13 Comments
Mar 28Liked by Sabrina Simpson

This hit a cord except I look at houses rather than new places. I will peruse real estate listings for the time I am able to sell my condo with its HOA and move into a single family home. I imagine where I would put furniture, which bedroom would be a library or guestroom, how would the garden accommodate raised beds or fruit trees, and how would entertaining and daily living look in the space. My partner calls me "real estate girl" because of this obsession. Then I realize I should slow down and appreciate where I am now. Savor it. Create memories in it before moving on. If I were with you on your jaunts to different villages, I'd be looking at the homes while you took in the entire geography!

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I love this Ginny! I forgot all about home interior imaginings, which are also so important! I loved Sunday open houses which used to be a great activity for getting ideas about interior spaces and gardens. They don't have open houses (or rarely do) here so I had forgotten about it. I do also take the opportunity to surf online listings even though we have already moved and are not planning to do so again (for awhile anyway). Now I am looking for ideas about layout and finishes as we are redoing parts of our current house. Or that's what I tell myself anyway. I love hearing that you do that too. And It sounds like we could cover quite a lot of ground together!!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

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Another quirk I have is, when I visit a place, I try to find the "historic home" of that area and tour it. With my involvement with the Patterson House in Fremont as a cousin, it's fun to see how other historic homes are maintained, interpreted and what they indicate about the community where they are located.

Please post about your own renovations. I'm also available to email if you'd like to "pick my brain" about any of your ideas.

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Thanks for another provocative post.

I had the opposite reaction to some of my homes. I said about our first NYC and first Washington, D.C. apartment that the only way I'd leave was in a box. But each time a welcome change and a better opportunity came up. Each time we landed in a better place. Now I don't say that anymore. Like others have mentioned, I try to appreciate where I live and the beautiful surroundings at this very minute. I feel so grateful to inhabit each place I've lived and live.

Which is not to say that I've stopped wishing and fantasizing. I'm now scheming about how to trade our or buy an apartment in this building on a higher floor with a view of the plaza. (I'm putting that thought in the universe.) When I get too desirous, I remind myself that even if that never happens, I love where we live now and am very happy here.

To another point about feeling kind of cranky before spring appears, when I lived in New Hampshire I began to feel out of sorts, off kilter, expectant, and fidgety in early March when the temperature rarely topped 32 and snow covered the ground. I finally realized that in California where I'd spent the last 20 years spring was on its way. My body had a circadian reaction to the arrival of spring.

Looking forward to next week's post.

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That is a great reminder about an early set circadian rhythm driving our needs and wants. Perhaps I have never been able to reset mine. And also thanks for sharing your changing reactions to your homes over time and with experience. Funny how our convictions can be so definite at times! Thank goodness we can still learn and grow as our lives change ❤️. I always appreciate your thoughtful comments.

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Yes, I'm finally growing up. Thanks as ever for your contributions to these posts.

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Mar 29Liked by Sabrina Simpson

Thank you for this Sabrina and I can identify completely with all you describe! You’ve captured the ups and downs perfectly….and I resonate also with Virginia’s comments! That’s me too! And then, like you both, I think - OK, let’s appreciate all I have in the exact here and now!

This was definitely a spring tonic….and by the way, daffodils are also one of my absolute favorites! Waiting for the tulips next, another favorite.

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So happy to hear it is not just me! And yes, the yo-yo between restlessness and also enjoying what I've got seems to be especially tricky for us all this time of year. Daffodils are such happy flowers. Around here they are the second bloomers in the season, but definitely the most pervasive and showy. We don't have as many tulips here, but I do enjoy them when I am in Seattle!

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Mar 30Liked by Sabrina Simpson

I seem to have an incurable tendency to imagine myself living in some charming little village: Alnwick, in Northumberland; Carsac-Aillac, in the Dordogne; and Bevagna, in Umbria, are just three of the small towns I’ve fallen in love with on my travels, and, as you know, when I finally decided it was time to move back to California three years ago, I briefly entertained the idea of moving to Point Reyes Station… and that was after five years in tiny Williamstown, in the Berkshires of northwestern Massachusetts. But I think I’ve finally realized that I really want or need the things a big city offers: restaurants, museums, theater, music, cultural diversity, etc. (A friend whose elderly parents were moving to New York City described it to me as “the world’s largest assisted-living facility,” and I kind of get it - you can have just about everything you’d ever need delivered!)

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I agree with your choices of villages! And your wise assessment of actually living in a place that suits your needs, more than the fantasies. You can always visit and sustain the fantasy, but better to live where you can fulfil your daily needs. And I love that description of New York City! My mother told me a slightly different version of that take on NYC when I was a child, and it has stuck.

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Don't fret, I do the same thing. Be it on a coddywomple, or watching Escape to The Country. The houses have to be away from noisy roads, but not too far from conveniences. Preferably close to the sea and with access to the bush and coast. Must have a big garden with scope for veg and orchard. At least an hour from any city. Maybe a Scottish island. Maybe a barn conversion (UK), something charming (Tasmania). If I lived in Scandinavia it would have to be somewhere near Sandholm. And so on and so forth...

The truth is that we have found our last townhouse (the house we will most likely have to end up in when we can no longer drive to the city from the coast) and we love it. As for the coast home - it's our 'family' home, the one we truly 'live' in and while we can we are content never ever to move again. I think I may have said at some point that we've lived in over ten homes courtesy of my husband's then career, so moving is done and dusted for me.

There are good memories, for sure, but for me, where my roots are now is where they grow deep. It's enough.

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I love that you have two houses: that's a great way to beat boredom, and give you two sets of places to inhabit. And a practical plan as well. I'm happy to hear that you also mentally consider other options, safe in the knowledge that you are perfectly happy with what you have, now. You are much higher up on Maslow's needs pyramid. Slightly similarly, we bounce back and forth between the UK and California. We love them both and are lucky not to have to pick only one. Just a slightly longer commute!🤣🤣

Hope you are home, rested, feeling strong enough for walks, and eating all (most of!) the foods you want to again. xx

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Oh, this beautiful, reflective post is exactly what I needed to read this afternoon, Sabrina - thank you!

We're just back from a job away from home and an overnight trip in the van - oh boy, with those hailstones I feared for the pop-up roof! - and I'm glad to report that we're enjoying a spot of late-afternoon sunshine here at home. I'm grinning from ear to ear because I can hear a blackcap singing its little birdy heart out in the garden.

Like you I'll be glad for April, and - maybe by May or June, some warmer, consistently drier weather!

I can't think of anywhere I'd rather live than home. I love other places, don't get me wrong - and where we've just been, in Warwickshire, was stunning - but I have no yearnings to live anywhere other than where I do.

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