Wow, what a year amiright? I was stuck in my old house until September with my hubby holed up in the new house because he wanted to isolate while he worked on it and on his online job. This was okay, actually, if frustrating for me as I fretted over the new house's yard getting overgrown and whined about not getting to see the spring or summer flowers so I still don't really know what this yard has in it. BUT I was with my daughter and son-in-law in the old house which also needed work, and got to be there for her through her Expectation, as we are expecting a wee one in just a couple weeks here.

In Sept my hubby decided to head back to our little condo in CA to continue his hermitage so I was finally able to move furniture in and be Home. For about a week. Then our state caught fire and I had to go back to the old house which had a functional climate system unlike the unfinished new one. A couple weeks later, I could finally return so I've really only been "Home" for 2 months though we bought the house over a year ago.

Got a lot of work done on it in that time, and there's more in progress (the saga of the bathroom floor, the epic tale of the woeful furnace ducting, the gripping tale of the bedroom ceiling...)

And now we find they may induce my daughter a little early (still very close to due though, so not preemie time) meaning I am lurching into Grand level life very soon indeed. Next weekend, if all goes as planned (or as planned as such things can be). Time to roll up my sleeves and help a clueless young couple figure out which way is up on a baby!

Hope all is well with everyone out there, I've barely been online so I feel like I've lost track of a lot of you, bless you all. Feel free to reply here or at DWth - https://primsong.dreamwidth.org/214215.html .

Finally finishing up my bedroom wall mural - considering I started off with "some purple over on that wall" and some kind for a stronger vertical presence. I'm pleased with how it came out, especially since I wasn't really sure what I was doing when I started in chalking lines on the wall. We plan on adding a transom window opposite this wall, so the mirrors will eventually be picking up light from there as well.





I didn't want it to get too busy, detailed or "faux window"-ish, more of an impression of a view. This is being done with semigloss wall paint, foam brush, sea sponge and a bit of detailing.


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While cleaning garden storage cupboards at our new place, I peeled off the old yellowed labels the previous owners had left (i.e. "PLANT CHEMICALS" etc.)

There's one longer cupboard up above with two doors both of which just said "EQUIPMENT". Peeling it off I found it originally said "ALCHEMY EQUIPMENT". From the pegboard inside it appears it was where they kept their watering wands. Hahaha! Wave them around and the dirt transforms into plants!

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The pantry is finished up! The oversized bird-of-paradise made a good focal point, all of it will be behind metal wire shelves so it had to pop to still show up like I wanted it to. It's crazy enough for a nice zap of color when I want one but not out in daily use so it doesn't overwhelm the overall house feel.

The furnace hole was covered with a painted ceiling tile, and the embedded pipe was capped and painted white, I think I'll probably attach something dangly to it with magnets. Oh, and I put a giant wooden banana cutout over the door because everyone needs a giant wooden banana cutout over their pantry door.



Voila!



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Our house weirdly came with two furnaces (one at either end) so we are in the process of notching the foundation and connecting the two ducting networks to make only one furnace. Where the second was pulled out is the perfect spot for a small pantry instead SO I decided that would be the uber-bright snap of color spot since it is only seen when putting away or fetching groceries. This project took me sooo long to do... My own fault for so many colors, all needing multiple layers and touch-ups.
Starting off... random outlining mostly. My only concrete idea was one oversized flower in it.




Details sloooowly filling in:



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Sellers just agreed to our repair list and our loan is ticking along through the credit union just fine so I got excited and ordered address labels (hey, they better not change anything now! I ordered, y'know, ADDRESS LABELS). Heh.

Yippy! I get to pick out new paint and carpet! Aaargh! I have to find new paint and carpet that I actually like! What's with all these weird muddy colors out there? Why is so much interior decorating stuff the color of baby food or dirt?

