Of winters past
Sitting here on this wintry, blustery day, I find myself thinking back to life in the apartment and townhouse at Williamsburg on the Lake and remembering winters there. There are so many differences now that we have a house and I don't want to take even one of them for granted.
The sliding glass door: Our door doesn't let in cold air. Sure, if you stand right next to it you can tell a slight temperature change, but at WotL, whatever room our sliding glass door was in would be at least 20* colder than the rest of the house. In the apartment, in was in the living room. So we would crank up the heat (good thing they paid for it) just to be warm enough that we could feel our fingers and our noses wouldn't run, but when we went to bed at night in the other side of the apartment, it would be so stinking hot there that we'd sleep with a fan on us and wake up covered in sweat. At the townhouse it was in the dining room, so anytime I stood in the kitchen to make dinner or do dishes, my feet would be so cold they would be numb. You know it's bad when you put gloves on just to sit at the table and type. But here at the house, nothing. The same with the large picture window in the living room. When you sit up next to the glass you can tell a change, but it doesn't hit you like a cold wall when you walk into the room. We can remain comfortable here in the winter. Insulation is a blessing!
The front door: At WotL, our front door never sealed. If you stood within five feet of it in the winter, you could actually feel the wind coming in. It would occasionally blow papers off our end table. And when the neighbor stepped outside her door to smoke? All that crap came right into our house. And if you know us, we're very anti-smoking. So imagine our happiness when all of a sudden the entire place reeked of it and our allergies started going berserk. In the summer time, the sun shone directly on our door and became hot enough that the "pretty" squares literally began melting off. We often had to use our gloves in the summer to be able to grasp the knob without getting burned. And when we requested the front door (and that blasted screen door) to be fixed? They always came to cover their own butts and commented that they "fixed" it but it never seemed to be any different by the time we got home. Hmm...
Static electricity: At WotL, we shocked each other constantly. We got into the habit of touching hands before we kissed each other - because nothing makes your eyes water faster than getting zapped on the lips, trust me. It was so bad that our cats squinted their eyes shut every time we went to touch them or they sniffed at each other, because they were preparing for the zap. Here, we don't have that. I realized it the other day when I caught myself grasping a piece of wood before I petted Isabelle. Again, hooray for insulation!
Noise: This isn't just a winter thing, but God it's so nice not to have people above us, next to us and outside all the damn time. I heard our neighbor and her girlfriend using a vibrator late one night. I heard another neighbors porn music come through my speakers from their teenage sons room. With one upstairs neighbor, she cranked her music so loud that our windows and pictures rattled. There were people right outside our bedroom windows at all hours of the night talking, laughing, smoking, driving that damned scooter along the sidewalks. The street lamp shone in our bedroom window so there was always light coming in. And I learned on those occasions where I had forgotten to lower the blinds as darkness settled, one guy on the corner lot sat on top of his shed and looked in our upstairs window. I tell you, I forgot to lower them one time before prior to taking a shower. After I got caught walking into our dark bedroom to get my pajamas and then realized he was watching me (and could actually see me), that became one of the first things I did each night. We're also not woken up at 5am by the trash truck, nor at 6am by someones car alarm that went off every single damn morning. Here at the house, we don't have to jump to turn down the tv when we're watching a movie and suddenly there are loud explosions. We just smile at each other, sit back and enjoy our theater room.
Storage: This also isn't a winter thing but it needs to be added. We have storage! That includes having a place for our yard tools. At WotL, we barely had room for a trowel and weed whacker to "mow" our yard. And don't even think of trying to rent out their push mower. That thing was twenty years old and never started to begin with. In fact, our weed whacker lived inside the house, propped up against a bookshelf. Isn't that lovely? Here, we have a shed. A shed with room. And we have our own lawn mower now, thank you very much. And if I need a place to put things? We have a basement! Things don't have to be stuffed into a closet so that you have to open it very, very carefully. Things don't have to sit around because we have no place for them (though I'm still trying to get used to that idea. Old habits are hard to break.).
Snow: Ah, the bane of my existence. At WotL, there was a plowing schedule you had to keep. Your car had to be out of the way by 8am anytime we had more than two inches of snow. So we would get up early on our weekends, go move our vehicle (after circling for a spot; there were times we had to park clear down at the front office), trudge back in the snow and crawl back into bed. Imagine our snarliness when they wouldn't come to plow for three more days! At the townhouse, they often never touched that little circle drive, they just left us up to our own devices. There were several mornings where I got stuck; and I'm in a small SUV! And when they did plow, they pushed it right up to the sidewalk. So in order to get to your car, you had to trudge through a snow bank that went up to your knees because there was no way around it. Ew! I went to work with snow in my shoes so many times that I started carrying extra socks with me to change once I got there. Then there's the small annoyance of actually cleaning off your car, made more annoying by the snowbanks you had to trudge through when they plowed or the eight inches of snow you had to trudge through when they didn't. Add to the that the worry that someone would steal your car as it's heating up (because it happened) and you have the recipe for bitchy mornings. And salting the sidewalks? Ha! Salt? What's salt? I just wound up salting our own to keep from breaking our necks. (That didn't do much good with the duck feces all over the place because our neighbors fed them - on the sidewalk. Do you know how slick that can be once the rainy season starts? Yuck.) Here, we have a garage. A beautiful, wonderful, fabulous garage. It is SO nice to have a garage! I love our garage if you can't tell. I get to stay dry when it rains, dry when it's snowing and I don't have to clean it off before leaving. It makes me sigh with happiness.
