Viva Casa Hirabayashi/Kennedy!

One month after we moved in, I am finally posting pictures of our home for all to see. Here are some of the highlights and memories to remember from this experience thus far:

• We love being homeowners!  And are accepting the fact that this house is our holiday to Thailand, new places we yearn to explore, etc.  For now, we'll stay in Seattle and nest. 
• Spending all of your time and money at Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, Goodwill and other useful household supply stores, is actually quite normal. 
• Cleaning a home that's nearly 2000 sq ft takes a bit longer than our former little apartment home. 
• Entertaining 10 or more people is great fun and much more comfortable in a house. 
• Unpacking is slowly becoming very lame and really uninteresting to me. 
• Purchasing a home has changed our marriage in many ways- for the good! 

Big huge thanks to everyone that helped us move-Ann, Frank, Nick, my parents, grandpa, dL and anyone else I may have not mentioned.  We are also thankful for our friend and interior decorator/designer, Carisa.  Not only has she helped add flow to our living spaces but she also finds us great free and/or very affordable items.  We are blessed with so much help and love!

The cute blue house on the corner

Our front yard and home!  We have great plans for the screen door, which is a bit uninviting, if you ask me.  I envision some carvings or changing the fence-like look to it.  Over time, we will work on the landscaping and the sinking, collapsing front flower bed area.  It is a good size yard.

Intimate kitchen

Our kitchen is a bit intimate and one day, we'll renovate the space entirely.  The storage space fooled me a bit at first.  The "drawers" directly beneath the counter are actually painted pieces of wood nailed to the wood.  The previous owners didn't spend any time or money on adding/completing the drawers.  We are very strategic about our kitchen storage space.

Comfortable living space

Here is our living room and this is what you see when you walk in the front door.  It's warm, still evolving and such a great place in our home.

Living, living...

Here's another shot of our living room from a different angle.  Since this picture was taken, we've rearranged the furniture, but you get the idea.  We were blessed/cursed with lovely, old school blinds that have been successfully collecting dust for several years.  We did our best to clean the blinds and just need to decide what to do.

Fire!

Here is our beloved fireplace.  We love to drag our floor pillows around for an evening of warmth, light and a glass of wine (or maybe two glasses...)  It's old 70's style design is gorgeous and the way the ceiling beams highlight this area of the room, makes this my favorite place in the home.

Where we all come together.. the dining room.

For many years, Si and I were a bit transient, living with my parents when we returned to the US, renting from friends (and we are very thankful for their generosity-Sarah and Laurel!).  Along the way, we inherited various items of furniture.  One item is this beautiful Danish table that happily seats 10. 

Tonight my family will come over for a chili and baked potato evening.  My Mom and sister always host our family dinners so I am honored that we can host the clan. Tonight, we dine!

Mirrors... seeing into your soul

Our dining room has not only some serious wood paneling/decor, but also these old mirrors... a wall of them!  At first, I didn't like them at all.  Simon wasn't sure either way.  Carisa LOVES them!  She raved about how beautifully authentic and coveted they are in interior home design.  The mirrors DO open that area and make it feel bigger and it's a convenient place to check your lipstick, rather than run to the bathroom... but, I'm still not sure.

Our bedroom!

So photographing bedrooms with my little digital camera isn't that rewarding.  The entire house is painted white which means it's a blank slate for our color creations.  Right now, we're just trying to get a feel for it all.  Simon plans to make a really cool bed frame for us, too. 

Downstairs bedroom

This is the largest bedroom stemming from the basement area.  It's not insulated so it will be great for the summers and too cold for the winter.  We plan to make it into an extra room, for guests, possibly media and hopefully to hang our new hammock that we dragged home from Mexico.  Right now, it's where I hang all of our laundry. 

Pardon the poor lighting and photography.. but here's our basement

We are blessed with a completely finished basement that also has a separate bedroom and half bath.  Additionally, there's a big storage room, but I'm too embarassed to post a picture of it because it's full of unpacked boxes.  Plus, this is where Simon can house his drums.  So much space compared to our 700 sq ft apartment that we moved from.

Last but not least... Si's drum kit!

After years of storing my Uncle Mike's drum kit, Simon finally gets a chance to play drums on a daily basis.  The pink camo "curtain" is the perfect touch, isn't it?  We plan to get some real curtains or blinds sometime soon.  Play on!

Back to Blogging... Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Xin Nien Kwai Le!  Feliz Ano Nuevos!   Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!   What a year this will be!  In addition to visiting the Yucatan Peninsula for the Christmas holiday, we also bought a home! 

I am also reviving this old blog, with more pictures of what's happening in our lives.  This is mostly for our family back in New Zealand.  We want Mum Margaret,  Dad Lyle, brother Daniel and other family members to stay more informed and up to date on what's happening in our Seattle lives.   Much love to you all in this new year...

So, here's some fun pictures (not seen on FB) of our travels... Enjoy!

Chichen Itza... Kulkukan

Chichen Itza is one of the largest Mayan ruin cites of the Yucatan Peninsula and it's translation is "Magicians of Water" as there were many sources of water under the ruins and from natural cenotes.  This large site had many areas of worship and more.   This temple has several steps that once could be climbed by tourists, until someone fell to their death.  We just enjoyed seeing it from the ground. 

