The Karp Farms

Greetings from Ithaca! Apologies for the delay--the last few weeks have been even more hectic than expected. We finally collected Gabriella from camp and are spending a few days in our personal heaven. Of course, in true Ithaca fashion, it's been raining. But that's OK because we are all back together. Before we left Denver for this trip, we learned a few more things. 1) Denver drivers really, truly are horrible. The rumors are true. 1a) You should get OnStar or your car manufacturer's version thereof. Totally money well spent when you are rear ended at relatively high speed on a highway in a new city. 1b) We are grateful for safe cars. 2) The Denver Design Center is essentially a big shopping mall for designers. Matt will now be spending every weekend browsing tile showrooms. It is his new happy place. (Tyler, not so much.) 3) Our new house appears to have plum trees behind it. 4) Duck poutine is super-delicious. On to the house. We are honestly, truly, we pr...

We are officially 10 days into our suburban adventure. Ty and I spent the week commuting from downtown to the house so he could go to camp and I could get work done  (actual professional work, not house-related work). Here's what we've learned: 1) Traffic in Denver indeed is awful, and Melinda is unlikely to ever like driving everywhere. 2) The house is really going to be great. 3) Even in crazy heat and without air conditioning, the house is very comfortable--probably due to the cool nights and lack of humidity. 4) It's beautiful. This is the view on Gabriella's new walk to school. Construction status: We finally have bids from multiple contractors. In a surprise to absolutely no one who knows us, the scope has ballooned and we are no longer "just doing cosmetic renovation." (See previous post where we mention the wine room.) So in all likelihood, we will be phasing the work. Everything from the last post and this one will be done first, while we li...

Time for an overview of the house. We will take a few posts to do this, since it's a lot of house--and a lot of horse decor to take in. But first, now that we've been here for 4 days, a few observations: 1. "Mountain time" is kind of like "island time"--sense of urgency appears to be somewhat lacking around here. 2. Running at altitude in the dry heat is easier and more pleasant than running in NYC swamp summer weather. 3. From a 9-year-old-boy perspective, shopping at (an empty) Trader Joe's is vastly preferable to getting a FreshDirect delivery, mainly because of the snacks. 4. However, car shopping is way less exciting than anticipated by said 9 year old boy. Construction status: See #1 above. Still waiting on bids. But second set of permits submitted Friday! Murphy scale: 🍶🍷One sake for Matt, one wine for Melinda, namely due to the car shopping On to the house. First, the layout. Imagine a sort of V shape, with a flattened middle. The mid...

Behold, the naked horse butt in the powder room. Upon revisiting the house yesterday,  Melinda discovered that it is actually painted on a medicine cabinet door. On the inside is another painting of the same horse, demurely clothed in her pink blanket. We have arrived in Denver (well, three of us have. Gabriella is in New Hampshire, lucky girl). We will start posting orientation pictures to the house and our plans this week. Current constrction status: Waiting on permits and final contractor bids. Current emotional status**: two Summer Shandys each. 🍺🍺 **This status will henceforth be known as the "Murphy scale." We will use wine and beer to assess our emotional state. We have no doubt we'll reach wine-case levels by October.