Lessons learnt via moving 14 July 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Modern culture, Personal reflection.3 comments
One thing packing up and moving an American household causes a person to realize is the inordinate amount of schtuff we collect. I personally abhor clutter, and thankfully my wife even feels the urge to purge from time to time.
Really though, do we need to keep around tablecloths we never use (and that don’t fit our table), the five surplus and ordinary glass vases that came with flowers for the wife, the three extra sets of drinking glasses that we probably won’t have cabinet space for in our next home. You get the point. What’s more is that we didn’t pay for most of these things I’ve mentioned. They were gifts or hand-me-downs; are we obliged to keep such things; will we hurt people’s feelings if we don’t?
The process seems to reaffirm the fact that we live in a materialistic, consumerist culture.
One week to go, to Nebraska 13 July 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Personal reflection.add a comment
My writing time will probably be slim for the next ten days or more. We’re on track to close next Monday. We’re probably 60% packed, although the studio is still a bit of a mess. I started putting some tools in a box out there this evening, and then took them out after realizing I might need them still before packing the truck. I beginning to think artists serious about their craft have a more difficult time packing and moving than other folks, though my thought is certainly up for debate.
The week will be busy with things besides packing. We have family visiting Thursday and Friday and a farewell fling friends are throwing Saturday.
Image from Epodunk
A human’s first “non-need” 4 July 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Interior design, Northwest Arkansas, Personal reflection, Siloam Springs.1 comment so far
In my first college design class, as an architecture student, one of our projects involved researching of and writing about chairs. We read about designs by Eames, Bertoia, Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and so forth. Our professor pointed out that a chair, or somewhere to sit our sorry plebian butts after a long day in the field, is the first thing we will think of to buy or build assuming all of our other needs are met.
And I think she was right.
As we pack up the house we’re selling some things we won’t need in the foreseeable future, or won’t have room for in our upcoming living space. I used Craigslist, which I’m pretty new to, and easily sold our guest bed and couch.
We really miss the couch.
We own other comfortable chairs, but apparently they aren’t comfortable in the same way. The plan was to replace it with a svelte black leather couch that wouldn’t aggravate my allergies like the whimsical, eight year old model we just sold. However, I was looking forward to one less large piece of furniture to move.
So the past few days I’ve been on a hunt to find a cheap and temporary replacement, most likely a comfy chair for the wife to read in. There are a couple places in town that sell used, and I’ve been to a few garage sales as well. So far everything I’ve seen has been dirty or overpriced — or entirely hideous. The one exception was a blue recliner at a friend’s yard sale; unfortunately it formerly lived with cats, which I’m quite allergic too. Another vintage store in town, Amandromeda, purveys a number of well designed seats, though none are suitable for extended periods of time with a book in your lap. I’ve also inquired via Craigslist and the Facebook Marketplace to no avail.
Next up I plan to hit a vintage spot in Fayetteville called the Flying Dog. Moving is stressful enough without a decent place to rest your rump, so I hope I can come up with a chair on this holiday weekend!
On moving to Nebraska 21 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Central Nebraska, Grand Island, Personal reflection.1 comment so far
While we may be lamenting our departure from Arkansas in a number of ways, we’re looking forward to the adventure that lies ahead. We’ll be living, for the foreseeable future, with my parents in a building they are purchasing in downtown Grand Island, Nebraska. We’ve always liked the idea of living downtown over a business. There’s a good coffee shop in the same block and a renovated historical movie theater across the street. Shows are $3, although the coffee shop closes early for some inane reason so you can’t get dessert after the movie. While the entire situation may not be ideal (in the context of American culture) in that we’re moving back in with the parents in our 30s, we will have our own space (two or three rooms to ourselves) and the time will allow us a period of transition as we look to the future, trying to decide what we want to do next.
Some of the other things I’m looking forward to:
- Most cities in Nebraska are not so direly deficient in the sidewalk department as Siloam Springs! Grand Island is much more walkable in this respect than cities in Northwest Arkansas.
- Fewer allergies, or no allergies at all. Some may find this to be a bit trivial, but others with allergies will understand.
- As much as we’ll miss the flora of the Ozarks, my wife and I are eager to move back to the Plains.
- If you think looking forward to a life without allergies was trivial, you may want to skip this point. I’m looking forward to living in a city with a Kohls, and other places to find decent sales on clothing (since we can’t really buy clothes in our place of residence at all at the moment).
- Winters with snow!
- While living with the parents I should have a significant amount of studio space in the basement, which is already equipped with numerous worktables, 220 for my kiln and a vented room for sandblasting (which I may turn into the kiln room).
Downtown Grand Island isn’t quite as hopping as Siloam Springs when it comes to revivification, but it’s certainly not idle either (and, to add some perspective, is probably at least four times the size of Siloam’s downtown area). This is one of the recently remodeled buildings in downtown Grand Island.
