Two years

I just realized that tomorrow is two years exactly since I moved into my house! Saturday was two years exactly since I wired a whole lot of money and signed a whole lot of papers. I'm so glad that process is behind me, and that my house continues to be delightful. It's more than enough room, is great for hosting visitors, and is so quiet and light-filled and there's very little about it I would change (I would add a half-bathroom and make the bedrooms a bit bigger..but there are no deal-breakers).

I've even done a few projects lately - I fixed a paint job (I'd used the not-quite-right color when doing a patch job), and I added key and bike storage!

Key storage was easy, and I did it all on my own. I wanted to sort out the thicket of spare keys that lived in my junk drawer: 7 keys to four different bike locks, three keys & a remote to my sister's car & apartment, a key to a friend's house, a spare key to my back door, and my front door key. Crazy!

I spent a little time looking for key organizers, and then decided that the answer was staring me in the face - the inside door of my broom closet + sticker-hooks. Voila!

Yeah, they're crooked, and yeah, I meant for them to line up better. Oh well. I'm still happy with the decision!

The other project required help from friends. I'm providing long-term bike storage for a couple of friends, and those bikes were IN THE WAY. Though getting rid of my car did help clear a lot of space in the garage.. but still. My friends installed one ceiling-mounted bike hanger as a surprise over Christmas, and we added a second one yesterday. It looks so so great:

I can walk under the bikes without hitting my head, they'll still be out of the way when I have a car in the garage, and we also did some other little garage projects: put some boxes up out of the way, tightened the punch-code remote that triggers the garage door from outside, and installed hooks to hang my hoses. Goodness, it was so awesome!

There are lots of other non-pressing items on my house list. My yard is an extremely slow-motion project, without a master plan. I want to have a deck built and am saving slowly for that - at my current pace I will have the money in another 2-and-a-bit years. That's not so bad, really: it could be completed by the time I've been in here 5 years. I'd like to remove/possibly replace the front chain link fence; the wood fence around the back is rickety and will have to be fixed eventually. When the deck goes in I'll have to move two of my three garden beds (to the back where there is a LOT of direct sun). I want to print and hang more of my photos, and change the light fixtures, and swap out the kitchen sink, and gut and refurnish my office ..

So yeah. Happy two years, house! No wonder the time has been flying!