WARNING, WARNING, WARNING: the following is a rant. I originally started this as the post title says: Doors, Drawers, and More but as it was being written the soapbox started, then flowed, then gushed. Now with the flood resided I have decided the rant needs its own post so as not to deter from the actual post itself. Read at your own risk. You have been warned.

Fashion is for fools, trendy is tricky, and what’s popular today will fade tomorrow. Case in point: barb wire arm tats and trap stamps. Sure, sure some fashion trends come and go and come again and are okay upon their return. Take the high wasted jeans currently back in fashion and were popular when most of the current teens wearing them now had grandmothers who were wearing them as teens or young adults the first time around. The new high wasted jeans are a little better than those of the 70’s but not by much. Some fashions come and go and upon their return bring with them years worth of hidden dread. Those few unfortunate fools who had mullets in the 90s whose kids now think they need mullets, too. And when these sad souls produce those well hidden, gawd awful family photos to warn their precious children of the damage a mullet can leave behind are then informed by their little diva offspring who practicing the patience of Gandhi to inform you sad adult that the new mullets are modernized, cool. Not country singer tacky. Sure, sure, you say. Happy mulletting, you say. All the while thinking, Nope., mullets bad. Then, now, and forever in the future.

Some may look at my dwelling or read this blog and think I am cliche. That I am designing a modern house with fashionable trends. The biggest fashion trend, of course, being a house built from shipping containers. It’s all the rave. “Did you know there is a coffee shop on the island built entirely from shipping containers. Did you know they are standing up straight and at odd angles. Did you know? Have you seen it with all of its oddity? Did ya? Have ya?” Yes, I have heard of it. No, I haven’t seen it. If you have seen one shipping container conversion you have seen them all. No, we are not that cool and didn’t think of building out of containers first. No, we are not following a trend, we are trying to be practical against hurricanes. Our boxes survived the first one, hopefully, they will survive a second one.

To those people, those few who have come over and those even fewer who are actually reading this blog, who think I am cliche. Why? Because we are building out of shipping containers? Again, hurricanes. Because we collect rain water instead of paying the $60K to bring city water to us? Have you forgotten this whole thing started with wanting a simple well like everyone else in the county? Because we plan to have solar panels and be off the grid? Have you forgotten about the Great Freeze two years ago and how the great state of Texas and all of its great people in charge (those that didn’t fly off to warm beautiful islands with their family) handled a simple three day bad weather situation? So, if not these, then why am I cliche?

I am the least fashionable person ever. Well not ever as I am married to the Planner with his Homer Simpson closet. Trendy items that last longer than a trend usually end up being incorporated into my possession but years after the craze. Case in point, the Yeti. Everybody who is anybody had a Yeti cooler. They would gasp at the cost while simultaneously showing off their new toy. Oh the joys when a much more economical cup came into play almost 10 years later. This allowed almost everyone the chance to be part of the trend as the cups were only $30-40 instead of several hundreds for a cooler. By the time I was given my first Yeti knock off cup in 2018 the trendy aluminum cups were old news. Everybody had one or ten cups from various brands in various sizes and colors. Do I own a Yeti cup as of 2023? No, but the Kid was given a travel bottle from a sailing event. I do own, however, five or six various knock of versions of which all were purchased with exception to the first one. Living in hot temperatures 90% of the year having ice cold water is a must and these cups do exactly that. Keep my ice cold water cold. And think of all the styrofoam cups I have saved from the environment. Hundreds! If not thousands. Now if I could just get my local fast food joint to allow me the usage of my reusable cup that they sell in their own store and is labeled with their fast food logo, I would save even more trash from the environment. I have tried all the tactics. It’s their brand, it clean, I am saving them money by not giving me a cup, refills are allowed in the store this is the same concept but in aluminum not world killing plastic. Nothing.

Anyway, I digress. BIF is not trendy or fashionable or fashionably trendy. We just are. Over the next few months as the dwelling becomes more than framework and spray foam, some will wonder as to my material choices, my design ideas. Tongue and groove and bead boards are just the start. Tongue and groove ceiling because its warm and inviting and I won’t worry about it cracking in the next hurricane. Bead board wall because it is not tile like those bathrooms and kitchens of my youth, because it too won’t crack in the next hurricane, because I can paint it any color I want as many times as I want, because it makes the pantry and bathroom seem less institutional. I am a practical person who wants a practical home in which I can bake and cook, clean and live without concern for delicate, impractical purchases. I want the house of my youth, a house where the kitchen table prepped meals, held and collected end of day crap, provided enough room to complete monthly bills and spread out homework projects, was sturdy enough to stand on in order to dust the ceiling fan and replace lights, oh and occasionally ate dinner on. The house of my youth were floors were durable enough to rearrange furniture several times a year to accommodate the weather without worry the floor with scratch, where skates were allowed if walking not rolling (yesh, we weren’t savages, there were rules), where the floor was solid 3/4″ real wood planks requiring yearly waxing but was warm, inviting, forgiving, and made the entire home. I want a home where everything has a solid purpose and is not some trendy fashion that will fade leaving regret. Remember that when reading the next upcoming posts. Practical, not trendy, Functional, not fashionable.