…and I didn’t expect it to be.

I knew I was looking at the house with a bit of rose colored glasses before closing, but once we started upacking things we made a few realizations.

Like the kitchen was designed by someone who DEFINITELY didn’t cook. Or at least didn’t cook well. A glass-top electric range and a barbie-doll sized double wall oven get comments of “umm…wow” from my friends who cook. I’m having to re-learn how to cook on the range. I DISINTEGRATED some bacon. It went from bacon to nothing in seconds flat while I was preparing other parts of breakfast. On this range, apparently, the medium setting is equal to the high setting on my previous gas range.

I came from a kitchen with literally one linear foot of counter space and four cabinets. I made it work with a purchased ikea stand-alone counter and a large deep cabinet with drawers that I put in the pantry. So this new L-shaped counter with its many cabinets seemed a dream…until I moved my stuff in. Once the microwave and the coffee roaster were put in place, with the corner double sink, there’s about…one linear foot of counter space left. *sigh*. And the many cabinets here are very unfunctional. Deep, without pull-out drawers. and one tall cabinet with no shelves in it at all! My mind boggles at wasting cabinet space for a broom closet, but I guess if you don’t have tons of baking supplies to store it’s not an issue. When you have organic all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cake flour, white whole wheat flour, pastry flour, etc plus quart jars of vanilla extract, jars of nuts, chocolate chips, cocoas, etc., the cabinet space fills up fast. Add in jars of various dry rice, dry beans, lentils, pastas, and other dry goods then cabinet space is gone. Oh, and can’t forget stacks of glass storage containers, a pile of different pans… you get the picture. If you like to cook, and you keep a pantry, you need functional cabinet space.

The other item I can’t stand is the beige wall-to-wall carpeting. Sorry folks who have this and manage to keep it clean, but I’m pretty sure you must not have real lives. Beige carpet is not an option for people with cats who have hairballs, dogs who have accidents in the house (like when you’re moving in and everything’s chaotic and she’s nervous and not getting the signals across), children who drop food, people who walk on floors, etc. I’ve used the carpet scrubber I bought 9 times since I bought it, and there’s still tons of dirty areas I need to clean. I’m going to end up having to call a service.

Now I’m not saying I regret my decision. The BONES of this house are good. There’s just some work that I knew going into it that needed to be done. I thought it could wait a good long while, but I’m rethinking that priority. Soon I’ll get to sit back and enjoy this house, and while I may grouse about the silly kitchen, or the dumb jacuzzi tub that I’ll never use, the carpet that’s frustrating to try and keep looking nice, I can still sit in my living room and be quite happy and cozy with the dog by my side and the cat on my lap. I sit in my office and feel joy at how pretty it is. I chill out on the screen porch and feel the breeze. Those things will last for the hopefully many years to come that I live in this house. The other things can be (and most likely will be) changed.