Spiders, spiders everywhere

The process of settling in is a slow one, involving an evolving understanding of what the space will allow and the limitations of our belongings to conform to those allowances. Matthew and I decided before the move to sell off most of our furniture, requiring us to find new furniture that better fits our style and needs. Right now that means we're sleeping on our futon (which eventually will land downstairs in the den) and keeping our folded clothes on top of wire racks in the closets. I'm hoping that some dilligent craigslisting, garage sale'ing and thrift shopping will allow us to outfit the new place on the cheap, but that starts to sound like a full-time job (which I need, but I think my talents probably extend beyond being my own personal shopper).

The biggest surprise of the move is that our house has some pretty stupid problems. The house was built very well in 1946 from what looks like old-growth cedar, and most of the upstairs has been lovingly maintained. The basement, however, was finished somewhat recently and evinces a lower budget than the job really required. There are holes directly to the outside ground level in a couple of places, and tons of shoddy work putting in sheet rock on the ceilings, creating a bunch of gaps into dark hidey-holes. The completely foreseeable result is a bit of a bug problem (though so far no rodents, thanks no doubt to the previous tenants owning 2 cats--which has caused endless allergy problems for Jessica).

Mostly we're seeing spiders. Tons of them. Everywhere. The former tenants (who now live across the street) set off bug bombs before we moved in, which I suspect killed off most of the smaller insects. Now the remaining spiders are the larger ones, some of which seem to have nervous system problems from the poison, and all of which are hungry and/or horny and consequently are on the move. Poor Matthew (who is arachnophobic due to a horrific childhood experience) nearly faints about a dozen times a day as big, meaty spiders run towards him or fall on his head. Yesterday we caught what may or may not be a hobo spider in the laundry room.

So in addition to unpacking boxes finding furniture, we now have a ton of holes to plug around the house. Hopefully before Matthew suffers a heart attack.