Y’all rock.  Thanks for all the votes!  There was very little consensus, which is kind of cool to see that the people who read here have such different favorites.  In addition to putting together a ‘show,’ I am also putting together an entry collection for the State Fair.  It’s 10 bucks to enter, and then the prizes are 40 for first in each category, and a 150 best of show.  There are several categories, and the 10 bucks covers 2 entries per category, which is a bargain, so I’m going to do that, too.  Getting my photos Out There was one of my creative goals for the summer (along with starting a YA novel) so I feel really energized that I’m doing just that.

After my exit interview today, I went on a mini road trip through Piscataquis county.  I’d never really BEEN there, just passed through, and it was really cool to stop and take it in.  I went to a great cafe that is housed in an old bank, and the owner has been working for 10 years to restore it, and I was absolutely KICKING myself that I didn’t bring my camera.  So much so, that I will probably go back before summer is over and ask to take pictures.  I was the only one there, and he showed me before and after pictures, and the back rooms, and talked about the process of restoring it. Really incredible place.  Also on my creative goals: Take Camera Everywhere.

When I was in NYC, I was sort of sheepish about looking like a tourist yokel with the camera around the neck, and I am still really shy about shooting people, unless it’s like, Dave or one of Amy’s kids, because shooting people is more  . . . raw.  I’m much more at ease doing the surreptitious macro stuff.

ANYWAY. This has NOTHING to do with the title, which is furnitcha’, because I’m on a DresserQuest.  (Why are they not bureaus anymore? Or is that a maine thing?)  My folks gave me some money with an excellent caveat of "for furniture only" and with my grandma’s check, I can afford to dun dun DAAHHH — finally get a damn dresser.  I think I’ve narrowed it down to two styles, which couldn’t be more different.  So, of course, I look to the internet for guidance.

They are both by Vaughan-Bassett, and made of real wood, and feel good and solid and have good drawer maneuverability, which is very important to me. 

The first is a maple dresser. I like this, it has brushed nickel pulls (as does the other contender) but it does feel slightly less heavy than the other one. 

The second is a black cottage dresser.  This is heavier, visually, and also bigger than the maple one by about 7,000 cubic inches.  (Um, yeah.  My furniture guy is the dad of one of my former students, and I sort of laughed and told him he’d have to tell his kid that I made him do math. Hee.)  It also FEELS heavier.  Not that the maple is flimsy (it’s no Sauder stuff, by any means) but just… there’s more heft.

And, in that photo there is the standard chest, but there is also a vanity chest, as seen in the background of this picture, which really appeals, too.  It might be just enough dresser for Dave, and get the TV hidden away.

Also, there would be no mirror (the swoopy thing isn’t my style) on either, I’d hang one separate.  And, whichever dresser I get will probably be the first piece of furniture of a set that I add to in the future, either from the same collection or otherwise, but I want there to be some consistency.  For the first piece, it would be the long dresser that we start with, and not the tall chest, FYI.  (Of course, the store has a tent sale right now with mismatched mirrors for 20 bucks, and I could totally add that and paint it black if I wanted.)

Anyway. Opinions?

Day 22 of bleeding. Have I mentioned? I’m going crazy.  Today particularly sucks because this was the Magic Gateway to the Second Trimester. Well, fuck.

So, we are bandying about ideas for the house, trying to figure out what to do when.  My priority (structure wise) is windows, and Dave is lobbying for a metal roof, and we’ve sort of compromised in that we will try to get windows for our bedroom and the sewing room/nursery before next summer. (I so hate the Tax Man, the whole plan was to do the whole house in windows this summer, but taxes ate our window money. Fuckers.)  ANYWAY.  The rationale is that we want to be able to open and close the windows in those two rooms with minimal fuss, and they are also the two that we want to be less drafty.  Basically, if we end up with a summer baby, we want to be able to adjust the temperature and airflow as easily as possible.  And in winter, we want to be able to count on the windows as a (god forbid) fire escape.  Our current single pane, wood casing, with storm windows are okay, temp wise, but not in the ways of convenience and safety.  We silicone-caulked them over the winter, and yesterday I had to use a screwdriver to get the caulk free to get the window open… and well, in a fire, we’d be toast. Uh, literally.  So, we’re looking to do those four windows.  Eventually, all of them, which would be 10 single windows, with a bay or bow window in the front, and possibly a door from the dining room to a (future) deck.

