It was mentioned in the comments on yesterday’s post that The King and I should get our own reality show for this whole “let’s build a house from scratch” thing.

Funny you should mention that.

A Reality Show (that shall remain nameless) recently contacted The King and me. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that we dress horribly and our friends are trying to help us be more hip.

No, it isn’t that kind of a reality show.

They found us through some DIY home-building webrings that The King belongs to. They were looking for a couple who were getting ready to build their dream home and wanted it all to be filmed. And then shown on cable to The Entire World to see. The producers contacted The King to see if we might be interested in being the stars of the following season of the show.

We discussed it and figured, “heck yeah, we want to be stars!” (Who can deny the need to see your name in lights?) The Producer talked with The King on the phone numerous times and via e-mail. She wanted to know how we came up with the plans for the house (The King drew them up himself), where we’re building (right in Seattle), and who was going to do all of the work (we were, duh!).

She liked the sound of this.

Next, she wanted to see a picture of us together. Maybe even with our cat. She said something about “needing to get an idea of who you guys really are.” I’m sure it was just to make sure we were pretty enough. This made me very nervous. I mean, what if we aren’t pretty enough? What does that say about us? It would be official! We would be labeled “Not TV Worthy” for the rest of our lives. (Who can live with that shame?)

We submitted this picture. Taken of us in the house we just sold (notice the railing? Yeah, I hadn’t finished it yet.)

The Producer called us back to further discuss our options. (Phew, am not ugly. Could be on a reality show.) This time, she didn’t want to just talk to The King. She wanted to actually talk to me. This was a problem. Mostly because I am not very good at stuff like that. I fumble and stumble and might say things like “oh yes, we are very cool. We can build our own house out of paper and glue. And maybe some popsicles sticks. You want to film us, because the world, they need to see us in action.”

I survived my phone call with the Producer. She was very lovely. We talked. We laughed. I told her about how The King and I met. I even made sure she knew I was pregnant. I told her I thought that might make for some “good television”.

I felt okay about my conversation with The Producer. I called The King immediately after I got off the phone and told him to stop worrying. I had not failed him. We were still in the running. They would submit our information to The Network and we would be selected. I just knew it.

And this is where the story ends. They never called us back. We were not “still in the running”.

So while I am (apparently) not too ugly for reality television. I am not cool enough for it either.

Last weekend The King and I went to a lovely Christmas dinner party with about 15 other couples (and far too many of their children, who were not invited, but that’s another post).

The party was hosted by a couple about the age of my parents. They are very lovely people and I enjoy their company. Usually.

After the delicious dinner (and after I totally spilled au jus sauce over me and The King and then swore very loudly about it) they decided to play a “little game” to set the mood for the gift exchange, which was the reason any of us were even there.

The game was a type of Newlywed Game where we had to write answer to questions and our spouse had to try to guess what our answers would be. Questions like; “What was the best anniversary gift your spouse gave you?”, “What do you like to do together for fun?”, “What would your spouse say is your best personality trait?”

Then we took about two hours and went around the room reading what each couple had written down. Basically what it turned into was a game of “Who’s The Most Romantic Husband?” Lots of things like “my husband writes poems for me for our anniversaries” and “my husbands always gives me a rose for every year we have been married.” All of which were followed by all the ladies in the room going “awww…that’s so sweet!”.

And at which point I would gag a little.

You see, I am not a fan of romance. Good thing The King isn’t either. I know a lot of people really love romance. But to me, it has always felt too contrived. It’s like “I know what you want and don’t worry, you’re gonna get it later. Don’t waste your time making me a romantic dinner.”

When it came time for The King and I to read what we had written down, we both had it dead on. We were totally on the same wave length. And I loved it.

The King even choose the same personality trait for me that I had written down. I wrote that he would say he likes my “positive attitude” the best. And he put the exact same thing down. Which is so awesome because I do not have a positive attitude about anything.

We both said that we liked to watch TV together. Someone said how horrible that was and how they needed to teach The King about romance. When in reality, I think that spending time together on the couch is great for us. It doesn’t mean that that’s all we do together. We do lots of things together. We built a freaking house together (and are about to do it again). But they asked what we like to do together. We like to come together at night and watch an episode of “Law and Order”, while we talk about our day. Someone else pointed out that we had just returned from Europe and why didn’t we both say that we liked to travel together.

Because, to me, nothing beats being snuggled down for the night on the couch with The King and Preston. In fact at our house we call this “favorite part”. Because it’s our favorite part of the day.

I tried to explain to everyone at the party that I am not really into romance. The ladies in the room looked at me like I was from another planet. I mean, how could a woman not want flowers for her anniversary? Pa-lease! Give me a Hostess Lemon Pie any day over flowers. And if The King ever were to write me a love poem, he would never hear the end of it. Gag.

Please don’t stone me for admitting I don’t like romance. Women around the world, please don’t roll your eyes at me. Just accept me for who I am.

(and don’t tell me that I’m the only one of us out there!)

