house stalking is my absolute favorite thing to do. i can’t drive anywhere without pointing out my favorite houses. to quote violet, after a hard day of yard saling, “what? do you have a bloody ‘favorite house’ on every street?” mostly. this house is my all time favorite though. it’s the old assay office in downtown boise. it was on the heritage homes tour last weekend, so i got to snoop to my heart’s content.
unfortunately, the forest service “remodeled” the inside. someone had the sense to make them stop before they took on the outside. they wanted to add white, mobile home wings off the side that wrapped around the front with a little hole for the door. …to think.
i also got to do a walk through of the klein house. (which is on sale right now for a tempting $400,000.) it is amazing.
i gave it to megan. (except you have to share with violet, sorry.) and this house is my mum’s. since she likes painting. and how they got real men to put up all that ridiculous trim work in the first place, i will never understand.
on the bottom left is boy exiting the modest front of the klein house and the house on the right is a four square. it had a large welcoming hall in the front. too small to be a parlor, but big enough to take coats and shake hands with room for a few chairs on the side. it even showcased a lovely bay window. you don’t see those kind of spaces very often, but i kind of liked it. i gave it to sister sarah because it was kinda boss. the upstairs had a huge center hall the length of the floor flanked by six bedrooms. all very down to business.
the house below was one of the nicest and also the most depressing. each room was paneled in a different type of wood. the living was done in oak, the parlor in bird’s eye maple, the library in sycamore, the dining in red cherry, the kitchen in fir – all with nasty, pet-infested berber carpet throughout. some people have no morals. and what the lazy boy sectional was doing there, i have no idea. that is why i gave it to natalie. she is the man for the job. i trust the first thing she would do is take the navajo basket collection out of the window. ???
the house on the bottom right was the perfect family home with a play attic and large walk-in closets between rooms. so i divied it out to becca and her spawn.
and the heritage inn goes to gayla. it had a huge white, paneled living room and a gourmet kitchen. it was still badly outfitted and highly suspect though. in fact, i find fewer things creepier than bed and breakfasts.
overall, i was amazed by people’s bad taste and general crumminess. every house i went in was dirty. we suffered the same sensation last year. everything felt icky around the edges. maybe because most people don’t spend much time in their houses so they are never forced to become too intimate with the state of their baseboards and cabinet fronts. i don’t know. i do know i’m messy, but i assure you – it’s clean underneath. 
and if i was going to invite the entire town of boise to swing by and pop-in, you could count on the whole place being windexed. my mother and i couldn’t figure it out last year either. just weird.
and this beast is reuben’s. i thought he could turn it into a fort. actually, i was just hoping he would settle down and propagate. i’ve already named his firstborn (bismark) and picked out his wife (best left undisclosed). it’s just a shame he doesn’t listen.
