Nesting

In Sacramento, while Tim has been off at work at his first week of New Teacher Orientation, I have been nesting in our cute two-bedroom rental house. For a organization freak, list making Virgo like me I thought this would be a ton of fun. At first I thought that days of unpacking, painting, cooking and cleaning sounded like just a bowl of cherries, but the process of moving into a new space post-Peace Corps has actually been a tad stressful for me for a few reasons.

First off, we had only a very vague recollection of what we put in storage so unpacking the boxes was confounding. I found myself saying so very many times, "What the heck is this and why did I think it was worth saving." Examples of the things we stored for two years that we must have thought we would desperately need when we came back are: unopened packets of glow bracelets that we were gifted at Burningman in 2007, Riccola cough drops and Vitamin C that were 2 years expired and an entire medium sized box of toilet paper (granted I will actually use the toilet paper but why in the world did I think that it was valuable enough to store it for two years?!?).  Also, most of our furniture is hand-me-down or we had it before Peace Corps we bought when we were in college and our tastes have drastically changed. I am confident that most of our things can be refurbished with a coat of paint or varnish or otherwise repurposed to update them to our more mature sensibilities. However, that brings me to point #2: 

Responsible budgeting. I believe myself to have a modicum of creativity and do-it-yourself-ability when it comes to nesting but most of my project ideas require at least a small amount of money. I have a wish list of projects that I think would make the house so cute, comfortable and conducive to the healthy, studious lifestyle we want to adopt. Yet all of these projects require moohlah, even for refurbs I need paint or varnish and brushes and rollers, not to mention shelves and rugs and curtains and, and, and.... Well, we have spent the minimal readjustment allowance that PC gave us. So, I just have to keep reminding myself that I have to make do with what I have and build our nest slowly, project by project when we have saved up enough for each task. I know that a home isn't built in a day and that comfortable, organized homes are organic and ought be be flexible and change overtime but I, like Violet Borregaurd of Willy Wonka, want it all NOW! 

Nonetheless, though money and resources have been stress factors in this moving in process I have been able to do some things that make me very, very happy. There are the positive things about our house and neighborhood that I love to focus on to keep things in perspective: 

1. Our house has tons of built-ins and storage space. I know that we will have room for everything we have in the many closets, cupboards, built-ins and garage plus room to expand. This makes the compulsive organizer side of me very happy! 

2. Our neighbors are, as far as we can tell, generous, friendly and kindred spirits. We knew we would all get along when we noticed that their wireless network is named Middle Earth and ours is Winterfell (geek alert!). One family brought us tomatoes from their backyard garden and we, in turn, brought them blueberry cupcakes (which I made from scratch with local blueberries from the Co-op). Another woman down the street is a local winemaker who has a vineyard outside of Sac and makes the wine right in her home on our street! And we hear, although we haven't met him, that there is home brewer on our street too. Tim is looking forward to making friends with him and getting back into the bee scene. There are our people! 

3. I have an oven! I know this isn't a novelty to most of you but after living (and cooking) in Guyana without one for 2 years, I am so excited to bake! As I mentioned, I made blueberry cupcakes from scratch and apple cinnamon muffins and we have only been living here for a week. I know when I start school I will have less time for baking so I am living it up now, while I can. 

4. We can walk to the grocery store. Not just any grocery store but a natural food co-op! Within a 20 minute walk down tree lined streets, we can arrive at a store that sells mostly organic, local, healthy foods, has a killer deli with fresh food ready to eat and a super-freindly staff! Again, we found our people! 

5. We can also walk to: Tim's work in 10 minutes, my school in 15, our bank in 20, a homebrew supply store in 15, a huge medical center in 5, a Starbucks in 10 and who knows what else. We are basically just excited to live in an area where we don't have to get on a freeway (or even in the car) on a daily basis! This will keep us healthy and in touch with our community in a much more personal way and we are stoked about it! 

6. I have gotten crafty with what I have and $150 at Lowes and the dollar store. So far my biggest projects have been painting over the horrid baby blue walls in the bathroom to a tolerable grey, lining all the cupboards with contact paper, turning the funky, chipped built-in cutting board in the kitchen to a work space we can actually use, building a peg board chalk board organizer in the kitchen to hold all our pots and pans (since we don't had room in the small kitchen cupboards for all our cooking gear), making a magnetic dry erase note board for the fridge and finally mounting paintings, mirrors and shelves all around the house. 

7. My favorite thing of all: proximity to family! Santa Cruz is only 3 hours away, Santa Rosa is only 1.5 hours and Oxnard is a slightly more intense 6 hour drive (but that sure as heck is closer than Guyana!). Being closer to our family brings me so much joy! Oma came to visit us yesterday and helped me put the finishing touches on my pegboard pot rack and we had lunch at the Co-op. It was so great that she could come to visit on just a little day trip! Stephan is driving up today to help us move some final pieces of furniture and Mom has plans to come up in August! I feel so blessed to be close enough to see my fam on a more regular basis!

All in all, I know we will be very happy here. The house will come together in time and it is already starting to feel like home. Here are some pictures of how things are coming together. I have some before and after shots from where I have been project-ing and I am totally open to suggestions of other ideas for low-cost home improvement from all my crafty peeps out there if you feel so inspired. Now its off to organize the office filing cabinet! 

My favorite project in the house (so far!) 

Organized kitchen! Makes me smile! Any ideas to nice up the cheap Ikea kitchen island? 

Dry erase note board where we write our menus. Organization! YAY! 

Cutting board "before" nasty. 

Cutting board "after" with contact paper underneath a plastic cutting board surface glued on. Now I am not disgusted to use the cutting board! 

Blueberry cupcake! Yum!