HAPPINESS IS… a cozy house. What has made you happy about your home this summer, dear readers? Me: Outside, my perennials are getting well established and sending me lots of colorful blooms. Inside, we had the kitchen floor polished so it’s nice and shiny. Best of all, my brother and his kids came to visit, and we spent a lot of time at the nearby lake. How about you? Are you glad you chose the home you did? Is your home happy you chose it?
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35 comments
Elaine says
OK I’m back. It’s so great reading everyone’s story! I was reminded that I am extremely happy with my kitchen renovations, too, as they make everything so much more accessible. I have a peninsula that had doors only on the kitchen side, and none on the nook side, so finding things in those cupboards often meant a major dig. We figured out how to add doors on the nook side even though the back panel was hollow core. Access is so much easier I just love it.
We also have a deep pantry cupboard that was impossible. We lost things in the back of it all the time. Forget anything back of the first row on the bottom two shelves or the top two shelves. We found some heavy duty attractive wooden pantry drawers at Home Depot and substituted them for the shelves. Oh, my, it is so heavenly to just roll out a shelf and see everything on it! After 20 years here, I finally just love my kitchen. Appearance wise, we added antique silver looking handles that look like Navajo bracelets.
Anjolette says
What made me happy? Just having a house! After 15 years of apartment living (with noisy upstairs neighbors the last year!), I finally became a homeowner and moved in at the beginning of the summer. The house was well cared for by the original owners of 44 years and we have discovered only minor “monkey” repairs so far – coffee can lids and paint stir sticks in the light fixtures (what?!). I’m happy to have a list of projects to work on that are all mine!
Maria Stahl says
CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING!!! for the first time in this 1913 Mutant Prairie Home’s lifetime. 🙂 Not that we needed it many days but it was here to make things more comfortable. It’s the product of our geothermal heat exchange system we put in last October. One cool thing about it is when the a/c is running, the system takes some of that heat it pulls off and sends it to our water heater. The rest goes back down into the ground where we’ll pull it back out again in January.
I am the sole breadwinner for the next 4 years while hubby goes to nursing school (way to have a midlife crisis!) so having the house comfortable makes it easier for me to work. My office is at home.
pam kueber says
Maria, I am super interested in geothermal heat exchange systems. Do you have any links you can provide – where you bought this from, or other reference sources?
Maria Stahl says
CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING!!
Peter Mione says
I am in love with this house and it never seems to diminish. Even though it appears we have about 10 unfinished projects and things are a bit of a mess, I still wouldn’t trade it for the world. Every day I thank the architect, George Fisher, for his vision and skill. The biggest thing this summer has been the front yard. We were fortunate enough to have come across a number of closeout sales for the shrubs and plants we needed, so the landscape we planned for but didn’t think we’d execute any time soon is now about half done. Doesn’t look like much yet, but it soon will.
TappanTrailerTami says
Great questions! I think I am still pretty happy with my house – especially from an affordability standpoint, being here in the Bay Area. Of course, everyone will see “Trailer” in my name – that would be a 1977 24 x 60 double wide in a park. I did give think recently about buying a stick built house since housing values have fallen enough that I could finally buy one….but alas, I decided that I really didn’t want to be saddled to a $300k plus mortgage every month. I’d have no money left over for home improvementing, and retrorenovating!
Tomorrow the contractor comes to bid most of the remodeling work I plan on doing – about $35k worth, but at the end of the day, I’ll still be $200k ahead from a debt standpoint, and I’ll have an 8 x 10 walk in master closet when I’m done, whoo hoo!
Will my house be happy? Probably, it is in dire need of some updating. No flowerbeds yet til the work is all done, so my spare time will be spent with a hammer and paintbrush in hand rather than the garden gloves.
Hope everyone else had a great summer!
lady brett says
missouri michael – i might just quote you to answer pam’s question! though in our case, it was bad sheetrock hidden behind paneling in the living room, and – by far the bigger issue – a very, very rotten kitchen floor hidden by vinyl tile and the (ill) luck that it hadn’t rotted up to the top layer until last month. ugh.
we’ve taken up the phrase “remodeled by monkeys” every time we find a new quirk or problem.
on the bright side, i’ve been able to fix everything so far! and i do love the house – it’s a wonderful post-war house in a great friendly neighborhood, and i’m new to this homeowning thing, which is a lot of fun. i only wish, as michael said, that i had known the shape it was in and paid a bit less for it.
nina462 says
Well, I’m glad I got new windows..but then again, cried when they took the originals out (they are in the basement for the day when I win the lottery & can restore them). I fixed the basement drop ceiling in the knotty pine basement that was ruined by the cable co. guy. I found a box of original ceiling tiles that were left over for just such repairs! I worked more & more on my large garden, installed a row of Rose Of Sharon’s and dug up the day lillies that are no longer fertile. Have planted a lot of dahlias and then moved a bunch of iris’ that I found in the wooded lot next door.
It was 4 years ago today that I moved into my dream home…65 ranch w/ brick trim & knotty pine basement. Huge brick fireplace w/ wood built in next to it. & original kitchen cabinets/hardware …and a lovely, lovely blue bathroom w/ great cabinetry.
Oh…I also hosted my family reunion-
Everyone’s house sounds fab–
Retro Junkie says
Since May we have been refurbishing a little 1963 ranch that we bought to downsize, both size wise and money wise. It is a re-po and we bought it as-is. We ran into a couple of surprises, the first being the bathroom floor and wall that had dry rot. This was not a big deal. The second being a leak in the water line between the house and the meter (of course!). Our good friend worked on it and thought he was finished and went in the back yard to wash up and thought he could hear water running somewhere and went back out front and the pipe didn’t hold and blew the water meter up into the tree! Needless to say it was a mess.
But we have a cute little ranch with hardwood floors, a big back yard and most importantly for us, no stairs! We are ready to move in this week. I will send in some photos soon.
Summer has been kind of a blur. We worked hard and our reward is a happy little home and we booked a trip to Vegas to celebrate a job well done!
Cindy says
I often wish I had bought a condo because my house feels too big for just me and my beau, Max, who lives here part time. Over the summer we’ve had several guests who “ooh and aah”ed over the house which is a satisfying reward for my efforts. Last night we had a small dinner party on the covered patio and then moved to the grassy backyard beside a firepit til nearly 1 a.m. Today I am envisioning a slate patio in the back yard surrounded by a low stone wall beyond which I will plant a wildflower garden…the yard is just too big, too. I may complain about the size but I fall back in love with it when it’s shared with friends/family. Now I have to figure out a way to afford that patio!