House Hunting

The sun was poured out so beautifully all over the walls and floors, that I almost didn’t want to waste any time with the usual routine this morning. We are always talking about getting up and getting ready for the day, but today had to have been up and ready hours before me. I thought of how nice it will be when we finally wake up in a house - when we hear things outside our own windows and when the morning spills over our own floors. But the search has no certain end in sight.

There’s a darling little bungalow on the corner of 11th and Taylor where we thought we might live. In 1915, it was brand new. It’s painted yellow – not a good yellow like butter, but a yellow more like pollen, bright and bothersome. Armies of unruly shrubbery have besieged the house, and there are noticeable remnants of those spring showers that never really absorb into the ground. But we fell in love with the little place, with all its quirks and quaintness. Inside there are two bedrooms, two closest, two bathrooms, two very good places to store things, and one lovely front room with a window through which the sun can pour. The kitchen window does not open, and the kitchen door leads to a non-existent patio four feet off the ground. The mailman carries a sack through the neighborhood, and the mail comes through a slot in the door. I will not mention the square footage. It is irrelevant. Surely, we thought, this must be our home.

I suppose I never understood just how important, how very vital, the foundation is to a house until the home inspector told us, “it's essentially sinking into the ground.” Then it occurred to me that the legs on which a house stands, are indeed the legs on which a house stands. There has since been a bid on the necessary repairs, and we’re waiting to hear from the sellers on whether or not they would be able to make them. The sellers are a young couple like us, and we’re not at all hopeful. So, I’ve spent the past few days half in hopeful suspense, half mourning the loss of the Taylor Street house. I suppose one day I’ll say it was a good and necessary experience when I’m looking out the windows of the place in store for us all along. But it was a peculiar and lovely little house… I would very much have liked to live there.

A Year of Good Things

I am not surprised to find that my last blog post was made over a year ago. I think I alluded in my first entry to the expectation that I would not be able to keep this thing up. Surprise. A great deal has happened between March 2010 and March 2011 – too much to share in a single, readable post. Sometimes Mark and I can hardly believe that a year and a half has already passed since we were married. Sometimes it feels like it has always been this way. The intention of this blog was to keep a sort of documentation of our married life happenings, because I think (now more than ever) that these things should be written down. It was in a conversation with a dear friend the other night that it hit me … I’m going to want to remember things like new jobs, Disney World trips, and caved in ceilings. So here’s a little list of the latest in the Maricle household:

Shortly after my last blog post I got a new job. After bittersweet goodbyes to the girls of Dragonfly Greetings, I left my delightful workplace of nearly five years and entered the financial world of Crooks & Co. in Oregon City. I could not ask for more wonderful people to work for and with. Alex and Amy are fabulous.

We celebrated one year of being married in Disney World. There was a terrific thunderstorm the night of our anniversary. The streets of Frontierland were flooded.

We took a trip to Astoria for Mark’s birthday in January. We stayed at the Benjamin Young Inn – a charming Victorian home built in 1888 made into a bed and breakfast. Carolyn Hammer, your baked pears and your hospitality cannot be matched.

We spent spring break with my grandparents in Boise, Idaho. Mark shot and killed rabbits. It was heartwarming.

The ceiling over our kitchen table gave way after several weeks of rain. Our landlord goes into the attic frequently to patch holes … we don’t feel encouraged.

However! We have been pre-approved for a home loan! This week marks the beginning of our search for our first house together.