My Dream Home
I was raised in the confines of a beautiful home (my stepfather is a carpenter). My
parents were not wealthy by any means, but they did manage to keep our house looking
sharp. I feel fortunate and blessed to have grown up in such a home.
Today, I am an "apartment rat." I am twenty-nine years old and I have been living
in one rental apartment or another for the past seven years. When I moved into my first
apartment, I thought it was the coolest thing ever; I felt so independent, so grown up.
Only after seven years, a marriage, and one child later do I realize that I want a house of
my own. I want privacy. I want a permanent dwelling with a yard where I can raise my
son and teach him how to play hockey or something. Anything.
I began thinking about getting my own house shortly after my son was born, and I
have thought about it many times since. My dream house would be located in the
country, but not too far from a large town or a city. It would be decorated by large pine
trees on one side and small willows on the other with a large, open front lawn.
The house itself would be fairly simple, but not small. It would have a main floor
and a basement and would measure fifty feet long by thirty feet wide. The front door
would have to be facing south and have a large, slightly elevated balcony. The back door
would thus face north, would function as the "main" door, and would have a small deck
to greet visitors.
The internal layout of my dream home is very specific. The east side of the main
floor contains a large master bedroom with a walk-in closet, a smaller second bedroom,
and a large bathroom. The living room/den is located in the southwest corner, while the
kitchen sits in the northwest corner. A large closet greets people as they enter through the
back door along with a doorway that leads to the stairs to the basement.
The first room encountered upon entering the basement is the laundry room,
which sits in the northwest corner. It isn't very big, but it does contain a nice assortment
of shelves. Next to the laundry room, on the west side of the basement, is a combination
of a storage room and another bathroom. You have to enter the storage room to get to the
bathroom, which is located on the southwest corner of the house. The south side of the
basement is occupied by two rooms of equal size, one of them an office, the other a
