CatNipped had something important to tell us on Thu, 30 Sep 2004
01:57:36 GMT:

The home I actually live in (which isn't mine) or the part of the home
which IS mine (my bedroom) or the sort of home I want to make for
myself when I move?

My, or should I say *our* home is a cave to which Joel & I retreat. Nothing
special to look at, and certainly far below average size for the suburb we
live in, we love it anyway. We don't tend to encourage visitors because its
a most private retreat, just for us, and therefore its not exactly
maintained as a show home. The sofa is comfy, but tatty. The coffee table's
full of the latest projects, junk mail and now a decent scattering of kid
paraphenalia. Thats where we keep our coffee cups, used of course. Joel
being the technophile, there's lots of gadgets and doodads hooked up in ways
I will never understand to the TV. Remote controls to these various things
are generally mysetriously hiding under stuff, even if we actually remember
to put them back where we belong.

Fluffy will be ready to greet you at the door, if you do decide to visit,
with lots of mad barking. We still aren't sure whether she's sounding the
alarm or barking in glee that she's about to meet another Best Friend.
Shmogg tends to lurk somewhere out of site, unless you have brought food or
are violently allergic to cats. Better ring first, though, because its more
than likely that at least one of us is wandering aroundin various states of
undress, especially if its hot. As I said, its our retreat. Joel is very
sensitive to light, so it often looks kinda dark and ill-lit, which it
wouldn't be if the blinds were open, but on the same token, not having any
curtains, that would mean people could see in too. I'll take the dark.

Most people would be suprised to see that Joel and I have seperate bedrooms,
each with its own unique characteristics. Its not that we don't "sleep
together" so much as we can't *sleep* together :-). We both value our
personal space probably a bit too much, and need our own personal cave to
retreat to occasionally. Cary has his own room, but tends to sleep either
out in the lounge or with me in my room, in his bassinet. Although he's
almost grown out of that, so I've got to decide whether to bring his cot
into my room (and clear out my vast teddy bear collection to make room) or
"surrender" him to his own room. There's something inme that will wake up
when I hear anything out of the ordinary with his breathing, but I won't be
able to hear that if he's in his own room)

The Garage, biggest room of the whole house, is not used to keep the car dry
and secure, but a place to chuck junk and is Fluffy's bedroom. It also seems
to be a fly breeding ground, but can't find the source of said flies (but
they don't come inthe house much so I'm pretty lazy about getting rid of
them, I hate spraying poison everywhere. Although it probably attracts the
spiders <shudder> which seem to like our house as much as we do)

My favourite thing in the whole house, besides its occupants, of course, is
the drawing on Joel's bedroom wall we made of our silluoettes kissing. Think
we'd have to knock that wall out and take it with us if we ever move. But I
hope we never do. Our home is our castle, fortress against the BS that goes
on in the world. Inside, its a peacable retreat where neither of us have to
pretend that we're anything other than we are. Which is casual slobs with
nudist tendencies :-).

We got insulation last year that now makes it very cozy with the gas heater
in winter, and keeps it cooler in summer, still, I miss sitting with Joel
under the doona on cold and miserable winter nights. (Is there anything
better in the world than having the wind howling,the rain drumming a
menacing tattoo onthe wondow, and having to snuggle on the lounge with your
beloved to "keep warm". That, a cup of cocoa, a roaring fire, a good mystery
novel and a kitty on my lap is my definition of heaven!) We're hoping to get
an air conditioning unit before it gets too hot, not for our sakes so much,
but for Cary's. I have no idea how people survived summer in blistering 40C
(100+F) heat with a very young baby without some sort of AC!)

If you'd asked about our *house*, I would have said that its a 3 bedroom
brick veneer house which includes a garage, a seperate toilet & laundry and
2 walk in robes but doesn't have a dining room, only a "meals area". It sits
on 408 sq metres of land, which is "torrens title" but have to have a "right
of passage" clause with our next door neighbours because our "frontage" is
only half the driveway wide(neighbours own the other half of the driveway,
which splits when it gets closer to our houses). It was bought for $139990
in 1998, and is now worth in the order of $320000 now. It was built by
AVJennings on a "No deposit" contract, as were all our neighbours in an
"easy care" neighbourhood (read: tiny blocks of land in funny shapes so they
can squeeze more houses onto them), and was built on a shoe string budget
with exceptionally cheap materials and suspect workmanship.

