We Have Domestication

They installed our carpet today, apparently (and in my experience with repair guys, uniquely) without mishaps or contretemps. We've already moved our bedroom furniture in; we're both a bit amazed by the fact that we have extra space. We're so used to cramming ourselves into teeny little spaces that we're sort of bewildered by all the extra room. Bewildered in a nice way, I hasten to add.

I think it looks quite nice, too--cozy and clean and comfy. In a bohemian, post-collegiate sort of way, anyway.

Master bedroom

The study is in a less advanced state of organization. We have to assemble the desk Matt will be using, and we can't find the little nubby things that hold up the shelves in the bookcases, so everything in the study is still very provisional, and we haven't brought in most of the boxes yet.

Study

In one of Fortune's funny little reversals, the rooms we were just starting to domesticate--the living room, kitchen, and dining room--are now totally wrecked, while the master bed and study are the homey ones.

As you can tell from the pix, we have yet to replace any of the baseboards. That's one of our next big projects, along with finishing off the bamboo floor edges and refurbishing the master bath. And one of these days we'll have to do substantial paint touch-ups. Though I'm hoping that if I leave a tooth beneath my pillow or clack my heels together three times, my fairy godmother will just take care of it for me.

On another note, we learned something interesting about the chinaberry in our backyard. We thought that all along it had been holding up the crooked old treehouse. In fact, as Matt discovered when he pulled down the treehouse today, it was the other way around. Shortly after he finished his demolition job, he heard this funny cracking noise and half of the tree came falling down. Fortunately, no people or things were harmed--other than the chinaberry, anyway.

Chinaberry, we hardly knew yeh.

So now we have two large mostly dead trees to pull down: the chinaberry and an ash. Sure is great being married to a guy who's handy with a chainsaw! And we're now in the market for the largest, fastest-growing shade trees we can find.