Living in a Barn

The first day we walked into what is now our home I fell in love. The place is gorgeous. It is bright, open, and slightly old school...but with modern conveniences. It is different, it is what we were looking for in moving to a foreign country. We were semi-aggressive (not our style...I wouldn't even call myself or Paul assertive, haha) in calling the owner. She wasn't answering her phone, so we just kept calling back over and over. After four phone calls we stopped, I didn't want to piss her off :) The rental market was pretty competitive at that time. Lots of people PCS'ing (changing assignment) in the summer. Thankfully, we did get in contact with the owner and signed the papers over a beer. We moved in 2 weeks later.

Since that time, I have learned a lot about what it is to live in a barn. Barns before they are homes are usually one large, tall room...with a hay loft. So, when a barn becomes a house it gets rooms and levels. More than one level. This house has four levels.

Each level is divided by a staircase. There are 15 stairs from the first level to the second and the second level to the fourth.

The third level is the kitchen and sitting room which is only 6 steps down from the second level. Imagine how many steps up and down I take in a day when all I am doing is cleaning, unpacking, organizing, refereeing, yelling, uploading, downloading, emailing, cooking, compromising, appeasing, cleaning some more...you see. I have a built in stair master. I will have buns of steel before Christmas! I can't wait! I wanted to keep track of how many steps I take one day, but decided against it because it would give me reason to be lazy the next day.

Vacuuming has become an all day project all by itself. The reason for this: cobwebs. What comes with cobwebs? Spiders. I don't particularity like spiders, especially the idea of swallowing spiders in my sleep. (Is that true or one of the worst urban legends ever?) Paul has come a long way with his fear of spiders. He will grab them and flush them as long as he has enough toilet paper in his hand to wipe up a liter of water. (He doesn't like being able to feel them squishing.) :) When I met Paul his favored weapon for killing spiders was a shoe...of which he would throw at the spider from a few feet away...yes, I'm not kidding. He has come a long way, baby. Will is terrified of most bugs, but he is getting desensitized due to the large population of bugs here compared to Utah. Baile stays along the sames lines as me. She's a trooper.

Back to vacuuming, please and cobwebs...and spiders, sorry to those with a phobia.



Cobwebs appear in the nooks and crannies of our house frequently. Within a week, or less of vacuuming there are at least 4 spiderwebs/cobwebs visible around the house. This is without looking for them. When I hunt for them, I find at least 8-12. Along with the webs there are easily 6-8 spiders....This is in LESS THAN A WEEK, PEOPLE!! Ugh.



The cobwebs are my indicator that it is time to vacuum. So, not only do I vacuum the floor, I also vacuum the ceiling. Thus the all day project. Vacuuming is no where near my favorite pastime, or even my favorite housework task. (Poll: What is your favorite housecleaning task and why on Earth do you have a favorite housecleaning task?)


I vacuum because I have to...no one else does it. No one else is home all day :) As I vacuum the ceiling I suck up the fair amount of spiders along with their webs. I've pondered what may happen if the spiders don't die as they are being vacuumed up. I empty the canister on the vacuum every time I use it....Paul would need a Costco case of TP to take care of a recently hatched spider egg sack. Have you seen Charlotte's Web?? The vacuum is kept in the same area as our food storage...that wouldn't be pretty. Yes, I said food storage. I guess a little of Utah did rub off on me. I don't store food for the reasons most Utahns do, however. I do it cuz I'm lazy. And I used to shop at Costco.





Man, I miss Costco. I miss Gregg's Ranch dressing from Costco. Its the only ranch dressing I will eat.