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I signed up to write everyday on the topic "home."

I haven't felt at home for ten nearly ten years.

Two of the things that bother me most about our house, since I guess it's my house, too, are the leaking roof, and the front door that's falling apart.

In Utah an unruly, weedy lawn, is a sign to neighbors of moral weakness. Neighbors will be sure something's seriously wrong with you and your family if you down get out there and mow, prune, water, and preferably, weed.

We have a little front garden. One year I let wild grass grow there. It got to be several feet high, perhaps even four or five feet. It was the happy home to hundreds of grasshoppers. I sort of liked giving a home to grasshoppers in an urban environment. It made me feel like I was doing something good for nature. The neighbors didn't like it. I'm not very popular in Holland.

I guess you could say, our front door is sort of like a Utah lawn. It should have been painted six years ago. I was pregnant at the time. It still hasn't been painted, and now it's weathering away. I thought of finding some kind of vinyl covering to glue onto it, and I found out that you can cover your windows with insulating, transparent vinyl. So far, I haven't found anything of the kind that would seal up our door. The wood is so bad, it seems like a waste of time painting it.

Our roof should have been repaired around the same time.

I think I'll try to repair it myself.