Feature presentation

You'd think that finally settling in would mean a mostly complete level of comfort regarding the house, but in many ways, it's still as if we just moved in this morning.

Here's a rundown of the features of the house that still make us feel like novice homeowners:

• Central air conditioning -- this has been the godsend I knew it would be, yet even that caused some confusion early on. As with furnace switches back home, central air also has a "mast" switch that took us a while to find. And we've yet to figure out the "auto" thermostat -- we just turn it on and off manually when we think it needs it.
  
• In-ground sprinkler system -- another case of turning it on when we need it, even though there is a date/time function that puts it on a schedule. It's also not as effective as we'd like. The lawn gets watered alright, but the circular reach of each sprinkler is such that the coverage doesn't overlap. So what we're left with are rings of discolored dry grass all over the lawn that make it look like a scene location for Mel Gibson's "Signs."
  
• Humidity control -- we haven't even bothered to touch this yet, and wouldn't know what to do with it if we did. Unless a manual turns up, we'll continue to leave it alone.
  
• Water conditioner -- every house we looked at outside of St. Paul had one of these, an obvious testament to the "hardness" of the local water. There's a knob at the top of our unit that indicates "service," so undoubtedly we'll either have someone look at it or explain it to us before the summer's over.
  
• Trash service -- this one actually took us by surprise, and is one that should produce a "wow, really?" from the folks back home. There's no municipal trash collection built in to the town service structure -- we have to contract with a service for a once-a-week pickup, one large bin only, with extra charges for extra trash.

If there is one feature of the house that can genuinely be described as both "cool" and useful at the same time, it's the laundry chute -- or, as the girls call it, the "dirty clothes hole." A little door in our bedroom wall leads to a zippable hanging bag in the downstairs hall, just outside the laundry room. Very handy, though sometimes we have to reach way up and loosen "clothes clogs."