Thanks Mr. Narwhal.
2003-12-22
9:24 a.m.

Unpacking. Unpacking. Unpacking. And, stop. As there is no more storage space in which to put anything. I love that this house is approx. our first apartment larger than our last house, and yet we've run out of storage space. The main reason why is:

No basement.

What the crap do people do without basements? I know what my parents did (even WITH a (LARGE) basement): Fill the garage with crap and put the cars in the driveway. But I refuse. Garages are for cars. Plus, our driveway is short and awkward and I've heard car theft is a huge problem here. And my new shiny happy fun vehicle is, well, shiny happy and fun, and I feel a responsibility to keep it safe and warm.

Anyway, so without the garage, we have not much space. The rooms are cavernous, but wide open and without nooks or crannies. The old house was practically a freaking English muffin with its nookness and crannification. So much so that when we unpacked (the boxes were packed by a service, yay relocation package!), we found all kinds of stuff we'd never seen before. Enter antique mailbox, light fixtures, and various odds and ends (a ring toss game?). All of this stuff must have been left in the other house by the previous owners (or, hell, maybe even the previous previous previous owners) and was so tucked away that we'd never seen it before. And we have no idea where to put it. Brilliant house planners didn't even give us a coat closet. Sigh.

I guess it's a blessing in disguise, though, because 1) a basement always has the potential to be full of snakes and 2) this will be the impetus we need to get rid of stuff and not accumulate more. Already we've started boxing up books to sell and donate, and boxes of random stuff that has to move on. This house will rid me of my packrat tendencies. At least until I build a warehouse in the backyard.