The Days Are Just Packed

Well stripe my posterior and call me Apis: it's been that busy around here, lately.

Yesterday we finally made good on all the bicycle research we've been doing, and headed into Seven Corners Cycles down in Portland.  There we met Corey, a particularly friendly chap who ordered our bikes for us and then sent us over to see his friend Mike at Rack Attack so that we could outfit our car to actually carry the bikes once they come in.  Nathan had an enjoyable hour or so putting those together (the man does love gear) while I sat in here and put more hours into... a secret project that is Coming Soon.  In capitals, people.  We are not messing around here.  But it's taking up an enormous amount of my time (at least it feels like it has)...  hopefully it will turn out to be worth it.

The other kind of research we've been doing a lot of lately is related to houses and the purchasing thereof.  So today we made good on that, and went out with our realtor, who is every bit as excellent as his recommendation.  We saw four houses, and all of them were good.  One of them we've eliminated because we both felt positive-neutral about it, which isn't enough to justify spending that much money on a place (plus it was further out than we wanted to be).  There is one house (Yellow House) that Nathan is super excited about, but I'm feeling a little more reserved.  Perhaps part of that has to do with the filthy condition of the interior: I do not know how people live that way.  They must be renters, because surely no one would treat a home they owned like that... surely not...  But the nice thing about filth is that it's relatively easy and cheap to fix: we just have to be willing to scrub (and rip out some carpet, but we would have done that, anyway).  The bones of the house really are nice- I'm just skeptical about the bathroom situation.  We'll see....

The front room was immaculate compared with the rest of the house.  Also there was a stupid dog yapping at our ankles the entire time, which did not help my perception of the house, I'm sure.

Nathan's next favorite house (70s House) is one that I feel much more excited about, even though there isn't a basement.  But again- it's further out than we wanted to be, and definitely needs a new roof.  But the interior- oh my!  The people who built (or possibly remodeled) this place understood the importance of light, so it feels a lot bigger than its actual square-footage.  And the master bath... is pretty great.

The kitchen made me squee with happiness- especially that hand-painted backsplash.

The other house that I sort of love (Dutch House) is lower on Nathan's list, and I can definitely understand why- it would take more work to become what I envision it as (namely having a huge master bedroom suite on the top floor- currently there are two bedrooms and a sitting area- no bathroom).  Plus the kitchen is kind of non-existent, which is a real minus.  But when I walk into the house it makes me happy- and its proximity to uptown is a real plus.

Upstairs sitting room, flanked by two bedrooms.

So there you go- three great houses, all with their shares of pluses and minuses- plus I'm sure we'll go see more, eventually.  That's the nice thing about not being in a hurry to move (and being a staunch fatalist): you can take your time and see what else is out there.

And now?  Now I get back to work on some logos I've been designing for people.