When my parents were first married, one of them - I'm still not sure who - leaned a bike up against a wall in the dining room. It may have been while they were moving in...or something, but that bike stayed and stayed. It became part of the dining room. Not because they liked it there - but because they were just used to it being there and it didn't stick out as being abnormal. People would come over and ask, "Why is there a bike in the dining room?" To which they would get confused and say, "There's a bike in the dining room?"
The whole point of the story was that people who see things every day, often overlook the details.
SO IS THE STORY OF MY HOUSE.
Today Rob and I sat down to make a list of "bikes in the dining room" that we have been living with. I couldn't help but chuckle as I thought about the amount of silent people who have come through our house and thought, "Well, that's odd..."
Here are some of our bikes:
1. We don't have a single toilet roll dispenser. When we first bought the house Maddie was only 9 months old. She was obsessed with pulling TP all over the house, so we pulled the rolls off of the holders and set them on the back of the toilets. We have had a toddler in the house ever since, so that is where the TP has stayed. I'm sure guests find that a BIT odd.
2. Our kitchen table is covered in permanent marker. Jude was making me a beautiful card - with a big red sharpie - and it bled all the way through. I have tried to get it off - but it just won't budge. Every time I look at it and think about buying a new, marker-free table I cringe. I can't get myself to do it until the kids are just a wee bit older. I may hate the marker - but at least it's an old table!
3. (Recently fixed) Claire's bedroom door was without a doorknob for about two years. It started getting stuck, and then one day the whole thing just broke. I was on the inside of a busted door - with one child alone running through the house when it finally gave in. I was stuck - no cell phone and only a small window to (pregnantly) climb out...so I literally had to yell to a neighbor (who I should add I had never spoken to) to break into my home and let me out. Once the entire knob was taken out, it left a lovely hole in the door - which ended up being awesome. We could peek through the hole to see if the baby was sleeping without ever having to go in the room. Rob and I thought it was one of the greatest features in our home...but I'm sure looked horrific to anyone that walked passed.
4. There is a huge hole in the tile below our washer and dryer. When we bought the house (SEVEN YEARS AGO - today...ironically) there was an issue with the tile in the laundry room. We had to pull it up in one spot and figured we'd get around to fixing it at some point. After about a week of fix-ups, we had to get the washer and dryer put into place so I could do laundry. We placed them right where the tile was pulled up and haven't moved them since. Thankfully, we don't get a lot of visitor traffic in the laundry room!
I have moments of horror when my detailed eye notices these things (aka - ten minutes before company is expected) but I take some comfort knowing that most people I know have similar things going on at their houses - and I don't notice until they point them out.
Some day I will have a perfect house. But for now, I have kids who are messy, loud and lovely. Perfect house - not quite. Perfect family - spot on.
3 comments:
You know, I've thought about this very thing quite a lot. As you said, odd things in my house just seem to melt into the scenery after a certain length of time. Holes in the ceiling awaiting sound system speakers, the complete lack of curtains on windows, an unwanted piece of furniture shoved in a corner "for the time being" (yeah, right, two years later), unframed photos propped up near the place they eventually will be hung--it all just becomes so normal after a while.
After reading your post, I'm now seeing about a gazillion "bikes" around my house! Yikes, what have the neighbors been saying behind my back???
ok, I confess - it was my bike. I put it there and then left it there for several months. Not that I was riding it a lot, there was just no where else to put it where it wasn't more in the way. It is now hanging in the garage, no handle bar, no pedals, and with two flat tires. It was a CCM bike, you remember the company that made ice skates? Logical side business for them I'm sure. But if I remember right it was one of the very early (1974)lightweight(composite?) bikes made, so I am going to keep it until I can find a repair shop that can restore it, or send it to that big dumpster that will be arriving in front of the garage "someday"....
I LOVE this post. "Why is there a bike in your dining room?" became such a common question that "the bike in the dining room" became a coined phrase that means anything you don't see anymore. Your dad's right. It was his bike but for awhile it was also decor. I still use that phrase today just like "na he mee?"
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