I also windowshopped furniture today, sigh, and this set was on clearance at one place, but clearance of 1500 bucks is still more than I can afford on furniture.  Especially when I have a laptop to buy, windows that need fixing, and a more than 50 percent pay cut in 3 months.  Someday!

Anyway – if anyone has recommendations on replacement windows (we’re looking for vinyl double hung, tilt-in, and energy efficient) please, share!

Holy Nuts.  Last night, I cleaned the bathroom from top to bottom. Literally.  I mopped the ceiling and walls, cleaned the tub, toilet, sink, vanity, mirrors… I even washed the scale.

Today, I’ve tackled our bedroom, and the linen closet, resulting in 3 bags of trash.  Now, I’m on to the dining room, then living, then kitchen.  The goal is to make DigsChicken for dinner and eat it at the damn table. For real.

I’ve also picked out a paint color, and decided to do the wall the bed against all brick red (Sherwin WIlliams Flower Pot, if you care) and the other three with a chair rail of FLower Pot and a top half of Antique White.  I found a duvet cover and BBB that I like, that even has corresponding curtains that I will get in a contrast color.  So, the brick red wall will have the bed with ‘vanilla’ bedding, and then the creamy walls will have the same pattern in a brick red color, which works contrast wise, and because Dave insists on dark curtains.  I just need to hoard BBB 20% off coupons and buy everything piece by piece.

It’s weird how much more relaxed I feel knowing I’ve PICKED A COLOR for my bedroom.  Wars rage on, but dammit! I know what paint to buy.

I added pics of the sewing room to the Shelter album at left.  You guys know the true purpose of that room, so you can probably envision it’s future configuration.  Am I doing a good job of making it look like it’s for sewing and not for offspring? Or is it a blatantly obvious child’s room? Hmm.

Also, some pictures of the snowstorm last week, where we got 24+ inches and I had 2 days off.

Our white picket fence is disappearing!

My car, next to the basketball hoop.  I think this summer I’ll make the hoop post a giant ruler, and use it to measure snowfall next year.  For scale, my car is a 95 Escort. You can have it for $200! 😉

This is the hood of my car, at the bottom.  I took a shovel and scraped away to show the depth of the snow, but it was still snowing when I did it, and fast, as the green of my car is almost completely covered here.

I stepped back a bit, see what I mean?

This is at eye level. I’m 5’4" and was wearing boots, for reference.

I was really impressed by my hood cutaway shot, what can I say.

The side of the garage.  We have to shovel a path that wraps around it so that the oil guy can get to our tank.  So, this was clear before the storm, and is clear now. Just imagine the shoveling, will you? (This is not an area that my neighbor snowblows.)

My car from the other side.

From the street.

The backyard. Seriously, this property was made for children. IMAGINE the snow angels we could make.

I wish we didn’t owe taxes.

Right now, I’m coveting this dresser at Overstock. Actually, 2 of those dressers.  That and a reconfigured closet would take care of out clothes situation.  I like IKEA stuff, but there is no IKEA until you get to Connecticut, and while it would be lovely to see Emmalola, that’s a long ass haul for cheap furniture.  I want some REAL furniture, at some point, and the furniture stores here suck.  There’s lots of oak with scalloped baseboard trim and engraved wheatstalks and shit like that, which I do not like one bit.

I am also coveting a closet re-do, and the system that would fit our 50’s 4-ft closet is 200 bucks. Double-sucky.

But, we have to pay our taxes, and put money in my IRA to lower the tax bill, and then resave the money that we are spending unexpectedly. THEN we need to get windows, and so maybe, MAYBE this summer I can harness the clothing explosion that is our room.

