LOL... oops... looks like my digression hit a couple of nerves! LOL...
Well, so we're all in the same leaky boat as far as Good Housekeeping Awards are concerned, huh? That's probably a REALLY good sign of health. What you said tt, about realizing you're "not in control" -- THAT'S it, really. The key to what winds up the Tasmanian Devil, too. Like there's something bad about not being in control... like the old witch is gonna come along and punish us or put us down, for not being like her -- master of her universe, making everyone "hop to". I would've tried to find a way, to not be the one deciding what item meant the most to someone else - it's a common thing between hubs & me - I don't want to be responsible for his stuff, couldn't possibly know what matters most to him - so I require at least his participation in the process, though I prefer him to do it himself while I do other things. (That rarely happens.)
Yep; I know about Pex piping. Our very first trip down to this house, with a load of stuff from the old one - we had one of my friends with us. As we walked in the door downstairs and started to unload the truck - she pointed out the ceiling in the kitchen was dripping water. I ran upstairs and tried to guess where the water was coming from - cold water supply in the upstairs kitchen island, where it fed into the faucet. Hubs turned the cut-off, right then, we put dishpans under all the sinks that weekend -- and I still don't have cold water at the island...!!
Kay: I live in a house, in a neighborhood full of houses that are "perfect". Folks here call our house the "pretty house"... it's kinda mediterranean, cruciform layout inside with columns & arches... and palm trees outside. The epitome of McMansion. We use solar lights to create shadows through the palm trees onto the walls of the house. The knee-high grass in the bed I didn't get weeded in the 90+ degree humidity finally all fell over. I have weed-trees to saw out of my property border of hollies. It needs to be cool and dry for me to go back in there. We moved from a non-descript, 2-bed/1-1/2 bath brick rancher that had a finished basement and garage for hubs to die for (and it almost killed him to empty out all his "junk" from there when we moved, too.) I could never, ever in my wildest dreams think that someday I would own a house like this. Big patio out back, pool, separate completely closed in poolhouse, too. That's our "adult play room"... our "bar"... Margaritaville, style. I call it the "Miami Vice" house... but it's transforming into something else right now. Part of that is intentional - design; part of that is just our living in the space and figuring out how we live in it.
The "dirty little secret" about these houses... is that most of us clean them and do the bulk of the yardwork ourselves. And so, when you look beyond the first impression - it's far from "perfect". Look up at vaulted ceilings and you'll be sure to find at least one cobweb. There are some HUGE houses here - over 10,000 sq ft. Makes ours seem puny, except that the upstairs - where we really live - is all open, with bedroom wings separated by a very long and wide hallway and an office. Open plans can become "cluttered" simply by living in them. The folks who do have those "perfect" houses? They don't seem very happy, I've noticed. They have less fun, even, than I do... and I'm supposedly a quiet, withdrawn, inhibited introverted sort. Our kids will come right out & say: you don't HAVE to clean for us!! Don't you DARE kill yourself cleaning - we'll be fine. They are used to and most comfortable in "lived in" spaces and only nervous in the "too perfect", "museum quality" House Beautiful environments where one's afraid to put their feet up. I don't want to do that to people, so I've told the Tasmanian Devil to stuff it, on occasion.
So far, I've taught myself that I don't have to be ashamed of having dirty dishes in the sink and the sink drainer out (yeah, I have a dish washer - but hubs & I don't often make enough dishes dirty to run it - so I just hand wash). I don't have to be ashamed of hubs' stacks of magazines everywhere... so far, no one's even mentioned "you must read alot" yet. If they do, I'll just say they're his - LOL!! If you look at other people's houses -- really look -- you'll see the same thing.
BUT: all this talk of houses reminds me -- my T and I talked a lot about Jungian symbolism; my dreams prompted that. Maybe there's enough in that for a whole separate topic... so when I get a chance... I'll take this digression on over to a new thread and dig through it a little more. It must be I sense an early winter coming on... I'm in full hibernation-nesting mode already. And that sort of turns up the wick on the reflection lamp, too.