Of tiles and paint and baseboards...

Sam and I have been living in our next great adventure for the last 3 years.

This nearly hundred year old house I bought has its own heartbeat, its own energy and changes all the beings that spend considerable time in it. I bought the house because of the feeling it exuded - in fact, the same day that I saw this house (which had not been tended to properly in nearly 50 years and is STILL in a constant state of renovation), I saw a house for the same price that was completely finished and beautiful, same size, the whole bit. But there was a chill that was caused by more than the contemporary design of the remodel. Something felt off in that house. Something I could not put my finger on and although the price and location were right, I refused to put an offer on it. My real estate agent didn't understand. My father did. When I told him that it felt bad to me, he ripped up the listing and we moved on. When we came to the house I own now, which had been listed for over a year and a half (an eternity in the real estate world at that time) and i exclaimed "This is the one!!!!" in the middle of the dirty shag carpeting and old floral walls, I thought my estate agent was going to have me committed. But commission is commission and ultimately the client's happiness is the goal, so we closed a week later and that dirty shag was all mine.

This house has changed a lot in the last 3 years. It existed as a community space for a long time. It's had many hands of love build it up and its fair share of people who have used it as a safe harbour. The shag is gone, the oak floor underneath exposed again after a 40 year hibernation and the rest of the rooms need some time and energy to bring them up to the original vision I had for them that first day I saw them. It takes a lot of compromise to live with multiple people, especially rotating groups of people, and I'm afraid that this beautiful house received the brunt of those compromises. It has served us well. But now the last roommate has moved out and yesterday I stood in the wide space of the front room (that has never been my room before) and promised this architectural matriarch that she would reach the full potential of her glory.

There's work to be done. There's adventures to be had (I've never even poked my head into my attic! what is up there??? perhaps the cats should go first!) and there's dreams to be realized. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the people that have given so much of their time and energy into this house. Now it is my turn to finish what I started that first day.

A whimsical bedroom
A sun bathed office
A western themed bedroom for the boy of complex description
A spa like bathroom
A country dining room
A languorous living room
A retro style kitchen
A guest apartment in the basement
A garage studio/gym
A cascading deck
A rockery, a vegetable garden and a water feature
A home