Up until we built our new house, Kathy and I
had only lived in one house…for 30 years. We lived in an apartment for a little
over two years after we married, at which point we decided it was time to
invest in a house instead of paying rent. We looked at a lot of houses and
found few that we liked at a price we could afford. The real estate agent kept
pleading with us to look at a particular house in Oak Hills subdivision.
Inexplicably, we believed it was too far out. Not in a hippy sense, but in a
distance sense. In actuality, it was only two miles further out from where we
had been looking. Commuters in Atlanta would laugh their heads off at the idea
of two miles making any kind of difference in commute time. Ah, but what can I
say. We must have been distance challenged at the time.
Ultimately we did go look at the house in
Oak Hills. Upon first looking at it and seeing the size of it, we were pretty
certain it was out of our price range. But fortunately, the man of the house
had already been transferred to another city by his company so he and his wife
were looking to sell as soon as possible. In fact, when we put in the
obligatory offer that was lower than the asking price, the sellers actually
countered with a deal better than our own offer. No, the sellers were not off their
rockers. The better offer happened because the man’s employer decided they
would pay for all the closing costs so he could get moved more quickly to his
new city. Needless to say, we accepted the offer.
The house was quite big. 2000 square feet
of living space on the first level and 1400 square feet more in the basement.
It was a wonderful well-built ranch-style house. There was much to love about
this house, but also a number of things not to love. Those latter things didn’t
really bother us at first. We were just glad to be out the apartment and into
our own home. But over time the stars faded from our eyes and we began to
become more critical of our dwelling place.
One of the biggest issues was the kitchen.
It was galley style and quite narrow. If more than one person was working in
it, a bit of bumping and shoving could occur. Also, the dishwasher and the
refrigerator could not be fully open at the same time since they were
positioned opposite each other. You wouldn’t believe how often I could only
crack the refrigerator door open slightly to put something back. It would have
helped greatly if I were skilled at popping my shoulder and elbow out of joint.
Also, even though the kitchen had a fair amount of cabinet space, it wasn’t
quite enough. We had to store some of our kitchen items in the basement and
drag them upstairs when needed.
Speaking of dragging things upstairs,
another annoyance was bringing in the groceries. Our garage was in the basement
under the kitchen. Upon returning from the grocery store, we’d have to make
several trips up and down the steps to put things away. We also had a deep
freeze in the garage, so whenever we needed a frozen item from it, we’d have to
make that pilgrimage to the basement. When we were younger, we did not consider
this a problem. But as we grew older a strange thing happened. As hard as it is
to believe, over time the steps got taller and increased in number. In fact, by
the time we decided to move, the number of steps was growing exponentially.
Things were getting totally out of hand. Some people said it just seemed like
the number of steps were increasing and getting steeper because we were getting
older. We weren’t so sure about that. I threatened to install a dumb waiter.
Kathy wouldn’t go for it. She said that if we were to get a waiter, she wanted
a smart one that could speak.
Don’t get me wrong, the basement had its
advantages. We went there when tornados showed up. We also had a large room
down there with a pool table. And no, we did not use it as a fancy eating table
like the Clampetts did in the Beverly Hillbillies.
My hobbies require frequent use of a computer.
Kathy’s hobbies involve using a sewing machine, a serger, and scrapbooking
equipment and supplies. At first we had the computer equipment in a room in the
basement while Kathy had her stuff in a room across the hallway. But eventually
we were both using computers so much we decided to move the computer room
upstairs to our guest bedroom. We didn’t have overnight company too often, so
it worked out fine using the basement entry room as the guest bedroom. The
problem was there was no room for Kathy to put her hobby stuff upstairs. You
might say, “So what?” But you see, Kathy and I are part of that rare breed of
husband and wife that actually like spending time together. We wanted to be
able to work together, but we couldn’t with that arrangement.
Another problem was that the laundry room
was very small and right next to the kitchen. That was fine for people who like
to wash clothes and dishes at the same time. We didn’t. Also, our dirty clothes
were stored in our bedroom at the opposite end of the house. With no room for
sorting the dirty clothes in the laundry room, we would do so in the nearby
den. It was kind of weird watching TV over mountains of clothes, although it
did give us a sense of being in nature.
Another annoyance was the size of the
master bathroom. Apparently it was designed and built as a torture chamber for claustrophobic
family members you hated. There was only room for a sink with limited counter
space, a toilet, and a shower. If your spouse was on the toilet as you were
getting in or out of the shower, you’d have to hop over them like a rabbit. One
had to be careful not to trip over the toilet sitter and thus rip the shower
curtain down.
There were a number of other issues I could
mention, but enough complaints. You get the picture. Admittedly, these are all
first world problems. Many people around the world would just stare at us in amazement
should we mention these problems to them. If you have no indoor plumbing or
electricity, you’re not going to be sympathetic to someone complaining about
the size of a laundry room or master bath. I get it. But on the other hand, I
do live in a first world country and I refuse to have third world problems. If
I think the toilet seat in the third bathroom in my house is a bit hard to sit
on, I’m going to complain about it. I’ll leave complaining about third world
problems to those in third world nations. My ancestors already did that type of
complaining years ago. That’s why they built this country up to be a first
world nation. They wanted their descendants to complain about less important
things than they complained about.
We considered remodeling our existing home,
but we didn’t like the idea of disrupting our home life during the process, and
we knew no amount of remodeling could correct the “garage in the basement” issue.
Also, if we removed all those extra steps that had come into existence from
nothing over the years, there would be a huge gap between floors. So, we decided
to go on a search for another house. A real estate agent friend of ours helped
us out. He showed us quite a few homes, but none met with our approval. We had
already decided that if the other house had a number of obvious problems, we weren’t
going to go through the process of selling and buying and moving to just shift
to a house with its own set of issues.
