Our Temporary Home

The House
Moving into a new home, is like meeting a new person. Some characteristics are apparent from the get go, while other peculiarities take time to unveil.

Right off the bat, it was actually a really nice apartment, despite my reluctance to move to St Helens. It has two bedrooms, a spacious bathroom with a pantry, a large kitchen with too much storage for our newlywed selves, a dishwasher, bay windows, and a laundry room with washer and dryer. Oh and it’s carpeted, which we really like-- more comfy on the feetsies.

After living in the house a few months, we’ve really gotten to know the place, but we are still living with a few mysteries. 

Mystery 1: The mailbox door. We didn’t have one when we moved in. everyone else did, but ours was missing. Part of the mystery was solved when somebody cut the bushes under the mailboxes. We found the door in the trimmed hedge. Yay. But who doesn’t pick up their mailbox door when you realize it’s missing? and how do we put it back on? Also, I learned recently that the mail carrier really won’t take your mail, unless you put that red “flag” up. 

Mystery 2: The laundry room wall. There is a 1’ X 1’ section of wall in the laundry room the has about 100 small holes. It’s like someone just went nuts with a thumb tack. What really happened? We usually just avert our eyes from that particularly heinous patch of wall. 

Mystery 3: The bathroom “ventilation.” When normal people take a shower, they turn on the vent/fan to prevent trapping the steam. People also use it to get rid of foul odors, when necessary. For a time, we just thought the ventilation wasn’t working very well, but then we came to the conclusion that it was actually making the steam WORSE and the smells fouler. What we have on our hands isn’t a vent at all, it’s a HEATER. Who puts a heater in the bathroom?

The Neighbors
We met all of the neighbors soon after moving in. The first neighbor we met was a woman walking home. We waved at her with our smiling faces and she... completely ignored us. We came to find out that she is legitimately crazy. Crazy lady mostly just slowly walks by and has no expression, but just a few weeks ago she waved at Patrick! It was a big deal. Sandy is the neighbor who shares a wall with us, and she is a gardener. Then there is a single mom with 2 little girls across from us. The little girl named Lacy has been the sweetest neighbor to us from day one. Here’s what we’ve learned about our neighbors, since our first encounters. Firstly, we are responsible for our own garbage while we live here. On the second week of garbage pickup, we forgot to put the bin out. But at 6 o’clock in the morning we heard our garbage bin being rolled out to the curb. Then the garbage truck came and left. No less than 5 minutes later, we heard our bin being rolled back to our house. After some detective work, we came to find out that crazy lady was the one looking out for us. This has happened multiple times. Thanks, crazy lady. We’ve also discovered that Sandy likes classical music, television, and her two vocal pets. She has a dog that barks. If the barking begins, it will last at least 15 minutes, guaranteed. She also has a bird. Birds are my least favorite pet. We’ve learned that the kids next door are actually really nice to talk with and they are fearless salespersons. One time they tried to sell us bright white unripe cherries, 4 for a dollar.

The City
St Helens is known for being a filming site for Twilight and Disney Channel's Halloween Town. I guess that's pretty cool. In the time that we’ve lived here, there hasn't been any filming. Actually, we haven't really explored the city too much. But I will say, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I guess I just really hate that all of our friends are so far away and there is no Winco. I have to shop at Safeway. Anyway, back to the positive. Everything in town is within a mile from where we live, including Patrick’s work, which means we eat lunch together everyday. We've also tried a few restaurants in town that have been pretty scrumptious. We went to Klondike's and they gave us a free dessert next time we come in because they found out we were new to the area. Also, there are thrift stores. I’ve recently learned the difference between a thrift store and an antique store. Thrift stores have used things you can buy for cheap and antique stores have used things that are overpriced. Also, they have the best Goodwill I’ve ever been to. It's actually in Scappoose, but it's just a short car ride south. Now that I’m wrapping up my work with the community production of Annie, I’ll have more time to discover the city.