Last night was the night to get everything out of the house and turn over the keys to the new owner of our house. It wasn’t as hard as I had thought. Mostly because there weren’t anymore tears to cry. I was all cried out.

In the process of getting rid of the last of the stuff, my Mother in Law and I came across the baby crib mattress that The King has had since long before he knew me. He and his Mom had originally found it at Goodwill and converted it into a couch that The King made for his tiny studio apartment. What I am saying is the mattress is old. And gross. And not fit for our precious baby to lay it’s perfect head on.

When The King’s Mom pointed this out to him he got defensive and said something like, “I am going to have to buy a crib in a few months. Might as well save some money by just using this mattress!”. To which my Mother in Law replied something like “No Grandbaby of mine is going to sleep on this!”

She then told us that when the twins were born to The King’s sister back in May she had bought them each a new crib (and mattress) and she intended to do the same for us.

All praise to wonderful in-laws that have gobs more money than I ever will (and are willing to spend it on our baby).

The King and I talked a little about it last night and figured that since his Mom had bought two cribs for his sister (and two very expensive cribs at that matter), she could buy us one really nice crib. One that will match our modern tastes and modern house (which will be built at some point).

And modern cribs are very expensive. But also very cool. The hunt is now on. The first e-mail I got this morning from The King was a link to this crib. It is expensive. But did you notice it has a changing table and converts to a child’s bed? So really, it is saving us money in the long run.

Avorie over at ReDinkyDink is such a good Mom. She is getting her house set for her new baby girl and is buying all sorts of gear. I am pretty sure I have mentioned that the only piece of baby gear we have is the one pair of baby booties a friend gave us a few weeks ago. I am so in love with them that I take them from room to room to stare at them. I can’t believe our tiny little baby will fit into them. So precious.

Dear Mr. Cantlookmeintheeyes*:

Hello. It was good to spend some time with you in the house yesterday. I hope I didn’t freak you out (too much) with my tears. I guess being pregnant adds to my emotions. Sorry.

Anyway, I really felt like I wanted to share some things with you yesterday but just couldn’t compose myself enough to do so. There are a few specific things that were extra important/special to me that I wanted to make sure you knew about.

I am not sure if this matters to you at all or not, but it was important to us that no work was ever done on the house on Sunday. We are pretty religious and this was something we choose early on in the project. And it also guaranteed that we would have one day off a week from working on the house.

Another thing that was important for me to share with you was the story of that darn railing around the top floor. Sure it looks awesome now, but it took me a long time to get it that way. The railing was “my project” and I worked on that bad boy all the time. It has about 5 coats of paint on it (because after I had started the first few coats I decided I wanted a to use a different kind of paint). I swear to you that I spent the better part of the last 2 years painting that thing. It was my nemesis. (That goes for all the trim as well.)

The house has good karma and will be a great place for you. It was built by The King and I with nothing but love. The King, myself, and his Dad worked on it every single night and every Saturday for about a year and then we moved into it (we had been living in a studio apartment up on Capital Hill). After we moved in, we still had a lot of work to do. We worked on it every Saturday while we lived there. Finally finishing it up the Saturday of the first Open House. That means a lot of the trim and doors are essentially brand new.

I am including some pictures we took during the construction of the house. I thought you might like to see them.

Thanks for choosing this house and for being so excited about it. It makes it easier knowing that someone who will love it bought it.

May it bring you many years of happiness and joy.

*not his real name

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Updated to show the response from Mr. Cantlookmeintheeyes:

Hi Isabel,

Before meeting you folks, I had been looking at homes for about 5 months. I was so excited after stumbling upon the listing on craigslist. Meeting The King and viewing the house sealed it - I was sold. In talking with The King, it was obvious that every detail had been thoughtfully designed and built. I’ll think of you every time I climb those stairs.

It takes tons of vision, patience and hard work to build your own home. I did some construction while in college - a mix of general labor, framing and foundation work. It was always sad to move onto the next gig, leaving behind a physical structure that I had helped build. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to move from *insert address of house* It’s such a great home.

Thank you so much for sharing the history of your home. I’ll do my best to honor the traditions you and The King have started. Congrats on the baby and best of the luck with the new project in West Seattle. Please do stop by if you’re in the neighborhood. Hopefully, my crazy dad will be around. He can tell you about the trees in Hawaii.

Take care,
- Mr. Cantlookmeintheeyes

I wanted to write up a review of the Paul McCartney concert I went to last night (with my Mother-in-law, who is also a huge Beatles fan). But it is Friday and I am busy, and I also threw up this morning, and we are also signing the papers to sell our house today. So I am just not up to it.

Instead, you can read all about it here.

All I will add is that Paul can still rock, and he still sounds really good.

Since we’re moving from our house to a very small apartment this weekend (while we build our new house), we have extra furniture we need to get rid of. The King wanted to just take it to Goodwill tonight. I suggested he try to just unload it on Craigslist.

He took my advice and posted it today. Let me know if you’re interested.

I hope someone will want it. It’s good stuff. We just don’t have room for it. Really, it’s in great shape.