Goodbye city

This is a lovely, lovely photo I took on one of our last days living in the city. It was after eight o'clock in the evening and I was heading home by bike, over and across to the Esplanade. I just had to stop and save this moment on camera: just my phone camera, with no filter, of course. It was one of the first mild evenings  of the year where the sun had not fully set yet, and water was perfectly still, and the city seemed quiet and so pleasant- one of those nights that I knew I would miss about living in the city. 

What a difference a few weeks makes and how one's life changes over so seamlessly! We have fully moved to "the county" now and enjoying every bit of it. Of course we haven't gotten on our bikes in over two weeks, but we still hope for upcoming opportunities!

DYI project: Painting

I have been up to my ears in reading and online video watching of how-to's in and around the house.  Remember the long list of "things to dos"? One of the first projects I tackled today was painting the living room of the house. I've really learned so much from other bloggers! I also scoured the internet top to bottom for paint color ideas. I compared rooms of different sizes and lighting scenarios, rooms that were a perfect match for ours in color of the floors. I've always adored gray as a neutral base color. We have gray in our current apartment and I remember exactly the name of the color. Cement block. Is is  exactly that color and I love it. 

Since our living room in the house is a bit on the darker side, I decided to go with a shade of gray that was a bit lighter. I chose "Stonington Gray" by Benjamin Moore. Chris asked me last night after we lugged home gallons of paint from our local hardware store, why I thought BM paint was better than other paint companies (I suspect this question stemmed from the price per gallon!). I truly had no idea…until I finished painting today. I used no tape and no drop cloths. The paint was a perfect consistency where it was thicken enough to cover quickly, but not thick enough to drip. The coverage was very nice and not once did I drip on the hardwood floors. 

It looks a little baby blue-like in the "after" photo, but I suspect it will be more dark when the pain dries.

I think the living room will look even better once I paint the trims in "White Dove." Harry approves. 

House beginnings

Yesterday marked a new beginning for us. We now have our house in the "country" and yesterday was the first time we had been in there solely, on our own. Chris took this photo of it when we stopped by on Wednesday during a major spring shower. The slate roof was glistening. We brought food over to the the house yesterday and set up our lawn chairs (or rather, our roof deck chairs) to enjoy our first meal at the house. Even Harry enjoyed some hamburger! He was very intrigued by where we were and even explored on his own.

Of course, during and after our visit, we had so many plans to do this and that, in and around the house. The list is endless and I can't seem to keep it all straight or even begin to figure out what to do first. It seems like so much to do and all very exciting, daunting, but rewarding at the same time. 

One of the plans is to set up an outdoor garden space. Right now, our garden space is limited to a few sproutlings in out window sills. This week was a major turn for my green thumb, as they started to grow quite nicely! It's amazing just how much the sprouts grow in one day (Chris doesn't believe me, but I watch them closely so I am sure of it).

kale and mesclun salad greens

heirloom tomato sprouts!

makeshift backyard/driveway picnic at the new house

Living In Squalor

We sometimes joke that our friends would be surprised that we occasionally (occasionally or more frequently than not) "live in squalor." Living in squalor happens when we haven't picked up around the house in a while, or when we have cat fur that have become tumbleweeds, accumulating in corners and under the couch. Well, if we ever did live in squalor, we are certainly living in squalor now. We are in the middle of packing and sorting. You know, the part where all your belongings are sitting in limbo and out in the open, not tucked away in the back of a deep closet. Boxes on boxes of books shoved into a corner, and bags or things to be recycled or given away.

I used to think that the reason squalor occasionally exists in our house is because we just have so little room. Of course, that was just me fooling myself. We went to someone's apartment yesterday evening (in the neighborhood) to look at a bed frame we are thinking of buying second hand. His space was small, but so neat (and stylish!). I'm not sure where all his "stuff" was, but I told Chris that I wished I was him- where moving would consist of just the furniture and three (maybe four) small measly boxes of belongings. 

I don't think we have a problem with getting rid of things, we just have a problem with how often we go through and get rid of items we don't need. But perhaps we need to look at how we come to accumulate things that we don't truly need.

I've always heard the saying that moving is a great time to clean. You should only take with you items that you love and/or find useful. (This gets tough with items like the paper shredder. I hate the paper shredder, but it is useful. And it is sentimental- Chris carried this paper shredder that weighs probably over 40 lbs in a backpack through Manhattan...twice! He'll be sad if we ever have to get rid of it).

So, my goal for the new place (and I'll have to be Chris on board) is to keep it minimal. 

*First photo: making progress with packing. Oh, that bin of dirt houses our wriggler worms- an item that I love (granted it's an eyesore) AND find useful!

