Why I Haven’t Made an Offer

I mentioned in the last post that I may have found my new place. Here’s the rest of the story. It’s complicated. First, I need to sell my house before I can buy a new one. The idea is to use the proceeds from my house to pay cash for the new one. My plan is to pare down my expenses so, if I need to retire (not a part of my plan, but it could happen), I’ll be able to live comfortably with much reduced means. You never know.

So, okay, I need to sell my house, and before I do that, I need to do some serious decluttering. I’m working on that and shooting for the end of the month to put it on the market. Meanwhile, I’m taking a load of excess stuff to charity about once a week, giving the shredder a workout, and recycling stacks of paperwork.

To further complicate matters, when I told my neighbors I planned to move, they were interested in buying my house. They would use it as a rental until Scott’s mom retires here from West Virginia. Also, they’d like to add office and studio space for themselves above the garage.

We talked at length one afternoon, and my brother explained my house’s structural problems, which didn’t seem to phase them. Anyway, it would be great if this all works out, but there is one teeny, tiny problem. Before they could buy my house, they would have to sell their current rental. Luckily, both their rental and my house are in one of the most popular neighborhoods in Denver. In fact, I’ve already heard from four potential buyers for my house and, as I mentioned, it’s not on the market yet. It’s shaping up to be an interesting summer.

I May Have Found My New Place

It isn’t exactly what I envisioned. First, it’s outside Denver, close (but not walking distance) to the shops, restaurants and library in Olde Town Arvada. Originally a two-bedroom condo, a wall was removed to open the second bedroom to the living room. This suits me fine. I don’t have or want to have guests stay over. Just the thought of being around someone else 24/7 gives me the willies.
I work at home, so I need a bigger living room to accommodate my studio. My work is so integrated into my life that I don’t like having it segregated into a separate room. This room has a cathedral ceiling and two skylights, which makes it the perfect space to spend my time.
The kitchen is small and open to the common room (my term for the combined living room/studio). The bedroom has both a walk-in closet and a linen closet. It’s been 25 years since I had a walk-in closet and I’ve never had a linen closet, but both were on my “want list.” The bathroom has a large oval tub, perfect for a bath lover like me, and a closet laundry.
There is also an enclosed porch with more storage. At 728 square feet, it’s bigger than I thought I wanted, but will still require me to get rid of a ton or so of excess STUFF. I’m working on it.
There’s no garage, but plenty of parking and pretty, well-maintained grounds, next to three tiny lakes and a little park.
The main drawback is that the current owner is a smoker and the place reeks of smoke. I grew up in a house with two parents who smoked, and I keep wondering if our house smelled like that. Ick.
If I buy this condo, I’ll rip out the carpet, install hardwood floors, and paint, which will go a long way toward getting rid of the odor.
And no, I haven’t made an offer yet (it’s complicated—I’ll explain in my next post), so I may lose it. I’m philosophical about that. If I lose it, I’ll find a better one. Meanwhile, I’m having fun making lists of everything I’d like to do to the place and rearranging furniture on paper.

A Little Jewel Box, A Cool Building, A Great Neighborhood

This could be called “The Return of the Auntie Flat” (See my previous posts on this topic.) Although that project fell through last fall, I never really gave up my dream of a little house for the next phase of my life. After living here 24 years, I’m ready to sell my house and find a new place. I dread the thought of packing up and moving, but my house has become more than I can handle—not that it’s too big; it’s only 900 square feet, although that is more than I need. The main problem is that the house is 121 years old and requires ongoing maintenance that I just can’t do. Also, I’m no longer interested in doing yard work and my neighbors deserve better.

So, I’m looking for a little jewel box in a cool building and a great neighborhood. Is that asking too much? My initial scouting of the Denver market has convinced me that I should be able to find what I want with persistence, patience, and a little help from my friends.

Here’s where you come in. If you know of anyplace interesting, please let me know. My wish list follows:

A Little Jewel Box

I’m looking for a modern loft with about 600 square feet. I’d like a large, open space, but a one-bedroom is okay. I prefer hardwood or tile floors; a small, updated kitchen (with a dishwasher, which I have done without for 24 years); some outdoor space; a tub and shower in the bathroom; laundry facilities in the unit; and a garage.

A Cool Building

Ideally, this would be a condo in a building converted from a nonresidential use, such as a church, schoolhouse, library, storefront, or warehouse.

