It's starting to really look like a house. So, framing happened, and then they put up green stuff on the sides. Then they put a second floor, laid out the first floor partitions, then roof framing, and they put stuff on the roof because the actual roof is going on next week, and all of a sudden, it looks like a real house. One that we could actually live in one day soon. But here's what's weird. We've been waiting for this for a long time, and its been a long year in a lot of ways (its actually only been nine months since the fire, but even if it was a year it would've been a long year). And all of a sudden there's this house and its really happening and now I realize just how much we have to do to get ready. I really don't want to move anything that we don't really love or really want to live with for a long time, so there's a lot of culling to do. We have tried hard not to collect a ton of junk this year, but I can't say we didn't adopt the occasional happy meal toy along the way. We have to buy furniture, to start, which is awesome but oh my god a houseful of furniture is a whole lot of furniture. And we have to pick everything, and, well, tile for example.
In my family we call this the "black crewneck sweater" syndrome. It stems from my mother trying to buy a black wool crewneck sweater when I was a kid. Plain black. And we looked everywhere from thrift stores to Bloomingdale's, and of course the internet was not there to access with everything in the world. And we concluded that the simpler the object of your search is, the harder it is to find. So tile. All I really want is simple shiny ceramic tile, no bigger than 4x4, on the bathroom floors. I would love to have some great color tile on the floors but apparently I would have to sell one of my kids to do that, and I am fond of all of them, so that's not an option. So, I would be happy with plain white, or white and black. Plain white tile in 2x2 or 4x4 for less than a million dollars per bathroom. I might as well be looking for it at Bloomingdale's. And I know I'll find it eventually or something that I can both like and pay for. But seriously? I know floors are supposed to look good, but they are FLOORS. You put them down between dirt and your feet. Just how nice do they have to be? How much do you want to really pay for the stuff that goes between dirt and feet? And if your answer is "a lot" - maybe you should rethink the value of floors in your life compared to other things you could do with that money. But I digress. The other thing about tile? There is apparently a secret tile language you have to speak to communicate with people who sell tile, because when you say "I want 2x2 or 4x4 shiny white ceramic tile for less than a million dollars" they look at you like you are saying "I would like to stretch the skin of your entire extended family out, tattoo it, then install it on our subflooring." They all look at me like I am insane. One woman showed me some 12/12 matte white tile and said that was all they had for floors. And I said I would like something smaller. And she said "no one uses anything smaller than this on their floors anymore so no one even sells it and you can't buy it." Really? No one? Ever? Anywhere? And I explained that while there was nothing inherently wrong with big tile, it just doesn't happen to be what I want on my floor. Then she looked at me like I said "I damn you and all of your big tile to the deepest pits of hell." And so I said to her "Am I crazy? Am I the only person in the world who doesn't want big tile?" And she actually kind of looked away and raised her eyebrows and shrugged - like I REALLY AM CRAZY. And Jeff is cracking up because this salesgirl has just called me crazy, so he is no help at all. And all the other tile salespeople are completely Now of course most normal people would just live with the big tile, or rob a bank and buy the tile they want. Not me. I am now determined to win the war the world is waging with me over tile. Just wait, when you all come and use my bathrooms, you will be standing on the spoils of war.
So, now that I've written at least a thousand words, the pictures above are from yesterday. Except for the picture of Judah. That's a couple of weeks old and he's standing in the frame of what's going to be our ginormous gorgeous window.
