Shot from the back yard.

So let's see...what can I check off my "must have in a house" list?

1. A big yard. With some privacy. That thins out our options quite a bit. check.
2. A garage...I can't wait to have a garage! check. And I don't want the garage connected to the house, if possible, for various reasons. not check.
3. A dressing room...wishful thinking, I suppose. check...sometimes wishes come true.
4. A kitchen AND dining room. I have a huge "table in kitchen" pet peeve. not check...dang.
5. A sunroom...more wishful thinking. not check. dang again!
6. A window in the bathroom. check.
7. Wood floors. check.
8. Somewhere that I won't hear the damn highway all the time. check.
9. Two bathrooms*, because I've gotten used to having my own. Semi-wishful thinking. *Make that three, check.
10. Lots of windows. not check, but it's in order.

Things that are cool that weren't on my list:
1. Sliding door that walks out onto back deck from the master bedroom.
2. Hot tub that overlooks a beautifully landscaped yard.
3. Workshop in the basement (printmaking studio, what's up!!!!)
4. A window over the sink (overlooking that huge yard....)
5. Fireplace.
6. 5 miles away from the Wisconsin River.
7. Near the train tracks (to me, this is cool. I spent the first 19 years of my life near train tracks...i've always loved the train).
8. Great area for a hammock (childhood dream of mine).
9. Lots of potential to be way cool.
10. A very happy husband.

Oh....did I mention we bought a house?

Art and Plant

I wanted to hang out on the balcony before getting ready for work today, so I decided to make this:
Definitely not my best attempt at anything creative, actually probably one of my worst, but I had an extra frame hanging around (not literally) and I didn't want to put much fuss into it. So, for now, it will do.

I just bought that Jade plant from Johannsen's. If you live in the Madison area and haven't been there yet, I recommend a visit. They've got lots of great stuff...I could easily drop $1000 there. If I had an easy $1000, I mean.

Anyway, since I name all my houseplants, this one's name is Pinkett. After Jada Pinkett Smith, duh.

Well it's time to get ready for work. Have a good day! Today is supposed to be 90 here! Hopefully people still want to come to Rutabaga and try out some boats.

House Hunt Number One.

Hello.

So I already changed the grey to a gold color on the bird house...

That's the 5th time I've painted and repainted. But at least it's done now.

Here is the new corner for the summer, to replace this corner from the spring.


House hunting went well. Joe and I definitely have different ideas, but when it comes down to it, his really do make more sense and I'm just being Erin stubborn, making everything more difficult than it has to be (yes...i give in...i am a very difficult person to please, especially long-term. But I have been good lately and have bit my tongue a lot.) Sorry that I like character! Which translates to secret rooms, doors and passage ways. Okay, so this house turned out to be as awesome as it was creepy. It would be a really great house to have roommates and throw lots of parties in. There was a really cool secret attic thing upstairs and then we went down into the basement and the first thing I thought was "haunted house"...it was CRAZY! A concrete basement, with doors that led to more doors, locked by a nut and bolt (loved that) that you had to duck to get into and then we got to this crazy weird tiny circular room (probably 6 feet wide by 6 or 7 feet tall) that may have been a bomb shelter or a hiding place for a war or something. Who knows. It had a built in bench that went around it and the walls were slanted all the way around, it felt like a UFO! Even though it was an awesome house, there was a lot of wasted space and the layout was really random (but that's what made it fun). I just wouldn't be able to feel at ease in that house, as beautiful as it was...there's way too many hiding spots! And I freak out about home intruders on a regular basis and I don't want my sleep paralysis to come back ever again, so for my health, I decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to live in such a house.

So before we saw that home, we went to this ranch.

It was beautiful inside, very sunny in the kitchen and bedroom in the evening, the backyard is HUGE (about an acre and a half) and had lots of nice gardens, there is a workshop in the basement (i hate basements........but joe loves them so this is one area where i may give in) and a utility sink adjacent to the workshop. Um, can you say printmaking studio? YES. Annnd the reason I would say okay to this particular basement is because it has a walkout into the yard, so it's not as dark and dingy as most basements tend to be. The downstairs was just really great and would be perfect for guests because it has separate living areas and a fireplace.