But hey, it keeps the rain and wind out, it far far bigger and more
luxurious than the average family home in the world (3 generations living in
a one-room shanty-town hut with a mud floor and without running water would
think I live in the Ritz by comparison), and eventually it will be fully
ours. It has its issues, but its our home for good or for ill, we have
settled and have grown roots in the place, and we'll never have to deal with
irrational landlords and their agents ever again. We're content.

So, how'd I do?

Yowie

Okie dokey. Remember this is person who unashamedly admitted I hate
psycho-babble and personality tests. But I'll play. It sounds interesting. :-)

Our house, is a very very very fine house,
With four cats in the yard....

no, really, I'll play properly.

It's a quiet and peaceful environment. But here's what my home is NOT. It's not
something you'd find in a slick magazine spread. Nothing matches.  Instead of
coordinating colors or trendy styles, it's filled with things I love to have
around me. The first dining room table my grandparents owned. Most of the decor
in the kitchen are kitchn-things that belonged to my mother that remind me of
her busy hands. We have a living room that's always presentable for company,
even though we don't entertain and don't particularly enjoy having company. We
have a den that's a mish-mash of cat trees, computer desk, sewing machine, 3
aquariums. Three bedrooms, (2 we don't use). Two bathrooms. The garage which
doesn't house the car because it's full of "projects".
All that contained in a very ordinary ranch-style brick house on 100 acres with
nothing as far as I can see to the west, east and North. My dad's house is in
sight south of us.  

Sherry

Ok, this is my home.  It's a 3 bedroom, 2 story brick house painted
white with red roof tiles.  Nice dark wood floors but the interior
walls need a paint job badly.  The living room has 2 levels, there are
2 steps that go up to the TV and couch area from the dining area
(where I also have my computer desk).  The front door opens directly
into the kitchen, which is really horrible with green and black
cabinets and greenish tiles and not enough cupboard or counter space
to really accomplish anything useful.  There is one bathroom
downstairs and one upstairs, neither bathroom has a bathtub (shower
only) and there is no hot running water in the sinks.  The main
bedroom upstairs is huge, goes from one side of the house to the
other.  The 2 spare bedrooms are each too small to even have room for
2 single beds in each room.  We have one room set up as a weight room
and the other is a spare room with 1 single bed in it, so we can't
really have 2 people as guests ;-)
We have a little marble tiled porch with a table and chairs on it and
we've got a ton of plants all around the small yard and porch.  We
love the plants and the tropical feel of the place and have decorated
the interior of the house with a lot of cool Thai furniture and knick
knacks that we've collected during our 3.5 years in Thailand.

I live in an apartment in a small apartment building (4 units), in a
very quiet, comfortable, and residential area of a large city. The
apartment itself is smallish - it's a "one-plus" bedroom, meaning it
has a living room, kitchen, bedroom and a small extra room, which I
use as an office. It's a rental, and I've been here 5 years.

The decor is "downscale artsy-fartsy". :) I've built some of the
simple furniture out of pine, eg, the stereo cabinet, record shelves
(yes, I still have my vinyl albums), and other shelves, and I've made
a lot of the coverings, such as pillow covers, curtains, place mats,
etc, that I keep in the living room. I have inexpensive, but nice
art. Lots of teal - my favorite color. It's kind of an illness,
actually. :) Also, some copper and russet/reddish-brown accents, to
offset the teal. I also love Southwest USA Indian art, and have a
number of objects I've bought at reservations or at stores that sell
Native American art. Also have pagan/Goddess art. I like my place to
look homey and comfortable, and also colorful and pretty, and I'd say
I've achieved those goals. I don't have much money, so I've done it
cheaply, and I'm proud of the creative touches I've added to it.

