Dream Home

Wanted: 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. Willing to settle for 2 bedroom. Garage of any size preferable, but would accept suitable space to build one or off-street parking. Enough yard space for a garden & for kids to play highly preferred, but willing to look at small patios big enough for potted plants. Must have large kitchen to fit an overabundance of kitchen items as well as accomodate a messy cook/baker. Dishwasher a must. Space for washer & dryer non-negotiable. Must have at least one storage closet. Formal dining room, formal living room, basement, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances -NOT needed. Craft room/artist studio/office/exercise room, pool/hot tub, working fireplace, library, underground sprinkler system, walk-in closets, master suite, finished landscaping, 1/2 bath, fenced yard -a bonus but not needed.

That's not too much to ask for in a dream home, right?

After I graduated college I came home to live with my parents. I needed the comfort of home after the hell I went through during my last semester of college (friend drama). And I hadn't decided where I would go to graduate school or even if I wanted to pursue it. I had no job prospects and no other place to live, so home I went. I never would have guessed that over five years later I would still be living at home.

It was great for the first year or two while I figured things out. I got a car, I got a job, and I made some new friends. But after the first two years I was more than ready to establish some independence from my parents and I started looking for apartments. It was then I found out that rent prices in my area, especially if you have a pet, are not that much less than mortgage prices even after factoring in taxes, home owner's insurance, and private mortgage insurance. But both were out of my price range.

Even so, I stopped checking the apartment listings and set my sights on buying a home. And the solution to affording one was so simple - I would just have to get a new job.

And that was when the jobs market crashed along with the housing market and my dreams of a higher income.

For a few years while job prospects were at their worst I didn't do much of anything about finding new or extra employment. There just wasn't a lot to be found. But if I'm being honest I am partially to blame for my lack of a new job because I hate the whole process of job-hunting. It makes me nervous and anxious.

Fast-forward to the present and both markets are still in pretty bad shape. (So why do the house prices around here keep creeping up??)

Now don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful to have a full-time job with some benefits, even at a low wage. I realize that is more than some people have these days. But I can't even begin to pursue any dream, let alone motherhood, without a higher income. The job gets me the money, which pays for the house, which gives me the room and the freedom to have kids.

But for now here I sit, in my parents' house, saving my pennies for my own place, still trying to find a new job, still dreaming the American dream.

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