I live in a house right now, for the first time since 1993. I was an apartment dweller for ages and I don’t miss it. Houses feel more like homes.
The reason I live in a house is because one of my girlfriends, Top Drawer Tara, bought a beautiful house about six years ago, before housing prices in Tampa exploded. She has a bungalow with wooden floors, awnings and a giant front porch. We can hear the interstate from the backyard- it’s that close! There’s a library a few doors down too, not to mention a middle school and high school in the neighborhood.
Once I decided to quit my boring job and get on with my life, the first step was to go back to college for a more useful degree. Naturally, with no current income, I wanted to live somewhere less expensive than the one-bedroom apartment I used to have, over where I used to work. It occurred to me that I should rent a room from someone rather than enter into a lease. So, I asked Top Drawer Tara if I could barge into her life for a while, and she agreed. (I allowed her a “cooling off period,” just to make sure.)
Downsizing was great. I sold a TV and a dining room set, had 2 garage sales, and donated what was left over to the hospice thrift store. It took a few months to get it done, but I’m down to a bedroom, a full closet of course, and a desk and computer. That’s it!
So basically, I am living in the kind of house I wish I’d bought when it wasn’t impossible to buy a house in this market, without making a commitment and having to get into a mortgage. Of course, it’s only for a year, until I’m done with school, because I also promised myself a summer away from all the oppressive heat of Central Florida once school is over. Where will I go? Back to the wilds of the Alaskan tundra? To the mountains of Tennessee? To see my boyfriend in Maryland? Only time will tell. I don’t believe in making plans, but I do have goals to reach.
My nephew loves this house because of the animals. Whenever I mention any of them, I hear him say on the phone, “I want to go to Aunt Gabi’s house!” There’s Georgia and Paul, my parakeets; an aquarium full of freshwater fish, including Goldie, Flipper, and Fin, to name a few; a resident cat named Fifi; and an outdoor pond full of goldfish and snails, with lily pads all over the surface. He told me once that he wanted to get into the fish tank like a diver would, but regrettably he and the fish wouldn’t all fit in there, so I explained that he needs to learn to swim first, and then we’ll take him places where he can see fish swim by someday. Maybe the Florida Aquarium will let him dive there, but the 12-gallon aquarium in the living room is no place for a little boy.
It’s a nice feeling to live in a house again. Considering the way things are with real estate prices, I wonder if I’ll ever be able to do it again and next time, actually own the place. I see so many people in townhouses and condominiums and apartments. It’s fine for when you’re just starting out, but life needs to progress beyond a transient lifestyle with kooky weirdoes upstairs or downstairs or right on the other side of the wall.
I named this blog Gabi’s House because it will be my one steady place for the next few years as I move around. Plus, it has a nice ring to it; as in, “Let’s go to Gabi’s House and drink some Don Lorenzo Rum while this hurricane passes by,” or “Movie night at Gabi’s house!”
One last note about this house: my area is Nerd Central. I’m studying economics so that means I’ve used the blank sides of my old headshots (I used to act) as note cards (it’s nice that they are good for something, right?), and there are graphs and formulas taped all over two of my interior doors. It’s kind of like those early scenes in A Beautiful Mind, when John Nash is figuring out his Game Theory by writing on his windows. Well, aside from his insanity and Nobel Prize, I seem to be following in his footsteps. Or maybe the fact that I’m studying economics is an early sign of insanity. Who knows?
See you at Gabi’s House!
