Meet Dot.

On this, the 20th day of May in the year 2011, after 7.5-ish years of marriage, 2 children, 3 degrees, 5 dwellings, and countless hours spent on realtor.com, Jake and I are homeowners.

This is Dot.

She was born Dorothy in 1921 (the second most popular name in the United States that year), went by Dottie most of her life, but as she's grown older, she's come to love Dot.

And we've come to love her.

She caught the eye of one of our friends, Glenda, who knew that we were looking in a certain school district. It was her first day on the market. We went to see her the next day. I knew she was supposed to be ours. We made an offer the third day after she'd already had several showings. Today at closing, the other agent said that tears were shed by other potential buyers over Dot after she was taken off the market. I understand. We've been there, too, but for good reason. I couldn't have imagined that a home with all our requirements would be waiting. A colorful bungalow in a great school with all the charm in the world, a front porch, and on a corner lot to boot. She's not perfect, well, she is, but she's also 90. She needs some touching up.

I'm certain I will post many a before and after picture. But for now, a first...

What did I first love about her?

Her fire place with built-ins. Followed closely by her windows.

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Bodily Functions

I think flatulence is funny. No secret there.

Tonight while Cora was in the bath, she let out a pretty substantial bubbly toot. And then...

She sniffed the air around her. And sniffed and sniffed and sniffed one more time.

What do you say to something like that? I just laughed.

And then there's Magnolia. Whenever she lets loose, I always say something like "Wow, you've got toots!" I was holding her today when she ripped a big one. I said my usual gassy banter, she smiled and strained a bit [a lot], made a little grunt, and the tiniest squeaker of a toot came out. Her face lit up and she giggled. She was very proud of her accomplishment. I gave her a high five. She just learned how to do that [high fives] this weekend.

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The Most Difficult Decision of My Life...

[That might be an over statement, but it might not be...]

Paint. Who knew that when buying a home, the hardest part would be deciding what color should adorn the walls? I didn't. I thought it would be easy. I thought I knew my style [I do know that, I'm just afraid of commitment].

Last night I dreamt in color swatches. I saw hundreds of those color cards flashing through my head all night long. In order to remedy that, and to stop the madness of trying to decide, via computer screen, what colors I liked best, I made a list, and luckily, they were all Benjamin Moore colors, so I drove less than a mile to the nearest store with Benjamin Moore paints, and gathered color cards. And I came home with four samples. They are drying on white poster board that will be hanging throughout my house and stared at all day tomorrow (I know this house isn't the one I'm going to be painting, but I feel like I'll know).

So, after nearly 7 1/2 years of renting, all those years of imagining the extraordinarily vibrant colors I'd rather be staring at...I've had to come to terms with the fact that it's just not me. And I don't know why that was hard. You see, my mother-in-law has one of the cutest houses on the planet. That is not an exaggeration. It is full of color and tons of cute finds, all of which have a story either real or made up. There's always something new [that's really old and has a new life because of her], something interesting. With all of that, do you know what my very favorite room in her whole house is? It's not the living room with it's sunny yellow walls and red couch and green hutch. No, not that one. It isn't even the office with the fabulous turquoise desk...

No...

It's the guest bathroom. You should see it's gloriously white walls, and antiqued ivory cabinets with the sweet pops of color in the form of blue-ish-y turquoise-y vases and pots. I love that room. I love it so much. And with the recent addition of the black frame (with a picture of Cora in the sink), you could bury me in the bathtub [with lavendar bubbles] because I am in design heaven.

That's it. I admit it. I'm a black and white and greige with pops of color kind of girl. Greige - You know, is it grey? Is it beige? Who knows? So that's what my walls will be: Greige - with a little more grey than beige, please. And that's what I have spent hours pouring over. Slight variations of pretty much the same color.

There are four finalists (all Benjamin Moore):

Halo

Revere Pewter

Edgecomb Gray

Hazy Skies

The pictures don't tell the whole story, but they would all be paired with bright white trim. And we have a lot of it. 1921 Bungalow = Fabulous trim. My pops of color will be Blue-sy Turquoise-ish and Red. With some yellow in a few places as well, but greige, oh greige...how I love you.

Update: 1/26/2012 -  Many have stumbled across this entry, and I just wanted to show you what our final paint decision was. We chose Halo by Benjamin Moore. Click here for pictures.

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Firsts

1. Downtown Edmond Arts Festival
My favorite is always the Paseo Arts Festival, but I thought it was crazy we'd never been to Edmond's downtown festival. Today we went. One of my favorite paintings was $75. It was a rather large canvas, and I loved it, but I didn't get it. I don't know why. It was a wind farm. Have I ever mentioned how much I love wind farms? I do. And I love paintings of them, no matter how overdone. Anyway, the painting was by a UCO student, hence the totally affordable price.

2. Cora rides on a Ferris Wheel
At the afore mentioned festival, there were kiddie rides, one of which was a Ferris wheel. Cora was brave and went all by herself - in the blue car, as per her request.

3. Buying a house
We're in the process of purchasing a home that is 90 years old. It's a sweet little bungalow that won my heart. Our offer has been accepted. We survived the inspection, and we're waiting to hear back from the seller about the repairs we're asking him to make. My cousin asked me about pictures. I just can't post any yet, not until I hear back about the repairs. I'm too cautious [superstitious] for that. It's a small yellow craftsman style bungalow on a corner lot in a historic neighborhood. Let your imaginations run wild.

4. West
I don't know why we weren't knocking down the door at West [a restaurant at 67th and Western) when it first opened. I actually don't know when it first opened, but holy smokes! We are hooked. We went there because we read about the vegan nachos. We were pleasantly surprised at all of the things that could easily be made vegan on their menu. I mean, I've only been there once, but there is love between me and West. We had vegan nachos, sweet potato fries, gazpacho, and "A Simple Plate of Seasonal Veggies," which is actually one of their entrees. It was a lot of food. A lot of REALLY GOOD food. We cleaned our plates. And bowl. I could eat the nachos every day of my life. Maybe twice a day because I'm feeling some now, but I wouldn't do that.

5. Keep it Local OK
When we were leaving West, I saw a sign for the Keep it Local OK card. I looked it up when I got home, and it seems great. It's $10 and you get nice discounts at a lot of local restaurants around town.

5. Throwing Class
When I opened my birthday card from Meemaw and Peepaw, I found some money. The inscription in the card said that I couldn't use it for anything child, home, or food related. It had to be for me. Well, I've always wanted to take a wheel throwing course, so I signed up for one. I told my mother-in-law it felt luxurious. I mean, it's not the double stroller I was going to put my birthday money toward. It's actually a series of six classes through the House of Clay and taught by Marvin Embree. I took ceramics in high school and really loved it, but we never did any wheel work, so I'd always been curious. I love the feel of clay in my hands. My first class was last night. I'm very much a beginner, but I'm hopeful for the potential that lies inside of me. I think I lucked out with someone who will be a great teacher. The home we're buying has an extra room behind the garage. I'm thinking a wheel could find it a friendly space someday.

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