I think this is my favorite room in the house right now, especially in the morning sunlight with everything blooming outside. (Wallpaper: Graham & Brown Darcy; Paint: Benjamin Moore Castle Gate; couch and chair from consignment store)
It’s apparent that the elderly couple who owned our home previous to us really loved roses. The window next to the front door is stained glass featuring a rose, and just off the back deck they dedicated a whole little area – complete with pavers going through the middle – to their own version of Portland’s rose garden. Perhaps they took the whole “City of Roses” thing to heart. Whatever it was, like the rest of our garden, the roses are all starting to come into bloom and wow – what fun. We pulled out some bud vases and are just now starting to enjoy fresh roses in the house, but aside from that – seeing them blooming in the yard is fun. I mean, who doesn’t like the look and smell of a blooming rose?
We’ve so been enjoying our new yard this spring, especially since we’ve been blessed with multiple weekends in a row of nice weather.
I took these snapshots just before sunset Friday evening.
In some ways we are still in recovery mode from our housing exploits of 2011. Still, it’s easy to forget how our whole adventure got started, particularly given that we ended up a mere 18 blocks from where we started and in the same schools – which was entirely not our original intention. Funny how real life happens that way, huh?
So, just what was our intention for those who may not remember or heck, even have cared? In our dream of dreams, it was to find a gem. A diamond in the rough, if you will. Yes, we had some very specific ideas in our head of what that might look like – lots of glass, light, built in the 60s, maybe, mid-centuryish, clean lines, something that was cheap enough to take and make our own. That was, well, as I just mentioned – our dream of dreams. The flip side – and this is where Jeff and I didn’t always agree – was that I’ve always personally really liked ranch-style homes – if not built in the 60s, then the 50s could work, too. (Jeff’s issue with many ranches was their long, narrow, closed in-feeling.)
For some crazy reason, Mother Nature decided to bless us with not one, but two beautiful days this weekend where it actually pretended to be spring for real: sunshine, blue skies, flowers coming into full bloom. In fact, it was three days – including today – but given that I spent my day inside, I only really count Saturday and Sunday.
And just to show how deprived we are, it was the talk of our office this morning. And, I’d bet money on the fact that it was the talk of almost every other office in Portland this morning. Across town, conversations went something like this:
How was your weekend? It was wonderful! How could it not have been with that weather??
I know, I know. I spent all weekend outside doing XX…
Even better, if we were to be granted two days in a row of sunny, “warm” weather (low to mid-60s), I was delighted that it happened the weekend of Ian’s first t-ball game on Saturday morning and Easter on Sunday.
burpo banter 