Monday, October 18, 2010

This Old House

I'm prefacing this entire post by saying that we are incredibly blessed to have found such a great rental home. It's quirky, yes, but absolutely way more than adequate for our family.

The vet who took Daisy came over to our house a few days before the drop-off to meet her. "Wow! What a nice area," she commented. "It's lovely to see such new homes!" The home we are renting was built in the '70s. Having built our home in 2005, this home to us is old. I suppose it's all a matter of perspective.

If you'll recall, this is the home that had the Dog Smell. Well, we certainly did not help it out at all with Crazy Daisy, but we purchased an ozone generator, and we are slowly but surely, room-by-room, eradicating the smell for good. The cat thanks us for that.

Our home is quite a large one and, in fact, has two front doors because it underwent a major addition years after it was built. The addition added a garage which is deep enough to house 4 cars.

Although we do not own 4 cars, we have made very good use of the extra garage space for storage. Above the garage is an unfinished, very large bonus area. We are not using this area for a number of reasons. First, the owners are using it for storage. Second, a rather precarious stairway leads up to the bonus area, and we aren't quite sure how to get to the local ER yet. Last, there is an odd hook and chain thing that hangs from the roof in the bonus area. I am not sure I want to know what it was used for in times past, but I can think of two mischievous boys who would be happy to re-purpose it. So the area is off limits.

We also do not venture into the basement. At least I don't. It's dark, musty, and creepy. The kids go down every now and again to play ping pong on the table the owners left. I have actually made the trip down a couple of times to check the oil level on the ancient oil tank that fuels our heat.

As for the part of our home we actually inhabit, it has lots of character. One of the things I find most quirky is all of the different flooring. If I'm counting right, there are 12 different kinds of flooring, 7 of them downstairs. There are these two different kinds of carpet in two adjoining rooms. No threshold, no transition of any kind.

Then there is this area where 3 kinds meet and are broken only by the marble threshold.

Then of course there are the light switches. There are numerous light switches. In every room. In some rooms, there are 3 switches that turn on the same light. The kitchen alone has 3 different light zones, and each zone has 1 or 2 switches that control it. There are many switches that we have not yet figured out. Then there is our room. As you walk into the room, there is a little panel where a light switch should be, but there is no light switch. Instead, the switch is way over on the other side of the room, over by the far window. I'm sure it would not be difficult at all to turn that panel into an actual switch, but since this is not our house, we will not fiddle with the electrical wiring.

"If this was our house, I'd...". That is a common phrase in this house. It's not our house so we won't make any changes, but we are enjoying living in it. Our favorite place to hang out is our kitchen, which is open to a small living room with a fireplace.

There is a lot of counter space in the kitchen, and the countertop bar seats six (someone knew we were coming), so we eat all of our meals in here. Of course, there is no commercial grade stove/oven here, but the double oven is a lifesaver, and the stove will do.

The dining room is right off the kitchen, and this is where we do school. Since it is off the kitchen, it is very convenient. There is a lovely window that looks out of the dining room onto a HUGE deck.

I suppose we might make use of that next summer. What we won't use is the above ground pool. We had them cover it. I do not like above ground pools, and I would hate to be responsible for someone else's pool. It's surprising how many people here have pools. They use them for what? Two months out of the year? And what's even stranger is that fences are not required around a pool. Not good to have the liability.

Anyway, the downstairs half bath is around the corner from the dining room. And, tada! It's a multi-purpose room. Yes, that's a toilet. And, yes, that's my washing machine. I bet you don't have a Half Bath-Laundry Room in your house!

Another favorite place is the very large living room. It is also a multi-purpose room: a gym, a library, a piano room, and a theater. OK, so it's not a theater. Our theater chairs are in there, but our other theater stuff is packed up. But our
laundry holdertreadmill is in there as is our keyboard. If only I could find the piano books. And this room has a fireplace like the smaller living room.

Off of the living room is yet another multi-purpose room. It serves as my office, a guest room, and the laundry staging area. And, yes, that is a curtain to the left of the picture. There is no door on this room, so it is not officially a bedroom, but I threaded some curtain panels on a tension shower rod and voila! A "door".

There is also a little room/closet off of the office/guest/laundry staging room that I use to store school stuff and the kitty's potty.

That is downstairs. Upstairs are 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Which I'm not going to show you because the kids rooms are a wreck, and we still have a couple of boxes in our room, and I really want to maintain the perception that we are entirely together and are totally unpacked.

So, we are very comfortable here and very happy to have this house available to us. We'll see what happens in a year. Then we will decide where we want to be. Most likely, we will move close to whatever church we eventually call home. All of our married life, we have been 30-45 minutes from our church--we have never lived where we live, and I want to change that. So once we find a church, we will better be able to choose a city in which to live. One thing I thought would never come out of my mouth is that I would love to own an old home, and not old like from the 70s but old like from the early 1900s. My oldest daughter is not at all happy about my campaign to own some history, but until she offers to pay the mortgage, we can go as far back in history as we wish!
 
**I stole a couple of these pictures (the 2 pics of the front of the house and the deck picture) from the real estate listing.

5 comments:

dclouser said...

GREAT to see your new home! It looks very comfortable and charming. Would you believe that we also have a bathroom/laundry room in our little apartment. The toilet is the same distance from the washing machine that yours is! Wonders never cease.

CrossView said...

I'm with you on the "beast"ment. I've watched enough horror movies to know that you stay out of those! =P

Of course, we have underground springs in our area so there's no way to even have a basement.

The house seems quirky (that toilet!), roomy, and homey! When can I move in? I'd stay on the deck most of the time~ ;o)

tsinclair said...

Looks very "homey", wish it was not 20 hours away -we'd stop by one afternoon for a visit.

I agree on the history home, so much character - that is as long as someone else has already brought it into the 21st century in some areas. :-)

Amy @ Cheeky Cocoa Beans said...

Wow...lovely! Very interesting flooring, but you have so much space that I'm a little jealous. OK, a lot. :) Thanks for sharing the photos and giving us a "tour"!

Amy @ Cheeky Cocoa Beans said...

Oh, I meant to add that when we lived in Montana, there was a laundry closet in the hall bathroom, which was the largest bathroom. It was very convenient, especially since it was just the two of us at the time and that's where the majority of the laundry was generated anyway. But to have it in a half bath...hmmm...