Friday, March 17, 2006

This old house

Okay. Enough moping. I have a houseguest arriving in 15 hours, and I don't have to time to be sick.

Early this morning I cut up enough vegetables to feed a small village, so the cooking is well underway. Earl Grey pots du creme, check. Ingredients prepped for spicy peanut soup, check. I still have to buy some pie crusts for the torta rustica, Petunia's favorite company dish, plus drain the spinach and chop the mushrooms. I want to make some of those Neiman Marcus cookies as well, but I'll have to see about time.

The house is looking spiffy, too. It's generally pretty clean and neat during the week because of my business, but certain areas fall into the "out of sight, out of mind" category. Exhibit 1: our shower. Exhibit 2: our "closet" (really a curtained part of the hallway). However, both are now guest-friendly, having been cleaned and organized earlier today. I even dusted the family photos in our stairway. And you could lick our toilet seat, it's so clean. Actually, the kids probably will do just that once they wake up, so scratch that.

I always feel self-conscious about our house whenever relatives or friends from away come to visit. Our house is so small, and the housing market is so bad up here. My parents almost died when they heard how much we paid for such a tiny place, telling us we could get a 4-bedroom, 2 bath place in Charlotte for the price of our dollhouse. Even fellow New Englanders wince at our neighborhood, though it's much better since we got the crack house next door closed down last fall. I love our house's urban cottage look with its 1950s range and its bright walls, but I wonder how it looks to fresh eyes.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's true that you have to realize what the housing market is like up here before you judge anything, but your house is very cute and I loved it on first glance. I think it's just the perfect little place. I like it much better than giant overly-big development houses that litter the midwest and the south. (No offense to my parents or yours... my parents' place is nice and I'm sure your parents' is too.)

Word up to your little house! I think it's awesome that you own your own freestanding structure!

4:36 PM  
Blogger Canada said...

Hay, I loved your house when I finally got to see it, and I can't wait to visit to see Hester's room - the pics looked great. And you have a yard, quite a big one! You should be proud - you live in a damn fine house with some history, you both work hard and your tender loving care shows, and you don't live on a postage-stamp size lot!!!

Also, your cooking desriptions sound lovely - I need some recipes, lady!

I hope you feel better - I can't remember if you do spicy food, but if so, I've found that Thai hot and sour soup can kick the crap out of a cold.

And a big hi to Orca!

1:02 AM  

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