The Doorknob Dilemma

Believe it or not, I'm not talking about planners or journals today! I bet you're relieved. :-)

A couple of weeks ago, the doorknob fell off my bedroom door. I looked at it, and in my uneducated opinion, it was broken. It seemed as if the metal below the screws had sheared off.

I did try to fix it following advice I received, but it couldn't be fixed because I was right. The metal was broken and there was no way to repair that.

Um, I should maybe mention that despite the fact I had links to videos and text messages explaining what to look for, that I let it sit untouched for about eight days. Yeah. I just didn't feel like dealing with it and I thought it might be hard.

The repairs I tried were not difficult. They just didn't work.

It was time to order a new doorknob.

I looked at Amazon because getting in and out of Home Depot is a bitch where I live, but I also went online and searched Home Depot. They had a brand of doorknob called Kwikset and it was cheaper than what the 'Zon's algorithm had shown me, so I did a search for that brand and looked for a doorknob that bore a resemblance to what I already had.

Next day delivery please. This is a weekend project!

The delivery gods were smiling on me because my doorknob showed up before 1pm! That's super early for Amazon to be in my neighborhood.

The installation gods were smiling on me, too, because I somehow managed to buy the exact doorknob that was on every door in my house. EXACT!

I did have to watch some video on how to install, but overall, it was an easy job. (Thank you, Mr. Blaney!)

My backset came in pieces, and I maybe forgot to put one of them on before I fastened it into the door, but the door opens, closes, and latches correctly, so I'm not going to worry about it.

This was an easy job and I'm glad I could do it myself. Handy Patti for the win!

As the World Turns

It struck me the other day how much everything has changed since I sold my first book in 2002.

This picture shows a mere fraction of my reference books, including dictionaries and thesauruses. And I realized that I haven't opened any of them in what seems like forever.

Need to find a synonym? Internet. Need to look up a word? Internet. Need a name for a secondary character? Internet. Need to research something? Internet.

When I first bought many of these books, I had dial up. It was painfully slow and it was easier to keep a thesaurus next to me rather than brave the internet.

Now? With fiber broadband? It's quicker and easier to hop online.

Which leads me to dwelling on whether or not I should prune my research collection and which books should go? Some of them do have information that would take time to hunt down online. It wouldn't be impossible, but it would take some digging. I should probably keep those books, but where is the line? And getting rid of books? Gah! I've done it before, but it still seems daunting.

I wish ebooks had been around when I amassed this collection because then the space they take up wouldn't be an issue. It for sure would have made it easier to move.

Ouch!

 

I've had cracks in my master bathroom tile for a while. I did have someone come out before the pandemic to get an estimate, but they never got back to me despite contacting them several times. And then the pandemic hit and it went on the back burner.

Well, it came off the back burner when I saw there were gaps in the grouting in the shower. Now this is a handle right away problem because moisture back there can lead to mold and I don't want mold.

And now I'm having my master bathroom taken apart and fixed.

Ouch!

The job was bigger (and more expensive) than I expected it to be, but instead of just taking out the floor, sealing it, and replacing it and regrouting the shower, everything has to come out. Everything. I'll be getting a brand new shower, a brand new floor, but keeping my cabinets and counter and tub. All the tile is going. The shower door will be replaced, too.

Part of me is excited to get a bathroom that will be more my style. The one that was in the house when I bought it isn't me. It's done mostly in brownish/beigeish tile and has a very traditional feel. I changed the lights before I moved in and swapped out the toilet paper holder. I kind of wish I was replacing the cabinets and tub, too, but the cost is already more than I wanted to see, so I can live with them. I told the guy doing the restoration that when I bought the house, the only thing in the bathroom that I liked was the counter.

I will do some before and after pictures and talk about it here on the blog. But seriously? Did I need this when I'm trying to get a book ready for release? Wicked Deception is available August 15th.

HOA Bland

 

As I looked out my window recently, I realized how bland and boring most of the houses are around me. (This picture is my house in summer.) It's winter, the grass is brown, the trees have no leaves, and all the houses are beige. Mostly the same shade of beige.

