Me first, it's my thread.

My house is a little bungalow on a huge wooded lot across the street from a big lake. In the back yard there is a big pond. The street is quiet and heavily wooded and there are tons of animals like fox, deer and racoon, piliated woodpeckers and birds of every description.

The house needs paint. It is a faded light yellow, the color of butter, and there is ivy growing on the bricks and chiminey...overgrowing.

The flower box didn't ahve any flowers in it this year because we had it rented out to guys who were into computers, not gardening, but when I lived there, I had it filled with heliotrophe and dark red geraniums.

The inside of my house is small, only 2 bedrooms and one bath, but it is in OK shape and we ahve hardwood floors and good rugs. The fireplace was redone by the previous owners in the mid-seventies during that fake energy crisis and they tore out the traditional and lovely pass-thru fireplace and constructed a huge hideous brick monstrosity and plunked an equally ugly Franklin stove in the midst of it. It does have excellent draft so the fires are wonderful and the whole house smells like wood. Lot's of windows, unbelievable views.

The kitchen is small but set up logically so everything is within reach and I can do some pretty seious cooking in it.

We are getting ready to finish the basement that still retains the original fireplace downstairs, and finish the bath we started before the all the stuff started happening.

My furniture is somewhat masculine because Bipolar likes traditional masculine furniture and I kind of do, too. It's big and overstuffed and comforting. (The furniture, not Bipolar) Some of our pieces are antiques from my Grandmother but mostly they are kind of (old) Room and Board-y.

So, now I want to know about YOUR home. I like to imagine what your homes are like, what your life is like, so give me something to go on...

Catnip =^^=

<small>[ August 28, 2002, 11:50 PM: Message edited by: catnip ]</small>

Oh, how fun!

Well, I know my H would LOVE your house! He wants hard wood floors so bad and the forest atmosphere that you live in sounds like storybook land!!! We only READ about places like your home in books where I live (5 miles from the pacific coast)!!

I live close to the beach, not on the beach, but close enough to get a nice, cool, ocean breeze daily, which anyone would love on a hot, sunny, California day! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="images/icons/cool.gif" />

We have a big & flat front & back yard and house here in earthquake country! You can smell the ocean and feel the cool air even when the sun is very warm (mid-80's). We have 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms a big den off of the living room and share an office off of our master bedroom. The kids' rooms are small, but they use the den for all their extras--OC's desk & computer is in there, the little ones have a big play set in there.

In my room, I have an autographed photo of FloJo running in a LA Marathon 5K in 1997. She was my inspiration to run and really go for it. I think that during that year, she was training for marathon competition, but still running 5K's (3.1 miles).

The bathtub is where I take my 30-minute vacations and use my own homemade bath salts and soaps... Our bedroom is eh, nothing special really? My H is very neat and I'm not-so-neat, okay, I'm messy so you can always tell who's side of what room is whose... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> Right now, my office is stacked with boxes cuz I'm in the process of moving my work to my home.

The only "critters" running around here are rodents--racoons, possum, rats, squirrels, and you only see them at night. Sometimes jackrabbits, and skunks but only real late at night and if you do see them during the day, they are either roadkill or scrambling on the utility wires overhead!! Not exactly "storybook land" but that's life in the big city with sidewalks and malls galore! Gotta have 'em! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

<small>[ August 29, 2002, 03:46 AM: Message edited by: BINthereDUNthat ]</small>

BTDT

How can anyone living five miles from the Pacific Coast in all its majesty think living in the woods as something one only reads about? yeah, in Hansel and Gretel. It's really creepy around here at night because there are no street lights. Right after Jurassic Park came out, I frantically called my best friend from the road in the middle of the night and told her I thought I left my iron on and would she please go over and check it out for me. What a trooper. She did as I requested, but she had just seen the movie that day and she said that navigating through the vegetation in my yard had her so spooked (and this is a woman who has had a pet tarantula for twenty years and watches surgeries on TLC) because of the rustling noises in the dark, she said pay back would be big.