The "Original" Blog

We have not moved in six years. It's safe to say that we are, we have been pretty settled. Before we lived in our little apartment at the bottom of the Hill, we lived in an even little-er apartment at the top of the Hill for a year. Before that, we lived in an even smaller apartment in the heart of New York City for two years. And before that, we were in a moderate sized, one-room apartment in Boston for a year. So, you can see that we are no strangers to moving, but it's been quite some time since we've had to even think about it. 

I started packing yesterday and I found what I call, the original form of blogging…an old scrapbook that I started in college (of course, this is why packing can be so time consuming- finding and looking through old treasures!). These were the days when online blogs were certainly more rare, and memories were physically cut, pasted, and hand-written into an album. I loved reading out loud the blurbs I wrote. We laughed and commented about how "teenager-y" it all sounded. Truth be told, it did, but then again, a teenager did write it.

I also concluded that we might have liked each other more back then…perhaps not really, but we liked each other differently. It was evident that we grew old (older) together and had we not, it wouldn't really have worked all these years later. 

It's funny what your mind remembers and what it forgets over time. So, I'm glad to have documented some fun times. I hope that this blog serves a similar purpose for me in the future (only, when I pore over it then, there will be less laughing at the writing style!). 

Oh, and we seemed to have also found some original "selfies," too!

Spring beginnings

The weather has finally started to thaw out and warm up this week. This is truly the first week this year, where I am starting to think that spring has finally arrived and here haven't been days below 32 degrees! 

We spent some time in New York two weekends ago. Though one of the days was just purely miserable with constant downpour of rain, we had a good time. Of course, Harry came along, which I documented a little here. We indulged in some pretty great food- one of my favorites being a chicken and waffles brunch. As you can see from the photo above, we made it to Ippudo, a ramen restaurant in the East Village. Chris enjoyed it a lot, and though it was pretty great (and he gives me completely grief for saying this), I have said that I wasn't necessarily blown away, per se. I look forward to having some amazing ramen in Tokyo for comparison (maybe some day!).

Interestingly, we spent a lot of time in Brooklyn- more time than we have ever spent before. And though I appreciate the quirkiness of it, I also appreciate that it is not a town for me (or us) to live in. Several evenings ago, after our trip, we just happened to stumble upon an interesting documentary about the gentrification of Brooklyn and the controversial downtown Brooklyn re-zoning project. There was a sadness conveyed in this film, and it places a different perspective about all the "citifying" and "hipsterizing" of Brooklyn. It was nice to have spent some time in the neighborhoods that were being discussed.

On a very happy note, during our trip, we were able to stop by the Lower Eastside Ecology Center's booth at the Union Square Farmers' market to pick up our wriggler worms!  We are starting our indoor composting project again and I could not be happier. As you may know, we had one for years…YEARS (more on their story in a later post). 

We have the big move coming up next month and it will be a whirlwind of packing, traveling, and organizing. Until then, we've been trying to make it to our neighborhood eateries (nothing fancy) and last night, we took a nice stroll across the Boston Commons to Uburger. I will definitely miss it! 

Afternoons together

Chris has had a lighter schedule the past couple of weeks and we've sometimes had afternoons where we're able to spend more time together.  

Last Friday, he met me at work and we biked home together. It was just a few days after the last big snow storm. I snapped the picture above, while we were biking over the ramp from the Esplanade.  It all looks like snow, which it is, but sits over the frozen Charles River. A dock leading to…snow, it appears. The sun was in my eyes, so I couldn't see a thing on my phone. I'm glad it turned out well.

We had another such afternoon yesterday, which was a nice surprise. We grabbed lunch at Sam LaGrassa's. We've only been twice, but it's pretty great. We each order a sandwich and it is so much food that we're not even hungry for dinner that evening! If you can believe it, the shop is only open from 11am - 3:30pm on Mondays through Fridays. We're pretty convinced it's a front. But regardless, it's delicious. I'm always so pleased to see small businesses who march to the drum of their own hours. These are people who understand that there needs to be a work-life balance and that if you do good work, others will seek you out. I recently read an interesting article about a similar scenario in the South of France. It was about a young chef and owner at a burgeoning, hot restaurant who made the big decision to be closed on Sundays. This was a major decision because Sundays are the day in France where families get together for meals. However, this chef decided that it was much worth the effort to spend time with his own family. And business is still booming. 

We enjoy Chronicle, a local television news segment on restaurants (where we were re-introduced to Sam LaGrassa's). We already have a list going of places we'd like to try! Interestingly, some of these delicious suggestions are outside of the city in the suburbs. Perhaps this makes the decision of moving out of the city a little less of a blow.