Some of it is people wanting a neutral house color. The house I had built when I lived in Minnesota was also a beige color, so it's not as if I don't understand. The difference is that my neighborhood up north had houses of many other colors. Here? Everything is beige around me.

I blame the Homeowners Association to a large degree. We have drive through inspections and woe be to the family that has a few weeds in their yard or has their garbage can visible from the street. They even have to approve what color you paint/stain your fence.

Um, I didn't know this when I had my fence painted, but I chose a nice, neutral, unoffensive stain, so I didn't get squawked on the inspection tour.

The blandness isn't quite as noticeable when everything is green. Maybe you can see this in the picture? The green seems to offset the beige and make it seem nice. In winter, though, it just adds to the dreariness.

The Home Away From Home

Tuesday's blog post and the realization that I must not have blogged about it already was inspired by a search of the old Chicago homestead that my dad was raised in. I don't have pictures of that in digital format at all. I might not have them in any format although my dad probably does. In the boxes and boxes and boxes of photos we moved from Minnesota. So the image I'm using to pretty up the post is just some random house. It doesn't resemble any of the homes I'm going to talk about.

When I was at the gym recently, one of the trainers mentioned she was from Chicago. Both my parents were originally from there, but moved to Minneapolis before I was born. It got me thinking about some of the homes my relatives owned (and sold).

The first house I thought of belonged to my favorite cousin and her parents. I found pictures online because it had sold recently enough that they were still available to view. There were changes made--the carpet was gone, revealing hard wood, the walls were painted, and a new deck was put on the back. The yard looked completely different, but it was still the house I remembered.

Next, I wondered if the old homestead had pictures up. This is the house my dad was raised in after his father died. I remember staying there whenever we visited Chicago because my dad's aunt and his sister lived there. The house was sold when my dad's older sister went into a nursing home.

This house had sold in spring of 2019, so yes, indeed, there were pictures. This house had undergone a bigger makeover. The kitchen was completely revamped, and in all honesty, it probably needed to be because there had been no kitchen cabinets. All the dishes (and everything else) had been stored in the pantry. The bathrooms had been remodeled as well. Also needed. The upstairs had been a half bath and now it was a full. Also at least one bedroom--maybe two, it was hard to tell from the pictures--was gone and an upstairs family room put in its place. The basement looked nothing like I remembered.

The third house I looked at belonged to another of my dad's older sisters. That had been sold after her death by her children. This house hadn't had the good fortune of the other two. Whoever bought it from my cousins must have trashed it because when they sold it, it went for 65% less than what they'd paid! Both sales happened after the housing crash, so that's not the explanation. There weren't really any pictures here and probably for a good reason.

Of the three, the people who bought the homestead did the best job. They kept the character of the house (it had been built in 1910), but renovated it enough that people today would enjoy living in it. This made me a little nostalgic. We had so many good times visiting, so many evenings around the dining room table talking and laughing. Running around with my cousins, playing games.

I haven't had time to develop these deep, deep attachments to any of the homes I owned. I was getting there with my house in Minnesota, but then I was relocated to Atlanta. Since I've been here, I've lived in a condo and two houses. Maybe I can bond with this house.

Family Home

I could have sworn that I'd blogged about this already, but I can't find a post. When I tried to find a picture for this post and had to look for about half an hour before I located one, I'm thinking this might be the reason why I didn't blog about it. (This is the best picture of my parents' house that I was able to find.) Anyway, if this is a repeat, I will apologize.

After my mom died, my dad moved in with me and we cleaned out his house and put it up for sale. He wanted to sell it as is and a flipper bought it. We kept waiting and waiting for it to come up for sale and it didn't for like two years. But I'm ahead of myself. Let me back up.

My parents only owned one house my entire life. This was home. Even after I moved out and had homes of my own, my parents' house was home. This is a different level of home.

