stuffstuffstuff
I just tore apart the house looking for my W-2s. I swear I gave them to Dad in response to one of his grumble fits after I tried to file myself but his stupid weird tax computer software tried to convince me to buy stuff and I started to ask how to get around that. Boo to the government and all things like that.
Lately I've been thinking about dream houses. Seeing as I am only roughly 10 grand out in loan debt so far, and I shouldn't add to that too much after I get into good old public state college and also get a car (a little truck pleeeease? For hauling used books and antiques and adventure gear), I might actually have a chance of owning my own home some day. Maybe in 50 years, but that's still better than never, which it probably could have been if I had continued on the path of 4-years-of-rich-kid-private-college PLUS 2+ years of non-public-because-they-don't-offer-the-programs-I-need grad school. So cool. House. My list of ideal furnishings and fixtures includes:
-Library room with lots of shelves, balcony/second floor midway up (like Henry Higgins'), and rolling ladder (what really makes the Beast so beastly awesome.)
-Grandfather clock, with pendulum, moon and stars movement in face, and the weird cupbaord bit to hide in.
-Verdandah/porch with Victorian carved railings, or at lest some gingerbread scrollwork along the roof
-Green house room, to be decorated further with my burgeoning gnome collection
-Full suit of armor. They have 4 foot knights at the world market trade store in Mystic Village, but it's several hundred dollars...
-Wall of mounted (yet easily removable YET out of children's reach) swords
-Player piano AND/OR baby grand piano (just bought my first QRS player piano roll of music today- "Heigh Ho: The March of the Dwarves" from Snow White- so I'll be able to check all is in working order the next time I see one Free on Craigslist, which has already happened 3 times)
-Royal typewriter, antique classic black iron (again, have seen these, but out of price range- though when I find one, I can bring it to that wee shop in downtown Amherst to have it repaired if needed, haHA)
-Claw-foot something. Tubs probably aren't made that way anymore, but some tables are.
-Wooden dollhouse. I kind of partially own one of the two my grandfather built, but not really, since one is my mom's, and I don't want to think of inheriting it because that would mean she was toast, and the unfinished one was supposed to be my aunt's, even though she grouched about it so this summer Allison and I want to wallpaper and paint it)
-Splatterware pots and pans. Antique, but so functional- heavy, navy blue with white paint splatters, they're the first old cool thing my grandma taught me about.
-A wundercabinet, to display head-sized conchs and nautiluses, geodes, leather-bound books, dried flowers, maybe even a stuffed bird or two (though taxidermy creeps me out and if maybe better off in natural history museums)
-Fireplace in working condition
-Secret passageway!
-Treehouse in backyard
-Themed gardens, with a shrubbery, just to have one in case a good sir knight comes by on a quest
-A topiary cut in the shape of something cool but fierce- a minoataur, or centaur, or some 'taur- whose shadow wouldfrighten off intruders
-Babbling brook or stream
-Ornate birdhouse
-A ceiling covered with hooks so lots of windchimes could hang, probably in the greenhouse room. Or breezeway. Though I don't want a breezeway- too yuppie.
-Treasure chests
-Hummingbird feeder that isn't all plastic and tacky
-Looking-glass- or just an olde fashioned full length mirror would do
-A studio room with a sturdy easel- all the easels I can find tend to fall over easily
-A room dedicated to gadgets in a steampunk kind-of-way, since computers and TVs and that are rather ugly alone, but all in one space which a space-age theme? They become decor.
-Mobiles. Exposed rafters, A chandelier (but simple, not over diamond-y). Stuff to hang from the ceiling makes me happy. Everybody overlooks it, but the ceiling could do so much!
-Mural space
-Cupola/widow's walk
-GIGANTIC BED and also, ideally, a water bed. For meditation, and floating.
-Spiral staircase
-Window seats
-Loft, or attic to finish
-50s style kitchen. Not that I'll cook much but, you know, being in a cult and all, those 50s women knew how to be domestics, so why not follow their lead when forced to chef it up?
-Sewing machine- ALREADY HAVE MY OWN. The gorgeous thing is from one my my ancestral lands, Poland, and modern but not ugly or digitized like some of the newer models are.L
-Dark room. I still want to learn old school photography. Hopefully RIC profs aren't bitchy like Pablo was.
-A stone wall, low but boundary defining.
-Wing back arm chair, for reading
-Sturdy, handmade wooden rocking chair
-A wall entirely dedicated to dress-up. Hooks for hanging my hat collection. A rack for capes and Halloween costumes. Maybe a convertible mini theater or runway or something. Works for dinner parties and for kids (if I have any, not for neighborhood babes In lure from the streets. Ew.)
-Long, wide open room with high ceilings and hardwood floors, and a mirrored wall. Maybe for fencing, maybe for roller-skating or ballroom dancing or. I don't know. Archery?
-Interesting windows. Round, Stained glass, Extra long. Just interesting ones, you know?
-Twinkle lights for the porch/verandah/greenhouse room
-A laundry chute! And/or a dumbwaiter.
-A bicycle built for two- though this is for my parents, not the house.
I'm sure I'm missing something. But it's never too early to keep an eye out for these things, I say. Finding the house will be near impossible, especially since I'm against living in the city, but suburbs create Stepford Wives, and the country is nice but I need civilization and dislike small-town America. And I doubt leaving New England would make me happy, but New England's kind of settled in its ways, architecturally, for better or for worse. I guess the edge of the country near a city but not a suburb, even though that is similar to the definition of a suburb, isn't it?
But it's nice to have goals that aren't entirely fantasy. A house!