I recently wrote a brief comparison of houses vs condos, both of which with various pros. However, there are three smaller things I’ve come to appreciate about our new house, and I’m still learning about a few of them.
- Our house has a central vacuum system built into the walls. Instead of carrying the vacuum cleaner around everywhere, we just plug a tube into the wall, and everything ends up in the garage. So far we’ve used both this and the vacuum, as carrying around the vacuum isn’t any less difficult than carrying around 20 feet of tubing. But it’s a neat option.
- Many of the light switches in the house have a slight red glow behind them, making them easy to find in the dark. This is incredible, something I never knew I wanted until I had it. Also, almost all of them are on dimmers, which I love–I prefer soft lights to really bright lights.
- We have a small enclosed backyard that is part patio, part grass, and part garden. Walter is absolutely loving the access he has to this area, and I’ve enjoyed seeing this new side of him. He just walks around and smells things for as long as we let him. While he is curious about the birds, rabbits, and squirrels, he’s shown zero interest in following or hunting them. He really just seems to like being in nature. We made him a little bell collar just in case, which he hasn’t minded wearing.
Are there any tiny touches or features in your home that you really appreciate?
When we lived in St. Louis we also had a central vac. It is a lot of hose to pull around but still a cool feature. Now we live in Texas. No central vac and no basement which I miss!
Our current house, although not originally part of the house, we can turn on/off several lights at once by saying Good Morning/Good Night Alexa. It is really is a nice feature.
Glad Walter is enjoying his new digs!
That’s a neat Alexa feature! I might try to figure that out. 🙂
We subliminally appreciated our neighbor’s trees. Six months ago that property was sold to a developer who flattened everything, and we now realize how much of a wind buffer those trees were. Our flags and chimes are getting a workout.
Also that there’s a large window over the kitchen sink, so we can gaze out on our backyard (which is a pollenator garden).