Friday Five
Apr. 4th, 2003 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylik 1. How many houses/apartments have you lived in throughout your life?
Define "lived". My childhood house, the house in Connecticutt. The house in Edmonds, Craig and my two apartments (the tiny one on Capitol Hill, and the roomier damp basement one in Wallingford) and our house. Possibly the place in Palo Alto CA, and the apartment in Pendik, Turkey.
2. Which was your favorite and why?
The contenders are my childhood home and our current place. (Though the indoor garden in Connecticutt was kind of cool, as was the Steinway grand...) I loved the location and view from my childhood home. Eight foot tall half circular windows looking over the lake and mountains... Highish ceilings, beautiful bay windows... Oh, and a full basement. Gods but I wish we had a full basement here. And I liked the older architecture, though I think overall I prefer craftsman to victorian.
I really like the layout of our current place (though it doesn't really have enough bedroom/office rooms, and we don't have a proper studio -- I've sometimes thought about adding another story about the living room, I think a 20x30 studio would probably be adequate.) I love my kitchen. I love the brick oven. I like being able to look out the window of my office and see all the trees. I like being able to walk through my backyard naked it I feel like it. The gardens are wonderful (if sometimes a little overwhelming).
3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful? Why?
It has always been more exciting than stressful so far, but then I haven't moved since we bought the house and hence more stuff. And I've never been unhappy about moving (except maybe a little when my mom sold her place and moved into the cohousing community and there was all the foo-rah about whether we'd move with her and then we didn't...) I've never had to move somewhere else because of a job or because I couldn't afford the current place.
I'm hoping the next move (if there is one) will be into a place we've designed and had built. And I hope that will make it exciting. I'm also hoping I can afford to hire people to do a lot of the packing and moving.
4. What's more important, location or price?
Price is at some level an absolute barrier, but outside of that location is more important. Hmmm... this is much more true with buying than renting -- if you have faith in the local housing market, and your own ability to continue to pay for a place, it often makes a lot of sense to buy something a little more expensive that you will stay in longer, because you'll be locking those expenses in, and moving is expensive.
5. What features does your dream house have (pool, spa bath, big yard, etc.)?
Um, hot tub and brick oven, but we have those. A masonry heater. A full basement with both humid and dry cellars. And a dry, cool, server room. A great room with enough room to hold the dining table with ten feet of leaves (and still hold our couch and chairs) and a chest high fire place with nifty wrought iron cooking fittings. A proper pantry! A martial arts studio / ballroom. A number of small bedrooms in pairs, with doors between each pair. (I'd like to be able to hold a lot of people, but in less crowded times I think everyone getting both a bedroom and a sitting room is a good idea. -- oh, and they should be built to easily accomodate lofts.) High ceilings everywhere.
A couple of cottages or cabins around the property. Maybe one or two in the form of treehouses. An orchard. A walled garden off the kitchen (a big one, with little benches and suchlike, and paths and raised beds, full of herbs and espallied fruit trees). A greenhouse that can hold a dwarf lemon, mango, and avocado. Woods, with stream and swimming hole. A barn. A nice big sunny vegetable garden, deer proof.
Define "lived". My childhood house, the house in Connecticutt. The house in Edmonds, Craig and my two apartments (the tiny one on Capitol Hill, and the roomier damp basement one in Wallingford) and our house. Possibly the place in Palo Alto CA, and the apartment in Pendik, Turkey.
2. Which was your favorite and why?
The contenders are my childhood home and our current place. (Though the indoor garden in Connecticutt was kind of cool, as was the Steinway grand...) I loved the location and view from my childhood home. Eight foot tall half circular windows looking over the lake and mountains... Highish ceilings, beautiful bay windows... Oh, and a full basement. Gods but I wish we had a full basement here. And I liked the older architecture, though I think overall I prefer craftsman to victorian.
I really like the layout of our current place (though it doesn't really have enough bedroom/office rooms, and we don't have a proper studio -- I've sometimes thought about adding another story about the living room, I think a 20x30 studio would probably be adequate.) I love my kitchen. I love the brick oven. I like being able to look out the window of my office and see all the trees. I like being able to walk through my backyard naked it I feel like it. The gardens are wonderful (if sometimes a little overwhelming).
3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful? Why?
It has always been more exciting than stressful so far, but then I haven't moved since we bought the house and hence more stuff. And I've never been unhappy about moving (except maybe a little when my mom sold her place and moved into the cohousing community and there was all the foo-rah about whether we'd move with her and then we didn't...) I've never had to move somewhere else because of a job or because I couldn't afford the current place.
I'm hoping the next move (if there is one) will be into a place we've designed and had built. And I hope that will make it exciting. I'm also hoping I can afford to hire people to do a lot of the packing and moving.
4. What's more important, location or price?
Price is at some level an absolute barrier, but outside of that location is more important. Hmmm... this is much more true with buying than renting -- if you have faith in the local housing market, and your own ability to continue to pay for a place, it often makes a lot of sense to buy something a little more expensive that you will stay in longer, because you'll be locking those expenses in, and moving is expensive.
5. What features does your dream house have (pool, spa bath, big yard, etc.)?
Um, hot tub and brick oven, but we have those. A masonry heater. A full basement with both humid and dry cellars. And a dry, cool, server room. A great room with enough room to hold the dining table with ten feet of leaves (and still hold our couch and chairs) and a chest high fire place with nifty wrought iron cooking fittings. A proper pantry! A martial arts studio / ballroom. A number of small bedrooms in pairs, with doors between each pair. (I'd like to be able to hold a lot of people, but in less crowded times I think everyone getting both a bedroom and a sitting room is a good idea. -- oh, and they should be built to easily accomodate lofts.) High ceilings everywhere.
A couple of cottages or cabins around the property. Maybe one or two in the form of treehouses. An orchard. A walled garden off the kitchen (a big one, with little benches and suchlike, and paths and raised beds, full of herbs and espallied fruit trees). A greenhouse that can hold a dwarf lemon, mango, and avocado. Woods, with stream and swimming hole. A barn. A nice big sunny vegetable garden, deer proof.
