Ayn's Multiple World

That’s a beauty isn’t it! Hmm, should say to then actually that it may be noted I’m back to the big screen and computer. WooHOO!!! I’m very excited by that, but at this time I’m just getting back to it. I had to download another program … for now its free, but it’s going to cost $50. It’s the program for the Snagit. It’s a new version, but basically it’s a must have just like my Microsofts. Snagit is the program that allows me to capure a jpg image off of anything I could see on my screens. Man if you have no other program this would be the one to get.

Let’s not stay here all day … I really want to walk around the house. I’m thinking do I start from the front door or where I’m at right now? Man tough toss up. I guess though I better enter from the door. Hold on … be right back.

Yeeks … already glitches. My Ipix Viewer had a General Exception. Don’t know what that means exactly except it seems to freeze up the screen. We’re working on that now, but for the time being it seems to also make my Internet Explorer not respond.

Damn! Hmm, it took down all the IE screens. Well guess we have to start from scratch.

Ok, this is going real slow. Hmm, maybe we got it, but maybe freezing the 360 view might be messing it up we’ll have to see. Well the first thing is to walk through the front door of the house.



This is a beautiful door with 5 glass panes on either side of it. And you might see looking up is that there is a nice arch on the top of the door.



I don’t think I like the placement of the curtain on the window, I would have preferred the smooth arch. I don’t think there is anything up near that view that is worth covering. I have noted that they’ve got a green plant – artificial on top of the coat closet. I think that is a good idea … it is very much like the plant I’m used to seeing on the top of my computer hutch and out on Rich’s files at work. I like the nice way it breaks things up.

There would be a question as to how much white the room gets painted. I think it’s a lot of space, but there’s plenty of opportunity to two tone the room like you’ll see in the upcoming living room and dining room. You can see the wainscoting already on the top picture with the door. I like the white though in that it’s a common thread that holds the décor of the rooms together.



This is a picture of the double closet door to the left of the main door. There seems to be a place for an upright cameo piece, or it would also be a nice place for a big grandfather’s clock. Note the wooden floors. In the building choices you have options for wood, tile, or carpet. I very much prefer wood, although I don’t know what Rich would like so I would hold up for his opinion. I like the versatility of changing up rugs or carpets and the fullest advantage in cleaning. When you have a wood floor, you can continue it throughout and it gives the whole place continuity.

I’m thinking the only place I might consider other is that I would think about putting tile in the kitchen and the bathrooms. I’m a little worried about the affect of water on a wood floor.



This is the picture to the 10 o’clock view of the hallway. You can see the stairs are pretty immediately in front of you and coming to you squared on rather than an angle. Looking to the left of the stairs you can see past a foyer with a closet into the family room. It’s going to take awhile before I bring you fully that direction.

But you see what I’m saying with the wood floors … that with the wooden handrail I think is gorgeous. I would if given the consideration think of putting the lower rails straight wood rather than just white, but I would consider this as well. Ok, now let’s look up to take stock of the 2 story foyer. K?



This shot gives a nice look at the walk up the stairs, and you can see the upper landing running parallel to the floor’s straight-away. If you referred back to the original drawings you would know that if you got to the top landing and turned immediately to your right, you would be at the double-doors to the master bedroom.

AND, one of the really big deal impressible items of the architect, is that just like this view is open to the second floor, if you notice the light coming from the opposite side of the hall chandelier, you would notice more natural light. This is because as we will see later, there is a similar hand rail on the other side making the bedroom a bit of an island connected by this bridge. We’ll go into that detail a little while later. I think we’d have to find a couple of really good pictures for this wall, or maybe even pictures of the grandchildren in little frames. Definitely though the place for pictures!

Now we’re going to look toward the right of the stairway and foyer toward the living room and in back of that the formal dining room. K?



I’m sorry for it being blurred, but I want you to note how immediately warming the room is with the green and beige. You can tell the walls got darker if you were to note the white columns. The red of the carpet is also a draw as well as a couple of well placed pieces of furniture. They also placed a glass coffee table in front of the couch which is a good place for coffee or tea cups and cookies. Hehehe ok, so we’re imagining already inviting over the minister :) I think of this room not as much as a large living room, but as more a parlor. Naturally there is no TV in this room, just some table tops, couch and a couple chairs and lamps. You will note in this next picture the recessed lighting. You’ll find this in a lot of rooms in the house. Matter of fact mostly all of them, with the exception, I don’t really know if they show in the minor bedrooms.



This is the beautiful framing of the major living room wall. I see wood/red/table, center green and beige couch with matcher beige and wood end caps – and again the recessed lighting … It appears in corners. I would probably try to put not as much on the center table though. I like to leave room for those utilitarian coffee cups!

I would also put fewer pillows on the couch. I think people should be able to sit on furniture … This one is too fluffly and there’s nowhere to put the pillows except the floor. I also like the bit portrait and lamps. I would make sure to have one that was gilded. I love my map of old world, but I’m going to imagine it on the one wall of the living room, with maps all around it … the old fashion ones Rich owns or would buy. But we’re not to that room yet. My grandmother Ludford had a two nice pictures over her living room couch.

One was with three ladies in pink, yellow and beige dancing – ballerinas, and the other was with three women playing instruments. Very old fashioned. Let’s look over toward the front window now … there’s another nice image there to the right of this above settee.



This is your view toward the front window. It’s bigger than it looks from this angled, but I wanted to get the nice span of wall between the front door and the form place to sit. I imagine that this is the room where people would go when you don’t know them very much as they first come in the house, or this is the room where you’d spread out with a children’s table from the dining room if you had a full house over. It’s not so overcrowded if you moved the coffee table that you couldn’t place a card or folding table there. We’ll look at it again in a second when we look at the dining room. But, I like it that the space with both rooms is open enough to enlarge the eating area without cutting any one out. Nice. I’m drawing to mind now that of being at my grandmother’s house and I’m also thinking Christmas gifts, but I think if we were to have a big Christmas at the house, that it would be in the family room in front of the fireplace. Yup, yup that’s coming up!

Let’s walk back through the living room and take a closer look at the dining room.

Isn’t this fun? Rich is by the way done with one fishy show and about to watch the next, but he’s taken a small break to go cook some eggs. We’re all in for that!



