In With the Old, Out With the New?
It’s clear that I’ve always loved things with a history. I preferred garage sales to the stores. I was the girl who collected rocks by the bucket load. When I was in middle school I somehow ended up with an antique medicine bottles obsession. I grew up in a typical 1950’s era home, and I always looked with longing at the older farm houses and turn-of-the-century gems that lived in the center of my small mid-western town. So I suppose it’s no surprise that I assumed one day I would find a 1900’s house of my own to call home.
When I moved to Minneapolis after college, my first goal was to find an old brick apartment with creaky wood floors. I ended up in a gem of a place, built in the 1930’s, that was blissful until December when the hot water radiators turned psycho and shot boiling water 3 feet into the air. I remember wrapping Christmas presents in my underwear to counter the 90 degree indoor temperatures, while trying—in vain—to chip the ice dams out of my windows to get to the 10 degree air outside. When they fixed those radiators, I found instead that my toes were always freezing and sitting near the windows wasn’t worth the drafts across my shoulders.
Then I married my husband and his 5-year-old house. My toes are toasty in the winter, the new refrigerator dispenses water at my command, and the central air makes August’s oppressive humidity seem fun and frivolous. But there are fewer stories hiding in the corners. As we consider moving into a different home over the next year, I find myself in a conundrum. I always thought I wanted an old house with the added charm, stories, and character. But these days I also love modern design with a passion—and the warm toes really can’t be beat when you live in Minnesota. So I live with a constant internal debate on location, house, and style. Plus I suppose I have to consider what my husband wants, adding even more drama! I really don’t know where we’ll end up. Maybe it’s time to let fate take a hand? I’m hoping the phrase “I’ll know it when I see it” will bring us to our new home, because it’s clear I love too many styles to pick just one.
My love of all kinds of homes helps explain the varied styles of our Neighborhood House Printables. But the variety is also there to help you find a house that reminds you of your own home, or your dream home. So let us know what kinds of houses—or apartments?—you’d like to see in the coming weeks, we want to represent every neighborhood we can!