Bipolar and I used to vacation on the Pacific Coast before all the stuff happened...when we were doing very well and our bu$ine$$ was $ucce$$ful...we did this every year for years. It is something we reminisce about with longing and fondness.

As far as hardwood floors, there is something called Pergo (spelling) that is pretty amazing and can go over existing flooring, from what I understand.

I would love to have an office off my bedroom or den. Right now I have my computer in a folding table in my diningroom, and I sit there as we speak. If we get this small home improvement loan, we can finish the basement and I will have a small nook for my desk and computer.

So, how do you make your own soaps and bath salts? What "flavors" do you use?

Catnip =^^=

What a fun idea!
I love my house! My mom designed it in 1949, and was built out in rural Iowa farmland, one mile or so north of the mighty Mississippi.
We have 15 acres, 14 which are farmed for corn. We are now smack in the middle of business surrounding us on all sides, a bank, insurance buildings, an abortion clinic, and an anti abortion clinic directly across the street from it. Sounds awful, but in my yard I have all the privacy in the world. I have all my big blue spruces, flowering crabs, and the weeping willows that I climbed as a girl.

The house itself really needs to be updated. It is a brick ranch. Little by little we have been fixing it up, no major changes, just painting and sanding down floors. We added a sunroom, and this year changed it to a 4 season room. I love to sit out there and read.
Like BTDT we have critters roaming around, mostly ground hogs, every year we have a new family move in. And in the house unfortunately in the fall we get the field mice.

We have three bedrooms, one full bathroom on the main floor that we all shared somehow without any difficulty. Dining room is now a den, which now stores a hodge podge of furniture that H is taking with him today to move into apartment:(

The kitchen is large, but not really set up the way I would like it, but not ready to take that big step to remodel. I want an island in there somewhere.

The living room is where we spend all our time, it is more of a family room.

About 7 years ago I put in a lap pool for myself. That is how I relax, going out and cleaning the pool, it is my solitary enjoyment.

I guess the reason I like my house so much is all the memories I have growing up.

Tina

ooooooo, I like this thread.

I live in a NYC highrise building. BAsically my "house" is 1 city block long with stores and a bank on the ground level. There are BIG double doors and my doorman.

Up the elevator in the C section is where you'll find me. It's a lovely 2 bedroom apartment. Nice living room with a big tree in it. Regular furniture. (I love my tree).

NExt to that is the dining area. and across from that is a sitting area or den.

Down the hall and around the corner are the sleeping quarters. My son's room is painted while with under the sea appliques on the walls. HE also has an under the sea comforter and about a millon toys. My room used to be 3 shades of bright orange, but was recently painted back to white. I have a bright multi colored bed spread, bay lamps and very cute scalloped edge night tables. I have a big black wroght iron bed and there are black and white framed kiss photo's around the room.

Just last week I bought bright yellow chairs. IT's cheery to say the least.

The bathroom is done in a Paris theme. Lots of pix from my trip there adorn the walls and there's a white and pastel flowered chiffon shower curtain.

Wow, Tina, what a wonderful legacy from your Mom and family, to be able to live in your childhood hiome as an adult. In this transient world, this is truly a blessing. (Good night Mary Ellen, good night John Boy)

Are you in the north east quadrant of Iowa? I heard it is so spectacularly beautiful, it takes your breath away...like one of those well kept secrets none of the natives talk about to keep out riff-raff. All those bluffs and hills.

I used to clean pools for a living for a few years just for the "ohm" of it all. It was my meditation time, so I know what you mean. It was a job I never minded at all, but then Pisces love water whether they are in it or around it.

Your little slice of heaven sounds so peaceful and beautiful...a place (and person) your husband will miss the rest of his life...

Love

Catnip =^^=

Katie Scarlette has a doorman...puff, puff! That's not too cool or anything, is it?

So, you're a "Paris" freak, too, n'est pas? I swear someday I am going to retire around there and open a 'chocolat' shop and sleep with Johnny Depp.

I figured you for a cosmo kind of gal...hailing cabs and hanging at art museums. The best part about NY is if you have a hankering for Chinese or pizza at 2 AM...no problem. The place around the corner is open til 4.

Your place sounds like a haven amidst the excitement...

Catnip =^^=

Ahhh, I would have loved to describe our old house outside of Boston (cape, 5 BR, 6 fireplaces, build in 1830)...

Our house is set back from the road about 1/4 mile (gravel drive). It's on 8 acres of beautiful oak savannah/prairie land---lots of mature burr and white oaks and hickories, with some open prairie land with grasses and wildflowers. I'm still working on the gardens---the kids take up too much time to go wild with the landscaping (and I love DIY stuff, so I'm not going to run out and hire a landscaper). It's definitely a million dollar setting.

The house itself is a 8 year old cape, rough cedar siding in a dark red/brown stain. We have a wrap-around porch in the front. The laundry room/mud room is off the garage---I call it the "room of the seven doors". You have outside to garage, outside to back patio (with no step, so it's a drop), in to kitchen, powder room, small pantry, and a double folding closet doors (2). We just redid the walls with a faux finish on the bottom (a barn red dragged oil), and put a chair rail up around this small room. Kitchen is OK---we have a built in penninsula eat-in area that's too small---we want to blow it up and combine the kitchen and dining room into one. The floors in the dining room and family room are OSB right now---we're going to put in hardwood (Brazilian Cherry) this fall, but the urine-soaked carpet had to go (old dog...). Cathedral ceiling in the family room. 1st floor master bedroom. Doors out to the deck (low) for both, and a brick patio/walks around the deck in the back (I did them myself and have back surgery scars to show for it...).

Upstairs has two bedrooms, a sitting area overlooking the family room and foyer, and a bath. We could use another 500 sq ft (this is +/- 2000). It's funny to think that our starter home (10 years ago) was a 3200 sq ft tract "McMansion" and we only had one kid. We've gone smaller with each move.

Furniture is a mis-mosh. We have some antiques, some shaker, some craftsman, some junk.

The land is beautiful. Peaceful---birds (no piliated---we're not 'north' enough Catnip), deer, lots of others (coyotes at night). We have several dogs, a few cats, and a couple horses (boarded a few miles away). The kids have been enjoying butterfly hunting recently. I've got tons of plans for it, but will need another 20 years. The nice thing is grass will "grow" whereever you mow, and the area looks like an arboretum right now. I keep about 3 acres mowed, and we have mown paths through the rest. And there's a great fishing pond 50' from our front door (although it's the neighbors)---I pulled a 5 lb bass out there last fall. Kids love that too!!!

This is fun. I'm one of those people who when driving at night or walking the dog, likes to look in peoples windows (from the road..) when their lights are on, so I can see what kind of furnature they have or what color their walls are painted. I like to decorate..
We live on East Coast, about an hour from NYC. In a sleepy little town. Our house is a colonial, our yard is pretty good size. We have woods between our neighbors and alot of grassy area to our yard. Flat in the front and sort of hilly in back. Lots of perenial gardens all around. I normally put in one new garden a year. I love flowers. We have a sun room off the kitchen,my H just put down a wood floor out there. Its decorated in mosly wicker, but is full of kid stuff. I have a portion of the room decorated for kids, with all the wall hangings at their level, and kid furniture. Rest of house has wood floors and tile. I have wool area rugs in all the downstairs rooms except kitchen and bath. Burber upstairs, where we have 3 bedrooms and a full bath. Kitchen is smaller than I'd like but the layout is nice. Good for cooking and eating. I've got the rooms stenciled and painted in warm shades of green, pale blue and white, or cream. Decor is mix of a few antiques, antique replicas and modern furniture. Its sort of my own look. House isn't an old new england colonial though, I was always afraid we'd buy a haunted house, so this one was built in '95..
The outside is vinyl sided, I have window boxes under all the windows and out on the deck. They are stained to match the house. I love to put big pink, white, and fushia geraniums with other little white and green flowers in them. I'm gearing up for all the mums I put out in fall.
No lake to speak of within 3 or 4 miles, Atlantic is 40 minutes away... I always dreamed of one day living on the water. I don't care if its ocean, lake, pond, or puddle..

How about your decors? I love to steal ideas..
CM

excellent idea Catnip <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

the journey to our house is almost the best part of where we live...once you leave the county road and hit the private road your passing thru a cornfield on one side and a soybean field on the other, then the bridge over the creek...a monster steel bridge, Doc and I walk to the bridge almost every night to see the critters...racoons, deer, a beaver, a woodchuck and my favorite...a blue heron, the remaining quarter mile up our driveway is uphill slightly...a horse pasture on one side and cattle on the other. The house sits on top of the hill, nestled in among the cotton wood and oak tree's..a porch runs the length of the house facing south...Doc and I will be married on this porch soon <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />
The house was built in 1917. It has high celings and lots of windows. the main floor consists of the living room, sitting room with a fireplace, dining room, pantry, bathroom and kitchen w/an eating area. Doc is a modern black leather type of person and I am more of a over stuffed floral type. We've managed to pull it all together so we're each pleased. The living room has two sets of french doors that open to a screened in porch facing east...we catch a nice breeze in the evenings thru them...the view from them is something else...it over looks green rolling hills as far as you can see... not typically what you think of thinking about Kansas...it is not all flat and brown...LOL
The upstairs is divided by the staircase...to one side is 2 bedrooms and a bathroom...the girls share a room on this side, their bedroom has a window seat, I find myself there at times daydreaming. The other half of the upstairs is ours, another full bath and our bedroom with a fireplace that doesnt work <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="images/icons/frown.gif" /> Doc had the idea of filling it with candles ...
there is another small room that we use as a catchall. One thing I love about here is that we don't have anything over the windows, yep NO curtains or blinds...the closest neighbors are 1/2 mile away...
The outbuildings are kind of intersting, the garage is an old carriage house...in the front lawn you can see where there are carriage ruts from visitors past.
There is a chicken house that I've been getting ready for chickens ( remember I'm a city girl)
There are more birds here than I've ever seen before..I need to get a bird book. There is a turtle dove nesting in a tree outside of the kitchen window...I keep chasing the kittens away from climbing that tree...grrrr
You ladies clean pools to relax...for me it's hanging my laundry out on the line.

I feel blessed to live here..

Oh my God, K....I might be premature here, but I think you have won the Martha prize...

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by K:
<strong>Ahhh, I would have loved to describe our old house outside of Boston (cape, 5 BR, 6 fireplaces, build in 1830)...

Boston is my all time favorite city. I've been there many, many times...1830? Wreaking of history and ghosts. Must have been unbelievably wonderful...

Our house is set back from the road about 1/4 mile (gravel drive). It's on 8 acres of beautiful oak savannah/prairie land---lots of mature burr and white oaks and hickories, with some open prairie land with grasses and wildflowers.

Mmmmmmmm.

The house itself is a 8 year old cape, rough cedar siding in a dark red/brown stain. We have a wrap-around porch in the front.

A wrap around porch!!! I am so jealous! They make a house and people in it so...civilized, or something.

The laundry room/mud room is off the garage---I call it the "room of the seven doors". You have outside to garage, outside to back patio (with no step, so it's a drop), in to kitchen, powder room, small pantry, and a double folding closet doors (2). We just redid the walls

What walls? How can you have any walls when you have seven doors! Hahaha

It's funny to think that our starter home (10 years ago) was a 3200 sq ft tract "McMansion" and we only had one kid. We've gone smaller with each move.

Same for us...we're into "cozy" now

Furniture is a mis-mosh. We have some antiques, some shaker, some craftsman, some junk.

Sounds like my furniture, except for the Shaker.

The land is beautiful. Peaceful---birds (no piliated---we're not 'north' enough Catnip), deer, lots of others (coyotes at night). We have several dogs, a few cats,

Coyote food...make sure your sweet tabbies are in at night...meow

The nice thing is grass will "grow" whereever you mow, and the area looks like an arboretum right now. I keep about 3 acres mowed, and we have mown paths through the rest. And there's a great fishing pond 50' from our front door (although it's the neighbors)---I pulled a 5 lb bass out there last fall. Kids love that too!!!

