A few years ago, J and I briefly toyed with the idea of purchasing a house. I have literally no idea how it happened, but one day, we were like, "Grown-ups ... buy ... houses. Yes? Right?" and the next day we were halfheartedly strolling through a series of homes. One had a purported "wine cellar" that, to us, looked much more like a lair in which a young lady might be urged to apply lotion on her skin, lest she get the hose again. There was no wine. NO WINE AT ALL. Only fear and mildew.
The worst (by which I mean "best") house was one that we dubbed Vagina House, due to the pink-hued bedroom of one of its inhabitants, decorated entirely in sketches, paintings and posters of lady business, and images of or related to the lady business milieu. Vagina House was and will forever be the yardstick whereby we measure any and all future prospective real estate purchases. "Well," we might say to each other, somewhere down the road, "this is bad and all, but it's no Vagina House," or alternately, "HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, IT'S WORSE THAN VAGINA HOUSE. FLEE! FLEEEEE!!"
As you may have guessed, we quickly (like, in less than a week) abandoned our harebrained house-buying idea. We own a nice (if seemingly ever-shrinking and possibly haunted) apartment, we love our neighborhood, friends, kids' friends, and respective commutes, and so we figured we'd stay put for the foreseeable future. And as I sat here earlier tonight, watching J pack up for a business trip, I am even GLADDER that we didn't pursue Operation: Get House, House the Word for "Home," Not Scruffy Oddly Hot Persnickety Doctor But While We're on the Subject, MMMM.
(It's a long but necessary title, you see. For clarity.)
Every time he goes out of town -- EVERY TIME -- I set up ridiculous booby traps and sleep with one of his golf clubs at my side to fend off...the copious men who have plotted to rappel up to our 9th-floor dwelling? Tiger Woods? I don't even know. The point is, deep down, I figure that the kids and I are relatively safe in this building, and I CANNOT IMAGINE the mental energy I'd be expending on Potential Danger Scenarios if we lived in an actual house, unprotected by height and burly doormen. Thanks to the cumulative effects of numerous films on my impressionable mind, there is not a house genre out there that isn't fraught with some sort of intruder-related peril. Observe:
Farmhouse - Zombies. Murdersheep. Children of the corn. Cornfields in general. (See: The Lovely Bones, Signs, Food, Inc.. )
Lakehouse/cabin - Swamp Things. Deliverance people. Jason Voorhees. Keanu Reeves. Bears. Deer. (Well, that last one is really my husband's archnemesis. He's CONVINCED they're all going to fling themselves bodily in the direction of our car when we drive on country roads in the summer. Like they're just lying in wait for our specific car. OKAY, J.)
Beach house - Landsharks. Megasharks. Possibly Giant Octopus.
Regular, brightly-lit house on suburban street - Amityville-type horrors, and THIS, basically:
Now, granted, the Broadview commercials have been phenomenally and hilariously mocked by Target Women (I love you, Sarah Haskins!)...
and SNL, this week...
...but I still can't wrap my head around getting over the thought of The Homicidal Crowbar-Wielding Intruders that apparently just lie in wait for you, not unlike the deer of my husband's nightmares. I have to know: how do you people with houses do it? Does there come a point where you shrug off these thoughts (you know, assuming that you, like me, ever had them in the first place. Ha...ha?), and embrace things like logic and reason and sanity? Or...should we just commit to a lifetime of apartment living now?
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56 comments:
For me it's locking every window and door in the house. Then triple checking that everything is locked. That goes up even more after watching Americas Most Wanted and they tell me the suspect could be hiding out in Oklahoma, Wisconsin or TEXAS! I automatically assume that he's the guy that no one ever sees that lives down the road from us.
I may also turn on every light on while walking through the house so I never actually have to walk in the dark.
That's me exactly! And I live in a house! We got a dog...
I don't think he would protect me but he barks at everything so atleast I will have those few extra seconds to escape.
We have an alarm. I wanted motion sensors on all our windows and the guy looked at me like I was crazy.