This is the main view we get as we look into the dining room. First thing to be noted beside the again rich deep colors – matching red carpet, green plants and wood – is that the dining room is it’s own room all to itself. Yes, I know that it is on the other half of the living room, but in that it has 3 devoted walls … that’s pretty something. My mother’s original dining room, or at least that of John and her first house had the dining room within the corner of an L open to the kitchen and living room. That’s not what I prefer. I like the kitchen open to the family room, but when I’m sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner, I want a formal dining room, where we are not looking at dirty stuffing pans. Does that make sense? I also want the luxury of coming into and out of the room as we are setting the formal table.

Maybe even having grandchildren set the table. I always remember that a job of ours when we were young. It be a lot easier of course if we had china within the buffet cabinets. Hmm, better get one of those too.

This table seems to be big enough for 6 people, but I’m pretty sure I’d want a table big enough for 10-12 people. Maybe 12’s a little big, but at least 10. If one day we having all the kids over without their spouses and grandchildren … there would already be 10 people at the table. Hmm, in that case maybe we would want to use the kitchen nook table and center island. We’ll have to see … no telling if the families would ever be mixed. Hmm, I’m not sure if the lights are natural either side of the buffet, but I think we’d want that too. And, nice window out back right? I like that the windows are lower and double hung. It seems to let in a lot of light and maybe some privacy too since it faces the back of the yard.



There’s a couple things to be noted from this view. The first is the nice column separating the living room to the left and the dining room to the right. There is actually a step up from the ceiling it appears from one room to the other. I’m not sure why at first, but there is notation that above the living room on the opposite side of this wall is wear the Jacuzzi is … whoops are we tipping our hand? *Giggle*

There’s so much ahead! Aren’t you glad you came by for a tour today? I know you are edging forward in wanting to check out the kitchen that is shown through here, but before you go I want to make note of the greenish tint to the beige on the left and a yellowish ting to the beige on the right. They seem very color pleasing to my palette. I love these earthy colors. They are mellow in my mind and not demanding. I would like a little less demanding with the kitchen wall paper, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Right now I just want to lead you into the kitchen. It’s noticed there is not wood framing around the doors, but I think that is to help generate the open feel of the rooms and how one chamber leads to another without interruption. You can see the wall paper in the inner door frame, I might have done different there, but I’m not sure what’s proper. I have to admit that if I had anyone do my house, I might consider getting my ex to do so. I just know he could do it well, though I’m sure it cost more than $10 thousand by the time he was through with us. Have to really beg-off on some kind of deal. It would be a good job for him especially if he could get in before we moved.

Oh … no. We’re not moving yet … well actually we are not even buying a house yet, but do you think that’s going to stop me? Naw. We just had a conversation with Rich … he didn’t say no to looking at a house, but put up a lot of steamy excusive problems. Like we’re not even in the market. Well shoot … anybody who doesn’t have a house is in the market! So, we’ll go right on with our dreaming, because if I couldn’t dream I’m pretty sure I would fall flat on my face. He said not this weekend, but maybe we can do something next weekend. He complains IT’S THANKSGIVING Weekend … and we said, I know … It’s perfect! Yah, Yah … you know how we feel with unenthusiasm.

Oh man … I do got something exciting to tell you. Might as well say it now. Guess what, Guess what??!!!

We know a proud fishyman who know is the proudest owner of his very own BOAT! Can you believe that??? I’m sooooooo proud of him. Words cannot express. Here wait I’ll find a picture of it. Or, at least one like it.



Isn’t it a beaut! Wait wait … you gotta see the inside and all the special fishy pockets. Wait!



How bout that! We keep looking over all the numbers to make sure we got it down what everything is supposed to be for. We’ll have to officially wait though until Rich names them. This is a really, really big deal he did this.

Last weekend … a week ago today actually, he talked about the boat again and I went looking on the Internet. For the record I was THE ONE! The one to find the boat he bought. WOOHOO!!! Good ANN!

To cut a lot of wheelin and deelin short … he got the boat and all that comes with it for the cost of $15,000. It’s a 2005, but then the other boat we were looking at which was the same model was a 2009 and that cost $27,000. Rich didn’t like the depreciation cost of $3,000 a year. I figure that was a pretty good saving for him.

The boat had belonged to someone else who must have been pretty rich because it was only ran for like 16 hours for each of the three years he had it.

Ok, for the record. The boats a WAR EAGLE 962 Tomahawk and it’s got a 150 HP Mercury Optimax. I think he was looking for something else, but this one came with the boat.

He also got with the $15,000 deal a $600 cover, a trailer, a trolling motor, depth finder, and like 5 batteries. I think it’s a pretty good deal. I’m so happy he’s happy.

Well, he’s not fully saying that yet, because he’s still worried about the cost, but pretty much from the inside out he’s happy. I think he’s going to be paying like $175 for 10 years, but he’ll pay it off early. I think he’s still waiting to find out if his financing is going to go through. I don’t know why it wouldn’t. I don’t know there’s the general economy problem, but I think they took money down on it to hold.

I’m not sure, but I can’t ask now because he’s into his fishy show. Rich says the guys name their boats from how they are named, so he’s calling his boat “The Eagle.”

He says no one else has that name for their boat. It’s so gosh darn exciting.

He’s being very frugal in the number of people he tells. BUT, he told his friend Bob. He wasn’t going to, but I knew that be pretty tough not to tell your best friend and fishing partner. MY Thinking is that if you tell Bob … you’ve told the rest of the club. I don’t think holding secrets is one of Bob’s best assets. I can’t believe he hasn’t called already! We’ve talked over a few things and we’re uncertain about some things as well as Rich. He thinks he can park the boat over at his mother’s and Bud’s over the winter and that Bud will cover it under something maybe a car pool? Not sure, but Rich says that he could leave his car on the street during the non-snowing months and park the boat back of the apartment in his spot. He doesn’t think it’s going to cause the apartment people any problems. He’ll just have to get a sticker for parking in the street.

