When I was a kid and my mom
was giving birth every two years or so, my parents realized early on that the
two bedroom home they had bought wasn't going to cut it. So every once in a
while they'd pack us all in the car for a Sunday drive which always seemed to culminate
in a visit to a new housing development. We would all pile out of the car and
tramp through the model houses, oohing and aahing at the modern amenities, and smartly
decorated dream homes. Each of us kids would quickly claim a bedroom just in
case this was the house Dad would ultimately buy. In 1963 our model home
shopping came to an end when Mom and Dad decided to buy one of the houses we
had looked at. Not only did they buy a house from the developer, but they
bought the very model home we had looked
at, furniture and all.
I have carried on with that tradition of "window
shopping" houses. I love going to open houses, especially in our
neighborhood. It's fun to see the inside of neighbor's homes, to see just how
they've been living. Most often what I see is that they live much better than I
do. Mark on the other hand does not enjoy going to open houses. I'm not sure
why, it's not like they don't want people in there. They've got signs all over
the place begging us to come on in. Besides, I really enjoy the faces of the real
estate people when that skinny black man walks in. I only wish we could bring
along about a dozen little black kids.
What is it about you and my girlfriend wanting to sneak around in other people's houses?! She goes to home shows, garden shows, anything-then asks to use the bathroom and snoops.
ReplyDeleteSneak, who sneaks? I snoop right out in the open. When my neighbors moved in on the corner (the ones with the gayby®) I had a nice discussion about their new home with them. I had walked through the open house and knew it better than they did. For some reason they didn't find my input helpful.
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