The House Rental: part 2

Next on our tour is the main floor bathroom. Here it is!

Scott and I despise this shower. We are both tall and the shower head, which showers the back wall as it showers us, is a little low. In addition, if we have to bend over to pick up soap when it falls, we inevitably bump the curtain which pushes the bottom of the curtain out so that the water spray gets on the floor of the bathroom.

The bathroom itself is arranged a little awkwardly and we have had to improvise because of lack of counter/cupboard/closet space. When we first moved in Grace was afraid of the bathroom. I'm not sure if she's gotten over her fear, yet. She still begs us to go with her to keep her company when she uses the toilet.

Next on our tour is the crucible. I mean the attic. With record-breaking heat all summer and no central air-conditioning, this space has been pretty much unbearable to live in. It's a fun space, though, and I hope we will use it more as the weather cools off.

It also is useful storage space and is where I'm hanging my clothes for now until we get the afore mentioned dresser for the bedroom and redistribute the clothes.

In the attic is fire hazard #4 in the form of another archaic AC unit cut into the wall that has been stuffed with foam and plastic bags and is being held together by packaging tape. We have no intention of ever turning it on. We actually ignore its existence. I didn't even get a picture of it, I'm already that good at ignoring it.

In addition to the attic, we have a full basement! It's not really much of a living space for several reasons, some of which are minimal flooding at almost every heavy rainfall, a suffocating heavy air drenched in old cigar smell (or other smoked leaves) and mildew, and scary stairs for the kids. It offers much useful storage space, though, and a second bathroom which has a bathtub.

When we're feeling brave we make the trek down there for bath time. Otherwise we just bathe the kids in the kitchen sink. They both love it and I think they prefer the kitchen sink to the basement bathtub.

Speaking of the kitchen, here it is! I love that the sink looks out the window, and I love the graceful arching wood curtain frame above the window.

In the kitchen are fire hazards #5 and #6 in the forms of the oven and dishwasher. I could literally write entire blog posts about each of these appliances and their quirks, but I won't. I'll just cram bullets in here for your enjoyment touching on some highlights...

• The oven runs at least 100 degrees hotter than the dial indicates.
• There is no insulation so every square inch of the oven is burning hot to the touch every time it's on.
• On a whim I looked up the oven brand cause I'd never heard of it before, and learned that the company hasn't made ovens for around 20 years because they had so many problems, the most dramatic being spontaneously exploding glass doors. We're kind of scared of our oven.
• We ran the dishwasher once and it filled the kitchen with a burning plastic smell. And it didn't clean.
• The refrigerator has wheels that work really well. Yeah.

The kitchen cabinetry looks like it was put in around the early 90's, which is nice. When we lived in Kirksville our kitchen cabinets were probably from the 20's. I'm glad we don't have to deal with their problems here. The back door to the kitchen leads out to the laundry room.

The laundry room needs a big shelf, preferably above the washer and dryer. I think that's one of my next projects.

My main project since we've been here, besides cleaning and cleaning and raising kids, has been the yard. I'm determined to not be afraid of the back yard by the time Fall gets here. Since I took this picture the neighbors have replaced the broken wood fence with a pretty white vinyl one. Yay!

But I'm still battling rampant poison ivy, a huge mole infestation, a total lack of real grass, and overgrown everything else. In the spring I want to be able to plant flowers and a vegetable garden, so there's a lot of prep work still to do.

In the front yard I've already torn down the English ivy that was threatening to swallow the house whole. You can kind of see it in the first picture we posted, but it's hiding behind the other overgrowth that I mostly have cut down, too.

We love the big stone porch and have spent many hours on these steps watching the cars go by. We have lots of cars to watch because we live on a very busy state highway.

So there you have it!