All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.
Random thoughts

New House

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We made it through the move! It was a stressful time leading up to it, but the actual moving day was easy and smooth. Trick: hire movers.

The day started rainy and we were nervous about having all our things moved in the rain, but by the time the truck arrived it had stopped raining. Since we aren’t getting rid of the old house yet (planning to do some fixing up first before dealing with it) we didn’t have the added pressure of having to get absolutely everything out and clean as well…I’ve done plenty of those moves in the past!

The movers were great: quick and professional. The whole move took just over 4 hours and then it was time to start unpacking! And (other than some gigs) that is what I’ve been doing for the past week. I’ve spent hours unpacking, moving boxes around, all of those fun things, and I have to say, the house is better and more amazing than I even thought it would be.

One of the more stressful parts of moving day was moving the cats. While the movers were at the old house, we put them in the bathroom to wait. Then we tried to load them into their carriers. Muriel went easily, but Miles was doing that cat thing where he became basically liquid and it was very challenging to get him into his carrier!

I drove the cats over ahead of the truck and got them settled into a basement room. Muriel seemed thrilled that we hadn’t arrived at the vet, but Miles was terrified and frantically looking for a hiding place in the room I placed them.

After the move was done Muriel was ready and eager to explore. I’m not sure if she is brave or stupid, but she couldn’t wait to get out and see where she was. Miles needed some time to hide, so we let him do his thing, and by evening he was venturing out a little bit.

By now the cats are super comfy here and chasing each other all over. We got a few new cat trees and scratchers for them to use as well, so it’s basically cat heaven.

One of the two new couches I ordered has been delivered and it’s fantastic! I read mixed things about Joybird, but their couches looked awesome and comfortable, and I hoped that the delivery issues people complained about were pandemic related, and it turned out well. Our couch was delivered during the week they said it would be, and the color, texture, and feel is amazing.

There’s still work to be done unpacking, particularly in the kitchen. We had a painter do a lot of the walls, but we decided to do a few things in the kitchen ourselves, mostly because we plan to remodel in the next few years. There is an amazing pantry, but it was this blue color that I didn’t care for, so we finally finished painting it white yesterday. I would spend today unpacking the kitchen and getting it set up, but I have a rehearsal and a concert, so that will have to wait, though I’ll manage a bit this morning.

I start teaching here tomorrow though, so I’ve done a lot of the office set up.

This was from a few days ago: it’s even more set up now, but I will get a new picture later.

I feel lucky in that all my students have agreed to come to have lessons at my new house. It’s not terribly far, but for some of them it will add 10 to 15 minutes each way. I am looking forward to getting back to work–I told Louie yesterday that if I weren’t starting up this week I don’t know if I ever could again: I enjoy teaching and love my students, but I’ll tell you, it’s been nice to just be doing stuff around the house all day and playing some gigs.

However, it’ll be back to teaching, but there is just 7-8 weeks left until summer vacation. Less for my college students, more for my private students, and everything else in between. There’s a lot happening between now and then: NFMC Festival, my studio recital, school concert, college recital, Holy week services (SO many!), several concerts and performances on my end (more being added all the time, gah!) and some visits from family. It’ll be a busy time, but nothing too terrible for the most part. I can’t believe it is almost April!

Miles enjoying the gas fireplace. Or more likely, wondering why on earth the hoomans are lighting a fire inside the house.

I’ve got laundry going right now and I do want to get some work in the kitchen, so I’d better go. What have you been up to lately?

Random thoughts

Moving Week

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Things are moving along: the house is painted, the floors are waxed, and the moving truck is coming on Thursday! I’m finishing up teaching, packing like a crazy person, and just trying to keep my head above water. I ordered two couches and both are being shipped as we speak.

Once we are done moving, the unpacking will commence, but hopefully also the “normal life” again, of doing things other than working or preparing to move/working on the house. May I recommend NOT moving during the school year, if you are an overbooked and overworked teacher?

Miles isn’t sure what to make of any of this. I know once he settles in he will love the new house!
On top of everything, I’m playing for the New Works Collective with Opera Theatre THIS WEEK. It’s absolutely adding to my stress, but I couldn’t turn the opportunity down, and it is a lot of fun!

See you on the other side of everything!

Random thoughts

Post Valentine’s Day Fog

Things sure are crazy around here!

We made it through our second household bout with COVID well: I was unscathed and Louie recovered quickly. We’ve been busy busy with the house, life, work, etc. I’ve been spending all my free time at the new house, or browsing the internet for ideas for decor, closet design, etc. We have our moving date set (ONE MONTH) and in between still lots to do: you might think this is taking a long time, but really, it’s moving as fast as we can. The paint is looking great, and the plaster cracks are getting fixed and will be basically nonexistent soon. We are getting the floors waxed and cleaned soon.

Basically I sound and feel like a crazy overwhelmed person! In between I’m teaching, playing entirely too many concerts, and oh, did I mention our washing machine at the “old” house broke so I can only currently do laundry at the new house?

But, it will all be WELL worth it in the end, when we move, when we get to live in this glorious space. The bedroom color is gorgeous, the couches are ordered and will be delivered at some point in the spring, and I’ve picked up a few new (to me) things on facebook marketplace.