I'm fairly neat, but definitely not a fanatic. My friends think I'm a
very accomplished housekeeper, but my sister would be horrified. With
3 cats and wall-to-wall carpeting, it's impossible to keep the place
immaculate. I'd like it to be cleaner than it is, but I'd have to spend
more time doing housework than I want to. So, it looks OK, but don't
look too closely under the surfaces. :)

I *love* to have company, but this apartment cramps my style. The
living room is very small - any more than 7 or 8 people, and it gets
very crowded. That's the only thing I don't like about living here. I
would have more parties, host more meetings and group activities, and
have more overnight guests, if only there were more space for it! But
housing is very expensive in this part of the country/world, so I
couldn't afford a bigger place. I do a fair amount of entertaining
anyway, we just get cozy. :)

Joyce

We live in a rural setting with both sea and green field views, the sea is
an ever changing outlook.
My house is smallish, two stories, two bedrooms, lounge, kitchen and dining
(one long room) separate bathroom and toilet a very large garage/workshop
(attached) and of course my custom built kitten room, upstairs (it's a
mezzanine floor) we have another small lounge area where our two computers
are, a couple of comfortable chairs a coffee table (make that wine Table!)
and a cane settee. From here we get a fabulous sea view.
The house is comfortable and cosy, I just love living out here. Outside the
garden area is very park like, the cattery takes up a fair bit of the back
yard, we have some big, bird loving trees, it is a delight to watch the Tui
birds (native to NZ) feeding on the flowers, which were planted to bring
around these lovely birds (the cats like to watch them as well) DH has built
a *blokes* shed in the back yard, were he can escape too if he wants to.
My late DH and I built this house 19 years ago, so we were able to build it
to our specifications, when I was widowed 4? years ago I altered the look of
the inside of the house by getting rid of some of the *stuff* and adding MY
*stuff* so that it became my house and not our house, I also *did* over the
back yard, making it more manageable.
When I married earlier this year I made another change to include some of my
DH *stuff* (so that he felt at home) We are truly blessed to be living in
such a tranquil setting.

Lois

CatNipped had something important to tell us on Thu, 30 Sep 2004
01:57:36 GMT:

Okay... I'll bite.

Our home is very warm and natural. It's not manicured, and we're at
constant war with the dust. My mother cares a lot more about
perfection than I do, so alas we're always squabbling about whether
things are 'clean enough'... most of the time I think they're just
fine, but she's a lot fussier especially since the renovations were
finished. It was really nice to look around and see that our house
looked NICE after so long as a mess (we've lived here close to 25
years) but I'm too lazy to keep it up. Everything was incredibly
grotty with age before the renovations, but now we have a nice new
wooden kitchen, a laundry with real cupboards in it instead of the
ucky ugly gas heater, and two shiny new bathrooms (my brother's is
brown and cream, and my parents  ensuite is pale green, black marble
and very pale grey.)

We have a lot of natural wood, cream walls, a brown leather couch in
the familyroom and a cream velvet couch in the lounge. Warning - do
NOT get cream velvet furniture under any circumstances, no matter how
pretty it is. The cream is more like yellow these days and it won't
come good no matter how many times you vacuum it :( But it did look
very very nice when it was new... the other thing we have a heck of a
lot of is books. There are bookshelves in every single room except the
bathroom and laundry. They're all full too! We love books... I
couldn't imagine having a home without them.

People who come into our house think that it's very friendly and homey
and comfortable. We have nice things scattered around, because we also
love beautiful ornaments, carved wood etc, but it's not a museum.
Sometimes I wander through the house and look at the pretties and
remember where they came from, or when we got them, or what they mean
to me... we even have beautiful glass in the new ensuite, only THAT
was a bad decision in my book - I broke my mother's favourite glass
perfume jar (ornamental glass from a gallery, not shop stuff) when I
was cleaning :(((  We went out next day and I bought her a new one to
make up for it because I felt so bad about breaking her favourite
thing. But I still think it was a stupid place to have it! It was just
asking to be broken... She put the new one in the same place, so I
won't clean the ensuite any more. I'm not going to risk a rerun!