I love our home. I love having a house! And it's made even more apparent in the winter.
The sliding glass door: Our door doesn't let in cold air. Sure, if you stand right next to it you can tell a slight temperature change, but at WotL, whatever room our sliding glass door was in would be at least 20* colder than the rest of the house. In the apartment, in was in the living room. So we would crank up the heat (good thing they paid for it) just to be warm enough that we could feel our fingers and our noses wouldn't run, but when we went to bed at night in the other side of the apartment, it would be so stinking hot there that we'd sleep with a fan on us and wake up covered in sweat. At the townhouse it was in the dining room, so anytime I stood in the kitchen to make dinner or do dishes, my feet would be so cold they would be numb. You know it's bad when you put gloves on just to sit at the table and type. But here at the house, nothing. The same with the large picture window in the living room. When you sit up next to the glass you can tell a change, but it doesn't hit you like a cold wall when you walk into the room. We can remain comfortable here in the winter. Insulation is a blessing!
The front door: At WotL, our front door never sealed. If you stood within five feet of it in the winter, you could actually feel the wind coming in. It would occasionally blow papers off our end table. And when the neighbor stepped outside her door to smoke? All that crap came right into our house. And if you know us, we're very anti-smoking. So imagine our happiness when all of a sudden the entire place reeked of it and our allergies started going berserk. In the summer time, the sun shone directly on our door and became hot enough that the "pretty" squares literally began melting off. We often had to use our gloves in the summer to be able to grasp the knob without getting burned. And when we requested the front door (and that blasted screen door) to be fixed? They always came to cover their own butts and commented that they "fixed" it but it never seemed to be any different by the time we got home. Hmm...
Static electricity: At WotL, we shocked each other constantly. We got into the habit of touching hands before we kissed each other - because nothing makes your eyes water faster than getting zapped on the lips, trust me. It was so bad that our cats squinted their eyes shut every time we went to touch them or they sniffed at each other, because they were preparing for the zap. Here, we don't have that. I realized it the other day when I caught myself grasping a piece of wood before I petted Isabelle. Again, hooray for insulation!
Noise: This isn't just a winter thing, but God it's so nice not to have people above us, next to us and outside all the damn time. I heard our neighbor and her girlfriend using a vibrator late one night. I heard another neighbors porn music come through my speakers from their teenage sons room. With one upstairs neighbor, she cranked her music so loud that our windows and pictures rattled. There were people right outside our bedroom windows at all hours of the night talking, laughing, smoking, driving that damned scooter along the sidewalks. The street lamp shone in our bedroom window so there was always light coming in. And I learned on those occasions where I had forgotten to lower the blinds as darkness settled, one guy on the corner lot sat on top of his shed and looked in our upstairs window. I tell you, I forgot to lower them one time before prior to taking a shower. After I got caught walking into our dark bedroom to get my pajamas and then realized he was watching me (and could actually see me), that became one of the first things I did each night. We're also not woken up at 5am by the trash truck, nor at 6am by someones car alarm that went off every single damn morning. Here at the house, we don't have to jump to turn down the tv when we're watching a movie and suddenly there are loud explosions. We just smile at each other, sit back and enjoy our theater room.
Storage: This also isn't a winter thing but it needs to be added. We have storage! That includes having a place for our yard tools. At WotL, we barely had room for a trowel and weed whacker to "mow" our yard. And don't even think of trying to rent out their push mower. That thing was twenty years old and never started to begin with. In fact, our weed whacker lived inside the house, propped up against a bookshelf. Isn't that lovely? Here, we have a shed. A shed with room. And we have our own lawn mower now, thank you very much. And if I need a place to put things? We have a basement! Things don't have to be stuffed into a closet so that you have to open it very, very carefully. Things don't have to sit around because we have no place for them (though I'm still trying to get used to that idea. Old habits are hard to break.).
Snow: Ah, the bane of my existence. At WotL, there was a plowing schedule you had to keep. Your car had to be out of the way by 8am anytime we had more than two inches of snow. So we would get up early on our weekends, go move our vehicle (after circling for a spot; there were times we had to park clear down at the front office), trudge back in the snow and crawl back into bed. Imagine our snarliness when they wouldn't come to plow for three more days! At the townhouse, they often never touched that little circle drive, they just left us up to our own devices. There were several mornings where I got stuck; and I'm in a small SUV! And when they did plow, they pushed it right up to the sidewalk. So in order to get to your car, you had to trudge through a snow bank that went up to your knees because there was no way around it. Ew! I went to work with snow in my shoes so many times that I started carrying extra socks with me to change once I got there. Then there's the small annoyance of actually cleaning off your car, made more annoying by the snowbanks you had to trudge through when they plowed or the eight inches of snow you had to trudge through when they didn't. Add to the that the worry that someone would steal your car as it's heating up (because it happened) and you have the recipe for bitchy mornings. And salting the sidewalks? Ha! Salt? What's salt? I just wound up salting our own to keep from breaking our necks. (That didn't do much good with the duck feces all over the place because our neighbors fed them - on the sidewalk. Do you know how slick that can be once the rainy season starts? Yuck.) Here, we have a garage. A beautiful, wonderful, fabulous garage. It is SO nice to have a garage! I love our garage if you can't tell. I get to stay dry when it rains, dry when it's snowing and I don't have to clean it off before leaving. It makes me sigh with happiness.
I love our home. I love having a house! And it's made even more apparent in the winter.