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Housewarming present

March 23, 2007 By Paola 9 Comments

Yesterday we bought the house its first present.

On the way back from signing the closing documents with the escrow company, we decided to pop into fab new Seattle children’s furniture store tottini, ostensibly to try and find a beautiful storage unit for the Minx’s new playroom.

They didn’t have a storage unit but they did have the above ‘Storytime’ rocking chair on sale for an excellent price. There’s nothing the Minx and I like more than cuddling up together in an armchair and reading a story and I’ve been looking for a rocking chair for ages. This has been specially designed to be extra wide to accommodate an adult and small child, so I’m hoping we’ve years of snuggling ahead of us. And I have a sneaking suspicion that when she’s a teenager she might still want to have it in her room.

The only slight issue was the colour. The one on sale was upholstered in bright pink felt (see below). I didn’t particularly want the Minx’s room to have too much pink (though some is sadly inevitable). However I think I can just about live with this.

Speaking of furniture for the Minx, the first thing I need to buy as a matter of urgency, given all the cr*p she has managed to accumulate, is a functional but attractive modular storage unit.

But I have no idea where to find such a thing so far. The one I like best online so far is this by John Lewis, though the picture below doesn’t do it much justice. It comes with mix and match cubbies and bins in lime green, lavender. aqua and pink and also with single cubes, so you can create more interesting shapes and add to the structure over time.

I also quite like these from Letterbox, another UK-based company, though they’re more expensive, and I don’t like the colours so much.

So, where can I get something similar in the US? I’d like something functional, funky, and not too expensive (given that it’s for a kid’s playroom), preferably with bins or drawers rather than shelves as they look tidier and in colours which aren’t too hideous (though I will paint as necessary). Oh and I don’t do twee.

After browsing for an hour or two online this afternoon, I can’t find anything and have no idea where to look next. While I was searching though, I did find this cool blog about good design for children – Coochicoos.

House proud

March 22, 2007 By Paola 10 Comments

So today we closed on the house purchase.

I can’t quite believe it’s happened. You have no idea how many phone calls at 1 am we’ve had to make, chivvying up mortgage brokers, solicitors and bankers. In fact it was touch and go until this morning whether the money would make it into our US bank account in time.

Tomorrow all the stuff which we last saw way back when will be unpacked, leaving us to gently move from our apartment to the new house on Saturday and Sunday.

Which is just as well, as then we’re flying out to the UK on Monday for a week or so.

Great timing, n’est-ce pas?

And I’m so itching to get a paintbrush out and go shopping and start lining up contractors and making plans etc. Still, it will be nice to have something to look forward to when we get back from the UK.

For those of you who have enquired whether the upstairs panelling was as bad as I was making out, here is a picture of the upstairs ‘party kitchen’. Note too the worktops/countertops which are the same delightful green as the exterior of the house. Pleasedon’t tell me you like them.

Pimp My Filing Cabinet

March 15, 2007 By Paola 4 Comments

A blog I’m really enjoying at the moment is Casapinka. ‘Pink‘ in the US is re-designing her home with the help of an interior designer who lives in Australia, whom she met on line, but has no plans to meet in person.

Pink says she’s only recently discovered that she’s a creative person, but reading her blog you would beg to differ.

I’m particularly liking her decoupage filing cabinet and the cherry blossoms she painted freestyle in her entrance hall.

I’m finding the idea of an online interior designer intriguing. I’m sort of wondering whether to get a designer in to help with the new house. In many ways I’m looking forward to doing it myself, but I’m slightly intimidated about doing up a home here as I have no clue about the best local suppliers – oh for access to a Seattle designer’s little black book! – and am concerned that I’ll create something which is too ‘European’ and won’t resell well in the American market (still can’t get over the fact that you guys like the dark green exterior paint!). And it would be good to bounce ideas about with someone else.

Unfortunately I doubt very much that our budget will stretch that far, though I might see if I can find someone who will act as a ongoing consultant.

As for the actual move, the remortgage funds have been released in the UK, the mortgage in the US is sorted (are you getting some idea of the moutain of debt we’re taking on here?) and all systems are go for completion on the 22nd and moving in over the weekend of the 24th/25th. Which, scarily, is in just over a week’s time. A small added detail is the fact that we’re then flying back to London on the 27th for a week or so (the Husband has managed to wangle himself a business trip and we’re tagging along for the ride).

