I love having my own house. I was always afraid I would hate having to take care of everything, but I don't.

Yes. This. That said, I've found that with a house vs. an apartment, you can end up putting not just a lot more money into the place, but a lot more time. I can easily spend a third to half of my weekend doing basic upkeep chores around the place. I love it, and get a lot of satisfaction from it, but still...

I don't want to own a house as much as I want to own property around a house. I love gardening much more than house upkeep. Right now my dislike for house upkeep (and my kind landlords who let me play with a patch of dirt next to my building) is winning out over my wish to garden more.

Calli, you can come play in the dirt around my house. My love for gardening is mostly theoretical. As my scraggly rose bushes will attest.

I love the stability that comes with owning my own place. In NYC, it's really unusual to have a lease last for more than two years - after that pretty much everyone goes month to month, and you can be kicked out or have your rent skyrocket with basically no warning. With a baby on the way, we didn't feel we could take that risk.

Had we been more informed about the state of the building at the time we were looking, I think we would have made a different decision about where to buy, but I don't regret leaving the renter's market one bit.

Having lived primarily in the south and midwest, owning always made much more sense even though Lewis and I rented for the first four years of our relationship. Mostly because we were both still in school. But in the south, the majority of apartment buildings/complexes are corporate owned, so it's not like you have a "landlord" you can talk to about your rent, etc. And in the south/midwest, you generally can get a nice piece of property, depending on where you buy, and of course, with me and the dogs, property is a big plus.

Calli, you can come play in the dirt around my house. My love for gardening is mostly theoretical. As my scraggly rose bushes will attest.

Yeah, I have a black thumb. I love pretty landscaping, but I can't keep it up. Plants look at me, laugh, then die horrible deaths.

Vortex ~~~~~sending the ma ~~~~` and love out

I love owning, and doing home projects , But we sometimes have to remind ourselves that everyday does not have to be productive. Fun is allowed

Aims, pick some of these up for Joe, will you? I'd be sad if he never ate Star Trek waffles.

Don't be sad - I'll pick some up.

There've been times when my gardening love's been pretty theoretical, too. But it's pretty satisfying to look out my side window and see the majority of my plantings doing well. Luckily, if I fail with one plant it's easy to hide the dead body in the compost bin and fill in the hole with something else.

my scraggly rose bushes

I love roses! I've rarely had light enough to keep them alive. But there's one called "Darlow's Enigma" that I'm hoping to try. It's supposed to be shade tolerant and very fragrant.

Don't be sad - I'll pick some up.

You're the best. Matilda ate James T. Kirk for breakfast.

Have the MiracleBorns settled on Halloween costumes yet?

You should come to SF so we could go to the neighborhood that does all of its houses up like sets from the Harry Potter-verse for Halloween.

Calli, isn't there a yellow rose called something like "Leonidas"? My best friend once mentioned it as being her favorite flower, and I wanted to plant one if I could find it.