Today my writing prompt asked me what was most important to me, in choosing a house. Every time we move, I make a list of what we have to have at the new place, but the list is mostly about not wanting to miss things that were at the old place. I've never really asked myself what is important to me in a home.
So that's what I'm riffing on today.
I lived in Los Angeles for many years, and I moved constantly, trying to find a part of town that felt like home. The closest I came was the Pasadena area, but I eventually figured out that I was never going to feel at home in Los Angeles. So the first thing that is important to me in a home is that it has to be in the southeast. Anything south of Charlottesville feels like home to me. I've lived in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and I always felt like I was "home." These are my people. They go out of their way to be nice, they drink sweet tea, and they call you honey. What's not to like? Also, they talk to strangers. I love talking to strangers, and I hate living somewhere that people think talking to strangers is insane. Like Los Angeles.
I bought several houses in Los Angeles and I got to know the drill. It's this: you have to give up something. You can't have a great kitchen, a great master bedroom, great closet space, a great view, a quiet street, a yard, and a good school system. So every time I'd move, I'd choose what to give up. (My last house was the perfect house on a busy street. But the busy street was why we could afford it.) Similarly, when you buy a house anywhere, you have to decide what the deal-breakers are. When we were in the mountains of North Carolina, the big deal-breaker was no fireplace. I've recently taken up cooking, so now I want a great kitchen. I've lived with tiny master bedrooms, and I didn't mind because I could still make them beautiful. (We had one house where the master bedroom was so small, I used to pretend we were on a ship.)
The #1 thing I look for in a house, to be honest, is that it has to look like it would be fun to live in. Since everyone defines fun differently, I can't tell you what that means. I just want a house where I can imagine flopping on chairs in the living room, cooking big meals in the kitchen, nice rooms for the kids, and a bathroom that can be made to look like a spa.
We didn't have to give up anything when we bought our current house. We were lucky, because we never really looked at the house before we bid on it. We fell in love with the patio area. The house was originally built to be the clubhouse for our neighborhood, so there is a huge pool with a diving board AND a sliding board. There is a large bar on one side and a large seating area on the other. It was all beautifully landscaped, so lounging by the pool makes a person feel like they are staying at a great hotel.
After buying the house, we came back to look at what we'd bought. Luckily there were enough bedrooms. Other than that, the house was not something we would ever have bought if we'd really looked at it. (Did I mention that we were young and stupid at the time?) It was UGLY. It was ugly wrapped in ugly. My oldest daughter came in, looked around, and said, "Are you going to keep these light fixtures?" The next time she came over, we had stripped the house to bare concrete floors and bare walls. I said, "No."
I'm the only person I know who has completely remodeled a house who would do it again. Not only was it fun to watch the transformation, but every tile, every wall color, every floor, every light fixture was chosen by us. We've now moved back into the house after eight years of renting it to other people, and I'm still happy with every choice we made. Almost. When we did one bathroom in primary colors (including tiles and sink fixtures), we neglected to take into account how soon it was going to be before the 5 year old was a 16 year old. So stay tuned for the remodeling of that bathroom!
What's important to me in a house is that it can be made to feel like a home. And to me, "home" is fun, warmth, safety, and beauty. Next time, back to the latter. The decorating is coming along nicely.
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