Is life always meant to be quite this complicated?

Update

March 1, 2007 By Paola 3 Comments

The house inspection happened this morning and no major problems were uncovered. So it looks like we really are moving! Gulp.

Holy ‘hardwood floors and timeless mouldings’ Batman,

February 22, 2007 By Paola 12 Comments

I think we’re buying a house!

My head is still spinning and I’m not quite sure whether to be happy or very, very scared, but the offer we made yesterday on the ‘fixer-upper’ (in Wallingford, for those of you in the Seattle area) has been accepted.

It’s been a pretty strange week. We started off on Monday ready to make an offer on one house and here we are on Thursday having bought an entirely different house altogether. And I’d convinced myself that a ‘fixer’ would be far too much work, and now here I am with a fixer on my hands.

Would you like to have a look round?

On the plus side it’s got a beautiful panelled dining room and living room which don’t need a lot of work (will have to do something about the bright red fireplace though)

and a funky roof terrace overlooking Lake Union with a 360 degree view of this and on a clear day the mountains to the east.

On the downside, the whole upper storey looks like a sauna with wood panelling all over the walls and ceilings, which we’re going to have to rip out (do you Americans really like this sort of thing?).

The kitchens (yes, there’s one on each floor, I think it used to be divided into flats) and bathrooms also need to be remodelled, and the basement needs to be finished and the small backyard needs to be landscaped. So there’s plenty to do. Oh and the outside of the house really needs to be painted because I really don’t like this green AT ALL and there’s an awful lot of it.

But all in all I’m getting very excited. Please continue keeping your fingers crossed that our inspection doesn’t throw up all sorts of structural nasties which mean we’ll have to pull out. But if things go according to plan we’re going to be moving on March 22nd.

This old house

February 4, 2007 By Paola 5 Comments

Oh, but I’ve been neglecting this blog recently.

Partly because I’ve just been really busy updating the site with new products and photos, partly because I’m in the midst of researching more new products for Spring and Summer, partly because Living Gorgeously has got off to a really successful start and has been keeping me busy cooking and making things, and mostly because I’ve been spending every other waking moment househunting – either searching for properties online or visiting them.

When we first came out to Seattle our intention was to rent, but after speaking to a few people it became clear that by remortgaging in the UK and taking out a new mortgage here in the US, we would be able to buy something here. And I would be able to fulfil my dream of doing up a ‘fixer’.

Well after a lot of looking it seemed like we’d found it. The above image is of the main rooms which were loaded with beautiful original features. But the upper storey was completely clad in pine and looked like a sauna, the kitchen needed replacing, the bathrooms needed updating, the basement needed finishing and the garden needed landscaping. All in all perfectly habitable, but with the perfect amount of work I could do to turn it from something great into something spectacular. It even had a wonderful roof terrace with views out over the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat lake and the downtown area.

So we put in an offer and then hit a hitch in releasing the funds in the UK. And so our offer wasn’t accepted and they’ve now accepted an offer from someone else.

And I’m really, really gutted because I doubt very much that we’re going to be able to find something that perfect again.

Unfortunately it seems like we’re not the only people who have been househunting.

Why oh why did the Beckhams have to follow me over here? And how come there is so much hype surrounding an (admittedly handsome) bloke who plays a game that nobody here watches, a has-been popstar who can’t sing and their Scientologist friends whom nobody likes?

Sleepless in Seattle

November 7, 2006 By Paola 9 Comments

We made it.

2.30 am on Sunday morning and the jetlagged Minx is full of beans and ready to begin her ‘day’. Her mother is not quite so full of beans and is languishing exhausted on the sofa.

Note superb view of Seattle’s Space Needle from our apartment window (and the reflection of a somewhat dubious light fitting).

Moving On

October 30, 2006 By Paola 4 Comments

I am writing this surrounded by packed up boxes, trying to steel myself for yet another evening of sorting and packing.

Tonight is our last night in the flat. In every direction all I can see are boxes and memories.

This is the flat I bought eleven years ago as a single girl, though my boyfriend at the time I was buying it soon became my fiance and then my husband.

This is the flat where I spent the night before my wedding and to which I came back as a new bride.

This is the flat which has seen me return late and leave early for four different jobs and it was at this desk overlooking the street that I decided to start mirrormirror.

This is the flat which has been stuffed full of cushions, candles and packing boxes for the best part of the last two years.

This is the flat where I suffered through four miscarriages and where I discovered I was pregnant with the Minx.

This is the flat where I had a terrible bleeding episode while pregnant and was convinced I was miscarrying, only to find that the baby was still safe and sound.

This is the flat which we brought our baby home to after a worrying week in the Special Baby Unit, where we tiptoed around introducing her to every room.

This is the flat where I sat breastfeeding for hours at a time feeling depressed and miserable.

This is the flat where my baby learned to walk and learned to talk.

This is the flat where we decided to go to Seattle.

This is the flat where I’ve spent the happiest years of my life so far.

The photos are not very good, being quickly taken one evening to send to a journalist. You must also remember that normally the flat is covered with a thick layer of bright plastic toys.

Legacy of 9/11

September 14, 2006 By Paola Leave a Comment

Off to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square today to finalize our visa application.

Grosvenor Square in the heart of Mayfair is one of London’s largest and most beautiful squares. But now the area round the embassy is surrounded by a cordon of heavy concrete blocks, the embassy itself is surrounded by temporary and ugly metal fencing, and heavily armed police are patrolling in all directions. British police aren’t usually armed, so it still comes as a shock to see policemen brandishing the latest in automatic weaponry.

Armed with dozens of forms in triplicate, and photographs that made us look like the Baader-Meinhof gang (the Minx looks particularly evil), we presented ourselves at the end of the first queue outside the building. And were then led to another queue. And then another queue. Only then were we allowed into the building via airport-like security, checking in laptops and mobile phones along the way. No liquids or cosmetics are allowed.

Once inside, the process was actually more efficient than we’d feared – a couple of hours waiting in a cavernous waiting room, fingerprints taken and re-taken, forms and photographs double and triple checked, followed by a rather cursory interview (am I being cynical in thinking that our skin colour might have had something to do with this?)

As we left the building we were directed for the first time past the imposing front staircase, and marvelled that once upon an innocent time, passers-by must have been able to walk up and down these stairs as they pleased. Now no passer-by can get within 30 yards of the building, brooding behind its concrete and steel cordon.

Isn’t it sad to think that – according to this very interesting article – the building was initially conceived as an embassy and cultural centre – with people popping into the library to learn more about American culture, attend a jazz concert or visit an art exhibition?

Confession

March 31, 2006 By Paola 9 Comments

Dear Reader,

I have been keeping something from you. Remember that we went on a crazy family trip to Seattle and California at the beginning of February? Well, there was method in our madness. The Husband was actually flying out for a job interview with MSN at Microsoft HQ in Redmond.

And they offered him a job. And they made him an offer it would be incredibly foolish to refuse. So yes, later this year we are moving to Seattle for a few years.

It was an extremely difficult decision for me. I just feel like I’ve settled into a great routine after the upheaval of having a baby last year, and in the last few months it seems that mirror mirror has really started to take off (we’ve had an awesome Mother’s Day and March in general) after working so hard at it for over two years, right the way through pregnancy and the early months of motherhood.

But the role is a career-defining one for the Husband and the money will transform our family finances which have been looking a bit precarious since we’ve been investing so much in the business. So we don’t really have a choice – I can’t stand in his way on this.

I have, however, made two conditions. One, that we come back in time for the Minx to start full-time education in the UK. This opportunity has come at a perfect time, in that I think the Minx will be fairly portable until she is five or so. After that I really don’t want to put her through the upheaval of moving school AND country, though obviously I might change my mind when the time comes and we’re having too much fun. And of course there’s going to be all the trauma of BEATING her American accent out of her.

My second condition is that at all costs I want to keep mirror mirror going. I actually think it’s going to be excellent news for the business. We will be in a position to hire someone to take on the day-to-day running of the business out of the UK, which will leave me with more time to find new suppliers (can’t wait to start buying from all those fabulous designers I keep reading about on the US design blogs) and expand our marketing.

The other good bit of good news is that by the time my husband has worked out his notice and he’s got his working visa sorted out it looks like it’s going to be October before we go out there, so, for any customers and suppliers who might be reading, it will be business as usual for the time being, and I get to enjoy one last summer in Notting Hill.

Because the truth is, dear reader, that I don’t really want to go.

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