The only part of the house that's actually MINE is my bedroom so I'll
give you a quick description before I finish. The walls are the same
cream as the rest of the house, although we had long-running battles
over whether I should be allowed to paint it pink. I never ever won,
because my mother said I'd grow out of it - only I still love pale
pink even now! One of my bedding sets is pale pink flowers, and I have
a beautiful handmade pink stained glass lightfitting hanging from the
ceiling. My parents bought it for me for my 18th birthday.
My furniture is wood, and I have an antique cupboard and dresser, a
big desk, and more bookshelves. My parents bought me a big pine
bookcase when we furnished the room, and in later years I added a set
of  wall-mounted shelves (those ones on the brackets) above my desk, a
tall CD drawer next to the wardrobe, and a big black shelf unit close
to the door. I would have preferred that to be brown or pine, but Ikea
only had black in the right size - it had to be the right size to fit
into the space, as tall as possible, and deep enough to hold my video
tape collection. It's fortunate that I chose the one I did, because
now it holds my scrapbooking supplies and scrapbooks, and the shelves
are just the right size!
The only other objects of note in my bedroom are my electronics - my
tv and vcr sit on the dresser, and my computer fills my desk. My room
has become a lot less pretty and a lot more practical lately, as I've
packaged stuff up to mail it off to America. Most of my teddybears and
stuffed animals are gone, and I sent my model teddybear collection off
last month. My ornaments and pictures are still waiting to go, but I
don't want to strip the room until the last minute - I want to see my
pretties for as long as possible!

And that's our house...

My home is a house close to Preston, Lancashire. I live there with my
husband and two cats, it's got enough room for us to pursue our hobbies, and
nice sized gardens at the front and back. It's sort of half-decorated and
half bombsite, and looks like what it is, a battleground between my tastes
(messy, obsessively hoarding bookworm, stationary fetishist and music fan)
and Ade's (minimalist computer geek).

Jeanette

What the heck, I'm game.

I live in split-level house in a fairly wooded neighborhood owned and
operated for/by my 3 cats.  It's clean enough to be healthy and dirty
enough to be happy (well, maybe a smidge more on the dirty side).  There
are multiple unfinished projects laying about that WILL BE done at some
point in time, only to have their space taken by more unfinished projects.

Ehhh, I hope that's enough description, cause I'm now losing interest in
the project ;-)  Short attention span.

lal

(snip)

We live in a 2-bed, 1-reception maisonette surrounded on 3 sides by
woodland, in a very quiet and hilly road south of London, UK. It's a
fairly plain building (circa 1974) but we have filled up the inside with
books, plants, pictures, cats and comfy furniture, not to mention nice
cooking smells each night, which makes the inside much more interesting
than the outside! We have a smallish garden with plenty of wildlife
around - foxes, badgers and lots of birds. We both work from home so
space is tight, but the quiet and wooded location more than makes up for
that. Our home isn't spacious, or particularly tidy, and several parts
of it could do with redecorating, but it's quite homely and (I hope)
welcoming to all our friends and guests who come to see us.

Deb.

Our house is not a neat one -- it's definitely lived in and not to be looked
too closely at -- kitty comforts and kid comforts are the primary rule here.
My DH says I'm an "entropy-enabler" and I guess the house reflects that.
Before kiddos and kittyoos, I was able to keep everything in it's place and
neat, but not no more; everyday here now is just scrambling to keep ahead of
what has to be done in Real Life.  The best part about our house is the
backyard; it's what prompted us to buy this house with 3 bedrooms instead of
the 4 bedrooms we actually wanted -- we have 8 lovely Ponderosa pines in the
backyard that actually provide shade in those hot Albuquerque summers -- the
house was built in 1970 so these are really tall trees!  The yard is also a
reflection of our house in that it is for comfort and play for both the kids
and the wildlife there -- I don't use weedkiller so I don't damage our
lovely trees and when I mow the lawn I get a nice uniform green (although a
lot of it is not grass anymore!).  We've had lots of interesting wildlife
visitors which are lots of fun to see -- I'm a birdwatcher when I have the
time to and have enjoyed Great Horned Owl visits, Cooper's Hawks, Ravens,
Crows, and Cedar Waxwings, Nuthatches and a variety of Woodpeckers, oh, and
not to forget, several Road Runners.  The animals that have come through our
yard besides the stray kitties (!) who come for the birds and mice have
included skunks, raccoons, chipmunks, and ground squirrels.

Christine

Yowie mentioned that her answer would have been different if I had said
"describe your house" to the group.  True, which is why I  wrote it the way
I did - and actually I should have said "tell the group about your home"
rather than use the word "describe" which may have swayed a few people, but,
reading the responses, I think it still worked (and that "slip" was *my"
"TP" showing through ;>).

Again, let me emphasis that there is no "right" or "wrong" answer, no one
type is better than any other, this just shows how people are different from
each other (something that I celebrate).  Here are what my "FJ" co-worker
and I (a "TP") answered.