The other problem that’s still looming is that he doesn’t have a vehicle to haul the boat yet. He says he can use Bud’s van to pick it up because it has a trailer thingy, but he’s going to have to buy a new vehicle now. I think he knows generally what he wants, but its going to take some more convincing for him to do something. I think maybe after the first of the year. He talked of switching engines in his car, but the car already has 180,000 miles on it … he really has to get a SUV. I’m so gosh darn excited for him. We surely did our part. We wouldn’t let the boat go all week. We were negotiating with that guy who had called back with the $27,000 boat …

Rich was moving though so we were happy … it’s just that we kept talking fishing boat. Now he doesn’t have to buy us a Christmas present … well unless he wants to pay Maury something for his electric organ/piano. I still want to play with that. PLUS, Rich could have some fun with it.

Ok, ok … enough of that … starting to miss my house thoughts. Let me go get my morning medicine forgot about that.

Hehehe I filled up fishy-faces coffee … he has such a fishy mind. Me? One fish looks pretty much just like another … don’t see the big thing, but I know he loves it. I think partially because he doesn’t think so much of anything while he’s fishing. He’s done something sneaky this morning.

He says that the guy must have been a smoker because he put in a cigarette lighter, SO that means he can plug in his computer. I said, what? What? I can take a computer!?? Oh man you gotta think we were doing handsprings. He said well we’d have to talk about it first, but we would see. Whoa Man!!!

Rich explained to me that he’s going to want to go fishing with me at least 8 times because he’s going to pre-fish each of the lakes he fishes at. That means he goes out the weekend before. He says that we’re going to need to learn to have lesser hotels/motels. I kinda figured that part already. Because mostly its just a sleeping place, we’ll be eating out and doing bag lunches – hmm, maybe even bbq? I’m not sure on that we’ll ask later. But, mostly all day we’ll be out on the boat with him so we have to be tougher. EVEN if it means putting on bug spray. YEEKS!

Better have a good shower at that motel. HMPF! BUT, my sweetie is saying computer … and you gotta know with a computer – we’re on foot out the door! It’s going to be a whole new lifestyle.

Rich says that I’ve got the job of vacuuming the boat … it was like What? What? I already got a job? Wow! That happened quick. We haven’t even brought baby home! But, I know that he’s got a point. Without really saying so we need to contribute to work like a team. He talks about boaters and backseaters who do different tasks when bringing the boat in. I’m pretty sure he’s going to teach me how to do backseater stuff. And, you know what? He says that my part of the boat is going to be in the back. He says that he’s going to buy me a lounger!!! That means I’m really going to be suntanning up a storm. Oh for the quiet lapping sounds of the boat floating on water. I loved to be out on the water as a kid. Just the boys always got first choice, especially since it was my uncle’s boats and cabin. Eh, now we’re starting our own fishy life.

Hmm, maybe we better think of getting in better shape too. Might have to work our way back to the gym. I’m going to want to be in good shape for being on a boat.

Don’t want to tip over, ya know. He says we’ll work on that too. Hehehe.

Ok, now for real … where did we leave off on the house? Ok, let’s hit the kitchen you deserve something special. K?



This is a picture of looking at the dining room from the kitchen. I sure don’t mind bringing that table out some toward the pillar. I’d like to see something of my dining room when coming into the room. Plus, I want to be thinking BIG events as to having kids over. I don’t think Rich fully understands this, but I have no doubt that after we got a place and the divorce was final … ummm more of that later, well the kids would have to get used to seein their dad with me at the new house. If we didn’t cramp and crowd everything in … I think they’d have a much easier time with it.

Ok, as far as the room, I’m not crazy over the wall paper, but the color scheme is good. I’m thinking that the white door you are seeing from the right is a double pantry door. I don’t think it’s walk-in wide, but it will be a nice size. And, to the left I think we’re going to be finding a recipe desk, but let’s walk around the room first. Lot’s more to see. We might make one notation right away … the wood work is beautiful more oak than cherry, but I I think it goes very stylistically with the floors. I don’t know if there would be an option to make the white wainscoting and pillars wood stained, but that really be something for consideration. We’ll let that go for now though.



Oh there is that writing recipe desk. Right to the right of the fridge. I would not be caught dead with a black fridge … my preference is stainless steel, but the size is nice. We know we can park something real big here. The door frame past the desk is going out to the front hall. I’m confused with what might be in that closet, or if there’s another closet door opposite, but we’re pretty sure under the stairs is another set of stairs going down to the basement. I haven’t the faintest idea of what to think of the basement other than I would like to see there being things put up on skids and that Rich pick up one of those skid mover things. The last place we looked the basement was 9-10 feet tall. It might be that way again. One way or another we know the basement would be huge. Go figure! You get a little better idea hear of the cabinets and one next to another and another … I think the set is going to be beautiful and very grounding. This next view though is going to be spectacular … are you ready … it’s the first view of the family room from the view of the kitchen … hold on.



This is one of the first views … there will be more … because from here you can’t appreciate accept the high light that the family room is two stories tall. This view you can sorta see the fire place to the left under the stacking pictures, but we’ll get a better view of that two in a bit. But, you get an idea from the opposite side of the island the distance past the kitchen nook where the table is to the family room on the other side. It is a huge expanse of nice wooden floors with a minimizing affect of another rug. I love these kind of rugs. Always have … there’s so many choices to pick from. We’ll get a better view of the window in a bit too, but for now just notice how bright the room is. I don’t like how they’ve decorated it in that there’s not enough on the far wall. I’m a little confused there though that it looks like there’s a vent in the center of the room.

Not sure about that, but this is the wall, I would like to decorate entirely with Rich’s maps including the big wall hanging that we now have in the living room. I’d like to see it going almost all the way up to the ceiling. It be a bitch to hang, but would add soooo much interest to the room and the room’s height.

You can also see here the door to Rich’s office. I would rather it be a double hung door with French glass windows. For the record there are French doors, but I’d like to see a double set. I don’t know if that could be arranged. I would want this because it give the room a more majestic look. I want to be drawn into the office moreso than is happening right now. Of course with the expanse of maps along that wall … maybe a clever hidden opening would be more in order. We’ll see in another picture where we’d put the TV. But for now let’s move on … we’re still looking from the kitchen.



This is the next kitchen view taking in all of the table and getting a better view of the double height windows in the family room. It’s an arch above the arch … we’ll see more in a few moments. But from here you can see the nice sense of casualness in looking toward the whole great room from the cooking side of the kitchen. It’s nice to overlook the nook table and you can feel how comfortable it would be to sit here and chat on a Saturday morning. Also, you see a very good view of the sliding glass doors out to the back side. I’m not sure what leads from that direction, but it could be easily said that there’s something of a nice yard. I think some of these properties back out onto trees, but I’m not real sure. We might want to look at that. It’s very nice though in that … I don’t think I could move to a house without a big sliding glass door leading to the outside. I like the feeling of immediacy in being outside and relishing in that beauty and in this case … directly from the middle of one’s comfort zone. You could bet that most of your time in this house is going to take place from this location of kitchen, nook and family room.

I think getting a little into the kitchen on the bottom right corner, you are seeing a bit of the dishwasher. Better take a better look at that. One more thing here though … just like the great room and the glass doors outside … having an island is something also critical to any house we buy. Mostly, because Rich’s deal is to be in the kitchen and my deal has been to be with him talking and keeping him company while he works. So this vantage point of being near him, but with some reasonable distance for his movements is very critical of a dream house such as this.

Believe me though … we’d have very little on top of the island except what he’s using immediately to be cooking. We’d want an easy pass through like if he wanted us to cut or stir something for him.



AHA! Isn’t this a beauty? This is the lion’s share of the kitchen. You can see better now the dishwasher which is close to the nook table, the sink, and the island … it’s in a perfect location. Under the window it’s harder to see, but it is the double kitchen sink. It looks like there’s a glass cabinet in the upper corner, and then plenty of cupboard space and under counter space on either side of the beautiful stone and microwave set-up. You might not see from this view, but there’s also storage under the island to the left. It seems there is a good amount of space on either side of the stove and over the dishwasher for extra counter space. Somethings would be very important like finding room for the toaster oven and Margarita blender. WooHOO!!! Maybe right next to the counter next to the fridge. Beauty, beauty of a kitchen though. It’s also got that openness in that you can access it from the left or right of the room. Very, very open floor plan that makes this a hell of a deal.

Ok, you saw that view now let’s look at the kitchen from the other side of the family room. It’s a gorgeous inset of what’s to come. It blends in perfectly and because of the lower ceiling it feels like a warm and drawn in cozy room.



Lot’s to be learned from this view. For one the table set seems to be blending in with the kitchen counter and island. I like the light hanging down giving the room some definition, but more that you fit more into the room without taking on the cluttered look of something more specific. I also like that if you look all the way through you can see the dept with the formal dining room to the far right. You can see also the beauty wooden floor throughout. It is this view that makes me think that instead of tile we would keep the entire floor wood. It gives me the sense of being in an old fashioned library. I can’t say enough for my enjoyment of wood. Here in this view you can sense the decorating ideas of only leaving to the corner of the family room a normal size wing chair. The decorators kept the openness in the room by refusing to overstuff. I think there is plenty of room to bring over chairs if there was going to be more meeting of people in the family room, like for a football game, but in the meantime everything stays clean and open.

In this view you can see a hint of the large opening just past the fireplace going into the open foyer. It’s really nice to have a double space to feed into the openness. AND, in this view you are getting an idea of what is coming with the fireplace. Have we overused the word gorgeous!?? I like the combination of brick and formal wood frame. Again it would be interesting to see this all stained rather than painted, but I can’t complain of the white paint either. The fireplace is perfect … not too big, not too small and very well balanced with the room. Across from the fireplace of course is that huge open window … We’ll get a better picture of that in a moment.

Let’s move on.



This is a better view of the fireplace and the space next to it where they have here a hidden TV I am sure. It’s a beautiful consul. It is the obvious place for a large flat screen TV. Again as you might have noticed though-out is the greenery, making use of spaces between tall furniture, cabinets or windows with the expanse of the tall double floor ceilings. Can I say something here too about that beautiful fireplace. Look at the wainscoting – not sure if that’s what you call it, but the wooden (but painted), framing above the fireplace mantel that makes the entire fireplace grander and alluring. Beauty!

This is another view that we haven’t really looked at yet. This is the part where we are looking above the fireplace to that wooden framing on the wall that makes the fireplace seem so daunting. You know too don’t you we’re going to talk about those wonderful railings. We’ll give you a little prelude – mostly the railing to the left above the wide open door frame is the door to the master bedroom, and the railing to the right is the railing in front of bedroom #2. Wait for that part … we’re extremely excited about that. But, before we leave this shot visually follow the pictures up the top of the fireplace. Let’s try another word … how about stunning! Oh and the recessed lighting? It continues here too. There are 4 lights over the fireplace area. I can’t imagine how wonderful it would be at night with the shadows of these lights.



Ok. We’re going to skip this next natural shot for a moment, because we want to do that room from a different perspective, but just as a forewarning if we continued to pan right, we would come up to that open door to the room that I’m calling Rich’s office. I want to get a complete group of picture for the family room. Could you imagine a room so great as this though. I so completely am in love with the double tall size of this room I’m finding it incredibly difficult to breathe the excitement is so great. This is the view of the double tall windows. No, please do not ask how these things get cleaned.



Could you imagine sitting at the corner of this couch feeling the height and excitement of all this behind you? It’s just incredible. This is the room that would inherit our present couch and round wooden/glass coffee table. Let me wait here a moment and catch my breath. The intensity of what I feel even dreaming of this place for a home is so hard to believe that I’m just wallowing in my prosperity in even thinking these thoughts. How could I imagine and then find something so absolutely terrifying to my senses. Can you tell I’ve spent some time thinking through all of this?

Do you know how many times I’ve been through these rooms in the last 6-7 days? I find myself living in the spaces imagining my movements. How well I could dream away time and space. Hmm, nice touch that little tree … kind of defines the space by putting it in some perspective.

Ok, breathe in breath out … are you ready for a completely new perspective. Let’s take a walk into Rich’s office. When I first saw it I couldn’t believe my incredibly good luck It’s all that an office should ever claim to be.



