This Old New House

And so, my first ever blog post started with ‘Hello, world. Is this thing on?’ So let’s go there again.

Also, how the hell are ya?

I wrote a BUNCH of words last year, but only 3 or 4 blog posts.

Hi, again.

As an update to my wheelchair-accessible house wish list, we found one, and are in the midst of making it even more accessible. And also generally modernising a 1950s bungalow.

I not-so secretly call our crew the Dream Team.

But there’s a lot of phone tag, and catalogues, and paint samples. And I care more about kitchen counters than I thought I did.

We’re not living at the house yet. But we hang out there. To answer questions, or wait for deliveries. Or in my case, shower.

There’s a ramp up to the front door and a wet-room that was there when we found it. From a listing Neil sent me with the note: Ignore the old-person decor.

We were scheduled to see a house I thought was THE ONE. So much so I had to be nudged to view this one. After I was disappointed by the one I though I loved, we piled in the car with my Dad who says, ‘I made an appointment for the other one.’

‘When?’

‘Now.’

It had me at the ramp, and then the shower, and the nice owner. It felt like a few of the houses I grew up in. And as we left there was a rainbow on the road. It takes a village. In more ways I can write.

We took Isla to see it the next day, she wanted our room, but loves hers. She did gymnastics in the hallway. We left that day and Isla says to the home-owner, ‘I love this house. I hope you pick us!’

And the day we waited for the call I bought my first bunch of sunflowers in years and my first home decor magazine in ever. The phone rang and Neil put it on speaker and some weights lifted.

And so began the actually nicest home-buying experience I’ve ever well, experienced. We got in and the crew knocked down a wall. No, really.

We now have a living-room/dining-room/kitchen and early next month there’ll be a kitchen in the kitchen.

We tried to use a lot of what we had in the kitchen, but apart from the sink, that’s proved complicated. So now there will be a new kitchen cheaper than the upgraded/reclaimed one I imagined.

I’ve spent a lot of time making sure the new one might look not new, though. I like rooms with souls in them, and kitchen catalogues seem to lack them. I think navy and copper will help. I’m not a designer, but I like to put rooms together deep enough that I can actually visualise living in them. Which takes a while.

While a blank room might excite other people, it makes me nervous. I honestly can’t picture how everything will fit. It frustrates others, but I don’t care. It’s the same place I get my geographical blindness.

‘Whatever you want, it’s your house,’ they say.

‘That doesn’t help me. Give me options.’

‘This, this, or this?’

‘That’s too many options.’

I’m actually a call-me-when-you’re done kind of person. A here’s-my-vibe-have-at-it kind of person.

But I do appreciate having a whole house to vibe in.

Fer instance. You guys. I have an office. I have a book to finish and edit in that office. I have a door that slides to a close. I asked for beach vibes, I googled Long Island beach blue. Because I’m a nostalgic kind of person. I have teal on the walls, because I have work to do and I want to be productive and get it done.

I’ll also have floating bookshelves. I hope. Shelves I can pull up underneath and reach whatever book I want. I don’t know if I’m getting a new desk or the roll-top my Grandfather made for me when I was seven. I’d like both. We shall see. Would be nice to finish my book on a desk that’s in the book.

There will be more built-in bookshelves next to the fireplace. The fireplace we’re not doing anything to, because we love it.

Carpets are being lifted to reveal pine floors.

I’ll be doing my own version of sliding down the hallway in my socks.

In other news:

Isla is seven. She still likes me. Most of the time.

I’m still writing about my wheelchair-accessible wedding dress.

Gin & Lemonade is on this list of disability blogs to follow.

Stay tuned for more of our home renovation journey. trip.

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Also published on Medium.