Sunday, February 10, 2008

Description of What We Call Home

Thanks Steph for giving me something to write about that doesn't require much creativity.

When you walk in your front door, which room do you enter? The living room. Once the door is closed, to the left is a hall closet (I call it a hall closet even though it's not in a hall.)We've never had a hall closet before this place. Exciting.

Do you have a dishwasher? 
Yes. Thank god since neither of us really likes doing dishes. We only use it like once a week though to save on water.

Is your living room carpeted or does it have hardwood floors? 
 Neither. We have ceramic tile floors in the living room, kitchen and bathrooms. It's a Florida thing which is really nice in summer and incredibly easy to clean up after the dogs. The bedrooms have dingy carpet. I hate living in a house with carpet even though only a small part of it is carpeted, and even though Talia's parents bought us this kick-ass vacuum that has a hepa filter and gives dog hair the "what for."

Do you keep your kitchen knives on the counter or in a drawer? Both. We have a knife block that holds the majority of our knives, but our paring knives and some smaller ones are in the drawer. This is good information to know if you want to come murder us in our sleep.

House, apartment, duplex or trailer? A side-by-side duplex, so it feels more like a house.

How many bedrooms is it? Two.

Gas stove or electric? Electric.

Do you have a yard? Yup. A fenced side/back yard, and an unfenced front yard. There is also a concrete slab you could call a porch in front of our sliding glass door but it only has one plastic hand-me-down adirondack chair since the other one mysteriously disappeared in our move.

What size TV is in the living room?
 Our TV isn't in the living room. It's in the 2nd bedroom/den/office, and it's medium-sized. We got a great open-box deal on it at Best Buy when we moved here.

Are your plates in the same cupboard as your cups? No.

Is there a coffee maker sitting on your kitchen counter? 
No. I use a french press and it's usually either in the cabinet or in the drain rack.

What room is your computer in?
 We have a laptop that sits on a TV tray in the 2nd bedroom/den/office.

Are there pictures hanging in your living room?
 Whoever came up with these questions sure has a facination with living rooms. But to answer the question, yes. Talia bought me an awsome Tree of Life wall hanging from Ten Thousand Villages as a house-warming gift, and it's above the couch. We also have a really great framed black and white picture montage from our wedding. Talia has framed fairy women that are across from the couch (if I was at home I could put a link to this artist because they're beautiful, but I forgot the name). And then next to the bookshelf is my wood carving. I think that's all that is hanging.

Are there any themes found in your home? Um, right now the theme is dog hair, and what Talia terms "creative chaos." That basically means we haven't been home enough this past week to do the laundry or straighten up after ourselves.

What kind of laundry detergent do you use?
 This kind that we get in the big containers from Costco which has Eco in the title. It's free and clear.

Do you use dryer sheets?
 Yup, we used to use Method, but now they only sell them in boxes of 32, so we use Arm and Hammer which are biodegradable and come in a box of 150 for more than $1 less than Method. Is that enough information?

Curtains in your home? 
Yes, in the living room. We didn't have a choice because of the sliding glass door that looks out onto the street. Even if I didn't mind encouraging the neighbors' voyeurism, Rocky thinks he needs to bark at everything that goes by when the curtains are open. In the other rooms we haven't put up curtains yet. Mainly because our awsome brightly colored curtains which have hung in our last two places clash with the awful taupe of our current walls. We signed a lease saying we wouldn't change the walls, and we can't afford new curtains.

What color is your fridge?
Off-white to light tan.

Is your house clean? I'm assuming that based on my reference above to dog hair and creative chaos, the answer would have to be "no." But there are days that it is clean.

Are the dishes in your sink/dishwasher clean or dirty? Ummm I'm going to guess dirty.

How long have you lived in your home? 
August or September of 2007.

Where did you live before? A very small two bedroom bungalow that didn't have any closets.

Do you have one of those fluffy toilet lid covers on your toilet?
 Talia had a hot pink one at the first apartment in Berkeley, but after I realized that it caused mold to grow on the toilet lid, I forbade her to buy one ever again no matter how "awsome" it was.

Do you have a scale anywhere in your house?
 Nope.

How many mirrors are in your house? 
Like, a billion and I don't even know why. Each bathroom has a huge mirror above the sink and then another mirror on each of the medicine cabinets, and then there's a full-length mirror on the bedroom door, and Talia has her grandma's mirror above the dressor. So that's like 6.

Look up. What do you see? A weird piece of fringed notebook paper that's hanging from ther air conditioner vent in the United Way office where I'm at work wishing my shift was over.

Do you have a garage? Yes! The best part of our entire house!!! I love it! But you have to realize that we moved here from a house without any closets. And of course Florida doesn't have basements because of the whole sink-hole issue. In Florida garages are not for cars, they really function like basements. Most people don't ever use their garage for a car unless a hurricane or tropical storm is a brewing. At the other house our washer and dryer were on the back porch. Now they are in the garage. It's bliss.