It was tough going back to clean it out after my mom died. Lots of crying and trying to decide what to donate and what to bring to Georgia. It was even stranger to see the house empty, to look at it through new eyes and realize it needed a lot of TLC. It's funny how I didn't see that when it was filled with my parents' things.

It was tough to list it, harder to walk out of it and realize that was the last time ever.

And then more than two years after we sold it, the flipper finally listed the house for sale. Looking through the pictures of the house was harder than the final morning there. He'd gutted the house, redone everything.

The fireplaces were gone. The hardwood floors were gone and replaced with whatever he used. The stairs were moved from the middle of the house to the back (something my mom wanted to do for years). The bedroom I slept in until I was a teen and moved into the basement bedroom was gone, combined with the master to make a master suite. The master bathroom had gone from a half bath to a full bathroom. The new kitchen went from the front door to the door to the garage and devoured the eat-in nook where we'd had so many family dinners. I could continue, but you get the idea.

This wasn't home anymore. It was just some house.

I think it would have been easier if he'd updated what was there, rather than gutting the place and starting over. It was disorienting and I literally had to study the pictures to figure out where some of them were taken. My dad couldn't figure it out and I had to show him in the images where the door to the garage was, explain what had happened to the bedrooms.

I keep reminding myself that the memories remain even if the home isn't the same as it had been when those moments happened, but it's still a sickening feeling to know it's completely different now.

Raindrops Keep Falling

In fall of 2017, I moved into a new house and it had a rainfall shower head in the master bathroom. I'd never had one of these before, but they're supposed to be great, so I was like, cool, I'll try it.

And in the beginning, I loved it. It was so relaxing!

But then it started to get annoying. It took forever to get the shampoo out of my hair, and while the rainfall was relaxing when I had plenty of time, it was stress inducing when I was trying to get somewhere on time. Like to my day job.

It reached a point where there was one day a week that I enjoyed the shower head and six days where I was irritated by how much time it was taking.

Finally, I decided that I needed a shower head that had more oomph to it. I found one with six different settings and had the handyman install it. OMG! I love it! It's still a water-conserving item, but the shampoo is gone like lightning and I get out of the house faster.

It makes me wonder if most people move faster in the morning than I do. I am a dawdler. When I don't have to work, it can take me hours to drink a couple of cups of coffee. In fact, I have to restart my coffee maker so the timer doesn't shut it off before I'm done with my java. It's two hours before the auto shutoff kicks in--does this show how much time I can waste?

Anyway, it's amazing how awesome it is to be able to shower fast again and take my time when I want to, not because the shower head is dictating my speed.

Bye Bye Bat Cave

When I moved into this house, I suspected that the lighting in the family room would be an issue. I was hoping that I'd be wrong. All I had was a ceiling fan with three lights. This picture gives you kind of an idea of the glare and of how cave-like this room is when the sun goes down. Only an idea, though, because I turned on every light in the vicinity to take this image and you can see that it's still daylight.

This lighting made it a nightmare to do so many things. If I wanted to knit, I had to turn the light on over the kitchen table (which is located behind the couch). Forget about reading anything on paper or making writing notes. Doing anything other than watching television or playing on the phone was unpleasant.

The house I built when I lived in Minnesota had lots of recessed lights in the kitchen, foyer, and family room. It was one huge great room. The house I bought when I first moved to Georgia had six recessed lights in the family room. The couple I bought the house from had installed them.

And then I moved into the house with the Bat Cave...

I tried lamps (as you can see in the picture), but that didn't help very much. It became clear that I was going to have to get an electrician in and add my own recessed lighting to this house. And on Tuesday, they came and installed it! Hurrah! Last night as I sat on the couch, I could see what I was working on! Fabulous!

Here's a shot of the family room ceiling of my new lights.

They did such a good job on the installation that I won't need a painter to come in to touch up my ceiling. Those of you who've read my blog for a while know it was months and months and months to actually get my walls fixed.

Anyway, there is nothing cave-like about my family room now and I'm ecstatic!

