Quote:
Originally Posted by levite
Large house, no question. Mrs. Levite and I have a LOT of books, which need a LOT of space, and we also really like having guests.
In the best of all possible worlds, I'd love to have a house with three or four bedrooms with big walk-in closets, big bathrooms (for big English bathtubs and separate showers), a couple of offices, a big huge living room, big dining room, huge kitchen (gourmet + kosher = need a lot of room), readily accessible large attic, large basement rumpus room. And as long as I'm wishing, I'd love enough space outside for a pool and hot tub, pool house with sauna, and enough room for both a small English garden and a small Zen garden.
None of which, I am sure, we will ever come close to being able to afford....
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I don't know about needing a large house for book storage. One of the coolest houses I've ever been in was my favorite professor's house. He had a three-bedroom rambler, and every bit of available wall space was custom bookshelves, more or less. He has quite a collection of art, as well, and the shelves were designed to work with the pieces he had. He admitted that it helped that he had a large office at the university for MORE books
but ever since I saw that house, I've thought that I could get by with less space. My main problem is shelving. I don't have enough shelving designated for books. Inadequate storage in my existing house means I'm using shelves meant for books for other things (i.e. the food I canned). As such, I probably have another several hundred books in the attic.
Ideally, I'd like a house with just enough space for everything, including kids. I'd want a house with a separate play area so that my future children could have enough room for their play stuff without taking over my living room/family room/great room (whatever). As a babysitter, I get irritated when parents allow their children to take over what I see as the communal spaces of a home by letting their children permanently store toys in these spaces, when they have perfectly fine bedrooms or playrooms. I nannied for a family with a small house (I loved that house), and they had 1 space suitable for playing with larger toys--the living room. The parents truly appreciated my rule--yes, we could play in the living room, but come 5:00, it was cleanup time (and they knew it was, because All Things Considered used to come on the radio at that time). I loved that house because I could clean it up in less than an hour. My only complaint was the lack of playspace for the kiddos.
My current house feels too big for my needs. It's become a crap collector because it has too much space (1500 square feet, three bedrooms, basement, attic space). I really really need to divest myself of some crap.