A Great Neighborhood

After living all my adult life in the inner city, I think a real neighborhood includes a neighborhood business district, with nearby parks, shops and restaurants. Of course, ideally, I’d like to stay in Highland neighborhood, but other possible areas are near the Tennyson Street shops, the shops on Old South Pearl or South Gaylord, or Olde Town Arvada.

Just in case there is anything to the Law of Attraction, I’m keeping this image in my mind. In fact, I’m kind of obsessed with it as you will see in forthcoming posts.

March Madness Sadness Gladness

March is a confusing month for me.

Although March is historically our snowiest month in Denver, it is also the month when spring begins and flowers start to bloom, even in the snow. Actually, that’s a pretty good metaphor for the month.

My beautiful nieces were both born in March, and they have been bringing light into my life for more than 40 years. That’s the gladness. They live in Phoenix, so I don’t get to see them as often as I would like.

Sadness comes because both my mother and father died in March. My mother passed away on March 18, twenty-one years ago at the age of 67. My dad lived until age 90 and breathed his last breath on March 25 three years ago.

Maybe that’s why March Madness irritates me so much. First, CBS pre-empts The Young and the Restless for FOUR days to show some idiot basketball games. I don’t even like Y&R much anymore, but it’s what I use as background noise when I eat lunch and read.

In the middle of the basketball frenzy comes St. Patrick’s Day. How can the Irish be proud of a pseudo-holiday that’s celebrated in America by people drinking themselves stupid?

And speaking of people drinking themselves stupid, what can I say about spring break. When did it become a requirement for college (and now even high school) students to debark to Mexico to raise hell and party themselves into oblivion? Don’t get me started.

Let’s just say I’m happy April is just a few days away.

Go With the Simple Solution

The lamp on my desk wouldn’t come on when I turned the switch. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem. I’d just change the light bulb and move on. This, however, was one of those energy-saving curlicue bulbs which are supposed to last five years, so that couldn’t be the problem.

I checked to make sure it was plugged in. Because I live in an ancient house with too few outlets, the lamp plug was piggybacked on the plug for my digital phone modem. (I swear I’m getting rid of the damn land line and going cellular. I might as well get some use out of the cell phone that I pay for and never use. But I digress.) The phone was working, and I deduced that the outlet wasn’t the problem.

Hmmm. Could be the switch. I bought the lamp at Target less than a year ago. Maybe I could exchange it for a new one.

After getting by for two days with just the overhead lamp, which threw my shadow onto anything I tried to read at my desk, I decided I had to quit overthinking this and do something. I replaced the light bulb with a new curlicue and it lit right up.

Maybe the fact that my desk lamp is on roughly 12 hours a day used up it’s life in less that the promised five years. Whatever. This was a reminder of Occam’s Razor: the simplest solution is usually the best. At least it’s the best place to start.

So, the next time you find yourself overcomplicating things, remember Occam’s Razor and try the simplest solution first.

Summer Camp for Build-it-Yourselfers

I’ve had a fantasy all my life of building my own house. Over the years, I’ve read several books written by people who have actually done that. To make that fantasy come true, these people/organizations offer design/build workshops, which would be an excellent way to spend a summer vacation:

Those who want to seriously downsize can learn to build a tiny house at one of the workshops offered around the country by Tumbleweed Tiny Houses. Check out the schedule here.

Learn to build a yurt at a Vermont workshop.

If your taste runs to alternative building materials, you can learn about building an earthbag, cob, or straw bale house here.

Finally, one of the original design/build schools is Yestermorrow in Warren, Vermont, which offers over 150 hands-on courses per year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft including a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design and green building. Yestermorrow teaches both design and construction skills in 1-day to 3-week hands-on courses are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country.

Happy building.

No Snow Day

It’s brutally cold in Denver: Minus 19° overnight and a high today of only about 20°. All I want to do is burrow in somewhere cozy and wait for warmer weather. One of the disadvantages of working or studying at home is that you don’t get any snow days. We didn’t get much snow out of this storm, so nobody’s getting a snow day today, and I thank my lucky stars that I didn’t have to join the rush hour madness this morning.

When I face new students at the University of Phoenix, one of the first things they always ask me about is weather cancellations. They react with surprise when I tell them that we just don’t do them. Denver’s national reputation for cold and snow aside, our weather really isn’t bad. The bigger issue, though, is that dealing with the impossibly full schedules of adult college students is extremely difficult. We can’t just cancel classes and forget about them; we have to make them up within the same week, a Herculean task.

Staying cheerful in freezing temperatures can be an adventure. Yesterday ten people showed up at my church to go caroling even though it was only 5°. We had a good time and maybe even brought a few people a little Christmas cheer.