We also need to choose paint for our room.  We had picked out an olive green color, but now we’re thinking it might be too dark.  The color of the guest room is just soooo nice, (it’s shown in the Shelter album) and the sun comes in that room in a really good way.  Our room is still papered with a dingy khaki gingham pattern (ugh) with a hideous, HIDEOUS, red white and blue job underneath. In some areas, you can see the RW&B print coming through the khaki paper, it is that loud. I am not making it up.  Our room is just such a mishmash of furniture and blech.  Our bed is a platform that Dave built, and that’s okay, but really high with a mattress and boxspring.  My dresser is an old farmhouse dresser from my Nana’s house, that will be retired to the baby’s room when the time comes.  Dave has a 3 drawer job that he doesn’t USE except to pile shit on, grrr, but that’s because the runners are rusted and it doesn’t open/close well.  Our television is on an old microwave stand.  Dave’s nightstand is a shiny black lacquered end table with gold trim (very Miami Vice) and mine is a shelf that Target sells that is intended for bathrooms.  It’s tall and narrow, with four canvas bins. It’s the only thing I could find that puts my nighstand above my sleeping head.

So, none of our furniture matches (bed is pine, dresser is stained mystery wood, but almost an orange color, Dave’s dresser is maroon and silver, etc) except my nightstand (intended for bathrooms) and the TV stand (a microwave cart.).  MMMMmmmm, white melamine.

But, I can’t get any of that right now. Because of taxes. Ugh.

I’ve been working on the sewing room today; now that the beadboard is painted, the ball is in my court.  I’ve actually created a huge pile of trash (I’m guessing my cancelled checks for Pizza Hut in ’94 are not needed these days) so I feel like I’m making headway.  The biggest stuff I’m saving is old journals and photos.  I have taken a plastic file box and restricted my journals and written memories to that box.  There’s some stuff in there that I’m ot sure why I’m keeping it, except that I can’t let it go.  I don’t know, I imagine my kids finding it when I die and learning about their mother before she met their father, and while I’ve moved on from those parts of my life, I want to keep the evidence.  I mean, I have 8th grade poetry in that box!  But, by restricting to a cubic foot, it will lessen the magnitude of clutter.

I can’t help but think that as soon as I’ve put the finishing touches on my sewing room, and lined up all of the craft books and everything, that I’m going to be pregnant. Murphy’s Law, you know? Since I’ve been putting it off for a while now, it is about time I just did something with it.  I have the rug, I know what I want for curtains, I can see it in my mind.  But, along with the craft books I put up my children’s book collection. You know.  Just in case.

I love that my address has LAUGH at the heart of it.

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Daeden is coming!

Daed is Amy’s son, to whom I am “Gigi.” I was there the day he was born, and the nurse asked Amy if I was his sister, and she — between contractions — said “mostly.” So, since then, Daed has been my “mostly nephew.”

Anyway, he is almost ten (TEN!) now, and is going to stay at our house for a night or two to hang out with his Gigi and err uncle? Dave. He will be the first guest in our new guest room, which looks awesome. The bed arrived, I made it up with new bedding and new fluffy pillows. I got simple white sheers for the window (there are shades behind) and collected my ocean-y stuff — Crumple photos and souvenirs, mostly — and put them in there. I also got a new alarm clock for that room, that even makes nature sounds as a sleep function. Dave is most impressed, so after Daed leaves, we’ll probably swap out the new clock for my old one.

Because he is almost ten, I also have stocked up on things your mother never buys you because they are a waste of money: Archie Digests, Garfield crosswords and puzzle books, MadLibs. We hope to go to the city pool (it really bums me out that there are no pictures online of this place, it is AWESOME for a city pool) and maybe the Children’s Museum. We may even make our own ice cream. Wheeee!

But, I must take out the trash and do dishes and all that jazz before he gets here.

Today, I got to see what living in this neighborhood will be like when we reproduce. It is going to ROCK.

Amy had to bring her oldest son to meet her dad who was taking him to NB for a swim meet. (His first international competition, heh). Amy brought the two younger boys with her, and they came here after dropping off the (allegedly pissed off he wasn’t coming too) older kid. I gave them the tour of the house and yard, we played with our one ‘toy,’ a not fully inflated basketball, and then we went to the playgrounds. We started with the 14th street school, the K-3 that our offspring will walk to, Ramona Quimby style. There are some ball fields that separate the K-3 school from the 4-5 school, but we tested out both playgrounds. They were awesome, swings that hold adults, seesaw, the zoomy-handle-racing things, swirly slides — it was great. After lots of playing at the playgrounds, we packed up and went to the new pool complex that is at Hayford Park, just across the street from the 4-5 school. It was packed, but great. I played with Liam in the zero-entry area, where there are dumping buckets, a wall of water, a raining mushroom, and ground level sprinkler things. Amy stayed with Rowan, apparently her shorts and tank top didn’t pass muster as poolwear, (she’d forgotten her suit) even though there were obese women in t-shirts and shorts in the pool, and after all the excitement at the parks (“This is a HARD DAY! I’m ZAUSTED” — Liam, before the pool) we didn’t stay very long at the pool. But, for six bucks for all of us (I lied and said we were all Bangor residents, whatever, I pay taxes, and Liam was born here) it was pretty fun. When Daed (the oldest) comes back from his swim meet, hopefully he will be able to stay here for a night, and we can use the waterslides and big-kid things.