Chichen Itza was a highlight of our trip and well worth the cost, the heat and the bugs.  We learned a huge amount about the Mayan culture and history.

Marvelous Mary!

Our tour guide, Mary was excellent, informative, very sweet and patient.  We dragged her all over the site and she carefully answered ALL of our questions with great detail.  I'm sure we got our money's worth of the entire experience. 

Not only did she speak Spanish, but she also spoke Mayan and explained that the language is still alive and thriving today.  It's estimated that 1 million speak Mayan and some schools teach it.  The written Mayan language is very complicated and difficult to learn.  One symbol can represent hundreds of words! 

Thousand columns

This is 1000 columns of the great site (although we didn't count them).  These once held up a roof, but it's unknown what they actual structure was for.  They are perfectly lined and it's intersesting to imagine what kinds of ceremonies or daily business was conducted here.

Temple of Nuns

This Mayan temple was really beautiful.  Not only did it have a tall piece with interesting carvings, but there were also a series of rooms one for each nun or priest.  The sheer strength of each of the pieces we saw were jaw-dropping and so impressive.

Poc de Poc

In Mayan culture, there was a game played called Poc de Poc and this is the arena.  You can see at the far right a throne like structure where the high priests sat and watched.  The teams played for two days and their goal was to get a ball with the weight equivalent of 3 gallons into the stone "hoops" that you can see on either side of the arena.  The trick is that you can't use your hands or feet to do this.  Amazing, right?  The other fun fact is that the winning team's coach is executed after winning.  It's an honor to die for your team.  

Cenotes!

Cenotes are essentially sink holes that are naturally made.  Some are above earth, like this one and have interesting roots, trees, bushes and wildlife all around it.  You can visit them and for a small fee, go down and have a swim.  Simon swam in this one, but I decided to just hang out.  Turns out I am a rather picky girl when it comes to giant swim holes in which the water is hazy and I can't see if there are or aren't any creatures swimming about.

When touring Chichen Itza we saw a cenote, similar to this one.  We learned that it was used a sacrificial site where small boys and infants were given to the gods for water and other reasons.  Also, many jewels and other valuable items were sacrificed.  At one point an English business man "bought" the area and drudged the bottom gathering all of the goods and jewelry.  Sounds a bit sad and sacrilegious, doesn't it?  Apparently, the items are now exhibited at a Cambridge musuem. 

Another cenote!

This cenote was the most stunning of all that I saw.  The waters were so blue and above the cenote was a hole where light came in.  Stalactites hung dramatically from the ceilings as we swam beneath. Birds flew around in patterns at the top of the cave.  The water was luke warm, but Simon being the fish he is, swam and swam to all corners of the area.  He found little cliff areas that he climbed up to and jumped in until the park guard yelled at him to get down. I was happy enough floating on my back, watching the birds, marveling in the piece of nature.

Casa Quetzal of Vallodolid

Vallodolid, which is a small town between Merida (the largest town on the Yucatan) and Cancun, was charming, quaint and so easy.  We stayed at a hotel boutique called Casa Quetzal.  The accomodation had rooms around this little courtyard and this is what we viewed every morning with breakfast.  It was such an oasis, we stayed an extra day!

Goddess of Sun...

There was an amazing wall of murals at the Policia Municipal.  This one depicts the Sun Goddess lowering light into the God of water.  I loved the colors and strength that each picture shared.  I spent tons of time with these murals, just taking in each detail and color.

Luces

At night, there's a light show at Uxmal, which is just beautiful.  

View of Uxmal

 

This was taken high above the main Mayan ruin area of Uxmal, which means "thrice built".  Often in 400-600.AD, temples were built and rebuilt as improvements to the current structure, and for other spiritual reasons.  We stayed across the road from this ruin and loved the quiet of the surrounding areas. 

Supposedly, there are jaguars in the wild near this ruin and other nearby environments.  One evening we took a long walk and marveled at the stars, the clear night and nearly full moon.  Hearing rustling in the bushes made us pause, but all was good and we were safe.

Nearly touching flamingos...well, as close as we could get.

Visiting Rio Largartos, we took a private tour and visited gorgeous wetlands with crocodiles, amazing birds and FLAMINGO's!  They are beautiful creatures!  Our perky guide, who was always smiling (seriously) said they are pink because they eat only shrimp.  I researched this and they do eat a lot of shrimp and prawns, but actually live almost entirely on algae and sea bacteria.  So that's why they are more pink in some places than others.

To get this close to these birds, we had to wade out in knee deep water over slippery sand with huge chunks of salt to navigate.  I was extra careful because I was carrying our camera to get this excellent shot.  I surprisingly never fell into the water and decided that this activity was much like rollerskating, in water, while drunk.  This may come as a shock to you, but the birds kept moving away as we got closer.  This was the best I could manage.

Isla Mujeres... the Island of Women

We ended our journey with a restful and enticing visit to Isla Mujeres, which is just across from Cancun by ferry.  The island was simple, laid back, full of beaches, little restaurants, bars, lovely people and more...  We entertained the idea of moving to such a place.  What a gorgeous little spot of Mexico and we wish we could have stayed longer.  Ah Mexico...