Welcome to the House Vagabond Blog & Newsletter!
WHY BLOG
Since we’ve hung up our packs (at least temporarily) to focus on home and family – we want a place to update friends and family far away on our slice of life updates. The problem is, we haven’t been super happy with social media or the internet lately. Whether it’s the tech monopolists, the capitalization of private data, AI slop, or the endless doom scroll – the internet just isn’t as fun as it used to be. We miss the weird quirky little websites and communities that used to comprise the internet and we hope this can be one of them. It’s just for people we know IRL. We’re so glad you’re here!
HOUSE
We had a really hard time hiring a general contractor to take on the next phase of our project. One contractor thought our project was too small and ghosted, one contractor was perfect but too busy, and one contractor had a rage-filled meltdown on the phone when I told him I was comparing quotes and wouldn’t promise to sign his contract unseen. In the end, we decided it wasn’t worth the headache and decided to hire our own local guys for each trade. Though it’s more work and planning on our end, it’s been satisfying and we feel like we have more control over the final product.
In the last two weeks we’ve had our kitchen floors demo’d and purchased new tile, signed a contract with a hardwood installer and ordered materials, demo’d the old death-trap closets and hired a framing and drywall team, and hired an electrician and plumber to bring all our appliance hookups up to code.
We are not even close to completion, so our fingers (and my legs) are crossed that this baby doesn’t arrive early as we need every day we can get. Each day we are wrangling cats, making trips to the hardware store, trying to cook healthy meals in our toaster oven, painting walls, and generally trying to maintain any sense of normalcy among the chaos.
FAMILY
We had our baby shower !!!! It was a massive labor of love by our friends and family. Thank you notes are in progress and will be on their way soon, but in the meantime here is a short much deserved credits list:
Thank you Hillary for planning the main event, ordering pies, buying drinks, bringing ice and coolers, planning activities, and coordinating teams. Thank you Leslie and Tom for sharing your home with us and 25 of our closest friends and waking up at 5 am in the morning to clean the day before your flight to Australia. Thank you Molly and Cory for the amazing decorations and thank you B for helping me put them up. Thank you Megan for the beautiful hand crafted invitations. Thank you Joseph for helping with cleaning and taking out garbage. Thank you Dan and Erin for driving 6+ hours just to hang out. Thank you Rob for delivering the family rocking chair I will soon rock my son in. Thank you Chris for the thoughtful and incredibly deluxe non dairy ice cream buffet. Thank you Marilyn for hand crafting sandwiches and fruit platters. Thank you everyone for the beautiful gifts which we desperately need and will use everyday. Thank you for the home cooked meals y’all brough for us to eat after the baby gets here. Just heckin’ thanks y’all.
In general the world has seemed like a more divisive and hostile place, but pregnancy has been one experience which has allowed me to see the softer side of humanity. I have been treated with such kindness, care, patience, and gentleness. As someone who generally prides herself on being tough and independent, I’ve been surprised how much needing to accept care from others has changed and inspired me.
Finally, bets have been placed for the BABY TIME WIZARD AWARD (closest guess to the delivery date and time wins a membership to the Huntington Gardens or equal value local museum or garden) and the HEFTY BABY AWARD (closest to guess the baby’s weight gets a giant box of snacks from costco). Stay tuned for the winners!
CONCLUSION
Be kind to yourselves, eat good food, make sure to go outside everyday, and remember – you have people! We are not alone. See you next month for spooky season updates.