Seeing that my neighborhood IS as good as we predicted, kid-fun wise, though, was great. Hanging out with Amy (who got a little wistful and talked about wanting to move back, take THAT Portland!) was great, too. Now if I could just get that kid-ness for myself!

In other news, we went to dinner with the whole inlaw-family last night, in honor of my MIL’s 70th birthday. HAving been so pleased with our wedding, the SIL made reservations at the Lucerne. Great.

Dave and I got there first. We waited in the car until we saw someone else we knew. The second family member to arrive was my 17 year old niece. With her baby. And her 16 year old slack-jawed, drug-dealer boyfriend. Wearing a sideways baseball cap, ‘gold’ chains, a basketball jersey over a tshirt and most of his pants, which were jeans. My nephew (he of the jeans/tshirt/bulls cap ensemble at my wedding) came dressed in, yes, jeans, tshirt (this one had printing on it, so less ‘formal’ than the grey one he wore at our nuptials) and baseball cap. His Like-A-Wife is pregnant, so she was wearing wrinkled-to-shit khakis and a tatty maternity shirt. My BIL was wearing jeans. WHAT THE FUCK?

It’s not like this was a surprise, that the Lucerne is formal. These people were at the wedding. That’s where my nephew learned that eating with your bulls cap on is not polite. (He had to be told again last night.)
(Dave and I were wearing a linen skirt and top, and khakis and a button-down, FWIW).

Now, I’m not a super-formal person. I know the rules of etiquette, but I’m not going to harp on you if you butter your bread from the communal butter-dish. But you should know how to dress, and know when to dress. I mean, Dave’s getup wasn’t that expensive — the pants came form TJMaxx, less than 20 bucks a few years ago, but Eddie Bauer, so they’ve held up well. The shirt is a basic brown oxford from Old Navy, that I got for 3 bucks on the clearance rack. You don’t need money to have class. Period.

And I hate that it bugs me so much! Maybe I AM a snob, but I was EMBARRASSED walking in with these people. Not all of them, the estranged brother (who, more and more, we realize we have more in common with him than the others, and the estrangement makes sense, kind of) was wearing a suitcoat, even, and his wife was dressed well. (She’d make a freight train take a dirt road, to look at her, but she knew to dress up) One of SIL’s family was well dressed. My MIL was. But the other SIL, every friggin one of them looked like they thought the Lucerne was classy like Applebee’s or something. I mean, come on. Take off the goddamn hats already. (Dave loves hats! My dad loves hats! But they know when to leave ’em home.)

Also, put your napkin in your lap. And your water glass is to your right, thank you.

One more thing: I ordered new glases! And now I have to WAIT for a WEEK to get them! NOOOOOOO!!!!

I am definitely, totally, not a patient person in some regards. In others, I’m told I have the ‘patience of a saint.” However, I would like my glasses to arrive, my room to be done, and to be pregnant and done teaching sometime last week. ARGH.

You know, I’m beginning to draw parallels between painting the back rooms and parenthood. Yes, I know they are VERY different tasks, but think about it.

When you decide to paint the room, it’s a blank canvas. You have long conversations debating the merits of a bluish-green vs a greenish-blue. You look at the spectrum, you decide, and you bring the paint home. You can envision that greenish-blue room with the windows open on a summer day, the guest bed made with fresh sheets, a nightstand with a neat lamp on top. You can see the office area set up, the shelves stocked with the technical manuals and reference books, the bill paying area clean and neat, with a cup of pens on the corner. It’s all right there, in your head. And now you have the paint, so it’s almost done.