The problem is that...it's a ranch. And I'm not into mid-century design like I used to be (way too trendy right now and very stark and cold) so I'm a little concerned about that. And it's a ranch. The typical American house. BUT the more I think about it, the more I want to see it again, because was really cool, for a ranch. So we'll see. It also has great potential for an exterior facelift. I've already rethought that whole process.

Anyway. I'm sure by now you are bored of my house adventures. I know I would be. But I've been stalking realty sites for over 3 years now and it's finally time to buy one! So I'm just a tad bit wound up about it all.

Okay, off to the balcony I go. I'm going to plant some wildflowers.

Bird House Painting

Yay! Day off today!

My favorite thing to do on my days off is sit on my balcony and paint things.

Even when it's a blazing 90 degree day. I like it when it's really hot, though...it reminds me of the tropics. Sort of. And when I sweat, it makes me feel like whatever I'm doing is worth my time. Haha.

Anyway, do you remember this bird house?:
Well, today it's getting a paint job.

The cool thing about painting when it's so hot out is that the paint dries super quick.
Anyway, I'm on a mega grey kick lately.

And blue.......I don't know WHAT is going on with that, I have always sworn that blue would never be my color and it never has been. And then something happened. I don't know what, but it has to be related to something. Although I usually have a new favorite color about every 3-4 months or so, and maybe I was just tiring of the rotation that I had going over the past 5 or 6 years.

So now I like blue. Mostly slate and aqua colors. Not primary blue, though. I should mention that the bird house was blue until about 5 months ago, when I started this project, and before my blue liking. I need to finish it today because I have about 13 projects going on and I'm trying to get them all done before things get packed up (when we move.) And Joe will be happy to see that I actually FINISHED something, since I get bored with things and move onto new ideas rather frequently.

Anyway, what's new with you? Not a lot here. It's 10:33 AM and I feel like I haven't gotten anything done. I'm going to the nursery to get food for my garden and then I'm getting vinegar and lemons so I can clean Joe's bathroom. Remember, he's the organizer and I'm the cleaner. Which is kind of good but kind of bad because I sort of get the short end of the stick...cleaning takes WAY longer than organizing.

6 Random things:
+I love spicy food.
+I can't wait to have a dog.
+I have never been able to touch my toes.
+I make up songs every morning and sing them to Joe.
+I hate playing softball and basketball but I love playing hockey and soccer.
+I'm listening to Disco Radio on Pandora. I like Disco because it's easy to dance to.

Okay, your turn.

If I Had a Nice Sunny Room...

Having a sun room or even a 3-season room is a dream I've had as long as I can remember. There's something about sunny spaces that don't have a television in them...somewhere that I can lounge and relax and sip on a seasonal beverage while reading a magazine. I'm not big on novels, so I resort to reading magazine articles and blogs. But if I did like to read long books, I would most definitely want to do so in a warm and sunny room.

So, if I had this house, I'd want to decorate the front entry with these items:

Sources:
IKEA
+KARLSTAD Chaise. White: $349
+DRACAENA MARGINATA Plant: $4
+HAVTORN VASE: $13 each
WORLD MARKET
+Purple Terra Cotta Plaques. Set of 4: $40
URBAN OUTFITTERS
+Weathered Wood Jewelry Cabinet: $36
CB2
+Overnight Table Lamp: $30
+Chirp Pillow: $25
WEST ELM
+Channel-Rib Pillow Cover: $24 each
POTTERY BARN
+Moorish Rug, 5x8, sold out at PB but available on eBay: $290
ETSY
+Circles Table by Michael Arras: $499

TOTAL: About $1400 after shipping charges.

Links to come.

Well it's about time to get ready for work. Our phones have been down for 5 days now and it's a real drag. It's slowing down business and screwing things up left and right- one guy said that he thought Rutabaga closed up shop. Fingers crossed that it all gets fixed today.