"You have a dog" he said. "The criminal will run through the house looking for things he can take and he will set off the motion sensor running through the living room" And I said to him, "But what if he comes in through the bedroom to kill me?"
Anyways...people like us...we never get used to it.
I honestly don't think I could ever live in a one story house, ever again. Not that an intruder couldn't just WALK UP THE STAIRS, but at least I feel safer upstairs. For this reason, I will never sleep on the couch. I am not going to be the first thing the breaker-inner encounters. I also rely on our tiny dog to alert us to any intruders, even though he offers no real protection
The last time my husband went out of town I made the mistake of watching three episodes of Criminal Minds before taking the dog out. I made it around the block without tweaking, but when I was walking back to my house through the alley and a car pulled in behind me and drove slowly (so as not to hit me, which was nice of him/her, but of course I thought he/she was going to KILL ME AND CUT ME UP IN LITTLE PIECES AND OH MY GOD, DEREK MORGAN, SAVE ME) I completely lost it.
Moral of the story, if I have a normal night in which I don't watch tv about serial killers, I'm fine, but if the dog start barking and I go downstairs and the dog & cats are all staring out the same window and then our motion sensor light goes on, I miss apartment living and burly security guards, a lot.
I have no earthly idea how people who live in actual houses sleep at night. I spent the last week at my mom's house and it is so much scarier than my (admittedly tiny, studio) apartment. There are so many rooms! And I cannot see what is happening in those rooms! And the idea that someone could be standing right outside the window, at night...forget it. I will keep my sixth-floor shoebox for now.
Oh my gosh! I am laughing so hard. My husband travels quite a bit, and I am often alone in a big 'ol house with three kids. We have an alarm system that I pretty much want to make out with on a daily basis.
And yet still, I make the mistake of watching Dateline before I go to bed. Then I run upstairs certain that someone is hiding somewhere in the house waiting to attack. It takes me forever to fall asleep. I lie in bed and wonder what pictures they will use when they run my true crime story on Dateline and which of my friends they will interview about what a great mom I was.
So to answer your question, this homeowner does not sleep much when her husband is away.
I am totally the kind of person that assumes there is someone outside my window creepily watching me at all times. At night if I need to get a glass of water from the kitchen I will stare menacingly toward the windows, because that intimidates the bad guys and keeps them from shooting me. Of course, I have to run back to my room as fast as I can because once my back is turned, all bets are off.
Until I just recently pulled the double-whammy of The Orphan and Paranormal Activity, our house has seemed quite benign...
Now? The dark-headed neighbor-child is surely out to kill us (and is potentially no child at all but actually a psycho Russian hooker with a genetic disorder)... which really doesn't matter all that much since a demon is probably hanging out in our closet, plotting its imminent inhabitance of my body.
My Netflix privileges have officially been revoked until further notice.
How do we have the same taste in movies??? Black Sheep and Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus? LOVE THEM BOTH! :)
I think some of this has to be related to living in New York - you get in a specific mindset about houses. When you've only lived in houses, they seem pretty innocuous. Of course, I'm one of the evil men, so maybe this is all a ploy to get women worldwide to use their computer or a treadmill in their house without using Broadview Security.
Nope. It never goes away.
Just last week my husband was working late. And the kids were upstairs in bed. And I was sitting in the living room watching a riveting episode of OC Housewives.
I SWORE I heard a sound. In the basement.
And within about 2 minutes, I'd completely convinced myself that there was a murderous freak trying to get in and kill us all. Oh, the nightmare I built in my head.
And after about ten minutes of sitting in my chair, completely freaking out, I realized that the horrific sound was not, in fact, a murderous freak. It was, instead, the dryer. Which I'd turned on myself a half hour before.
Oh, this is so funny. I guess because it's totally about one's perspective. I grew up in a small town in a house and that's where I am today. My husband is out of town an average of 15 days a month and I never even think about it. I do always make sure the door into the garage is locked as that freaks me out a little but other than that, it's no big deal. Until my father passed away last year, the front door to my parent's house was never even locked.
