{"id":9870,"date":"2012-06-18T06:43:01","date_gmt":"2012-06-18T11:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=9870"},"modified":"2012-06-18T06:43:01","modified_gmt":"2012-06-18T11:43:01","slug":"house-hunting-and-self-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2012\/20120618-9870.htm","title":{"rendered":"House Hunting and Self-Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been sorta house hunting.<\/p>\n<p>Not seriously. I mean, I haven&#8217;t gotten pre-approved for a loan yet, or figured out logistics or what-not. It&#8217;s still just theoretical. Not that I haven&#8217;t been thinking about it for a rather long time. But I&#8217;ve started looking at what&#8217;s available again.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way, I&#8217;ve been learning all sorts of things about who I am and what I really want.<\/p>\n<p>I started with an open mind&#8211;a very open mind&#8211;about what I wanted. I looked at anything within my general price range. I&#8217;ve learned that there are definite things that I want and don&#8217;t want.<\/p>\n<p><b>Things I want:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>A Yard<\/b><br \/>\nI grew up on three-quarters of an acre. We had a garden, mature trees, and a lawn. I want those things. Desperately.<\/li>\n<li><b>Central Air<\/b><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s funny because I&#8217;m not really a huge fan of air conditioning (except that I pretty much have to use it due to nasty allergies). But what I&#8217;m really, <i>really<\/i> not a fan of is not being able to see out of windows. Window A\/C stinks.<\/li>\n<li><b>A Dining Room<\/b><br \/>\nThere&#8217;s little that brings me more pleasure than having people over to eat what I&#8217;ve cooked. Sunday dinner isn&#8217;t complete unless there&#8217;s at least a half dozen around the table&#8211;but preferably a whole dozen. I think nothing of having twenty-five people over for a Seder. So, yeah, a dining room is pretty important&#8211;preferably one that can easily expand into another room for those really big dinner parties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Things I want but shouldn&#8217;t have:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>An Acreage in the Country<\/b><br \/>\nI want chickens and a pig and a cow (or maybe I&#8217;d have to settle for a goat). I want to be a lady-homesteader. I&#8217;m also a single woman who works and is a homebody&#8211;and who would end up being a recluse if she owned an acreage in the country. Not to mention that I really don&#8217;t have the diligence to keep animals alive. Maybe if I was at home full-time and I had a family to force me out of hiding, it&#8217;d be another story. For now, no cigar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Things I don&#8217;t want:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>A New House<\/b><br \/>\nEvery house that I&#8217;ve spent extended time in that has been built in the past 35 or so years has been really shoddily built. What&#8217;s more, every house in my price range that has been built in the past 35 or so years looks shoddily built <i>in the real estate pictures<\/i>. Doesn&#8217;t inspire much confidence. And then there&#8217;s the fact that most new houses lack anything resembling charm.<\/li>\n<li><b>A small house<\/b><br \/>\nI&#8217;ve tried to be open to small. I need to be open to small. I&#8217;m a single woman buying her first home, for Pete&#8217;s sake. But I&#8217;m also a single woman who LOVES to just have a couple dozen people over for a Seder. Or host a dozen girls for a sleepover. I&#8217;m a single woman who wants to be able to have roommates&#8211;and still wants a spare room for visiting missionaries or kids up to run 5-Day Clubs. Not to mention that I&#8217;m a crafter AND a reader&#8211;both of which hobbies take up significant amounts of space (I probably have 300 yards of fabric in my craft room at present&#8211;and several thousand books in my library.) Small houses just aren&#8217;t exactly suited to my lifestyle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Things I  (still) couldn&#8217;t care less about:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>School District<\/b><br \/>\nSurprised you there, didn&#8217;t I? :-)<\/li>\n<li><b>A master bathroom<\/b><br \/>\nI don&#8217;t think I need a bathroom per bedroom. I&#8217;m going to be the homeowner and as long as there&#8217;s one working BATH, I&#8217;m good. For potential roommates&#8217; sake, a shower would be nice. For general goodwill, it&#8217;d be nice to have a powder room in addition to the bathroom with a bath (I tend to take a while in the bathtub if I&#8217;m working on a good book). But I don&#8217;t need a master bath.<\/li>\n<li><b>An Attached Garage<\/b><br \/>\nI have grown rather fond of not having to scrape my windshields in the winter, but having an attached garage is not one of my priorities. Anyone who can&#8217;t handle a walk through the elements from house to car probably shouldn&#8217;t own a house anyway. Sheesh!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So there you are: what I&#8217;ve learned about my preferences thus far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been sorta house hunting. Not seriously. I mean, I haven&#8217;t gotten pre-approved for a loan yet, or figured out logistics or what-not. It&#8217;s still just theoretical. Not that I haven&#8217;t been thinking about it for a rather long time. But I&#8217;ve started looking at what&#8217;s available again. Along the way, I&#8217;ve been learning all &#8230; <a title=\"House Hunting and Self-Discovery\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2012\/20120618-9870.htm\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">House Hunting and Self-Discovery<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9870"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}