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Chrissy and I have had a fun year. A road trip across the country to visit Chris’s niece in California, we have re-discovered the joy of live concerts, and have had some nice day and overnight trips so far this year. We are looking forward to a couple concerts, a Broadway play or two, and a trip to tour the Frank Lloyd Wright Falling Water House in PA. Still, we can’t be on the road all the time, and when I’m home, I like to spend time in my favorite room. But which room is my favorite?
A few of the HumbleDollar regulars who know me might say, “well duh, it’s got to be the Vinyl Resting Place (VRP)”. That’s the room that houses my vintage hi-fi and a library of tunes from my youth all the way up to new releases from Paul McCartney and Willie Nelson. The VRP also serves as a great place to put my feet up to read a book, take a nap, or watch some college football.
Still, there’s the living room. The place where Chrissy and I drink our morning tea and coffee while catching up on the news, and where I attempt to compose entertaining posts for the HumbleDollar. It’s also the room where, in the evening, we settle in to stream a great movie. The space also includes the kitchen and dining room, which hosts gatherings of friends and family.
Don’t forget the bedroom, a source of much contentment. Snuggling with the missus, watching re-runs of Holmes on Homes or Million Dollar House Hunter, or just getting a much needed night’s rest; those are compelling reasons to vote for the bedroom.
And no discussion of favorite rooms would be complete without mentioning the bathroom. So there, I mentioned it.
Moving on, what about the garage? It’s not just for parking the car, you know! It’s also my putter-around place. The garage is extra deep, so I was able to install a nice workshop. Nothing fancy, mind you, I’m no carpenter or mechanic, still, I enjoy simple projects, and being a child of the 60s/70s, when muscle cars roamed the roads, I still enjoy pampering my wheels.
At the end of the day, I really don’t pick favorites, although the other rooms accuse the Vinyl Resting Place of being the ‘chosen’ one.
Whether still working or already retired, life can be like a pressure cooker. Our homes should be the place we look forward to returning to at the end of day to let the steam out.
Interesting—the kitchen hasn’t gotten any mentions.
I’m on a diet, Marilyn, I never say the K word. Actually, it’s in the third paragraph.
When our renovation is done, that might be my favorite. Right now it’s my LEAST favorite. (I had to cook our dinner in the ADU tonight because the ancient oven in the main house stopped working shortly after we moved in. Just won’t turn on. And I’m not going to spend $300 getting someone out when the whole thing’s going to be demolished in a couple months.)
Our new (old) home has a perfect space for a workout room. In our condo, we had three exercise machines crammed into corners of secondary bedrooms, and the anchor for the rower (to store it upright) was digging a hole into the wall. If I wanted to do strength work on a mat, I had to cram the mat between the guest room bed and the Peloton bike and crane my neck to look up at the bike screen.
Now, I have all three machines side by side and no need for vertical storage of the rower. I have a nice comfy oversized gymnastics mat for floor work and Pilates, and a nice smart TV mounted on the wall to stream workouts (or entertainment if I’m on the elliptical and bored).
The room also is equipped with solar tubes and has a slider to the outside so it has great natural light and I almost never have to turn a light on.
It’s become my happy place since we moved in!
That’s going to be fun to have Dana.
When we last had a home, I had a space set up in our small garage.
A row of kettlebells lived along one side. Pullup bar overhead, with gymnastics rings on it, and assorted other things on the wall. It had a mat in two pieces that would lean against the wall when not used, and be on the floor and connected in less than a minute. Oh and we parked our cars in there as well. Back out the car, put down the mat, boom. Second mat on the other side too when desired.
Not that it was my favorite room but I do miss it.
Dana, your workout room story is a bit like my VRP story. I had never had a dedicated space to listen to music. When I walked into the large loft in the model home, a light in my head instantly came on about my future favorite room. I also have a weight bench and some dumbbells in there for days when I don’t go to the gym.
Same. I walked into the open house at the home we bought and instantly identified the room as our home gym. It’s the perfect size and shape and it’s separate from the other bedrooms.
Dan, you might be disappointed with Falling Waters. It’s not in great shape and it is damp and smells musty. It looks very uncomfortable to live in. Admittedly though I am not a fan of FLW design.
I’ve just always liked those strange, modern designed homes, and had toured one FLW house in Springfield, OH. I have to agree they don’t look like the most comfortable of homes. We are looking forward to spending several peaceful days in the mountains. And no, I did not see anyone eating pets in Springfield🙀🐶
Dan, definitely the sunroom for me, especially in winter — comfy leather couch, wood-burning stove, a good book. What more could you want?
That said, you skimmed over the bathroom, and I’m going to fight its corner. On occasion, when both my daughters and the grandkids are all in the house and it gets a bit frantic and loud, it’s a wonderful place of refuge — twenty minutes of peace before I have to go back to being jumped on by my grandson, or recounting to my granddaughter, in dramatic detail, for the thousandth time, the tale of how I got a bald spot when a scary lion licked my head…
So yeah… sunroom or bathroom 😉
Oh, I totally get the sunroom, Mark. My first real estate purchase after my divorce was a duplex in an area of Toledo known as Old Orchard. It sat on a rare double sized lot and had a beautiful all-season sunroom. I loved sitting out there on weekend mornings with the newspaper and a hot cuppa.
Of course, the coolest thing about that duplex was the next door neighbor, Chrissy.
And should I ever develop a bald spot, I’m stealing your scary lion story!