Look who's an OBcian now!

Yes, it is true, I have given up my mainland snobby ways and finally accompanied sage to OB. After 4 weeks of endlessly frustrating house hunting and stress-induced bickering, we have settled into a 400 sq. foot pink beach cottage. By beach, I mean it is a block from the sandstone rocky intertidal of ocean beach just south of the pier. Granted, it wouldn't be OB if you didn't have to descend a piss-covered stairwell to get to it but we are seriously considering parking ourselves at the top (on the cliff) with beach chairs, wine and cheese for the sunsets. We love it! We are just two blocks from Newport, the main drag, but it still feels like a completely residential neighborhood. I wanted to document for you all our transition from mainland to island.

Our Saturday started hung-over after a night of irish-style drinking and lease signing at the Harp with Leslie and Jai.
8am: Convene on the front lawn of 39th st, devise plan for stuff-transport via Uhaul.
8:15am: Kicks off effort with interpretive dance of grocery-shopping/pushing the cart, perhaps the most giddy form of acceptance I have seen of an imminent future of domestic bliss
8:25am: Make a list of stuff we need (the first of many over the next two days) and head out on a brief tour of our favorite b-fast places near the old house. "Restaurant" downtown was closed due to a death in the family so we ended up at Clayton's in Coronado

Back on 39th street, I pack my stuff up while sage pretended to help but really just plays with his guitar and the dogs. He thought donning that pink apron was going to fool me. It goes pretty fast, likely b/c my room on 39th is practically the same size as our new apartment, and soon we are all packed up in the Uhaul and coasting down the highway, towards the coast, belting out some who song.

Enter Narragansett beach cottage: With the help of Leslie and Jai we moved in very fast, navigating around Gary, a friend of the young hip landlord living in the other unit, who was apparently cajoled into doing last minute painting and calking around our place. He was very helpful later that afternoon when we discovered every drain in the place was backed up (due to a year's worth of hair and old pipes). Anyway, he made the calls and got a plumber who, within two days, had replaced most of our pipes. Here are some shots of us getting settled in:

The next day we moved in all sage's stuff, mostly to the garage save six instruments, a bunch of books, music and 4 pictures of music related people and places. We did the requisite trip to Ikea where we randomly ran into Leslie (who let us switch cars with her so we could fit our new couch and two new bookshelves) and then Gary and his lady. We also bought a big palm for the living room. The name of this plant ees Bruce, in case you were wondering. By the end of the day the place was starting to look great...and spacious. And it turns out that sage DOES have a gay side. We had been looking for it. He loves decorating and pretty much took care of every piece of ambiance you see below, except for the kitchen which was my firts time actually putting carolina's blue glass to use! I love the kitchen.

Not only is the place feeling more and more spacious every day, the garden area completely makes up for any shortcomings we might feel in the future. Raj (hip landlord) gave me full reign of the garden area with work bench in between our two units. It used to be covered in bansai trees. The garden patio has a built-in grill and nice lawn furniture and a fireplace. There is also an outdoor shower and these cute fuzzy purple flowers. Anyone know what ees the name of this flower?

It is now Monday afternoon and I have spent a full day working on writing my lecture, very unsuccessfully. This is due to 3 plumbers who were here since 10am. Apparently the 3rd was just a friend of the other one and came just to hang out, always a good choice when the work is being done in a 400 sq ft house while the tenent (me) is home and trying to read about cellular respiration. Maybe he heard we had beer. The two real plumbers were bickering all morning about which pipe or tool to use, then proceeded to pull the entire sink from our wall, spilling water all over our various bathroom items, yet unpacked, and a new rug. I had to vacate the madness for lunch and was delighted to experience OB during the mellow weekday. Walked around and bought some tolerable rolled tacos, made some keys. They were cleaning up when I returned and fighting about whether to use the vacuum or the broom. They settled on the vacuum. As they were leaving, in true CA fashion, the lead plumber gave me his card and told me to call if there were problems with the pipes or if I ever was interested in buying a house. Turns out, he is also a realtor.

So there you have it. We are now officially (gasp!) OBcians. The inscence is burning, the guest bed is ready and our doorstoop is a new shade of bright colonial red so come on over to Narragansett and have a beer!