HOME SWEET HOME

Just got back from looking at an acreage, well ten acres to be exact. We knew when we left that it was way out of our price range, but we thought, "what the heck? Why not go for a drive and check it out?" The house was half an hour out of the city, at the end of a dead end road. We got out of the van and were met at the door by a short lady with long curly hair and one of those "too sweet to be real" voices. The kind of voice that drips with innocence, just enough to make you think she is super naive, but with eyes that lack innocence, just enough to make you think she is a lot wiser than she wants you to hear..."I had the power shut off as I thought the place was sold, but now it is not, so I apologize for the dark." It was 8:30pm and the sun was rapidly sinking out of sight, so we toured the inside of the TINY home very quickly. The ad had boasted an "executive suite" in the basement. The suite had a small kitchen, a crawl space, a bathroom, and two miniature bedrooms. What exactly is supposed to qualify it as "executive" anyway??? The ten acres was basically a giant thistle field, with a fence around the perimeter, hiding behind the tall weeds. The view, the view though, was INCREDIBLE!!! 360degrees of mountain view and hay fields as far as the eye could see, a horse lovers dream! Marty and I loved the land, minus the thistles, but the house, well, the house was a "fixer upper." We are not afraid of "fixer uppers," but if you are going to pay over half a million dollars for something, you would hope it is not a fixer upper!!!!! Now to listen to Connie, this was a mansion filled with incredible, cute memories. She spoke of this house as though it were unquestionably worth the very overpriced tag she had on it. We were standing right there, infront of the house, looking at the hole in the garage door, the rickety deck stairs, the questionable porch, and the thistles, listening to her describe paradise, it was weird because you could feel that in her heart, she truly believed everything she was telling us!! Got me thinking about "home," and how nomatter what it looks or feels like to anyone else, that to you, home is home! Most people associate so many happy memories and so much love with their homes that they can truly see and feel paradise inbetween the walls where others can only see cracked ceilings, scratched floorboards and chipped paint! I think that is very cool! I remember the pride I had when I bought my very first house. It wasn't much, but it came with 7 acres, a dirt floor garage and bat infested barn. The house had mint green paint, flower wall paper and pink trim, but the day I got the key, to me that little house was a castle!!! When that house burnt down, I had to live in a very sketchy holiday trailer that the builder pulled on site for me. You know what? Even with the camp stove, no running water, plastic dishes, a heater that had to be lit and the bed being a top bunk, I still couldnt' wait to come back there after a hard day at work and relax. I couldn't wait to just go home!!! The house we grew up in was very old and small, it only had one bathroom and we had to share bedrooms. The basement was unfinished and when you went down the stairs, you could see the mud and other "organic" materials that had been used to keep the walls insulated and together. But it was a great, dark place for playing hide and seek and we couldn't have imagined a house without this great space! Even where I live now, the condo in Calgary. It is small, it has a tonne of steep stairs, TINY closets, and ugly carpet upstairs, but it is mine (well half mine, hee hee) and I love it, it is home! The photo is of Marty and I the day we moved into our current home!