O Christmas Tree

Well... we finally did it. Our fourth Christmas as a married couple and have our first (and last! ha!) tree. Here it is:

The ornaments on the tree were gifted from one of my great aunts. (I can't remember which one, as they came to me through grandma; my mom hypothesized that it was aunt Sharon.) They are in very good condition and I'm grateful that I don't have to buy my own this year, since I've already spent my "decorations allowance" for a few other items. But I would like to buy some ornaments. The current ones don't feel like they are mine (mostly because they are not my style).

I was at Walmart with Amy recently and I noticed that they have packs of cute, matching ornaments. At first I fell in love with the blue and silver ones. While they are still my favorite, I think I would rather have red and gold ornaments for my tree. They would match better with my living room! (Target has similar packs of ornaments.)

I hope I can get some of the cute ones on sale after Christmas. I know I'm being cheap, but I figure, since I already have ornaments that were free, I can use them for this Christmas and maybe I can buy some I really love after the holidays for a little less cost. Worst case scenario, I buy some next Christmas when I have more decorations allowance.

Also, one last note about ornaments... (Are you bored yet? Are you still reading? :o) ... my mom has decided to downsize her collection, so she's going to bring her ornaments to our big family Christmas and let me pick out some of them for myself. I'm actually very excited about this. I would love to have some of my childhood ornaments on my tree!

Anyway... that's enough about ornaments! ttfn!

YW in Excellence: Follow Up

Sigh.

Last Wednesday was Veteran's Day, meaning I didn't have work and the young women at church didn't have school, so I took the opportunity to schedule some extra practice for YW in Excellence. Instead of spending 8 hours in the office, I spent 8 hours at the church building, meeting with each one of the performers in the afternoon and then all of the girls in the evening.

Thursday morning I woke up feeling just a little ill. Next to me, Nathan woke up feeling a lot ill. I decided to stay home from work and take care of my house. Mike promptly swept Amy in the car and took her away so she wouldn't catch anything from us. All good decisions, as it turns out. By Thursday afternoon I was full-blown sick. Fever. Aches. Fatigue.

Yuck.

The illness persisted. I did work from my bed or the couch, and I continued coordinating YW in Excellence. I firmly believed I would recover by Sunday and thus still perform my role in the awards show.

I was wrong.

My fever broke by Sunday, but a cough and a sore throat developed. My loving fellow leaders in the YW program noted that this development made me "sound like a man." They weren't wrong, but I definitely didn't need to hear about it. Especially because it meant the death of my acting career.

So when Sunday night came, one of the other leaders filled in on stage for me, and I hunkered down behind the scenes, plotting how I could write this tragety into the script for next year.


Oh! And even without my sparkling presence on stage, the show was awesome.

Young Women in Excellence: Baby, Look at You Now!

Some background: Our church has a very active youth program. Nate works with the young men (YM) and I work with the young women (YW). Kids in the program are age 12 to 18.

Both the YM and YW have a program to help them develop spiritually. The programs are basically a series of goals; things like reading scriptures, doing acts of service, learning new stuff, etc.

The young men's program is called Duty to God; for the YW it's Personal Progress. Once a year, the young women have an awards ceremony as part of Personal Progress where they receive awards for completing their goals. The name of the awards ceremony is Young Women in Excellence. This year, our ceremony has the theme "Baby, Look at You Now!" We've decided to do a fancy ceremony -- dresses, glitter, dangerous shoes, cake, black table cloths... all the works! I'm pretty excited about it (and not just because it's an excuse to get fancy, although I totally love that part).

Somehow I managed to end up being in charge of the script, and by association, apparently I'm directing a lot of the activities. It wasn't my goal to run the thing; I just had some ideas I really wanted to use for the program. But, alas! Be careful! Sometimes you get more than you bargained for!

So far my responsibilities have included a lot of writing, hand wringing, hair pulling, a few nighs of tossing and turning...
Sharing my closet of gorgeous gowns, going to the dry cleaners, doing some sewing, borrowing stuff from my mom and grandma...
Printing reams of paper, buying folders, sending emails, setting schedules, making more phone calls...
And on and on!

Do I love it? Absolutely.
Will the young women love it? Oh man, I hope so.