2:00. Thursday.

So I'm sitting on my couch, reading the news, and suddenly there is a ladder being propped up against my balcony. Um, okay...I didn't get any sort of notice from the apartment management, so I wasn't really sure what was going on. Before I know it, there are 3 men on my balcony. Okay, for one, I was in the middle of a project (on my balcony) and was about to go back out to work on it some more. And two, what the heck is going on? They were up here for about 40 minutes, installing a new vent cover. But what the heck...aren't they supposed to give me some sort of notice? I don't know, I just didn't think it was very cool. What if I was laying on the couch naked or something? Maybe I just have a thing with boundaries.
Anyway, I'll add it to my list of reasons why I can't wait till we no longer rent.

+++++++++++++

I found this house the other day on a realty site. It's in Mazomanie, though. And Mazomanie is far far away from Monona, which is where I work. I wouldn't mind the drive as much as the maintenance on a car being driven 60 miles (roundtrip) each day.

Originally I thought Mazomanie would be okay, because it's only about 14 miles away from the place I work during the non-Rutabaga season. But then when I went to said place the other day for a rehire event, things didn't go quite as I'd hoped, and I can't say that I'm too happy about it. I can't go into detail for various reasons, but I'm a little peeved.

So I already decided how I would decorate this house if it was mine. But chances are we wont even look at it since it's so far from work. It's too bad that the houses in Madison don't meet enough of my requirements. Mainly because of our price range (we're being pretty frugal with it, I suppose) but also because a lot of the houses don't have a big enough yard. If I can throw a baseball across the length of the yard with my left arm, then it's too small.

PS, I'm right handed.

Well I have to go get a new tire from Firestone now. I've been putting that off for most of the day. I went earlier and there were a ton of people there so I left.

OH and guess who's back? 2 of the 3 guys. No joke. Off I go before I break some skulls.

Hello everyone!

I have the day off today. Usually on my days off I get up with Joe (I'm sure I've said that a million times on here. but I don't read my own blog and don't remember the things I've told you! I'm sure that's obvious by now...I probably repeat myself a lot.) Anyway, yeah- I usually slide out of bed at 6:30, day off or not, which I think is a great time to get up. I like to make coffee while Joe is in the shower and then I make my oatmeal, too. Then he leaves, I go online for longer than I care to admit, and then I finally decide that the day needs to start. Well I have been dragging a bit (still trying to catch up from a camping trip) for the past week and I decided to stay in bed this morning when Joe woke me up. So when I woke up the second time, I looked at my phone (which is the only clock in my room) and it was 10:30. WHAT?! So I knew I was tired, but not that tired. Normally I'd feel like it was a waste of a day if that had happened, but I must have needed the sleep.

Anyway, onto better things. I found a millipede on my camping trip, right before we were about to leave. Don't mind the obnoxious plastic bag in the background. We were camping with other people. Enough said....

So that was the first video I've ever made. I'm sure you could tell by my mad video taking and editing skillz. Just what I needed...another thing to stall the start of my day. Video making.

This post went in a completely different direction than I had anticipated, so more later. Maybe tomorrow? For now I need to do some stuff.

So the bird problem continues. I'm about to slingshot that damn thing. Not really...but if I didn't have a heart I would. My garden was getting nice and tall and now it's shrinking. I put CDs out there but they aren't afraid of shiny things like I thought they might be. Any recommendations?

I saw this house on a real estate site and thought it was cool...the windows! OH man those windows are perfect. So hopefully the Realtor calls me sometime today. Then I realized that we are leaving town on Monday, so we either have to go look at the place today or in 2 weeks when I can get off work. I vote today. We'll see. I'm not a kitchen island type of person, but this one is pretty sweet.
Okay well off to work I go. See you later!

We Can Do This For Real Now

Joe just called to tell me that we were approved for a loan for a house!

So we knew we'd be approved, but we just didn't know how much we'd be approved for.

I was happy to hear that the amount was much higher than we were hoping for, so we'll be in a super safe range when we finally purchase.

