Happy Friday, dazzling friends, and welcome to the Open Mic! If you’re new here, on Fridays we get together here for some chat. (Sometimes there’s a guest artist instead.) The topic varies from week to week, but everyone is welcome to participate in the comments.
Wednesday was moving day for us. We left the East Bay house we’ve rented for three years, and moved down to San Jose for two months before our world travels. It felt like the right time to leave, so I wasn’t too sad. But I wanted to do something to document our experience there… and I thought some of you regular readers (or house voyeurs like me!) would like to see where we’ve been living for the entire duration of this blog.
I was inspired by the opening scene of Pride & Prejudice to do a video tour of the house as it was on Wednesday morning, just hours before we packed our remaining belongings into a U-Haul. I held my digital camera in front of me and just walked through from room to room, and into the beautiful day outside. Then I loaded the result onto my computer for my first-ever attempt at video editing.
Here are a few photos of the house as it was (furnished):
Office/studio: My writing and painting desk
Living room
Dining room/kitchen
Happy weekend to you all!
this is cool and so accurate. i’m blessed to actually, physically know you and the space you’ve inhabited the last three years.
Thank you so much, Kuukua!! I’m blessed to know you as well — and I’m so glad I’ve gotten to spend as much time as I have in your new place. 🙂 It has such a good feel to it.
A Happy weekend to you too, Lisa!
I enjoyed your tour and the music. There was so much space and light and the views were breathtaking! I understand that you’re ready to move on, but this is the first time I’ve gotten a real sense of it. I almost feel like I’m leaving it now… Silly, right?
I actually tossed out some clutter last weekend. Yay me! But I’ve still got a ways to go before my place is as open as I’d like. I plan to give it another couple of hours this weekend. I feel like this post has given me a little more incentive. Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed it, Ré! I don’t think it’s silly… I only wish I’d thought of doing such a video earlier, when all our things were still in the house! But then, I didn’t have such a good camera then… and the house wasn’t nearly as clean. 😉
Hooray for decluttering! I’m even still doing it now, with old things stored at my parents’ house. Good luck with yours. 🙂
I love your house, Lisa. I think it served you well, don’t you? And the view from your deck! (I remember when you moved in. As taken as you were with the location, you weren’t too happy about living on a fault. Apparently nothing happened to shake the art of your wall during your stay:). Fun video — thanks for sharing!
It served me tremendously! It’s funny, I was talking with my brother-in-law yesterday; he moved at the same time we did, and his street also had a view (he lived in San Rafael on the opposite side of the bay from us). We realized we all missed being able to see the ocean from where we live. I knew I liked that, while I was living there, but I didn’t realize how much I’d gotten used to it until we’d been away for a week. I think that’s where my ocean poem came from!
Thank you for sharing.
Wishing you well in your future endeavors and movements.
Stay positive.
Thank you very much, Ceezpaul!
The plum blossoms are breathtakingly beautiful. G wants to know where all your things are (I think she wants to drive over and get more). K has read ALL of the books you gave her and told me to tell you how great they were. I met Carla (mutual blogging friend) the other day and we spoke about you– did your ears burn? I’m very excited about your journey!
Hah, I only wish you and the girls could come over again and ransack more of my stuff. I was so tickled! SO glad Kenyon loved the books!! Sometimes I wish I could be a lending library for people who like the same kinds of books I do. 😉 Has she read The Mysterious Benedict Society or The View from Saturday?
I’m delighted you and Carla met, and pleased to know you talked about me. 🙂 I’m looking forward to meeting up with Carla myself, at some point before we take off!
Wow, I love this. It’s odd, considering that I’m seeing the house completely devoid of your stuff, but I feel like I know you so much more! I’m so excited about your travels!!!
Houses are like that, no? I’m such a home voyeur myself (not to call you one!), I totally understand. 😉 I was re-watching the video and wondering how on earth it gives such a sense of us, even though there’s hardly anything in the house… but I think it does. It’s weird because we didn’t choose the wall colors or anything, but somehow it still feels like us. Maybe it’s just the way I shot the video; maybe the walkthrough represents how I feel about it?