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.
