HouseHunters International

I'm going to go look at someone's house tonight.

It's not my house.

But it could be.

(EEP!)

Yes, the time has come, the Walrus realtor said, to talk of many things...

...like how many bathrooms. And bedrooms. And which postal codes. And we'll-compromise-on-the-bathrooms-but-we-need-a-fourth-bedroom-because-Hotel-PM maintains-a-higher-occupancy-rate-than-anticipated.

And (gulp) mortgages.

(Well, "mortgage" singular.)

In theory, we are pretty much the best positioned buyers in America right now: rates are low, inventory is high, sellers are desperate, we've got jobs (count'em - two!), and best of all, we've got no house we need to sell first.

Still, I'm pretty nervy about buying a house. It's a big decision.

For those of you keeping score at home, we've lived at eight addresses in as many years (alas, not always together). We're nomads who have become quite used to the almost annual cycle of get damage deposit back/sign new lease/pay damage deposit/get rid of stuff that doesn't fit anymore/buy stuff for the extra spaces.

Renting is quite liberating in lots of ways. You're never more than 12 months away from leaving if you don't like a place. No worries about furnaces. Or roofs. Or other big-ticket items. Little to no maintenance. The buck stops somewhere else, so while your neighbours are out there raking leaves or calling plumbers, you're headed to the beach.

But I've long said I'm a perennial kind of gal, not an annual one. I long for a garden again. And I lurve painting.

(Not so much that I'll paint your walls, though.)

In some ways, I've never really owned a home. Even the Mitchell duplex, although my name was on the title, wasn't really mine since I was always thinking ahead to the next owners.

So this is super exciting for me. Nerve-wracking and nail-biting, too, to be sure, but nonetheless, it's been a dream of mine for a long time. (It was also a condition of the move: I held up my end of the bargain to move to Minneapolis, now someone has to pony up and help me buy a house.)

Just think - this summer I'll collapse all my boxes and for once I won't think, "better put these somewhere safe; we'll be needing them again soon."