Hope is the thing with feathers

"Our house.. is a very very very fine house!"

You know what that means…

Yep, we got a house. A better house.

Oh, and did you enjoy that entirely random video with Disney movies??! I did!!

A refresher:  We got a cute old house in Sugarhouse, but the inspection went awfully and it had so so many problems so we withdrew from the contract and then hit the house hunting hard because we need to get into a place ASAP.

So Thursday night we went out with our agent for a big house hunting extravaganza.  Which sounds kind of fun (mainly because I used the term “extravaganza” and could be fun if it weren’t so damn stressful).
We had a list of 8 or 10 houses to see all over the valley. 
It did not start well.  We saw this giant house that the previous owners had obviously had rooms custom built for—the listing mentioned a “craft room for the wife” and “tool shed for the husband” or some such nonsense.  As if wives don’t have tools and husbands don’t do crafts.
Eli has done plenty of crafts and I actually came into our marriage with more tools than he did! He had an old screwdriver with the handle falling off and I showed up with an entire kit and a box of screws and anchors.  And when I say “kit” I mean WD-40, leveler,hammer, pliers, duct tape, the whole shebang.
So I hate when listings have that sexist crap.

And this so called “craft room” was set up terrible with allof these mismatched cabinets and desks all built-in this oblong room.  You would have a hell of a time revamping it,and I kept picturing creepy porcelain dolls lining the shelves in there anddecided that was the “craft” in question the room was built for, and we immediately ruled the house out.

We saw another one that was okay, but it felt closed-off tome and I got claustrophobic and Eli was frustrated because he liked it and I just kept repeating “we aren’t going to settle, we’ll find the right one.”  I’ve been clinging to that EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON stance in this house-hunting debacle and thank goodness because it is true. And murmuring Emily Dickinson under my breath—

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul-

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all…

The next house we saw was IT.
Pulling into the neighborhood we commented on the remarkable location—near our families  Near the freeway! A short drive from work!—and the lovely state of the neighborhood itself.  We pulled up and the place is a darling rambler with a landscaped front yard and bright orange poppies exploding near the front door.
Which to me was like a massive green light luring me in to my future home.

Eli grabbed for my hand and started rocking on the balls of his feet, the way he does when he is really excited, as we waited for Mike the Realtor to unlock the front door.
The layout of this house is very open and makes it feel twice as big as it really is!
It has two bay windows in front and an open living room to dining room to kitchen format on the main level.  There is a half stairs curving upward to the top level, and another half stair that descends into an open den.  It is one of those modern multi-levels and has 3 bathrooms. YES, 3 !! And 4 bedrooms (one of them destined to be my library).  It has a Master with private connected bath and walk-in closet and a cute little yard perfect for the riotous flowers and herbs I’m planning.

We immediately loved it, and took the owner’s wine collection and Dallas Cowboy’s memorabilia as a good omen (both are hard to find in Utah, and both are things near and dear to Eli and myself).
There is only carpet on the stairs and the downstairs bathroom, so the rest of the house is bamboo flooring (that looks like beautiful wood) and tile—AMAZING!

The best thing about this house is that it is ready to go.  With the other house, the one we withdrew from, we would have to do overhaul on it a week or two before moving in (installing new carpet, painting, putting on rain gutters, having dead trees removed).  For this current house, we can unload our bed and toothpaste and move right in.  Which is a relief because my best friend Miss Victoria arrives about a week after we take ownership of the house.  She is staying with us for 3 weeks for her holiday so we’ll need to plan a guest bedroom for her as well… making our priorities a dining room table and chairs, a sofa or two, and anything necessary for her guest bedroom.  And a backyard grill.
All the other furniture can wait—there is no rush in filling our house up with it when we have time to plan and get it just right.  We’ll end up re-painting later on to make things more “our own” (like the black kitchen cabinets…hmmm) but it looks quite beautiful as is.

Eli sofa "testing"

We scoured the furniture stores this weekend, thinking there would be some killer Memorial Day sales. There weren’t.  Which is okay,since we aren’t really buying right now anyway—we are going to get house measurements when the inspection takes place and why buy furniture when you have nowhere to put it?

