by Claire
I had absolutely nothing to do yesterday. The kids went to their Dad’s house for the first time in a month and I had nothing to do. I needed to clean my house but instead I watched television all day! I did workout in the morning but was back home by 9 am and in pj’s for the DAY! Wow. I don’t know when I did that last! It felt great.
I got sucked into a few television shows via Hulu and the internet. Some were truly mind-numbing (did you know there’s a reality show called “Pregnant and Dating?” Don’t judge me for watching that one!) while others were very informative! I watched House Hunters (both domestic and international) as well as “Love It or List It.” I think I’ve seen one episode of House Hunters before and “Love It or List It” was new for my TV watching list. There were a couple that caught my attention but two stand out. The first was the family from Houston who was transferred to Brussels for the husband’s job. I tend to watch things now with a “pre-blog” and “post-blog” take. I could relate to so many things about this family under my “pre-blog” brain. They were trying to make Europe fit their very American (and dare I say very Texan) ways. The wife kept saying she had a vision of what their European house would be like but then kept including very American aspects to that vision. And they had SO MUCH STUFF that I don’t know how they walked around the final set up of their home. The second episode was the single, female Dallas lawyer who up and moved to Rome. She had a business idea it seemed for consulting on American legal issues for European businesses but the show didn’t go into exactly how that worked. She had an $1,800 budget and decided on an apartment that wasn’t her top choice (the top choice was $2,400 per month) and she recognized that she could not overextend like that until the business was more stable. I have a secret little dream that after my kids are grown and I retire, I will live at least part time in Europe–so it was fun to watch that one.
Then there was “Love It or List It.” The premise of this one is a family’s home no longer meets their needs and one spouse wants to sell while the other wants to stay. So the show brings in a design/remodeling team to convert the current home into what the couple says they need and also brings in a real estate agent to find the couple a new home to buy. After all of the renovations are done and an available for purchase home is decided upon, the couple decides to “Love It or Leave It.” This show is fascinating from a relationship perspective too. The spouse who wanted to leave (in one episode the husband, in another the wife) really went to great lengths to not like their current home. It was as though the designer was dealing with children who did not like the clothes mom picked out and nothing was going to change their minds. The wife even got hostile with the designer insisting on a wall coming down that the designer knew was going to take too much of the budget–but the wife was insistent. In the end, both couples decided to “Love It” because the renovations were remarkable but it wasn’t without a lot of angst once they got a taste of the shiny new house.
It is neat to watch these things now with no envy or jealousy. I used to watch those things and “ooooh “and “ahhh” and want the same. I’d get the “design bug” and go do something random to my homes (when I owned my homes) just because I was sparked. Completely impulsive behavior. Now I still “oooh” and “ahhh” but the prominent thought in my mind is how much everything costs! I did not walk away from this marathon television day and look at my little apartment with disappointment. Instead I was grateful for what has become a simple life.