There's more to come on this topic... probablly after it's all said and done.

My mom has a blog!

My awesome mom reads my blog and my work blog, and sometimes she leaves comments on them. She left a comment on my work blog last week, and I happened to click on her user name. (I was trying to figure out if "Julie" was my mom or someone else named Julie.)

Lo-and-behold, clicking on her name led me to a blog. To her blog! Apparently my mom has a blog! And there are two, not-quite-an-actual-post posts on her blog.

So, world: Go visit my mom's blog. And encourage her to use it.
www.JulieBike.blogspot.com

Mom: Blog!!!

Making a dress?

My mom is pretty cool.

A few weeks ago she emailed me some dress patterns to get my opinion. Apparently she went shopping at the department stores, couldn't find anything she liked, and decided to make something for herself. She's a great seamstress, so she'll whip out a fabulous dress in no time. I admire the way she can just shrug off the store and do her own thing.

I was in the fabric store last week and saw some great fabric that was on sale. I knew it would make a cute dress, and I had an idea of what kind of dress (although I didn't have a pattern). So I got the fabric, and now I've got to figure out what dress I want to make. Granted, it's not going to be nearly as well-done or creative as my mom's dress, but I'm pretty excited about it!

So here's the fabric:

Obviously you can't tell from the picture, but it's stretchy and light. I have a dress out of fabric like this, so I already know that I love the way it feels.

Here are some patterns I am considering:

I think the first pattern is my favorite. I like the design on the left; I'd use black around the neck/waist/sleeves. I might also add a black trim on the bottom, like the picture on the right.

But I also like the waist and the tight, 3/4-sleeves on the other two patterns.

Hmm.

On Economics

I'm an economist; it's what I do and what I love. I know you might be surprised, since I never talk about it here on my personal blog, but now it's time to have that discussion. Specifically, I want to say something about the Housing Bubble.


(Insert groans; I know that everyone is sick of this topic.)

I listen to people talk about our current recession quite often. They talk about how and why we got here, where we're at, and where we're going. I get a lot of questions about it, too.

Here's a phrase I often hear from other professionals, at conferences, and read in the paper: No one saw this crisis coming. No one could have predicted it.

Is that a total load of crap, or what?

Whenever someone says that, I can't help but think s/he is an idiot. Seriously. No one could have seen this coming?! That's completely inaccurate, and here's two reasons:

(1) People did predict the problem. Smart people. They gave presentations and wrote memos and sometimes kicked and screamed, BUT they were poo-poohed or shushed or ignored.

(2) I predicted it.

Okay, I'm over-inflating myself. I didn't know just how bad the problem was or how severe the effecrs would be, but even I could see it coming. I heard my peers in college classes talking about their crazy mortgage loans (adjustable rates? paying only the interest? what?!); and I knew that if a college kid without a job could get a mortgage loan, there was a problem with the system.

Nathan and I also have a tradition of going on the Tour of Homes every summer. We first went in 2005. In 2006, as we walked away from a particularly swanky, supposedly middle-class, brand-new subdivision, we said to each other, "The pace and price of housing construction is not sustainable. Our society can't keep doing this. We're in a housing bubble, and it's going to burst."

I had crunched some numbers, and I knew it was true. But Nate? He's not very good with numbers. He hadn't "crunched" anything. He simply looked around, saw what was happening, and he knew.

So when I hear some Tool telling me that "no one saw this coming; no one could have seen this coming," I always secretly whisper,

Bull---t.


* The image in this post is taken from the website http://www.steadfastfinances.com/
I am in no way affiliated with that website. I do not directly endorse, support, oppose, or otherwise have an opinion on their goals and viewpoints.

Heavenly Father always knows

Those of you who read Amy's blog already know this, but here's the news for the rest of you: Nate's brother Mike and Mike's wife Amy are going to move in with us. Mike lost his job recently and it has been difficult to find a new one; Amy is battling cancer (and kicking cancer's butt!). We've talked about the possibility of this move for a couple months, and then this week I got the call from Amy.

So now I've switched into my typical moving mode: slighty stressed, brain in overdrive, planning every last detail... etc. All the things that I'm use to, since Nate and I move 5 times in 4 years. It's kinda funny, actually: since we've moved into our house, I tell everyone that I am NEVER MOVING AGAIN in my life. That much might hold true, but apparently that doesn't mean I can avoid being a central party to a couple more moves. So, after Mike and Amy move in here and back out, I can add two more moves to my list, keeping up my one-per-year average. Too funny.

But you're probably wondering about the title of this post and how it relates to what I'm writing. So I should get back on track...

After I got off the phone with Amy on Tuesday, I went into the basement and started analyzing the space. I made a mental checklist of what needs to be done. I've done this plently of times since we started discussing the possible move, but this time I felt like I was looking with a whole new set of eyes.

For instance, I really looked at the windows this week. We were blessed to find a house with HUGE windows. They are massively helpful for my s.a.d. because they let so much light into the house. Which is also their pitfall. Lots of light at night. Plus less insullation against the weather. In the basement, there are no curtains for the windows. None. But the pully system for curtains (what is it called?!) is still in place, so I can just make/buy curtains and put them up! Realizing this, I started going through my fabric collection to see if I had anything that might work for the windows.

Lo-and-behold, I had fabric that would work. Great fabric. Perfect fabric, in fact...

Three years ago, when we were house-sitting and living in Eugene, I went fabric shopping more often than I do now. On one such trip I came across some great discount fabric. $1 per yard for this heavy, sage-green fabric. I had no use for it. Not even a plan for a use. I didn't really want it, since I had no use for it, but I purchased it anyway. I actually felt a complusion to buy it (which made me worry I was turning into a shopaholic or something... thankfully I haven't!)

Flash back to the present: I still have the fabric. Haven't used it for anything. I've pulled it out a few times over the years and thought about using it, but every time I felt like I was suppose to put it away. And then Tuesday night came, and I took it out once again, and I held it up to the giant windows in my basement.

It's exactly the right size. Right length, right width. Nothing extra, nothing lacking. Perfect.

That moment was a lightbulb to me. I had this overwhelming sense that Heavenly Father knows. He knew we would buy this house; He knew Mike and Amy would come to live with us. I know it sounds mundane, and not like something an All-Powerful Creator would be concerned with, but I think God cares about the little things -- even about having fabric to make curtains. He knows. He knows us, and He loves us.

And I'm grateful for that.

The Evolution of My Front Yard

The only "before" picture of my house, which unfortunately doesn't show the ugly front tree very clearly. It was impressively yucky, so you're not missing much:

After the tree was cut down and some of the shrubbery was removed. This work was done last spring (2009), within the first couple of months after we moved in:

We mostly took a break on the yard until August, when we started puttering around. We needed to re-seed the lawn, and the picture below shows the front after we took out the little patch of grass that was there. It also shows part of the old plumbing system, which was a BEAST of a job to remove:

(Turns out there were two old plumbing systems under there. We've named them The Old System, and The Old Old System.)

N8bear, trenching out the lines for the new sprinkler system:

After all the lines for the new sprinkler system were trenched /dug:

THE NEW FRONT OF MY HOUSE, WITH A TREE!!!!

Grass seed is planted, but hasn't popped up yet. We're expecting to see some sprouts this weekend. I can't wait to post another picture this spring, when the grass is in and the bulbs are in bloom!

I also need to finish the front deck. I took off the old, metal railing and I raised the deck so it's now level, but I need to put on a new railing.

My Kitchen!

It's amazing how a two-sentence exchange with the neighbor who lives across the street could lead to so much stress...and joy! Here's what was said sometime back in June:

Me: I hate my kitchen -- it's boring and looks old-fashioned.
My neighbor: You know, a very simple and inexpenisve way to solve that is to paint it and put in new hardware.

That got me to thinking (which is rarely a good idea when it comes to house projects, I know). I made some mental calculations. I figured for about 200 bucks I could do a pretty decent makeover of my kitchen. Add new paint and hardware, but leave the rest alone.

So I went to the store and got a paint sample. Nathan hated it. We debated. Then I bought some more paint samples....
The paint-sample part of the story goes on for another 12 colors, so let me sum up by saying that eventually I found both paint colors and hardware that I LOVE, so after about 1 week of long hours (2 days of which were very intense, and my wonderful mother came down and was a tremendous help), I have a beautifully facelifted kitchen. Just look at these before and after pictures:

There are still a few little things to do (small spots that need a paint touch-up, plus I'm planning to replace that picture over the stove with a big spice rack... from Ikea, maybe?), but isn't it beatiful?!

Kitten Post for My Mum

I feel like a new parent.

Even though they've been with us only a couple of months, it's beginning to feel like Jack and Abby have always been with us. Nevertheless, I am constantly finding reasons to grab my camera and snap pictures of the kittens playing, sleeping, hanging out, etc. Everything they do is cute!

For instance, here's Jack, who is always adorable:

And here's Abby... (I woke up from a nap one Sunday afternoon and found her next to me, sleeping like this. Oh my, so cute!)

Jack again, this time sleeping on the desk next to me when I was working at my computer:

This picture of Jack cracks me up. When I walked into the living room, he popped out from behind those pillows on the couch, yet he's the one who looks surprised!

Abby again, with N8:

She LOVES Nathan. (She also loves Marie, my mom-in-law... so maybe it's a Winegardner thing? In any event, at least Jack is "my kitten"...)

And here's one of my most favorite pictures in recent history:

Can you find the sleeping kitten? (It's Abby, btw.)

Other cute things:
I don't have pictures of all of this stuff, but Jack and Abby have a couple of new toys they LOVE...

1. Fake mice. Nate pulled a couple of them out of a desk drawer the other day, and the kittens were instantly enthralled. They've sinced destroyed both fake mice, so I will have to find and buy more. Jack especially loved his mouse. He would pick it up in his mouth and trot around the house with it, then drop it somewhere and smack it across the room so he could chase it.

2. Fabric. I had a big square of spare fabric on the couch the other day. For whatever reason, the kittens pulled it onto the floor. They then discovered that it makes for a fabulous toy, and now they like to wrap themselves up in it and run around the living room.... Sometimes while also playing with the fake mice.

Overall, I'm a pretty happy "mommy". I love my kittens!

Our Wall-to-Rail is Nearly Done!

My mom hinted (not-so-subtly) that I needed a blog update. She asked for kitten pictures, and I have at least 1,000 new pictures I could share, but I've been meaning to talk about house stuff for quite some time. So I'm going to do house stuff now, and do a kitten update in a few days (I hope).

We're nearly done with the wall-to-rail project. The railing is constructed and in place. There are only minor adjustments remaining, including a little bit of sanding, some painting, and attaching the floorboard trim.

What's interesting is that, as I pass the railing every day, a diverse series of thoughts go through my head. I start by feeling a little annoyed that it looks somewhat home-grown and not perfectly professional (even though it is very nicely done). And because of the way we framed the new railing, you can definitely see where the wall use to be. I worry that people who've never seen my house will walk in, see the railing, and instantly know that it use to be a wall.

BUT THEN I imagine what it use to look like -- the solid wall, blocking the window over the staircase. Sometimes I even go back and look at the pictures of the wall. As soon as I remember what it use to be, I suddenly have a lot of love for what it now is.

In sum: I love the new railing.

Before I reveal the new railing, here's a couple of pictures of what it use look like (when it was just a wall):

And here's one of the construction pictures that I haven't shared yet (I love this one):

Finally, here's the new railing:

Volunteering

I'm writing a brief article for work on volunteering. I decided to open the article with a quote that expresses the greatness of volunteering, rather than me blithering on about its greatness. In the process of searching for a quote, I found a webpage with the very best ones imaginable. I think I know which one I want for the article, but I still feel a need to share a few of the others. I don't know if any of you love quotes as much as I do, but here are a few that touched me:

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
Edmund Everett Hale

Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Service to others is the payment you make for your space here on earth.
Mohammed Ali

Never before has man had such a great capacity to control his own environment, to end hunger, poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and human misery. We have the power to make the best generation of mankind in the history of the world.
President John F. Kennedy

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
Mahatma Gandhi

I was taught that the world had a lot of problems; that I could struggle and change them; that intellectual and material gifts brought the privilege and responsibility of sharing with others less fortunate; and that service is the rent each of us pays for living, the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time or after you have reached your personal goals.
Marian Wright Edelman

We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill



In case you love these as much as I do, here's the link to the list I pulled them from.

More About Kittens

I'm at risk of talking too much about the kittens, I know. But I took this cute series of pictures today and I wanted to share.

First, as Nate was "resting his eyes" in his favorite chair, Abby decided to curl up in his lap and sleep....

Nate moved over to the couch to work on his church lesson, and both kittens surrounded him. (Abby is on the left, Jack is on the right.)

While Nate was working, he fell asleep. The following pictures ensued...

Too cute, am I right?!

We Have Kittens!

I pass a store on my commute home every day that has a big banner with the words "We Have Kittens!" I must say, this sign and the store have tormented me for quite some time, as I am an unabashed cat lover. Especially now that we have a house, I find myself thinking that there's no reason we can't add a pet to the family. We certainly have plenty of space. There are time and financial costs, of course, but these are manageable.

So, after months of driving past the sign, I finally decided to stop by last week. Just to check out the place... or so I told myself. But the cats and kittens were all adorable! I felt attached to a certain white, Siamese kitten. His name was Bear.

So I went home and told my Bear all about the little kitten named Bear. I wasn't trying to get anywhere with it - I was just telling N8 about the kitten. To my surprise, however, N8 was agreeable to adding a feline family member!

I went out the very next day to get a litter box and food. Then back to the pet place for Bear...

except that the kitten was already adopted! I could have cried! Despite visiting with the other cats and a trip to the Humane Society, there were no other siamese kittens available, and so I was not content.

Now, before you get to thinking I'm being overly picky, let me explain: N8 has allergies. This has been the big delay in our ability to get a pet. Recent headlines about the Obamas and their dog, however, have shown the world that people with dog allergies have ways around the problem, so I did a little research to see if the same was true for cats. Sure enough, there were some tips on the internet. One was to start with a kitten because they have less fur and the allergic person (N8) is more able to adapt. Siamese also tend to cause allergic people fewer problems. Thus I developed specific parameters for my feline search.

I learned last Thursday that the cat store expected new kittens on Friday, so I stopped by Friday. They had not arrived yet but they knew what was coming in: four siamese! I asked them to call me the moment they arrived.

Two hours later, I was back in the cat store, purchasing a pair of siamese kittens, who I've named Abigail and Quinn Jackson...

...or just Abby and Jack.

Abby (who is a little whiter and whose coat is nearly pure) is on the left. Jack (who has some light stripes in his fur) is on the right.

A Post for My Mum

My mom and dad came down last weekend to run an errand, visit with us, and help out around the house a little. My mom took a picture of me replacing a light fixture and not-so-subtly said that I should blog about it. So here's the picture my mum took:

It's a great shot because she got the old chandelier in the picture, as well as the new fixture, so you can see both of them at once! Good choice, mom.

We took out both chandeliers in the kitchen, plus both of the "lanterns" in the hallway. The new light fixtures weren't particularly spendy (about $10 each -- so $40 for all four of them), but they are nice and match well with the fixtures we put up in the bedrooms when we first moved in. Now I've just got to figure out how/where to sell the old chandeliers. Several people have said that they could probably fetch a pretty good price, maybe even more money that we paid for all of the new ones. That would be neat.

Replacing the light fixtures was one of a few projects last weekend. We also continued working on the wall that we took out. N8's parents helped us frame the area about two weekends ago. (That was a big project. I'm very glad it's done!) Now we have to put casings on the new header and support beams.

Can't figure out what I'm trying to say? Here's a picture of the new beams (in place):

You probably can't tell from the picture just how ugly they are, so trust me... they are ugly! That's why we bought wood to put around these beams (to "case" them). Then we can do the drywall (and taping and mudding... and sanding, mudding, sanding more... etc.). It's still a few weeks worth of work to finish this project. Hopefully we can get back to the Nook around mid-July, with enough time to finish it and the front deck (and the front yard) by the end of summer.

Of course, "the end of summer" now means the end of September... obviously! :o)

Update!

It's pathetic how long it's been since I did an update. I mean, it's not like I lack a functioning computer or internet connection at home. The world would probably forgive me if I could claim one of those excuses.

No, I'm afraid it's just good ol' fashion laz.... er.... busyness. Yeah - that's it. I've got too much on my plate to blog as regularly as I a should.

