09: SHOPPING AND SHAPING (Cheri)

Our temporary house and the house we are working on to move to are a quarter-mile apart on the same cul-de-sac, so we just refer to the new one as "09" (the last two numbers in the new address).

I have been doing so. much. shopping!  Mark has been joining in, on mostly exterior and mechanical components.

The picture above is the exterior of what I had hoped would be a true architectural salvage shop here in Winston-Salem, but is really more of a hardware outlet.  I found a couple of nice towel bars there today, but the exterior was the best part.

Here are a couple of ghost signs that I saw in the older part of town as I was shopping:

And then there was the all-monograms, all-the-time store that I glimpsed out of the side of my eye.  (Yep, it's the South.)

Winston-Salem and Durham - 90 minutes away - were the two big centers of tobacco industry, so there are some carryovers from the wealth that brought to the area.

Robert Hall is in the warehouse part of town:

The sign caught my eye today, but I didn't think I would be able to find out much about this building. 

Not true!  It turns out it is "a multi-purpose event space and Airbnb destination" and the location of "Robert Hall’s Secret Supper Society . . . a members-only dining extravaganza."  I might check into that.

I dropped by the best non-antique consignment store I've seen after shopping for flooring the other day.  Mostly it was highly colorful clothing, furniture, and traditional decorative items, but this caught my eye:

If anything, it would have fit in better at Uncommon Objects in Austin.

Another building, pretty obviously in the warehouse district:

While about 25 miles away, I had a few minutes to kill, so I stopped at a bakery, and had an unusual experience.

There were a number of people in the small front portion of the bakery, and two people were working on involved cake orders, so I stood back to wait.  A boy of maybe seven or eight was twirling about, verbalizing without actually speaking, and bounced off of me a couple of times.

At first I wasn't sure that he could see, because he didn't make any eye-to-eye contact.  Later he did face and pick up an Etch-a-Sketch.

After he bounced into me several times and began leaning against me, I wrapped my arms around him, back against me, as I studied a display of cakes, and we stood that way for some time.

I had never encountered a child that I could identify as autistic.  He didn't really interact with me as if I were a person, but I did seem to be a source of tactile comfort for him.  (This was a surprise, as I didn't expect that from an autistic child.)

Sometimes I'm pretty sure that I'm somewhere on the Asperger's Syndrome scale, and the funny thing was, he was a source of comfort for me, too!

So that was Monday.  Today - Friday - I stopped for lunch.  At the next table over was . . . an autistic boy.  Not the same boy, but he verbalized in the same way and twirled a very long ribbon throughout his meal.

Before Mark started shopping for 09, he was spending large portions of his time pruning the underbrush there.  One area before he started:

and after:

Eventually I'm hoping to turn the shredded leaves and wood that he is creating into some form of mulch and maybe compost for landscaping.

This next is actually a picture from "40," but gives you an idea of life here.  Basically every tree in North Carolina has its own personal vine.  This isn't really healthy for the trees, so Mark cuts them, then pulls them down when they have died off sufficiently.

The criss-crossed "limbs" that you see below are actually vines that he yanked down, about 30-40 feet long!

Finally, not so interesting in detail, but kind of shocking in totality:  a list of things that we need to decide on for 09:

• Exterior:
  • siding
  • shingles
  • windows
  • gutters
• Doors:
  • front?
    
  • sliding / telescoping, to sunroom?
  • back?
  • hallway?
  • closets
  • garage
  • workshop (vintage)
• Flooring:
  • new wood
  • tile:
    • kitchen
    • bathrooms
  • rug for sunroom
• Plumbing
  • toilet(s)
  • tub for main bath
  • showers:
    • door / surround
    • head?
    • controls?
    • drain
  • tub hardware:
    • faucets
    • controls
    • drains
  • sinks:
    • kitchen
    • bathrooms
    • drains
  • faucets:
    • kitchen
    • bathrooms
• Electrical / HVAC:
  • heating
  • cooling
  • doorbell system
  • plates, including specialized
• Lighting / Fans:
  • skylight tubes
  • garage
  • back hall
  • guest bathroom:
    • overhead
    • over sink?
  • pantry
  • study
  • stairway to basement
  • kitchen
  • dining room
  • living room
  • entry
  • studio (winter/summer)
  • main bedroom
  • closet
  • main bathroom:
    • overhead
    • cans over sinks
    • sconces?
    • shower?
• Cabinets/Bookshelves:
  • kitchen
  • dining room drawer fronts
  • bathrooms
  • studio
  • pantry
  • living room bookshelves
• Counters / Tile:
  • Kitchen:
    • counters
    • backsplash
    • floor
  • Main bathroom:
    • counters
    • backsplash
    • shower
    • tub area
    • floor
  • Guest bathroom:
    • counters
    • backsplash
    • tub area
    • floor
• Walls:
  • paint
  • paneling?
  • wallpaper
  • molding
  • mirrors
• Hardware:
  • cabinets
  • door knobs
  • toilet paper holders
• Murphy bed / bookcase
• Appliances:
  • refrigerators x 2
  • oven?
  • washer & dryer
• Misc.:
  • window coverings
  • hair-care dispenser(s)
  • knife strip