This is the sunroom. It was all yellow with an ancient yellow wall to wall carpet, and look at it now: still some yellow, but that FLOOR was hidden!
The entrance foyer: the wood and spindles took a long time to paint, but not as long as the rest of the main floor wood trim.
The entrance foyer, a little ways in. Eventually we will remodel the kitchen (and not like old house eventually, actual soonish, in the new few years.)
The bedroom blue doesn’t show up quite right in this photo, but it’s gorgeous.
View from the second floor down into the sunroom.

Anyway, I’ve posted a fair amount on Instagram over the past month, so look for me there as well for more house stuff.

Hope

Snow days

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This week has been crazy in its own way. Monday Louie tested positive for COVID and that means I had to mask and be stressed about whether I would get it or not. I let my students know and a lot have been virtual or I’ve been wearing a mask (CDC guidelines). I haven’t tested positive nor do I feel sick but I don’t know if I will over the next few days. We are not making a particular effort to isolate as we might have in 2020 or 2021. Thankfully his illness has been quite mild, more like a cold (which I was convinced was what he had, not covid!) and he is on the mend already (fingers crossed it doesn’t backslide). I have a concert Friday evening and I am still hopeful I can play rather than suddenly having to stay home from it. I did turn down a church job this weekend out of the fear that I would end up positive and need a last minute replacement: better to have somebody else do it when there were several days left to plan it (it was already a last minute job). Sigh. Better to be sick at home than in a foreign country, right?

Last week’s rehearsal for Friday’s concert.

The other thing was that we had a snow day yesterday…oh wow it was so lovely to sleep in yesterday and then again today (Thursday is a morning off every week.) The snow was a sort of bust: they were predicting 4-7 or 5-11 inches, and we got around 1, but it was still pretty.

The only picture I took of the snow, a bush covered in snow.

I should have gone over to the new house for snow pictures, but that will wait. I ended up mostly teaching online yesterday with a few brave souls coming for lessons in person.

I think we are getting close to setting our moving date. Painting is still happening (I haven’t been to the house in a few days, so I’m excited to stop by this morning, and then more work this weekend from our ends), and then we have the flooring guys booked for a few weeks from now. It’s looking like the move will happen over Spring Break, probably Wash U Spring Break, which should work really well.

Wish me good health and negative tests!

Home

Crazy Times

Yes, we bought the house. Things have been crazy. I learned how to caulk holes and cracks. We’ve been working on the walls, getting things ready for painting, choosing paint colors, all kinds of craziness. And the semester is in full swing with so many lessons and so many students, and some rehearsals.

Muriel and Miles love cuddling…sometimes!

Anyway, life is busy and hectic, and good. It’s Sunday night, I worked all weekend, either at gigs or on the house, and I’m exhausted! I’m going to bed early because tomorrow morning will be here soon. But I wanted to say, I’m still here, I’m just busy and tired!

Grey and white walls

I love the way the dining room turned out! I never knew I could get so excited about grey, but here we are. Sherwin Williams On the Rocks with Pure White, if you are curious. We are using that a fair amount throughout the house, as one does as a boring 40 something couple.

I find myself reading design blogs, using pinterest, and generally spending a lot of time brainstorming decor ideas. It’s great fun, but it takes up so much time! So I’m off now, to bed or to the internet, or who knows, but I’ll be back with more. How is your January going?

Moving

Packing

I’ve been on vacation for a few days here (glorious!) but there is a ton to do. I have to say: you can get a lot more done without having to work!

I did spent a little time this morning responding to emails, but mostly I haven’t even had to do that. And since my lesson scheduling is fairly automated, I don’t need to worry about sending out reminders when lessons start up again: the program will take care of that. (Though I did send a fair amount of reminders about vacation…maybe they were unnecessary, but I had gotten a lot of questions, so things aren’t as automated as I’d like!)

In any case, I’ve packed a fair amount of boxes. We close on the new house next week, and while we aren’t moving immediately (getting some things done on the house first, painting inside and a few other small things) I realized we should move some boxes. I was getting overwhelmed figuring out HOW to pack, as in, the house is crowded here already and how would we pack and where would we put the boxes? And it occurred to me, pack some, and take those boxes to the new house and put them out of the way, and then we will have room in the house to continue packing. So that’s the current plan, to pack as much as we can now with stuff we don’t need for at least a month or maybe more, and then make more room to continue packing. Ultimately we are hiring movers (I am really hoping to get that date set soon or our options will be more limited) but we are still trying to figure out if we are getting something done with the floors, and we now have to wait until we close to get any more quotes.

Sigh. I would love to just have it figured out, but I think it’ll be fine. We can be flexible with our moving dates and February isn’t a prime moving time so the companies shouldn’t be super booked up. I’m assuming it’ll be in February.

I’ve also been working on picking paint colors, and I think we have our decisions made, at least as far as we need to be now–the next step is putting some samples on the walls to see in the space, and that will also have to wait.

Anyway, home buying is exciting but stressful! And January isn’t totally empty of work: I start back Thursday with some teaching and sort of ease into things: first a makeup week so not everybody is coming, then a full week and college starts up too. There are a couple of chamber music concerts coming up in the next few months (St Louis Chamber Soloists and Perseid Quartet) and I’ve been easing back into practicing as well.

I used to get email notifications of comments on this blog, but haven’t been lately, so if you’ve been commenting I’m sorry I haven’t been responding! One question awhile back had been about the catio and if we would have a catio in the new house, and the answer is: maybe! We’d love to but haven’t figured that out yet. There is also a sun room there so probably in nice weather we can open up the windows and the cats will really enjoy that, though not a specific space only for them.