But it isn’t.

First, you have to move all the crap in the guest room to the sewing room, and you have to move the stuff that won’t move into the center of the room. You then have to strip the paper, well, the three layers of paper, before you can paint. You do this because you’ve read the books, you’ve seen the shows. You are going to do it The Right Way, and you will be proud of the finished product.

Doing it the Right Way is a bitch. You start getting big sheets, but then there’s the little bits around the woodwork that are stubborn. You end up spending two days scraping, wearing the same clothes, dirty and sweaty and smelly, and you wonder why you hated the flowered wallpaper so much? Why did we need the greenish-blue room, when it’s really only a lighter and bluer version of the wallpaper that was there? You’ve already started, though. The paint can is in this house, somewhere, waiting to be used and loved. The room is torn up. There is no going back.

SO you keep on plugging. You get paint flakes (probably lead-filled, the house IS 5o years old, you know) in your eyes and mouth and nose. And you’re wearing glasses and a facemask. When you rip back the facemask,gagging, to spit paintchips on the floor, you do it out of instinct, and then apologize to your husband. You remind each other, this is worth it. This is what we wanted, remember?

At some point, you get to tape off the woodwork. You get to prime. When you haven’t gotten that point yet, you hope that you get there soon, because you just bought a bed and it is being delivered in ten days. You have ten days to get everything done, which sounds feasible, but then you remember that at least 6 of those days are being used up for work. Four nights are gone because the conference isn’t local this time.

But then you peek in the sewing room, which is now filled with all the crap you felt you needed to move with you. It’s a mess, waiting for the office to be done. One wall is still chewed up, hanging beadboard won’t happen until a person can actually GET to that wall. But the other three? Are beautiful. That green makes you smile every single time. It was worth it.

It sucked getting there, it was hard, and dirty, and a pain in the ass. You had headaches and sore arms and your fingers were pruny and sliced up under the nails. But it was worth it.

So, we are at the spackle stage of one wall, and almost there for the other four. I am PRAYING that I will be able to prime and paint tomorrow. Because I know, I KNOW, it will be worth it in the end,

And the furniture guys have to put the bed SOMEWHERE next Saturday.

Ahhh, room number two. The office/guest room. For real, no hidden meaning in that one, as in ‘the sewing room.’ Dave cleaned out the room, save for our computer/network equipment, and I started stripping paper. Sweet beauty, it is going so. much. easier than in the sewing room. I’ve used not one drop of water/Dif/vinegar/blood/sweat/tears. AND, I’m getting down to the drywall!!

It appears they, gasp! used sizing in this room. (I really, really doubt they did in my bedroom, which will be a huge undertaking, I digress) It’s just peeling off. Not in sheets so much, but in big chunks. I slide the scraper underneath, and strips of 8 inches or more just lift off. It is amazing.

Interesting, too, that the paper on top (that I hate) is almost exactly as the original paper two layers down, only darker. And, the original base color of the original paper is almost exactly the color we picked out for that room. (God, that’s probably only exciting to me. Sorry.)

We also, yay, got stuff hung up! I framed my topo maps last week, and Dave hung those when I got back from Portland. I searched EVERYWHERE for 16×20 mats with 10×13 openings and found none. I went to artist supply stores, ferfucksake! I looked online! I looked EVERYWHERE. After searching in vain, I decided it was time to buy myself a mat cutter. I ended up buying the Alto 4501 from Joann.com, after finding a 50% off online coupon. Yay! I decided I would look for matboard this week, but I figured I was covered.

So, today I went to Target and saw that the frames I wanted for my Bangor photos were on sale, yay. And when I grabbed 3 and headed for the register, holy moly! They had 10×13 openings in their mats!! So, I framed those and Dave hung them this afternoon. I figure the mat cutter is still a good investment, as I will be taking pictures forever, and I already have some stuff I’d like to frame that is of an odd size.

So, our living room is only now waiting for the curtains to be made (once the back rooms are finished, I’ll haul out my machine) and for our wedding portrait to be hung (which is done, but just not HERE, yet.) Oh, and for our boomerang coffee table to be built, which is something Dave has been saying he might do this week since he is on vacation. Yay!!