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Location: Connecticut, United States

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Monday, July 11, 2005


Our House
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young -


I'll light the fire, while you place the flowers
In the vase that you bought today.
Staring at the fire for hours and hours,
While I listen to you play your love songs
All night long for me, only for me.

Our house, is a very, very, very fine house.
With two cats in the yard,
Life used to be so hard,
Now everything is easy 'cause of you.
Come to me now, and rest your head for just five minutes,
Everything is done.

Such a cozy room, the windows are illuminated
By the evening sunshine through them,
Fiery gems for you, only for you.
I'll light the fire, while you place the flowers
In the vase that you bought today.

------

I think we are officially house hunting. I say think, because we go through this phase from time to time. The impetus for this current search is our taxes in town…astounding! We aren’t getting our money’s worth. Also recent additions of large big box stores not too far from where we live have made travel less friendly.

We’re just done with this place and although I do love our little home, it could be arranged better…we’re looking for an open floor plan, lower taxes, and a few upgrades that we either can’t put into this house or just can’t bear the thought of living through the renovation period to acquire.

House hunting is probably one of my all time favorite activities. I love to be let into a home of someone I don’t know and see how they live. The homes we viewed yesterday showed me that most people don’t own the amount of books we own. It is one of our concerns: where will the books go? The realtor was shocked we’d discuss this more than where friends and family would sleep or eat or watch TV.

One house was almost perfect, but the driveway was so steep we’d need to install a rope tow to walk up the driveway to get the mail. All I could think of was ice and snow and cars slipping down that driveway right into the dining room’s big windows. Or the opposite, trying to drive up that hill to go get milk – no way. So that house was xed off the list.

It did have one feature that I’d love in a future home. One of the extra rooms being used as a den of sorts, had a big, deep double closet with wooden shutter doors. Inside this closet sat a huge TV and the guts of the sound system. How nice not to have to look at the glaring face of a TV all the time, and be able to shut the doors and have a neat looking room. The alternative, as we have, is an armoire that just ends up looking like a huge box – with most of the back cut out to accommodate the rear area of the TV and stereo components.

I don’t like plasma TVs…at least not what I’ve seen of them. I would hate one mounted over the fireplace…I don’t watch enough TV to have one. I don’t watch enough TV to have that huge armoire either…loved that closet idea.

The house with the steep driveway had a baby grand in the living room. I saw husband’s eyes mist over as this is one of his dreams – to have a baby grand, even though I’m the piano player in the family. It must represent something to him…what? Elegance? Old-world civility? Or maybe it’s just the shape and presence of a baby grand piano.

This same house also had a secret garden I adored…old wood steps leading up to a terraced perennial garden reminiscent of a cultured English garden, only hidden by trees and shrubs – making it truly secret if you cared to keep it that way.

This house had a brook? Stream? Some form of water in the back of the property but down another steep slope. A waterview, as they called it, is stretching the truth, but I would have loved that element just because I would wonder what new birds I’d see at my feeder.

When we came home and pulled in our own driveway, my house looked mighty good to me. No waterviews and no open floor plan exactly. High taxes and all.

So the new house I’d buy will have to be better than the one I own now. Also, I will have to maintain my interest in moving or I’ll just look around and say: Our house is fixed up the way we like it. Decorated the way we like it. Wired for sound, AC’d and new furnaced up just recently. It has the brick sidewalk *I* laid…in 90 degree weather, brick by brick and it also has my local bird families that I can recognize and know from year to year.

Changing where you live is a big step, especially if it isn’t necessary but optional.

Looking for a new house does bring dreams with the search though. It will be interesting to see if we can find a house that will pry us out of the one we live in now, our house.

13 Comments:

Blogger sparklestone said...

Things I like: Imagining our dream house; our current house.

Things I don't like: House shopping; that CSN song (I like them, but that particular song drips a little too much sap for me.)

11:35 AM  
Blogger dashababy said...

