Monday Unrandom 9.

The house where I live now has a lot to recommend it. It is closish to where I work, it has a nice shady yard, the main living area is open and airy, it has a huge screened porch where the little furry ladies and I can luxuriate. It is spacious. I have a great study.

We are, in about a week, moving into an old quirky (read: not all the lights have switches and not all the switches are where they should be, etc.) house. It is an immensely cool old house. We learned yesterday from our new neighbor the architect (also a Tarheel!) that it is a Sears kit house--how cool is that? Two owners ago did many renovations and now it is a craftsman bungalow--with CLOSETS! And a master bathroom so large that the PP and I can share it. (And those of you who know me know that means it is IMMENSE.) It is in a very cool neighborhood and we believe, though we have not yet confirmed, that from this house we can walk comfortably to the neat little downtown of this small city. We have confirmed that we can walk to Gene's Country Cooking Restaurant (I highly recommend the country ham biscuits) and the public library, where they even have music and movies, which will be especially good on our new budget. But there are no storm windows or screens on the windows, it is going to be a big place to heat and cool, and we are about to embark on a massive roof repair.

So yesterday as we were driving back to the old house from the new one, the PP and I started thinking about things we will not miss. For posterity's sake, here it is so far:
1. Not having to replace the rotting railroad ties that line our driveway.
2. Not having to spend another six months or so trying to track down a tree guy to come cut down a few trees that need cutting.
3. In the winter, when the heater comes on for the first time of the year, having to go into the crawl space about six times to untrip the heater's breaker.
4. The orange clay that passes for soil in this neighborhood.
5. The ratty gray carpet that lines the bedrooms.
6. Needing to refinish the otherwise cool wood floors in the main part of the house.
7. The dishwasher.
8. The sliding glass doors to the screen porch which have clouded over with trapped condensation between their panes.
9. The 3-inch-deep "bathtub."