I should have known this morning, that when my coffee didn't brew well, today wasn't going to go well. Not that it was terrible, it just wasn't my day. To top it off, on the drive home, NPR felt that it was a good idea to repeatedly tell me that it's going to be -20 degrees outside tonight. (To which my clever friend questioned "Can a Texan even survive in those conditions?" God, I hope.) Long story short, I stumbled in the door after a long day, poured myself a glass of Côtes du Rhône and got to thinking about how much I wish I had found an apartment with a wood burning fireplace!
The past two summers, my honey and I have been living in Newport, RI which, even in the middle of summer, got chilly enough for late nights in, listening to my roommate play his guitar while sharing a bottle of wine with friends in front of our cast iron, wood burning stove. If there is such a thing as perfection, I believe those nights got quite close.
Those happy memories, and my constant need to be overwhelmingly warm (which I definitely inherited from my mother) have led me to build my mental dream house around one key element: a wood burning fireplace in as many rooms as possible. Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to fall asleep on a chilly (-20 degree) winters night to the crackling of a fire? Or soothing your aching bones in a hot bathtub lit by fireplace instead of candles? I know one thing for sure, when I build my dream kitchen, it will have a fabulous fire place, natch. Even better, it would ideally connect to the outside to double as an oven for my outdoor kitchen, too.
One of my relatives has a beautiful home in California with a fire place in their kitchen. As an added bonus, where a kitchen table should be, instead there are two, gigantic, über comfortable armchairs (similar to the kitchen above), a feature that I'm sure to incorporate into my future home. I think it's a very inviting idea, to help bring guests and loved ones into the kitchen to cook and spend time together. After a day like today, I can't think of anything better than being curled around a cup of Constant Comment, listening to the wood crackle while reading a book and waiting for my pot roast to be done. All while sitting in a big, comfy armchair in my kitchen, since, after all, it is my favorite room of the house.
God, I can't wait until it's Spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment