I recently started following a new-to-me blog called The Mommy Matters when Courtney somehow landed on my blog and gave me a comment. In the week or so that I’ve been following, I’ve become a huge fan of her blog. On Mondays, she does a meme called No Mom Talk Monday and this week, I thought I would link up.
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Lately, I have been so frustrated with my home. Remember this? I feel like my life is constantly in this state and no matter how hard I try, I just can’t get out of it.
You see, we live in a condo. A two bedroom, one bath, one level condo. One room makes up our living room, dining room, kitchen, and office (I think they call this open concept). Our laundry machine resides in the bedroom. We have one closet for storage. In my opinion, anyone who lives in a winter climate needs extra storage. Especially when you consider snow tires and winter clothing. Once you factor in seasonal decorations and baby paraphernalia, you can imagine how our storage closet looks.
In fact, I’m ashamed to admit that my son’s nursery looks like a glorified storage closet. And our bedroom looks like a laundry room… for the Duggars.
We just don’t have a place to put anything.
No matter how hard I clean before company comes over, I still feel a little ashamed when I look at the state of our home. The entry way is partially blocked by a giant, folded up stroller and a box of books that were packed up to be out of Cameron’s way. Our entry way closet is so full that we aren’t able to hang up coats for our guests. Our computer desk is actually a folding banquet table that holds so much camera and computer equipment that it is over flowing. (Did I mention that this sits in our kitchen/dining room/living room?).
In my frustration, I’ve been coming up with a running list of what I would ultimately want my house to look like. It is my wish list for when we start house shopping (please let it be soon!). Although possibly unrealistic, it is something that has made for an interesting conversation between Dan and I.
So here it is. My ideal house.
Windows. Lots of windows. When you have a household of two photographers and one photogenic baby, you tend to notice the lack of light. Dan and I both dream of a house where natural light is aplenty. We hope that some day, we will complain that our curtains aren’t dark enough and the sheer number of windows in our house is making it hard to sleep. That would be a nice problem to have. Dan even said to me last night, “We should just live in a house completely made of windows).
One huge bedroom. Okay, I don’t need a massive master suite or anything like that. We just need a master bedroom that is big enough to comfortably fit a King Sized bed (along with our dressers and bedside tables and all that). Actually, this isn’t just a wish. This will actually be a requirement whenever we purchase our first house. Since marriage, Dan and I have been sleeping on a double bed, and we can assure you that our first purchase after moving into a house will be a king sized bed.
(at least) Two Bathrooms. Do you ever feel weird having guests use the same bathroom where your toothbrushes hang out in a little cup on the counter? Where you have a hair trap in the shower drain? Where your mismatched bath towels hang? Where your husband sheds his facial hair daily (I hate cleaning that up!)? Dan and I dream about the day when we have a guest bathroom and a personal bathroom. Ideally, we would love an en-suite bathroom. It will be a huge step up from our one bathroom apartment.
Bookshelves. I used to dream about having a home with a beautiful library, complete with floor to ceiling mahogany shelves and leather wingback armchairs. Although that would be divine, I’m a little more realistic now. All I want is to have space for our books. I picture tall bookshelves in every room – enough so that they don’t have to be over stuffed with books. I don’t my books to be in a state of clutter, I want them to be decorative; conversation starters.
Office Space. At one point, Dan told me that we both needed a desktop computer. I told him he was being slightly ridiculous. We already have a desktop, laptop, iPad, and some other work laptops that Dan has access to. But now that we are both doing a lot of photo work, and with my blogging, I can see the appeal of having unique work spaces. Dan would love a “man cave” (barf), but I just think it would be nice to have a place for both of our desks. Even a shared office would be nice. A place where we could each have a desk and a computer. A place where we could go for quiet work. A place where I could have some empty space for hand writing or household planning.
(image source)
Guest Bedroom. Can I tell you something I hate? Not being able to have my family come to stay with us for a visit. If my family wants to visit, they have to stay with other family. So more visiting is done without us than with us. In my opinion, it sucks. All I need is one room specifically for guests with a double bed (luckily, we’ll have an extra one once we get our king bed!). I guess that means we need a house with a minimum of four bedrooms (because I definitely want to have another kid soon).
That’s about it. I could go on and talk about my desire for a backyard, a sitting room and a living room, a playroom for the kids, but those are all pretty much self explanatory.
I could dream about my future house all day. I could sit and pout about how frustrated I am with my current home and feel my envy grow as I think about all those people I do know who have their own homes.
But instead, I’m going to (try really hard to) be thankful for what I have. I’m going to (try really hard to) make my apartment our home. And when we finally, someday, do get our own house, I’m going to remember to appreciate it.
Man cave FTW!
Again – Barf. It will just encourage less family time. "The Husband Unit" will hide out there and play video games. Wouldn't it be nicer to have a shared office space? That sounds lovely!
You should go house hunting in Milford. It's a pretty sweet hood.
I saw your pictures on Facebook. Your new house looks AWESOME! I can't wait to see it for real!
I love windows too. I can't complain too much about our huge, three bedroom apartment but I'm totally with you on the two bathrooms thing. And a yard. Oh how I would love to be able to take my boy outside to play and just let him run around! Maybe in a few more years… heavy sigh…
Oh wow. That heavy sigh sure does sound familiar. Just ask The Husband Unit.
I love looking at houses, my grandmother was a Real Estate Agent so she would always take me on tours. It damaged me for life… now i am too picky LOL. I love brick work on the outside and a large porch, granite counters, 2 bathrooms and OOOHHH that library shot you had looked WONDERFUL….
See what i mean, I'm damaged. My husband listens to me rant about my dream house and i can tell his wallet starts hurting him!
I could talk about houses and design ALL day long. It also doesn't help that my grandfather was an architect so when i was little he would set me up an office space and show me how to design houses on graph paper….
Thank god for enablers!
Ugh. Man Cave. My husband wants one of those too. We lived in a condo while we were in Florida and we had ZERO room for ANYTHING, so I definitely feel your frustration. Our house now [on a military base] is somewhat similar and I find myself brainstorming constand ideas of how to create an office area for myself AND my husband while still keeping my living room somewhat….clean and uncluttered. It's a struggle. And I feel your pain. Hopefully you guys will be able to start house hunting soon and you will get everything you want in a home! Thanks so much for your kind words at the beginning of this post and for linking up today! :-)
I'm so glad I don't spend my free time looking into houses. Right now, a house isn't an option for us, so I try my hardest not even to think about it. If I do find myself cruising real estate listings, I find myself sinking into a slump, wishing for things I know I can't have. This post was a little bit of a stretch for me but my husband and I have been talking about our "needs" lately (more space!), so the post was a natural progression.
But I'm so happy to enable! :)
Seriously what is it with a man cave? My husband works a typical 9-5 job, so the baby sees him for only a couple of hours before bedtime and then he and I only have a few hours to ourselves each day. A man cave would only alienate us further.
Also, why should a man have a dedicated area of the house designated for his leisure? Where is a woman's spot? A Mom Cave? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/mom-caves-the-feminine-answer-to-the-man-cave/article1915167/ It is an admirable idea, but let's be real – when does a Mom have time to retreat?
I think we should just say no to caves in general!
I know, right? I would LOVE a Mom Cave…somewhere that was REALLY off limits to everyone. A place of solitude…a place of silence…a place that stayed clean for more than 5 minutes…guess we'd better keep dreaming, right? :-)
Your dream home sounds lovely! One day you shall have it… with the king sized bed and all the room you want!
I find myself currently day dreaming of my dream home for I know I'll end up in a tiny military style home…. A large log cabin style home if my dream, :-) I currently live in a two storey, 3 bedroom- very large town house and find there is still not enough room… And i don't even have kids yet!
I think we're like goldfish – we grow and acquire stuff in relation to our surroundings. Unlike goldfish, we actually err on the side of WAY TOO MUCH! (at least in my case). I know that if we moved into a house right now, some rooms could already be filled (our bedroom, the nursery, a storage room, the laundry room… ahem), but other's would be lacking at this point. I have no doubt that we would soon feel the need for more room after spreading out.
Hopefully any move you make will bring you to a place where you can feel at home. It would be so frustrating having very little control over your dwelling.
Hi, Laura! I can totally relate to your post, your state of mind, etc. I had a little girls' night out type gathering at my house this past saturday and cleaned for THREE days trying to prepare – like, total spring cleaning for fear that one nosey person would swipe their finger across my wooden blinds and find dust. By the time the event actually rolled around I was totally exhausted and could hardly keep myself awake until the last guest left. And I definitely have days like… why do I bother?! Love your dream house elements. YES, PLEASE!
Hi Courtney! Boy, have I been there! The worst is when the home needs those three days of cleaning and preparing, but I try to stuff it into that one day that people are coming over. I keep giving myself a goal of keeping my place relatively cleaned up on a daily basis, but when things just don't have a place to be put away, clutter starts to pile up really quickly!