t like having to clean the whole goddamned kitchen before i can do my job because everybody’s decided to just not clean up after themselves
so today i basically faffed around the shop for a couple hours when i got there, decorating for christmas, because i didn’t feel like doing everybody’s dishes and trash and bench resets, but i ultimately ended up cleaning the entire kitchen after they all left anyway, then doing my own work, and then closing (aka cleaning the kitchen again so it’s ready for them in the morning), which is why i clocked out an hour late
lol YES, I KNOW this is just another short stanza in the eternal open-versus-close-staff war, and basically, in spite of the above bitching and attitude and do-not-like nonsense, i’ve decided my approach: i’ll just fucking clean! i’m not too good for it, i’m not above it, i don’t need to have ego about it, and i’m just gonna set the standard and keep it myself without being invested in how other people respond, because the bulk of this rant is, i realize, just ego and attachment and judgement
yes.
