Huff and puff and change the house around.

2012! HAP-py New Year!

Sometimes the way things sound in my head doesn't translate to blogdom, but I hope blogom gets it more often than not.

I decided to start the new year off on a new re-organizing foot, so to speak. I woke up yesterday morning with a need to move furniture around. New year, new room layouts. I'm pretty ecstatic about the way it's turning out. It's not done yet. But, I have essentially re-done 4 rooms in my house. Out of...8. So, half the house is shifting to a new look for 2012. I like it. The kitchen has a giant island in it now, not really for sitting around and eating, but more for extra workspace for all the cookie baking and whatnot that I've begun to do. It's great. The orange room is no longer the 'do my homework room' so it's slowing going to turn into the music room with my stereo and I'm going to drag down the record player set-up + vinyl collection that I have upstairs and bring it down and make that a much more hip sort of room than it could ever have hoped to be as an office/homework/grad student study room. It's bright orange, so it kind of is begging to be awesome. My bedroom is completely different, which is fantastic. It looks bigger now even though I have more furniture in it than I had. I love it. Sleeping in it all new and stuff last night was weird. I hear more noises than I used to because my head is pointed toward a different area. I kept waking up hearing noises, and waiting for Beatrix to attack if something was coming. It's amazing how easily you can totally spook yourself when all you've done is shift some furniture around. Like, suddenly, the house that was never haunted for the last year and a half is now haunted...because you moved your furniture around and pissed something off? But, after some snooping around, it turns out that it was just the wind. I never heard the wind this way when I was facing another direction, so it's all kind of going to take some getting used to. But I like it. Then, I'm turning the guest room upstairs into a sewing room. I never have guests, so it's silly to have a room that I never use just waiting for that one guest to show up. So, I'm going to make it into something useful. I had an old table in the basement that the previous owners left and we brought it up to the second floor and put it back together and it works perfectly. I love it, too. A whole new room for zero dollars. It's a nice table, really really sturdy because it's from probably the 50s or 60s and is all metal based and pressed wood on top. Heavy as hell, but really sturdy. Great for a sewing machine. So, there you have it. My four rooms in progress. Well, the kitchen is done, so the other three are still a little in progress. The casa di Jill is all shook up for 2012. In a good way. It still needs some de-cluttering and some 'uh, what is this?' and 'ew, when did that fall behind there?' kind of things, but mostly, it's on its way. And I SWEAR, I'm going to take down my Christmas tree this year. It's been up for 13 months straight now, but seriously: this week, it's coming all the way down and being put away. I pinky swear, blogger.

My block has been tore up with moving this weekend. My old neighbors moved out, new ones are still in the process of moving in. In the duplex two doors away, another neighbor moved out and we're waiting on that new arrival sometime soon, too. Apparently it's a new worker from the Governor's Office who's moving in. One of the funny things about living in a more urban area than I ever have is the close proximity to your neighbors breeds familiarity and gossip. I'm realizing that since I already know some about the two new sets of neighbors, that those who were here when I moved in probably already knew quite a bit about me. Hmm. Anyway, with all the moving and trucks and helpers and people carrying stuff all over the place, God help you if you were just trying to drive down the street through my block this weekend.

I feel pretty fantastic about this year, already. Changing the way your house feels can have a big impact, you know? Like, you have a new start sort of, or at least a new way of living.