House vibes

I'm going to be house-sitting for a long-time client this weekend, except they've moved into a new house and the computer isn't set up yet. So no computer for me until Sunday night. There was a time when the computer meant nothing to me, and now it's right up there with my purse or my mascara or some other thing I feel odd to be without. Did you ever read Dean Koontz' "Midnight"? The person and the computer become interconnected...limbs turned into electronic components, like a plant taking root. Anyway, it's interesting to spend time in other people's homes and learn just what it is a like and dislike. It will someday serve me, hopefully, when I have my own home (although in this market, who knows if I'll ever acquire that dream). For example, this house that I am sitting in, is supposedly a move 'up'. It cost over $200,000 more than the price tag of the home they still haven't sold. Yet I like the other home better. The new one is a cookie cutter tract home, in a neighborhood that I don't value, but one that is evidently considered 'better'. It almost seems like the husband had some sort of mid-life crisis, because he went out and bought the BMW convertible, enticed his wife to have a face lift (she's early 50's, he's 46), initially insisted they remodel the old-style kitchen she loved, then was intent to move here. I don't get it. The exterior walls are too close to neighbors on both sides. Backyards stretch into canyon space, all clearly in view of one another. It's kind-of creepy. Their other house was next door to the playground of an elementary school (a surprisingly good location). I guess everyone values different things. Like how is it they never have bread in the house, or coffee, or a flippin' microwave?! How is it so many people don't use SOS pads, while I find them totally necessary? I guess I shouldn't be so critical, but I have been known to turn down house-sitting jobs if the vibe of the house was all wrong for me. Another long-term client finds out tomorrow if they get their new home. They half-joked with me that I had better approve of the place before they buy it...that my input may be a deciding factor. That was a nice compliment actually--that my services have become that important to them. I know I'll like their choice though--maybe the vibe comes from the people themselves? I don't know. I just think it's ironic that this is the third client who has done a move 'up', and in all cases I liked the former house more. It's really pretty sick how expensive these homes are, yet how cheaply made. Give me a turn-of-the century Craftsman home any day. Now THAT would be a dream.