Its virtues: gorgeous paneling, stone fireplace (currently not functioning...alas), hardwood floors, and original leaded glass windows. Despite the Living Room's dark walls and northern exposure, it is a surprisingly warm and light room. Sunlight manages to stream in through the huge southern windows in the dining room. Still, I want to increase the feeling of light and warmth in the space, while playing upon the classic English library coziness and sophistication already suggested by the paneling and stained glass.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Nesting Nestless
Its virtues: gorgeous paneling, stone fireplace (currently not functioning...alas), hardwood floors, and original leaded glass windows. Despite the Living Room's dark walls and northern exposure, it is a surprisingly warm and light room. Sunlight manages to stream in through the huge southern windows in the dining room. Still, I want to increase the feeling of light and warmth in the space, while playing upon the classic English library coziness and sophistication already suggested by the paneling and stained glass.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Newness
I am standing on a cliff.
Everything is new.
Everything,
everything
is new.
Or will be very soon.
Within four weeks these things will happen:
1. We will sell our beloved first home in North Carolina.
2. We will buy a new home in Kansas City.
3. We will move in to said new home in Kansas City.
4. I will finish my masters dissertation for St Andrews.
5. I will have a baby.
As I said before, I am standing on a cliff. Looking down. I am afraid of heights.
What will this new life be? What is being a mother? I feel this baby move and I wonder who she is. I wonder what we will say to each-other in all the years that are coming. I pray that I will make a home for her—a place of light, beauty, love, peace.
For me, the New House has become a symbol of hope for my new life (and the New Life who will be born soon). It is difficult to imagine the future, or plan for the complexities of this new life. It is difficult to imagine a person you have never met—or a world you have yet to create. I find that my fear, my expectation, my joy are all tied up in the house. I spend hours thinking about the house. And silly things about the house: paint colors, curtains, pedestal tables. Or the garden: what will I grow? Is my soil alkaline or acidic? What color climbing roses? Will hydrangeas work in the back bed (which doesn’t exist yet)? Or the way light comes into the house from the south, the cool northern side where the front porch is. The bats who live behind the shutters. Somehow all these things stand in for the baby who will be in this place, whose first memories will be of this place.
Our House (We Hope!) in One Week
Our House
is a 1915 brick construction in an old neighborhood in Kansas City. The house is on a quiet street with a children’s park at the end of it. There is a running trail a block away that runs for miles along the old trolley track. It is 0.5 miles to Brookside village where there is a farmer’s market, restaurants, a grocery store, post office, coffee shop, laundry, florist, independent (children’s) bookstore, dime store and elementary school. From our front porch we can walk to the gorgeous Loose Park with its rose garden, playground, trees, and an old Civil War canon. We are within 10 minutes of our new parish, Our Lady of Good Counsel.
The house is full of old wood paneling. I usually don’t like wood paneling, but this is amazing. Totally unique. And the house is also filled with light, with huge windows all along the south face. The house is old—and feels old—but everything was renovated this year. I usually don’t like rehabs, but the previous owner kept all the important features intact. So I will enjoy the huge fireplace, hardwood floors, built in hutch, 1920s tile—while also enjoying a brand new kitchen with granite, new bathrooms and—wonder of wonders!—a walk in closet!
May God bless our new house, new baby, new life.