We're meeting with a Realtor soon and then we'll go from there.

Yay!

Now onto something that made me really mad last night...I came home and Joe kind of looked at me like he had something to tell me but didn't want to tell me. Then he finally said "look what the birds did to your garden."

And so I looked.

This shot was taken about a week before the bird problem started...
And then the bird thing happened...
AAAH the damn thing ripped my pepper plants to shreds! Luckily I had brought in my other plants the night before because it got really windy and a couple of the plants aren't stable enough for the wind yet.

So now I have CDs all over my balcony, in hopes that shiny things will scare them away for good.

I'm peeved.

Requirements for a House

Hi there!

Today is my day off, and the only one I will be able to enjoy from home for quite some time. The last time I had a day off I was traveling and the next stint of days we will be traveling again. So nothing will get done around the apartment, but I'm okay with that.

I planned on building some homes for the hideous 5 gallon buckets that currently adorn my balcony, but I forgot to charge the battery for the saw. So I moved onto a different project, but now I'm waiting for paint to dry...so I decided that maybe I should blog.

I haven't taken any photos lately, so I'm pulling some from my ever-growing inspiration folder.

Joe and I can't wait to live in a house. It feels like it's been so long that we've been wishing this. We're in our 4th year of apartment living and have spent almost $40,000 on rent. We are so ready to be done with it! It will happen, soon, but still feels so far away. Our goal is to be in house by September/October. But since I'm picky, we'll probably end up looking at lots of houses before finding the right one.

My top 10 wants for a house, in no order:

1. A big yard. With some privacy. That thins out our options quite a bit.
2. A garage...I can't wait to have a garage! I already have a color theme picked out and have been collecting tools, boxes, etc in those colors so I can get to work right when we move in. And I don't want the garage connected to the house, if possible, for various reasons.
3. A dressing room...wishful thinking, I suppose.
4. A kitchen AND dining room. I have a huge "table in kitchen" pet peeve.
5. A sunroom...more wishful thinking.
6. A window in the bathroom.
7. Wood floors.
8. Somewhere that I won't hear the damn highway all the time.
9. Two bathrooms, because I've gotten used to having my own. Semi-wishful thinking.
10. Lots of windows.

Here's a nice garage. I like the floor and potting bench! Joe and I have different opinions on what the garage should be used for. I vote tools, etc. He votes car housing. I suppose we could do BOTH but only if the garage is big enough. So I guess we'll need a 2 car garage.


And here is my ideal dressing room. Except I'd have 5 hooks.

When I work at American Girl in the fall and winter, I have to wear nice clothes. It would save me a heap of time in the morning if I was able to hang things and make them look pretty in advance. I have this idea that every Sunday I would get my clothes all ready and ironed and hung, waiting for the week to come. And then when I got home, I could rehang my stuff right away. This would be a lot better than my current situation, which is: run around frantically trying to find things to layer. Putting on and taking off about 6 different ensembles, mismatching here and there, until I finally shuffle my way into something that matches and layers well. Only to realize that it's wrinkled (since I never hang my clothes after work, but put them in the "clean, don't wash, don't touch (Joe)" pile instead) and maybe a quick fluff in the dryer might help. And then forgetting where I put the necklace I want to wear and the shoes that I swore were sitting by the door last night. I somehow manage to make it to work on time, but if I had 5 pretty hooks and a floor length mirror, I would be so much better off. So that's why I need a dressing room.

(as always, i don't know where those images are from. i'm one of those people who is highly unorganized even though i go through great lengths to get things just so...aaah!)

UGH this damn bird keeps coming on my balcony and yanking the leaves off my tomato plant! I have watched her do it 3 times today...no wonder that one doesn't seem to be growing! Is that normal? And there's bird shit ALL OVER my balcony. I hope it rains so it washes off, because my downstairs neighbor probably doesn't want water all over their stuff for no reason (although I have never seen them outside before...so maybe I don't even HAVE a downstairs neighbor.)

Okay well Joe gets home in 20 minutes, so it's time to speed clean the apartment.