Vol. 7, No. 6 | I Accidentally Bought A House
Hey Ya’ll!
I’m sorry to have left you guys for so long, but I bought a house a few weeks after my last newsletter and I couldn’t have imagined the emotions that I’d have about it. I wasn’t planning on buying a house. I realize how absurd it must sound to have randomly bought a house in this market, but I really did. I’ll tell you more about it at the end, but here’s what I’ve learned during this process:
I’m minimal except for when it comes to glassware and alcohol. I have so many glasses. I got rid of some during this move and I still have so many.
The best way to move both of those things is by putting them in old liquor boxes. My boyfriend suggested that I wrap them individually and he was met with a blank stare. Who has time for that?!
Overall, I was also hellbent on not packing in the traditional sense. I took the first two weeks after closing to complete a bulk of the work that I wanted to be done on the house. Once everything was done, I moved all my furniture in. After that, I moved everything else very slowly. I put things in a box or two and then unpacked them in the house as soon as I brought them there. As you can expect, this took many trips and I questioned my sanity along the way. However, when I got back from weeks of traveling it was nice coming home to a chaos-free space. It felt like home and I needed that.
What helped me is that I had a very extensive spreadsheet for this process. Yes, I’ll turn any moment into a spreadsheet. I pretty much used the same format that I do when I’m producing an event - a tab for the do-to list, another for budget, one for contractors, one for paint colors, and another for things I wanted to buy.
Owning a bar prepared me for this. The process of opening Studio No. 7 was very similiar. This time I felt a lot more equipped to handle it. I closed on May 2 and on May 3 I had three different contractors at the house doing something. My neighbor remarked that she moved in a year ago and still couldn’t figure out how to get a handyman. Don’t knock the spreadsheets.
As I was moving one of my friends said they can’t wait to come to the parties that I’ll throw here. I think my response was something along the lines of: What the hell are you talking about? But as I settle in I’m forced to admit that yes, I will entertain here. As much as I love going to restaurants, I enjoy intimate affairs at home. Plus, I need to make sense of all the glassware that I have.
In general, I think home entertaining is such a lost art. I’ll expound on this another time.
So how did I end up here? My boyfriend was looking for houses and almost bought this one (at my urging). He was on the fence because of some poor cosmetic decisions, but my creative brain could see past those. (The house was renovated but they painted all the inside walls a darker gray and they painted the outside purple and gold—sorry to the members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. but that is not acceptable.) I kept telling him that if he didn’t buy it, I would. I was NOT serious. But when he really decided not to buy it, I couldn’t pass it up. I felt too strongly about the potential of the neighborhood. There are tree-lined streets, historic houses, lots to build more houses, a huge park that will connect to the Beltline, under-utilized retail space (zoning matters), an active neighborhood association and it’s in Atlanta proper. I also got it for under asking and didn’t have to waive any inspections. At every step of the way, I was ok with things falling through. I had every type of inspection possible and pushed the seller hard for concessions and somehow it still all worked out. It let me know that for whatever reason I was supposed to own this house at this time. After living here for a month, I truly love it. My plants are thriving and I get way more natural light than I thought I would (now that the walls aren’t gray). It’s amazing what paint can do.
Thanks for your patience as I’ve taken this time to get settled. I’ve missed you guys! A week hasn’t gone by that I haven’t thought about when I’d get to send out another newsletter, but I also knew that taking this moment for myself would prevent future stops and starts.
Hope you’re all well! I’ll be back next week! (Either on Wednesday or Friday, I’m thinking of switching back to my original day, but we’ll see.)
Shannon