But, as for what life if like in the Barndo, here goes...
The Annoying Things
- One bathroom - which is in our bedroom, and is also the closet/laundry area. We had some surprise visitors from out of town the other day, who needed a potty break, and they got to experience our normal mess - there is no hiding it. Things get cleaned up to be presentable for guests once or twice a week, and hopefully I'll get better at that, but when we are rolling out of bed and rushing off to work each morning, I doubt they will improve drastically. ;)
- The floor gets dirty quickly - with little grass at the moment, any sweeping/mopping efforts last about 30 minutes max- especially when people don't take off their shoes! And with stained concrete throughout, there is no ignoring the gritty feel of it either. At least this prompts me to sweep and mop frequently. :-}
- Humidity - the weather has been teetering on the edge of needing an A/C unit lately. Some days have been in the 70s, but we're also frequently getting 30-40 degree nights/mornings. Thus, its diffifult to justify putting in the window unit (air leaks and all), but this means it gets a big humid in the house some times. This bothers Devon more than me.
- Cleaning is quick - with <600>
- The Fridge is nice - one of the only items we splurged on, a 29 cu ft Samsung fridge has paid off. It will move to the future house with us, but it has been a joy to use.
- No more gravel road - it is SO nice to be off the gravel road that we used to have to drive down for 5 miles to get to the other house. We don't yet have the driveway to our house, so it is dirt once you get on our property, but its much better than what we used to put up with.
- No rent, low electricity bills - soooo nice.
- Fewer bugs - the other house always seemed to have some sort of critter begging for Raid or a mousetrap. We're in the middle of the woods here, so we still have the occasional spider, but much more tolerable here.
- Trees - its nice to look out the windows and have a pretty view. Most of the leaves are gone now, except for the Live Oaks, but it was very pretty when the leaves were changing. One of our BIG trees was a gorgeous fiery gold that you could see from the road. Even bare, the trees are still very intriguing to stare at.
- Dishes stare me down until they get done - which usually means they get done pretty quickly. With the kitchen in the middle of the living room, a sink full of dirty dishes is much harder to ignore than our previous separate kitchen. Its also nice not to be relegated to the kitchen to do dishes. In our future house, the kitchen and formal living area will be one big Great Room, so this feature will carry over. :)
- Close quarters 24/7 - as expected, it feels small, and no matter what if both of us are home, its tight. We've been spoiled with multiple TVs, rooms, bathrooms, etc in the past, but some things, like when I'm cooking Devon can recline and harass me, are not things I ever want to get used to.
- My Verizon cell phone doesn't get reception here - unless I'm standing on the porch. It does ring and receive emails/texts, which is a positive, but given its the middle of winter with temps sometimes in the 20s, no cell service is a bit of a pain. On the rare occasion I NEED to make a lengthy call, I have to drive up the hill a bit.
- Our dryer doesn't work - ironic I know. It worked for 2 loads (which Devon did) when we first moved in. So, for a month and a half now, I've been loading up laundry and doing it at my parents. If it were summer, I'd be inclined to just line dry things, but its been pretty damp and cool outside lately. We found out today that this is evidently a wiring problem with the house, so who knows how much fun it will be to fix. :(
- No excess capacity - I'm a believer in excess capacity being a necessity for smooth operations... though I never expected it to go beyond applying to business/manufacturing, I've also found it applies here. Currently, our things are like one of those little plastic puzzles where you move the squares around one at a time until you sort out the mixed up picture. It'd be much quicker to make that picture if there was more than one square missing. In our daily lives, this translates to the fact that if one little thing gets out of place, it has a domino affect on everything else. We're getting there (installed coat hooks yesterday), but we're still adjusting.
- Our 9ft Xmas tree had no place here - it was sad to leave the 1 yr old tree in its box this year. I'm not a huge decorator, and admitidly the cleanup was much easier, but I know Devon was sad to have a little 2 ft Chrismas tree cone as our only decoration this year. Even if we are in this house next Christmas, we'll be able to decorate some of the outside trees with lights at least.
The Surprising
- What I can cook in a tiny kitchen - with just 2 burners, a toaster oven and a microwave, we're doing pretty well. My only complaint is I can't have 2 large pans on the stove at the same time, but I'm learning to manage. I made a chocolate mousse pie for Xmas, hand whipping the cream myself... who needs electic mixers? (Ok, I thought my arm would fall off, but still...) I also asked for - and got - a slow cooker cookbook for Xmas... so I'm going to try to expand our options (and simplify my life) by using the crock pot. We've only grilled once, mostly due to the weather and the fact that it gets dark at 5pm, but that will change (I also got a Grilling cookbook for xmas).
- The shower is big enough - I blogged previously that this would be the smalled shower ever for me, and it is, but surprisingly, its plenty big. Shaving my legs is precarious, but I'm managing.
- Devon is colder than I am - most of the time. He's not loving the concrete floors... maybe I'm used to being cold, so I dress accordingly (like an Eskimo), but I'm not just sitting around shivering. Plus, we have a diligent little heater that is working nicely.
- Closet doesn't seem to small - not that I don't long for more room and more clothes, but I'm managing just fine with the small closet. Some of my things that I don't/won't wear often are at my parents, but I'm actually amazed at how little space I can do with.
I'm sure I've missed some things in each of the above lists, but it's a pretty good representation of how I'm feeling. I'd say the most difficult part is that I like a lot of solitary time, and with 2 people in a little space, that doesn't happen often. Like a few weeks ago, I needed to finish up some work and needed total silence to do so... which led me to the chair in our bedroom. But Devon got tired and came and crashed on the bed... even his breathing bothered me then (I was very stressed).
All in all, I'm quite amazed at our ability to downsize so drastically (< one third the size of our other house), but like I said earlier, people do this all the time. It actually makes me feel guilty as I look at the house plans for the future house (2800 sq ft) and I think if we can live in this, that seems excessive, how will I ever fill it, why do I need such a big, expensive stove, etc, etc... but I guess it boils down to the fact that our life is more than just 2 people. We want to be able to enjoy house guests (surprise or invited) and family and decorate for Christmas and all that.
~L
