It's taken me a whole year to get excited about doing something with this house, but obviously, I'm there now.

What would you do to your house or apartment or dorm room? Or what would you do to the house you'd like to have someday?

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

Answers

There are lots of things I would do to my current abode, but that's all a moot point since I'm moving in two weeks. Less than that, now, actually.

I'm looking forward to the new place. I can put my stamp on it.

I've always wanted to have a place where I could make myself a library. I'd have a big desk, a few comfortable, oversized armchairs, and floor to ceiling bookcases. Picture the Beast's library in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." That's what I want.

Unfortunately, the new place is a one-bedroom, so I won't be able to do that. It does have a sunroom off the bedroom, though, and I'm looking forward to turning that into a refuge. A rocking chair, a spot for the CD player, plants, etc.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

You mean, other than demolish it and start completely over?

Wellll....dream house would have a lot of yard space, huge fences to keep Jamie and Eric (people would think we would have a lot of valuables to protect, but it's to keep people IN, not out) from running towards the road, a swimming pool in back (NOT fenced in--- all my kids can swim like fishes, the only one who might be in trouble if they fell in is Barb, who doesn't swim).

And of course the obligatory maid and butler, and the live-in helpmate/tutor--one each for Jamie and Eric---and....

You get the feeling if I ever won the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, I already know what to do with it?--Al

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

We recently moved into a house built in the early 80s. It's a very nice development, lots of sidewalks, parks, and pools. The downside is that every house has tiny bathrooms. Our house is almost 2200 square feet, but the "master" bathroom is so small that they had to install the toliet a little canted from the wall, because otherwise it could not clear the wall.

The master bedroom is huge. I guess they figured people might like to play volleyball in the bedroom.

Our hope is to signicantly enlarge the master bathroom to accomodate a two person jacuzzi type tub. There will still be plenty of room for a bed, TV, and computer. What else do you need?

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

Well, thank you so much, Beth! After reading that entry, I am starting to dream of what I can do with this house, which is bad, because we are selling it next year.

I want to strip and refinish all of the hardwood flooring...our computer room and studio is this awful yellow colour, and I want to paint them a sort of cool celery green, and leave the two walls of exposed brick. I need much more shelving, and a more organized way of storing all of our books and tapes and dvds and media junk.

The kitchen needs work. Then pantry needs to be painted asap, and I want to paint our fridge and stove candy apple red. Stove to match, natch. And the steam heaters need to be stripped and refinished in that silver. And....

arghh....you are the devil. The devil!

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

I won't even start on my house, but your entry reminded me of a house in my neighborhood that has the coolest upstairs library. The walls of the room are built-in oak book shelves to about the seven-foot level and above the shelves on the exterior walls, there's nothing but windows up to the ceiling. Someone really wanted a nice library!

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

Ahh, the dream house. This topic comes up nearly every day here, so I have a lot of the dream house planned out.

My office. This is a large room containing a really big desk that all my computer stuff fits onto without me having to layer pieces on top of each other. And in a separate but equally roomy space, a sewing machine and a big table so I can make all kinds of projects.

A "study". Rich deep red oriental rug. Brick fireplace with a roaring fire. Lots of good wood walls and floors (maybe even rafters and that sort of thing). About a hundred built-in bookshelves.

A small darkroom for photo development. This would allow us to afford to take photos. Wait, who am I kidding, we're talking DREAM -- in our dream life we can afford to have photos developed professionally! So the darkroom is there just because we're so darn artistic.

Did I mention this house has at least three floors? Downstairs, upstairs, attic (lots of storage space) and basement (no rugs, but it's clean and dry anyway. Real floors, not concrete. There's a laundry room down there.)

And the dream house contains two or three big guestrooms, all on the first floor. Our bedroom and studies are on the second floor. This allows us to have friends come and crash at our place, but we can go upstairs and close a door whenever we need privacy. That means they can stay for more than a couple of days without us having to kill them.

The kitchen of course is huge and sunny. The back yard, it goes without saying, is vast, well-mown, and filled with flowers and apple trees. Our neighbors are saints but they're far enough away that they can't hear a thing when we have parties.

Sorry, I think I got a little carried away here. ...I did mention the games room with the pool table, didn't I?

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

Buy one.

Ooops, that's in answer to the question in the entry, not at the top of the forum page.

For my apartment, I'd like to get another bureau for the bedroom and be able to keep the bikes somewhere else. Since we're on the ground floor, we can't keep them on the deck. I'd like to make several new bookcases, one tall and narrow for the space between the closet and bathroom doors in the study, another low and wide one deep enough for Blake's cage in the living room, another for the CDs, and another for the back wall of the dining area (which isn't an ideal spot for books, for either reading or displaying them, but it's the last open space in our apartment). The birdcage currently perches--I'm such a wit-- on an 18" square, three-foot-high speaker box covered in fabric and now that my housemate is Over his neurosis about saving the boxes computer and stereo components came in, I'd like to make better use of that space.

