On Saturday, at long last, Billiam and I had our first-ever housewarming in our much beloved home. Scores of friends came in and christened the house with drinks (hemp ale!) and desserts. The day after I subsisted on breakfast, leeks, and water, because I’m pretty sure I have enough sugar in my system to keep me going for one and a half weeks.

So you’ve seen the old place and snippets of the new, and though I considered doing “before” and “after” shots like a wannabe Design*Sponge, it turns out photos of empty rooms, though maybe full of promise, just aren’t that interesting to me. (But if you want to see the befores, you can check them out here.) You know what’s weird? Being able to fit forty people in your home. And still having room for more. That’s weird. Anyway, you’ll just have to pretend you were there to see our Santa Clara female alum all-girl prom pic.

DOWNSTAIRS
Living room

By the end of the night, every inch of floor space was taken up by artists playing Apples to Apples
and the rest of us glaring them down because they were taking up precious dance space.

Dining room

Those three bottles of wine quickly multiplied to…I don’t know how many.
We still have seven bottles of wine.

Kitchen

A kitchen! We have a real life kitchen!

UPSTAIRS
My office

Notice I didn’t bother to tidy up my desk. I’m fine with that.

Billiam’s studio

The most envied room in the entire building.
High vaulted ceilings, lots of natural light, and access to our deck.

Water closet

It’s a bathroom. That’s about all.
Cool Joey Chou Yuki 7 print and a surprisingly neat
tree-printed shower curtain from Bed Bath & Beyond.

Bedroom

…This is actually a very boring bedroom.
But maybe that’s because you can’t see the Japanese poster for Amelie in this shot.
It has an explosion of IKEA, a place I hope to never have to return to
unless it’s for lingonberry something.

Walk-in closet

This is mostly all mine. You could fit a full-sized bed in it.
If Billiam is ever annoyed at me, he could block my entrance into my closet.
Or if we’re ever short on cash, we could just rent out this space.

Interestingly, as I was running around the house snapping pics right before the party, I was thrown back a bit because my memory card was full. I hadn’t uploaded all of my recent photos onto my hard drive yet, so I didn’t want to just clear the cache. I hustled upstairs to switch out a 2 GB stick, ran back down to resume my photographing, and, a dozen shots later, got another message that my memory card was full. Nuts! Since this was a backup memory card, I decided to look into the options of deleting whatever was on there.

It was like one of those telltale moments in the movies when some cinematic divine intervention descends upon the main character, because the first image that popped up was a picture of Sydenham Spaniel and Billiam, the second time we met each other, the first time Billiam invited us to see his office. Those of you who have memorized The Cutest Story I Have Ever Told by heart will recall this moment tenderly as “Part III: Burritos.” It was a very fortuitous-seeming blast from the past, having Sydenham and Billiam smiling up at me as they were the day Billiam decided I was cool enough to ask out on a date. And there we were, hosting a gathering for our friends in the house we now share. Unintended Harry Potter shrine in the living room.