"FJ":  My home is a safe and warm place where my family and I live happily
together.  We have two d*gs who are part of the family.  Our neighbors are
lovely people who often visit and are always there to help out with special
projects.  We live in a very caring community who are always getting
together for social occasions and charity events....... and so on.

Me ("TP" - describing where I lived back then):  I live in a 3 bedroom red
brick house on a half acre lot.  The house is about 2,500 square feet.  The
living room connects with the dining room creating a large "L" shaped space.
My office has a large window that looks out over the back yard....... and so
on.

The "FJ" person had gone first (and I had not heard her description), and
when I came in and started talking my team started chuckling and I couldn't
figure out why.  Then they told me that the "FJ" had described all the
people and animals around her, her feelings about those people and animals,
her feelings about her home, but said not one word that described what her
house actually looked like.  I, on the other hand, had given a verbal
blueprint of my house so that my team could actually picture what it looked
like, but I said not one word about the people or animals who lived there,
nor the neighbors, nor the community, nor any word about how I felt about my
home.

The "FJ" person, filtered her surroundings through her feelings to come to a
judgement about them and she told us that judgement.

The "TP" person, me, looked at my surroundings logically, calculated them to
precision, then came out with a description that matched exactly what I had
perceived.

Again, neither is right or wrong, and either can be of benefit in a
situation where that "type" of thinking is needed to solve a problem.  And
both working together, using the strengths of each and filling in each
others' weak spots is an unbeatable team.

Now, some of the responses I read made me think "FJ", no doubt, some of the
responses made me think "TJ" or "FP", only one made me think "TP", no doubt.
and, as I suspected, I think there are lots of people here who are "F",
which is why I think this group is so kind and caring about each other.
What do you guys think?

Hugs,

CatNipped

Okay, I'll play (and hope I don't embarrass myself!  lol!).

Although I always apologize when others enter for our chaotic home,
many others find it homey or interesting.  There's a plethora of
things surrouding you as you enter, from the posters on the wall, to
the hanging crystals and things, the cat figurines on the mantle, and,
of course, various cats around on various pieces of furniture.

Most of the furniture is old and from Salvation Armys, dumpsters, or
people who have moved and gave things away.  Nothing matches, but it
doesn't matter.  It's still warm and inviting, with a comfortable
feel.

There are tons of books, and my ever-growing Barbie doll collection,
sprawling into two rooms.  The ashes of my beloved RB kitties are on
the mantle, with their photos on top and collars around the little
tins.  I have an altar, of course, right next to this very computer I
am typing on right now.

The kitchen is a mess, and always is -- lol.  "Martha Stewart, I am
*not*", I tell people.  But the cat feeding station is organized, with
each cat's food in separate large containers with scoops in them, and
huge piles of cans of cat food on the shelving I made myself.

Upstairs is our bathroom, with no shower, but an old-fashioned, huge,
clawfoot tub that is a delight to soak in during  the cold winters. We
once even had friends drop in and ask "Can we use your bathtub?"  lol!

Our bedroom is almost entirely taken up by a king-size waterbed,
heated, where the cats like to sleep during the winter -- on it, under
it, or, of course, in the underwear drawer (which Arthur just
discovered the other day).

Our second room upstairs is supposed to be a second bedroom, but has
metamorphosed into a combo guest room/computer room/kitty rescue room.
It is full of old computer parts, and cat accoutrements, along with
dressers and bookcases and a bed laid up against a wall.  If we ever
have a guest, we'll have to rearrange!

Forget our basement!  It's a walking disaster area that has needed
cleaned out for years, but we somehow never get around to it.  It's
hard to make room when it's hard for you to throw anything out!  "Oh,
but there will be *some* use for that!" we think.  Someday.  Maybe.

Out back is a little urban garden, full of herbs and wildflowers, one
of the things that gives me joy and peace.

So, without forethought or editing (can you tell?), that's our
apartment in a nutshell.  A chaotic, messy, homey, much loved place.

Ginger-lyn

Three bed, late Sixties end terrace.  Bought when it was on the point of
being repossessed, and we've just about got all the work done that needs
doing - it's *ours*.