Anyway, I was reminded how long it was today when Craig stopped by to pick up the key to his beach house. Which made me think, "It's been quite awhile since that trip." And thus quite awhile since I've posted anything!

So here I am. I'm... um.... posting. I posted. That was my post. Now back to whatever other time waster I was working on before I wrote this very special update.

At the Beach

We're at the beach!!!

A good friend of ours recently emailed us and asked if we wanted to stay at his BEACH HOUSE for the weekend. After a very careful analysis of the invitation - we spent at least 10 seconds discussing it - we accepted the offer. I mean, what else could we say to our buddy except YES, of course we'll spend the weekend lounging around your huge, beautiful house on the beach (for free). It would have been rude to decline the invitation! :o)

So here we are, lounging around! I'm surfing (the net), and Nate is upstairs somewhere, watching TV. It's kinda cute, really... If we go somewhere and there's TV, Nathan almost automatically plops himself in front of it. Watching TV is a vacation thing for him, since we don't have one at home. As for me... I can hardly live without the internet, so I'm deeply grateful there's a high-speed connection available here!

Not sure what today's plans entail. We arrived mid-day yesterday, unpacked, and then went into town to buy N8 some swim trunks. We continued to lounge when we returned to the house. The only "vigorous" activity yesterday was a walk on the beach! Otherwise it was movies, food, the hot tub, and lazing about.

Now, before you think we're selfish for having this fun all to ourselves, I want to mention that we invited lots of people to come join us! We were bailed on by all four of the couples we invited! Could they see the place now, I think they would re-consider.... but oh well!

Spare Bedroom Closet

Just a quick post...

Here are some pictures of the closet in the spare bedroom. I didn't take any "before" pictures because there wasn't much to see; it was just two wooden dowels that went all the way across the closet. About a month ago Nathan and I picked up some finished plywood from Home Depot, then two weeks ago I finally started cutting the plywood into parts for the closet. I also built the closet two weekends ago, but had to wait to paint it until last week. I (finally) finished it Sunday night -- touched up the paint spills, dropped in the drawers, and hung things back up. Although the drawers still need a little work (long story), it's pretty much done. I think it looks pretty nice!

Why am I destroying my beautiful house?!

For those of you who don't already know, Nathan and I bought a house this winter. We've been in it for three months now! It's an older home that is spacious and beautiful.

One of the things about buying an older home, however, is that it needs a lot of work. We've already done a lot of landscape clearing and assorted replacements throughout the house (including the garage door, water heater, and the upstairs bathroom toilet). Pretty much anything downstairs is fair game to demolish, as it's severely outdated and poorly designed. You can see our progress in this picture:

And in this picture:

But until yesterday, the downstairs was really the only area subject to demolition. While I've built out three of the closets upstairs, it's generally been the "hands-off" part of the house. Maybe because it's the really pretty part, with its soft yellow paint and honey-colored wood floors. Sure, the doors are warped and some of the window panes are cracked, but asthetically, I still love the upstairs pretty much the way it is!

And yet....

Yesterday I sectioned off the upstairs hallway by taping painter's plastic over all the openings around the hallway. Then I put on baggy pants and a dusk mask, grabbed my new sledge hammer, and turned this hallway:

Into this pile of rubble:

And all the while I was thinking: Why am I destroying my beautiful house?!

I have to say, it was much harder to demolish a part of my upstairs than it had been to rip things out downstairs. I was even a little panicky as I knocked out the wall. ("Why, why, why am I doing this?")

The thoughts and worry persisted for at least ten minutes... Until I began to knock out the far side of the wall. At first I just took out the drywall on the hallway-side of the wall; but I also needed to remove the dryall on the staircase-side of the wall.

(In case you haven't been to my house, look at the picture below. On the left is the staircaseside, and on the right is the hallway side.)

Hopefully that clarifies it.)

When I made that first, big hole in the staircase side of the wall, I was suddenly blinded by bright afternoon sunshine flooding through the window over the staircase, and I remembered exactly why that wall needed to go!

So even though the hallway currently looks like this:

I am happier because there is now more light coming into the house. The hallway went from being dark, like this:

To being lighter an more beautiful, like this:

I guess that's why I am destroying my beautiful house!