This is a room in our basement, a dank recess beneath the front steps that used to be connected to our basement play/TV room and which housed many, many spiders and centipedes. We had a dehumidifier in there (it was damp and stinky), and when I used to reach in to empty it my hand brushed through a mesh of webs. Soon this room will be no more. It will be boarded up in our basement remodel project.
Tomorrow Jon and I go shopping to pick out all the stuff we need: new toilet, tub, and sink, fixtures, tile, paint, carpeting, etc. I'm both eager for and dreading it. Eager because I like decorating, and design, and color, and all that stuff. And dreading it because it seems our culture has gone MAD, totally cuckoo over the idea of luxury. It is everywhere. Examples:
huge houses where every bedroom has its own bathroom (and then maybe one more for, you know, guests)
huge bathrooms covered in marble or granite
huge kitchens with more granite and those big ass, 6- or 8-burner ovens that maybe 2% of the population (I'm being generous) would actually understand how to make good use of (the kitchens keep getting bigger, more expensive, and elaborate but, overall, people are cooking at home less and less)
It's not that everyone, everywhere has all this stuff. It's that the market keeps driving the standards up, and up, and up, and they never come back down. Pretty soon people think that they need this stuff (versus wanting it), and that it's necessity (versus luxury). I've been looking through books, and magazines, and at showrooms, trying to get some ideas for our new bathroom but all I see is the aforementioned bland luxury.
Nowhere do I see a room that is modest but stylish, comfortable and clean, a place that says both "You are welcome here" and "This is where you pee."
A room that says both "Some care went into the design, but the owners stayed within budget" and "The creepy centipede chamber has been sealed off for your comfort: be at ease."
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