Five Places to Make Home

Living in a typical American town, I imagine I have typical items in my home.  I have a couch, a few chairs, and a table where my family gathers for meals, kitchen appliances and electronics.  For today’s Monday Listicles, which has the theme of 10 Things in My Home, I wonder what I can share that will be of interest? I do have dogs, but that’s not unusual.  There are tidy spots and spaces that are disasters.  Typical, typical, typical. 

My younger daughter started 7^th grade last month and my older daughter is a freshman.  Lately, my significant other and I have been discussing whether or not we will stay here six years from now when the girls are finished with high school.  It’s a fun discussion, full of hopes, dreams, and sometimes good ol’ boring reality.  The reality being we would have to fix up our current house in order to sell it, in order to move.

Here’s a list of 5 places we’ve thought of moving after the girls graduate from high school:

The Short North

The Short North – We live in a little municipality that is surrounded by the city.  It’s beautiful with historic homes and very mature trees, but the taxes are high, and we never really feel like we fit in.  We feel at ease when we are downtown among the galleries, the fun eateries and venues for live music—the trendy neighborhood Columbus, Ohio calls the Short North.

Louisville, KY – My significant other grew up in Southern Indiana, across the river from Louisville.  He spent much of his early 20’s living and working there, and we spent many weekends there when we were courting.  He’s feeling called to go there.  I wouldn’t mind at all.  I grew up along the same river, just a few hundred miles north.  I get it.  The river means home.

Savannah, Georgia – One evening we went so far as to explore homes for sale in Savannah--online, not actually in Georgia.  The homes are too expensive for us to afford.  But we found out that we could afford a small (better described as tiny), rental on Tybee Island, on the water.  The sun and the south.  This is high on my fantasy list, for sure.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee – Not sure why Tennessee.  Maybe it’s because I saw a documentary on HBO called One Nation Under Dog that featured a woman who has this amazing space in Tennessee where she makes art and rescues dogs.  Seems like a dream world to me.

Chicago, Illinois – I lived in Chicago during my early twenties.  I usually say I grew up there because I literally grew up while living there.  I had to do grown up things in order to pay rent and survive.  It was difficult, but I loved it.  And Chicago has it all--friendly people, arts, commerce, bodies of water, history, and . . . wait.  I forgot about the winters.  This one will probably be the first to be removed from the list when it’s time to decide.

Here’s 5 things I will have to do to my house before moving:

Clean this light fixture – When I happen to look up from the table where I write and where we have meals, I am quite mortified.  I’ve been meaning to clean this thing forever.  Today may be the day.

The plumbing – I don’t know exactly what is wrong with it.  It wasn’t right when I bought the house six years ago, but I didn’t know that until I moved in.  I bought the house while living in California and thought too much of my realtor.  She really got me good with the inspections that passed but shouldn’t have.

The electrical stuff – Again with the lousy realtor.  How this home passed inspection is beyond me.  If you run the hair dryer, half the house loses power.  If you run the microwave and the vacuum at the same time, the entire house loses power.

Refinish the floors –I love me some wood floors.  Ours are icky, and need refinished.  Anyone want to do me a favor?

Something with the chimney — It was disclosed that there was an issue with the chimney.  I haven’t gotten it looked at to figure it out and have it repaired.  A cozy fire may be appealing to future owners.

There's more.

Actually, the list of things that need to be done to this house before I could sell it is enormous and overwhelming.  I’m going back to my first list, the list of places I’d like to move to after the girls graduate.  For me, it's more fun to fantasize about a freshly painted rental in an ideal location than to contemplate fixing things in this old house.

After this one is sold, I will never own a house again . . . ever.

“Hello, Mr. Landlord, the toilet is clogged.  Would you mind?”

photo credit: emdot via photopin cc

photo credit: OZinOH via photopin cc