Gardening

We've expanded our gardening slightly as we have a small side yard, front yard and sidewalk lawn at our new home. It's been a learning curve - this spring we learned how to de-winterize the sprinklers (thanks to W's coworker), set them on a timer and fertilize the lawn. W also learned how to prune rose bushes by watching videos online. Big steps for us! We also didn't want to get a lawn mower just to mow our little patch of grass, so we cut a deal with our neighbors where they will mow in the summer and we will shovel in the winter.

We don't have a lot of maintenance to do because the spaces are smaller, and I think it's been just enough for us to manage. The previous owners did a great job with the landscaping so it's been nice for us to step into something set up so well.

Here are some of the roses in the front. We had fun watching and waiting to see what color roses the various bushes produced:

These are my favorite

These blossomed first

I cut some roses over the weekend from the different bushes...

We also discovered lilac bushes and lavender in the front. I didn't get any photos of the lilac (they bloom in the spring), but was very happy to find that those bushes belong to us.

Next time I will post some photos of the side yard. We have a little veggie garden growing there.

Finding our home

I haven't had time to take photos of the home, so I hadn't written about it, but thought I'd share a bit about how we found it.

We looked for a home off and on for about 8 months. I started looking in March of 2012 when I had more time since school hadn't started yet. At the time, I looked mainly in the Highlands and Sunnyside areas, which are just northwest of downtown. These neighborhoods are sort of like Eagle Rock (LA) 10 years ago or Grandview (OH). The homes in that area are older, mostly built in the 1900s. I love the charm of older homes, and the neighborhoods are fairly walkable. I also liked that it was close to downtown. Since we don't know where I'll end up working, I thought it would be good for at least one of us to have a short commute.

I had difficulty finding homes in that area because prices were fairly high for Denver. The homes in our price range either needed major renovation, or were flipped, but in a way that didn't preserve the original charm of the home and used cheap materials. I did find one home in Sunnyside that I really liked - the owner had done a lot of work to it over time, and it had a really large yard. We were pretty close to making an offer, but that was around April and we had just moved to Denver in January. It felt like a lot of moving for us, and a little bit early to settle on something. So we let it go.

In August we started looking again. Up until this point I had contacted the selling agents and we didn't have a realtor of our own. We looked at one place in the condo building where we were living and liked the realtor, so we started working with her. As I looked around, I noticed prices had gone up 10-15% since I had looked in March. The more we looked, the more we regretted not buying that one home. Around that time, some friends of ours suggested that we look in another neighborhood, Stapleton.

I had resisted Stapleton because I felt like I'd be "selling out" to the burbs - even though it's only 6.5 miles from downtown. Stapleton has a unique history - it is the site of the old Denver airport. 10 years ago they decided to move the airport to another location, so a big piece of flat land was left in the middle of the city. Most of the homes in Denver proper are old, but Stapleton homes are new within the last 10 years, and they are still building new homes. It's one of the few neighborhoods in Denver where you can live in the city and live in a newer home without moving out to the burbs. Also, it has really good schools.

We'd never looked at homes in Stapleton, so we decided to go take a look one day. We looked at a few homes, and looked at model homes as well. And one week later, we found our home.

So we ended up living in a neighborhood that was completely different from where we had been looking. It just ended up being the best value. W's commute is about 20 minutes, or he takes the bus. My commute to school is 10 minutes. We've been happy with our decision. We're not very handy so we would have struggled or had to shell out more money with an older home. Sometimes I miss the energy and vibe of being closer to downtown, but I can easily drive there in 20 minutes. Another thing about Stapleton is that it's a master planned community - so it feels a bit like Irvine (CA) or New Albany (OH) - which to me sometimes feels sterile and cookie cutter. So those are the downsides. Upsides are that Stapleton also has lots of parks and paths because most of the homes don't have yards. It's different from an Irvine in that the planners had a urban development in mind when thinking about the ethos of the community. So homes are pretty close together to make neighborhoods more walkable, and most homes don't have big yards. Instead there are parks, dog parks, pools and trails throughout.

So that's how we found our home. I'll give you more details about the home in another post.

