Casa do Bruce

When you come to a party at Casa Do Bruce you’ll probably see a lot things: many house projects in various stages of progress, lots of happy people milling about (or getting lost, depending on your perspective), good food, interesting wigs, lively conversation, close friends and a whole lot of mess to clean up later.

What you don’t see usually is 1) the four co-owners in a room together at the same time during the party 2) the hours of preparation it takes to throw a party at Casa Do Bruce (we actually have planning meetings) 3) people left out or ignored 4) and the patience, compassion, and love that creates this specific house.

Last weekend we had a party that was a combo deal: Graduation, dual birthdays, Solstice, and bring your own occasion (any excuse to party!). We had out of town guests, pans of pasta, several different types of dessert (including a cake shaped like a massage table, a gluten-free cake, and some leftover raw tiramisu), BBQ, ping pong, Cornhole (see flickr pictures for this), a fire pit, a keg, a dance hall, and one of the best damn times lots of people have had, at least in a while.

We, the inhabitants of Casa Do Bruce, take pride in celebrations like these. I hope I am speaking for all of us when I say that we don’t just throw a party when we have people over. We provide the space and co-create (it woudn’t be as fun without all of our peeps showin’ up) a moment where we can all appreciate the amazing world we live in. Yes, bad things are happening around the globe. Yes, some (most?) of us feel a bit powerless about that. Yes, not all of us have experience with healthy groups of people. But we come together, even in “distant” Burien (seriously, it’s NOT that far from Seattle!), to look each other in the eye and say, “We can create THIS. We can hug, laugh, argue, joke, dance, cook, eat, kick-ass in cornhole, and that’s all US. We don’t pay taxes for this, we don’t have rules about it, and we can do it as often as we want.”

The morning after I woke up early and I had such a warm feeling. I LOVE this. I love people staying over (voluntarily or not), making breakfast the next day, watching the crazy photos from the night before on our movie screen, and reveling in the fact that there is SO MUCH LOVE in this house. It’s not just a house. It’s who we are. I could die happy. I know some of THE most AMAZING people and I am lucky enough to spend the best years of my life with them. Nothing could be better.

So to all our peeps, thanks for your willing and conscious participation in our lives. You make it all the more awesome.

Oh, and one last thing you don’t see…the goat. But one day you will.

It’s 10pm and although it’s time to go to bed for me, I wanted to give a shout out to my peeps in the downstairs (I’m in my office upstairs, online!). We had a productive weekend going garage saling (sailing? saleing?), working on the house and getting things done. We just had a nice meal together after our community meeting and I’m feeling good. One thing that I love is that yes, we are friends, and also we own a house together, but it is a nice mix. To be sure, it involves lots of examination on my part because I haven’t lived with a group before, but I like the process because I have a good relationship with friends. Although many like to caution us about living with friends, I have to say that I would probably have waited much longer to discuss issues than I do now. Because I have a baseline of trust already built. It’s easier that way.

The backyard is looking more amazing everyday. The fruit is getting yummier. Next year when we have a better idea of what we can and want to produce, you’ll see US hawking our wares at the farmer’s market. Yo. Cause we’d be hip like dat.

Anyway, I digress. The garage sale shopping was awesome and fun and lots of tools were bought (a rarity when garage sale hopping). Very cool.

The appliances come this week and I am STOKED. Never thought a dishwasher, fridge, and washer and dryer could make a girl so happy. But they do. It’ll make our pocketbooks happy too, I’ll tell ya.

Alright, the eyes are closing…more later.

After many moons (okay, just one moon so far) we are expecting our first new appliances next week. We went back and forth, back and forth, and then back and forth again, which is why it took so long.

But why all the back and forthing?

Well, here’s the thing. When you are one or two people decisions get made faster. Sometimes they are hasty or ill-thought out. Sometimes they are intuitive and amazing. But living with others open you up to other ways of thinking, thankfully. We get outside our brains for a bit and hear what others are thinking/feeling about creating a home. This will be an ongoing process and hopefully we will streamline it (process and protocol always helps).

We got hung up on how much things cost, how much we’ll be using the appliances, which appliances each of us will be using, how much energy/water is used, who can deliver it to us and take our other stuff away to recycle and much, much more! But after many discussions we have purchased a stove, a dishwasher, a fridge, and a washer and dryer. The stove was used, the rest was new.

We hope to give the used/usable appliances to good homes.

Pictures are coming!

Welcome to our blog. A group of us bought this enormous house on July 13, 2007 with an enormous yard (by city-slicker standards) and we plan on updating this blog with stories about our lives, our home improvements, our community and our goat (Bruce) which we don’t have yet, but plan on getting one eventually to help maintain our blackberry bushes and kitchen compost.