Starseye1

Lux's Cave of Rumination
2003-10-10 07:36:27 (UTC)

Home

I've never lived in any one place for long. My mother
was always moving us, always seeking new places...I think
to get away from my father. I don't blame her that,
sometimes I wish I could put a world between us, but that's
another post. I went home last weekend, the first time in
a month...I realized on the drive to Worthington, that we
have lived in this house for almost 7 years...7 *years*.
Not 7 weeks, or 7 months, or even 7 days (yes, it's
happened). I had a home, not just a house.
Our house is a monstrous stucco creation from 1900.
It's huge, and a little bit ugly on the outside. Brown
trim, cream stucco, and a brick red porch with tons of
windchimes and my mother's seasonal signs grace the outer
frame. There's an adjacent carriage house that had been
converted to a garage, but is almost too small to fit even
my tiny car in it. Instead, we keep satallites out there,
for my stepdad's business. On the outside of the garage,
is the crowning jewel...the German Chicken sign that says
Wilcom!. Everyone in town knows our house because of that
thing. Mom thinks that it's charming...and I will admit, I
would feel pretty weird if I pulled up and didn't see it.
Our backyard is the size of a matchbox, but is full of
roses in the spring, and lilies that I planted a few years
ago. Birds and squirrels hang out there, as well as a few
bats that live in the eaves of the roof. All in all, it's
a postcard of a house, if Jason mows the lawn like he's
supposed to.
Our front door is massively huge and imposing. It's a
door and a half, seriously, and is full of hand cut paned
glass. We never lock it, because people are always coming
and going. My friends never even knock anymore, even if
it's late at night. Everyone is welcome to the Lelak-
Johnson home.
Anyway, you go through this huge door, and you go
inside...ahhhhh....my home is stunning, at least to me.
Nothing too expensive, but nothing too cheap either. It's
mostly decorated with antiques and things we've collected.
My mother saves everything we kids have ever did, be it
writing or art projects...A statue I did of Santa Claus
(which is pretty damn good, I think) sit's on our mantle
365 days of the year in our front room. Mom won't put it
away. We are constantly arranging furniture, it seems...we
keep moving the dining room and tv room back and forth,
back and forth. Right now, we are keeping our dining room
table in the front room, where the huge picture window and
the fireplace which we can't use is. We can't use it
because the flue is stuffed up with newspapers from the
1930's...so if that get's lit, the house get's lit. Kind
of a drawback of an old place.
The whole downstairs goes in a circle, with rooms
seperated by 3 doors. In the front room, there are glass
paned doors on either side of the mantle, shutting off the
TV room, and the foyer to go upstairs. In the computer
room, there is another door to the TV room. It's kind of
an odd design, but we think we figured out why...We have
heard stories that our house was the old town funeral home.
But fire destroyed the records in the 50's, so we don't
know that for sure. The large front door, basement
entrance, and downstairs sure do indicate it.
The TV room is awesome because when mom and I were
stripping the 8 (that's right, 8) layers of wallpaper, we
found 4 handpainted murals of nature scenes around
Worthington. It turns out, our neighbor Abby (who passed
away at 101 last winter) painted them when she was 17 for
the family that lived there. They are gorgeous, and
luckily, we were able to preserve them. The rest of the
room is painted a dark pink that actually looks good, and
big comfy couches I love to take naps on. It's a cozy
family room, with a good entertainment system.
The computer room is almost entirely Jay's domain for
his business. The phone is always ringing off the hook for
installs, so I never go in there during the day. I wait
until night to use the computer, after Mom and Jay go to
sleep. The only remarkable thing in that room is the roll
top desk and a great picture of my grandmother, whom I look
almost exactly like. She was a classy dame, I'll tell you
that. She knew how to speak, dress, and whatnot.
The kitchen is almost entirely my domain. A dark blue
colour, with my mother's collection of tin signs hanging
everywhere, that's where I do my best thinking, when I'm
cooking. It's a tiny, itty bitty room, but I make the
space work. I've created culinary masterpieces in there.
I've been kissed sensiless in there. There's a closet that
has been converted to a spare bathroom, but I would love to
get rid of that if I could, and make a storage space. All
in all though, it's a gem of a room.
The upstairs area is 4 rooms and a scary closet that I
won't go into, because I saw a huge spider in there once.
Out in the hall, a desk sits, with over 30 troll figures
(not the cute, stick up hair ones), but kind of scary,
horsehair, wood, and stick trolls. I'd have to take
pictures for you to get the true affect, but my mother is
wild for them. You can only get these trolls in Colorado,
so my mom acts like they are religious figures. These
devil things are right outside my bedroom too (happy
thought). The cats are always messing with them, knocking
them over.
My bedroom, which used to be Jason's before I went to
college, is neon green and very cool. I have the best bed
in the entire universe. It's black metal, with a canopy
frame, and I've hung up black curtains to keep out light at
night. My mattress is soft, soft, soft, and I have sheets
that feel like a cloud, cause they are so old. I lost my
virginity on this bed, before it started to creak loudly
everytime something get's on it. But I wouldn't trade it
for the world. I have a huge, 7 foot tall bookcase, and
it's stuffed full of tomes. My closet is a mixed bag of
things, but very little clothes. The best part of my
bedroom though, is my hope chest...a cedar trunk of things
that go all the way back to my great, great, great
grandmother. A wedding dress, jewelry, love letters,
books...I can't wait to give it to my daughter, one day.
On my vanity is band awards, jewelry, bottles of wine,
little things that can tell a thousand stories.
My brother's bedroom, which used to be mine, is the
master bedroom. I painted it a dark, dark red, and he kept
it. He doesn't have a bed, just two mattresses on the
floor, a couple of couches, his computer, and entertainment
center. That's where his rap groups does all thier music
from. He's a messy kid though...has all his stuff thrown
about, until his dad yells at him. Oh well, he'll grow out
of it, the messiness. We all do.
My parent's room is non-descript, but it's where the
upstairs AC is, so this is where I hang out in the summer
time. I'll watch tv in there, and talk with my mom. Jay
is hardly ever there at night, so sometimes I'll sack out
on thier bed. I keep all my fancy clothes in thier
closet...3 years of prom dresses, and a bridesmaids dress
crowd the space. My stepdad grumbles, but we just roll our
eyes.
The bathroom is big and carpeted, and done in purples.
We have a deep whirlpool tub, but the shower pressure
sucks. There is only 1 plug in the entire room, so it
makes doing various electrical things difficult, but we
manage. It's plumbing is mostly original, and amazingly,
still works.
My house smells good...like lysol and wood floors, and
sometimes the scent of cooking food. Its a dark house,
with not many electrical lights. The front and TV rooms
have antique chandiliers, and there are no hanging lights
upstairs, except in Mom's room. All the lights are on the
walls, controlled by pulls or switches. I love it. I love
the dimmness. I used to love to light the millions of
candles in my room and pretend I lived in the victorian
age, a fine lady.
I hope we stay there for a long time...I know I'll be
moving on soon, but I want to be able to come home to it
every once an awhile. It was a good place to grow
up...good place to go through high school, and a good place
to escape college. It's home..home in a sense I had never
really known.




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