Over the last few weeks, we've been adding details to what we'd like to have in a retirement home. This is a grand wish list -- we don't expect to get all of it, but we'd like to get most of it. At some point in the next year or so, when (presumably) the flood of thoughts has dried, or slowed to a trickle, we'll start weighting them, so that the things we truly want are at the top of the list. Of course, we will have surprises, as we find that things we thought were trivial are actually important to us.
For example, a tray ceiling. We had one put into the breakfast nook when that was built, and we find to our surprise that we really like the touch of elegance that it added to the kitchen. I'm not one who usually uses phrases like that, but it seems appropriate here. The ceiling is a symmetrical octagonal drop down, with a very nice yet simple chandelier. We did not have lights put inside the tray, as we thought it would be awkward to have to change the lights, and we're generally comfortable with that idea still. In fact, a relative had a octagonal tray put in her ceiling -- its not symmetrical, though -- and seeing how lights can show up any imperfection in the ceiling, we're glad we did it this way.
And the dining room, with its hardwood floor and paneled wainscoting, is pretty nice, too. We've tentatively decided that we won't have both the nook and the dining room, so we're going to have to judge those carefully. Its entirely possible that we won't build, either, which means we have to think about what can be realistically retrofitted onto an existing house. We're not interested in essentially gutting an existing house!
But the process of thinking about it is fun.
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When we were getting ready to move the last time, I was collecting home decorating magazines, drawing out pictures, and cutting out little furniture shapes and moving them around to see where they fit best. I began having these wonderful dreams about old "renovation needed" but elegant homes with secret compartments in the walls where previous owners had stashed their treasures.-- All this for our small apartment. Now that we've moved it's not nearly as much fun, but I still have the wonderful dreams.
When we had some work done several years ago, we actually did have a small hidden compartment built. It's purely a novelty, with nothing stored inside, but the concept tickled us. Still does.
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