HOMES, LIKE PEOPLE COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES;

So now I'm wondering: does the fact that I don't live in a dome house make me square? Is it true, as happy dome residents claim, that one can't live a well-rounded life in a square house?

I hope not because my house is so square the building style is called American Four Square.

Some Four-Square houses were sold as house-kits by nationwide retailers in the first part of the 1900s.

Among the characteristics are four rooms on each level, relatively small windows and a variety of very plain styles, with some having a Victorian-bent, others being more craftsman-like, but most being just, um, plain.

That's where mine comes in. Not a shred of fancy wood in sight, and what was once there fell victim to a close encounter with a true '80s remodeling job, complete with recessed fluorescent lights in the kitchen and huge windows that don't open.

How can any sane person put a window in a house that doesn't open?

A friend suggested stripping moldings to expose the real wood. Well, great idea, but it's pine. And what's not pine was purchased at a home improvement store less than 25 years ago.

So here's another vote for high-gloss white paint.

I guess which house you like says a lot about you, along the lines of how people tend to look like their dogs and vice versa.

Before signing the papers on my drafty mansion, I had looked at lots of houses. Lots. There was the one that had swinging bar doors between the master bedroom and the master bath. Not much privacy there, if you know what I'm saying.

There was the other one where the washer was draining into a hole in the basement floor. I guess that seemed like a good idea at the time when someone took a hammer to the concrete floor.

I looked at new houses and old ones, tall ones and low ones, flat ones and spiky ones.

Yet ultimately it was the four-square I fell for - solid, sturdy and not a lot of fuss. And now I'm sitting here hoping those aren't words my friends use to describe me. It's not like I'm not adventurous: I once visited a couple who lived in an old windmill. What do I remember most about the visit? That I fell face-first into a patch of the Danish equivalent of poison ivy.

Outside of the box in this edition of Home we feature a VW Bug revived as a giant planter on page 5 and on page 4, Cheryl-Anne Millsap writes of having successful garage sales. Pat Munts tells how to clean up after Mother Nature's storm.

Next week, we're on to Bonsai trees and interesting old things people use to decorate their yards.

Pia K. Hansen

Home Editor

piah@spokesman.com

(509) 459-5427

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