I’m not trying to judge the builders of the Robin Hood Loop houses, but they could have been a little more creative. In case you are unaware of what I mean by this, most of the original homes in that area have one of the two different designs. There is the two-story, “walk in and go either up or downstairs” layout and then there is the one-story, “walk into the living room and go left to the kitchen/dining room or right to the three bedrooms and a bathroom” layout.
I spent many years of my youth living in the one-story layout. When I first moved into my grandparents’ house, I started out occupying the first bedroom, which doubled as my gram’s sewing room. However, after two years of good behavior, I was promoted to the second bedroom, next to the bathroom.
Twenty-ish years later, I bought a house in the same neighborhood. Oddly enough, my house has basically the same layout as the house I grew up in. Actually, that isn’t odd at all considering there was a 50/50 chance of it happening.
Since buying this house, every day of my life includes at least one déjà vu moment. Putting the towels away in the same exact location, walking into an identical kitchen, cleaning my kids’ rooms which are replicates of my childhood rooms, etc. Everything I do around my house takes me back 20 years.
As if I didn’t have enough flashbacks, we remodeled and made my house even more like my childhood home. It all started when I whined to my grandpa about the mirror in my bathroom. The original one was tiny and I wasn’t tall enough to see into it. “I wish I had a mirror like the one in your bathroom!” I told him. The next day, my grandpa came over with a mirror like his and installed it. The bathrooms are now identical … well, besides the 1970s flooring in mine.
There are a few major differences between our houses though. One being the hallway light situation. My grandparents’ home has light switches at both ends of the hallway, which was always nice because no one ever had to waste five seconds of their life walking two steps to the other end of the hall.
Tragically, my hallway does not have an extra light switch. This almost caused me to pass on this house altogether, but I thought I would get used to it. I was wrong. I have lived in my house for a year now and I STILL reach for a light switch that isn’t there at least five times a day. I’ve spent the majority of this column (like most other columns) exaggerating everything, but I’m not exaggerating about this “reaching for a light switch that isn’t there” subject. I can’t stop doing it. It makes me crazy.
Obviously a solution to my dilemma would be to hire an electrician to add a light switch, but first, I’m going to complain to my grandpa … just to see how that works out.
For questions, comments or to submit a light switch installation bid, please e-mail me at christyrasmussen@yahoo.com.