This is it … Rich’s office. From the moment I saw it … I had no doubt that this was a single person’s office and that it could only claim a masculine body. This is the kind of space I imagine my honey framed in by. This is the place to make executive orders. I could see myself coming in and sitting across from his master desk – which would be bigger than this one, but I would only come into sit at the master chair pretending to be Rich. There’s space on the left you can see for the filing cabinet and there’s plenty of storage below the bookshelves. In truth, I don’t know or nor do I really want to dream how Rich would like to decorate those shelves. One thought might be for current business needs, though I don’t think anything Rich does takes up this kind of space. Something that did just come to mind is that – if his son hasn’t thrown them out already, I could imagine Rich putting up here the books he still may have from his grandfather. I think that would be very cool for him. I’m not sure what kind of books there are, but I think I remember him saying there were probably about as many books as I have. One way or another … this would be up to Rich’s wildest dreams to put together. It’s just a tremendous room full of power and style.



This is the other side of the room. It again has another nice window this place is known for. Did I mention how low slung they were. Almost nearly floor to ceiling. From this view you get an idea of how well the room comes together. It is only about 12 x 15, so not quite big enough for more than a desk and a few chairs, but this is the essential make-up of an office. Like I said files on the other short wall. Now, I have to add one more side-note type option … the builders of this building thought ahead … and added one essential option. I don’t think we would initially consider it, because the idea of Rich having a stupendous office is so great, but … but … if it ever came to be … this room could be turned into a in-law arrangement. How you say? Well basically it would remain about the same, and I’m not sure how it would affect the back wooden framing, but the room would become 3 foot shorter or so … and you would add an internal bathroom to where the door stands now.

Here let me show you. Ok, I remember now … there’d be space between the door and the bathroom for a little closet. Here look …



The room would go down to 12 x 11 ½ but you would have inside the room a private full bath and closet. Now … why are we talking about this? Pretty much because I could see a time when we might inherit an in-law. I don’t think my mother would move to Chicago after living a life-time in MN, but sometimes I wonder about her if John were to be gone. She’s got a very large house that is accessible, but I don’t know how long she would want to keep that house before scaling down, because without John, we’d have to ask how would she be able to take care of herself. I think she uses a wheelchair when out … and may or may not get around the place walking or taking a walker, but there is that … and maybe more immediately the thought of Rich’s Mom – or for that matter Bud.

I think if anything were to happen to Rich’s Mom, Bud would be fine on his own at the mobile home they have, and I think that one of Bud’s kids would take Bud on if he weren’t able to take care of himself. BUT, there’s the question of Rich’s mom. Now Rich says that he would put her in a home, and if she needed close medical care, I might agree, but if she were able to walk and get around and not need immediate care on a day to day basis – I would see it as an honor to have her live with us. AND, that would mean putting her on the first floor where she could get around without stairs. The stairs actually allow Rich and us some option in that we’d be sharing the first floor with her, but we’d have private space upstairs. I think most the time would be spent with her on the same floor, but it would give both of us some privacy too. I think here especially of the lovemaking. That would be uncomfortable if she were too close. I think we would be storing a lot of her things if we didn’t sell them, but there would be plenty of room down stairs. I think because she lives in a mobile home, she’s not used to a very large bedroom. 12 x 11 ½ is a decent size room, but it wouldn’t be big enough for a lot of extra things. The closet might have to hold winter OR summer things, and be switched over like my grandmother did, but one way or another – it’s an option that frees up a lot of worry space in my mind. I would not want to paint ourselves into a corner to say that we couldn’t take care of her as long as her needs weren’t overly medical.

I think of the space she’d have access to on the first floor – because it includes the family room with such a big large window – there would be a lot of light for her and warmth from it that she might not get from a smaller darker room. This is of course in consideration of her blindness. I like that the room is open enough so she’s not bumping into things and hopefully she’d find great comfort in walking past the fireplace to fix her toast and coffee or whatever else small meal she would eat. Rich says she eats like a bird. I could also see her spend a lot of time at the kitchen nook table. She’d still have all that light from the big window, plus from the glass doors while having a firm chair and a table to sit at. I don’t know why, but I think a lot of older people are more comfortable with a table than sitting on a overly soft chair. This way she could too be part of Rich and my space in the family room even if she was sitting at the table.

The last consideration is that Rich says his mom’s love is cooking. It would take her a while to get used to a new kitchen, but as long as she were able, she’d be able to enjoy the beautiful kitchen and because of the close table and island, we’d be able to look in on her while she was working … and of course to keep her company. Rich says she likes watching cooking shows, so we’d have to give her an option of well – of course having a TV hooked to cable in her room, but as well she could watch it on the big TV, or we could get one of those smaller TVs and place it on one of the kitchen counters. I don’t know how much she could see, but at least then she could be near and hear the TV close to the kitchen. It might be one of the exceptions to the rule as to having something on the island. That would allow her to listen to it while sitting down at the kitchen table or while cooking in the kitchen. It also would give her something to do not taken away from Rich and us in the family room, but alongside us so we’re always open to where she’s at while still getting a little distance if necessary from any end. I could also see her sitting at the kitchen table talking to Rich as he cooked. It would be a beauty of a relationship that brings tears to my eyes.

Rich would still have to give up his office, but if it were for his mother, I know he’d give it up in a minute. We’d still have to face the part where he would want to put her in a nursing home. But as long as she were coherent and able to be around people and space, we would insist on her living with us. There might have to be other changes though that we would hope by then to work through anyway. Basically, I would want to be home with her as much as I could. The only way we could do that is if Rich found a way to keep me working from home on his business, and then if he retired and were home, then by then maybe I would want to go out, but most likely I’d retire to never wanting to work outside the house. I think I’ve always wanted to be around home. It’s just ultra comfortable an idea to me. So anyway that is that.

Well, we’ve made it almost through the house, BUT WAIT!!! We’ve only looked at the first floor!

No, we don’t have a view of the basement, but we do have ONE of the rooms upstairs. We can take a look at the master bedroom, and then we might look at the floorplan from upstairs again and talk over a fe more plans from that direction. Ok, you set? We have to open and shut Internet Explorer again because we’ve backed off those screens and now have a black screen but things should be ok. We’ll back up just in case … we’re on page 21 … hate to start over!



This is the first view as the room is decorated now as you walk in the door. I might consider placing the bed on the opposite wall, but non-the-less, this is a nicely done room. Again you have the wainscoting that helps spatially in taking on such big rooms. This room is about 21 x 17’ I believe … that have to be checked again, but I don’t want to leave this screen yet. Now … do you want to see what makes this room SO cool … let’s take a full view of those windows! Oh, and by the way … I really think we’re looking king size bed here with absolutely no crunch on space!



