House Hunters: Cummings Edition

For about a year, Chuck and I have been talking about buying a house. When we moved back to Louisville 2 years ago, we weren't ready to think about buying a house yet. There was a lot of change happening all at once and we wanted to get established in a routine again before thinking about settling down in a house. Last summer, we decided to renew our lease for another year. We weren't prepared to make all the decisions that come with home buying and also well, we REALLY love our apartment. It was brand new when we moved into it 2 years ago and because the complex let us pick our layout and then personalize it with paint and light fixtures, it really feels like a home and not a standard, cookie cutter apartment. It has granite counter tops and (faux) wood floors and really soft carpet! We don't have to cut grass or pull weeds, and best of all when the fancy light bulbs in our track lighting go out, we call someone to come replace them! We are so spoiled here.

So once again we are faced with the "lease renewal" decision and we've decided that we're ready to leave apartment life behind and find a house. I'm extremely excited to start this process but also pretty stressed about it already. You see, while Chuck and I have very similar taste in most everything and agree on what we do and do not want in a house, we have very different approaches when making big purchases.

When it comes to buying a car or a couch or a headboard for our bed or a TV or anything that comes with a significant cost, on the first day we go shopping for the thing, this is me:

...except in a slightly less bratty, rude, selfish way. I'm a very impatient shopper. I look around and weigh the options some, but typically when I look at something I know right away if I want to own it or not.

When Chuck goes looking for the same item, this is him:

....except he's not an old grandma. But man does that dude love to do some research! He always has an idea of what he wants but he needs time to process, do some research, look at every possible alternative, and make sure he's getting the best deal.

I think we can all agree that while my way of shopping is way more fun, Chuck's way is way more sensible. The good thing is we know this about each other and are able to compromise. We don't make any impulse buys, but we also don't take 6 months to buy a couch. (Just about 2 months...)

But you can see where I'm going with this. The two of us house hunting together is probably going to look a lot like me wanting to buy every house right away and Chuck wanting to buy none. We look for the first time this weekend, so I'll report back soon... Wish us luck!

TMI

Pretty often in life, a perfect stranger tells me too much information. Sometimes I bring it upon myself by asking, what I think is, a simple question. But sometimes people just blurt things out and I find myself running late to work because the UPS lady wouldn't stop telling me her family history. I'm not sure why people feel comfortable telling me the things they do sometimes, but I think it's an inherited trait. My mom has strangers bypass 100 people to come up to her and ask for directions. HER mom, my grandma, used to spend forever at the grocery because she would talk to people in every aisle, and just when you thought it was over, she'd spend another 15 minutes chatting away the cashier.

Just for fun, here are some things people have shared with me in recent years.

Starting with the UPS lady who I mentioned a couple posts ago- I recently went to UPS to ship a birthday gift to one of our nieces in Virginia Beach. When the lady working saw where I was shipping it, she told me she used to live in Virginia Beach. I then made the mistake of asking what brought her to Louisville and she filled me in on her husband's job in the Navy, how old her kids are and what they do for a living, what she loved about Virginia Beach, and every city they lived in before and after Virginia Beach, and finally their ultimate decision to move to Louisville after he retired from the Navy because they wanted to live in the South but be close to her mom in Cleveland because she's old and not in great health but not TOO close because she and her mom have a complicated relationship. Luckily I left before she went into detail about the source of their complicated relationship or I would have been even LATER to work than I already was.

One time I saw a lady cutting cheese and ham for free samples at Kroger and she was bawling her eyes out. Everyone was ignoring her, so when I walked by I stopped and asked "Are you ok?" She then proceeded to tell me what a jerk her boss was, how mean he was to her, and how she hated her job. I mostly just stood there listening and nodding until she finally stopped crying, thanked me for listening, and gave me some cheese and ham on a cracker.

One time a doctor I went to and had never met before, told me all about how her boyfriend wouldn't bite the bullet and ask her to marry him and how she couldn't understand what his hesitation was considering they lived together and owned a dog. I also know a lot of personal information about my dental hygienist and dermatologist.

This story I was reminded of by the recent passing of Muhammad Ali. I was working downtown before we moved to Boston, and I was walking to lunch one day when a guy stopped me and my friend and asked if he could tell us a story. He said he was here for a work trip and had just been at the Muhammad Ali Center by himself wasting a few hours. He said the video at the beginning of the museum ended, the door opened, and Ali himself was wheeled into the room. So he got to meet Ali and have his picture taken with him and he was FREAKING OUT about how cool it was and just had to stop someone and tell them about it. (He showed us the picture too.)

I get asked for directions all of the time, even when I'm a tourist in another city. I've also been asked for restaurant suggestions, my opinions on hummus in the grocery store, and don't even get me started on dressing room conversations at clothing stores.  There are so many more stories and a lot I'm sure I've forgotten. Some I wish I could forget, like the person who told me about her family member's vasectomy. And even though I joke with my friends and family about how annoying it is to constantly be stopped by people or spend way longer in a place than I intended because of these instances, I really don't mind being the random listener or recommendation giver or direction giver. Maybe people think I have a friendly face or I look like I know where I'm going. Maybe when that lady saw me choose my hummus without hesitation she knew she could trust me. Or maybe I just look like a sucker.