Moving on up...

Dear lovely readers,

     Happy Memorial Day weekend! Aren't 3-day weekends the best? They give us a reason to go on.

     I'm so sorry I've been missing in action.  Several legitimate reasons, and the biggest one has been our move! We have been frantically packing, cleaning, purging, dusting, hiding balls of laundry in closets for our open house for the old house this weekend, and also shuttling back and forth for all the final details of our new house. Which there are SO many, especially in this crazy market. 

Have some of you been going through this process, too? RIDICulous.

    Anyway, here are some pictures of our new digs! We're so excited and maybe a little nervous. It's a bit of a change from condo life. But let me give you the virtual tour.

     It's an original Spanish style house from the 1930's. This is the front courtyard, where we first fell in love with the house. When the sun is shining, it just seems like your own little secret garden . It's surrounded on 3 sides by by bougainvilleas and has the most adorable running fountain in the middle, where, apparently, birds love to bathe and frolick in. 

     UH HUH. It's a little like the beginning scene from Cinderella.  

Little bench where I intend to read many a good Lucky magazine. And then maybe take a nap.

The bougainvilleas are riotous! riotous, I say, with color.

Around the corner, we have 2 lemon trees. The seller told us they "start out as limes. Then they turn into lemons if you leave them on long enough." Is that possible? If so, AWESOME. Maybe if we wait even longer, they'll turn into blood oranges, and some early pomelos. Would LOVE that.

Ahh, the backyard. What you see is an enormous elm tree, perfect for a swing for me and a tree house for Chris (i.e. man cave). Also, you may notice, there are rosemary bushes all around--7 in all. LOVE the smell of rosemary! Hooray for too much of a good thing!

This original wall carving just came with the house, no idea where and whence it is from. But I know I love it.

We love the colorful tiles inset amongst the front steps. I did pick some late late limes/lemons, and placed them next to our other favorite fruit--our blackberries.

See the depth of Chris' anality? We just went down the list and called/transferred our services. Fios, by the way--very expensive, compared to basic, poor-man's condo cable/internet. Fifteen bucks/month with the condo (group deal), and now--90 bucks!!

Chris really wanted a certain color hardwood floor--kind of dark grey/green. Here's hoping it turns out well. This is after the sanding, and the staining. That's an original fireplace that they tiled over, for no apparent reason. The present working fireplace is on the other side, seen below.

Our tiny new kitchen, which shall house the important things--ramen noodles, frozen trader joe's dinners, and pasta sauce.

Happily, we have 2 skylights in the family/mini-ballroom. And the original lights look so Spanish/Gothic. We love the authenticity.

One more view of THE elm tree.

We're so excited...and exhausted. Our actual physical move, complete with furniture and movers, is this coming Friday, so I'm sorry if I'm a little ADD with the posting.

Does anyone have any suggestions for Spanish type/Tuscan furniture or housewares? Unfortunately, Anthro doesn't sell their display tables, otherwise we would go through and sweep the entire Santa Monica store.

I'm actually blogging this from Newport Beach, where the Fashion Island Anthro resides in all its glory. Will have to post any nice housewares that I will be finding...so, I'm off to Anthro. Hope you are too, at some point!
Stay tuned!