MN Monday #10: Blair House

Jacob and I moved into our first house in 2001 on Blair Ave in St. Paul.  There are way to many stories and memories from that house to recount in a single post.  But here's a smattering.

• In the process of buying the house, we made a wonderful friend in our real estate agent, Genevieve.  She has been with us ever since and has handled every house transition with wit and humor and great insight.
• The garage burned down the night after we took ownership.  It was a long and colorful story that many of you have probably heard at some point.  If you haven't, ask me over a beer sometime.
• Our next door neighbors (Bob and Gladys) smoked "a bit."  If Gladys baked anything and brought it over, it had to go directly into the trash.  You could smell and taste the smoke.  It was so bad that if she picked raspberries off their vines and took them inside to rinse them off, they were inedible because of the smell of smoke.
• I made my first "from scratch" garden spots at Blair House.  Learned a lot about gardening in an urban environment.  
• We installed a gas fireplace in the living room in a house previously without a fireplace of any kind.  They came out and framed in a fake chimney and then faced it with stone and tile.  It was lovely and we had some amazing built in shelves installed beside it to match others in the house.
• I rehabbed the front porch.  Took down the old crappy bead board ceiling and installed new with ceiling mounted electrical outlets.  Fresh paint.  Nice ceiling fan.  Installed a laminate cork floor.  It made a wonderful retreat even on a hot summer day.
• As we were getting ready to sell, I gutted and rebuilt the kitchen with the help of several friends.  We had lived with a hell-hole of a kitchen for almost a decade and then over the course of 7 weeks we made it into a little gem.  

We made so many memories there.  Family and friends.  Parties and dinners.  Dixie lived most of her life there and Brutus came into our lives there.  I started to learn all the things that homeowners come to know - for much of that time I still had my Dad to call if I had a question about something.  Even after he passed away I've continued to learn all the stuff that he had to teach me.

When we left in 2009, I was truly sorry to leave.  We were both excited for the next chapter, but I had poured so much time, energy, and effort into that little house it was special to me.  It's true that you never get over your first.

MN Monday #9: Sunrise

Sorry about last week.  Rest assured I've been badgered about it.  We'll see if I can do an extra post this week to catch up.

Looking East from our bedroom on the sixth floor of the Oak Grove Hotel on one of the first mornings after arriving in Minneapolis in July 1997.  It was the highest I've ever lived and some mornings you could pick out the dome of the Cathedral in St. Paul against the sunrise.  Every morning, the sun flooded in.  As a morning person, it was an amazing way to wake up.  

MN Monday #8 - The Bells of Westminster

I grew up in a Small Country Church (SCC) of the Presbyterian persuasion.  And even though SCCs are more similar to each other than any national denomination, I've ended up darkening the doors of more than a few Presbyterian churches over the years.  One of my last summers in NC, I even subbed in as the choir director of a tiny little parish in Knightdale, NC, not too far outside of Raleigh.  My friend Wanda was (and is) the regular director and had other plans for that summer.  (It was a fun bunch of folks and they weathered the experience with aplomb and seemingly none the worse for wear.)

So when I moved to Minneapolis and learned that there was a great big Presbyterian church right downtown in close walking distance from Oak Grove, I figured it would be as good a place as any to start in a new town.

Westminster Presbyterian on Nicollet Mall is an incredibly grand old dame of a building.  Stunning outside and in.  Tons of history and a social justice reputation that is one of the first things you learn about it.  They also sponsor the nationally syndicated Westminster Town Hall Forum which brings great people (not just famous ones) in to talk about issues of the day from an ethical perspective.  It's a pretty special place.

So I wandered in there on a Sunday in July, 1997, when most self-respecting church choirs are on hiatus, but it happened that they were in the house that day.  And they were _good_.  Better than most church choirs I had heard at that point in my life, for sure.  And the piece they did that day for the anthem was "How Lovely is thy Dwelling Place" from the Brahms Requiem, which was a piece I had done several times in the choirs at NCSU and simply adored.  I was ready to sign up!

I managed to track down the email address of the choir director somehow (the web existed then, right?) and emailed him that afternoon.  I just introduced myself and told him my story - looking for someplace to sing and this choir sounded like something I'd like to try out, and the church was CLOSE since I was on Oak Grove and all.  Stephen wrote back straight away and through a short series of cues we figured out that he also lived in the Grand Oak Grove Hotel.  What are the chances?!  So we made an appointment to meet and have dinner or something with him.

I'm very happy that we did.  Stephen became a very good friend in short order.  He had moved up from Greensboro of all places only a handful of years earlier and had all sorts of advice and wisdom from his adjustment to share.  He also had friends who played in this softball league that sounded like a lot of fun.  But most of all, he was (and is) a warm, caring person who made us both feel welcome in our new home.

The choir at Westminster was just as good as I had hoped too.  I met some folks there that I still get to enjoy singing with today in other contexts.  And we made some amazing music that I didn't know you could do with a parish choir.  I definitely learned a lot.  I sang there until 1999 when Stephen left for Indiana.  I hated that his path was leading him elsewhere, but Jacob and I ended up in his old apartment together, so I think I still came out ahead.