Getting Economically Stimulated to Properly Entertain Guests

I decided, when my family was here last week, that it was time to move. Our house is too small, I tell you. 1400 square feet is just not enough space to entertain properly! For a bigger house I decided I would use more gas to heat it, take more time to clean it, and pick a more undesirable neighborhood to live in it. (Because we just can't afford to live in Old Town and have a bigger house. Even disgusting, unkempt, no yard, cracks all over the wood floors, cigarette butts ground into the black and white vinyl kitchen floors, 1600 square foot homes in Old Town cost around $279K.) So I called my old realtor with the amazingly long hair that reaches her bum, and is fabulous at what she does, to show me what the heck is out there.

I picked 7 homes, only 1 in Old Town (mentioned above) and I liked none of them. (The one mentioned above being the absolute worst of them all-but hey! It's Old Town, perhaps we can buy it, tear it down, and rebuild for another, oh, I don't know? Say...$350K? No thank you.) Most were 1970's homes that had been partially remodeled. For instance, the kitchen had warm, lovely tile floors and a sparkling new fridge with an ice dispenser. However downstairs, through the dark wood paneled hallway were 3 small bedrooms with closets the sizes of w/c's on an airplane-except you couldn't actually go inside them. They had a small window in each and one small overhead light shaped like a globe. There was a border in one with baseball gloves, basketball hoops, and football helmets (or something of the like) that reminded me of my doctor's office.

Now, I realize there is potential for making these houses mine. I realized that we could change some of the things that bothered me. These houses WERE bigger after all. Although, you can't change the neighborhood.

The thing that struck me is that I really love my house. I fell in love with it the minute I saw it (kind of like when I saw hubby for the first time-when you know, you know!) It is a bit small, in that there's not a guest bedroom, no desk for our lap-top, and a small kitchen table is right next to the TV. But I love the way it feels inside. I love the wood floors and how light and airy it is. I love that I have a huge walk-in closet that probably takes up about 9 of the 14 hundred square feet of our house! I love our neighborhood on a hidden street with houses from the 1950's. I love that we can walk to the grocery store and that there is a park right behind us. And for crying out loud, who wants to clean a bigger house anyway? I can hardly stay on top of the little house, what am I thinking?? I haven't even mentioned the market! Holy Canoli! Who wants to sell a house in this age of declining prices? Am I even being realistic about it? Why am I even thinking about moving again?

Oh yeah, the space thing. Then it hit me just like that volleyball flying over the net in the 7th grade that got me SMACK in the face. I can change some of these things that bother me about MY house! We can move the TV out of the TV room so it's NOT right next to the table. Then put a little desk in the niche where the TV was. We could buy an armoire for the TV so we can actually close the doors on it and not have to see it if we don't want to. We can extend (or buy?!) our table so it's bigger and more folks can fit around it. Because when visitors visit, we often end up visiting around the table. Then there's our nasty couch that's looking worse everyday. We can buy a new couch and put it in the other room so the room where the table is, is just the dining room with the desk! Yes, Yes, YES!!! Oh, I feel like I've had a great vision! My head is so clear it's like a swimming pool inside!

Now to get hubby up to speed....we just need to get "economically stimulated" (in the words of my bike friend who just got stimulated economically) and it's a done deal!