The Thursday Thunk

...can be found here


If you could have any house, money no object what so ever, what kind of house would it be? Walk us through it...

I actually love my current house, so I'll walk you through it. Deep breath!!

When you come in the front door...wait! First you have to come up the short curving walk from the driveway and climb 7 steps to the front porch, which stretches across the front of the house. It's about 6 feet deep and covered all along: a perfect porch for sitting and watching the world.

So anyway, the front door is at the top of the steps on the left side of the house as you enter. When you come in, you are in the granite-tiled entry with steps going upstairs to the bedrooms and the living room opening off to the right. The front closet is in front of you. It is large enough for all our Christmas decorations and an awful lot of scrapbooking stuff too. The latter is really supposed to be downstairs; what's it doing in here anyway...!?

As you turn into the living room, you'll be facing a stone gas-starter fireplace flanked by two built-in cupboards on either side. Above each cabinet is a window which fills up the space. There are three large double-hung windows that face the porch centered on that wall.

Come on in through the dining room as we move towards the back of the house. It has three narrower double-hung windows under which is a window seat that runs the length of the wall, about 8 feet. Both the dining room and living room have wood-laminate floors.

Passing through the archway into the...wait! The arches. Surely you've noticed them? They are not rounded or squared-off but vaguely Moorish, with cut-ins in the upper corners. I have to say, they are the most commented-on feature when people visit.

OK, so you've made it to the kitchen. Just as you enter there is a 4x8" island with two chairs. It is offset, diagonally, to the main work areas along the back and side walls of the house. It is also usually covered in crap. See, I didn't really clean for you; sorry. The fridge and stove are along the side wall of the house, the sink is under the window which is directly in line with the right-most front window. Beast just finished putting in soffits above the cabinets along with a plate rail to display platters and dishes. The floor is linoleum designed to look like large, faintly green, stone mosaic squares. This is what runs through the halls, the pantry and the back entryway, by the way.

Now that you are all the way into the kitchen, turn left. The wall is floor to (nearly) ceiling book case! Built-in, and a special request. That's where the pantry was supposed to be. Hah. Who needs food when you have books?! There is a narrower archway to the right of the bookcase that leads to the back hall where you will find the real pantry (behind the books), a large closet, and the stairs to the basement.

To the left of the bookcase--back towards the front of the house--is another narrower arch that leads to the powder room (behind the front hall closet and next to the dining room) with toilet and sink and separate lino. Next to that is the office, which opens to the right in that same hall area. It is sort of between the pantry and the front stairs. Full of shit. Dusty as hell. Really, you don't want to be in here: it's a nightmare. There's carpet on the floor somewhere under all the debris, but I'm not sure if it's the color we started with.

We'll quickly run through the basement, so let's go back to the stairs. There are about 6 down to a landing. In front of the stairs are two large double-hung windows that fill the entire wall and let in ginormous amounts of sun while giving a view of our backyard and our neighbors'. To the right is a door outside to the back porch. It is covered and has two large light fixtures hanging from the 'ceiling' about 20 feet above your head. It would be a perfect place to enclose with screens and install a hot tub. ;-) Beast currently likes to sit out here with his cheap cigars and watch the sun set. Fortunately, only one neighbor has planted view-blocking trees...so far.

Facing the door to the porch is a door to the garage. Three bays (hello, we are Americans!) full of enormous amounts of crap besides the two cars we own...sigh. There is another door to the backyard immediately to the right of the doorway you are standing in.

Turn left and go down another 8 or so stairs. You are in the basement. Beast has finished much of it. Somehow we have to get a pool table into it in the next few months. Yeah. So suffice to say it's a nice basement with fabu furniture (thanks, Amy!), the usual basement stuff (furnace, washer/dryer, storage of every-damn-thing-in-the-universe, etc.). Beast has a wonderfully large work area under the living room with table saw, tools, etc. The 'clothesline' is a length of cable. We are weird. There is a roughed in spot for another bathroom which we argue amiably about on occasion (do we really need FOUR bathrooms?!).

Speaking of which, let's go see what's upstairs. By the way, this trip is something we didn't consider when we built the house. Imagine carrying two or three full laundry baskets with you as we retrace our path up the back stairs, through the kitchen/dining/living rooms and then up the 19 stairs to the second floor. GAH!

But, fortunately, I'm not going to make you carry anything. We can stop and chat, too, so we aren't totally winded. Unless that's just me who is totally out of shape...?

The front stairs lead directly up for about 15 steps and then veer to the right for four more steps. They and the hallway they open into are carpeted in pale blue. Above the landing where you turned is a window which lets in a LOT of afternoon light. The hall at the top of the stairs is probably 6x7'--nice and big so you can maneuver fairly easily. There is a small table and a bookshelf but still plenty of space.

The door to the right at the top of the stairs is the master bedroom. It stretches across the front of the house with a large dormer encasing three double-hung windows. There are good-sized closets on either side of the room (over the stairs and on the other side). Next to the second closet is the door into the master bath, which has an extra large tub which is wonderful to bath in! Kind of a pain to clean...oh, well. The bedroom and closets have laminate flooring; the bedroom has linoleum similar to the other bathrooms, but in the blue family rather than green.

Back out of our bedroom...directly across the hall is the spare room. As we walk toward it, we'll pass the other bathroom, which is a basic sink/toilet/tub setup. Sparky uses it, and shares with company when we have anyone staying over.

The spare room and Sparky's room (which is accessed from the door across the hall from the bathroom) have partially sloping ceilings and one window each. Be nice if they had more, but...oh well. Each of the bedrooms has a miniature access door that leads into a low-ceilinged storage area running the entire back of the house. Sparky's end is called The Zone. He has all his stuffed animals in there, a carpet remnant and a papa-san chair in there. He could, actually, live in there...and occasionally he sleeps there because with the light off it's pitch dark--the only way he can sleep in daylight.

The carpet in the spare room is a continuation of the hallway carpet. Sparky's room is dark green (Packer green). Both rooms have large, wall-length closets.



WHEW!

We have too much stuff for this house. Something has to go! Ack.