Meme Sweet Meme
Like several other Gorgeous Ladies Of the Blogo-Sphere (GLOBS), I am also stealing this house meme from American Family.
1. When you walk in your front door, which room do you enter?
A foyer with slate floors and an abrupt staircase. Turn right into the dining room/den, left into the living room, straight ahead into the kitchen.
2. Do you have a dishwasher?
Oh, hell to the yes. And because we have very, very hard water, vast portions of it are stained orange.
3. Is your living room carpeted or does it have hardwood floors?
When we moved in almost two years ago, it was carpeted in a lovely 1980-something country blue. It now has light oak, rustically imperfect 5-inch-plank hardwood floors.
4. Do you keep your kitchen knives on the counter or in a drawer?
Ah - kitchen knives. The Bookish family has either bad habits or bad karma with kitchen knives. We lose them. They break. They disappear. Maybe we have a sprite who steals them, chews their wooden handles to splinters, then replaces them in the wooden knive holder on the counter. Or in the backyard. Whatever. My friend Lolita has a set of knives that look like this. I want them. They look less destructible.
5. House, apartment, duplex or trailer?
House. It was once a 1-room schoolhouse, built sometime before 1854.
6. How many bedrooms is it?
Legally? Three. However, there is a room in the walk-out basement that is roughly the size one might expect from a bedroom. We are "storing" a bed in there. And our son used to also store his clothes, books, stereo, videogames and incense burners in there. He often fell asleep while storing them. But it's not a bedroom.
7. Gas stove or electric?
Electric. Awaiting the day it malfunctions and allows for a replacement with a dual-fuel model.
8. Do you have a yard?
We do - 15 acres of it.
9. What size TV is in the living room?
Our living room has no TV. Which is why we never go in there. Just boring old books and pretty views and peace and quiet. Who wants that? Our den, which is half the size, has a TV, and that's where we spend our time. And the TV is maybe 30 inches? Really, I have no idea.
10. Are your plates in the same cupboard as your cups?
No. The cupboards aren't big enough for that.
11. Is there a coffee maker sitting on your kitchen counter?
Oh. Yes.
12. What room is your computer in?
Our desktop in the room that we variously call the sunroom, the toyroom, the office, the snowroom or the walk-in freezer. It was an addition off the kitchen. It has three walls of windows and is not tied into the furnace heat. We don't go in for 6 months of the year. Our laptops are in whatever room we're in. Mine is usually in my lap.
13. Are there pictures hanging in your living room?
I have a disorder in this department. I can't make a decision. On the mantle in our living room, I have some family photos. I own some other items I would like to get framed and hang, but I have not yet done it.
14. Are there any themes found in your home?
Indecision? Profound disorganization? ADHD? Parenthood? Toddlers? Dog hair?
15. What kind of laundry detergent do you use?
Usually whatever is the cheapest unscented variety. Sometimes specially designed baby-friendly. Sometimes whatever was on sale.
16. Do you use dryer sheets?
Occasionally. One day last week, I used them to smooth Bee's static-sparking hair. I also put one in my pocket while folding clothes, because that is supposed to prevent static shocks from separating dryer-fresh towels and fleece blankets. My HSH pointed out that there is this neat trick of putting one of those things in the dryer and preventing the static build-up.
17. Curtains in your home?
Blinds that were there when we moved in in several rooms. There is a curtain catalog on the side table in my den. (See Questions 13-14)
18. What color is your fridge?
I believe the color is listed as "Almond" in the industry. It came with the house.
19. Is your house clean?
See Question 14.
20. What room is the most neglected?
That depends on the definition of Neglect. There are rooms we benignly neglect, never going into them and never messing them up. There are rooms like the snow room that we actively avoid, quickly depositing toys or stacks of paper or what have you inside, then bolting before frostbite sets in. Then there are the rooms we live in, which seem to be in a near-perpetual state of disarray. We make social plans and invite people over just because we know it will force us to put things in order.
But the saddest neglect in the house has got to be our bedroom, which isn't necessarily messy - or at least not as messy as it could be. But the walls are covered with the wallpaper chosen by the teenage son of the previous owners. It features purple and lime green surfboards against a field of white, and a 12-inch-deep border that is green, purple, blue and metallic silver. The fact that we have slept in that room for a single night without removing the paper is an example of extreme neglect.
21. Are the dishes in your sink/dishwasher clean or dirty?
The ones in the sink are dirty. The ones in the dishwasher are clean. And my guess is that the glass you'll find under the sofa is dirty.
22. How long have you lived in your home?
We bought the house on Valentine's Day 2006 and moved in on March 9.
23. Where did you live before?
We lived in a 3-bedroom, 1918 bungalow that had survived a hurricane.
24. Do you have one of those fluffy toilet lid covers on your toilet?
A toilet? You mean indoors? That's crazy future talk.
25. Do you have a scale anywhere in your house?
We have a scale in our spare bedroom because the bathroom is really too small.
26. How many mirrors are in your house?
Five - one over each bathroom sink, one over the dresser in the spare room, mirrored doors on the spare room closet, one over the upstairs bathroom sink and one over the dresser in my room.
27. Look up. What do you see?
A window that overlooks a snow-covered valley.
28. Do you have a garage?
Yes. Double car.