On leaving Arkansas 21 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Northwest Arkansas, Personal reflection, Siloam Springs.2 comments
The day before we flew to Florida we received an offer on our house. We didn’t expect it to happen this quickly, and I think the realtor was even more floored than we were (We knew we had a great little house, but weren’t always convinced our realtors thought the same way.). After looking it over we decided to accept the offer rather than counter given the current market.
The timing of the offer, considering our present circumstances, seems Divinely orchestrated. Although there are still a myriad of things that could cause the deal to fall through (it’s still quite early in the process), at the moment we expect to be living with my parents up in Nebraska by the end of July.
On the assumption that we’re moving back north, I thought I’d write a little lament about leaving Arkansas and Siloam Springs.
Other than the pervasive lack of sidewalks, Siloam Springs is a great little community. Sure, it has [other] peculiarities and political, um, intrigue, but so does every town. Overall we’ve come to love this place and its people. Upon moving we’ll especially miss:
- The people, first and foremost. It’s quite rotten that, being summer, some of our closest friends are traveling and won’t be back before we move!
- The flora, something the Ozarks are known for. We’ll miss the the golden raintrees, southern magnolias, mimosas, myrtles, dogwoods, wysteria etc etc
- For the time being, we’ll miss being in a community with a liberal arts university.
- I will miss the sound of summer nights, when a chorus of insects pierce the still, muggy air. Although we won’t miss the insects.
- Tower Bar-B-Q, and barbecue in general.
We’ll also miss the quaintness of the community and the renewed downtown with its parks, just three blocks from our house. I walked through yesterday evening and noticed significant progress on one of the few remaining vacant buildings. A swanky Greek restaurant is going into this building, something that downtown Siloam Springs has wanted for years.
Road trip report 8 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Personal reflection.add a comment
We’re back from our exploratory jaunt across the Great Plains. On the drive up north a few thunderstorms billowed into the Eastern Kansas sky.
We looked at roughly 15 homes in Grand Island. Three are possibilities, including the one pictured in last week’s post. A different one, however, stands out above the rest.
It’s a flip and has its quirks — the new kitchen cabinets desperately need to be rearranged, and new carpet was put down over original oak flooring — but is an incredible home for the price. The neighborhood is great (for us), well-kept and about six blocks from downtown, three blocks from a great park and half a block from the bike trail. The craftsmanship is excellent. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a house of this age (75 years old) so perfectly square! The space is sufficient, although the bedrooms are small. There’s room in the very clean basement for my clay studio, and a shared garage would function as a wood shop.
However, we did not make an offer on the place. The wife doesn’t have peace about it at the moment, and another option crept into the mix (although it’s more complicated in some ways) while we were up in Nebraska. My father started the process of purchasing another building in downtown Grand Island, one that would not need fire sprinklers to be lived in (on account of existing kitchen and baths).
Also, we didn’t even drive to Lincoln to look at homes after finding the taxes on the houses we could afford in the capital city to be too much. We knew property tax was high in Nebraska — people up there talk about moving down here just to get away from it — but it’s somewhat offset by significantly lower sales tax. Regardless, the taxes in Lincoln were high enough that we would not have saved money on housing costs in comparison to the Siloam Springs’ market.
The waiting is trying, but also an important discipline. For my wife, waiting is difficult because she likes to plan, she likes to know what’s coming. For me it’s difficult because I’m a doer. I don’t like waiting around for things to happen when I can be doing something about them. I knew this about myself before last week’s trip, but in the context of house-hunting it’s a new consideration. I also learned that I have a hard time passing up a good deal on something I like. The house above seems like a good deal and I like it, so I’m having to reason with myself when it comes to not making an offer.
We’re home for the next seven days. Next Tuesday we fly to Florida for a family reunion. I hope to fire the kiln before then, and perhaps finish one or two thunderstorm sculptures in clay this week as well.
A jaunt across the Great Plains 1 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Architecture, Personal reflection.2 comments
Tomorrow we traverse the plains on our way to Nebraska, seeking out “a place with lower housing costs and more part-time work” as my previous post talked about. Internet access will be sketchy and limited over the next week.
Our projected budget, generally from $50-60k, is limiting, even in these less expensive markets. There are a few decent prospects though. Property tax is much higher up there too, which will be something we factor in while looking at potential properties.
The one I like best at this point has only one drawback, as far as a person can tell via the internet.
It’s on a busy street, which is probably why the remodeled house hasn’t sold after being on the market six months. The classic bungalow boasts oak floors, trim and built in bookcases. It’s on the high end of our budget, although the realtor suggested the owner was pondering a lower price.
We plan to look in both Lincoln and Grand Island. There are pros and cons to both places and we can’t make up our mind where we’d rather settle for the next few years.
Oh, and our house is now listed with a realtor and in the MLS database! Kudos to our real estate agents for uploading a lot of pictures. It drives me batty when 1) there are no pictures of a house you see online and 2) there isn’t even a realtor’s name associated with that listing. Basic stuff here folks. Also don’t forget about the website I set up featuring our bungalow for sale as well: http://HouseForSaleSiloamSpringsArkansas.wordpress.com.
