We're homeowners.

Well, technically it doesn't fall into place until we get the deed transferred, but City Hall was closed when we finished signing.

I spent four hours today weeding, picking up trash, and cutting down saplings planted by negihborhood squirrels.

DH took out the cabinet in the upstairs bath, and the fridge and stove are there; the sinks are on their way.

I still need to clear out the cabinets and get them over to the house.

It's a good first day, though.

Closing date: Friday, August 29, 2008

Holy cow. I swear, I was starting to think we would never know!

We are supposed to find out the time of our meeting tomorrow.

Saturday DH (and 3 helpers) will be picking up the appliances and sinks. I will probably already be at the house, painting (freestanding) kitchen cabinets!

I have to get primer and paint and all that jazz very soon. DH will need the dependable car on Saturday to carry some of the muscle.

Glossy white (oil based) with glass knobs and drawer pulls.

I have butterflies.

Still waiting

I think Dante had a circle in Il Purgatorio called "waiting for the closing", didn't he?

Maybe not, but he should have had one. Tenterhooks are uncomfortable, especially when you've got vintage appliances waiting for their new home.

Just ONE more document

So they say!

We are scheduled to close next Friday, August 29. I hope that we do, because today we bought a kitchen sink (1942, but looks 30s), a 1937 pedestal sink for the powder room, with a very funky hair washing hose & frame (DH fell for it...there goes the high Art Deco!), and tomorrow we are looking at a 1933 GE Monitor Top refrigerator! (I'm quite sure we'll be buying that, too.)

Whew!

In addition I brought bags of vintage clothing in to Chris at Circa, and traded it all for two custom made cheongsams. One is from the 30s, it's off-white velvet with orange and green. The other is 50s. Dark red velvet, very plain, and quite New Look. He certainly got the best of the deal, but I love the dresses, and I needed the closet space.

We went to an antiques center too. DH got a pristine 1930 wall calendar; it's fabulous. I got a glass rolling pin, the kind you fill with ice to keep your pastry cold.

It's been quite a day.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

Let's see...I'm knitting a lace scarf from some glorious Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Gold Rush (I bought the yarn in December 2006). A simple 10 row pattern from the second Barbara Walker treasury. It's going to be lovely.

DH & I had a cocktail party (us, two guests) last night, and we all had a wonderful time, including the kittens, who refused to go to sleep lest they Miss Something. (Fa Sing was so tired this morning that he tried to take a nap on my head when I was in the Child pose. Too funny!)

We still don't know whether we have the house. But we signed yet another paper on Friday. Please-God-we-get-it. It needs to be loved again.

Die Fledermaus

Yes, the bat. One little bat (nearly batted around by the Terrible Two) made our early morning just a little more exciting.

He was a tiny thing, but had a big presence. I heard a high, metallic sounding chitter right after the garbage truck woke us. Told DH it was a bat, he insisted it wasn't; I insisted back that it was; I've had my premises invaded one other time.

When I heard Than Chai growling, I insisted that DH go and look.

They had the little creature cowering inside one of the radiators (old-fashioned things, ca. 1900). It was so dark we had trouble deciding if he was a bat or Lord-knows-what.

Eventually DH shooed him out an open window (in the process, all of my sewing things and about half of my knitting notions hit the deck), and we were bat free.

The boys, incarcerated in our bedroom, did not look on this as an improvement. After parole, they both told me earnestly that they'd really seen a flying mouse, and where was it now?

Twice in a lifetime is enough.

Thai Shan

In memoriam.

Our lilac point Siamese, Thai Shan, died one year ago today. He was nearly 14 years old, and the one constant in my life for that time.

He was sweet natured and well-behaved (to an unnatural degree; he would even walk past a pile of alpaca yarn) and a devoted pet. Every night when I came home from work he would be waiting at the door. If he'd missed me particularly he'd call out. It sounded like he was saying, "Mama's home!".

He's the cat who turned DH into a cat lover.

When he was young he was the feline MP of the group of cats my ex and I had (after Sud Ying died...she's a book's worth of anecdotes!). He was an excellent sergeant.

Thai would wait up for me if I went out at night. Last July I went to a bookstore party to get the last Harry Potter book, and he waited. He stayed with me all night as I read, though he was very ill; dying, in fact. He refused to go to bed until I did, at around 6:30 a.m. that morning.

He did thousands of sweet and funny things; I can't seem to pick just a few more to add. I'd be here all day, writing about him.

He was buried in a pet cemetery, with a marker including a photo of him and a quote from a poem dedicated to an English Siamese cat named Charles. I cannot remember the exact quote at the moment. I'll look it up later and add it in.

You call this a kitchen?

IF we get the house (please, please God!) this is the kitchen. Before.

I have cabinets to finish (free-standing), one of which is actual Art Deco, albeit handmade, and this:



I've also decided on hardware, confused the builder, but gotten him to agree on no wall units, and we have a very good chance at a late 30s/early 40s stove.

DEEP breath and lots of praying, hoping, and wishing next.

Oh, the sock? I just finished the toe decreases and I'll probably graft it tonight.