Keeping Up With The Neighbors

In the suburbs, we care very much about the appearance of our homes. We obsess over it. The street on which I live is no exception.

I live in a cul-de-sac with seven homes...all of them (including mine) are in a perpetual state of updating. All the homes are about 15-20 years old, so maybe it's just time for the first wave, but it's really quite amazing to watch.

And I do watch. Since I work at home, I am the Mrs. Kravitz of the 21st Century, peeking out my front window several times a day to keep track of what's going on with the neighbors. It's obvious that we are all doing our part to keep the economy--or at least in the construction and home improvement industries--alive and well. Here are just a few things that have happened in just a last year or so:

All seven of our homes have gotten either new or extensively repaired roofs. Four have been painted. One had a complete landscaping overhaul, complete with full-grown plants and a koi pond. Another ripped out and replaced what I know was pristine carpeting. And the appliance and furniture delivery trucks are in and out of here with staggering regularity. You can bet that when that happens, I am looking for a reason to visit and see what they got.

This is the house three doors down from mine. In the past year they've replaced all the windows, installed an underground sprinkler system, replaced the cedar shingle roof with a tile one, and just a few weeks ago they replaced the driveway with this fancy colored one. (I hope they are planning to repaint their plum-colored front door because it now clashes with the roof.)

And this house, which sits behind mine but is obviously in a different neighborhood, is truly the home that we're all watching. The proverbial Joneses that we're all trying to keep up with. The owners purchased the home three years ago for just under $1 million. For the first year after they bought it, they lived somewhere else while the interior was completely gutted and renovated. They moved in and started on the exterior, including a new two-story, two-car garage--apparently the existing four-car garage was not quite enough. (The garage doors have been brown for quite a while. I hope they aren't leaving them like that.) Now, three years later, there is still a steady stream of construction vehicles and heavy equipment driving through the circular driveway. I can't see the backyard, but I suspect they are putting in a pool.

It's fun to live in the suburbs! I'd love to go on, but I have kitchen cabinets to paint.

Back to the Kitchen...

The kitchen remodel is in full swing. The granite countertop, sink and faucet is in, the backsplash is up, and this weekend we started the long, tedious process of painting the cabinetry:


At first I was nervous about choosing backsplash tile; the sheer volume of tile, in every shape, size and material imaginable, was enough to make me think it would take years to pick something. But once we set our budget, the options quickly narrowed from a million choices to about three. So that was easy.

We decided to save $1,000 in labor and tile the backsplash ourselves. I think we did a pretty good job!

And now, even though the dining and living room is filled with the contents of the kitchen, and the garage has become an assembly line to sand, prime and paint--count 'em--29 doors and 13 drawers (not to mention all the hardware that needs to be cleaned and spray-painted), I'm looking ahead to all the other parts of the house that need to be UPDATED. Why? Why am I devoting so much time, energy and money to this cause? Apparently, I'm just trying to keep up with my neighbors. More on that tomorrow...

America the Casual, Part 2

I'm not done ranting about people wearing pajama pants in public (see below), but before I continue, here's some related food for thought: Do your clothes influence your behavior?

This is the question that has been raised around here as an upscale entertainment and restaurant district called the Kansas City Power & Light District, imposes what has become a controversial dress code. From their website:

"The dress code prohibits the following: profanity on clothing; sleeveless shirts on men; excessively torn clothing; undershirts; excessively baggy or sagging clothing; work boots; sweat suits or athletic attire (jerseys are permitted in conjunction with Chiefs or Royals games or sporting events in the Sprint Center). Management reserves the right to refuse admission to or eject any person whose conduct is deemed to be disorderly or who fails to comply with the terms of entry. Please note that the dress codes of individual venues may vary."

Now, some people have gotten themselves all worked up about this with comments that range from how stupid it is to believe that you can spot (and then exclude) a troublemaker by his/her clothing to more serious allegations of discrimination and racial profiling.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, the district is privately owned. So really, the owners are within their rights to have a dress code--just like private schools and business offices. And as a suburbanite who rarely leaves the house, going into the city for a night out is a big enough deal to warrant getting all dolled up--so the dress code is not a problem for me.

On the other hand, does it really matter? In a country where people wear pajama pants to the grocery store and jeans and shorts to weddings, can dictating appearance do anything to keep patrons safe?

Our friends on Wall Street have already shown us that you can commit plenty of crimes in a suit and tie. So, one has to wonder if this dress code is just to exclude those that may be perceived as criminals. Hmm...

And back to pajama pants...

My sister-in-law sent me this picture of a woman in pajama pants attending a Sugarland concert--in Germany. Apparently, this is a worldwide epidemic.

