86'n It

I love the finding a new place, the packing, the moving, the unpacking and the organizing. It is all very very exciting to me. Just thinking about it is making my palms sweat with anticipation.

Three of my close friends and relatives have recently moved or are moving. It all makes me incredibly jealous. One friend bought a small house and is doing renovations, including what is sure to be a kick-ass kitchen on a tight budget. (Now, that I think about it, maybe she'll let me do a before & after post on it...)

The second friend sold a huge, beautiful house that they had 'flipped'. The work they did was amazing. Pre-purchase it looked worse than our house. Yeah. That bad. I remember one bathroom that looked like someone just set off a neon yellow paint bomb. It was on the window glass and everything. Anyway, they are now renting a brand new eco-friendly house. Solar panels, heat pump, great insulation, the whole nine yards. Swoon.

The third is a sad one. My sister with my three nephews is moving from North Carolina to Indianapolis. NOOOOO! Who will help me dig holes and haul mulch or vacuum dust?! What makes this worse is that they are buying a really great house only 5 minutes from my other sister. A new, nice house AND free babysitting AND someone to go to the mall with???? This is more than my jealousy can handle.

I've been trying to cope in really dumb ways. Two weekends ago, I forced Marc to help me re-purge the storage room. We now have a yard sale pile. I've been rearranging furniture and buying cheap fixes that help our house be more livable. Interesting discovery is that rugs really help. Also, older houses look better with less stuff in them. Check out the rearranged living room with new Peruvian rug from the second friend's pre-move yard sale: