Month: June 2016

3 Month Warning

| the kit house

My #101in1001 list ends September, 29th. That’s 3 months to finish a lot of stuff…

In the last year, I’ve:

  • Run a Disney race/half marathon
  • Visited Japan, gotten harajuku makeover, dyed my hair purple(fuchsia) and got as close as I could to the apex of an active volcano
  • 2 books away from reading 50 books in 2.75 year
  • Seen Taylor Swift in concert
  • Visited New York City and Portland, Maine
  • Completed a 52-week money-saving challenge and donated the bulk of it

But in the next 3 months, I have much much more to tick off the list. Those that do not get accomplished before deadline will be added to my next list, starting October 1st.

Some fun points on my next list: Read The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide and The Dark Tower Series, Host a Thanksgiving, Take regular kickboxing classes, Learn how to can, and Visit Crater Lake.

But before we get to that, I’ve already scheduled my next mud run (Rugged Maniac in August). I need to schedule a fun shopping scavenger hunt to pick up things from Nina Garcia’s One Hundred, and I have to finish re-finishing my great-grandmother’s dresser.

Troy and I have our full-day date planned for this weekend (in Chattanooga), and I am *this close* to making the appointment for my first tattoo.

Yesterday, I got a Facebook comment that dressing up Harajuku is “Kinda weird, no?”. Isn’t that the point? Not to mention, who makes trolling Facebook comments at 32. Get a real life…

I pride myself on being able to walk the line between non-traditional and classic. Building an interesting life with a little bit of old and the experiences of the new. The outcome? I always have something to look forward to.

Love. Angel. Music. Patti

| the kit house

Get a Harajuku makeover. Done 3/28/2016. #101in1001

During our Japan trip, I made a stop at Maison de Julietta. It was a small vendor at The Forest, a mall in the Harajuku district. You make an appointment for a makeover and photo shoot, introducing you to: Baby Doll, Sweet Lolita, Gothic Lolita, and the Boy Prince. Bet you didn’t know I moonlight as a Dark Water Victorian Pirate in a top hat.

This was a semi-awkward experience. Although they had some amazing costumes and props, I couldn’t really mix and match. You really had to stay with a specific style. I’m sure I confused the stylist by not going for the page boy wig. Plus, one-size fits all clothing doesn’t really help. I wasn’t quite comfortable until I saw the finished product.

However, during my makeup application, the woman next to me was getting ready to go in for her photos. She was in her 50’s and dressed in full baby doll; with pig tails, rainbow hair, and an oversized teddy bear. That took a lot of the pressure off trying to look good in an American sense.

Surprisingly, some of the shop girls were very impressed with my choice of wig +outfit. The photographer was very fun to work with, and even got Troy for a couple photos. Photoshoot crasher…

Lesson: People love it when they get to express how they feel in how they look. And, I’m really starting to rethink bare matte lipstick.

 

2016 so far…

| the kit house

Since my last post (almost a year ago, ouch…), we’ve visited Maine, NYC, Japan together and are finally circling back around to getting this house presentable.

We’ve have a handful of family visits just in the past 6 weeks, so we’ve been working overtime to get our yard and guest rooms up to par.

We are now the proud owners of 6 small boxwood bushes, 3 fully-mulched flower beds, 2 porch topiaries with pots, a recently-trimmed 15ft. camellia bush, and a new trash can. It’s a super smart trash+recycling can, so I can’t contain my excitement.

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On the bright side, our yard looks great and you can tell all the afternoons we’ve put in are starting to pay off. However, like most home owners know, the work will never be completely done. Now that we’ve exhausted all the projects we can do on our own, we have  begin our long-term investments. These include:

  • New vinyl siding to replace the original wood siding
  • New thermal windows. All of the windows are original to the house and 100% of them have broken seals.
  • Deck refinishing. While the support structure is sound, many of the slats are cracked  and/or bowing. I’d like to replace these with composite slats that are waterproof and weather durable (and also not an ugly brown).
  • New garage doors. Along with the siding, these doors are original, made of wood, and are painted a rather unappealing  antique color.

Most of these projects should be done in the next year and I’m estimating a good $25-28K should cover it. Any idea where to find it?

While I know real estate investments can be very profitable if handled correctly, this house was not meant to be a short investment. We love out house, our neighborhood and our town, and unless something amazing comes around the corner, we are planning on staying in this house for the next 5-10 years. No need to have the return on investment, or how good the market is (or is not), or the what-do-we-do-if-we-have-more-than-two-kids talk.

More photos of the house to come, probably when more family comes to visit and we have to emergency tidy up again…