Frosty!

This morning V and I discovered that we'd forgotten to turn off our little space heater/radiator downstairs (in itself a bit frightening but thankfully nothing bad happened). It just so happens that said heater is in the same room as our thermostat. Can you guess what we woke to this morning? Icy, icy, icy bedroom. The heat probably barely kicked on all night. When I woke up and yawned I could see my breath. Brrrr. You might also surmise--correctly--that it made for a freakin' COLD shower since our bathroom relies on heat from the kitchen to be any semblance of warm at all. No furnace running = cold kitchen = FRIGID bathroom. I wasn't sure my goosebumps would ever go away.

As I was leaving I brushed against a window and heard a slight crunching noise. Whaaat? Turns out our upstairs windows had a pretty darned good layer of frost on the insides, and I managed to scrape a bit of it off with my purse as I passed. Again, brrrr. Thank goodness for our uber-warm Ralph Lauren down comforter! Many has been the night when it's been almost too warm under there, but it paid for itself last night. We didn't even notice that the heat never kicked in.

Ahhhhhh, this is the life. At least that's what I tell myself. ;)

Architects, designers, and contractors--OH MY!

Over the past two weekends we have been hosting little get-togethers for various people at the house. These have not exactly been social in nature...in fact, we are gearing up for our BIG SPRING PROJECT. The BIG SPRING PROJECT (I've begun to think of it in all capital letters because of what it may mean, good and bad, for our lives) will either be a new garage with studio space on the second floor or it will be an addition with a laundry room/bathroom on the bottom floor and a master closet and full bathroom on the upper floor.

So we've now had three architects and as many contractors out to check out the place and offer their preliminary estimates on cost, feasibility, etc. What a difference from person to person. Some really seem to have an appreciation for the house, some seem like they just want to get out of it as soon as possible, and some don't seem to care one way or the other.

This is going to be a very interesting venture. Right now, we're thinking we'll do the garage first. That would make me really happy because I'm hoping to use the upstairs studio space--at least part of it--as a soaping room. :) Then again, having a real-for-sure bathroom (OMG, and a closet!!) wouldn't be anything to sneeze at either.

Regardless of which project takes precedence, I think we'll have drawings done so that we've got them on the shelf and ready for whenever project #2 gets off the ground. And we're looking into having measured drawings done of the entire house. I think it would be really helpful to have a complete set of drawings for the old gal.

Making a house a home

What does it take before you consider your house a home? Is it simply living there? Or do you require a little something extra psychologically? I do. Normally I don't feel like I'm "home" until I've lived someplace for at least a couple of years and have put down some good roots. The weird thing is, this house has been home to me from the first moment I stepped through the kitchen door. I still get a little thrill when I come up the driveway, and I still smile when I round the bend in our driveway and see the house. It's an awesome feeling.