Putting it together

I seem to have fallen out of the blogosphere completely. I feel like I'm not alone.

I have much to write about, and some day I'll have time for it all.

In the meantime, over the weekend, Stephanie was in town, and we went to a concert given by Audra McDonald, who--I have established--I love. First of all, she was INCREDIBLE. I was completely blown away. She sang this song, and there was a distinct pause before everyone in the audience began to applaud. I'm pretty sure we were all wiping our eyes first. And someone actually shouted from the audience (it was a small venue at a university where I may or may not have once been employed) asking where the song was from.

I bought the album on iTunes, and I have since listened to this song roughly 15 times. It's a song about September 11, and what happens when you experience tragedy and start to move on. I thought it was worth dusting off the blog to post this song on September 11.

That same weekend, I also attended the BEST FOOTBALL GAME EVER! But that's a story for another post.

My House

At long last, I am a homeowner.

The day after we got back from California (at around midnight, mind you), I drove up to Logan to close on my house. I didn't have time after I signed the papers to do anything but drive back to Provo to meet with students.

Then, the bank made two or three mistakes in the closing, and it looked like it wasn't going to record before the weekend.

Then it did, and, in a matter of seconds, I went from not having a house to having a house. Despite the fact that I'd already made one trek to Logan that week, I decided to make a trip up again on Saturday to get the keys to my house.

I really like saying that.

If you've seen my posts on Facebook or Instagram, you've seen the kitchen, the fireplace, and the master bath. When I went up on Saturday, I took some extra pictures of some things I hadn't included before.

Here is the view of my garage and driveway.

Here's another shot from the same side. Notice the tree.

And here's a shot of my front door, which, interestingly enough, is around the corner from the driveway.

And here's my backyard. As you can see, I will need to buy a fence if I want to plant a garden and not have vermin make off with my vegetables.

This is one of the closets in the non-master bedrooms. Notice all of the room for guests to store their clothing and shoes.

Here's a shot of my staircase.

And here's the great room in the basement that the sales person talked me into finishing. Did I mention I have lots of places for people to stay?

Here's the cupboard under the stairs, just in case Harry Potter comes to visit:

And here is my downstairs bathroom. I know it's weird that the toilet is so close to the bathtub, but the contractor assured me that it is not a mistake. Score!

And here is what I believe to be a bottle of Powerade in the room with my water heater. If it's something for the house, I hope someone clues me in. If it's anything else, I do not want to know.

I'm planning on moving my stuff in a couple of weeks, and as soon as it starts to look presentable, I'll post more pictures. In the meantime, if anyone has a hankering to pay a visit to Northern Utah (or Southern Idaho), consider this my open invitation to stay with me.

Happy April Fool's Day

Two big April Fool's moments of my day:

1. A student e-mailed me to tell me that his client attempted suicide over the weekend. I thought it might be a joke (a really bad one, but this is the same male student who grew a mustache, so it seemed plausible), but, sadly, it wasn't.

2. My friend Megan texted me and said, "It looks like you're going to be working for BYU after all :)" It turns out, she saw a link to this, and forgot what day it was. For almost a minute, though, I thought she was dead serious.

Existential crisis averted, everyone.

While you're waiting

It's been a weird couple of months for me. I am contracted at BYU until mid-June, but I will be at Utah State in the fall, which means that, for the next few months, I sort of have a foot in both places.

I am in the process of buying a house that is currently being built. You can see this awesome picture above of the front windows, my fireplace (which seems like a must-have in Logan) and the cutout for my pantry. I plan to put a TV on the wall above the fireplace.

The craziest part about me buying this house is how huge it is. It is a townhouse rambler with a finished basement, and, all told, it will be 2460 square feet, which is more than double the size of the place I am in now. With five finished bedrooms. And three bathrooms. I'll be able to have a licorice room AND an aroma room if I want (points to anyone who knows the reference).

In my free time, I alternate between visiting design blogs to find decorating ideas to try out (like spraypainting a bunch of picture frames glossy white that I suspect I will one day throw out and making a blue jar out of a regular jar) and wondering what spirit possessed me to buy such an unnecessarily large house.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, here are some of the blogs I like:

For design:

younghouselove.com

housetweaking.com

For DIY furniture:

ana-white.com

And my brother's father-in-law's awesome blog for tips on how to save money when your find yourself suddenly worrying about being house poor:

popapajoe.com