Wanted: One house, non-awful

So. Bill and I are currently elbow-deep in the search for a place to live. It hasn't been going spectacularly thus far. Just today we looked at a place that sounded perfect on paper but just didn't sit right with me for whatever reason. I suspect that I am being too picky about some things based on the age of the houses we are looking at (mostly built in the '20s, one in the '40s), but at the same time just because a house was built in the '20s doesn't mean that it shouldn't have been updated or maintained in any way since that date. The kitchens and bathrooms are my real problem, I think. A crumbly, moldy tub or splintered, crusty kitchen cabinets (see also: cabinets with 80 layers of old paint on them) are a real turn-off to me. I'm pretty quickly learning that "updated bathroom" means "we updated the cabinet under the sink; the tub is still a barrel that you fill by hand with icy water and then use a rag on a stick to wash yourself."

The alternative to all this would be just finding some nice two-bedroom in a modern apartment complex somewhere. I've looked at a couple online, and I'll admit I'm attracted to the pristine appliances and luxuries like electrical outlets in the bathroom, but on the whole living in a traditional apartment complex just holds zero appeal for me. I'm not even sure why. I guess it feels very temporary and anonymous to me to be living in a big complex with neighbors in identical units on both sides, above and below. I'm getting too old for that. I need to feel like I have a home, not just a place that I'm staying.

The good news is that we have quite a bit of time left to find a place. If we go another month or so and still haven't found anything, I'll really start to worry. In the meantime I will continue to check Craigslist 10 times a day and hope for a miracle. You never know.