Madness - Our House

Moving into a new house is indeed madness. And it's also fucking awesome.

Our New House (in the middle of the street)

Two weeks ago, my wife Karen, my dog Bernie, and I moved into our new home after living in a different, much smaller home for 20 years.

First of all, I must say that owning a home in the San Francisco Bay Area is not something I thought I’d ever attribute to myself, but they say marry upwards, and so I did, back in 2005.

I’ll take credit for getting the ball rolling on the house-hunting adventure four months ago (we were about to do a remodel), but the nuts and bolts (aka: mortgage and insurance) are all my wife. She’s the professional; I’m the guy walking dogs and writing Substack newsletters.

The new house is amazing. It’s within walking distance of one of our favorite dog-friendly outdoor brew pubs. And an organic market.

I’m an avid gardener and the backyard gets good sun and has great potential for a fabulous vegetable garden with fruit trees.

But the bones of the place have a lot of cracks and possible breaks, and we are trying to determine which limbs need immediate casting and which can get by with a limp for a couple of years.

We’ve had flooding, mold (twice abated), asbestos removal, some bizarre electrical wiring that has had to be fixed and have determined that the room I have made my studio has no heating ducts going to it, for reasons I’ll never know.

Thankfully, I have a decent space-heater. And today, the round Ruggable I ordered 10 days ago arrived, which is now proudly sitting in the middle of my studio, which I self-consciously keep calling a studio, even though it’s more of a regular office, with a desk and my records and CDs and yoga mat and meditation cushion. I should call it my man cave, but that’s what I called my converted garage at the last house, so I need to come up with a name for my new space for writing, listening to music, yoga-ing, and finding solace.

So I open the floor to you, dear reader. What is a good name for a room that is a place of refuge, a place of creativity and curiosity? I know I probably have to come up with it myself, but I get inspiration from other folks’ ideas.

Let me know in the comments some good names for such a place.

Madness

I distinctly remember when Madness’ “Our House” flooded the MTV airwaves back in 1983. I assume it was an international radio hit as well (I’m too lazy to look it up…here’s the wiki), as the chorus is beyond catchy, reaching supreme earworm levels.

Can you listen to this song and not sing “Our house/In the middle of the street” over and over in your head, for hours after the song has ended? If you can then you have more willpower than me.

The video above has a fun intro that was never played (that I remember) on MTV. I should consider installing the wallpaper featured in the video in my “studio”. And then after consideration, decide, no.

The tune is about growing up in a house with a ton of activity and hullabaloo. Where Father wears his Sunday best and Mother’s tired and needs a rest. Where the kids are playing up downstairs, sister’s sighing in her sleep and brother has a date to keep.

It’s idealized for sure, and nostalgic times ten, but it made me happy back in the early ‘80s and it makes me giddily happy now, hearing it again.

It first began repeating in my head two months ago as I tried to not have a nervous breakdown when the kitchen was discovered flooded on the final walkthrough, and again this week now that we are mostly settled in our lovely new house in the middle of our street. Where lots of people walk their dogs, ride their bikes, and greet each other warmly. Where I look forward to many joyous years, broken bones and all.

There are many wonderful, iconic songs about home, but fewer about physical houses.

I can think of a few, but I want to see what you all come up with. Leave in the comments your favorite songs about a house, flat, apartment, cabin, or any other living space I haven’t thought of.

I’ll compile people’s responses into a playlist and share that in one of the next couple of posts!

That’s all I got for now, as I have to fix a plumbing issue….good thing I have a couple of packs of chewing gum.

As always,

Thanks for reading - Steve