Hi there, My Name is Christine and I'm An Addict

Hi, my name is Christine and I am an addict. A house addict. Or a better name, a House-a-holic. My weakness...model homes. They just do it for me. But, I can even get a high from the vacant, foreclosed homes that dot the neighborhoods. I get my daily real estate listings emailed to me and when I find a house that speaks to me I drive to it, listening to it call my name. As I get closer and closer to it, the voice of the house gets louder and louder. I park in the driveway and instruct the kids not to move a muscle. Sometimes if I know I'm going to be awhile, I'll throw on a movie in the car for them while I go about and prowl. I'm surprised the police haven't been called on me yet, lol. I stand on my toes to peek into the windows. I open gates to the backyard. I even try the door handles praying that maybe, just maybe, the realtor might have accidentally forgotten to lock up; I've been lucky a few times. The other day, I found a vacant home with painters inside. I knocked on the open front door and called out to them. And in my best attempt at broken spanish I asked them to let me walk through it. They agreed. Later that day when daddy got home, I took him over there to look at it too. I'm sure they understood his spanish much better than mine, lol. Again we asked the painters to go inside just so we can marvel together over the wrought iron balusters on the staircase and large floorplan. It had over 4100 sqft! Call me crazy but I can't help myself. I haven't always been like this. I think buying our house and fixing it up has slowly conditioned me over time. Daddy used to HATE it, but I think this weird hobby has grown on him too. When we see something we like in a model home, I'll take pictures and he'll come home and try to build it for me. The kids are aware of mommy's addiction and accept it. In fact, they are beginning to show signs of house-a-holism too! When Matthew is bored, he asks me to take him to go look at models. Just the other day while driving around doing my house hunting, Elizabeth mentioned that traditional houses are her thing. She likes the white houses, with white siding and black shutters. That used to be my favorite too but I think I've moved on. I'm starting to enjoy the characteristics of the craftsman style. High baseboards, crown molding and the sight of dark wide-planked wood floors makes me weak in the knees. Kitchens with subway tile or travertine backsplashes makes me wanna do backflips. And the furniture, OH- the furniture! Leather cocktail ottomans with button tufting- I start to salivate at the sight. Freshly manicured backyards with the perfect outdoor furniture makes me sigh. Landscaping and hardscaping with just the right colored concrete and maybe throw in a stone covered outdoor fireplace for kicks and giggles. Oh, I wanna just jump for joy at the mere mention of it. What's wrong with me?! Surely, there must be something wrong. This is not normal. Normal people don't get excited for the future homeowners of the empty houses thinking of all the things they could do to make it beautiful. A few weeks ago we were in the Pasadena area. We had some time on our hands so can you guess what we did? Yup, we scoped out a few well known homes and since we just happened to have our camera on us, we snapped away. We found the Father of the Bride house and the house from my FAVE show Brothers and Sisters! It turns out they are right around the corner from each other.

You should know that we are not in the market for a new house and we don't plan on selling or moving anytime soon (at least I don't think so, lol). I just LOVE houses. My friends, extended family, and co-workers also know about this little issue and have threatened me with an intervention if I don't do something about this addiction. They are pressuring me to put my passion to use and get my real-estate license. So, after giving it much thought and since being done with college, I think I'm actually going to do it. I'm going to get my license (as if I don't have enough things to do with my spare time). But NOT so I can sell a house or two (if I do, then that's just an added bonus)but rather so I can LEGALLY go into the houses that catch my eye by entering a code rather than my current prowling behaviour, lol. Until I do make it legal, I will continue my house hunting, with my husband and 6 kids in tow. I will continue imagining all of the possibilities and all the what-ifs. I will continue to jump for joy for the next homeowners. I will continue to visit the model homes and pretend to live there if only for a minute or two. So, if you ever see the van loaded with kids parked in your neighbors driveway with a MAD woman (and maybe her husband) walking around the empty house, just know it's me (or us)!