I hope you find what you are looking for in the new house. When you find it, you'll know its the one. My dream is to buy some property and build a modest home with some little extras that we dont have now(jacuzzi tub :). I also want to build a separate unit on so my mom can come and live with us. I just have to find some property to buy and own it for a year to do the loan that we need. Property in No. Cali. is sooooo expensive tho. Thankfully, we bought just before the boom so we have a ton of equity built up. Good luck on your hunt. It does sound fun.

11:37 AM  
Blogger WILLIAM said...

MB, in the past you have written and discussed some interesting political topics that were great for debate. But today I am totally offended. "I don’t like plasma TVs.."
That hurts. :)

Good luck with the house hunting.

11:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I did like the CSN song, but now it just makes me think of Maxwell House coffee.

And in regards to househunting, I'll just share a story that will make everybody jealous: we found our house on the first try. It was literally the first house we looked at.

11:59 AM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

Sparky - no schmaltzy songs for you? Sometimes I need to dip into saccharine...OD on syrupy lyrics and sappy songs and poetry.

dashababy...hope your dreams come true, especially when you are so loving as to want your mom to live with you. Your real estate market is unbelievable. We aren't quite as bad in CT, but bad enough.

William, so you're a plasma guy? I guess I'm turned off because a friend has one...puts everything on letterbox so everything is distorted...

CB - I once bought a house just like what you describe...I had to catch a plane and buy a home within 2 hours...amazingly I did both.

Long story, but the house we bought was very nice for the two years we lived in the south...

1:10 PM  
Blogger paintergirl said...

I don't mind house hunting, but I don't recommend doing it with a toddler. We found our current house, (been here 8 months now) after looking at 15 houses. I knew my husband would want the house because of the beautiful attic space, and he knew I would want it becaues of the British garden out back.
I know how it is with books too. There is never enough space. Most of ours are still in the attic and I miss looking at them.
And my luck is, whenever I get our living quarters perfect, we move. ALWAYS happens.

1:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I cant wait for the day I can actually buy my own house. My first house with with my ex husband. I love it. Then, after we separated and he moved out, I couldnt stand to be in it.
I want a room with built in bookshelves all around, except where I would put my desk. An attic area would be perfect, with skylights galore.

Closet space is another must. I swear, between the boys and I we could open a store.

2:19 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

pg - At least you get your house perfect! We haven't done anything with the living room windows in a year, because we keep saying, why spend the money if we're moving...

So now we're looking and doing home repair..I decided to get tension rods and plain white curtains..I can take them with me if need be and use them somewhere else.

2:23 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

lawbrat - Your attic dream sounds wonderful. In my dreams I'll have an outbuilding with a pot belly stove and lots of light...I also agree on having a room filled with books..oh that would be wonderful.

Still dreaming...

2:25 PM  
Blogger paintergirl said...

oh-our house is not perfect. NO. But it is lovely for a few years, until I get completely sick of the traffic and noise, and then it will be off to the Berkshires we go.

9:58 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

That's it I'm done house hunting....!!!


No house is better than a home...where people aren't stressed out..so no more house hunting.

Not for ever but for now.
Summer Yo and hello...PG - where ever we live is great in some cosmic way...because there is a big difference between a house and a home.

I am so effing tired of looking for houses and only put in 3 days...I will die here I'm sure...

9:21 PM  
Blogger Weetzie said...

oh my..househunting! I love it...to dream and dream! I recently looked at a house and really like the open-ness of it and when I got home, I realized that it did not have a SINGLE BOOK CASE IN IT. So I thought, well, there is obviously NO ROOM for books in that house so I CAN'T HAVE IT! No wonder the house seemed so big and uncluttered! I am definitely not a bookless house person. Oh, the hidden garden sounds wonderful and I like the CSN song, it is sweet in its earthiness.

3:39 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

Weetzie!!!! You're back from vacation - sure hope it was all you wanted it to be.

I agree on the bookcases..gotta have them...lots of them.

3:46 PM  

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