the house around the corner

Well, I was feeling a little jealous after seeing the virtual tour for the '50s split level for sale in our neighborhood. The dining room bar and kitchen had really captured my heart, and I was afraid that I would like it better than our little ranchette. Of course, at $370K, a LOT more than we spent, I couldn't be too jealous! The daughter and I took a walk over there yesterday for their open house and, while it had it's good points, I'm still in love with our house.
The pulls in the kitchen were nice, though not nearly as substantial as I thought, and the kitchen felt smaller, particularly the eating area, which was like a little shoebox. For daughter-sized shoes. The laundry area was really sweet, though, with more cabinets and counter than we have, plus a cool hopper-style laundry bin that just looked like another cabinet. It was on the bottom, next to the washer, and tilts out to hold dirty clothes. Really a nice feature. The stovetop was nice too...electric (not my 1st choice), with a center griddle (seems rare for a vintage unit).
The bathrooms were on the boring side, with yellow and speckled beige tile. The sink faucets were gorgeous -- very fifites streamline, and there was a neat rotating toothbrush holder and soapdish just above the sink (you can see it in the picture--closed).
The house had a lot of great storage, with little random cabinets and cupboards tucked in under the eaves, but with two bedrooms upstairs and one down, it just wouldn't have worked for us. Plus the bar wasn't as nice as ours, and it didn't have the sort of super-functional basement space that we need (although it had three nice deep closets in the basement with shelves and paneling. And they were dry! (unlike ours, but that's a story for another day.)
The garden's still growing well, peas, beans, greens, melons, onions, etc. The rhubarb should be sufficient for a pie soon, which'll be a treat (for someone other than me). For now most of my housework's been outside weeding and watering, trying to avoid the mess that constitutes life in our house with two small children.