The Domino Effect

The Domino Effect is defined as "a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence." This phenomenon certainly takes place when it comes to home improvement. And it is out of control in my kitchen.

It started when we replaced the old appliances that began to die, one by one, shortly after we moved in. Once we had all shiny, new, stainless steel appliances, the rest of the kitchen looked shabby.

So we replaced the countertops; with those came a new sink and faucet. Then the cheap, contractor-grade backsplash tiles had to go; while we were tiling we went ahead and updated all the electrical outlets. Now the dated oak cabinetry isn't working. Ditto the bad lighting and popcorn ceiling. Then there's the tacky window coverings and ancient kitchen furniture...where does it end?

Home improvement is a $300-billion-a-year industry. I smell a conspiracy.

America the Casual

In terms of the way we dress, I think it's great that America is a casual society. I love my Levis and t-shirts and am as thrilled as any woman that pantyhose have all but vanished.

But during a quick trip to the library the other night, I was reminded once again of a disturbing trend that may be pushing the casual thing just a bit too far--people wearing their flannel pajama pants out in public.

Now, I love my flannel pajama pants. They are warm and comfy during these long midwestern winters, and since I work at home, there are many times that I wear them all day. But I don't leave the house in them.

Listen--I'm not suggesting that people spend an hour getting dolled up to run to the library or the grocery store or the gas station. I'm talking about five minutes to throw on a pair of jeans. They can even be those dirty ones that are in a pile on the floor. Please. Because seriously, unless I'm sleeping with you, I DON"T WANT TO SEE YOU IN YOUR PAJAMAS.

eBay Virgin

Yes, it's an embarrassing confession: I am an eBay Virgin. I have never bought or sold anything on eBay.

My kids buy stuff on there all the time. But it all seems so time consuming--searching through pages and pages of, um, stuff to find what you want. Placing a bid. Placing another bid. Waiting to see if you win. Waiting to see if you receive what you think you won. And what the hell is PayPal?

I guess I'm just a simple girl. When I need to buy something, I like to get in, get what I need, and get out.

However, we recently had occasion to give eBay a try. When we picked out and ordered our granite (yes, I got the granite) we also had to choose a sink because, as everyone knows, it's way cool to have an undermount sink. And with a new sink, of course, we had to have a new faucet. I'll be ranting about the "domino effect" of home renovation very soon.

Anyway, we got the sink from the same place we bought the granite because their prices were comparable to those at the local home improvement stores. Their faucets, however--not so much. The one I liked was $1,800.

Obviously, this was out of the question. Someone (not me) thought we should try eBay. We typed in "kitchen faucets" and got over 5,700 results. Are you kidding me?

So Chris sorted through them and found one to bid on. We used Josh's account. After messing around with the bidding all evening, we lost. It was stupid. eBay is stupid.

So we went to Lowes, got what we needed--I mean, what we wanted--and got out. Simple.

Crisis Management

Although I worry about it every day, my family has not yet been personally impacted by the economic crisis. We both still have our jobs (for which we are grateful every single day), having made it through several rounds of layoffs. Our 401(k)s look pretty ugly, but since we won't need those for 20 years we've just stopped opening the statements.

But being financially stable is still a big concern. We have become more thoughtful about our day-to-day spending: we don't go out to eat nearly as often as we used to, I'm clipping coupons, and we are trying to pay more attention to the difference between what we need and what we want. Yes, we are making some major home improvements, but we believe (or hope) that we are investing in the value of our home.

So this weekend we ran over to the shopping area of our town. We have a fairly large mall, surrounded by all the big-box department stores. We hadn't been over there since before Christmas, but Chris needed a pair of dress shoes.

As we exited of the highway, the exit ramp was backed up with traffic. We inched down the ramp, thinking there was an accident; but no, there was just a lot of traffic in and around the mall. Everyone was shopping!

Believing the news that consumer spending was down, I thought maybe people were just window shopping, wanting to get out of the house on a sunny Saturday--because shopping has become a form of entertainment, right? But in the store a voice came over the loudspeaker, asking for all available associates to open a cash register because the lines were very long. People were buying stuff.

What does this all mean? Has the crisis not hit our area yet? Were these people, like us, just out to buy something they really needed? Are we all in complete denial about what's happening? Or do we all feel so helpless and out of control that we don't know what else to do except to engage in some "retail therapy"?

I think we (and when I say "we" I mean anyone under the age of 50) just don't know how to stop shopping. The line between need and want has virtually disappeared. We've never been asked (or forced) to sacrifice, to tighten the belt, to save money. I think we simply don't know what to do.

I'd love to know what you think...