In Hiding

comments: 46

Pho_collage_pink2_lg I'm in hiding in my room. Downstairs I can hear rattling pipes, and shouting between the plumber (in basement) and Andy (in kitchen): "Am I in the right place?" "A little to the left!" "There?" "A little to the right!" I'm twitching, about to put my head under the pillow. We have a leak somewhere between the kitchen and the basement. Lots of thumping down there. More hollered communications. They need walkie-talkies. Oh please, don't let this be expensive!!! Aggh! I think I'll stay up here until it's all over, and the check has been written.

We're not the only ones with plumbing problems. As you may have noticed, there is some trouble with the Kim Family Auction, and Lisa and Stephanie are in the process of sorting that out. As of last night, the auction was soaring off the charts of super-successfulness! I am absolutely agog (yes, agog) at how much money has been raised. Moly! If you were bidding, please stay tuned for whatever solution they hit upon; I'll keep you informed. I know they are scrambling to get things working again. Last I checked, Elodie-Anne herself was up to $375.00. I'm actually speechless over it. Thank you. (Update: Our illustrious lassies are working hard to get the auction happening again, but it looks like it will have to be started over. That just means more excitement! Please check the auction blog for further updates, as I do, I really do, intend to turn off this computer and go downstairs sometime today, and I might miss it, but I don't want you to, 'kay? Lisa's will make an announcement there when things are ready to go again, and she has more info there if you want the details.)

Did that collage look familiar? Remember all those movies I watched last week? I was only half-watching. Really, I was working on new collages that might remind you of my old collages. I was never sure if I was going to make these to sell, but I just had the major urge to do them last week, in thinking about everything, somehow. Of course, now having to pay for new pipes, I can't just give them anyway anymore, so they're all for sale over at the site now. But I really love them. Why is it so hard for me to part with things lately. It never used to be. I made a ton of them, but even so, I think this is a limited edition. You never know, with me. I've got some gorgeous materials, but I use them lavishly on my stuff, and then I'm out. I hear very loud drilling downstairs. It's actually rattling things in our room upstairs. I just heard the plumber yell, "ANDY!!!" That's not what you want to hear the plumber yell. Mommy?! I'm scared.

Pho_confection_rosemadelineLook at this luminous creature. Her name is Rose Madeline, and she's a Sugar Rose Pin. The poufiest, frothiest flowers I've ever made. Light as meringue. Speaking of light, the light in P-town yesterday was very dramatic. This photo sort of captured it. Dark gray clouds, light on the ground. Glory.

Pho_piro_salmon_lg_1Andy just brought up a big piece of rusted-out gunked-up pipe to show me, something the plumber apparently just cut out of the wall. The thing reeked. It looked about four-thousand years old. Oh. Dear. I'm on a need-to-know basis. I feel like having a Diane-Keaton-ish breakdown, that scene in Baby Boom when the well dries up? Where's a big puffy coat and a snowbank. I love that scene. When it's happening to her. Does a house this pretty seem like it should have a pipe like that in it? No, I don't think so either. Oh, but it does, my friends. I'm sure there are many, many other eighty-year-old gunky mysteries just waiting to be discovered. Yay. The longer I live in old houses the more I think my parents-in-law have the right idea. They built, brand-new, and you turn the fireplace on using a switch on the wall. My goodness. And I thought Duralogs were a miracle.

46 comments

Bwaaa haaaa haaa!!!! Really, you need a spew alert sometimes girl! I was drinking coffee, and as my geek husband has told me many times, keyboards and liquids = not good! (duralogs ARE a miracle, tho')

So sorry about the house. We bought our 20 y.o. house two years ago, and immediately spent my carefully scrounged decorating budget on new gutters and downspouts after discovering that the $500 we had paid the home "inspector" had been money in the wind. Sometimes when I'm outside looking up at the gleaming white outlines of the house I actually see new, red slipcovered couches floating up there. Oh well.

Crossing my fingers for the upcoming check-writing....
maria

You poor thing! I'd be hiding too. Let those with stronger constitutions deal with the yucky scary stuff.

