Living Room Update

Hi, this is David, the first post I am making here!

We have made a number of purely cosmetic additions to the living room decor.

First we added a pair of curtains to the windows flanking the fireplace. We got them off of craigslist, from a couple who had just moved into a townhouse in Baltimore. It didn't match their style. We e-mailed back and forth to arrange a pickup time, and one day after work I drove down into Charles Village in Baltimore, armed with google maps directions. I ended up driving through one of the scariest looking neighborhoods I've ever been in. Blocks upon blocks of mostly empty boarded up row houses, mostly empty streets, and everyone who was around was looking at me, knowing I was not in my neighborhood. I came through that area into another street of row houses, this time clearly inhabited and maintained. I found the house I was looking for - after a typically short conversation where it was determined that I was there for the curtains, and not trying to sell a book of my own poetry (their last visitor) the transaction was made.

Our next find was a $20 rug and runner set, also on craigslist. Picking this up was a much less interesting experience, so I'll spare you the details.

Virginia unrolled the rug and hung the curtains at night, so I didn't really get to take in the full impact they would have on the living room. The next morning I was leaving the house just as the sun was rising and before coffee, so I probably wouldn't have noticed if gnomes had painted the walls red during the overnight. When I got home from work however, and walked in the front door, I was stuck by how much more adult the room looked. Like real people live in the house, not just squatters! (The living room looked like squatters lived in it for the first year we were here.)