ida and elmer's house

i had wanted to wait to post photos of the new house until i had before and after shots of each room, showing them empty and then with our things moved in. but because i'm being so picky about things being just right before i show them, i don't want to wait any longer to post a few of how cute the house itself is.

after doing a little research and talking to some neighbors/relatives, we learned that ida was the original owner of this house that was built in 1938. she had two husbands, both named elmer, and no kids. the first elmer died shortly after moving in, and the second died in the sixties. ida was living here alone until last december, when she passed away 3 months shy of her 100th birthday. i can't imagine all the things she must have experienced during her lifetime! josh and i can tell that the house was very special to ida and her elmers; its apparent in how well taken care of it was and the great condition its in 70+ years after being built. we're really excited to start this new chapter of our lives together here, taking pride in the house that ida and her elmers loved so much and carrying on the tradition.


our first house


the view of our front yard and street from the front steps :)


very pink garage :)


back porch


little walk way from back porch to driveway - cute!


pink kitchen!


vintage light fixture above sink - cute!


phone nook - cute!!!


dining room


dining room


living room - one side


living room - other side. the room is looooong!


computer room


retro bathroom!


built in vintage medicine cabinet - cute!


razor slot in vanity above bathroom sink - cute!!!


record room


cedar closet, for all my fancy fur coats (as if)


bedroom (which is HUGE)


storage room aka "bonus room" aka "the roost"


basement room #1 (nicknamed the boat room)


basement room #2, laundry side


basement room #2, josh's area side


basement room #3


awesome light fixtures in the boat room!


canning room in the basement - cute!


skeleton keys for all the interior doors of the house :)

bottom of the stack

josh and i have been busy busy busy getting the new house in order. its looking really good (actually, amazing, if i do say so myself!) and i'm excited to share some photos soon.

in the meantime, here is a recent flea market score that is one of my most favorite of all time. it was in a stack of old war/military photos and they all appeared to be taken in an asian country. some were in restaurants with asian decor, others were of soldiers and people in fancy clothes. the guy was trying to sell the whole lot for $20. he pointed to a portrait of a distinguished-looking soldier and told me, "this is the one that everybody wants."

"oh, really? cuz i wanted this one," i said, showing him the photo at the bottom of the stack.

"yeah? the geisha? ok....5 bucks."

the money was out of my hand and into his before he could take the photo out of the plastic photo album page. i couldn't believe my luck. usually i spent way too much time at flea markets digging through stacks of old pictures just hoping there's a treasure waiting for me. by then, all the good stuff around me is already snagged up by everyone else and i come out empty-handed all around. i told myself that this time, i would not waste my whole day looking through every single stack of photos i passed. somehow, these caught my eye.

isn't she beautiful?????



swoooooooooon. what a great find.

homeowners, y'all

WE GOT THE KEYS!!!!!



a million more photos to come. stay tuned.

ooooooh my soul

so how ironic is this?? the beans have finally been spilled, and i've been too busy to even TALK like i've been dying to for what seems like FOREVER now. well, luckily i have a second.

all this stress and missing in action from blogland is largely due to the fact that josh and i are about to own this:



HOLY CRAP, BATMAN!

this is huge for us. we weren't exactly planning to buy a house right now, and in fact if we had any sense at all we would have saved up a lot longer and not blown our entire wedding fund on a down payment. but hey, life is strange and you only live once and things happen for a reason and all that other good stuff.

it isn't likely that you'll be lucky enough to get off with just a simple update like this, because this is a mega-exciting thing for me and i'm probably going to blab about it every step of the way. i don't have any more photos to share at this point because we haven't gotten the keys yet and i've still only been there once. but i CAN share some cool details:

-the house was built in the 30s and most of it is "in its original condition." what this means is that the interior features things like art deco woodwork around the bathroom door frame, and incredibly tacky wallpaper in every room (especially what is going to become the record room, which features people riding on horseback). this also means that we got a good deal on the house for being outdated, but josh and i TOTALLY DIG IT. the few updates that were made were done in the fifties, and are very obviously "fab fifties" style (a pink/black bathroom, a pink kitchen, a pink garage door; again, TOTALLY AWESOME). for being original, the house is in amazing condition.

