Evenings

We've tucked ourselves into our evening routines pretty well here at the house. The days end with us making our way home from work. I always get home first. Sometimes the cows are out grazing nearby and I pull my car to the side of the road to watch them for a few minutes.

I get changed into my running clothes as the dude gets home. We sum up our days or show each other the new ____ we bought for the house. Lately it's gardening/lawn equipment. I do some stretches and head out for my run while the dude gets changed and wanders outside to do some landscaping or forage firewood from the forest behind the house. We can never have too much firewood.


When I get back from the run it's time for weights. The house has a "formal living room," but there's nothing formal about us, so instead I've taken the room as my own and dubbed it my Zen Room. It's a place for reading, stretching, yoga, meditation, exercise and playing our instruments. It has hardwood floors and huge windows overlooking the hilltops outside. I like it way more than a gym.



Sometimes we grill up dinner, sometimes we zone out in front of the TV, sometimes I bury myself in a book (right now it's "Garden of Eden." I'm on a Hemingway kick). No matter what we end our days with it feels good to have him there. It's a new way of living I can get used to.

The First Barbecue

The rain quietly dripped onto the roof above our heads as I slowly woke up. I rolled over.

"It's raining," I said to him.

"Oh no," was his garbled response. "I need to mow the lawn."

We laid together a bit longer until around 8am when he reached over to turn the TV on and put on the Formula 1 race. I dozed off sporadically during the race. The sound of the cars has always put me to sleep. The next time I woke up it was 9:30 and the race was over. Our 3 favorite racers were on the podium. I knew it was going to be a good day.

I hopped in the shower while he ran outside. The rain had stopped hours ago and the sun was shining so he manned the lawnmower and weed whacker. I started prepping food. It was Mother's Day -- the day of our very first barbecue.

It was also the first time my parents would be seeing our house. No pressure or anything.


I made guacamole, a plate of crackers with mascarpone cheese, smoked salmon and chives, other crackers with vegetable hummus and olives, a caprese salad. My parents showed up, immediately followed by the dude's mom. We snacked on appetizers as my brother arrived, then I grabbed the moms and we ran off to Jones Family Farm for a wine tasting. We sampled each of the locally made wines while laughing about old stories and deciding that we prefer sweet wines over dry ones. The set-up was beautiful, and the sun shone brightly over the farm's hills. It was a perfect afternoon.



When we got back to the house the guys were outside milling about giving the dude a list of to-do items. We started up the grill and threw on burgers and hot dogs while we sat on the deck in the sun. We passed around the salads and lit the tiki torches. I introduced my mother to the wonders of putting guacamole on a burger.

As the breeze rolled in we migrated over to the fire pit and made s'mores over the fire for dessert. I taught my parents how to do it, which resulted in my mother's napkin sticking to her marshmallow-covered hand, the graham cracker cracking and her chocolate not melting. I think she needs to stick to pie.


After everyone was gone the dude and I plopped on the couch with a couple of beers and reveled in our victory. The first barbecue was a huge success, and we discussed what will make the next ones even better.

I shuffled around some boxes that still haven't been unpacked and found the scrapbook I made the dude after we had been dating for several months. We flipped through the pages and laughed at the memories.

"I didn't think it was possible for me to ever be this happy," I said to him. "I'm just really ridiculously happy here with you."

"We did a good job," he said. "We did good."

Opening a Fishway

Yesterday we at The Nature Conservancy celebrated a conservation success up in East Berlin, CT. In our continuing quest to reopen miles of river and help fish migration by removing dams, we hit a snag when we realized that the company StanChem could not remove their dam (it was necessary to provide large amounts of water in case of a fire). As a solution to the problem we erected a fishway with the help of the CT DEEP leading around the dam and upstream. Now, species of fish that are desperately trying to get upstream finally can without flinging themselves helpless against the dam. Hundreds of fish have already made use of the fishway, including alewife, trout, bass perch and more (you can sneak a peak through a window in a viewing room down below).