Take a look at all this space and that expansive window. WOW! This is a dream bedroom to be sure. The little Victorian styled couch in the corner is perfect. You might need binoculars though to watch that TV from bed. Hehehe. You might want to put a little couch at the base of the bed and add another little coffee table. ESPECIALLY, if one of the mother-in-laws were to live in the house. That way you would have a private sitting room to relax at the end of the night if you were finished with visiting. I really remember that about the kid’s grandfather. The kids come over … he would eat and then retire to the bedroom where he’d watch the fire and TV, or read.

It’s a pretty cool thing to do. I could go another couple pages over the thrill of having this bedroom, but for now we’ll move it along. I think there are just a couple more views of the inside place before we go back to looking at that floor plan.



What do you think of this view? That’s a double door going into the private master bath. Hmm, didn’t notice that before. Looks too like there is an elevation of ceiling that’s interesting … kinda cool. I think that wall where the dressor on the right is is very big. Somewhere in here I think would have to be a couple of lazyboys. I always had that dream of Rich and us reading rocker to rocker. No problem I think there is plenty of space here. Maybe instead of a small couch by the end of the bed … that is where you’d put the double chairs with a taller glass top table in between. Sure plenty of space. Before I address the bathroom, maybe one more picture from this camera. Let’s look toward the hall. Wow … just snuck a peak … it might take me at least three shots to get through the upcoming parts.

First let’s look at this shot …



Remember that front door 20 some pages ago? Well here it is again … we’ve almost come full circle. This wall to the left is still part of the master bedroom – you remember where that dresser was a few moments ago. And, remember before I’d alluded to the bridge leading to the island bedroom. Well here at the top of the stairs is a little landing and as you’ll see in a few moments – to the left is a 2 floor expanse toward the hall, and to the right is a 2 floor expanse to the family room. Have I left you with ANY thought that this entire house is not perfect! This is one of the deals though that makes this house so perfect. I’ve never seen anything like this before and it reminds me as if we lived in Zanadune, or wherever it is that Gene Kelly finds that old fashioned world on the other side of the hill, you know the one that makes itself visible like for only one day in a hundred years. That’s what this place makes me feel like. You wanna take a peek down the hall? Watch this!



Ok, ok … I know … you’ve done this huge layout of an extremely unique house and here we are showing you a primarily blank wall. Hmm? Oh man how silly can you be! This wall is the WHOLE ENTIRE KEY TO THE HOUSE’S STUPENDOUS BEING!!! This is going to be MY room. Well, you might have thought that was coming, right? I mean we gave Rich AND/OR his mother a pretty fantastic opportunity downstairs, didn’t we? Well this is MY space!!!

I’m not sure if you can see it, but to the far left there is a trace of the handrail going downstairs – so you are kitty corner from the master bedroom. This is a part of the hall that’s pretty darn big and open. And, then you can see to the far right the door going into this room. Officially it’s room or bedroom #2. This is the second largest bedroom in the house … *Giggle* there are MORE bedrooms coming up, but this one is key. Notice too by the way the familiar wainscoting … I think this is a means to say that it is most likely through the entire house. That’s a fine touch of class. Ok, now let’s think a little differently. What I would do with this place, is that I would close up about 3-4 feet to the right of the room (where the door is presently, and I would close up 3-4 feet to the left of the door (where the wall starts), BUT, I would take the remaining 8-10 feet and I would open up the majority of the whole long wall. One, because this is the ugliest view at this point of the entire house, but more importantly is that this would allow me to create a space, I would call the library … to be fair … Ann’s library.

The room is about 14 x 13’ I think have to check on that later, but the deal is that we would build around the wall space of this room … not where we’re looking because that would be all open, but around the two perpendicular walls and around the double windows opposite this wall would be completely framed in with bookshelves. Most likely matching the wainscoting, and then under the window looking out on the front lawn I would have a small table for my computer, and I would have between the window’s wall with my computer a comfortable chair and on the other side a big wonderful desk or large table – facing the open door – an antique kind. I would do the courteous thing like down at Rich’s office, and leave a couple of chairs on the other side of the table/desk for visitor’s, but do not make the mistake of thinking this room is anything except MY room. I think I could fit all my books in that much bookshelf space. It would have to do, though I might have to scatter books around elsewhere in the house as my collection will grow until I die.

There that’s the dream that’s got me holding my breath until I feel I’m floating on air so thin you could make it into a Norwegian pancake. Umm, that’s pretty thin. If you remember … well I’ll show you in a minute, but opposite this wall around either side the chimney for the fireplace is the open railing to the double tall family room, so you have open family room, open hallway, open staircase, and open room. The whole thing is perfectly matched and exceptionally dreamed.

For the record … upstairs is going to be all wood floors too. So, isn’t that just dreamy!?? This gives me the feeling I’m on top of the world looking around me at space. I’m buffeted from the normal traffic of the house, but yet connected. It has me at the head of a very tall unrestrained house. I’m not too far away, yet still tucked in. And, when Rich retired to the bedroom to watch TV from his lounger, I will be right across from him many feet away, but visible through the double set of double openings. Oh man I couldn’t possibly get much higher than I feel when I think of this room and this house. BUT, there’s just an ounce more now … want to finish the tour.



There are a lot of things in this last picture … believe me I’ve taken you to see every different angle I can imagine worthwhile from what is offered from this home designer. The first door on your left is the one for my library that will be done over and you can see from the wall on the left how open it is to the railing and room below. Look how far away yet close I am to Rich’s office and even to the far right the bedroom. But, if you look down at the floor you would see how the hall opens up here. So it’s not like you’d have a large opening facing a closed hall – you have this whole scene enlightened piece of heaven! What could be more? Well look if you will past the open door of the present library Bedroom #2. Just past that door is the door opening for bedroom #3 AND, get this AND bedroom #4. AND, in between the two bedrooms down the hall is a perfectly nice full size bath. No not for the master bedroom people, but for the visitors who are going to come and stay with us … like KIDS and GRANDCHILDREN!!! They are there, but at the opposite side of the house giving us a complete sense of space needed for sexual grunting couples.

NOOOO I didn’t just say that, but if I did … wouldn’t that be an outstanding deal!

