House meme

[ilanarama]

Via zadcat. I've linked a bunch of answers to photos, although many of them are from the remodel so some of the background things have changed (like the front door in the floor photo).
When you walk in your front door, which room do you enter?

Living room.

Do you have a dishwasher?

YES GOD YES.

Is your living room carpeted or does it have hardwood floors?

Heh. When we bought the house, there was carpeting over a much-abused oak floor. The prospect of restoration daunted us, and the rest of the floor was (also abused) soft pine, so we opted to cover everything with a very nice laminate that looks like maple.

Do you keep your kitchen knives on the counter or in a drawer?

In a drawer, in an insert that Britt made specially for the knives.

House, apartment, duplex or trailer?

House

How many bedrooms?

Two

Gas stove or electric?

Gas. It had electric when we bought it, but I much prefer cooking with gas, so as part of the kitchen remodel, we bought a lovely new gas stove.

Do you have a yard?

Yes. It's this big: -->.<-- Front yard east part we landscaped, front yard west part is grass (and occasional bonus bear), back yard is currently raw dirt and rocks covered with snow. Must do landscaping this summer.

What size TV is in the living room?

Don't have one. But maybe that's a cheat of an answer; we have a 42-inch viewscreen we use for watching DVDs and giving slide shows, hidden away on a shelf behind cabinet doors.

Are your plates in the same cupboard as your cups?

Nope.

Is there a coffee maker sitting on your kitchen counter?

There is! Fancy that.

What room is your computer in?

My office.

Are there pictures hanging in your living room?

There are! There is a pair of somewhat abstract African paintings (a person playing a stringed instrument, and a person grinding corn) above one of the couches, a painting of pre-Puebloan pottery in the corner near the bookshelves, and a painting of Mesa Verde above the fireplace.

Are there any themes found in your home?

We tried to stick with the Spanish Eclectic style suggested by the architecture, so there are lots of arches and wrought iron. Southwest and Mission-style art, furniture and colors (sage green, peach, maroon). Rounded corners, white paint, light natural wood.

What kind of laundry detergent do you use?

Arm and Hammer

Do you use dryer sheets?

Yes. Absolutely essential in the winter, here.

Do you have any curtains in your home?

Yes, in the living room - sage green and tan single panels. Oh, and blue panels in the upstairs bedroom. They are all that "tab top" kind, on plain rods. Mostly we have honeycomb shades.

What color is your fridge?

Black.

Is your house clean?

Fairly clean, yeah. I need to vacuum the office and clean the downstairs bathroom.

What room is the most neglected?

Cleanliness-wise? The office, because it's a pain to clean around the furniture and all the junk on my desk, oog.

Are the dishes in your sink/dishwasher clean or dirty?

There are clean dishes in the sink, drying, and there are dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

How long have you lived in your home?

Just under five years.

Where did you live before?

In an apartment around the corner, for six months. Before that we lived on a sailboat. :-)

Do you have one of those fluffy toilet lid covers on your toilet?

No.

Do you have a scale anywhere in your house?

No.

How many mirrors are in your house?

Three - one above each bathroom sink, and a full-length in the downstairs bathroom. Here's the prettiest.

Look up. What do you see?

Holiday cards, little fannish toys, and a braided yarn squid, all sent to me by various people on my friendslist.

Do you have a garage?

Not really. There's a detached garagelet that would be big enough for a Mini-Cooper, maybe, but we converted it into a workshop as soon as we bought the house.

Comments

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, oh. *sighs in ecstasy* Thank you so much for sharing! I think I'll probably end up doing this one.

Your house is so beautiful I don't know quite where to start, but I especially love your landscaping and the mirror and OMG your fancy fancy stove.

And how do you like your laminate floors? Faced with the prospect of repairing and/or replacing my own wood floors, which are in okay shape in most places (just in need of a refinish) but in some places are not really salvageable, I'm trying to decide what option would work best for me.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you! We put a lot of time, money, and hard work into it, and it's lovely to have it 95% done. (Living in it while it was under construction was seriously not fun. There are some in-process photos in that Flickr photoset "house" that may give you some idea.)

I like the floors a lot, although they have acquired a few dents that are not fixable the way a real wood floor would be. The thing about laminate is that you get what you pay for, and the lower-end laminates look like laminate. I didn't want the kind that came in three-board sections (most common) because you can see right away that that's exactly what it is. The flooring we got comes in both wide and narrow "boards" which we alternated in a WnWnnWnWnn etc pattern, and it really looks like wood unless you look closely...but it cost as much as hardwood.

The difference that swayed us was the ease of installation, which would have brought the cost of wood way up. These things click together and were easy to do with just us and our hired hands. We popped them together and laid them down, easy peasy.

I really wanted to refinish, though, and I think if the wood had been in better shape throughout I would have pushed for getting the really water-damaged bits repaired, and then refinishing the rest. I love real wood!

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. Great meme. I loved the virtual tour of your house, especially the pics. Your kitchen is beautiful! What's the groundcover in the front yard? I couldn't tell from the pic.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hee, I should really take more photos and put them up. These are older photos and now we have actual furniture!

There are two types of groundcover there; the lighter green plants that are closer to the camera (in two sections) are aegopodium variegatum, also called snow-on-the-mountain, and the darker plants to the upper left are sweet woodruff. The sweet woodruff can handle a more acid soil and less sunlight, and you can't see in that picture (but here (http://flickr.com/photos/svwindom/304349080/in/set-72057594047350886/) is a better view) that they are below a juniper tree, which like most evergreens acidifies the soil.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

That's a really neat meme; I loved seeing the pictures. And that mirror is very pretty. :)

(I lived only two year without a dishwasher and it was like HELL. Never again!)

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I need to take more pictures of the house now that the construction's 99% done and we have actual nice furniture.

We had no dishwasher on the boat, and as we split duties such that I cooked and Britt did the dishes, he was the big insistent voice for the dishwasher this time. :-)