And now for something completely different...

I woke up to about two or three inches of new snow on the ground this morning. I was happy to see it. We've got a couple more inches coming down tonight, and the next storm may hit us on Wednesday of next week. Out here on the East Coast, we don't get the kind of crazy snow they get in the Northern Mid-West of the country, but it's enough to please me.

I live in a bi-level. Bi-levels are commonly called "raised ranches", but they aren't actually a genuine raised ranch. A ranch is a simple house design that clusters the kitchen, living room, and dining room close together at one end of the house and extends the bedrooms down a hallway in the other half. A raised ranch is one in which the front door leads to a full staircase, with the kitchen/living/dining area and master bedroom upstairs. Ground floor is usually made up of a den, possibly another bedroom, and sometimes garage space. A bi-level is half-and-half, with the door opening into a very small landing with half a staircase leading up to the kitchen/living/dining/bedrooms and the other half leading down into a floor that is halfway below-grade, usually with full or nearly-full windows that hover only a few inches off the ground outside.

If architecture of houses interest you half as much as it interests me, here's a link to an explanation of the bi-level. It's really a pretty common house type in my area, if you own a house that was built less than 50 years ago.

The link explains that some bi-levels are luxury, but most are 1,000-1,500sqft cozy homes that make the most of their space. Mine would fall into the latter category. The bedrooms are quite small (compared to older Colonials or Victorians, and compared to modern non-ranch homes). It suits me, though deep in my heart I still favor the Colonials and Victorians for their vintage flair.

I'm in a fairly rural area. Well, it depends on your definition of rural. People who live where the nearest town is 50-100 miles away and the nearest neighbor is 3 miles away think I'm positively urban. People who live within 5 miles of the grocery store and 1 mile of the gas station on a half-acre lot think I'm practically a forest creature. My own home sits on four acres of very beautiful Southern New England woodlands with wetlands adjoining.

So when I see snow outside my bedroom window, I see it lining every intricate branch of the multitude of trees outside. And that's just the way I like it.