Concentrate on pretty poufs and pastel collages. It can be a happy mental exercise.

Congratulations to Elodie-Anne !

Oh my, I can sympathize with the plumbing problems. My little bungalow is 70 yrs. old, and who knows what lurks in the basement, too scary to check it out.

That collage is so pretty, I could look at it all day!

Thanks for the morning chuckle!!

You crack me up! Hope all goes well. Plumbing is the only thing we hire out for... and it's the most expensive labor out there!
LOVED the magazines you're in!! But can I just say... their pics weren't near as good as your pics! Seriously, they should have hired you to take the pics for the magazines!

Love that scene, love that movie, always loved that coat. (It seems so cozy, dontcha think?) Hiding is a good thing, at least you have somewhere to hide, right (I'm always looking for that rosy lining). Our house is so tiny that no matter where you are you are in the thick of it. You really don't miss much that way!

ps the collages are great! That has always been one of my favorite forms of creating. i should go make one...

Please don't doubt your little 20's bungalo Alicia! Surely there will be bumps and bips along the way, but I work with a lady who's son just purchased a BRAND SPANKING new house... and he has issues with it already. I have seen your blogs and I just bet that you would not be as content with a "newer" house as you are with your sweet home. I looked for months before finding my 1920's bungalo (which I am SO in love with) and many of the homes I looked at were newer... from the 1950's. Now, I am not saying that there is a thing wrong with a house from the 1950's, but they did tend to lack most or all of the character that homes from a few decades earlier have. You gotta be willin' to take the good with the bad... and from I have seen you have A LOTTA good going on with the little house you have. And thank goodness you have your man there to handle all the yucky stuff... which I am sure he is enjoying every minute off. :D

Oh A. I wish I could be there making you a cup of tea, patting your hand and saying "there, there." Never mind that we've never met, plumbing problems are the worst.

All houses have growing pains and age spots. And women just know how to cover those right on up. I have had old and a little less old. I do not think it matters, there will always be something to fix. But I have been there... oh, have I been there. My condo had a cracked floor that started to rise in the spare bedroom (mind you my condo was on the 2nd floor). We took up the carpeting and um, my father and I sledge hammered over 1/2 of the concrete floor right out of there. Anyway, a little rusted pipe here and there can be taken care of no matter how stinky it is. My not so old house got all new windows when I moved in.. now mind you they are wonderful.. but not the same as houses with lovely ripple glass front windows (there is a house like that around Swan Lake in Tulsa.. it is magnificent and in need of dire work.. )

I am loving all of the new stuff you worked on while hibernating over the holidays. I still need to get out and buy the magazines you are in though.... have not found them around here.. yet

Just found your website. Love all your pretty little things. Will check back in more.
My husband and I live in a 50+ year old house which I love for the character, but sometimes I too think of what a brand-new house would feel like.

We did that whole new pipe thing a few years ago. Money well spent. Good luck with your plumbing!

Plumbing is scary...and expensive. Given the choice, I opt for car repairs over plumbing repairs any day. We had to replace a tub drain in our 70-year-old bungalow recently. I almost fainted when I saw the bill -- and the plumber was a personal friend. Even still, I don't think I could ever live in new construction. I feel like my home is an old soul, you know. If I'm lucky enough to snag a collage in your upcoming sale. I promise to give it a good home.

oh old pipes and the houses they come with! about a week after we moved into our century old house all the pipes backed up...toilets, sinks, drains, EVERYTHING, and gushed terrible black sewage all over the floors. then i went outside to open the "clean out" pipe and it spewed sewage water ONTO ME!!! yuck!!! so at least you have found your gunky pipe before it found you, so to speak. our "gunky pipe" turned out to be tree roots growing into the waste pipes during the year and a half that the house sat empty before we came along. plumbing is sadly expensive, but worth every penny to get problems taken care of early. good luck! pretty things as usual!