The fishway's construction mimics the flow of upstream water offering an easy passageway for fish to handle. There's a slow incline that brings them above the dam and a camera captures them as they pass by for our records. The folks at StanChem (an adhesive, coating and polymer manufacturing company) have even surprised themselves with how excited the fishway has made them. Watching the fish go by and get upstream has been a bit thrilling for them. Score one for conservation groups and corporations working together.





 
 


We marked the occasion with a ceremony at the fishway followed by a fantastic barbecue cooked by StanChem employees. It was a great day for conservation. Now if more corporations could be as open-minded to conservation issues, I think this planet of ours would be in better shape.

Coming Together

This house is coming together, most definitely. With each day we get closer and closer to 100% functionality, and that's making me feel pretty good.

My parents will be seeing the house for the first time on Mother's Day when we have our big Mother's Day Barbecue Extravaganza (TM), so we're in preparation mode for that. This weekend we ordered a set of deck furniture that's due to be delivered on Saturday, and I loaded up on gardening equipment. My first plant has gone into the ground: a rose bush gifted to me by a coworker. The landscaping is nonexistent on this house, so that gives us a nice clean slate to work with.


This weekend we also got the office up and running, which means I'll be back to blogging more often now (and have the option to work from home every so often). Some changes will be coming to the blog in the coming weeks as I begin collaborating with a brilliant designer friend of mine who just gave up the 9-5 rat race to embark on a freelance career. I'm excited for how this blog will look soon, and we've got great new ideas for content.


The final project we tackled this weekend was cleaning out underneath the deck. It looks as though no one ever thought to go under that deck with a rake before and there were years of leaves and sticks piled up. Now it's down to just dirt with fencing securely in place to keep any unwanted critters out. That should lengthen the life of the deck itself, too, by keeping down moisture. Next step is to weather seal it, and then our deck will be in great shape. I can't wait for it to be the shining star of many future barbecues.

This is about as home improvement-y as this blog is probably going to get, but I just thought I'd give an update since the house is basically taking over 85% of my life right now. We've still managed to have some fun, though, and take some breaks from projects. We've been entertaining friends and family, hanging down by the river, grilling and making dinners together, lighting fires at night, and exploring the neighborhood.

I couldn't be happier about it really. This place is amazing, and the dude that I get to live with is even amazing-er. Things are good. Be back soon. (And follow my Instagram for more frequent updates.)

Sneak Peak

It will be a while until all the boxes are empty and the rooms are perfectly in order. But for now I'm enjoying the few clear spaces and tiny areas where I can put blinders on and feel like our house is done. I've even been enjoying exploring the backyard and seeing what plants and flowers are blooming that the previous owners have planted. Loving everything so far.

Getting Settled

The breeze is cooler up here, and the sun seems a little more significant. Everything is quiet, and I can go for a jog first thing in the morning without gasping in exhaust fumes from the lines of cars zooming by. I had been eyeing the steep hill around the block ever since we first viewed this house and I knew that some day I would have to jog up it. Last week I made my trek, pumping my stubby legs as hard as they would go. I made it to the top, and wound my way around the neighborhood staring at the houses of our new neighbors and watching the hawks fly above me and head toward the river.


This weekend I ran around the corner and into the woods to try out my new trail. It was littered with rocks and fallen trees and at one point I felt like I was jumping hurdles. And during one leap over a log I almost landed right on a garter snake. Now I feel like a jerk and the dude is afraid to go back into the woods (he's not into snakes, even the harmless ones).

We had our first real house guests this weekend as the line of people dying to "see the house" gets longer. I share a birthday with one of my favorite people, so Friday she brought her gluten-free husband and I cooked a big pot of lentil soup and we dipped gluten-free bread into it. Then we sat by the fire all night swapping stories and roasting marshmallows.


My brother came the following evening to help the dude put together our new grill and explore our backyard with us for firewood. Then we stuffed our faces with way too much Chinese food and spent the night in front of the fire pit again.

We've gotten adjusted so quickly here, and there are still lots of people we need to have over. We just need some more chairs...