A new kvetch about the show Househunters.

[chargirlgenius]

Not about people who don’t buy a house because of the paint colors, this time

Comments

[odettedamboise]

I am stacking them like cordwood at my house. I need a bigger house because we have 3 kids and a 100lb dog and a cat who keeps tempting him to eat her, plus I have a lot of stuff that is bulky I need, but only occasionally. In my next house I will be looking for 4 bedrooms and a basement so everyone has room to free range--Hunter does a lot of laps. If I could afford it I was eyeballing Reston for its livability.

Moving the France sounds faboo, but I am more drawn to Normandy or Burgundy.

[chargirlgenius]

Oh, don't get me wrong - I'm not criticizing anybody for wanting a house with space to move. A bedroom per kid is *entirely* reasonable. These people had two kids, lived in a 3200 sq foot house that they thought was too small! They were looking for 7000 feet! They also sounded like the less they saw the kids, the better. Sad.

My beefs with the way that neighborhoods and communities work is a criticism against planner, zoners, and communities, not against individuals. Our choices are limited by what's available and by what society generally says about what's supposedly good for families.

[chargirlgenius]

BTW - the show pointed out that the prices in the Cognac region have been relatively stable, while the rest of France has gone up. Hence his choice in area. :-)

[noxcat]

Ok, so I splurged and rented a 3 bathroom apartment instead of a 1 bathroom, but it's because I do my exchange in one, and the cat pan is in the other. Putting those two things in one bathroom is dangerous. But I don't need more than 2 bathrooms.

[chargirlgenius]

A far cry from a 7000 square foot house. :-)

[noxcat]

The Bushes bought an 8600sq ft house in Dallas for after they left the White House. My first thought ' there are only 2 of them! They don't need that much spae!'

[ladyaneira]

Sounds fascinating. I'm curious, now, though, about how you ended up with your current house. You guys had it built, right? What went into your decision making at that point? Has your philosophy about housing changed since you moved into the current house?

[chargirlgenius]

That's one reason my beef is with the system, not with individuals. Otherwise, I'd be a huge hypocrite. :-D

[ladyaneira]

Makes sense. And I totally identify with not being able to put your finger on things until later. When we bought our first house, we thought we knew exactly what we wanted: 3 bedrooms and a half acre or more of land, within commuting distance of Grettir's then-job in Reston. Oh, and priced reasonably enough that we could afford it without totally pushing the debt/income ratios. (I'm a believer in contingency planning and not tempting fate.)

So, according to our criteria, we were looking in the Warrenton/the Plains/Purcellville/Brunswick circle. We were thrilled to buy a 3 bdrm house with walkout basement on 0.75 acres in Warrenton--loved it, loved it, loved it, for about the first 6 months. Then grew to hate it, hate it, hate it. Too much land upkeep, couldn't GO anywhere by foot except in the circles of cul-de-sac hell, had to drive for miles . . . ugh. Only after that experience were we able to formulate what we really wanted.

[chargirlgenius]

The guy on the HH International show (Ira, from Norther VA) wanted a farmhouse in the country in the cognac region. The realtor (a Brit) knew that Ira was a single guy, and conspired to show him a great home in the middle of a town, across the square from a small cathedral. The home had a garden on the old town wall, and was utterly amazing. The first country home was utterly amazing too, in a different way

[rwday]

3200 square feet. Wow. For most of the time we were raising our family we lived in two houses, both with about 1200 square feet of living space. The first had a bath and a half, the second, two full baths. When we had all the kids, which was all summer and every other weekend, that was 8 people. If you don't learn to share at home, how are you supposed to function in an adult world that requires cooperation? Insane.

[chargirlgenius]

In Jeff's old neighborhood there was an older lady who had raised five sons and a daughter in a tiny little house. Granted, the sons never visited her, but that could be because she kept going on about how they kept trying and trying before they finally got their girl... (ugh)

[reasdream]

I'm glad that y'all like The Do Something Day. It was/is my favorite book when I was little (once I got past Go, Dog, Go, at least). My neighborhood was like that, growing up.

Yeah, I don't get the "horror" of sharing a bathroom. Heck, out of college I lived in a house with 2 other women and 1 guy and only 1 bathroom. Luckily we all had weird schedules, otherwise it would have been hell.

It reminds me, tho, of when I was applying to colleges. We were in Colorado for something (family?) and Mom insisted we visit Colorado College. In the Q&A after the tour, a girl asked the student guide "Is it hard to share a bathroom with other people?" She was dead serious. I think the guide was as stunned/surprised (flabbergasted) as I was. (and no, I didn't end up applying)

[chargirlgenius]

Living with people teaches you how to be alone when surrounded by people. I think it's an important skill.

I do like that book,and so does Henry. We like to talk about how nice the town must be. :-)

[greta_k]

When I lived in the dorms at Tech, we only had a sink in our rooms. @15-20 girls shared a communal bathroom, with 5 showers and 5 stalls. If you couldn't share before you moved to the dorm, you were doomed (unless you moved off campus).

[reasdream]

Yeah - at Vassar there were porbably 15-30 people sharing a hall bathroom, about 5 toilets, 4 sinks, 2-3 showers. And all the bathrooms were co-ed (all the dorms are co-ed by room except the one women-only dorm). It didn't bother me at all - I once had a cnversation with a guy friend while shaving my legs (wearing a tank top and boxers). It was awesome.