The Geyser of Talos is a magical location in the far north of Cimmeria. The Geyser lies about a day’s journey west of the origin point of the Great Divide river which separates Cimmeria’s western and eastern halves.
When the Olympians moved to Cimmeria, Hephaestus was looking for a location to set up his new forge. Before finding his permanent home in Horror Peak he made a temporary work station for himself at the base of the Terror Mountains. Needing water to quench his red-hot iron, Hephaestus struck his hammer upon the ground and a geyser shot up. Since the smith god vacated the area, the Geyser has dwindled, only erupting every few months. The water still retains the magical qualities imbued into it by its progenitor, making it useful for all manner of things. Continue reading →
While cleaning out one of the moving boxes I found an old list of stuff my wife and I made.
The list is of things we wanted in our house and the list was made before we started looking for our house.
So here it is!
1. Two storiesCheck!
We got this one! Bedrooms and office on the second story. Everything else on the bottom floor. 2. A block or more away from a main roadCheck!
The reason for this one was to let the cats go outside unsupervised without worrying about them being run over on a main road. 3. A two car garageCheck!
We won’t necessarily park both our cars in it (once we get another car), but its nice to have the option. 4. A big kitchen with a counterCheck!
Our old place had a tiny kitchen without an island counter. Getting a big place to make meals feels great! 5. A dining roomCheck!
The old apartment had a tiny little section for the dining table that wasn’t really its own room. Our new house doesn’t have a dining room either, but it has two large places where the table can go (we’re using one of them). 6. LaundryCheck!
We’ve got a washing machine and a dryer! No more lugging clothes 300 feet to the laundry building in our complex or hoarding quarters like they’re more valuable than gold. 7. A backyardCheck!
Yep! Got a real nice backyard that’s good for playing in with kids or for having meals during the summer. 8. A front yardSort of.
We have landscaping in the front but I wouldn’t really call it a yard. Too many bushes and things. We could change it to have a yard though! 9. Solar panelsCheck!
The solar panels are sort of leased through a company. We don’t own the solar panels. A company does and they sell us the electricity they produce for about the same amount that PG&E charges. We then get reimbursed from PG&E for any excess electricity the panels produce. Odd way of doing it, but we are contributing to renewable energy with the panels! 10. Hardwood floorsSort of. I’m allergic to dust which crops up in carpeted floors. Hardwood doesn’t collect dust the same way. We’ve got carpet on the second floor, but the bottom floor is tiled. That’s good enough for me. 11. Dance studioSort of. Not really present in the house. Instead we have a big mirror in the entrance hallway to the house that serves pretty much the same purpose. There’s plenty of space to dance there with a mirror to look at yourself even if it isn’t an official dance studio. 12. An officeCheck!
Yep! Writing this post in the office right now. 13. A big bath tub attached to the master bathroomNo.
Can’t have everything. 14. A poolNo.
We didn’t get this one either, but that was a conscious choice. We looked at a house with a pool and it took up most of the backyard which we also wanted. Plus, the maintenance on a pool is pretty expensive. 15. Painted blue with white trimNo.
We like the colors, but it isn’t blue with white trim. We could still repaint the house in the future. 16. A big tree for a swing or a tree houseCheck!
The treehouse is actually a playhouse, but its basically what I wanted. All good! 17. A better HVAC system than our apartmentCheck!
Our old apartment had wall AC units and a heater that didn’t work (heater wasn’t that big an issue in Davis). One of the rooms never got AC. The new house has central heating and AC that both work great. We’ve also got a whole house fan which is a much more energy efficient method for cooling the house at night. 18. A fireplaceCheck!
Got a fireplace in the back living room. We haven’t used it yet but we probably will sometime next winter. 19. Big bedroom closetsCheck!
The closets aren’t as big as the walk-in one at the old apartment, but they’re still big enough for us.
20. Close to where my wife worksSort of.
The house is about a mile and a half from the school where my wife works, so not as close as we originally wanted. This ended up being a good thing as my wife wanted to avoid seeing her students outside of school. Just a little tough to always have to be “on” as a teacher at the grocery store. We live in a different neighborhood than the school so none of the kids are around here. 21. Space for a gardenCheck!
There aren’t any planter boxes yet, but we’ll get some.
And that’s it! We got most of the stuff that we wanted and it feels pretty good.