The American Dream

I think every American strives to own their own home. I know that since I was a child, my family (my father in particular) worked his fingers to the bone in the hopes of one day owning his own home. We rented for years, we first arrived on Guam in 1975 until I was 16, in 1989 we lived in the apartment after apartment and finally in a house. It was a very small house three bedrooms and one bathroom. There were eight people living in tight quarters, my mother, my father, my grandmother and five of us children. We lived in that house for about 12 years before we could finally afford one of our own. Our new house had six bedrooms, a den, a kitchen, dining and living room and three bathrooms. It was definitely a step up. My father believed that with five growing young women under one roof, we should each have our own room and our own privacy.

A while back while we were still considering possibly moving to Rome, we did a little house hunting. The prices were staggering about $8,000 per square meter of house/apartment. We looked at several apartments; the prices really threw us for a loop. For example, an apartment in the same neighborhood as my mother-in-law was selling for €900,000, approximately $1.25 million; it was 120 m² or approximately 1200 ft.². An apartment was not a place that I wanted to raise my daughter. I’ve always love getting my hands dirty in a garden with a vegetable patch, a compost bin and a worm bin. (In Seattle, I had two rabbits and used their manure in my garden.) I’ve always wanted to have a small play structure for kids to climb on, maybe been a trampoline and a space for a tiny kiddy pool for hot summers.

Now that our time at our temporary apartment is almost up, we’ve been looking to sell our condo in Kirkland and possibly use the money towards buying a bigger house, one with enough room for family and extended guests. We would love to have a nice deck for barbecues in the summertime. I would love to have a manageable yard and space for a garden patch. I’m sure Veronica would love a yard to play around in, with soft grass to fall down on and roll around in. We’ve been looking online at real estate agencies. For our money, we can buy much more here than we ever could in Torino or in Rome. I’ve always thought that owning a house and the land it stood on would make me feel like a grounded person; as if I belonged exactly where I was supposed to be. I didn’t want to own an apartment in a high-rise whether It be in Chicago, New York Los Angeles or even downtown Seattle where my floor was my neighbors ceiling. In the upcoming months, we should have a place to call our own.

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