There's a Hole in the Wall

living room from front door
Originally uploaded by mygothlaundry

A came over, as noted, the day before yesterday and created the most totally wonderful window between the living room and the kitchen. I cannot get over how much better it looks; I keep wandering around going "Wow." This morning when I woke up it was pouring rain, sheets and sheets of rain and, since I went to bed at 8 last night, I was wide awake at 6:45 this morning. Another, less dedicated, woman might have used this time to walk her dogs in the pouring rain or to go to the gym where she hasn't even been yet despite pouring money out of her bank account into the YMCA's coffers, but no, I spent it dusting (cutting holes in drywall = much dust, as does the presence of two dirty dogs) and puttering and realigning tchotchkes into new, better, more House Beautiful positions. Then I just sort of ogled my living room and kitchen while I drank my coffee and walked around and took pictures and thought to myself that I was truly an undiscovered interior design genius and wasn't it nice to be in love with a house again? And I am, I am in love with my house and that is really great.

It feels kind of weird to look around and think, this belongs to me. That is my, my very own, broken gutter that is cascading 4" of rain into the walkway between the garage and the house and that is my very own possibly dead tree that might come down on my roof and that is my unfinished wood floor that will just have to stay unfinished until such time as I am both feeling rich and prepared to pack up the whole upstairs and move to the basement or the West Indies or something for a week to ten days. And it is my very own awesome orange kitchen and my very own stairs and I will probably live here forever. That is a completely weird feeling: I have never thought about living somewhere forever before.

The longest I have ever lived in any one house in my entire life was the six years I spent on Pennsylvania Avenue and when I moved there I had no clue that I'd stay so long. It just sort of happened which, actually, could be said of my life as a whole: no planning, just happening. Here I am doing both - the house happened and now I'm planning to stay. I suppose that means that I had better clean up the dogshit in the backyard (I know, there's a business in town that does just that but I can't quite justify the fees, even though they are not high, but still. I have this gym membership I don't use, you know.) and put in some metal screens. I'm fine with all of it - I love coming home and knowing that I can cut a hole in the wall or write on the windows any time I feel like it, even if I don't. It is awesome.