Chris Howard says: January 04, 2007 at 01:08 PM

Ah, the pleasures of owning an older home. Ours is about 100 years old, and literally a week after we moved in I was happily taking a shower when raw sewage came into the bathtub. There is not enough lysol in the world to make you feel clean after you experience something like that.

Anyhoo, it turned out that the outbound terracotta (isn't that a ROMAN building material?!?!) had given up the ghost and had to be replaced with pvc. Of course it was just PERFECT timing considering we had just moved in and spent just about every penny we had buying the house, closing down our apartment, etc.

Here's hoping that you don't incur much in the way of expense or inconvenience. I LOVE the collages!!!

Right there with you on the old house/new house debate..as I sit here in my 1950" expanded ranch" with serious cracks in the walls/ceilings that I swear were not there a month ago!! Could just be those razor scooters that Santa brought..maybe riding in the house should not be permitted!
I've been watching Elodie-Anne on Ebay..she's beautiful and you should be so proud.

You have my sympathies. We had plumbing "issues" about 2 weeks before Christmas. My husband is the type of guy to let something go until it's a REAL problem, whereas I like to nip disasters in the bud. It took me threatening to move back to my parents' and a complete meltdown before he finally called our miracle-worker brother-in-law who fixed the whole thing, ba-da-bing! (I'm convinced he can do anything) He only charged us for the supplies he needed, so it truly was a Christmas miracle!

I think it's somehow an unwritten rule that young married couples have to start off with an old house along with all the frustrating, scary quirks they contain, before they can get wise like the parents-in-law and build a-new. Mine did, too, and I can only grudgingly say it's wonderful.

Good luck! I hope the plumber has mercy on you!

Oh, and until I can light the fireplace with the flip of a switch, I, like you, will continue to embrace the Duralog as a magical thing.

Old houses break...alot. We also had to replace a plumbing waste stack...nasty name even. But you like old things with character so you wouldn't love a new house. Stunning collage! just beautiful--I made one for Romantic Homes a few years ago in primary colors. Can't let it go either--I say keep it!

That post was hysterical! I, too, live in an old house (102 yrs old this year) and I have often said that there are some modern conveniences that I would gladly trade some knee-high molding and carved brass door knobs for. Hope it doesn't turn out to be too bad. Love your blog!

Good luck with the plumbing! The collage is adorable.. i love collage-ing... it's so relaxing. just cut and paste... ahhh.

beautiful rosy-ish-ness and ): about the busted leakage pipe issue....but i have a feeling that your goodness will more than help pay for it!

xoxo ;)

collaging is so theraputic too...

Oooo - yuck. I'm always fascinated and grossed out at the same time when ever plumbers unearth anything like that. I can tell you too - it doesn't take long for new houses to go the same way!

Alright, now! Anyone hiding upstairs want to try out a new garbage disposal? Merry Christmas.

Oh dear!! I so agree there is nothing to do but hide in a situation like this....put your hands over your ears and just lightly sing..LaLaLA..LaLaLa ....I so hope its not serious, and if it si.. flat out ask Andy to lie to you!!!

I love that you're making your collages again! They look so lovely. Do you have advice about best places to find gorgeous materials?

oh DEAR

And do I feel your pain !

Ours happened right the week of Christmas...thank you eleven hundred dollars.

There goes the new 'fridge....

Hope your story turns out way better.

I know, the charm of our 1950's home diminishes at times here too.

Sigh....

That pink flower was a pick me up tho !
And I think the collages are GREAT !

I SAW your doll and all the other great things on Ebay annd it is fun to watch it climb.

And yes...love that scene in Baby Boom too...as you say , WHEN IT IS HAPPENING TO HER!

HAng in there. Love, S.

ps My folks have a switch on too...shudder.

I still have SOME integrity ! PLEASE !

Give me a Duraflame any day !(chuckling)

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About Alicia Paulson

About

My name is Alicia Paulson
and I love to make things. I live with my husband and daughter in Portland, Oregon, and design sewing, embroidery, knitting, and crochet patterns. See more about me at aliciapaulson.com

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