When we took possession of our new house it felt like we were stepping into someone else’s life. We were leaving behind an older two bedroom apartment close to the main thoroughfare of the city. We lived pretty modestly, sharing laundry facilities with the building, storing our bikes in the common area in the basement and limiting the number of monthly expenses we incurred (like cablevision).

This looked like it might change when we moved. Our new house had a built in alarm system, satellite TV and a phone in every room. In addition to a (front loading) washer and dryer, the house came with a dishwasher, gas stove, fridge with an ice maker(!) and other modern amenities. While not having to guard the washing was a welcome change, I personally felt that I had lived my entire life without a dishwasher and didn’t really need to start using one. Of course, we very quickly got used to the dishwasher.

Perhaps the biggest change was the jacuzzi style bathtub. Now while I had never really wanted a jacuzzi, having one in the house felt silly. My first thought was ‘how much energy would this thing take’? Still, I found myself showing off this luxury when giving tours of the house.

Now that we have lived there for almost a year, I can report that while I still have regular baths, I have used the jacuzzi no more than five times. We have also stopped subscribing to the satellite TV and we do not use the fireplace. I am happy to report that we use more than just two bedrooms in our house though, but it has taken us a while to figure out what to do with the excess space.I hope we don’t end up like our friends and use the extra space to stash stuff from CostCo.

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