Wow, wow, wow is all I can say.
</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by CMiranda:
<strong>This is fun. I'm one of those people who when driving at night or walking the dog, likes to look in peoples windows (from the road..) when their lights are on, so I can see what kind of furnature they have or what color their walls are painted.

Oh this is creepy...me too. My husband tells me someday I will be arrested for stalking. In fact, one night my friend and I actually got out of the car and walked on someone's lawn for a better look at the tantalizing decor we caught of glimpse of from the street. I mean, this place was CHARMING beyong words...lots of amber lighting and screened porches and a huge stone fireplace. The gardens and plantings around the house were so incredibly cool, it looked to be right out of a magazine.

I was always afraid we'd buy a haunted house

Like K's 1830 house in Boston...

I have window boxes under all the windows and out on the deck.

A house is not a home without window boxes...and shutters!!!

I'm gearing up for all the mums I put out in fall.

So, how does one do that? Do you just yank out the annuals from summer and replace with mums that you hope last til Christmas? Are you going to get that dark burgundy and some deep gold ones?

I always dreamed of one day living on the water. I don't care if its ocean, lake, pond, or puddle..

Hahaha...since we have a lake in front and a pond in back, Bipolar says we breed mosquitos but it's a small price to pay for all those negative ions from all that water (which is a GOOD thing...makes one's overall mental state cheerful with a sense of well-being). My friend felt as you do and put in a pond herself...with goldfish and a fountain and it is something to behold. Very beautiful. If you can't bring the mountain to Mohammed,...

CM</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">

Auntie Em! Auntie Em! You are blessed, Dorothy. And, Toto, too!

What a cool house...I love the idea of nothing on the windows and an array of candles in a non-working fireplace. I can just imagine your wedding on the front porch of that stately and wonderful home.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by DocsGirl:
<strong>excellent idea Catnip <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

the journey to our house is almost the best part of where we live...once you leave the county road and hit the private road your passing thru a cornfield on one side and a soybean field on the other, then the bridge over the creek...a monster steel bridge, Doc and I walk to the bridge almost every night to see the critters...racoons, deer, a beaver, a woodchuck and my favorite...a blue heron, the remaining quarter mile up our driveway is uphill slightly...a horse pasture on one side and cattle on the other. The house sits on top of the hill, nestled in among the cotton wood and oak tree's..a porch runs the length of the house facing south...Doc and I will be married on this porch soon <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />
The house was built in 1917. It has high celings and lots of windows. the main floor consists of the living room, sitting room with a fireplace, dining room, pantry, bathroom and kitchen w/an eating area. The living room has two sets of french doors that open to a screened in porch facing east...we catch a nice breeze in the evenings thru them...the view from them is something else...it over looks green rolling hills as far as you can see...

I feel blessed to live here..</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I can see why, DG...I can see why.

What wonderful homes we all live in...we are all certainly blessed.

Catnip =^^=

I love this thread. Great idea catnip.

I too am one of those people who looks into other people's windows. I figure if they left them open they must want me to look. I also attend EVERY open house I can find. It really doesn't matter if i'm house shopping or not. I'm just a look-y loo.

My mother is an interior designer so i've been nosing around other folks homes since I was knee high.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by catnip:
<strong> I swear someday I am going to...sleep with Johnny Depp.
</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Why did I know you were that kind of wild child underneath it all. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

Hahahaha...

Catnip =^^=

My turn! My turn.