On not being poor vs. doing what you love 31 May 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Affluenza, Business of art, Entitlement, Modern culture, Northwest Arkansas, Personal reflection, Siloam Springs.12 comments
“Screw cash. Do you know what it’s like to wake up knowing that you’re doing what you love?”
Over the course of the past ten years or so I’ve heard a few different people declare that they aren’t going to “be poor!” This is usually in the context of college majors, career choice or current job. I haven’t probed when it’s come up, but I’m guessing the sentiment is often the result of personal past impoverished experiences. If I recall correctly from a book of his I read five years ago, Dave Ramsey’s wife has a bit of this complex.
My wife and I are in a pickle, as I explained a week or so ago, and might be on the poor road very soon (if we’re not already). Just after moving to Arkansas in 2003 we were in a similar financial situation. Needless to say it’s not a fun place to be. We’ve given ourselves to the ministry we moved down here to serve with and making money, beyond what we need to live on, has not registered on the radar.
The question all of this is raising in my mind is as follows: Is American affluence driving people away from their gifts? In other words, does the cultural pressure in our consumerist culture keep people from pursuing careers they might enjoy and excel at, instead wooing them to pursue more secure and higher paying marginal careers?
It’s on my mind in a personal way as we think about what will come of the rest of this year, and the years to come. The hope is to move to a place with lower housing costs and more part-time work to supplement our continued service with the ministry. In theory, our living expenses would be cut to the point we wouldn’t have to maintain full-time employment, freeing up more time for both of us to work on our crafts.
It seems to us that our plans are pretty modest. We’re eager to pursue the things in life we’re passionate about — missions, sculpture, writing, the fiber arts. Despite these seemingly modest aspirations, though, I’m wondering if we’re actually going to be able to execute this plan. Learning the house isn’t worth as much as we figured and noticing yesterday that we haven’t paid off as much as I’d thought in the past four years were chinks in our armor.
I’ve never developed or cultivated an aversion to poverty, assuming we still have a roof over our head and food on the table. Regardless, our present circumstances have been testing our faith. I really like the so-called plan we’ve sketched out (on a napkin, so to speak) and hope it works out. If we can’t make it work, I have positively no idea what we’ll we be doing or where we’ll end up.
And while I won’t refer to that as “scary,” it’s certainly the kind of situation that makes most of us humans very uncomfortable.
Never say never, or you’ll end up moving there 27 May 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Northwest Arkansas, Personal reflection.add a comment
Rebecca Horton quotes herself, and then her grandmother’s reply, on the Passionately Alive blog today:
“I am not interested in living in the suburbs, end of story.” – me
“I’m just going to warn you Rebecca, and please take this to heart, if you say things like that then you will never get married.” – Grandma
Methinks grandma is a little out of touch with modern culture, but that’s really none of my business and not the point of this post. Rebecca’s post reminded me to never say never. And here’s why.
Reason number one: My mother grew up in New Jersey. She attended college in Minneapolis. When in college she and the girls road-tripped it to Colorado for fun. They happened to stop in a fairly non-descript town called North Platte. My mother distinctly remembers saying how she could never live in a place like North Platte.
A few years later she met my father while teaching in Washington D.C. They moved back to Nebraska when dad got out of the Air Force, and after brief stints in Hastings and Grand Island, they ended up in North Platte.
Reason number two: When I was being reared by my mother — whilst we dwealt in North Platte — we road-tripped it to north-central Arkansas. Some years earlier my father purchased property in a supposedly up-and-coming development as an investment. The investment tanked, largely, but we drove down to this resort town anyway on account of the connection.
I was around thirteen years old at the time.
On that little vacation, my first taste of the Ozarks, my mother remembers my announcement that “I could never live down here. There are too many trees.” This makes sense coming from a boy growing up on the Plains. However, and needless to say at this point, I now live in Arkansas, on the western edge of the Ozarks.
Photo from Wikipedia of the Boston Mountains, the southern Ozarks.
Intentional observation, as I clean 26 May 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Intentional observation, Personal reflection, Siloam Springs.1 comment so far
Tidying up the house and yard in a bit of a fury, and at the same time trying to get a sense of where we’ll end up. As I was picking up sticks in the backyard this Memorial Day weekend (the eleventh anniversary of the day I met my wife!) I found this rotten little specimen.
All of the futuristic postulating was dented this afternoon when the realtor we’ve begun working with told us our cute little bungalow was probably going to to for $5,000-7,000 less than I was hoping for. That’s a whole lotta cash in our little economy, and makes finding a suitable replacement for our Siloam Springs’ home more challenging — even in less expensive Nebraska. According to the real estate agent, the disparity comes as a result of foreclosures entering the market, foreclosures which are selling for less than other properties and thereby dragging the value of other houses down with them. Curse the greedy New York bankers, and the gullible Americans they suckered into bloated mortgages too!
Not surprisingly, we’re a bit worn out on the whole mess.
