Where we live

Welcome to our current home!

This is what it looked like before we moved in:

And after:

Entryway (the bathroom is through the door to the left)

It's nice, clean, recently renovated, and really, really small. In the early weeks of being there while we were missing our old home, when Scotty came home from work his greeting went like this:

Scotty: Honey? Honey! Where are you? Honey?

Me: I'm right here. You can see me!

Scotty: (Still calling for me) Honey? (Pretending to be startled) Oh! There you are. I didn't see you.

Me: (Trying not to laugh) Ha ha, very funny. 

There's literally nowhere in the place you cannot see from the front door. It's a studio, basically a mother-in-law suite on ground floor of a house with the owners living in the house above us. When we first moved in, the lack of space for our things was almost disconcerting... I mean, where would everything go? But it was the nicest place we could find for the money and walking distance from my work.

View of the Gastineau Channel down the street (and my walk to work)

And so, we embarked on a crash course in minimalism. In doing so, we were forced to let go of things we weren't crazy about and store the rest. Fortunately, we have a small storage room to use elsewhere in the house and don't have to rent one. It still always seems like there is more stuff that needs to go, though. 

The kitchen was another thing to get used to. There's no oven, only two electric burners.

Originally, it was furnished with a large convention oven (like an oversize microwave) but neither of us really wanted to use it. So our landlords agreed to store that too and we invested in a $20 countertop/ toaster oven. A year later, it works so surprisingly well for us that I don't even miss having a regular oven. We cook and bake all the things we used to, but just have less leftovers. I even used it to bake Scotty a miniature birthday cake!

We honestly don't mind living in such close quarters, though of course we have our moments just like any couple. I think it helps that we share a lot of the same interests. There are certain things I wouldn't want to deal with in a small space that fortunately my man doesn't do (like watching constant sports or playing video games). Like me, he grew up playing outside and getting outdoors and being active has always been an important part of our relationship. The one thing I would like to have is a designated art space that could be left mid-project.

Perhaps most important to our living in a small space is that Scotty and I share the same need to be super-organized. Capt. Scotty likes to equate this to being on a boat, where everything always has its place (safety first!). For me, making sure everything is clean and put away means peace of mind.

We say that if we ever have a house, we would like to build it ourselves and make a separate little cabin that can be used as a writing/ art studio. There would also be a place for dirtier projects like woodworking (something I'm interested in and Scotty is pretty good at).

Check out the awesome countertops he made for his work to go in an educational nature center. I love that he knows how to do this kind of stuff. I told him he should make something like that for our future home, they're so pretty and unique-looking.

 

As for the wildlife we used to have at our old place, not much has changed in that department (though we do everything in our power to discourage bigger critters like this one from coming around!).

 Just your average black bear sighting in our driveway