Well, my home is pretty comfy as well. I live in a hilly area with a lot of character. My house sits on a multi-level property. The garage and basement are the first level and there is no access from the interior of the house to the garage. From there, you go up about 6 step to the front yard. It&#8217;s not really a yard anymore. It&#8217;s been laid with decorative brick and is more of a patio area with several planters strategically built in. Plumeria abounds in my front patio area. I have a line of beautiful palms separating my property from the street and affording me some much needed privacy. From the patio, you go up about 10 steps to reach the level of the house. It&#8217;s a 3 bedroom, 1 bath older home with a lot of charm. I have a hardwood floor in my spacious living room, which is decorated in a quasi-Bohemian style. I love exotic looking boxes and chests, so they dominate my living room. I have two old wicker chests with an antique dark stain, that serve as my coffee table. They are my greatest and most treasured find. Along with the chests and boxes, I surround myself with candles and family pictures that are framed in unusual, one-of-a-kinds. I have set up my office area in a corner of my living room. I am not one for &#8220;serviceable and practical&#8221;. I tend to be kind of fu fu and like things to look nice. So, instead of a real bonafide desk, I found an older, rectangular dining table with beautifully sculpted legs. Once I built up the look, I was sold. It looks wonderful as a desk. My furnishings are set off by the natural light that pours through my windows. In the living room alone, I have 3 windows. The largest of these, takes up most of one wall. From here, you would proceed into the dining area, which I try to keep looking &#8220;clean&#8221;&#8230;.yeah right. It&#8217;s not a question of clean for the look, but clean due to Little Man throwing his food everywhere. I had to protect my furniture from his attacks and finally opted to remove all but the bare essentials&#8230;the dining table and his high chair. The floor however, helps bring out the room. It&#8217;s a white textured, rough looking tile. It&#8217;s hard to describe, but the coolest thing I&#8217;ve ever seen&#8230;as far as tile goes. This same tile was also used in the kitchen, the hall, and my bathroom. The kitchen itself is one big square. It too is spacious, with 2 windows and my back door&#8230;.also with a window. God help me if I wanted to run the house naked! In the kitchen, I went for more of a country charm look. I have yet ANOTHER table, butcher block with the weathered look, that I keep pushed up underneath one of my windows. I use it as my work area for baking, slicing and dicing, groceries, folding laundry, etc. Down the hall I have my bathroom. Cozy, but still, just a bathroom. Then you come upon Little Man&#8217;s room. I had so much fun putting this room together. I was so excited about it that I may have taken him out of his crib prematurely&#8230;now he wanders the house in the middle of the night (yikes&#8230;I thought I had rats, but it was just Jonas). His room is done up in a sports motif. He has bunkbeds with sports pillows all over it. The comforters are Brandee Danielle&#8217;s Sports in the navy blue. He has a high-boy dresser, a desk (I know, I know&#8230;a bit young), a full bookcase, a toy chest, and his little rocker, all in natural maple with saphire blue trim. His name is written on the wall, literally, in wood block letters, painted in primary colors. He has pennants from our local baseball team. A framed picture, with autograph, of our hometown hero, Junior Seau. I think, though, MY favorite piece in his room, is his table lamp. It&#8217;s a table (with a lamp&#8230;ha ha) that is made up of 3 wood shelves that are cut to look like the bases of a baseball diamond, and have cutouts in the center of each one to fit a different sports ball. The bottom shelf cradles a football, the second shelf has a soccer ball, and the top shelf has a hole just big enough to nestle a baseball. The top shelf has 2 additional holes to accommodate 2 baseball bats. The legs are also made up of wooden baseball bats. The lampshade is made of the same pattern on the comforters. It&#8217;s really pretty neat. On to the second bedroom. It&#8217;s the smallest of the rooms and is for guests. In there, the furniture is oak. I have a captain&#8217;s bed, a bookcase, and a TV stand&#8230;.with my PS1. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" /> Now, MY room is my sanctuary. I have a queen size, pencil post bed that requires a stool or good jumping abilities, to get into it. At the foot of my bed, I have a Deacon&#8217;s bench that holds my many blankets. Then there&#8217;s my dresser/mirror with the beautiful carvings&#8230;but such a pain to dust! I have the matching armoire&#8230;more dusting, and then a mini bookcase on a wrought iron base, that holds my many lotions, smelly sprays, and powders&#8230;.more fu fu stuff. All the furniture is in a pickled pine with wrought iron pulls and corner guards. The colors are soft&#8230;sage, ivory, rose, and a little burgundy. When it comes to the bedroom, can I say one thing? Pillows, pillows, pillows! Okay, so that&#8217;s the interior. The backyard is Jonas&#8217; heaven. From the kitchen, you go down 3 steps to the deck area. I have my table and chairs for the evening time out, and he has his Lego table. This area is perfect for frequent outdoor BBQ&#8217;s. Along the back of the house, I have an enclosed planter full of plumeria and other green stuff, lined by a walkway for strolling and sightseeing. From this walkway, you ascend 6 deep steps and come upon the REAL yard&#8230;complete with grass and treehouse perfect tree. This is Jonas favorite place. He runs the grass barefoot, waiting for the sprinklers to come on. When he gets tired, he walks to the back of the yard, which has yet another bricked in area that is raised about 1 foot. It&#8217;s the perfect sitting height for him. This area has 4 circular planters built in, which have been planted with Bird of Paradise. Little Man likes to sneak up there with his sidewalk chalk. Gee, come to think of it, this isn&#8217;t MY house. It&#8217;s Little Man&#8217;s!

