All Right You People, Get Out of My House Already

Old House, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

About this time, for the past several years anyway, I do something a bit, shall we say, unexpected. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t go sky diving or bungee jumping or anything like that, no, I actually do something a bit, shall we say, “silly.” I enter the HGTV Dream Home Giveaway.

Yes, yes, it’s true. Every year I enter. And every year, I swear I’m going to win. It’s always some great house too-somewhere off in some place I’ve never been. As you might know, I love architecture, and I love seeing what the best of “new” is, even though, as you could probably guess, I really love the old stuff too. I really think the architecture is art and I love seeing all the little details of the house. I use that “virtual tour” feature and I zoom in on little details, I look at the construction plans, I love browsing floor plans and blueprints (yes, I know, I’m weird. But haven’t we established that already?) I click on all the little buttons to poke in at all of the little details. I love looking at structure, buildings, houses, and the like, and I love the fact that this is splattered all over the web, for me to browse.

The house outside of Seattle, for example, oh my, was that a treat. I’ve never been to Seattle and, while a bit familiar with the architecture there, I loved getting to look at the blueprints, the floor plans, and the like, to see how the buildings there are physically made (weird, weird, I know, I know.) It was like a portal into another world and I spent considerable time doing it-I played with that “virtual tour” whenever I was bored. It was great fun, so much so that I can even remember some details of the house.

Come January, every year, a new house is unveiled. Each year they have a half hour long “special” program, on New Year’s Day, to “reveal” the new house, it’s location kept top secret until this point. Even the web only offers small glimpses until the whole thing is done up in some big reveal. It’s quite exciting for me. And, each year, though I know, deep down inside, I know I will never win, I swear that I’m going to enter every day (each and every single day) and this year, why this year, will be *the* year-the year I finally win my dream home. It’s *so* going to be mine, so I click on that little “Enter for a chance to win” button over and over and over again.

This year the dream home is located along the turquoise trail outside of Santa Fe. It’s a beautiful adobe structure, with a fabulous kitchen, great outdoor eating areas, a home office well setup to support a photographer and even a “meditation” room that I could use as an art studio. It’s so perfect in every little detail. Even the color palette would fit me. And entertaining? Oh, I could just see Scriber coming over for a visit, painting on my deck overlooking the desert, and KathyV taking pictures of the cactus off the back porch. Canyon Road would be a mere short hop away, and it even comes with a “guest house” or casita for visitors who come, so they can stay right with me. Oh yes, this year, the good folks at HGTV have taken something already fabulous and, somehow, made it even better. Talk about pretty. Talk about breathtaking. It’s a home to end all homes.

And I simply have one thing to say about all of this.

ALL RIGHT YOU PEOPLE, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE ALREADY.

Seriously though, if you’d like to enter for a chance to win, ahem, *my* dream home, you can click here for details (it’s free to enter and you can enter one time per day between now and February 19th. Good luck!)

Until next time…