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Building a Nest

“Ah! There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.”

Jane Austen

Every summer, my friend Chris and her husband Peter spend the month of July at the same lakeside cottage in Maine. They read, play on the lake, take walks and naps and just relax. They take a cell phone, but no computer.

As soon as they arrive from their home in New Jersey, they set about changing the house (as tiny as a dollhouse, according to Chris) from a generic, tacky summer cottage into their home. They remove the furniture, pictures, knickknacks and dishes to a storage facility and replace everything with their own stuff. This takes about five hours.

At the end of their vacation, they reverse the process, replacing the original furnishings and putting their belongings into the storage unit. They do this because their surroundings are very important to their state of mind.

The way we decorate and live in our houses, studios and offices affects our mental states more than we may realize. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t get much done in a beige room. I need color, plus lots of books and paper and (colorful) pens and music and natural light and my computer. My cats are also a nice addition, although I frequently have to shoo them off the desktop.

When I ask my students to design their ideal learning space, they always include music and elements of nature such as plants or aquariums or windows facing trees and gardens.

Think about the kind of environment that makes you feel most creative and productive. Start by imagining what you would like if money were no object. Then see which of the elements you can incorporate into your work space, now.

According to Pregnancy Weekly, the nesting instinct kicks in at about 5 months, with “an uncontrollable urge . . . to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world.” Since many people refer to creative projects of all sorts as their babies, it isn’t too far fetched to think about designing a nurturing nest where your creativity can thrive.

© Copyright 2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Chaos Theory

“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.”
– AA Milne

My artist’s date this weekend was a garden tour sponsored by the Conflict Center. Normally, this annual event is a favorite of mine. The gardens in my working class neighborhood are not the overly designed and manicured gardens of the wealthier parts of town and that is fine with me. These gardens require more creativity than cash and typically feature recycled materials and plants acquired from friends and neighbors. As acclaimed dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp said, “Whom the gods wish to destroy they give unlimited resources.” Nobody around here has unlimited resources.

This year, I was a little disappointed. The gardens were more ordinary, not the exceptional examples I enjoyed in previous years. As usual, my favorite garden was the one that was crammed full of plants and artwork, with something interesting to look at no matter where your eyes lit. If you’ve seen my house, you already know that I’m the opposite of a minimalist, although the simple and serene Japanese style garden with incense burning throughout was also nice. For me, it would be a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

One of the best things about a garden tour is the ideas it gives me about what I can do in my own yard. This year was no exception. My yard has suffered from neglect the past couple of years while my focus turned to, among other things, my dad’s declining health. Yesterday, though, I took another look at it and found a few things I could do to reclaim it from chaos. My neighbors will be happy to hear it.

If you don’t have time for a real artist’s date, take a few minutes to watch this amazing Women in Art video.

© Copyright 2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

An “Urban” Suburb

“The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out.” Dee Hock

I had my Artist Date last Friday at the Museum of Outdoor Arts in Englewood, a suburb south of Denver. I’ll tell you more about the exhibit in a later post. Here I want to talk about the Englewood City Center, where the museum is located. Yet another example of the New Urbanism that attempts to create a mixed-use “vibrant downtown core” feeling in the middle of a sprawling beige suburb, it showed promise when I drove into a small park displaying sculptures and a fountain.

Maybe I should mention up front that I always feel like an illegal alien on the planet suburbia.

City Hall stood on one side of the park, across from a three-story building with offices, many of them still vacant, on the ground level and apartments above. The block leading down to the park is the same, with a few restaurants, a coffee shop and a bead shop among the law and insurance and architecture offices with apartments above. At the end of that block is a HUGE Wal-Mart store, looming like the mother ship.

I like the concept of putting housing, retail and office units together, but this seemed a little sterile to me. Of course it’s new and still half empty, so that will change, but here’s the thing: I wouldn’t want to live next door to a Wall-Mart. Those people who “camp” in RVs in Wal-Mart parking lots might disagree with me.

The whole time I was there, I saw a total of about a dozen people around, unlike the neighborhood business districts near me, which these new downtowns are trying to emulate and which always seem to be crammed with people drinking coffee, talking on their phones, pushing strollers and walking their dogs.

I’m not sure what the problem was. Maybe it will just take time for the place to develop some character and personality. Or maybe they need more variety of housing—single family houses, town homes and lofts in addition to the cookie-cutter apartments. Or maybe downtowns only work, well, downtown. I know I was happy to get back home to my little urban village of North Denver.

© Copyright 2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved