Thursday, October 13, 2011

Guilty pleasures

I have to confess something.  I LOVE looking at show homes. Those poor sales reps can spot me a mile off - I might as well tattoo "just browsing, please ignore" across my forehead.


I don't want to buy one you understand.  I don't need one.  I just want to look, and touch, and coo appreciatively.  Or pooh-pooh the whole design and layout, and critique the lack of space in the fourth bedroom.


I like to momentarily fantasize that I too could have a sparkly, clean and shiny home, encompassing my amazing design skills, colour co-ordination and the latest, greatest modern appliances and gadgets.  And there would be nothing out of place in my dream life/home.  My granite would sparkle, my towels would be fluffed and the toilet paper holder would refill itself.  Yes, I really can be that shallow for about half an hour every other weekend.


But let's get real.  That would be sooooo boring.  My home is, er, homely.  People actually live in it.  These people leave their crap everywhere.  The windows have dog-nose smears and small handprints on them that glow with such luminescence during these low-sun autumnal evenings. And no-one is capable of re-stocking the loo paper.
Look at this latest trend.  A boot room.  Isn't that a thing of beauty?  


Yeah, right.  Because we all own one pair of co-ordinating boots, a cute hat and one coat.  Can you imagine this scene when you swap "design" for "reality".  Chaos I tell you.


I laughed recently at a little cardboard notice in a show home.  It said "Have you got HDD?" House Dissatisfaction Disorder!


So, no actually - I am not dissatisfied with my house really.  I just like to be bloody nosy and see what trends are out there.  I'd hate to think I was missing something.

8 comments:

  1. Well for starters, that boot room is a total waste of valuable space, I could put my crafts, yarn and fabrics, in there, in fact it is probably twice the size of my sewing room. I need a house with expandable rooms, much as I would like to be 'minimalist' I am afraid that is asking the impossible as I have pack-rat tendencies. You never know when 'that thing' might come in useful..!

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  2. Oh well, I suppose there are worse addictions to have!

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  3. Show homes make me uncomfortable, as though I'm in church and should be whispering. I am not minimalist and like my things around me - but too many and the pile slips . . .

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  4. It sounds normal to me.
    Grandma Davies and her sister, Dad's Aunt Bella, loved to go for car rides, but if no one was available to drive them around, they'd phone a realtor who would take them to all the houses for sale in the area. They knew they weren't fooling anyone, but they got out, they could look at houses and critique them, and sometimes were offered a nice cup of tea.

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  5. My mom loved to visit those. And mobile home sales, live-in boats, motor homes, lots in summer cottage country ... you name it. (They bought two of the lots.) And I inherited the bug, expanded it to include decorating books showing fabulous homes or exotic designs in faraway places.

    I usually conclude that "I couldn't possibly live that way!"

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  6. This sounds like a fun hobby, but I'm afraid I'd come out of there crying at how woefully inadequate my pigsty of a house is! I do better visiting yard sales. You can be nosy there too, but usually you can afford what's on offer!
    Have a great weekend!

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  7. I have to admit- the boot room is pretty cool!

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  8. Not much of our gear is colour co-ordinated, and a lot of it is soggy this time of year. On second thought I do have one of those it's a wall coat rack, and crowded beyond believe. Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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