The real estate agent finally realized that
there was only a small chance of finding an existing house that we were willing
to switch to. So, he told us we needed to consider building a house. We were
extremely leery about doing this. We had heard a number of horror stories about
this process from others; some that almost made me wet my pants. However, we
agreed to meet with some builders. What could it hurt, except for our pocket
book, if we decided to go that route? As it turned out, we already knew one of
the owners of the building company as my wife had taught all his kids in
school. So, we started on a positive note. After several meetings with the
builders’ architect, we made the scary decision to sign a contract and have
them build us a house. We took an existing floor plan and modified it to meet
our needs. Well, at least as far as we could determine.
As Kathy and I told people of our decision
to build, a number of them told us: “When you build a house, you can correct
the problems of an existing house, but you’ll just introduce new ones that you
didn’t even consider.” Deep in my heart I knew that was true, but it was still
disconcerting to see it play out in reality.
Our new house is on one level, except for
one small step from the garage up to the laundry room. What were we thinking
letting the builders put in even one step? We already knew how those things could proliferate based on our experience with the old house. However, that step is what allows
any water draining from our cars to be blockaded from running into the house.
In our old house, the garage was level with the basement living area.
Occasionally when we parked our cars inside the garage during a heavy rain or snow,
the water would drain off them and run over to the wall, go under it, and soak
the carpet on the other side. So with that one small step we had one problem
solved. You might say it was one small step for man, but one giant leap for problem
solving.
Our kitchen is now BIG. No running over
each other. Well, except when we are all trying to get to the sink at once.
There’s plenty of cabinet space so we can keep everything we need right there.
We do still have the deep freeze in the garage, but it’s just a short distance
from the kitchen and we don’t have steps to navigate to get there…except for
that one I mentioned earlier. We now have a large laundry room so dirty clothes
can be separated there rather than in the den. We have a LARGE master bath.
There are two sinks so my wife and I don’t have to compete for usage. We have
both a tub and a shower. And the toilet is in its own cubby-hole so you don’t
have to be a rabbit to get to the shower.
Our old master bedroom had two small
closets. This was always a nuisance. Kathy couldn’t store all her clothes
there, so had to keep some in the basement. I won’t mention navigating those
steps again. Whoops! I guess I just did. Hey, even I, the man, could not store
all my clothes in my closet. And I didn’t even have very many clothes, at least
by first world standards. Our new house has a LARGE walk-in closet that can
comfortably store all our clothes. It’s very nice.
My wife, son, and I are book junkies. In
our old house we had bookcases scattered throughout the house, both on the
first level and the basement, to hold all those books. We decided to correct
that problem by having a library in the new house. It would have floor to
nine-foot ceiling shelves for storing all those books. Well, except for our son’s
books, which he wanted to keep separate in his bedroom. Add pocket French
doors, a table, and a couple of recliners, and we also had a reading room.
Nice!
Yet, as our friends predicted, we did
introduce a few new issues. Not as many. Not as troublesome. But issues
nonetheless. In our old ranch style house, the rooms were well separated. But
having been influenced by many different HGTV shows, we decided we wanted our
new house to be more open concept. This is nice in many ways, but does have its
disadvantages. In particular, NOISE! It’s hard for anyone to do anything in one
room without the noise disturbing others in another room.
In our old house, the bedrooms and kitchen
were on opposite ends of the house. In our new house the living space is
centrally located with the bedrooms surrounding it. For instance, our kitchen
is right next to the master bedroom. And even with a wall between them, the
blender and garbage disposal and even the cabinets doors closing, can be heard
in the bedroom. If you are a light sleeper and you are on a disparate schedule
from your spouse, this can be a problem. Also, in our old house we had pressed
wood countertops. They were well made and had lasted for years. They also
absorbed the impact of dishes being set on them. In our new house, at the
recommendation of many people, we installed granite countertops. They look
elegant, but talk about clanging as dishes are set on them. We could open our
doors and use the sound as a substitute for a church clock tower. Once you
adjust how heavy handed you are, this noise can be minimized, but it was still
disconcerting initially.
We had installed some hardwood and tile in
our old house, but the den remained carpeted. However, carpet is a dirt trap no
matter how much you vacuum. We decided to go with all hardwood and tile in the
new house. While this is nice for cleaning, it can be hard on your feet if you
like to go barefooted in the house like I do. Also, the sound from the TV
echoes more, making it harder to understand conversations while watching all
those romantic Hallmark movies. Closed captioning is a good solution to this
problem, although I have noticed that on some shows the words aren’t on the
screen long enough for me with my slow reading skills.
We were so looking forward to having a
covered patio since the old house had an open patio. Then we could grill even
when it was raining. Well, that’s what we thought. As it turned out, the smoke
likes to congregate under the patio ceiling when the grill is sitting on the
patio. This is okay if you have X-ray vision that allows you to see the food on
the grill through the smoke, but unfortunately I am not from the planet
Krypton. Also, I was concerned about discoloring the vinyl ceiling over time.
So, I have to roll the grill onto the grass away from the patio. Not going to
do that when it’s raining. It wouldn’t be prudent. Oh well, at least we can sit
outside when it’s raining…unless, of course, the wind is blowing the rain
sideways.
There are a number of other issues, but I’ll
just mention one more. There is not as much storage space in the new house as
the old one. But we put a positive spin on that one. We decided that if we didn’t
have enough storage in the new house, then we
had too much stuff! We relinquished ourselves of much of our stuff before
we moved, then more after we moved, and are still looking to get rid of more.
You have probably heard the old saying, “The person who dies with the most
stuff wins.” That’s not true. Dying with a lot of stuff is easy. Dying with a minimal amount of stuff is hard. Those that do that are the real winners.