Formal Spaces

I recently read an article about a study showed that Americans (At least the ones in the study) rarely use their formal living rooms and dining rooms. That most people congregate in the family room and the kitchen. From my own life, I would say this is true.

Growing up, my parents had a formal living room that literally no one ever used. We were always in the family room where the television was or yes, at the kitchen table.

When I built my own home in Minnesota, I didn't get a formal dining room or living room. What I had was a great room with kitchen, family room, dining area, and foyer all in one. It could have been a smidge larger because it was slightly tight, but overall it suited me really well. The picture below is one of my farewell pictures when I moved. I loved this house whole-heartedly. This is from the foyer looking into the family room. The dining area and kitchen are on the right.

The house I bought in Georgia did have a formal living room and dining room. I knew from the start that I'd never use the formal living room. Like ever. And I ended up using it as a craft room, which was a bit awkward since it was open to the house and right next to the front door.

I put my table in the formal dining room because it looked more like it belonged there, but that left the eat-in kitchen part empty and I banged my head into the light fixture more than once as I walked through because there was nothing there to make me go around it.

These pictures from the first house I had in Georgia were taken before I removed the fake fireplace and changed out the light fixtures. I call these shots my hello tour. :-)

When I moved into my current house, I actually did want a dining room because after my mom died and my dad moved in with me, we did now have a kitchen table. Since I didn't want to get rid of my table or my parents' table, a dining room would be necessary. The new house doesn't have a formal living room, just a family room.

 

This picture above is from the new house. I took it before we bought it and the previous owner used it as an office. I realized I don't have a shot of my dining room as it looks now and I can't run and take a picture. I'll explain why in a minute. Just FYI, that light fixture is GONE!

Anyway, the dining room was mostly sitting empty except at a holiday when Dad and I would eat there, but that changed. My dad decided he was going to write his memoirs. At first, he spread out all over the kitchen table and had to pack everything up every night at dinner time. I finally suggested to him to take it all to the dining room. That way he could leave everything out. This is why I can't run and take a picture. My entire dining room table is covered with paper and the chairs are all over the place. It works for him!

So while I do agree with this article that formal spaces are largely wasted space, I do appreciate having a dining room. It'll also be good for me to lay out my knitting projects when I'm blocking them. Not the most efficient use of space, but useful at times.

Dream Bathroom

Sometimes I fantasize about what my perfect bathroom would look like and the one thing that is consistent in all my dreams is that I would have a master bath without a bathtub.

I always shower. I can't even tell you the last time I took a bath. It just seems like a huge waste of time and I'd have to hop in the shower anyway to wash my hair, so why bother? And yet every house I've had has had a tub. :-(

Tubs collect dust and they take up valuable real estate that could be purposed for something more useful--like a shower that is large enough for a seat and totally luxurious. Or how about a slightly bigger shower and a linen closet that isn't taking up space in my walk-in closet? (This is making me insane.) Or a vanity where I could sit down to mess with makeup and such. Said vanity could even have big drawers, something my current master doesn't have.

This house has two other bathtubs, so it shouldn't hurt resale and no tub would make me ecstatically happy.

Of course, I can't afford to redo my bathroom and so I'll have to live with this tub. Sigh. But it is nice to dream.

Seven Months

Last fall, I moved into a new house and the woman from whom I bought the house had two televisions mounted on the wall. She was supposed to leave those mounts because anything attached to the walls are supposed to stay, but not only did she take the TV mounts, she left holes in the walls. She didn't even spackle them!

In November, as I was getting my old house ready to sell, I had a painter come out to give me some estimates on painting a few rooms that were really banged up. The joy of tall bookcases anchored to the walls, but I wasn't giving up my books! While he was looking at the old house, I had him come over to the new house and estimate the cost of fixing her mess and painting the hall from the garage (also very banged up) and a few other areas.

It started out well. He was at the old house within 2 weeks or so, got it painted in one day, and we had the house on the market and sold within two days of that. Yea! And then the waiting began for him to come to the new house.

I take partial blame. I was stupid enough to say to the painter that there was no rush on the new house. I said that because there was a rush on the old house. I needed to get that baby on the market! Sadly, he took me at my word on the new house and the waiting began.

In the meantime, I'm staring at these ugly holes in my walls--bedroom and family room--day after day after day. Ugh! My dad called periodically to find out when he was going to come out. Finally, after my dad started calling and leaving a message every day, we got our walls painted. SEVEN months after the estimate.

The reason why we didn't look for another painter is that painters are hugely expensive in Atlanta and most don't do a good job. This man was affordable (for Atlanta!) and did excellent work. It was him or no one unless there was no other choice.

Here's a picture of my newly painted family room wall! Hurrah! I need to work on my decor some more, but that's a minor thing.

Quiet Please

I've been in my new house since October and I've gotten used to a lot of things here and miss less and less about the house from which I moved. There is, however, one thing I desperately miss about my old house--the near-absolute quiet and privacy.

My former house was on a steep hill with trees on three sides. In the summer, I literally couldn't see any of my neighbor's houses from the back patio. And while I could hear dogs or kids playing in their yards, it wasn't constant. It was like this shady retreat and so peaceful. I adored this!

The new house? OMG, it's loud. Maybe it's because I'm on a level lot, but I can hear all the cars and golf carts drive by. I can hear people talking all the time as they walk past. I hear everything all the time even late enough at night that you'd think these kids would be in bed. And privacy? Forget about it. I have a fence around my yard, but one day while my dad and I were out working in the back, I see a head poke over the fence. "Howdy, neighbors!" Gah!

The only positive is that my bedroom is at the back of the house so I don't get the street noise back there, but I do hear my neighbors on that side. Their driveway is next to my bedroom and so is their patio. My dad does get all the street noise, but he doesn't hear well, so it's not an issue for him. The biggest problem is my office is at the front of the house. It makes it hard to write.

So I have a new goal now: Save enough money to get foam insulation added to the walls. Until then, I have to wear a headset and play music in order to get words.

Lazy Night

I think I might have mentioned that I bought new thermostats for my house. The kind with Wi-Fi access so that I can adjust it from my phone. I had a chance to find out how awesome that feature was in late winter/early spring.

It's that weird time of year where you can't be sure if you need the heating or the air conditioning. I went to bed and I can't sleep because I'm sweating. Finally, I had enough and I'm like, I have to put the air on--I can't take it! But I was in bed and I was comfortable and I didn't want to get up to change the temperature.

And then I remembered I had new thermostats!

I reached for my phone and changed it from heat to air. And as the AC came on, I was like whoa! This is awesome!

It's too bad the security is weak on the internet of things right now because I am totally digging all the cool things I can do with the few things I do have. Want to turn the lamps on or off? I don't have to move, I can handle it from my phone. Temperature uncomfortable in the house? Voila! Cell phone and app to the rescue.

The best part was that the thermostats qualified for 50% off from my electric company so I got comfort and convenience for a lot less than retail. Two thumbs up!

The River O'Shea

I'm not sure I mentioned this or not, but the backyard of my new house was not completely sodded. Approximately the back one third of the yard is dirt. At first, I didn't think this would be a huge problem. All the trees are in that part of the yard and this meant no need to rake and no lawn to cut in that area.

The problem came when it rained. My house isn't that far from the retention pond, and because of that, the yard is sloped to send the water toward the pond. When it rains, the water flows like a river through the dirt, taking soil with it away from my house.

The erosion is bad enough that the tree roots are becoming exposed. Some of the trees are pretty far along. During a rainstorm in January, not only did I have the main river going through this dirt part to the retention pond, I also had tributaries winding their way around the dirt.

So I'm having landscaper come out to take a look at the yard. I'm hoping there's something we can do to prevent the erosion that doesn't involve sod. Not only is it expensive, but then I have the upkeep that comes with it. Plus I do not believe that I have my in-ground sprinkler system in that area. If I recall correctly, only the part that sodded is in the sprinkler's path.

