okay
um do you have a large house or do you live in an apartment or or like
well we live in uh it's a single family home and i guess it um
uh-huh
it's kind of well sort of big for the area um and it's got uh four bedrooms and two and a half baths
and uh its on a color sack
uh-huh
how about yours
uh well we have a pretty large home and uh it's larger than the average house you know in the area
uh-huh
but um we need a large home cause there's twelve kids in my family so uh we have five bedrooms uh two kitchens two full kitchens uh we have
wow
two and a half baths also
uh-huh
you know uh plus we have a full basement that's in a into a game room that's wall to wall carpeting
wow
you know um
we have uh it would be like a
i do not know i guess it would be like a family room other than from the playroom the playroom is where we watch all our TV and stuff but we have another room you know kind of like for company and stuff
huh
right
uh
let me think that's about all but it's all split level
split level house
yeah
okay well ours is a ranch style and uh
oh i like ranch style houses
we we had a townhouse here uh we still have a townhouse which we are renting out so this is our first uh i guess single family home
and so we find that we have uh a lot to do uh to fix it up to the way we like it a lot of remodeling and all uh mostly cosmetic and we had a a deck put in in the back
uh-huh
um-hum
so it looks you know that's real nice to go out in now and then a fence around the yard so that the kids can stay in the yard
yeah
and not run around the neighborhood
well how much uh land did you get with it
how much what
land
uh i think it was a quarter acre uh-huh
is it
we have almost an acre yeah it's it's funny because we have um
really that's a pretty big area
a a two stall garage right beside our house but you can fit four cars in it it's long enough you know you can fit four in
uh-huh
and and some people that don't know us ask which house we live in and it's like oh just our garage then uh we have a front porch and a back porch on our house and our back porch we enclosed
uh-huh
but that's kind of like another room on itself
uh okay well what we have our family room when ah you know we bought it we noticed that it was really dark
and uh one of the things that it has in it is uh real dark paneling wooden paneling
uh-huh
and uh
it also has brown carpet and just kind of uh two small windows so what we are thinking of doing is uh uh changing the carpet to a lighter color and then we have heard that with the paneling you can wallpaper over it
uh-huh
or paint it and so that's what we are planning to do is to put a chair rail across the family room paint or wallpaper from the chair rail up and then uh
paint the chair rail on down in in like a a light blue color sort of i guess
uh-huh
uh Williamsburg blue we are calling it but whether there's there's a color like that or not since we are near Williamsburg but uh we are hoping that will lighten up the room a lot and make it give it you know give it a bigger appearance it has a fireplace in it too
yeah uh-huh
and if that doesn't work we uh our next door neighbor is a roofer and he said he would help me put in a skylight so
oh yeah
we'll try that last resort if uh if the painting does not help
yeah well all our walls are white you know well they are plaster except for our you know in the basement the playroom and we have um it's a real light brown you know kind of like a tan
uh-huh
uh-huh
and uh the carpet is pretty light too so it's it's it is a pretty large you know playroom and the lighter colors do help makes it look much bigger than what it really is
um-hum
what kind of carpeting do you have
um it it has different colors in it but when you first look at it it just kind of looks like a brownish color you know it has like browns and yellows in it
uh-huh
oh okay
yeah
is it uh is it a real short or a thick carpet real short
real short yeah
okay because we were looking at something that people are we have seen advertised called i guess it's berber or something or berbar or something and uh and we understand that that's supposed to be good for like a family room cause it's you know it wears really well and all that
yeah see well because we have so many with a real thick carpet with so many of us it gets worn down too fast so uh most of the carpet in our house is the short carpet
right right
um-hum
in fact well we just got our uh like where we where we have company and stuff we just got that recarpeted and we think it's uh
bigger carpet you know the longer thicker stuff but uh as the little ones were starting to move out and stuff so you know there's not as many of us here now
uh-huh
right
yeah
the other thing we are learning a lot about is uh we have a craw space under the house
um-hum
and we are learning a lot about moisture free and uh
everything like that
um-hum
so uh as far as uh keeping the vents open and closed you know this is all new to us not having a house that had this before and
and uh keeping the vents open you know during when it's warm and summer and all that and i guess spring summer fall and i guess in the winter you close the vents and
and making sure that the rain the rain gutters from you know the roof and all
empty out i instead of right near the house
yeah
and things like that
uh-huh well we have a wood burner in our house and you know it heats a lot of it because it is a larger house would be too much to heat with just electric but uh we have yeah
so we were
uh-huh
uh-huh
a wood a wood burning stove is it in the middle of the room or against the wall
it's against the wall
uh-huh
uh it's down in the basement and it's kind of like in and enclosed little room by itself
uh-huh
my dad enclosed it off so you kind of go into another room to it
uh but we had to learn to keep like all all the bedrooms are two floors above it and we had to learn to keep all the
uh-huh
the rooms were shut on the first floor for the hot air to get up to the bedrooms for like in the winter and stuff
uh okay
right
ye ah
wow that's pretty neat
but uh i guess do you have much mowing to do with yours then
much mowing yeah well actually it's a lot bigger than we thought it was when we first saw it when we actually have to mow it it seems to get bigger but uh the mow the way ours is is it's kind of a pie shaped
yeah
uh you know boundaries or whatever and we are sitting against the pointy end of the pie the house sits back and it so our front yard is actually the bigger yard and um
oh
uh-huh
and when we first got here you know there's it it i guess a long time ago it uh you know we were talking to our neighbors and they said the yard was one of the better or the best yard in the neighborhood because really kept it up and over the years uh
just people were just renting it out and all that they a lot of weeds and all that have grown up
oh yeah
and so we have decided to get somebody for one year of service to help control the weeds and get it green again and then i will take over from there and so but i have to mow it at least once a week or else it looks bad
uh-huh
yeah well uh it well we have just an acre we uh
so
use a rider
yeah yeah definitely and uh well my mom hates dandelions so we had stuff on our yard you know but it's uh it's pretty green she likes a nice green yard
uh-huh