Decor is plain colour in all rooms, with the exception of our bedroom
where I got ambitious with paint effects! Furnishings - at first it was
a mishmash of second hand bits and bobs (Rich had his own place before;
I moved in with him, and then we moved again), but we're replacing stuff
as and when we can afford it/it really needs it.

State: untidy!  Both working, so stuff tends to get dumped, but
periodically we'll have a good sort-out.  Our hobbies and interests are
very much in evidence: several bookshelves, a hoooooge rack for our
joint CD collection, and a selection of various craft projects scattered
around my chair.  And, of course, there's usually a cat to be found
somewhere.  Wouldn't be home without them.

CatNipped had something important to tell us on Thu, 30 Sep 2004
01:57:36 GMT:

(posted on behalf of John/Jaggath)

Well the number one thing that describes my home is EMPTY . It is
devoid of a lounge set, kitchen set, has a minimal bedroom set, no
pots and pans as yet, and well it has soccer playing cats.

I swear I dropped one ping pong ball on the living room and well pada
or is it kitta-monium broke out.

The apartment is you typical rental unit. It has two fair sized rooms
and a decent sized living room. The kitchen is small but not overly so
and the bathrooms are romy enough but smallish.

On the floors is white marbly tiles and they tend to be cool and comfy
for kitty tummies. The one piece of furniture in the loungeroom is a
large blue recliner that Karen has threated to set fire to more than
once, and the kittens have climed a a large fluffy kitty toy.

In the master bedroom is my domain. I have my big blue computer there
and Karen's suped up HP computer, for which I just bought a nice
monitor.

In the center of the master ensuite is a queensized bed with a
disheveld brown blanket on top of it, along with a nice set of blue
sheets, and several kittens atm.

In front of the window is my Long ancient brown, heavier than a
similar sized and shaped piece of Nuetron Star. On top of that is my
TV, VCR, Digital Cable Box and DVD player and an extensive DVD
colection.

Along with this is my most prized possesion. Lettters from Karen and
pressies from her too. With a close second the Tuperware box that I
store all her possesions till she arives away from prying claws

Well thats it for chateau gory

(snippage)

I didn't :)

Not sure how elaborate I need to be.  I live in an apartment,  2 bedrooms, 2
baths.  I don't require living in a mansion but cannot stand to feel
cramped, either.  The way the apartment complex was built, there are no
upstairs/downstairs.  Just one or two adjoining neighbors in a single-level
dwelling.

The place was built back when "singles only" complexes were still legal
here.  It was built with roommate separation and "entertaining" in mind!
LOL  So my "office" is the front bedroom.  There is a hallway off this room
with folding doors hiding the washer & dryer and then the bathroom and the
utility closet (in front of which sits Persia's litter box).

The kitchen is way too tiny for my taste and love of cooking, but apparently
cooking wasn't heavy on the minds of the people who designed the place.  And
I was desparately trying to get away from a very bad neighborhood (can you
say gunshots and drug deals?) so I didn't look too hard at the kitchen.  I
just needed to get the hell out of Dodge.

The dining room is open to the living room and has a 22 foot high vaulted
ceiling.  There is a metal fireplace at the end of the room.  Off the living
room (door next to the fireplace) in the back there is a 22 foot fenced in
patio.  Sliding glass doors also open off my bedroom onto the patio.  Persia
managed to tumble out that screen door when she saw a neighborhood cat out
there and got upset.  So now there is a baby gate blocking her ability to
slap that screen off it's track and find herself suddenly outside... unless
she's in her kitty walk, which is on the patio.

On the patio also is a covered swing where I love to sit and read.  A bird
feeder that looks like a Thai Spirit House hangs from a shephard's hook.  On
the other side of the hook is a suet feeder for the pine warblers and
long-billed birds, including small downy woodpeckers.  There is also a
squirrel feeder is nailed to the patio fence.  Generally filled with raw
peanuts, black sunflower seeds and cracked corn.  The blue jays love the
peanuts, too.

There is a built-in storage room where those creepy cave crickets live in
the summer.  It also houses my Weber kettle (charcoal) grill when it's not
in use.

That's about it.