However if my choice is between sod and some kind of ground cover that will attract snakes, I am all in on the sod.

Let There Be Cool Lights

My style in decor is all modern/contemporary. I like clean lines with no swirls or curls. Keep the farmhouse/rustic look. Keep the traditional style. They're not for me.

One of the big negatives about the new house I bought is how traditional it is. Some of it is far too expensive to do anything about--the biggest example being my kitchen cabinets. OMG, I dislike them. They are vanilla in color (I prefer my wood be stained and not painted), they have this black line framing each door and drawer, and the crown molding at the top has a rope pattern that screams traditional. Ugh! Don't even get me started about the oiled bronze faucet, drawer pulls, lighting, door knobs, everything else.

Some of the oiled bronze, though, is replaceable because it isn't ridiculously expensive to do so and because I like mixing metals. I believe mixing metals has even become fashionable. Gradually, though, I hope to rid myself of almost all the oiled bronze and replace it with modern brushed nickel.

I began my campaign in the master bathroom.

The old light fixtures:

This is already down. I didn't think to take a picture when they were over the mirrors. (Two mirrors, two light fixtures.)

Here's my new lights:

To me, this looks sooooooooo much better. No swirls. No bell-shaped glass.







I also replaced the toilet paper holder in the water closet with brushed nickel. Three oiled bronze albatrosses gone, a million left to go.

The Light Bulb Moment

This post is about actual light bulbs. not epiphanies. Once upon a time, light bulbs used to be easy, but not now. Now it takes research and trying to decide which bulb, which lumens, etc. It's enough to frustrate the heck out of a person. Okay, it frustrates me!

I'd worked out all the light bulbs in my former home and it was all good. Then I moved. Most of the bulbs were okay. Not what I would have chose, but livable. Except for the ceiling fixtures.

I can't stand the CFL bulbs. (I think CFL is what they're called.) Those twisty, soft-serve ice cream looking bulbs. They're not instant on. I flip a switch and they stay dim and awful until they're on for a while. Literally can't tolerate them at all. When I turn a switch on, I want my light now. And every single ceiling light fixture in this house has a CFL bulb in it.

At first, I thought I could live with it until they needed to be replaced, but a few weeks of frustration proved otherwise. I wanted to swap them for LED bulbs which meant research to find a bulb that could be inside an enclosed fixture. Like I said, light bulbs used to be easy.

I did find one I like and I had my handyman replace almost all the bulbs. I would have had all of them done, but my office wasn't unpacked from the move then and he literally couldn't get a ladder in there to reach the fixture. :-/ Now I have things in a little better shape. Not great, but better.

It was an instant improvement. I could actually see right away! Bliss!

Farewell Old Friend

I'm writing this the day I signed the contract on the offer to sell my former home. Even though I know that keeping it isn't an option--I do not want to be a landlord--I still feel sad about the sale.

When I sold my house in Minnesota to move to Georgia, I thought I'd never love another house as much as I loved that one. It was a custom home that I'd had built and I'd chosen the counters, the lighting, the appliances--everything. I expected my house hunt in Atlanta to be long and excruciating and I thought I'd drive my Realtor crazy.

But that wasn't what happened. We looked at three homes and then met with a builder's agent on a ranch (on a basement) in a new subdivision. This was literally the last house they had. And the more the builder's agent talked, the more panicky I became. My Realtor noticed this, hustled us out of there, and on the car ride back to where I was living, I asked if she could set up a second viewing of one of the homes we'd seen that day.

My house. Or what would be my house.

It had this serene retreat in the backyard. I literally couldn't see my neighbors in the summer. I had a good-sized kitchen and lots of cabinets, and one of my favorite things was the massive master closet I had. There were enough racks to hang all my clothes and shelving for my hats and purses and whatnot. I had a powder room, which I loved, and a covered back patio to sit out and enjoy my backyard retreat. If this house had been on a level lot, I would have stayed there forever.

