i spent a few evenings looking at houses earlier this month. i saw big, small, stunning, cosy, ugly, dark, light-filled, and much more, including bras and tights being hung out to dry. i guess the owner wasn't expecting visitors! we love our current home. however, we need more room and especially want a garden. a proper one, not a yard nor a deck, but a garden with flowers, plants, trees etc... it's proven extremely hard to find :-(

people may mock England for her dental and *culinary achievements but few can come close to the English when we talk about gardens...it's one of the things i miss the most.

*anyway, what about Heston Blumenthal, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver...Marco Pierre White...ha!

back to the house-hunting, one of the most memorable little things i discovered going in and out of many homes (into the double figures!) was this peephole in a front door. i've not seen one like this before and it was almost enough for me to be sold on the house. this is the exact reason g makes me take photographs and bans me from signing anything without him there...

the differences between my idea of house-hunting and g's became starkly clear one afternoon.

whilst i was oohing and aahing and humming and sobbing over the good, bad and downright ugly interior design and decoration, he was imagining the four exterior walls with nothing inside. he can do that -- imagine a blank space or canvas. i can't -- all i see is what is before my eyes. no creativity, me.

i notice the existing spaces, nooks and crannies and envisage working around and living amongst them. the lovely little corner spaces that i discover are exactly what g wants to rip out and tear down. argh!!

my idea of a nightmare would be to be presented with a piece of land and the $$ to construct a house from scratch. i suspect that might be g's idea of heaven. oh shite.

still, we agree on the fundamentals -- light, light and more light. without that, even the prettiest and largest rooms can become depressing and suffocating. i used to live in a flat with NO windows, but amazing interior lighting. g could last about an hour inside before he would start to hyperventilate. ok i am exaggerating -- i always thought he was being a drama queen. now, though, having lived in a corner house with an abundance of natural light, i understand what he meant. 

we are keeping fingers crossed that someday in the not too distant future, we will stumble across a house we really want and be able to then turn it into our home.