I do love our fenced-in backyard for Kato. We can open the door, and out he goes, and if it's raining or snowing, he's the only one who gets wet.

My apartment will need to have a balcony or patio where I can sit out in the air. That is my non-negotiable.

We can open the door, and out he goes, and if it's raining or snowing, he's the only one who gets wet.

My sister use to love that about her house and yard. Now their neighborhood apparently has coyotes, so she has to stand outside with her snack-sized dogs while they do their thing, especially at night.

I just put a deposit down on replacing my back fence. The HOA is extremely specific on the construction so the price ended up being 50% more than I had expected. But I adulted. Signed the order and paid half.

Current fence is less than 4' tall and if Jack jumps on it just right, I think it would just fall down. Replacement will be a 6' privacy fence. We will lose some of the view of the green space, but with the elevated deck, it won't feel so closed in.

Timelies all!

Our townhouse has postage stamp sized yards. Gary can mow them with a weed-wacker.

I don't have much yard (because I paid to have it replaced by a patio) but I just paid to have my dryer vent blown out today, and suspect I need to pay mad money to get the roof de-mossed like I should've done a few years ago? And at some point the appliances are going to start to go--everything is about 13 years old now??

If I was 20 years younger, I'd probably think more seriously about a condo. Even now, I'm not writing off a condo, but I'll have more time to research once I'm out of this house.

Deviated septum over here too. I didn't even know what that was until they told me I had it. The MRI of my sinuses looked like filigree. Plus asthma. How the hell can I breathe at all. And there's no such thing as a non-drowsy antihistamine for me. Symbicort inhaler, albuterol inhaler when it gets bad, Nasacort nasal spray, and Singulair. And this --> "Meanwhile, lots of coughing, constant slightly stuffy nose, chronic fatigue." Yep.

But I'm not doing surgery. I have a well-earned phobia. I'm gonna need to be near death to have surgery again, I imagine.

It's such a weighty decision, to buy a house. My mortgage payment in VA was $750, my rent in NJ for a 1-bed apartment was $1200, so it was worth it for me, taxes and maintenance and all. But in a different place or a different situation, or if I hadn't been ready to "settle down", it might not have been the right thing even if the money worked out.

I don't find home repair and maintenance very stressful, but that's partly because (a) I hire someone to do the heavy yard work, and (b) keeping up a newer house is pretty easy in comparison to the old money pit I had before.

The allure of not having to care for a lawn is mighty, but I wouldn't like having to pay condo fees. My sister has a big-ass yard but her nabe has HOA fees and she hates it. The fee goes mainly to pay for the pool and clubhouse that she never uses anymore, and the HOA board are control freaks. I'd rather find a nabe where nobody gives a shit if my grass is tall. I want bees and butterflies and wildflowers, not perfectly manicured grass.

Fluticasone, I hope. (Fluoxetine is Prozac;

nah, snortin' Prozac

My mother's finally about to pay to have our tiny front yard done over for low maintenance. I guess it's going to be bushes and ground cover, for the most part. For YEARS, we have been the house on the increasingly nice street with the crappy yard that is either dirt or all weeds. So that's exciting. I don't believe in lawn, for so many reasons.

For YEARS, we have been the house on the increasingly nice street with the crappy yard that is either dirt or all weeds.

Hah! Story of my life. Not just yards, I think.