But it was on a super steep hill--literally the only thing I couldn't live with. I have bad knees and my dad moved in with me after my mom died. I didn't want him going up and down that driveway everyday, but he did that because he wanted to get the mail. I couldn't tell him not to leave the house.

And so we looked for a new home and found one that has enough storage space (my former home did not have enough storage, not even close) and is designed in a way that feels as if there is more separation between the bedrooms, although I think it's about the same.

I'm hoping someday I love the new house as much as the one I'm selling, but today I'm mourning the loss of my home.

Home Office Issues

I've had issues with my home office since I moved to Georgia. Actually, it might have started in Minnesota. I bought a desk when I moved into my new house up there that I hated from the first week I started using it. Everything else, though, was okay. And then I moved.

Sadly, I never actually put everything away in my office once I moved. Oh, I kept meaning to do it, but weeks slipped into months and then into years. And because the office was already a disaster, I just dumped more crap in there--mail, catalogs, magazines, receipts, etc. This made the problem grow bigger and bigger. I usually had a messy office in Minneapolis, but it never looked as bad as it did in Atlanta.

And then I moved. I meant to clean out the office before the day everything go hauled to the new house, but I didn't for a couple of reasons.

Now I have a new office in a new house with the same old issue--too much crap that needs to be sorted through and either scanned or thrown away. I did do one thing, though, that I feel good about. I donated the desk that I hated more and more every day! Yea! That necessitated a hunt for a new desk, one I could live with for a long time to come. This wasn't easy.

I started with Overstock and Wayfair and then went to Pottery Barn's website and continued in that vein for a while until I realized that every single desk I was seeing online so far was going to give me the same issues that I had with the desk that I donated. It was time to think outside the box.

The good news is that I did find a desk system that I think will work for me at the Container Store. The bad news is it's Elfa which costs the freaking moon. OMG! I wanted to do the supply closet and the desk, but the closet was almost as much as the desk and I was like, uh, yeah, no. I couldn't justify the expense. I'm actually having a hard time with the price of the desk, too, but I've decided that it's smarter to buy something that can work for me and not buy something cheap that 1) doesn't work well and 2) I dislike from day 1.

Because of the cost, I was waiting for the big Elfa sale which I heard happened after Christmas each year. This year it popped up in my email about four days before Christmas. I jumped on this and ordered my desk. Now I just have to wait. I'll post pictures once I have it installed.

New House Gratitude

After posting so many shortcomings about the new house last week, you're probably wondering what it has to recommend it besides the level lot. I'm simply lost in the things I loved about my former house, and if I had built a house as I'd originally planned, I would have made different upgrade choices. But there are a lot of awesome things about this new home and I am truly grateful for it.

I have a tiled shower with a little seat. Every previous shower I've had has been a fiberglass insert with no seating. This shower is also the largest I've ever owned. It's not huge, but it's a little bit bigger and that little bit makes a huge difference.

The master bathroom is a little larger.

My new powder room actually gives guests enough room to move around. My former home had an extremely narrow powder room and people had to stand at the sink, close the door, and then step back to the toilet. You literally couldn't get to the toilet without closing the door and the door nearly touched the far wall. Yes, it was that narrow.

My kitchen is huge and it has built-in ovens. I had a built-in oven in my Minnesota home and I loved it! One of the things I really disliked about my first Georgia house was the range. It seemed like a huge step down from the built-ins, but now I have that again. Even better? I have two ovens! That means at Thanksgiving that we were able to cook a turkey and my dad could still cook his rice pudding.

The eat-in kitchen is large enough that I can actually put four chairs around the table. My former house was tight enough that we could only put two chairs at the table. Part of that was my fault because I had an upright freezer in the way, but I have that same freezer in the way here and can still fit all the chairs at the table.

Dining room is bigger and the living room actually has room for all my furniture! At my former home, I had one of the chairs in the front room because it didn't fit. Again, my fault, but I didn't want my television over the fireplace and that left one place to put it, which meant my furniture was arranged 90 degrees from where the builder intended.

