JTOK Chatter

So yes, I’ve been complaining about a lot of stuff in this new place…but I know that overall we are very lucky to have a big, nice, clean house in a good neighborhood. So I thought I’d list all the things I like about it, to offset any bad karma I might have accumulated bitching about it. 🙂

1. First and foremost, it’s a real house—not a townhouse. We didn’t want shared walls.
2. We have sidewalks!
3. It has a two-car garage—even though we only hope to get one in it. 🙂
4. The garage door has a keypad!
5. It has an open floor plan, which is what we’ve learned we liked.
6. The kitchen is big.
7. There’s room for an eat-in kitchen. It’s slightly too small but still great!
8. There’s a ton of cabinet space—I didn’t expect to be able to put my pots and pans in cupboards!
9. The base cabinets have slide-out drawers—only on the top level but it’s still better than none!
10. Two words: gas stove.
11. When I cook, it doesn’t feel like I’m in a cave anymore!
12. Our awesome LG stainless refrigerator fit, so we brought it with us!
13. The landlord didn’t care if we put his refrigerator in the garage, so now we have a huge “beer/wine fridge” and technically a third freezer!
14. Our landlord is pretty easy-going about stuff we want to change around the house. He’s agreed to let us put in a peephole, put up two ceiling fans (that he bought), and install a digital thermostat.
15. The landlord has agreed to put up a fence. We’re hoping it happens soon.
16. Hardwoods in the entryway and kitchen! I loved the look of the new floors we put in, but it was pretty soft stuff and scratched fairly easily. These are real hardwoods and can take a beating.
17. Corian counters! Actually very similar in coloring to the laminate we picked out in our first house!
18. The gas fireplace works with the simple flip of a switch!
19. We have a large tree in the back yard that provides some shade!
20. There are a few cool built-in shelves on the stairwell to put decorative things.
21. There’s an actual laundry room. We can’t stack our machines but there’s still plenty of space, a huge shelf, and a closet!
22. Lots of natural light in most of the rooms.
23. The kids’ bath has a double vanity.
24. The kids’ rooms are bigger than we had before so they don’t feel cramped.
25. We have four actual bedrooms instead of the fourth bedroom actually being a bonus room.
26. The MBR has the closets BEFORE the bathroom (not THROUGH the bathroom, which drove me nuts at our house).
27. And yes, plural closets—we each have our own.
28. The MBA shower is nicely tiled and a bit bigger than our previous one.
29. The MBA has a double vanity.
30. We have a basement and IT IS HUGE.
31. There’s a full bath downstairs.
32. This could be a great party house. We have room for six guests comfortably (two queen pull out couches and a queen guest room) with space for a few airbeds if necessary!
33. Our office is on the main floor where we spend most of our time. It’s technically in the dining room but being out in the open will hopefully make us try and keep it neater!
34. The A/C seems to cool the house very well—better than our dual-unit system worked on a smaller house.
35. An 80 gallon hot water heater…
36. An actual utility room so closets aren’t taken up with the furnace, etc.
37. Nice, friendly neighbors (thus far).
38. We have a bunch of TiVo friends—and two Jacksonville friends, if you can believe it—in the greater DC area!
39. The school bus stop is four houses down at the corner.
40. The community has a pool (though we still need to check it out).
41. There’s a playground in the neighborhood.
42. We are 15 minutes from Ikea, Costco, and a Lego store…among 100s of other great stores and restaurants.
43. We are literally two minutes from I-95 (as opposed to 40 minutes to get to an interstate from Jacksonville).
44. We are within delivery range of a variety of restaurants.
45. The Food Lion here is awesome—easily twice the size of the one in Jacksonville.
46. There’s an ER practically around the corner.
47. And last but not least—FIOS.

I’m sure I’ll come up with more, but those are the ones off the top of my head.

ARE YOU LISTENING, KARMA?! 🙂