I’ve been keeping busy while the house is on the market — working on my tarpestries for Reel Foods. Nothing like a few hours a day making art with tarp and tape and permanent markers to take your mind off your poor pitiful existence. Kidding. All I could think about was selling the house.
Well the house hasn’t sold yet, but the tarps are all done!
They’ll be installed on July 1st so you can see them on First Thursday, over the 4th of July weekend, and during Reel Foods’ business hours through October.
When my kids were little the three of us spent a lot of time watching Sesame Street together. One of the Bert and Ernie sketches had the two of them in a rowboat, fishing — without any luck, until Ernie had the bright idea to just call the fish. “Here fishy, fishy, fishy!” And suddenly fish were flying out of the water and into their boat.
There was another little “mini documentary” about an Eskimo child and her day to day life which had one line in it that Lina and I still quote pretty much any time there’s salmon for dinner: “I realllly, realllly like feeesh!”
Well. I DO really, really like fish, so I am having a great time creating a series of 10 small tarps which will be hung on the framework of the patio railing at Reel Foods on Capitol Blvd. starting in July, and running through September into October, depending on the weather.
I’ve completed the first layer on all 10 — they are cut and taped — and will start in soon on the second layer of Sharpie and paint pen “grafitti.”
We’re having an Open House on Saturday, June 20th from 11:00 to 2:00. If you’re house-hunting I hope you’ll come by so you can actually be IN the space and really experience what a cool house it is! Pictures may be worth a 1000 words, but this is one time that 3-D, rather than 2-D, really makes a difference.
I am a visual thinker. I’m good at going into a space, stripping it down to its bare bones and then overlaying my vision of what it could be “on top”.
Looking at floor plans and arranging my stuff within them is one of my favorite things to do. Since we’ve begun the process of selling our house I’ve spent more time than I care to admit looking at photos of places we might buy once this house is sold, and figuring out ways I could make them work for our needs.
We have something like 25 photos of our house on the “virtual tour” but if you are like me and you are trying to understand the arrangement of the rooms within the 3447 sq. ft spread over 3 floors you might be having a bit of difficulty piecing it together.
So, to make it easier for you between now and the Open House, here are some sketches of our floor-plan, as well as photos of “transitions” between rooms which you won’t see on the virtual tour:
You enter the house on the main floor. The front door faces South. The kitchen faces East and gets lovely morning sun, the bedrooms face West and the one in the Northwest corner looks into the backyard through the leaves of the plum tree right outside the window.
(The front door on the South side of the house, and a peek into the hallway.):
(Standing in LR/DR facing into hall between main floor bedrooms):
(Standing in that hall looking into the NW bedroom with the view of the back yard. That’s a built-in linen cupboard between the painting and the bedroom door.):
(Standing in the hall looking into the NW bedroom, the “study” and the living room.):
(Stairs to the 2nd floor are in the center of the main floor off the little hallway between the bedrooms. You can see into the “study” on the left side.):
(The view from the “study” across the landing into the kitchen.):
(Looking from between the “study” and the kitchen down the stairs to the basement.):
(Looking from between the “study” and the kitchen the other way, down the stairs to the Butler’s Pantry and the back door.):
(The Butler’s Pantry is to the right of the back door, on the landing between stairs down to the utility room, and up to the main floor.):
(Standing in the kitchen looking back toward the LR/DR.):
The 2nd floor rooms are on the East/West axis. I use them as studio spaces, but they would make great guest rooms, or bedrooms for kids.
(The view into the room on the East side.):
(The view from the room on the West side looking back down the hall to the room on the East side.):
(The room on the West side.):
The basement is basically an entire house unto itself. It was Logan’s apartment while we were a Certified Family Home and has a legal egress which we had installed in the bedroom.
(The bedroom also has a really cool “nook” which we built shelves in and which Logan used as a “book nook.”):
(There’s a room off the utility room which we use as a work room. It has built in storage on the South wall and with a little TLC could be converted to a 6th bedroom.):
(We also have a storage room under the stairs which I call the “holiday room” since that’s where I store all my Christmas, Easter, and other seasonal decorations.):
All of the above — I know, I know, I’m risking overloading you with visual information — but, all of the above should help fill in the inevitable gaps in any virtual tour of less than 50 pictures.
If you need more than this, then for heaven’s sake COME TO THE OPEN HOUSE ON SATURDAY BETWEEN 11:00 AND 2:00!!!
Yesterday I found refuge from all the sturm und drang of our house sale in the pleasant distraction of doing a little house painting.
A little bird house painting, to be exact.
They say when you’re feeling sorry for yourself the best medicine is to think about somebody else and do something nice for them.
Every year the Idaho Humane Society finds various creative ways to raise money to help find homes for all the wonderful animals that end up on their doorstep. This year, artists are painting bird houses to be auctioned.
It felt good to think for a change about somebody else finding their perfect people and future home.
Turns out I spoke too soon. I should never have worn my heart on my sleeve. Never have assumed understanding when there was none. Never have shared my enthusiasm so openly about all the things that make this house and this neighborhood so unique.
Lesson learned.
Right now you are probably thinking WTF are you talking about Melissa?
Well take a look…
Yes, that’s right, our pending contract failed and the house is back on the market. Wah wah waaaaaah.
