I realize how fortunate I am to have one house that is perfectly adequate, and one that is really, really nice. I know that when my parents were my age, they certainly did not (nor have they ever) had the material comforts that I have. And I know also that I would be equally happy living in a box under the Governor's Drive overpass. (Well, maybe not.)
BUT.
There are things about this house that make me nuts. Things that make me think, "What were they thinking, for crying out loud! Were they thinking at all?" Little things mean a lot to me. I don't know if you can call it "petty" or "detail-oriented". As with most things, the difference lies in what light you cast on it. All I know is that this house was built with somewhat poor attention to detail.
This morning, I was tying my shoe in the bathroom floor. A few weeks ago I was shocked to discover that the toe-kick vents in my bathrooms and kitchen cabinets are just open holes in the system. The air blows onto the bottom of the cabinet unit and out the vent in the toe-kick space, and in our case, around the edges of the cabinetry. That seems like shoddy construction to me. Half the heat exchange is with the cabinet itself, and therefore there is less cooling in the air. Yet apparently this is the industry standard. Why is there not a duct in there? I don't get it.
Anyway, this morning I was in the bathroom tying my shoe, and I happened to be in just the right spot to look inside the vent. It was totally full of construction dust, pieces of plywood, and filth of every kind. And this is the air we are breathing! My kids are breathing this trash! Sooo gross. You hear of "sick building syndrome" - I wonder if this is related, this being what we apparently breathe any time we are in a building. So much for that air purifier I run constantly.
Also, my laundry tub... I love it. I've always wanted one. BUT. For one thing, it's installed so close to the washer that I can't open the washer door all the way. Sooo annoying. The second thing, and I didn't know to think about this beforehand, is that it wasn't screwed to the floor, only caulked and painted to the wall. The first time someone bumped into it, it scooted across the floor and ripped the drywall about 6 inches up the wall. I guess I was just lucky that the plumbing held. But why would you think a fixture like that would NOT need to be secured other than by paint?
I just don't get it.
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wakeful dreamer