In the living room, I'd like more general illumination or at least better reading lamps over our two usual spots, and a mirror over the mantel except that might be one of the no-nos of decorating, and some art work that we both like. Last weekend in Santa Fe I saw my beloved Jack-in-the-Pulpits IV and V, lent to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum by the National Gallery in DC where I first saw them, but the only thing in the GO'K Rich liked were Steiglitz photographs.

In the dining room, we need to find a better way to store recycling (and we need to find a new place for our glass), to put the little dorm fridge in which Rich doesn't store the homebrew he's not making into storage, get rid of my Kmart laminate kidsize desk, and Rich would really like a wine rack.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

Remove my roommates from it. 3 people in a 1 bedroom apartment is a bit much. Gotta love NYC!

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

The only thing left to do is start all over again.

I think I'm replacing my dining room set before too long, though. We need a bigger table and more chairs, and there is room. The problem is matching the china hutch and buffet/credenza thing that we already have in there. I have yet to find a bigger table in the same kind of wood and finish. But I'm looking!

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

I'd pick it up and move it 2000 miles north of here. The house is fine but I hate living in the desert---and I can't think about the tweeking it to make it prettier unless I have some sense of permanence. More than you needed to know and less than I needed to say.

L.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

Well, I'd make it _my_ house.

But mostly, I'd have to cut through the clutter, stick stuff in storage, toss stuff, and then... Trash the icky grey/beige carpet, because it's nearly as old as I am. Probably put in wood floors, or tile (Or finish the tile downstairs and wood upstairs). Add a sunroom in the front. Build a second-story balcony from the master bedroom, which I will of course have taken over. Build a greenhouse. And take over the neighbor's yard, demolish their house, and add on a large library and studio.

What do I really think we should do? Replace the carpet. Add track lighting in the family room (and elsewhere). Do something to the deck, whether it be a two-story affair or not. De-clutterify. I think something will actually be done with the deck soonish.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

I saw my dream home last Saturday night. My boss had all of us over for a party at the home he and his wife bought a year ago. They have it all decorated and fixed up in one year! His library was my favorite. Green plush carpet, green, plump, cushy chair with cool reading lamp beside it, antique desk in center of room facing the door, glass-fronted bookcases holding his antique books, other collections beautifully displayed.....really, the whole house was wonderful. I was depressed all day Sunday as I painted my termite-eaten walls and attempted to unhook all the electronic gear in order to paint behind the entertainment center. I am redoing my family room on the cheap until I save the money to do it right. Eventually, the paneling will be replaced with drywall, the floors will be real wood, the south wall will have a huge bow window with a seat where the cats and the plants can sit. The east window will be replaced with a bay. In the meantime every carpet in the house needs to be replaced while I'm saving up the money for this big project!

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

Well, for starters, I'd like to have furniture. I'm thinking this is never going to happen.

Two years ago I ordered a new bed with an estimated delivery of three weeks. That was fine. I'd just moved and didn't mind sleeping on my couch for three weeks.

It took six months.

Later, I ordered a bistro table. Not a big item. It took three months. Hello?

So when I moved into a new place with el hombre we decided on new living room furniture. I went to yet another evil furniture manufacturer. Four weeks, they said, in September. So, thinking I would only be a week without furniture, I got rid of my living room furniture before we moved in.

In MID SEPTEMBER they said four weeks. Last week they told November 9th would be the earliest I saw my furniture. Our living room has nothing but an entertainment center (that's not even really an entertainment center, don't ask) in it. I feel like I'm living in a gymnasium or a dance studio. Things echo. The cats are confused. We have people over and they sit on the floor. The hardwood floor. The uncomfortable hardwood floor.

yeah. I just want some furniture.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999

Jeeze, all these people immediately writing about their fantasy houses with infinite amounts of space. I think it's more fun to imagine things I could really do with the house I live in now, which is much more likely to occur.

Things I want to do:

Build a new fence around the sides and back yard, and extend it around the front so there's a big enclosed area in front. The front yard is much larger than the back - seems stupid to me.

Fix up that enclosed area by planting flowerbeds around the edges and laying brick in the middle. Put up an arbor along the front of the house that would now be inside the enclosure. That would keep the west side of the house cool in summer, besides looking cute when it has plants growing on it.

Put in flower beds and other improvements in the back. Put a big trellis in front of hte huge storage shed.

Inside, build bookcases at each end of our long-ish living room. finally put away some of the boxes of books that are filling our house and garage.

Install skylights in the kitchen and living room, which don't get any afternoon sun.

that's about all I can think of for now.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 1999