-the most exciting thing for josh and i was the fact that all the interior doors still have their skeleton key sticking out of them! the sellers also left a key ring with a spare set of skeleton keys on the counter for us. I. LOVE. SKELETON. KEYS. the original blueprints to the house were also laid out on the counter. i love knowing the history of things and the fact that we will have that is pretty neat.

-the size of the house we rent now is maybe 500 sq. feet. our new house is close to 1600 sq. feet, and that's not even counting the partially finished basement (which is also huge). i can't effing wait to fill it full of cool junk. you know i have a knack for this. yay.

i like the fact that it looks sorta creepy and haunted from the outside. i'm guessing we're probably going to seem like the munsters to the neighbors anyway, so it works. i can't wait to see the look on their faces when we start carrying in boxes marked "stuffed monsters" and unpack a giant fiberglass cheeseburger from the truck. if our tattoos and funny haircuts don't scare them away first, i'm sure mayor mccheese will do the trick.

my friend bryan told me our new house reminds him of the wacky shack, an amusement park funhouse that used to be inside idora park near youngstown, ohio. apparently there are still a few wacky shacks remaining in parks around the states.





i do see the resemblance. is hotel hot trash being retired for the wacky shack?? only time will tell.

if all goes well, we should be able to start moving in sometime next week. i'll be sure to post more regular updates now that i don't have to keep secrets and be all stressed out about life.

i can't wait for our own place!!!

it's pretty much killing me that all my thoughts these days revolve around one central theme, and its one that i've been forbidden to talk about just yet. I WANT TO TALK, DAMMIT. until then, lest i accidentally slip and ruin everything, i will refrain from talking and just make my presence in blogland known by another photo dump. BUH! not fair.


just another late nite college radio show with my special guest, josh domino


lemmy was the first cat to find this exciting new hiding place. can anyone complete my collection and provide me with the giraffe coat rack?!


i got some new glasses...and some new freckles (thanks, mr. sun!)



i always put the twins down for their nap at the same time


recently an old-fashioned soda fountain opened in cleveland and josh and i finally had a chance to stop by. it was cute and delicious.




one day i took the cats over to my mom's house and when it was time to leave we couldn't find megadeth anywhere. imagine my surprise when i walked to the top of the stairs and found her hiding in my mom's flower pot. silly cat.


i've really enjoyed spending the summer as nanny for my faux-niece. she's at such a cute age and i love to see all the new things she is learning...she's so smart! here she is having fun in her pool.


"just let me go outside and play, ma..."


my pal nobunny played here a few weeks ago and cleveland got a bit too, uh, excited. the crowd ended up tearing off all his clothes and he left the stage, only to return and finish the rest of the show totally naked. if you think this photo is awkward, imagine the unedited ones...

monkees recap/photo dump

i know i've been MIA lately but there have been some things going on that have definitely been preoccupying me. i hope that it all comes to a close soon so that i can talk freely about the situation and CALM THE FUCK DOWN in the meantime :) yes, i'm rather stressed at the moment.

but i just realized i never posted any of the photos from the monkees show i went to last month (which was super fun, by the way). my camera with the good zoom broke, so i wasn't able to get any decent pictures of the guys. i did get lots of fun pictures of the screen behind them that played clips the entire show, which is fine because i couldn't take my eyes off it the whole time anyway.




(even though we got there early the line STILL wrapped around the block)


















(i accidentally took a photo of micky's underwater crotch..oops)








(never thought i would hear "daddy's song" from the movie "head" live..ha! davy even changed into an outfit that looked just like the one he wore in the movie during that scene)








(the entire nite we tried thinking of something i could get as a monkees tattoo...we decided this should be my back piece since davy is my least favorite and that would be the dumbest thing ever)