Jill

My husband and I just bought a house. 4 bedrooms on a cul-de-sac, with
2 large palm trees in front, and a yard so large that it takes me 2
days to mow it.  Ugh.  The previous owners were kind enough to put in
new carpeting throughout, but why did they choose white?  Couldn't
they see us coming?  There's the master bdr., the sewing room, the
computer room, and the guest room (which doubles as storage for all of
the kites that I make in the sewing room :) )  Our furniture isn't
great, but it doesn't matter, because my husband keeps me in fresh
roses, so there's always a dozen in my tall vase on the coffee table.
(Who could look past that?)   But best of all, there's cats
everywhere. 9 total.  However, Bibbs could easily count as 1.5 or 2,
because he's a real hefty boy.  Sometimes I wear my long tail and cat
ears.  On those days, 10 cats live here.  I made the others a cat
tree, which is tall, sturdy, and has three perches.  It's due to be
re-carpeted again, as it's quite shredded, but that sisal rope is
really holding it's own.  Our china hutch has no china on it, because
it also makes for a fine cat perch.  All of our knick-knacks have been
glued back together at least once, and there are cardboard box lids
scattered about, because they make excellent 'houses' too.  

-bonbon

My house is a one story house and was built in 1954. It has a sandstone
facade and asbestos siding. We installed a metal roof a couple of years
ago. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living room and dining
room in an open architecture. It has a covered stone patio and a huge
landscaped garden with a pond. It's a very comfortable house that serves
us well. The only thing it lacks is storage space... :)

Re-posting this with a change of subject line in case this got lost in the
responses...

Yowie mentioned that her answer would have been different if I had said
"describe your house" to the group.  True, which is why I  wrote it the way
I did - and actually I should have said "tell the group about your home"
rather than use the word "describe" which may have swayed a few people, but,
reading the responses, I think it still worked (and that "slip" was *my"
"TP" showing through ;>).

Again, let me emphasis that there is no "right" or "wrong" answer, no one
type is better than any other, this just shows how people are different from
each other (something that I celebrate).  Here are what my "FJ" co-worker
and I (a "TP") answered.

"FJ":  My home is a safe and warm place where my family and I live happily
together.  We have two d*gs who are part of the family.  Our neighbors are
lovely people who often visit and are always there to help out with special
projects.  We live in a very caring community who are always getting
together for social occasions and charity events....... and so on.

Me ("TP" - describing where I lived back then):  I live in a 3 bedroom red
brick house on a half acre lot.  The house is about 2,500 square feet.  The
living room connects with the dining room creating a large "L" shaped space.
My office has a large window that looks out over the back yard....... and so
on.

The "FJ" person had gone first (and I had not heard her description), and
when I came in and started talking my team started chuckling and I couldn't
figure out why.  Then they told me that the "FJ" had described all the
people and animals around her, her feelings about those people and animals,
her feelings about her home, but said not one word that described what her
house actually looked like.  I, on the other hand, had given a verbal
blueprint of my house so that my team could actually picture what it looked
like, but I said not one word about the people or animals who lived there,
nor the neighbors, nor the community, nor any word about how I felt about my
home.

The "FJ" person, filtered her surroundings through her feelings to come to a
judgement about them and she told us that judgement.

The "TP" person, me, looked at my surroundings logically, calculated them to
precision, then came out with a description that matched exactly what I had
perceived.

Again, neither is right or wrong, and either can be of benefit in a
situation where that "type" of thinking is needed to solve a problem.  And
both working together, using the strengths of each and filling in each
others' weak spots is an unbeatable team.

Now, some of the responses I read made me think "FJ", no doubt, some of the
responses made me think "TJ" or "FP", only one made me think "TP", no doubt.
and, as I suspected, I think there are lots of people here who are "F",
which is why I think this group is so kind and caring about each other.
What do you guys think?

Hugs,

CatNipped

I have two homes.  My physical home is a three-bedroom house in a nice
Southern California city of 110,000 people.  One bedroom is "mine", and
I share it with my cat.  One is my office, where I carry out my word
processing business and play on my computer.  The other is a guest room.
I have a dining room, which I use on Thanksgiving.  Most of the time I
eat my meals in my recliner in the living room, occasionally watching
TV, but more likely reading.  It is a nice house, and I am comfortable
in it.

However, my spiritual home is not a house, but Alice Springs, Australia.
I feel a much stronger pull to that town than I do to East Los Angeles,
where I grew up.

--
Joy

"You can never do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it
will be too late." - Ralph Waldo Emerson