I can put my bar stools at the counter! All four of them! My Minnesota house had a large island and I had four chairs around it. My former Georgia home did have a space for two bar stools, but because I had my furniture arranged wrong--see paragraph above--I couldn't use them and still walk between the stools and the living room furniture. I'd actually thought about selling them or donating them because they were all bunched up against a wall in my dining room, but now I have space for them again.

More storage. Not just the upstairs bedroom and loft, but actual closets. My former home had a tiny, tiny linen closet for the main bath and the storage closet and coat closet were one and the same. Here I actually have a coat closet near the front door. I have a storage closet under the stairs that's actually quite large. And the family linen closet is probably double the size of the one in my last home.

While the backyard isn't nearly as private and the covered patio isn't as large or as nice as the one I had in my last house, at least I do have a covered patio here and the privacy fence helps a lot with the neighbors. Bonus is that I have no house directly behind me, although if I look to my left, I can see houses on the next street. This backyard is also larger and much more usable because it's gently sloping. The front yard is completely level.

I have a walk-in pantry. This has been a dream of mine forever and I finally have it!

And while the woman I bought the house from didn't do hardwood floors in the living room, master bedroom, and dining room like I would have chosen, she did add the hardwoods in the hallways so I have more solid flooring in this house than in my last. My preference is to have zero carpet on the main level, but I did improve even if it isn't perfect.

My garage is close to my kitchen. This is a huge deal on grocery day. In my former home, I had to walk through the entire house to get from the garage to the kitchen--with bags of groceries. Over and over. Here, I walk in and it's a short hallway to the kitchen. Definite improvement.

I'm sure that once I've been in this new home a while, I'll become as tied to it as I still feel to my former home. It really does have a lot going for it.

The New House

Last week I shared that I'd moved into a new house. I thought I'd share a little more about it. As I mentioned on Thursday, it was only built about 18 months ago. Long enough to have the bugs worked out, but new enough that I shouldn't have to deal with too many issues.

It's a little bigger than my former home and it's on a level lot which is really what we were looking for and what we needed the most. There were so many advantages to buying a home rather than building that it was an easy decision to make. No need to buy blinds, the woman I bought the house from had already put up a privacy fence, so I didn't have to worry about that, and she'd lived with the growing pains of a new house.

This is my new home. My former house was a true ranch and this is called a story and a half because I have a bedroom upstairs and a loft right next to it. Perfect for my books and my crafts!

The other nice thing about the upstairs is I can use it for storage without needing to clog up the main level bedrooms. Although my dad has done a really good job filling his room with too many things already! I'm hoping he prunes.

The new house isn't perfect, no house is, and I did lose some things that I had in my old home that I already miss. The biggest loss is the incredible master bedroom closet that I had. It was huge and had so many shelves! I was able to hang all my  clothes and had shelves for purses and hats.

I lost my incredible backyard space. I had this green and serene covered patio, and in the summer, I truly didn't know I had neighbors. Even in the fall and winter, I didn't see much of the houses behind mine. I loved that privacy and the serenity.

Other things I don't have here: a programmable thermostat, a generous-sized laundry room (my new one is tiny!), fantastically bright lighting in my living room, the four beautiful drawers I had in my bathroom vanity, and I miss my lofted ceiling in the bedroom and living room. Oh, yeah, I miss my brushed nickel hardware. I really hate the oiled bronze (it's far too traditional for this modern/contemporary girl).

I've fixed what I can. I had shelving added to the master bedroom closet here, but the closet is still much smaller than my old closet, and while I was able to get all my clothes in there, there isn't room to turn around. My other closet was nice and wide. I also lost the linen closet I had in my old bathroom. Technically, this one does have a linen closet, but it's inside my clothes closet. Who thought this was a good idea? Yes, I seriously loved my old home, and if it had been on a level lot, it would have been perfect.

But the new house has a lot of positives, too. Since I've already gone so long, I'll save it for another post. Oops!