Each of the rooms at the other end the guest rooms … are 12 x 12” Nice size rooms not kingsize, but perfect size for entertaining family and or friends. It seems natural that we leave two guest rooms. Pretty much I figured because there are so many kids and if they were to come in … sometimes they come in with family. I’m especially thinking of Jill and her spouse’s kids. No, we’re not having rooms JUST for them, but like them. Also because when Jill or Jon comes in they could be coming home for a holiday together, or maybe Chris and/or Chris and his girl might want to stay over to be visiting and waking up with his second new family. Isn’t that terrific? Or, later on when Thom and Alexis move away together, they will be able to have space to visit too, and there will be room for his grandchildren, or as they age Maury’s kids or now even Joes! I couldn’t think of anything absolutely more ideal.

There are a few other things in those rooms too. One thing is that I would think that the rooms have computers in them so that when the grandchildren came over, they could be upstairs playing games on the computers. I would think at first we should have an Atari system or something, and maybe we still might, but the thing for sure now after watching Ame is that Grandchildren need to be entertained. And, there’s going to be a whole long time with grandchildren. Tom and Joe and Chris … Jill’s already set … and we never know what jon will do with family. BUT, there is room for options and everyone involved.

There’s this concern with Rich’s wife and that if the kids are in they are going to be staying with her, but then I can imagine that sooner than later, she’s going to want to move out to a smaller condominium and there might not always be a lot of room to house her kids. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want the old family house without the old family in it. There’s questions as to what Rich’s son Chris is going to do. He would be the main reason she doesn’t move out of the house. With Chris asking for carpet in the basement, I am imagining he’s extending some private space for him and his girl. That works fine – if that is what they want. Rich said something the other day about Jon staying with his mother because Chris is going to be in Las Vegas for a week in December. I think that’s a terrible precedence in that it’s leading to she will never be able to live by herself.

Sure I’m sitting here with Rich so who am I to complain. BUT, it makes me feel uncomfortable in thinking that my boys would have to take care of me in that I was incapable of taking care of myself. Well, maybe this might one day be the case when I’m old and maybe she’s already reached being of age. Rich said the other day she’s a year older than him. But, I’m grateful for the ten years exactly after the boys left my car that I was able to be in my own home. Rich helped no doubt, but every night I went to bed without holding someone to have to stay with me. I know I know … none of my business and I couldn’t possibly worry about Chris’ freedom than his own mother, just sometimes when Rich talks I feel resentment from the situation and power wielded wildly for now being the obvious man of the house.

If he can do it … all the power to him. I do know that maybe like him … I’m setting myself up to take on a mother myself.

There’s some other interesting things going on and now we’re going to stretch to the worse case scenario. Wait … let me get you one picture first. This is a floor plan of these last two bedrooms and bath we’ve talked about.



Wow that’s a nice size picture. Do you see? Now notice something else cool in thinking about this house. Just like the situation with Rich’s family coming by or staying … look at some of the other alternatives. The first one I think of is Maury. He’s really he most independent in that he’s the only one with a house and such.

But, if something happened to Maury and he went under someway financially, I could protect him and his family. Do you see those dashed lines that go at the end of the hallway in front of the bathroom? What that would mean to me is that if Maury or any of the other kids had to financially move back, that end of the hall could have a door and be made to be a private suite. There would be a bedroom and a sitting room or a room for parents then kids, or any other variety one might imagine. If Maury were to need to live with us … he and Lauren could have a bedroom, leave the other for a sitting room, and we could formalize the basement to make about anything they would want. For that matter if they could bring in money from the selling of their place, they could make an entire household down there. No, I don’t think this would happen, but same would go for any of the other kids. Basically, we’d always have room to take them for either a short time or a long time. This is what’s giving me a sense of wholeness.

If anything were to happen to Rich and I still had the house, then I could move into his old office and we go back to the Mother-in-law plans and we let ANY of the kids take over the 2nd floor … we’d have to think through though losing our upstairs library. That open room might have to remain open … though if there were a whole family living with us, I’d really have to give it up for their own privacy. Ok, I know I know … way ahead of myself here? But this is the way we think … there’s no surprise here. None of us know the financial future of our lives. Right now Maury is the most extended … it’s not impossible to think that something could happen to their financial ability to own a home. What would happen even if they got divorced.

I don’t think that’s going to happen, but it has come up once or twice before.

If something were to happen to that relationship, they would either sell the home or it would most likely go to Lauren presuming she’d fight for the kids. If that were to happen, we could again go back to coordinating off the far hall for him, and he’d have an extra room for the girls to sleep over, and he’d have options over creating a private space down in the basement for maybe a game or separate living room. There is plumbing roughed in down there. I could see there being plenty of room for a pool table. Basically, he’d have to have some kind of large private space where he could entertain separately if that were his wish. And, again as I say this it could be true for any of the kids or their various configurations. It's just with the unsurity of everything going on - we're feeling a little Walden's-like. If we were going to have to pool people to make sure both our families made it through, or if something were to happen to Rich and us, there's a wonderful house others would like and could pay-in toward. Easily 2-3 families could live in the entire space. Not saying that would most likely happen, but what happened we were slung back to the days of depression? In the best of times, Rich and us and our visiting families would be living grandly - for the houses $340,000, but in a crisis it would be a Zhivago-type house that would hold more. We'd pool our resources.

If Maury’s family were there and there were no Rich I would think nothing of moving out of the master bedroom suite. Though with the couple of recliner’s the granddaughter’s could stop up to visit and I would be able to leave the bigger family alone in the living room. I would much rather live anywhere in my house more than going to Maury’s place and ending up in the basement weight room. That situation is much too crowded. I could take any room in the house for my private room AND add my library, and they would still have more room in my house and nicer than their own. I don’t want to be derogatory of what Maury and Lauren have, because I think they got a lot of house for their money. BUT, they’ve got way too much stuff for the space they have. All the rooms are too crowded. Well, many of them. BUT, that’s their style of living … everyone of us make our choices.

Before I go too far from the last picture … I want to point out how big and full the hallway is, particularly with the two sets of rails on the one side of the hall. The next point being … there are a few things not noted yet. One of them as you might see in that last sketch is how large or many the amount of closet space. Bedrooms #2 & #3 have walk in closets and the 4th bedroom has a double sliding closet. That’s pretty cool AND then there’s one more set of spaces downstairs we disregarded.



