My kitchen remodeling project is moving along. Yesterday, my brother and I installed the tile. I had never done tile before, so I was very lucky to have Steve around to help me out with that. It really wasn’t that hard of a job to do, although cutting it to fit around the electrical outlets was a tedious and exhausting process (especially considering the only tool we had to cut those L-shaped corners was a small hand saw). For every half-inch of cutting we needed to do on those porcelain tiles, it took about five minutes. Yes, my right arm was a bit sore this morning.

We installed the tile in the space above the sink, ran it the full length of the counter (about six and a half feet), and up to the bottom edge of the upper cabinets. It looks great, even without having the grout in there yet (hopefully, we’ll do that sometime this weekend).

I spent most of today spackling and putting primer on the walls where that oh-so-beautiful wallpaper used to be. Paint goes on tomorrow. Hey, I might actually finish this project!

Several months ago I talked about the possibility of moving into a cohousing development next year. Unit costs are beginning to be finalized for the project and despite the goal for the development to be affordable, unit costs are WAY too high for my meager librarian?s salary. Consequently, I will not be moving into that cohousing project.

While the costs made it an impossibility for me, I was also having second thoughts about the whole cohousing concept. I’m not sure how much I would enjoy things like having meals in the common house on a regular basis. Perhaps it?s just a little too communal for me.

At least I?ll be able to continue to enjoy the antics of the neighborhood adolescents, like the group that decided to hang out for a couple hours in front of my condo this evening. Oh, what fun!

The other day I was doing laundry and the washer (which was original to my 23 year old condo) decided it had enough of this life and died. [sigh] Time to buy a new one. Might as well replace the dryer too, which is also two decades old. After shopping around a bit, I got out the credit card and bought those today.

Once they are delivered (which I hope will happen before my clean underwear runs out), I will have replaced every major appliance here, except for the refrigerator and dishwasher. New stove, furnace, air conditioner, water heater, and now the washer and dryer — all in about a year and a half. I’m betting on the dishwasher to go next, it’s the last original appliance. Any takers?

I am now officially a member of Arboretum Cohousing. After investigating the project and attending a few meetings, I decided it would be worth my while to invest $500 into a possible change of living locations. And for me location is the key word.

The beauty of the surrounding landscape and recreational potential is huge. I would live one just or two blocks away from Lake Wingra, the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, the Henry Vilas Zoo, and the excellent network of recreational trails that go through Madison. That’s a lot of potential bicycling, hiking and kayaking, very close to home.

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From the website, Cohousing.org:

Cohousing is a type of collaborative housing that attempts to overcome the alienation of modern subdivisions in which no-one knows their neighbors, and there is no sense of community.

An interesting concept. In the Madison news yesterday there was a story about the beginning stages of a cohousing development, Aboretum Cohousing. In addition to all of the principles of cohousing, the people in charge of this development are also striving for affordability and to be very environmentally conscious.

Even more interesting to me is this cohousing community will be located about ten or twelve blocks from where I work.

Hmmm…

The work on getting my new home in shape continues (hence the lack of posts here). It almost amazes me all of the things that need taking care of in order to get settled into a new place. Even more amazing is how people can continually live with things that could so easily be fixed.

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Well, I made it. All of my worldly possessions are now in the same city that I have been living in. Most of them are still in boxes, but at least they are here.

It’s always interesting moving into a “new” place. In all the apartments/homes I’ve lived in, I’ve usually found a few little quirks or oddities about the former residents. For example, I’ve been in living in my condo in Madison for four days now and I do believe the former owner had some kind of irrational fear of screwing in light bulbs.

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I was cleaning out the garage today and it hit me that I never posted any pictures of my condo here. It was just about a year ago that I started looking for a home to purchase. Now that I’m almost to the point where I’m only 29 years in debt, I thought it might be a good time to put up a couple of pictures.

There are four units in the building, each one occupies the four corners.