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November 14, 2004

Go West, Young Man

Mary and I have to move.

We're not thrilled about it, but our landlords have decided to put the duplex we're currently in up on the market. They're terrifically nice people, and we've loved renting from them for the past several years, but (apparently) it's time to move on.

Today, armed with a copy of Seattle Weekly's classifieds and some MapQuest printouts, we drove around Madison Valley, Madison Park, and Capitol Hill, scouting apartments.

A house becomes a home when you start taking it for granted - when the specific becomes the usual, the familiar, the comfortable. When you no longer see the "place" you live in objectively ("Hey! Mildew!") but instead think of it emotionally - a sanctuary, a haven, a place more relevant for what it means to you than what it looks like.

So there we are, on a drizzly Seattle afternoon, staring out the windshield of Mary's Jetta, necks craning, trying to get a good look at this one place or that other. We're trying to see past the houses and instead get a glimpse of the homes That Might Be. It's an odd (and exhausting) experience, projecting like that. Imagining yourself, your stuff, and your friends all laid out in this bare space that smells a little stale and still needs a little work.

Change is also opportunity, and we're trying to look at it that way. We'd love a place with a little more room, a deck, room to barbecue. We'd also love parking. I'm insisting on high-speed Internet service. Effectively, we've created this massive Boolean search for ourselves that reads like, "SEARCH FOR 'Close walking distance to downtown' AND 'good bus service' AND 'parking for friends' AND 'good neighborhood' AND ... ".

(sigh)

So if you've got any hot tips on 2 BR, 2BA spaces with hardwood floors, send 'em in. We're shopping.

Posted by Gavin Shearer at November 14, 2004 10:24 PM. Posted to Misc.

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