Ummmm...ok, so it was a little long. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

Hi Catnip,
My house - I just moved here three weeks ago, one week before the start of law school. It is a town house - very simple, very factory-issue. Kitchen and living room downstairs, two bedrooms and a bath up. All bland white walls and sterile fixtures. Every house in this little development looks exactly the same, two townhouses per unit, both mirror reflections of each other. It's small and unoriginal and not unique whatsoever. Looks just like any other government subsidized housing (one of the reasons I came here is so that I can actually afford to eat and feed the kids while in lawschool). BUT.....

It is my first place that I have ever had on my own. I put everything just where I wanted and got new towels and a new shower curtain that I picked out by myself (my big housewarming "splurge" for myself, haha). I have my wicker basket collection hanging in a border-like fashion around the living room, and my couches are nice with built-in recliners that I inherited from my grandmother. I have pictures galore of my whole family, all in cute dollar-store frames, all over the place, and my framed Paul McCartney 2002 tour poster hangs in the stairwell so that I can touch it every morning a'la' Laverne-and-Shirley style when I leave for class in the morning. There is not room for much, but what I have I keep clean and fresh, and in such a small space, I can actually pretend that the old furniture is shabby chic rather than just plain shabby.

It is a new start.

I feel good here. It is peaceful (well, at least as peaceful as it can get with the neighbors blaring rap and rock into the wee hours). I like it. I tuck my children into bed at night and I come down and sit and do homework and study.

It's mine.

And there are no ghosts. No ow. No oc issues. At least none that I can't hide from for a while, <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

I'll be here for three years - 2 and 1/2 if I take summer courses. And to quote folk singer Todd Snider, "I'm just happy to be here at all."

Much love,
cd

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by ohbratti1:
[QB]I love exotic looking boxes and chests, so they dominate my living room. I have two old wicker chests with an antique dark stain, that serve as my coffee table. They are my greatest and most treasured find. Along with the chests and boxes, I surround myself with candles and family pictures that are framed in unusual, one-of-a-kinds.
So, instead of a real bonafide desk, I found an older, rectangular dining table with beautifully sculpted legs. Once I built up the look, I was sold. It looks wonderful as a desk. My furnishings are set off by the natural light that pours through my windows
The floor however, helps bring out the room. It&#8217;s a white textured, rough looking tile. It&#8217;s hard to describe, but the coolest thing I&#8217;ve ever seen&#8230;as far as tile goes. QB]</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Well, my flight arrives at noon tomorrow, Ohbratti. I'll bring the award for the most chic and ecclectic house. It sounds so wonderful and you have exquisite taste. I could picture it all.

This thread is so interesting because it truly gives us all a glimpse into who we are and what makes us tick....and it is so much fun imagining the places, which are a reflection of the person inhabiting the space. What makes this so special is we are kind of offering each other an invitation into each others homes by sharing these things about ourselves. This little "glimpse" help me feel a little closer to each of us in this special little family of ours.