Purging

One of the great things about moving is the opportunity it gives you to get rid of stuff. I did so when we moved in June, and I did it again when we moved to Denver. This time, I even got W to part with some of his things. It's funny, he's such a simple guy - wears the same 2 fleeces and jeans every day - but he doesn't like getting rid of stuff.

This year I'm trying to get into the practice of owning a few simple, quality items that I love and will get a lot of use:

Clothing: I've come to the realization that for me it's all about comfort. I'm trying to limit my closet to things I will wear regularly, and not buy the occasional use clothes.

Kitchen: I'm refraining from buying ingredients (oils, spices, sauces, canned goods, etc...) that I will not use regularly. If a recipe calls for something I don't have, I try to use a substitute. I want to cook simply but start with fresh ingredients. What we use regularly is: soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, mirin, salt, fresh ground pepper, olive oil and peanut oil. Right now our refrigerator is filled with mostly produce and I want to keep it that way.

Books: I haven't bought books for personal use in a few years. Most of the books on the shelf belong to W. I love borrowing books from the library, and recently began downloading them onto my phone for free from the library. I rarely read books twice so this works for me.

Above is a photo of one of my favorite kitchen items, a pour over ceramic coffee dripper - we use it almost every day. I love its simple design, and it makes the best coffee.

New home

So we finally moved!  It's been almost 2 weeks since we've been here.  Some info about our new place:

1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
10 miles from W's work and my school
9 miles from my work
No washer/dryer
No microwave
We rented 2 covered parking spots (necessary for winter)
Our rent with the parking is $807/month.

We cut our commutes in half, so it takes me 15 minutes to drive to school or work.  We live behind a Walmart, to give you a sense of the neighborhood.  It's also geographically in between the two places I shared about in a previous post.

To be honest, at first it was a difficult adjustment, downsizing from a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car attached garage, with washer and dryer.  We used to live in a newer single standing home, and now we live in an apartment unit.  Things like the noise of neighbors, a smaller space, and the lack of amenities is taking some getting used to.

BUT, there are some things I'm really enjoying.  Mainly, simplifying our lives.  In terms of furniture, the only new thing we had acquired was a $75 desk from IKEA, so all of our furniture came to the new place.  But I got rid of a bunch of kitchen stuff, clothes, books, and random stuff because we don't have space for things we don't use on a daily basis.  It's amazing how much we had accumulated in the last year.  We got rid of 9 large shopping bags of stuff.

Also, we don't have a washer/dryer in the unit (or in the building), and we don't have a microwave.  And you already know we haven't had a TV in 2.5 years.  We contemplated renting a w/d for $35/month, but decided against it.  And I didn't think we could survive without a microwave but so far we've been able to (we'll see what happens in the winter).

It has been very freeing to simplify life, save on rent & utilities, drive less and even live in a smaller space.

Holga

I got my first roll of film shot on the Holga back yesterday.  It took me over a year to take 12 shots.  The first shot on the roll was from back in June 2009 when my mom visited me in Chicago.  I took a couple shots here in Columbus to finish off the roll so I could finally develop it.  I love the look of it.  Here is our current home:

Roses in Bloom

I noticed these roses at the front of the house on Friday while getting the mail.

I was surprised (and happy) to see them as I haven't done any sort of maintenance.

food!

i was pleasantly surprised to learn recently of a thriving (and growing) food truck scene here in columbus.  not only that, but there are taco trucks.  you don't know how excited i am.  chicago only had one food truck that i knew of, and it was a cupcake truck, which to me only partially counts as a food truck.

w's b-day is coming up next week and i'm planning on doing a food truck adventure with him to check them out.  i think he will love it.  shhh...don't tell him.  he doesn't read this blog.

btw, here's another photo of our place.  i love the multi-colored cloth on our coffee table.  when we bought some blankets in korea, the lady threw that in for free.  i think it adds a nice punch of color to the rest of our whites and neutrals.

settling in

we have mostly settled in and are getting used to our new place and surroundings.  i cooked nearly every day this week, which helps to make our house feel like home.

my cousin is getting married on saturday here in columbus so my extended family has begun to fly in, which is really nice.  

the hydrangeas above are cut from a bush in our little backyard area.  aren't they nice?