I’m not sure if you can place quite this picture, because no real rooms are showing, but this is the left front part of the house. This is where it becomes obvious there is a 3 car garage … for me and Rich and his boat and how the garage enters the house. This is a special hall not shown yet.

The double door closet to the right is the main foyer. You can see passing through the first arch on top of that is the stairs going down to the basement. There is an opening to the family room where the fire place is and in that small hall a little bathroom closet, a ½ bath and the all important laundry room. If there was any one imperfection to the house it would be not fitting upstairs the laundry room, but this is minor. It would be interesting though if in the upstairs bathroom above the laundry room you could develop a clothes chute. Hmm, wouldn’t that be interesting … take care of carrying things down stairs. Cool we’ll have to work that through. But, the important thing is … that there is a first floor bathroom that can be kept up for guests, and there is a laundry that’s higher than the basement. Nice!

I’m not sure if one would fold the close where, but my guess is it would be either at the kitchen table or you would take it immediately up to the front master walk-in closet where the windows are and fold the clothes there. Maybe there would be a small table in there … there would be definite places to hang clothes until separated appropriately, but also maybe a dressing room chair … just have to be careful not to overdue the space with dead clothes. I suppose if there was going to be any kind of exercise equipment it would be downstairs in the basement. But mostly I’d rather think that space for Rich or any of the kids who need extra room. Just need a skid or two for boxes I have left over in my closet. PLUS, the kitty space.

Hmm, I forgot something … I forgot to go over the master bath. YEEKS! That’s another best place. Wait!



This large expanse … hmm like that word today! Well this is of course a part of the Master suite. I cut off half the bedroom, but point clearly here to two COMPLETE walk in closets … and hmm, is that a Jacuzzi in the huge bathroom!?? The bathroom is giant! Double sinks naturally, a shower, toile AND Jacuzzi. Double doors coming into the room and at the top and bottom naturally the closets. I can’t decide which closet I want, but you might the bigger closet on the bottom even has double windows. That comes with its plus’ and minus’. You could imagine the problem we’d have with our nakedness in front of the windows, but wow … so much light in a closet? Be hard to give up. But can you see by the size of this closet … I mean look at the half stairs in comparison to one of these three siderooms. The space is gigantic! But, what I was trying to say would be there could be space inside this big closet for a small folding table. It be actually a very pleasant room I believe if kept up to be in.

Ok, now I’m REALLY sure I’m done … But, one thing. Just to remind you if you’ve forgotten with no matter how perfect this house is … the outside beauty is nothing to laugh at … remember? Hold on … let me get it.



Can you believe that such a beautiful house could hold something so wonderful as I’ve been trying to explain all day? I think I have a little image too of the neighborhood, although I don’t know which lot … pictures I have it’s all still going up. But, I know that this place is 58 minutes from work. Not nice, but not impossible … not with books to listen to on the way home with the iPod. Rich complained a little when he asked again where this place was, but he didn’t absolutely put his foot down so we’re going to be hoping for the best. We did get a maybe on going out to look … I think that came after he said … well we’re not going to buy it this week so it might not be an emergency to see. We asked him at that point to feed our obsessiveness. I think he might have said … yah right. But he’s not being so negative that it’s past being a done deal. It’s important that he knows what I want as much as it’s important that he tell me how much he can afford.

I just got off the phone with him. He had to stop at the office and then he was going on to a basketball game tonight and then out with his son to a late dinner. He said that I should prepare for the tent he is going to put over the boat for us to live. I said … FINE … BUT … I get the bigger side! HMPF!

Hmm, it says that from our house to the new place it would be 42 minutes or 30.34 miles. Makes it seem so far. BUT, then the goal would be to work at St. Rose maybe only 1-2 days a week if any. RIGHT?!



Giving you a little orientation here … We’re at “A” Brookfield. Work is directly East, but on this side of 94, and the new place would be to the West and location “B” Most of it would be easy because we just follow 55 and we’d be driving away from the western suburbs. The hardest part would be before 355. Let’s move in now, k?



This is the subdivision. I think the houses that we are looking at are on the East side of Devoe Drive and Valentine Way. There are a lot smaller type new houses on the West side of the circle.

The big space in-between everything is a great big green park for the neighborhood.
Well we’re not going to get a real clear picture of this. Mapquest, Google, or my computer is acting up. It might be because the area is new in being developed. I did get this picture.



This is that figure 8 type space of East Devoe and Valentine. It seems that those 5 small squares toward the top might be sketched in properties. I’m not sure. Definitely when this picture was taken there wasn’t much to it, but somewhere I saw something with houses more built in … hmm, this is something. Maybe each of those 5 squares are more like mini-blocks of like 10-12 houses … yeeks. Hold on … It now seems that the land area might be bigger on the West side … here this is what I’m talking about.



See what I mean? Pretty confusing, but if to the left those were larger lots, I would definitely wan’t something on the outside edge … a courner lot would be really cool. I think to the left is a huge city swimming pool and tennis courts. Not sure. Nice to have one of those lots within the green circle too where the park is. I saw a different picture where there was water in there, but I don’t know where that was. There seems to be a little bigger lots inside where those circles are … that be nice too. Ok, have we dreamed enough?

Where are we now in general. We’ve been working on this project since this morning and now it’s way later … it’s 3:15 pm. I think it’s going to take a couple more hours just to post this entry.

Probably over 30 pictures and as it seems 33 pages … that might be over my regular limit, but it does sound like a grand Saturday doesn’t it … we’re up to 12,500 words hehehe LOVE IT! Ok you … let’s post and then maybe take a break and watch a movie tonight, Hmm? Rich won’t be home until 8 or 8:30 pm so there’s some time. Best get on with it. We’ll be groaning before it’s over, but it will give us more opportunities to look at the house and dream. Pshwoo!



Ahh, this is the one why I thought there was a lake. Maybe tomorrow we’re going to drive out to look with or without Rich. He said something about going to one of his friend’s house anyway.

Hmm?

Ok, you. We made a call, but chances are we are off business hours. We’ll just have to wait. We can be patient, right? Ok, maybe SOMEthing like that … let’s move on, k?