Since late August, I’ve gotten married, packed all my belongings into a crate, gone on a whirlwind European honeymoon, and moved from my home of 14 years in Palo Alto, CA – yes, of Silicon Valley infamy – to a 100-year-old house in Cleveland Heights, OH. It’s been an eventful couple of months!
Life as a newlywed newlymidwesterner has been at times sweet, at times lonely, and at times daunting. Knob and tube? Winterizing? Lath? Yardwork? To this Californian, these (and many more) are foreign concepts that need to become unforeign in a hurry.
Even since September 1, when we moved into our new (100-year-old) house, I’ve learned a lot. But most importantly, I’ve learned that I’ve got a LOT to learn.
And that’s OK with me. Great, in fact. In my past life, I was a professional tinkerer. Well, not exactly – I ran a student mechanical engineering lab at Stanford University, where my daily duties ranged from putting out (literal) fires to fending off overzealous salespeople to fixing equipment I had no business messing with (ever disassembled a laser cutter?) to playing with all the lab’s toys in the name of creating demo content and teaching materials. Oh, and buying and organizing ALL. THE. THINGS..! But the best part was working with the students.
My “lab” is a little different now. The only students are me and my husband. No laser cutters or 3D printers. I’ve traded those for drywall saws, paintbrushes, and a budding understanding of how my old house works.
I’m not “working” now, but I joke with people that my job now is the house. It’s not a bad gig! My hours are pretty flexible, and my coworker is pretty darn cute. (It’s too bad he has a “real” job.)
I’m so grateful for the troves of information out there on the internets about… well, everything. Remodeling, decorating, design, DIY. I’m the kind of person who needs to read 800 articles before she’ll attempt anything herself, so I figure what the heck, the internet could probably bear another blogger, and it will probably be fun to look back at my woeful ignorance as a newlymidwestern homeowner and see how the projects have progressed. It might even help someone else in similar shoes!
I’ve also joked that I suffer from severe hobby ADD. I can’t help it. I’ve gone through serious pencil drawing, calligraphy, baking, cake sculpting, vinyl decal making, watercolor, jewelry-making, woodworking, and even wedding invitation-making phases, and I doubt that will end anytime soon.
Hence the blog title. Given all that needs to happen for the house (projects! yay!!) and all the hobbies I can’t help but indulge (more projects!!!!) there should be more than enough to fill a blog or seven. I’ve already got a few fails and wins that I’m excited to share already!
