The Sunset House – Papercrafts, Photography, and Recipes for Life

Exciting news in the Sunset House… We are moving! Yup, two weeks ago, we (finally) closed on our first home, a spiffy SF condo. The unit is brand new and since we will be living downtown, my commute will be shorter by almost an hour a day. Hooray! More time for crafting.Our condo is super modern with sleek lines, granite countertops, and floor to ceiling windows—totally Hubs’ style and not really my taste, since I prefer old Victorian flats with crown molding and chair rails. But of course, I still love it and am beyond excited. The escrow process was definitely trying on our patience and nerves, especially with the recent stricter lending guidelines. I must document the experience soon because it is something that I always want to remember… and never want to experience again.

Along with buying a new house, Hubs’ Yeh Yeh (grandfather on his father’s side) passed away last week on Thursday. He was extremely ill with cancer so we all knew this day was coming. But the expectation did not ease the pain any. Yeh Yeh’s funeral will be our third funeral that we will be attending during the last two-month period, the other two being my Poa Poa (grandmother) and my very close uncle. These past two months have taught me more about loss and family than the last thirty years of my life.

2009 has turned out to be quite a roller coaster. This year, I: attended four weddings as a guest, photographed my first wedding, signed up to shoot two more weddings, attended two funerals, will attend another one this weekend, closed escrow on our first house, supported Hubs as he applied for and got accepted into an awesome MBA program, got promoted, and took my first photography class… gosh, this year has been more eventful than our wedding year. And it hasn’t even ended yet!

Anyway, now that I’ve explained my absence and lack of posts, I’ll share some photos of our new place. The pictures with furniture are of model unit, which has exactly the same finishes and layout as our unit, but much nicer furniture than we will ever own.

The living room has HUGE floor to ceiling windows, which I love. It stays bright into the evening.

The only difference between the model and our unit is the kitchen counter. Our unit is one complete slab of granite (no white) and we have dark zebra wood instead of light.

The bathrooms come standard with these European sinks. Hubs and I each get our own sink! You can’t imagine how exciting this is, since we’re constantly pushing each other out of the way in the mornings.

Another view of the living room model. Not our hippos.

That’s my pops. He really liked the unit when he first saw it, so I’m happy that it got his stamp of approval. BTW, anyone know what kind of window coverings would work best on that corner window?

View into the hallway.

And finally, a photo of our actual unit. I cannot wait to get my hands on that Viking cook top. I’ve been dying to cook with a wok but haven’t had a stove with a hot enough flame. And that French door, bottom mount fridge? I never knew I could love an appliance so much.

The Sunset House will always have a special place in my heart as our first home. Lots of happy memories happened inside those four walls. I know some say that the first years of marriage are the most difficult. Hubs and I have been blessed because our first years have been pretty blissful, outside of the occasional blow up, typically instigated monthly by my hormonal cycle or any discussion that involves the word “budget.” I like to think that we earned our peaceful household since we had a rough engagement period where we worked out many of our kinks (a.k.a. argued constantly, mostly about money). Moving out of the sunset district will be both bittersweet and exciting. Even though the Hubs and I are moving, this blog will always and forever remain The Sunset House. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Now, I’m off to chip away at the never ending packing we have to do. See you all soon!