I've rediscovered an old hobby.

So, since we've relocated from a hotel to a nice, new, furnished condo, we've talked a little more about what we like and what we don't in a house. I used to look at houses for sale all the time, especially when we talked about the different job opportunities Josh had after grad school; I have always loved maps, so I would have one tab open to Google maps and the other open to move.com. (I really think this hobby goes all the way back to when my parents were drawing up plans for our new house when I was little; they spent years going through house magazines and looking at plans, and my siblings and I thought that floor plans and carpet samples were magical things.) I had lots of cities figured out pretty well... and then we moved to Germany, and I didn't speak enough German to look very hard at German housing, so my window-shopping stopped.

Anyway, I've taken to watching House Hunters on HGTV in the last little while. It's kind of addictive... so interesting to see what kinds of houses are out there, for what prices, to think about which one I would choose if this were my episode (and why I would choose it). This has also reawakened my online house-hunting hobby; I spent a few of M's naps this week looking to see what housing prices are like in some cities of interest, even though we're still going to be renters for a few years. It was way more fun than I would like to admit. :-)


It's even more interesting now than it was before, because now I've had a baby, and I know more about what I would prefer when it comes to bedroom arrangements and climbable things like staircases, and how baby-proofing affects where you keep your computer.

Her Mobileness, chasing her ball around the kitchen. Tile, by the way, gives crawlers
cold hands and legs. Doesn't stop them, though. :-)

But Daddy... I wasn't going to eat them! I was just going to taste them.

What do you love about where you live? And what features do you want in the house you're going to buy someday?