Karlstad Badlands

 Hi folks,

So, today I am offish a homeowner! YAY.

This is a really really wonderful day for me and I am overjoyed at the fact that at 5pm today I will take a whole new route home and meet my hubs who will wait patiently all day long to walk into our front doors for the first time together.

I am freaking out people. There is just so much to do and so little time to get it done before I lose my cool of living out of boxes.

But the good news is that our weekend of new home ownership will be colored with visitors galore and a festival- like the whole neighborhood is welcoming us in with a big street party! And our cherries are ready too. Just saying.

Anyways- today has been the focal point of my whole week and even this past long weekend. We have now gotten a couch and wall mirror, we have arranged for our current kitchen table to be picked up, reworked and bleached, we are going to go see our new table in the next few days for our first visit (thank you to the amazing and ever talented Mr. Joel Barkin- joeldidthis.com), we have paint chips to ponder, a kitchen to build, a bathroom to rip down... It is amazing!

The good about it is that decorating and furniture is awesome. The bad of course, is that it is a bit stressful and the stress brings out rather dark sides of my hubs and I- take Tuesday night, for example....

Now, when I was in my teens, Ikea was my favorite place in the entire universe. I would literally go there as my haven- whenever I was stressed or needed to have some solo thinking time, I went to Ikea and slowly walked through the showroom, the warehouse the check out, the ice cream place... There was a calming element in the air and by the time I made my way out to the parking lot I was rejuvenated.

But like all nighters, binge drinking and crop tops, some things change when you hit your adult years.

What was once my paradise has become my own personal abyss of hell. A place that makes me shake with fear the minute I walk into those stupid big doors. The balls room that I once found so endearing makes me cringe thinking of the germs and potential fecal matter that litter the plastic fun balls and where this was once a place I turned off my cell phone and plugged into my ipod, now I pray for reception and arm myself with those stupid plastic measuring tapes that are not long enough to measure anything, a stubby pencil, a paper and summon the nerve to proceed.

I find the showroom overwhelming, the buying area more so and I know, with certainty, that whatever I buy, I will have to come back for some part- will it come broken or missing...hard to tell...

And, does it seem to anyone else, that the further you go into Ikea, the more the feeling of anger/tension builds?? By the time we got to chairs, my hubs and I were not speaking this time around. The Ikea curse....


Anyways, I think we will end up having out kitchen cabinetry done there so I only have a bagillion more visits to look forward too.

Anyways, just wanted to share my excitement with all of you- and to my wonderful friends/family who had messages waiting for me first thing this morning with notes of excitement and well-wishes, you are wonderful people. Really.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!