About the House

A typical “summer” afternoon (yes, summer) in the Sunset district of SF.

Written August 2008

So, you might be wondering why I named my blog The Sunset House when I don’t write very much about, well, houses or sunsets, to be honest. Sit down, grab a cup of cocoa, and I’ll tell ya.

The story starts off as kind of a catastrophe, actually. My husband (whom refer to as Hubs in this blog) and I were married in October of 2007. The wedding was fantastic! Full of love, joy, and copious amounts of warm fuzzies. It was the best day of our lives and the perfect kickoff for our new adventure together. We had our life plans all mapped out, including our new home: a gorgeous one-bedroom San Francisco condo that was under construction just for us.

You see, before Hubs proposed to me, he won a housing lottery that allowed him to purchase an amazing, brand new SF condo for a bargain basement price. It was my dream come true! 700 square feet of SF bliss in the heart of Mission Bay, a stone’s throw from the SF Giant’s ballpark. I was already imagining myself lounging around in our pristine DWR furniture, a steamy cappuccino in hand.

Hubs and I moved into a temporary house in the Sunset district of SF while we waited for the construction of our dream condo to finish. The Sunset house was alright. It definitely had its quirks. The neighborhood was more suburbia than city. For starters, it was cold. And foggy. Our bathroom was a the size of a linen closet. We had to use a key inside to unlock the front door to get out of the house. The old wooden stairs in the garage creaked incessantly and the house made scary groaning noises at night. I was shocked to discover that the kitchen was not equipped with a dishwasher or garbage disposal. The only good thing the Sunset house had going for it was great parking, an SF rarity. I reluctantly settled in while eagerly anticipating the completion of our real house, our uber-trendy SF condo. We furnished the Sunset house with pieces from Craigslist, because I was determined not to spend money on a place I didn’t consider my home.

Well, you know how the saying goes; If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. After our spectacular, joyous, best-day-of-our-lives wedding, Hubs was told that he no longer qualified to purchase our dream condo. Apparently, he only qualified for the purchase as a single person. The building was originally planned for completion before we were married. But, the construction had been delayed for months and the unit wasn’t ready until after we had said our vows. Now that we were a household of two, the City refused to sell our unit to us. They officially slammed the door on our modern living dreams.

I was devastated. Can you imagine? I felt like someone had given us a winning lotto ticket, only to snatch it away and say, “Just kidding! Haha. Now go back to your poor house!” Our only option was to stay at our current house until… well, until we had enough money to buy our own place, which would be years down the line. I looked around the old, unremarkable Sunset house and my heart fell to my knees. This was definitely not the “city living” I had envisioned.

I figured, if I was going to live in the Sunset house, I’d better get used to it. Reluctantly, I started decorating. With some Ikea bookshelves and more Craigslist finds, I made myself a cozy craft room. Hubs bought some comfy furniture for the living room and I went to work equipping the kitchen. I even unpacked the rest of our wedding presents (the ones I wasn’t planning on using until we moved into our condo).

Slowly, I began adjusting to suburban city living. I searched for the fastest street routes to work. I discovered a fantastic gourmet grocery store with delicious Italian sausage. Hubs and I became regulars at the neighborhood yogurt shops. And I started crafting again. Hubs even convinced me to start a blog with all my creative projects.

Now, it has been over a year that we’ve been living in the Sunset house. It’s still not perfect. We still wash all our dishes by hand and use our fingers dig out the gross food droppings in the sink. I still spend my mornings fighting Hubs for the bathroom. But, I’ve come to realize that it’s not where I live or even what kind of house I have that makes my residence a home. Sure, my plans for quintessential SF living were thrown out the window. Walks to the ballpark have been replaced with walks by the beach, only blocks from our house. Dreams of expensive, modern furniture have been replaced by a hobby room filled with rubber stamps and DSLR camera lenses. I no longer have an ideal plan for our lives. In fact, I have no idea where we’re going or how we’ll get there. But, I have an obnoxious amount of craft supplies that never would’ve fit in the Mission Bay condo. I’m blessed with a husband who loves me and spurs me on in my creative ventures. Most importantly, I have more joy than I could wish for and a place I can finally call home.

And I can’t complain. We have parking.

* Peek inside the Sunset House’s Craft Room

The roots of this blog started off in our humble little Sunset House. In June of 2009, Hubs and I closed escrow on a 2 bedroom/2 bath unit in a modern high rise in downtown San Francisco. Our home is now the polar opposite of the Sunset House. It’s everything we originally dreamed of and totally worth the wait. Escrow itself was a horrid process that I would never wish upon anyone, but we survied and lived to tell the story (which I will write about another day).

Now, we adore living downtown, with the posh restaurants, city lights, and hoards of Giants fans roaming the streets. But, we still happily reminisce about our short stint at the Sunset House, where we learned that we are simple people with simple desires, and we need little else but each others’ company to be inspired and grateful. So, wherever you started off, never forget your humble roots.

*Peek inside the new craft room.