Sunday, October 12, 2008

houses, houses, houses, houses

We didn’t count as we were going along,
but we calculated today
that we looked at
between 25 and 30 houses yesterday.
We weren’t looking to buy, of course,
just looking for ideas.
~
For years
Tyler and I have enjoyed drawing up house plans.
I’ll think I have come up with the perfect house
and he’ll find some reason why it isn’t.
and vise verse.
Although
to be perfectly honest
I’m a little quicker to point out all that’s wrong with his plans
than he is with mine.
That’s sort of how we are in life, too.
I’m working on that…..
Then
we bought this land
and the whole house-plan drawing thing
became more challenging.
Now, we have to suit the house to our land.
And
we not only have to fit in everything we want in a forever house
in as few sq ft as is reasonable,
we have to have it on the ‘right’ side of the house, too!
Kitchen on the east
so the sun can help quickly thaw the bread
I forgot to get out the night before.
Then again
I’d also like the sink widow facing the north
‘cause that’d be the best view…..
~
It’s been several months since we’d done any plan-drawing.
Busy with weddings, funerals, and babies
you know.
But now that we are finally beginning to accumulate a bit of cash
in our house fund
we decided to get back at it.
The Parade of Homes was this weekend
so it was the perfect opportunity
to see
in person, not just on paper or the computer screen,
what we like.
~
Didn’t find a thing!
Oh, sure, there were a few small touches that we liked and might implement
but nothing big.
No
Living room, Dining room, Kitchen set-up
that was just
'wow - this is exactly what I want…..'
Actually, I really liked the layout of the last house we went to
but
I can’t get it to work with the garage on the west side……
~
We talked to one gal for awhile;
told her why we were looking, what we were looking for
and that we really hadn’t seen it.
She said, “Well, these houses are for the typical American family.
It would seem to me that you all are not the typical American family.”

Who told?!
~
Back to the drawing board.
~
p.s.
The kids really enjoyed looking for
'things that grabbed them' about the houses.
After we'd been at one house for a few minutes,
Jeremiah came and got me,
"Mom, there's a lot of things that grab me in the master bedroom.
You gotta come see!"
I quickly went to see what architectural treasure he'd found.
"This grabs me, and this grabs me,
and I really like this, too!"
~
The house happened to be furnished;
he was pointing to the bed, nightstand, and curtains.

4 comments:

  1. haha, Dalana M, our pianist in choir, was looking at my wedding pictures on Saturday night (along with a bunch of people - Becky looked at them "that's your mom? She looks so young!" she's probably about your age. Several minutes and pictures later - "Lana, your mother is so beautiful". Of course, everyone loved the dress!)
    Anyways, Dalana said she saw you and Dad and Jeremiah and Josiah at the parade of homes. She said Jeremiah really just loved the stairs :^)

    I figured you must have been looking for ideas :)

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  2. um, yes, how embarassing - he DID love the stairs - preferring to go down head first on his belly.....
    (feeling sad that we have no stairs for boys to slide down, I didn't mind letting him go up & down, so long as he wasn't keeping other people from using them...)

    I'm suprised I didn't recognize her. Guess I wasn't really looking at the other people.... Fortunately, we were the only people at lots of the houses. and only 2 had stairs.....

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  3. I have found Southern LIving homeplans and Cottage living home plans to be GREAT! I actually found my "Dream House" On southern living home plans. It's the "Harmon Grove Alternate." i have been tearing pages out of decorating magazine for several years...Someday maybe we'll be in a place to build. Until then, I have a binder that is filling up! What i love about Harmon grove is the way the rooms flow and that there is a BONUS room (SCHOOL TIME!!) and all in about 2400 sqft. It is 2 story, but incase we want it all on one story I've figured out how to do that too!! (without consulting an architect, who knows if it would actually WORK!) Now obviously the outside wouldn't look the same and i love the outside the way it is pictured. Anyway. I am NOT being helpful!! You guys are a few years away from reality, and I am still just MAJORLY dreaming. :o) But if you haven't checked out SouthernLIving.com, you might find some plans that inspire you...

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  4. My goodness you gotta love that boy! Yummers.

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