Tales of a First-Time Home Buyer: Scoping Out the Neighbor's House

We have been becoming fast friends with our new neighbors lately, but most of our conversations and interactions with them have been in the front yard. It usually goes like this: We are either leaving or just getting home, we see them out there, and we have a typical “stop and chat.” The brief conversation consists mostly of pleasantries and friendly neighborhood gossip. What options did you pick, what are you having trouble with, do you ever go in your living room, blah blah blah… But yesterday, something unprecedented happened…My neighbor Jay invited me inside.

It was like entering another dimension. The inside of their house was shaped the same as ours with the same rooms and trim, windows, walls, and floors. But many of the finishes were different, the kitchen was completely different, and of course the furniture was different. The house had a completely different “feel,” and although it literally connects to our house, I felt like I was on Mars.

He wanted to show me a bottle of Moonshine or some such thing that he had acquired and give me a taste if I was up for it. Absurdly strong liquor happens to be one of our frequent topics of conversation, typically bookended by sports and power tools and how much we love all three. But the vicious Moonshine was far from my mind as I looked up and around like I was piloting one of those little robotic submarines that discovered the Titanic.

The major difference between our house and theirs was that they had many more options than us. They have dark hardwood floors throughout, upgraded cabinets and ultra high-end stainless appliances in the kitchen, trey ceilings in the dining room and living room, and a sweet pre-wired surround sound system in the basement. I was jealous of all of the above.

But there was a major reason why I ended up liking our place better: our furniture. All of the neighbor’s furniture was huge and over-sized, and they had a lot of it. It seemed like every inch of the place had something in it, which gave it a very cluttered and almost claustrophobic feel. The huge desk was right up against the huge couch, which was so huge it partially blocked the opening between the living room and dining room. The dining room table was very nice and fit for a Viking King and his council, but it was enormous and jutted out into the walking space from the stairs to the kitchen. I practically had to turn sideways to get through.

I pondered these differences. “Very nice,” I said, not at all referring to their taste in freakishly large furniture. I actually considered whipping out my camera phone and snapping a few pics for this blog (because it is always on my mind…) but I didn’t have the guts. Maybe next time I can snap some in secret.

I ran home and reported my findings to the wife. Yeah, they have nice upgrades, but you have to sideways-limbo to get from one room to the other. The bottom line is that we got the upgrades that we wanted. Sure, you always want more, but we think we made great decisions with the money we could spend, and despite Jay’s totally sweet surround sound system, we believe we made the right choices. There's so much clean, open space in our place that you could cartwheel from one room to the other. But above all, what makes our house so great is that it is our home, and no matter what's inside, that will never change.