this new house.
something tells me i've written a post with this very same title before. but oh well. my creativity is pretty limited.

erik and i live in a condo. it's very beautiful. ...a 1998 white exterior, spanish tile roof sort of beauty. we spent a lot of time carefully chosing neutral-but-colorful-and-fabulous wall colors and window coverings. we ripped up the token beige carpets and installed bamboo and dark maple flooring. we gave it character, but to me, it just seems like we gave it forced character.

when erik and i began dating, we had many things in common. you know, the music, the faith, the mutual dislike of peanut butter... but one of the coolest things was our love for old houses. namely, arts and crafts-era architecture. we'd go to arts & craft home tours and conventions. we spent a lot of time driving around hip old neighborhoods in san diego lusting after those super expensive $300,000 craftsman bungalows in north park. well, now those cute bungalows are $500,000, and i doubt we'll ever forgive ourselves for passing that up.

the twists of fate-ish-type-things that led us to our smart-growth business-park condo complex in the north-central area of the city are pretty elusive. i'm not even sure what happened and how we ended up there. but all of a sudden, my years of built up indie street cred are shattered. i spent a year in a fabulous old cottage with questionable neighbors and police chases in my backyard. i spent another year in a post-WWI apartment with all my furniture at least six inches away from the paper-thin walls, lest the constant layer of condensation ruin my bedding. i spent years listening to homeless people rummage through the recycle bins in the alleys at 4 in the morning. and now we have a two car garage, tennis courts, and 3 hot tubs scattered around the complex.

yup. we sold out.

but, as soon as it is financially feasible, we're going to do everything we can find that next fabulous old house in that fabulous up-and-coming old neighborhood (i.e. not ridiculously overpriced yet). there'll be old trees and ratty streets and creaky pipes. the living room walls will have built-in bookshelves and we'll use the old ice-box cavity as a cookbook holder. the toilet will probably back up a lot.

and we'll love it.