Radio Silence – No More!

I haven’t posted in a long time. Too long! What have I been up to? SO MANY BIG THINGS. I’ve been crazy busy in all the best ways. I got a new job at the beginning on June – a new job in Portland, Oregon! So I finished up my last few weeks in Oakland, packed everything I owned, bought a car, and moved 10 1/2 hours North! Then less than 12 hours after I arrived in my new home town, I started my new job. In the past couple months I’ve been getting to know Portland better, making new friends, and staying really busy. This move has been so wonderful and I can honestly say, I’ve never been so happy in my entire life. I wanted to blog, to share all the details, but I kept getting caught up in life. Now I am once again more settled and can’t wait to get back into the swing of things!

So, new job, new city, new home! I made a video tour of the house right before we moved in, just to share with you all! Here’s the lay of the land at the house I’ve lovingly dubbed “The Duplex.” Yup, I’ve moved from the gorgeous Berkeley Bungalow and into a 1980’s duplex. The house is complete with all your favorite faux finishes: laminate counters, laminate wood trim, laminate base boards, laminate doors. Basically if it can be made from laminate, this house has it! It’s hilarious. And a challenge. The Berkeley Bungalow barely needed any help. The Duplex is screaming, “HELP ME! SAVE ME!” And I’m here with my paint brush in hand to do just that.

In this video I share the house literally right after we were handed the keys. I unpacked my car of cleaning supplies, helped my roommate bring in her kitchen things, then made this video. I was literally discovering things about the house as I shot the video. Example #1: the main flooring on the first floor. In the video I say it’s ceramic, I talk about how weird it is that it wasn’t grouted. I am a now embarrassed. I’m an interior designer! It’s not ceramic tile, it’s LVT or Luxury Vinyl Tile or Impossible to Clean or Bad For Indoor Air Quality. You pick the name you want to call it. I was totally thrown, because after my then-soon-to-be-roommate toured the Duplex, we asked the landlord what the flooring was and they replied, “ceramic tile.” I believed them for about 36 hours before investigating further and realizing it was most certainly not ceramic. The landlord didn’t know, the LVT fooled her! LVT is tricky that way as manufacturers get better and better at disguising the product as a different higher quality material. Needless to say, it was a disappointing discovery. But, the lease is signed and I’m making the most of it! The LVT and the laminate faux wood flooring were both installed about five years ago by a previous tenant.

At one point I mention the previous tenant’s curtains. I imply I’m thinking of keeping them. I don’t know what I am talking about. Those were goners! I never intended to keep them around (though somehow they did stay for a couple of months). They’re hopefully now in someone else’s home courtesy of Goodwill. The house is much lighter and brighter without them.

Other things? In this video I get really excited about the neighbor’s dog, I mistakenly call a stair rail a “stair ramp,” and generally talk about what’s going on in the new house. So without much more talk, I’ll introduce you to the Duplex: