A new place to live. The quest for the perfect apartment/ condo/ house/ townhouse non hovel structure where I could feel at home. The internet is only moderately helpful in this regard. I certainly looked at alot of pictures. I know the drill I had my list of priorities.
First were the things the place had to have, the non negotiable can't live withouts,
Next the would be nice to haves
then the please don't let it have this.
It still didn't really help, all the places were so different.
How do you compare a 1500 square foot townhouse in the city close to work with not a blade of grass in sight to a 1200 square foot house in a suburb with a tree, one tree and little bit of grass that's a longer commute.
We could save money by living even farther away from work, in a house that is really quite cute, but the neighborhood is iffy and I'd be afraid to walk outside after dark.
It is true that I could get use to living almost anywhere. I become oblivious to my surroundings in time and so in one way it doesn't really matter.
But .....my surroundings do affect me. Sometimes I have to fight with them, and it can take a lot of energy to make a bad place work.
So this quest is actually important.
As the time for action drew near and we decided to drive by a couple of the places and try and imagine what it would feel like to live there.
It didn't help much at first. My standards kept falling. I'd look at a place and say well it is a bit ratty but the house next door is nice and it does have a backyard.
Just looking at the outside of some of the places made me feel depressed. The neighborhoods were inconsistent. Driving down one street I felt the urge to press the door lock button then I'd turn the corner and see a house that was close to perfect. Lots of trees, a porch, big windows, pretty, actually pretty. None of the houses I admired were for rent of course.
Then we came to a condo, the second lowest form of living space on my list, but it was new and it was near a park, it was a bit far from work but the idea of living there made us feel wealthy. That was it.
That place was of course not available, that would have been too easy, but now we had a feeling to go by. That was the question I had to ask.
We did find a place on Saturday. We looked at lots of places, I would ask myself as we stepped inside, would I feel wealthy living here? Sometimes the answer was equivocal. Well I wouldn't feel poor. It would be okay, I could do it.
In the end we chose one that looks a bit like a resort hotel. It is an apartment, my lowest form of living space, it is not all that big, but it is new and we have a view of a lake and a balcony and many windows and it made us feel wealthy just to look at it.
I know this sounds like marketing ploy. But different things make different people feel wealthy. Of course I had to compromise, because of my partner.
My ideal home would be a grand tree house. If not that then maybe an old victorian house with lots of windows surrounded by trees. You get the picture - trees.
One of the places we saw had wonderful trees. It reminded me of camp. It was an apartment but it had a big balcony all along one side and the view was so peaceful. Unfortunately the carpet was old and it smelled, it looked like the three stooges did the painting and the kitchen was fit only for someone who's idea of cooking was take out. But the trees were amazing. I might have gone for it. The trees would have made up for the rest of the place, I think. My partner however, would have been ashamed to invite our friends over. That would not do. Also I was reminded that I cook.
Our next place will have trees.
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