Adrienne’s List

Alas, I couldn’t motivate to trek out to the Restoration Hardware sale. If anyone made it out there, I hope you had some great finds! Instead the main activity this weekend (besides getting inebriated with friends on Friday) became house hunting. This is not actually an unusual pastime for me and in no way implies that we’re making a jump to the ‘burbs anytime soon. No, house hunting and I guess you could also say moving in general (much to Joe’s chagrin I’ve moved ten times in the past 4.5 years, twice since we got married in ’07), is also a bit of a hobby. Like most adult behaviors and vices, this can be traced back and unjustly blamed on my parents.

My parents were chronic house hunters, loading Tommy and me up into the car most Sundays to go from place to place for design ideas (they built their own homes and liked to see the latest trends in home design…wow I wonder were I got it from :) For me though, it was more than just finding decorating ideas. I liked to picture what my life could be in each place. Tommy and I would muscle our way up the stairs of each property and stake claim to our “rooms”. It was important to claim the best room as it gave the victor bragging rights throughout the car ride to the next home. Upon choosing my room, I would make a mental floor plan of where each piece of furniture and toy would settle. As you can imagine, after a day of completing this process for each of my new “rooms”, I was completely exhausted (maybe this was my parent’s real motivation behind house hunting).

 Now that I’m older and of course vastly more mature, house hunting really hasn’t changed much. While I don’t compete with Joe for the best room, I still try to picture our lives at each home. Sometimes I can’t picture a life there at all, which means it’s time to move on to the next place. But then there’s the occasional house that I think about for days after visiting. I come up with color palettes and space plans and day dream about our lives there. One day we might actually purchase one of these houses. Until then, maybe we’re just not ready to leave the city. Or maybe I just haven’t found the home that makes me want to fling open the door, barrel up the stairs and find the perfect room to claim as mine.

- Adrienne