Well enough about the house, here is what else we got up to this weekend…

A celebratory drink and dance with friends on Friday night(a few hours after we got the house under contract)…

We ended up at the nearby swinger’s bar for some pool and creeper observing…

A BOOK SALE! Well, if you can call it that.  I noticed a little local book shack had “going out of business” signs plastered on it, and they were advertising 10 books for$1.  So clearly I shit a brick and drug Eli down there after work on Friday but they were closed.  Saturday was their last day open so we got there as early as we could with our hangovers and when we pulled in, the sign had been amended to “FREE BOOKS.”  I danced in the door and proceeded to gather 6 tottering stack fulls.
They didn’t have anything particularly intellectual (Faulkner, Fitzgerald,Hemingway, James) but they had some hysterical romance paperbacks and vintage science fiction with classic taglines on the front.  One of the books had a review that said “the best writing I’ve seen in a lot of years” and we took it home with us on that merit alone.

I was in an absolute frenzy at the bookstore and found a few gems  and tried to pay the owners for them but they wouldn’t let me!! They said“nonsense, enjoy” and I thanked them for feeding my addiction and off we went to visit the historic Main Street of Midvale, Utah.
Which you might recognize from The Sandlot (we’ve been hitting up a lot of the filming locales from this movie lately!!).  This is the old drugstore (where they buy baseballs in the movie) that has been closed for many many years, but they’ve kept the historic sign(thank goodness). We also found a fun old sports card shop on Main Street and picked up some Dallas Cowboy cards for our nephews. 

Then off to my new favorite restaurant, the best local burger joint ever.
I’ve been dying to try it, just based on the exterior, for years.  So we finally hit it up and the food was glorious.  It was the best pastrami sandwich I have EVER had.  I couldn’t even finish it.  The fries were golden and crisp and fresh,Eli’s burger was grilled to juicy, cheesy perfection, and the chocolate milkshake tied it all together.  I will be back.  Again. And Again.

Then some more furniture shopping, and off to my family’s house for a birthday dinner for my brother. We went out to Joe’s Crab Shack and it was delicious (those spicy Great Balls of Fire are amazing)!
We went to bed early that night—completely zonked from having stayed out until 3 am the night before.
On Sunday we spent some time by the pool in the sun, cleaned up more of the apartment and packed away some donations, went to market for some fresh fruit, then went to a barbecue at a friend’s place, for which I made my famous jalapeno poppers and Eli revised my bean dip recipe. Both were a huge success and we had a ball, and had a post-party with another friend.  We hit up A Bar Named Sue for some pool, and then had a late night (early morning) breakfast at Denny’s.

BEST PASTRAMI EVER.

Monday was for boring things like laundry, but we had a delightful nap outside in the grass listening to birdsong. It was a good day for being thankful for the servicemen and women who have protected our country and allowed us to take outdoor naps in the backyard, knowing we are safe.

And thank goodness the weather held for the long weekend,because today it is cold and rainy, which it is supposed to be for the next several days.  I’m fine with that, since I love the rain, and will be shut inside doing work, though I hate my new desk where I cannot gaze dreamily at the raindrops outside my 8 foot window. 

 Oh and have you seen the fuss about this "Hitler teapot" ??

 So funny!
I see what they are talking about, but come on.. it is a kitchen necessity, not a silver dictator...though they both are full of hot air (ha! Couldn't help myself).

If anything, don't blame the designed, blame the person that took the photograph from that angle.
And blame the people driving past the billboard allowing themselves to work up a head of steam over such nonsense.

If we see people standing under the billboard saluting it, that is cause for concern, but really it is something ironic to be laughed off.

OUR HOUSE!

Oh, and here's a bonus to this post: last night I came up with an ultimate treat.... THE FLUFFERNUTTER COOKIE. Peanut butter cookies on either side and marshmallow filling in the middle. Holy crap heavenly goodness.

Happy Tuesday (that feels like Monday!)