The sky is clear and the snow sparkles, resembling glitter, with the bright sunlight. It looks like a beautiful day, but LOOKS can be deceiving. The Local on the 8's reports a sub-zero windchill and the morning temperature fell into single digits. Our home, built in 1896, has plastic on many of the windows during the winter season and we KNOW that plastic is doing SOME good for us because we can hear it move as the winds blow outside.
A Polartec fleece jacket is part of my "mom uniform" most days, as well as my red Polartec slippers (that Mike likes to steal, pretending not to know WHERE his are at... or pretending "to warm them for me"). I must admit that there ARE days that I don't get out of my pajamas at all; it's NOT all that uncommon, really. (The boys don't seem to mind one bit either; in fact, 3-year old Sydney protests getting dressed on non-schooldays quite often, insisting on wearing his snuggly, warm jammies instead. I think he WOULD enjoy wearing jammies to school, in fact.)
The thermostat is set warmer because we are home nearly all the time and we don't want the kids to get cold. We joke that 70° often still feels COLD, but sometimes 72° feels too warm; wondering if - like the story of the Three Bears - if 71° would feel "just right"?
I'm not sure HOW or WHY it happens, but it seemed that there was always "a SMELL" to Grandma's upstairs and attic space. The closet in our office, that houses all of my hanging clothes, has that similar "old house smell".
Business in the bathroom is kept brief as the toilet seat gets quite cold if the door is kept closed in the tiny room that shares TWO outside walls. The upstairs bathroom, also sharing two outside walls, but a little bit warmer than downstairs, pours rusty brown water into the whirlpool tub EVERY TIME it is turned on and it isn't uncommon to have a few tiny rust chunks laying in the bottom of the tub when you take a bath.
Having lived in two "newer homes" in my adult life, I miss the warmth, new windows and energy efficiency of those homes. Although, the character of older homes IS missing from new(er) homes; character and charm that can't be beat. Our house boasts 5-panel wooden doors, a beautiful wooden banister and solid wood upstairs railing in the hallway, as well as hardwood floors throughout much of the main floor. (Features you pay dearly for in new homes.)
I find myself wondering WHERE we'll move to next. What will the housing market look like in our new destination? Affordable? Expensive? Will our next house be OLD or NEW? Will we be able to paint our front door RED? Will there be a deck or a patio for eating outside? Will we have a fenced yard for the kids to play? Will there be a small hill to sled down OR the perfect tree to build a tree house? Will the house have french doors? (A feature that I have ALWAYS admired, but never had in a house.) Will it have an eat-in kitchen or just a dining room, like what we have now? Will we have a finished basement where the kids can play so that our living room isn't filled with toys and books? Will the boys continue to share a bedroom? Will we have a PLAY ROOM? Will I have an "office" for my neglected crafting supplies? Will Mike have "a man cave" so that he can proudly hang his mounted deer head, as well as his fishing pictures on the wall? Will we be close(r) to any of our family or friends?
Mike recently saw pictures of the latest HGTV Dream Green Home and declared "I would LOVE to live in that house! It is a gorgeous home!!!" (Wondering IF he'll ever log in for his chance to win it? Entries start TOMORROW, I think.) After viewing the home online, I admit that I would LOVE to live in that house as well; except for the fact that we'd have NO JOBS in that area, nor would be near our families.
I remain hopeful that WHEN it is time to sell our house, that it sells quickly so that we can join Mike in his new(est) career move. Whenever and wherever it is, we're sure to have an adventure together as a family...