I spent the day dredging stuff out of our lean-to and greenhouse, spreading half-full bags of fertilizer and dirt and such here and there around the property just to get rid of them, yippy! I am the Dirt Fairy! Aargh, why in heaven's name did I save so many plastic pots? I threw some away, others I think I'll take to the local nursery and see if they want to repurpose them. But really - SO. MANY. POTS. If the zombie apocolypse starts this month and the zombies can be held off by putting pots on their heads, I have us covered.

And what do I do with the entire front end of a truck? I'll have to find out where large metal thingys go. Then there's the giant pile of brush and branches that will have to be chipped... dear me. God bless people who are moving, we need all the help we can get.

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Here's a handful of pictures! The front (everything is angled so it's a half-circle drive too) - even the garage is a slight parallogram instead of a rectangle.

I picked up some paint chip samples yesterday, a big wad weighing down my purse by the time I fished through them all, and next I need to go look at carpet for the bedrooms - I don't have any grey in my house at all and this has grey carpets throughout so they have to goooo.

I want to put shiny, multi-tone tile over the lower fireplace bricks. The kitchen is just off of the living rm -

with the various rooms coming off of the hall at fun angles -

I love the courtyard especially, the pergola has a propane fire pit in it and a waterfall with koi beside it. Guess I'll need to buy fish food!



SO much to do in the next couple of months...oy..... but happy with it!

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Found a house! (been looking for nearly two years now) and made an offer - and now it's accepted and now we're going "Yay! Oh no! Yay! Oh dear! Yay! Oooooh boy look at all the things we have to do! Yay! Aaaargh! Yay!....."

I love the house though the kitchen is a little smaller than I would like, now the inspection has to happen this next week and I have to pray they don't find any 'deal-breakers' in that. It's so wonderfully funky, a mid-century modern with hexagonal living room and a fireplace tower going up to a cupola in the middle of it, an angled courtyard with a little waterfall into a small koi pond, an outdoor fireplace, a pergola with wisteria over it... aaaaa! It's difficult to wait for all the details and papers to work their way through now.

Feel free to reply here or at DWth - https://primsong.dreamwidth.org/212024.html .

Can't believe I haven't posted since the wedding in March - where has spring/summer gone? Still working at the soap-makers/perfumers and loving it, still slowly looking for a new property with some near misses but no new house yet, still dancing, etc. I've been learning to dance with props (swords, fans, veils, wings, etc) and have really taken to the fan veils. I had my first ever restaurant performance with them, woo! Very nerve-wracking but it went fairly well at least, I only had one hair doodad go flying off halfway through. Fans require lots of spinning.

My daughter and new son-in-law have moved into the lower half of my house and we get along famously, which has been good all around. Once away from his rather controlling 'manly man' father he was able to re-evaluate who he really is and found his passion in making ugly things look beautiful - SO we now have them both learning to sew and he just started into getting his cosmetology degree. :-D He was so afraid he'd be the only guy in the class but there's another dude and he's even also military so they are really enjoying themselves and the other guy is showing him how to do amazing braids. We get to be guinea-pigs!

As a bonus, both of my kids found weekend work at a local tea house where she is in the kitchen and he is dressed up complete with watch-chain, silk tie and pocket-square to serve ladies high tea. It's fahhhbulous!

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The wedding is done, thank heavens - we had a variety of snafus as often does occur... all the coffee I was given was whole bean and the only brewer was a giant percolator basket style one with no instructions, for instance - resulting in a panicked call to my parents to bring their coffee maker from their kitchen with them and any coffee they had in their cupboard. We completely forgot to put out the sparkling cider so I have all these bottles leftover....We had a lot of empty seats between the groom's family having almost no one there and so many of ours dropping out for various reasons... and they almost forgot to exchange rings - hastily put them on each other laughing just before heading back down the aisle. X-D

BUT - it was worth it! The dance processional to present the bride was amazing, and everyone had a good time. We're still waiting for the Good Pictures, but here's one to give an idea:




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