The house tour

Whew!

I'm a bit tired so you'll have to excuse my little blog absences lately. I haven't had a moment to do much of anything what with all the painting of bathrooms and packing of books. There have also been school woes because Little S's teacher has been out sick and they've had no replacement for the last three days. Each morning we go, he isn't there, and we come back home. Each and every time. The problem is I also take our neighbor's girl to school, a little pistol of a thing, and I have her for the day too because her mother works. I don't mind having my own kids home but having someone else's child is somehow very tiring and puts a huge crimp in my day. She's gotten in to everything in the past few days! A while ago I went in and found that she'd filled Charlotte's play kitchen sink with water from the bathroom, yes and SPILLED it all over the place. Yesterday she had charlotte's hair accessories strewn everywhere and I keep finding broken barrettes and clips all through the house. She just one of those kids that gets in to stuff. I pray that the teacher shows up on Thursday. I am beginning to feel like a seriously underpaid nanny.

Our house it seems is rented which is good news. I'm relieved that it's over so fast. I didn't want to suffer through visits and have to clean every single minute. The person is actually the local woman who came by a few weeks back. It turns out despite appearances to the contrary, their living in a tiny apartment, they have the money to upgrade to a house in the country. We don't really care because we'll have insurance against non-payers and they will have to prove their income to the insurance company so there isn't any worry of them lying to us. It all has to be on paper. They're a really nice Muslim family of three with their own business which we think they plan to manage from the house. No problems for us--the house actually makes a nice business locale too.




My only issue was decorating because on her visit to the house she made a few comments about repainting and finishing the woodworking, namely something about a vert-pistache which made my scrunch my mouth up in shock. Remember that the entire house was vert-pistache when we moved in--horrid! I know she likes to paint and add color, probably part of the Tunisian culture--a colorful country, and also I see the array of curtains in her apartment from the street--blue, purple, yellow etc., so it's obvious to me she'll want a color palette in the house that looks like a crayola box. I had told Seb I'd prefer a couple who'd not change the house too much, I mean if we had a choice, but he's right I guess we can always repaint *sigh* and we can't really impose our tastes on them as long as they're paying our mortgage (or at least 75 percent of our mortgage). I had to be firm about her not finishing any wood work though. She wants to redo the wood on the inside of the downstairs doors because she said it looks unfinished. I explained it was a retro "look," something seen in many decorating magazines and but she seemed confused. But my friends that is a non-negotiable and I told her "I'm sorry we'll have to ask you not to touch the doors and put it in the contract." I've spent over a week of my life on those doors and I really like them. I don't want them touched. In short I think she isn't much into the old house aspect or the decorating aspect of our house at all, but they really needed a house and there isn't anything available in our little town so they're stuck with us. I'm happy with them though. They seem careful and serious and they don't have teenage boys, my big fear for my house because all my neighbors have teenage boys. I could just imagine them all becoming friends and "hanging out" at our house all the time when the parents were out, duuuuuude. No thanks.

We still have a lot of little things to patch up and fix--lots of last minute work to do as you can see in the pictures (click on the grid to enlarge them). The house though pleases me very much and I'm really sad that we can't enjoy the fruits of our labour for very long. It's too bad we can't take the place with us and just travel around with it. Someone I met today told me they'd viewed the house when it was for sale and had found it to be uninhabitable, but that they'd always loved the garden and the exterior so they'd seriously considered buying it. I said "well we've done a lot of work inside" and she looked curious and flat out asked me if she could come by for coffee one day to see it. I said "yes" because I want to see the shock in her face at how much it's changed. It's a sort of addiction and an affirmation that maybe we haven't been so nuts these past few years and we did make something out of nothing.

Okay well if you'll excuse me I have a three year old's birthday party to plan for tomorrow. Three! unbelievable.