Oh bliggity blog, I haven't forgotten about you! There's a multitude of mental notes for topics and perspectives that I've come up with over the last year and a half. I even sat down and drafted a half-baked post sometime last May, but I never got around to publishing it. That's not to say there isn't much to talk about though. More appropriately, where do I begin?!
The last time I wrote on this blog it was about acquiring things, material and immaterial alike. The biggest acquisition since then has been a spouse. Now that life has settled down quite a bit, I'm feeling at ease with the ball-and-chain known as "Mr. Beth." It's been a very welcome transition to married life and I feel solidly at home being at his side as his wife.
Well, he sure cleaned up nicely! <3
Nowadays, things have taken a different turn. The big stuff of late is mainly focused on the purchase and fixing-up of our first home -- a darling Craftsman-style abode built in 1921 and located in the Lakeside District near downtown Cheyenne. Conveniently, it's smack-dab between a hospital and a cemetery, so rest assured you don't have to travel far if you're feeling sick or are on your way to go greet God. Take your pick!
Over the last year it's been fun navigating through the trenches of home ownership. Maybe it's more appropriate to refer to it as an endless supply of home projects -- ones that you wish you could pay someone to do for you but since you have a tight budget and things aren't going to ease up anytime soon, you end up just doing it yourself.
Luckily my other half has considerable expertise in carpentry so he really pulls his weight in getting stuff done efficiently and getting it done right. I love him for that! I, on the other hand, am not a fan of big DIY projects unless there's some sort of aesthetics-improving component to it. Don't ask me to fix something unless I can sit back and say "yeah, that was worth the all trouble after all because I can actually see the results."
So when we re-did the hardwood floors ourselves before fully moving in, it was a great lesson on how important it is to not cut corners because you'll be so glad you did things right when you're finished. This was probably only the second time the floors have ever been redone since the house was built (!). Needless to say, we found a plethora of nasty s&*% stuck in between the walls and floorboards. But man, oh man, did it feel nice to see the sparkle of the floors once all was said and done.
There's only one way those floors were gonna get sanded, and I sure as hell wasn't going to take charge of it!
Oh, the things you find hidden between the floorboards...like pennies and hair ties and years of pet hair/dust accumulation.
But all-in-all, I do absolutely love those shiny (like-)new floors! And so does Mattie :)
I promise this blog won't turn into a DIY home renovations site. I do have to share one more fun tidbit to share that came from a house project: when we were painting our walls, we also uncovered a lot of history about this house. Like the terrible drywall job in the dining room (don't ask). And also the original wallpaper that was buried deep below layers -- and years -- of paint in the master bedroom:
The vintage pattern is so cool!
How neat would it be to somehow go back in time and see what the house was originally like when it was first inhabited almost 100 years ago?! What kind of decorations did they have? How did they handle the cold winters with those drafty, old-timey windows? What was the kitchen like before refrigerators were invented? How often did they have to stoke the boiler with coal over the course of a day?
Either way, there have been plenty of owners over the years and I'm sure each one of them loved this house just as much (or more) as we do. Oh, the stories they could tell! But for now we at least have bits and pieces of their stories hidden underneath the layers inside this house that we now call "home." I'm excited to see what else will be in store as we start to tackle other things. For now, it's been really fun!
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