When we first moved to Germany we happened upon our first house because another dentist in Baumholder was living there and moving back to the states. It was a perfect house. The kitchen was tiny, but welcome to Germany, we had two bedrooms upstairs along with the kitchen and a really large living/dining are. Our downstairs consisted of two additional room and a bathroom, along with a couple of large storage closets. It was really nice to arrive there and spread out a little bit (after our 6 month stint in a tiny two bedroom apartment here in the states).
After about 3 months of living in Henschtal, I was convinced we needed to move closer to Baumholder. We looked and looked for a place, but had little luck. Finally after 9 months of looking we happened upon a house in Mettweiler which was 6 km from Baumholder (which sure beat the 40km we were driving before). Actually my friend Kristen found the house in a last ditch effort to try to get us closer to post. The house was in good shape, it was cheap, the landlord was good...can't ask for much more. The house was also HUGE...as in 3000 square feet. We had 4 huge bedrooms, 2 bathrooms one of which was about the size of our current bedroom, a huge living room and a separate dining room. We also had a whole separate basement that had another large living area and bedroom and a big kitchen. It was really nice when we had guests, which was often, but other than that it was a BEAR to clean. Just mopping alone would take me over an hour to do and it needed to be mopped at least once a week.
My friend Lisa got me hooked on Fly Lady a couple months after Hadleigh was born. Fly Lady just helps all us good intentioned gals who wanna be disciplined about the house, actually have a system to be organized. I was hooked immediately. When I was able to keep up with things and kept to my little schedule cleaning went a lot faster...but mopping still took over an hour!
When we moved back here we began renting the cutest little 2 bedroom house. It is old and creaky and has horrible green carpet in the living room, but it is just perfect. There is definitely a permanency that comes with owning a home, and I do look forward to that one day, but Dave and I have talked again and again about what we would do to this house if we could stay forever. It is nice to have a large house, especially when it comes to having guests, but honestly Atlanta isn't quite as exciting as Germany, so we haven't had quite as many visitors. The thing that I love about this house is it takes me so little time to clean. I can vacuum the whole house in less than 20 minutes. Mopping takes me 10. Cleaning the bathroom is a snap, and I only have one to clean!
Sometimes I also want to stay in this house just to prove a point. Just to keep things simple and to show that a family of 4 upper-middle class white folks living in America can survive in a 2 bedroom rental house. It is kind of the same reason I don't want to buy a house in Tucker. Let's just stay different than the norm. But that is a silly reason to do anything, so I am sure eventually we will buy a house with 3 bedrooms. And who knows one day we might even buy a house in Tucker...but we will see about that.
7 comments:
I think Fly Lady is one of my roommates from college's aunt. And I am so with you on the whole house/size/Tucker thing.
Ahem...there's a very valid reason why people (especially young families) buy houses in Tucker - affordability. And that's not just for big houses. And Tucker is actually pretty diverse, and increasingly so. Tucker is urban meets rural, with an increasingly urban element. City folks like it because it has a family and community feel but is very close to the city. Also, people are very open here and I've found it to be pretty easy to get to know my neighbors here.
Don't look down on me because I live in Tucker. :)
I don't look down on you because you live in Tucker...good heavens, I lived in Tucker for 6 years. If you reread you will see that I was saying I can't live my life trying to do the opposite of everyone else...trying to make a point...that would be silly. At the same time I am not going to move to Tucker...or buy a house...or...whatever because that is what all the other young families are doing, or even because it makes sense. When buying a house some people care about affordability, some size, some location, some schools...everyone has a different set of values and we have to live by them.
I think you know that I was being tongue-in-cheek with the "don't look down on me" comment. I was joking about my perception that Tucker sometimes gets a bum rap in our intown-oriented community. Obviously since you have experienced Tucker first-hand, I don't have to sell you on all its virtues. Hey, did I tell you there is a house across the street from us for sale? :)
Anyway, I re-read your post and I agree with what you are saying that neither a drive to be "different" nor a desire to be "normal" are very good foundations for decision making. Besides, what's normal or different is all relative based on who we spend time with. I agree, we all have to decide what we value and try our best to make decisions that cohort with those values.
You're right about little houses! We have nothing but tile and wood floors, and sweeping and mopping are quite the chores! I do often miss our little house (in Tucker!:) that I could vaccuum in ten minutes...
Go Tigers!
I have often thought about how my nice 1400 sq feet townhouse would be great, even with kids. And it takes me a whole 20 min to clean the thing as well. Now that's livin'.
I'm so curious about this Fly Lady thing. You'll have to share or can I google? I want to come to Atlanta now and see your fun little house. I guess I'll wait until after the little one comes and all the other traffic moves on by. Sounds like you're going to have a stuffed little house for awhile.
By the way, I agree with you on not doing what everyone else is doing just because that is what is expected. You go girl :)
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