My Dwelling

We live in an average house in the suburbs. Actually it has a couple of special features, we have a neat bathroom. It is two way, with a separate vanity and toilet, it has a spa bath this is all countered by the fact that it has no air vent, no ventilation fans. In winter you have to have showers with the window open so you can breath when you get out. Therefore as soon as you open the shower screen the cold winter air hits your bare skin... instant goose bumps. In summer that's nice, the kiss of a summer's breeze, in winter it's more like being slapped with an icicle.Our kitchen is great, its really big - about four metres by three metres - is that big? I think its big, bigger than any other kitchen I've ever had anyway. It is open plan, the kitchen, dinning and lounge room interconnect. One of the hotplates doesn't work anymore, that is okay because about a month ago the whole stove and oven didn't work, there was a short circuit. I wish we didn't have to have a fridge because everything in fridges are supposed to be dead, in ours they aren't always, things sometimes grow in there... I wish tupperware wasn't so expensive, I SO want one of those pantries where all the tupperware *modular mates* are lined up neatly and everything has its place, you know, like in the catalogue? In our cupboards there are packets everywhere, sometimes they are folded and reclosed so the contents stay fresh, others we throw out the contents some months later, for fear that something may be living in that packet.Last year I won a dishwasher, we thought that was really cool, we wouldn't have to do dishes anymore, now however, we have to rinse and stack the dishes. As a group we are lazy, we mean well and start of great, stacking our dishes and utensils as we use them. Then we begin to stack them in the sink instead, the pots still on the stove top. Until there are no dishes or utensils left to use, and we grudgingly stack the dishwasher again.Our dining table has recently been brought back into vogue, we use it quiet often now. It used to be that we'd all have dinner together once every couple of months or so. The table was just so useful for retaining paperwork, junk mail and various other bits and pieces that we didn't know what to do with or where they should REALLY go. We even have placemats now!The laundry is clean at the moment, I just fixed it up a couple of days ago, maybe it will stay that way for a couple of weeks...Our lounge room is also where my computer sits, where Kellie and I communicate with the world via the www each day. The desk is often cluttered, usually with things that should mostly be just thrown in the bin in the first place. But that would take an effort, to walk over to the bin to be rid of the scrap paper. There is lots of junk mail and the like here now, instead of on the dining room table. Every now and then I clear away all the junk, but then the desk looks kind of bare.We have a sofa lounge, that is cool. Some mornings I flip it out and watch cartoons with the kids, and eat Fruit Loops with no milk (less messy that way). Some nights when there is a good movie on we flip it out so David and I can both lie down and settle in, rather than one of us lying across the other on the lounge, much more roomy. Some nights Kellie and Liam watch videos late into the night until they fall asleep on the sofa lounge (okay, they've only done it once, but they plan to do it again.I wish we could have a new tv, the one we have likes to control its own volume. It's always when something really important happens in a movie (that is not on a video) and the characters are whispering that the volume suddenly drops. Causing you to miss the punch line of the whole movie. Or when you are watching the late night movie, and its an action flick and the kids have JUST gone to bed, that the volume suddenly blasts to the higher levels. The kids are not asleep anymore, and you miss the best part of that movie too!There is a fishtank on top of the entertainment unit, we have three black widows, four white clouds and two glass catfish. The plants in the fishtank (there are two) are the only plants that I have ever in my life managed to maintain in a healthy state. The algae also seems to grow well.The kids' money boxes are up there too, they don't often get very weighty, if we have to be poor financially, well sorry, but the kids do too!There are photos on the wall, Liam and Rhiannan, David's (late) mother, Peter and Sarah, David and myself with Liam. I wish we had more photos of other family members. I love photos, the older the better, whether I know the subjects or not, I love that glance back in history.We moved the stereo into our bedroom, the alarm clock radio stopped working one day, we play music in the lounge room now from the computer's cd player.Our bedroom, HUH, don't even go there...Kellie usually keeps her door closed, she always says its too messy, but I don't think its ever as bad as ours!The kids' bedroom (Liam and Rhiannan's) is like a war zone. David quiet often refuses to go on there (I think he's afraid of getting lost). It is quiet a hopeless situation, within one hour of the kids hitting the completely spotless room it is right back to jungle status. Our kids have too many toys. I have to get rid of some of them, but how do you decide which ones to get rid of first?