Now, when I lived in a gated apartment complex in Atlanta, I was terrified all the time. You had to have a code to even get into the parking area and I was still freaked out. The thought of a small apartment with only 1 main exit that only goes to a hallway or something is just horrible to me. Do you have an emergency escape plan if someone busts in your front door? I don't mind living in a big house but I also know if somone comes through the door, I can get out another way without much trouble at all.
My biggest thing is to know the neighbors. That way, if I have to crawl out of the bedroom window in the middle of the night, I have a place to go. We also have a doberman. While he's a sweet dog, he looks mean. That way, when A.J. looks in my windows, he'll see a scary looking dog and run away.
Haaahaaa. Until recently my husband and I lived in an apt on the 6th floor and I still didn't like it when he was away. Now we live in a house and I have to lecture myself about putting on my big girl pants and deal with it when he goes away. When he's away I sleep with the phone right beside the bed...so that..when a murder clown comes to get me, I can scare him with..the phone? Obviously my big girl pants need some adjustment.
I can add another one for beach houses...most are old with the wimpiest locks. An intruder could literally blow on the door and it would open wide for their murderous enjoyment. AHHHHHHHH!
(Although, MEGASHARKS. I'm skeered.)
This is how I sleep at night:
http://prettybabies.blogspot.com/2007/07/i-love-this-dog.html
(We also have really good neighbors, and we all look after each other).
The thought of what you paid for said house and ongoing maintenance costs is much scarier than all of those listed above (see The Money Pit, 1986).
We sleep soundly knowing that all our neighbors are living the same nightmare.
Ok, here's what's AWESOME. We bought a house waaay out in the suburbs. Like, we have neighbors nearby, but not, like, sharing a wall or anything. And then, my husband gets a job that requires him to be gone many nights out of the week. AWESOME. So yes, we have an alarm system and two dogs, and there is a baseball bat under the bed. And also, I sleep with my phone next to the bed. The first few nights, it bothered me, but now it's totally fine.
Then again, I don't live in NYC. We're more likely to have, like, a random armadillo than a cat burglar.
Our last house we lived in was previously owned by a drug dealer. We were in suburbia! Not a bad neighborhood! Two throws from a TARGET! But, this particular drug dealer did not tell his customers he was moving (he didn't read my moving announcement round-up last week, obviously) so when people began showing up at our house at all hours, TRYING TO GET IN FORCEFULLY, I decided right there and then that the one and only Republican belief I can get behind is the right to bear arms. You break into my home looking for "Dan" and also some crack, and refuse to leave because you don't believe he's not there even though we're all "LOOK AROUND, STRANGE CRAZY MAN. DOES THIS LOOK LIKE DAN'S STUFF?" I'm going to shoot you. Or at least have something that threatens shooting you.
I live in my parents' large home with my husband and baby while they live abroad. I get scared quite often, even when my husband was home. But when my dad was visiting (in his own home?) I didn't get skittish once. What is that about?
In an apartment they could simply COME THROUGH THE WALL. Since they're paper thin anyway, right???
I sleep in my house just fine, unless I've just watched Ghost Hunters. Then every car light is a ghostly orb.
Oh, I read all the comments left before mine and had to LAUGH. :) Y'all have NO IDEA what true horror is. Let me set it up for you:
We live in the country. No, not suburbia-pretending-to-be-country-but-really-it's-not. Nope, we're out where there are no sidewalks. And no Targets. And the nearest supermarket is 30 minutes away. (Scared yet? Heh heh heh.)
We live in a 1-story house on 18 acres of woods. That means that when you pull into our driveway at night...in the dark...all by yourself...there are no neighbors. Not even within screaming distance. Turn off the lights, and it's pitch black out.
Add to that the fact that we get all sorts of wild creatures coming 'round (including bears, who regularly raid our bird feeder, and coyotes), and you get a potentially nerve-wracking scenario. Thing is, I feel safer on my 18 neighbor-less acres than I do anywhere else. I figure, who's gonna come way the hell out here to attack me? I mean, shit, just walking up the driveway'll exhaust a person.
And no, we don't have an alarm system. Or a dog. And my husband comes home late several nights a month.
So who wants to come visit? :)
If you've ever seen my Tweets when Matthew's out of town, then you know that I am EXACTLY like you. It's better now that my brother lives with us, but if he's not there, I'm a WRECK.
We live out in the middle of nowhere, which means NOBODY CLOSE BY TO SAVE ME.
But what if someone who lives in your building wants to get you? WHAT THEN?
I've been known to throw open the shower curtain to make sure no one is lurking in there before I can go to the bathroom. Ensuring that if, in fact, there was someone there, I would most definitely pee my pants.
Umm, so yeah, now that live in a house, I don't really sleep (at least not past when my husband leaves for work. At 5:45 AM.)
Other than the fact that we live a mile away from a prison (OMFG), I'm not sure why I feel so unsafe.
Maybe it's because there are FOUR doors, giving the burglars more options for breaking in...
Maybe it's that I don't have chain-smoking next-door neighbors who are always outside deterring would-be rapists and the like...
I don't know! But I seriously don't sleep anymore, EVEN WITH a gun under the bed (not kidding.)
A little from Column A, a little from Column B. When my husband is out of town, I do run through various scenarios in my head of what I would do if someone broke in. How do I get myself and the dogs and cat (and now baby) out of the house? How do I get to and load and shoot our shotgun? Then I just put it out of my mind. Try to turn on the TV or radio to get rid of that eerie silence. I grew up in houses, and I still have those crazy thoughts. :)
You know, I know those commercials are utterly ridiculous, but they still freak the crap out of me! Like the guy that comes to your party? and then breaks in? THAT COULD HAPPEN!
So this is why I live on the 3rd floor and refused to even LOOK at first floor condos. I would never sleep again.
(We are in the whitest, most conservative suburb in America, FYI) We lived on the 10th floor of our apartment building for 5 years. Then we moved down to the 4th floor. Now? We're renting a SINGLE STORY HOUSE.
I. . .I have no idea how or why I'm okay with this but I am. Now that the weather is nice I was lamenting to Bryan that we can't sleep with our windows open any more and he was all "Why?" I recoiled and was all "Um, THE KILLERS OBVS." This was his reasoning as to why it's okay:
1. If someone wanted to kill us or break in, I doubt an open window would be the only way they'd try. If they were determined, they'd get in regardless.
2. We have a super small house that matches a lot of others in the neighborhood. Why pick ours? We are also next to a McMansion which should entice Them instead.
3. Our town isn't brimming with night-visioned commandos. In fact the biggest police blotter story is typically a stolen bike. (True story)
So yeah, when I get worked up he makes me feel better. Plus all our neighbors surrounding our house have dogs that bark at the drop of a hat AND have motion sensor lights. I think we're good.
("And that's the last we ever heard from her again. Funny, that."
I sometimes entertain fantasies of living in the country, no people around, just peace and quiet and nature. But I'm convinced that the country is LITTERED with serial killers. I am not at all afraid of cities with their muggers and burglars and gun-toting criminals. I'm afraid of bored, isolated people with access to axes.
I go to a lake in upstate PA every year with my family and it's really not isolated. However, every night, I eye the bushes and trees with suppressed terror.
Hee - I LOVE all the comments. It's nice to know I'm not alone in my crazy irrational fears.
I've lived in some creepy places in the past where my fear was definitely valid, but now it's just nuts. I live in a quiet, safe neighborhood in the basement of a house. My landlords live upstairs and are rarely gone, and there's a dog next door that's very protective and will bark at any strangers.
I have absolutely NO reason to be afraid, yet every night I have to follow my special ritual of locking the doors, checking under the bed (yes, I STILL have to do that. I am so pathetic), and looking in all the big closets. It's pretty ridiculous.
I am a homeowner, and the simple answer to "how do you sleep" boils down to ONE SINGLE THING.
Do not ever, under any circumstances, watch Criminal Minds when your husband is out of town.
Trust me on this, because I know from experience.
Oh, and also, don't sleep on the first floor. OBVS.
So funny because we are hating the burbs and want to abandon the house to move closer in to the city. How do we do it:
1.) A dog
2.) deadbolts
3.) vodka
Every time my husband leaves on a trip I wish to all that is holy that we lived in an upper floor apartment. Instead I basically cower in fear in our first floor bedroom (which oh my god NEVER get a first floor bedroom if you can help it at all) sleeplessly all night long. Of course I keep the TV on because the intruder will hear it and see the light flicker and know that he can't surprise me, by god I'm AWAKE and I have the big kitchen knife under my pillow!! I kid you not.
And mind you we live in a neighborhood where if I reach out my window hard enough I could probably touch the house next door. This provides no comfort.
9 floors up with a doorman sounds like nothing short of heaven to me, I would never move!!
At least you own something. We still rent, and probably will forever.
We were ready to buy a house too. But, we live in a really expensive city. So, now we have realized we may never own, and we are (I think) okay with that. It's a bit overrated, especially if you're urban and especially in this economy.
On another note, if you're in a good neighborhood, STAY. We're getting forced out of our awesome neighborhood because of rent prices, and it sucks.
Oh, this made me laugh... and nod, because I HATE it!
We have a 100ish year old farmhouse (actually, it was a convent at one point) with a creepy-ass basement. We are 1 of 3 homes on our road.
I don't sleep when my husband isn't home. And we're currently looking for guns (I mean researching to buy, not looking for them as in expecting someone to drop it in the street).
Ok here is my ritual when my boyfriend is out of town.
Turn on ALL the lights and check EVERY closet, cabinet, shower, curtain, under bed, basically anywhere a really small murdered could hide. As I check a room I turn off the lights. Then I run up the stairs and turn on the alarm with motion sensors that's downstairs and I check all the closets upstairs. Then I figure they'll set off the motion detector if they break in and try to go up the stairs, so I sleep peacefully.
I have a small squirt gun I use to "discourage" my cats from getting into things they are not supposed to. When I come home alone, I carry it and search the house, opening every door SWAT style and brandishing my terrifying weapon. As if it couldn't get more ridiculous, my two cats trail behind me, peeking out... serious back up, huh? My great hope is that, in lieu of being temporarily blinded with the tepid water in my super soaker, the murderer will be laughing so hard we can all run away. :) And somehow, I feel better after my security sweep and sleep pretty well... with the tv on, of course, to drown out the noise of the other murderers breaking into my basement. Luckily my husband travels very infrequently -- the water bill alone would get ridiculous.
Forget Criminal Minds, try watching I Survived on Bio channel and then go to sleep. Those are all TRUE STORIES. We just moved into our current house in Dec and my (military) husband has been gone twice. The first night he was gone on both trips I barely slept. He's about to deploy so I better get used to it. I deadbolt all doors, make sure windows are locked, blinds closed, curtains closed over windows so no one can see in, and I turn on all the outside lights. I feel better sleeping with the tv on, but then I'm afraid I won't hear if someone comes in. I also sleep with the phone in bed with me, so 911 can get there after the serial killer attacks me. I also have an alarm I set, but I'm not sure why. TRUE STORY: a girl I went to high school went on vacation and came home to find all her electronics stolen. Turns out that if your phone lines are cut before the person breaks in, the alarm is useless. AWESOME.
when we started dating, Mr. A was promptly told to NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES come into the bathroom while I was washing my face. That's my big scary murder scenario fear. Dry your face and discover A KILLER!
YES. I was so bummed when Sarah H. left InfoMania. She should really be better-known than she is.
How do I sleep? I'm careful about locking up. I know how unlikely a break-in is. Related: I live in Oklahoma City. Most importantly, I have two friendly but LOUD dogs who can't let a butterfly pass the house without LETTING ME KNOW ABOUT IT. I think the dogs are the key, because if somebody wants in, they want in, but they're a lot less likely to want in if they hear wigging on the other side of the door/window.
Also, I rarely watch scary movies, even more rarely at night and alone.
In all seriousness, J. may be bigger, but if somebody were determined to get in at you, with your children in danger, you'd be just as formidable, all foaming at the mouth and stuff. Mama grizzly, etc.
We live in small town USA; with basically non existent crime (unless you can't the meth house, which EVERYONE in town knows which house it is and that in itself cracks me up). We also live on a dead end street with 5 houses. When my husband is away, all the doors are locked, triple checked and then checked again. We have 2 dogs, both who have rather scary barks. I sleep with my bedroom door locked, the house phone beside me, my cell phone under the pillow (you know, in case they cut the phone line), the TV on (because everyone knows that intruders will NOT come in a room while the TV is on, of course), and my baton (as in majorette twirling) by my side, it is the weapon of choice and for some reason the only freaking thing I can find even though I haven't twirled in over 10 years. I also repeat to myself, "I'm a mommy, I can no longer be afraid" about 8,000 times. And yet, I still sleep very little when he's gone.
It has gotten better, but I doubt it will ever go away; my imagination is way to great for that. Also, I never watch a remotely scary movie...or preview for the matter, which makes the whole thing even that more pathetic.
Ok, that room is actually dusty blush and I spent a long time picking out those etchings (sketches are an entirely different medium). Does that mean I shouldn't expect you guys back for another walk-through?
I am so there on this one. I basically do not sleep until the sun starts to come up when my husband is out of town. In my old house my trick was to leave the hallway lights on so I could get down and peer under my doors to make sure I didn't see feet/shadows before I unlocked and left my bedroom. Our new house has no doors (BAD IDEA) to the rooms upstairs and I basically freak out constantly. I leave the baby monitor on upstairs when we leave so that we can maybe hear the burglar/killers chatting when we get home and be able to flee. My husband has to listen to my checklist of all the doors/windows that he has double-checked before I can go to sleep. Of course last week we double-checked that the front door was locked but did not find out until the next morning that it was locked but our keys were still in the door, on the outide, facing the street. My husband was happy no one stole our car. I am convinced that someone took our keys, made a copy, replaced them in our door and is lulling us into a false sense of security...
we have a friend who is a criminal lawyer who tells us that house invasions are way down as electronics are too cheap. unfortunately, pickpocketing is up but that doesnt scare me half as bad. im holding onto that morsel of wisdom with both hands.
Well, I may not have an intruder phobia (well, maybe a little latent one), but I have weather phobia. I wish I were kidding. I grew up in the Rocky Mountains, where the worst earth-related thing we fear is an earthquake. That's bad, I realize, but we also have really strict building codes in this neck of the woods. An earthquake here would certainly be more akin to the Chile earthquake than the Haiti one, if you know what I mean.
The point is, we don't have tornados. No hurricanes. No ice storms, no dense fog, no crazy blizzards. We get lovely, powdery snow, perfect for skiing. And if you've grown up with that and learned to drive in it, it's really no big thing.
Then three years ago we moved to South Carolina, and the Weather Paranoia set in. No exaggeration, while we lived there, I had nightmares at least once a week, either about being flooded by a hurricane and my little family being washed out to sea, or about a tornado ominously approaching our house and not being able to move far enough, fast enough. Probably not common knowledge, but there were lots of tornados in South Carolina.
So either I developed a mid-life weather phobia or it's a geographical affliction, right? As it turns out, it's the latter. Because we have since moved back to Utah, and guess what? I haven't had a single tornado or hurricane nightmare since. Now it's back to nightmares about seeing my ex, who still lives here (that's a whole other story). So obviously my subconscious is keenly aware of my geographical location even when I'm asleep.
I guess if I were to tie this back in to your post, I would say: maybe move someplace with no, uh, people? And then you won't be afraid? Ha ha.
Oh wait! I do have helpful advice! One of my best friends in South Carolina was a married woman who didn't have any children yet. Her husband was an Air Force pilot, so he was gone often. Not only on deployments (went to Iraq twice) but his normal, everday work usually involved overnight trips. My friend was what you might call wimpy about that stuff, so he bought her a dog, a boxer. I know they don't have a great reputation, but if they're well trained, wow. That dog was as sweet and gentle as could be with our two year old, but if a stranger came to the door, watch out. He was fierce. But would immediately respond to his owners' commands to stand down. So I would say between a well trained guard dog and a security system, you could feel pretty darn safe in a house.
Sorry had to delete that comment, had a misspelling or two, or three.....
I will say that I felt the same way as you before I had two children. Actually still felt that way when I even had the children, until the day that I wanted five minutes alone and tried to hide. When I couldn't find an adequate spot where they couldn't find me in five minutes or less, I knew we needed to move or I was going to die of claustrophobia.
One day you will feel that way, and it will be more worthwhile to you than wondering about all of these scary things happening and also, get a kick ass motion detected pimped out alarm system and you should be all set.
Oh yeah, and don't let you husband travel and move to a really nice hood.
Sadie at heyMamas.
Every single reason you listed in this post is why I refuse to own/rent/live in a ground-floor apartment. (It's also the reason I will never be able to drive by a field of corn without being supremely freaked out/convinced my car is going to spontaneously die and Malachai is going to come walking out the corn with a scythe.)
I also totally have a crow-bar in my bedroom. Because, well, I've watched way too much Law & Order: SVU.
cause when you hear a noise your mind doesn't automatically go to "the fucking neighbor who plays their music sofucking loud it rattles the walls of my kids' rooms"- you can better assess danger.
Outdoor motion lights help.
There are times when I think "oh shit, if we got robbed and we scream- no one shares a wall with us, no one would hear us..." but grass and no noisy rude neighbors is nice too... :)
Delurking to say that I live all alone in a house in downtown Atlanta. I live next door to a half-way house for mental patients (for real), I've had two car break-ins, someone stole my doorknocker while I was at work, and someone stole a birdhouse off my front porch one day. I have no alarm system, no gun, and no baseball bats. I have an old cat. I'm 41-years-old and completely out of shape so I could never out run a bad guy if he was after me. I've had to call 911 because I had a guy lurking in my backyard one afternoon. And oddly enough, I'm not scared living there. After reading this post and the comments, I think I need to move in with the mental patients next door.
We have really thick curtains.
They cover every. damn. centimeter. of ever. single. window. in my house.
Cody however is a scared little girl. I will organize a "scare the shit out of Cody" day where I will pay someone to stand outside our back window in the dark, he will open it, die and I will get it all on camera.
It will be epic.
And then he'll leave my curtains alone.
So yeah.... scary as all hell living in a house when your husband goes away. This week, I used the "gee mom, not sure of the power's gonna go again, think we need to crash at your house tonight" to get us through it. But thanks for the videos....
We had some guys trying to break into our house while we were in it, and I chased them down the road in my pajamas, while my brave husband locked the doors behind me.
We now sleep with my softball bat under his side of the bed. I am not really sure what good THAT will do!
My 95 pound German Shepherd. If it weren't for him, I'd probably lose it when my hubby left town.
And this post totally reminded me of the house where I used to babysit. On a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. No curtains or shades, I was always afraid a crazy deranged lake-man would climb up the hill and press his face against those ginormous picture windows while I watched MTV Headbangers Ball. Seriously.
(first time here. how have I not been here before??!)
-elizabeth
hahaha I feel the same way! mu boyfriend and I live in a tiny apartment, yet when he is gone I have to do a full apartment search (under the bed, in the shower, in the closets) then I sleep with a baseball bat next to the bed and the hall light on. Cause obviously there is a bad guy who knows I am home alone right? in the morning I always think I was being crazy, but at night...look out. Perhaps I should tone down the Law and Order SVU/Criminal Minds watching?!
Every time my husband goes out of town I barely sleep at all. When we first moved into our current house we were the ONLY people that lived in the neighborhood AND there were wolves that still thought it was their territory.
When he goes out of town, I practice at the gun range before he leaves...
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